tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-76655664655243430162024-03-13T08:26:26.824-07:00Employee productivity | WorkMeter BlogImprove employee productivity. WorkMeter is the solution for generating employee motivation, boosting team productivity, and improving time management.El equipo de WorkMeterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13232925094842332337noreply@blogger.comBlogger32125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7665566465524343016.post-60431380603523897302012-06-05T08:46:00.000-07:002012-06-05T13:25:56.951-07:005 Productivity and Motivation Misconceptions Your Boss Believes Are (Not) True<h2>
<span style="color: #38761d; font-size: x-large;">The Truths Behind the Rules</span></h2>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-IijM1mWu8vw/T84gpHlCUMI/AAAAAAAAAE8/eDw1o7Cau_o/s1600/wftw.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" height="254" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-IijM1mWu8vw/T84gpHlCUMI/AAAAAAAAAE8/eDw1o7Cau_o/s320/wftw.jpg" title="Employee Motivation" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is not <b>employee motivation</b>.</td></tr>
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It’s been a long held belief that, on the broad spectrum, if
something is entertaining then it is distracting. From radios to the internet,
the workplace has always been a place of…well, work. Rules such as “No
Facebooking” or “No music outside of break” have been implemented for supposed reasons
such as to <b><a href="http://web.workmeter.com/en/increase-productivity.html" target="_blank">increase productivity</a></b> or maintain<b> <a href="http://web.workmeter.com/en/employee-motivation.html" target="_blank">employee motivation</a></b>. Supervisors will
tell their employees that such things do nothing but distract from the report
that needs to be filled out or from the project that needs to be done. I disagree.
Correction: we at WorkMeter disagree.<o:p></o:p></div>
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We have found the top 4 misconceptions in regards to <b><a href="http://web.workmeter.com/en/index.html" target="_blank">employee productivity</a></b> and <b>motivation </b>in the
workplace and are posting them here. We even tossed in a little surprise as #1
misconception.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="color: #38761d; font-size: large;">#5 Multitasking Does (Not) Get Things Done Faster</span></h4>
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Working on a couple of things is ok. Bouncing every 30
minutes between 10 tasks is not. We all have multiple things going on in our
office and it is impossible for us to be doing only one thing at a time.
WorkMeter has done the research: it takes about 12 minutes to fully concentrate
on any single task. That being said, we are interrupted every 96 SECONDS, be it
internal interruptions, such as stray thoughts, or external interruptions, such
as a person speaking to you. Minimize the amount you do in any single time.
Work in hour intervals between 2 of your upcoming deadlined projects. Keep it
few and you will find yourself accomplishing more in less time.<o:p></o:p></div>
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This is a <a href="http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/05/how_employers_can_make_us_stop.html#comment-538032293" rel="nofollow">Harvard
Business Review article</a> regarding much the same thing.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="color: #38761d; font-size: large;">#4 Taking Online Breaks and Socializing Does Increase
Motivation</span></h4>
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Online shopping, facebooking, even taking to the guy in the
cubical next over is enough to kill the monotony and allow you to start fresh.
Employees sometimes need to step back and just stop for a little bit. It could
be stress, it could be an issue they don’t see a way around, or it could be
just an urge to get up and take a little walk for a couple of minutes. Often
times, in jobs on computers, this relaxation is seen in the form of net
surfing, a huge taboo in the corporate world. Seen as large time-suck vacuums,
many offices forbid their employees from accessing social sites such as Reddit
or YouTube, regardless of being shown that they do quite the contrary.<o:p></o:p></div>
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A study done by the University of Singapore proved that Internet
surfing, socializing, taking a walk, all of these things and their like serve
the purpose of clearing the mind and allowing fresh thoughts and ideas come through,
so when work is resumed 5 or 10 minutes later, it’s done with greater
<b>motivation </b>and, many times, with better
results.<o:p></o:p></div>
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To get a better understanding, see this <a href="http://workmeter-en.blogspot.com.es/2012/04/break-time-and-website-block-friend-or.html">related
post and study.</a><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="color: #38761d; font-size: large;">#3 Working Longer Does (Not) Increase Productivity</span></h4>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-L1hSUiZuFWQ/T84dJIArfaI/AAAAAAAAAEw/uUZznsQiY-w/s1600/OvertimeTeamoftheWeek_final-28.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Work Productivity" border="0" height="115" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-L1hSUiZuFWQ/T84dJIArfaI/AAAAAAAAAEw/uUZznsQiY-w/s320/OvertimeTeamoftheWeek_final-28.jpg" title="Overtime" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Contrary to popular belief,<br />
this isn't the <b>productivity </b>award you <br />
want to be winning.</td></tr>
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Simply put, staying and working long past your dead zone helps no one. In fact, it hurts. Overtime tends to be a way that managers and supervisors squeeze the extra work out of employees in order to cover an impending deadline or debug a sudden error close to launch, and that isn’t too big of an issue. But when the norm of the workplace becomes 55 and 60 hour weeks, both <b>productivity </b>and <b>motivation </b>will begin to decline. Studies have even shown them to decline exponentially when overtime is pushed week after week.<o:p></o:p></div>
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For a more detailed look at the effects of overtime, check out <a href="http://workmeter-en.blogspot.com.es/2012/06/3-reasons-why-overtime-hurts.html">last weeks post</a>.</div>
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<span style="color: #38761d; font-size: large;">#2 Privacy Comes at the Cost of Productivity</span></h4>
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Many corporations sacrifice the <b>privacy </b>of their employees
in order to maintain an “efficient and productive workforce”. Naturally, Human
Resources is there to defend what little <b>privacy </b>right the employees have left.
Yet this doesn’t have to be the case as it’s been proven that <b>privacy </b>and
<b>productivity </b>can coexist, and WorkMeter itself is a testament to that.<o:p></o:p></div>
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An employer doesn't need to know the specifics of what an
employee is doing on the computer (as long as it isn't illegal). All they need
to know is whether or not they’ve been, or are being, productive. By using <a href="http://web.workmeter.com/en/productivity-software.html" target="_blank">productivity software</a> to record and compare the amount of time spent on productive programs in comparison to
non-productive programs, they get their answer. An employee spending 2 hours of
productive and 6 on non-productive is obviously wasting time, regardless of
what those non-productive applications are. <b>Privacy </b>preserved, <b>productivity
</b>gauged.<o:p></o:p></div>
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For more on how you can maintain a productive environment without seeming like Big Brother, <a href="http://workmeter-en.blogspot.com.es/2012/05/hitting-record-raising-spains.html" target="_blank">check this out</a>.<br />
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And the top misconception is….<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="color: #38761d; font-size: large;">#1 Maroon 5 (or Music in general) Does Boost Output and
Moral</span></h4>
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Yes, you read right. Half the respondents in a study done by Songza agreed
that Maroon 5 makes them more productive at work. But more importantly,
MusicWorks released their own study indicating that 1/3 of employees are less
likely to take sick days if background music is playing in the office, given
that the Confederation of British Industry estimated roughly 21 million working
days lost to illegitimate absences each year. As well, they reported that 77% of
people were happier with music playing in the workplace than not. The link is
simple: music leads to an increase in <b>motivation </b>and moral which leads to
increases in <b>productivity </b>and performance.<o:p></o:p></div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7665566465524343016.post-53519497214086924332012-06-01T14:27:00.001-07:002012-06-05T13:27:04.373-07:003 Reasons Why Overtime Hurts Productivity<br />
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<span style="color: #38761d; font-size: large;"><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />The Fallacy of the Going over 40 hours a week</span></h2>
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The 40 hour work week is about a common a phrase as the 9-to-5 day. They both go hand in hand in the American work system. Yet those of us who have already been in the workforce for some time now know that it usually doesn’t end there. Some of us reach 50 hours; some 60. Some, like lawyers and doctors, can even go up to 70! This is common place and we all, especially you managers reading this, know it. I recently read <a href="http://www.salon.com/2012/03/14/bring_back_the_40_hour_work_week/" rel="nofollow">an amazing article by Sara Robinson on the Salon</a> showing how the typical employee nowadays puts in an average of 55 hours a week CONSISTANTLY, and its downsides. It’s a lengthy article but I would highly recommend taking a look. If you just don’t have the time, keep reading here and you’ll get the gist.<o:p></o:p></div>
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We all know how the 40 hour work week began; in the early 1900s, Unions pushed employers to bring the work to 40 hours a week and in the end, the industries accepted this, since their own research and data proved the Unions right. The first industrialist being our very own Henry Ford, who doubled worker pay and cut hours from 9 a day to 8. Since then, year after year, studies continually proved how 40 hours a week was the best, causing more and more businesses to hop on board. But then came the “passion crisis”. People who were seen to work more than 40 hours were praised as being more passionate and productive towards the company. This caused employers to slowly begin to demand more and more time from their employees, from staying after hours to coming in on weekends.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>WorkMeter </b>has a hard stance that it’s not how long you work, but how you work. Merely putting in more hours isn’t indicative of being productive, and here’s why:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="color: #38761d; font-size: large;">1) Low Recharge Time</span></h4>
Your body is like a battery. Scratch that. Your body IS a battery. I’m sure we’ve all seen The Matrix and they aren’t far off in that idea. Your body needs to recharge after a long days work. Putting in 8 hours allows you to get home, relax, go to bed, and wake up full charged for a new day. Going over 40 hours throws off that cycle. You get home really late, exhausted from the office; the time is already 10 pm so there is no chance to relax. You go to bed immediately so you can get up in time for another day and there you go; the following day you enter work no longer at 100% capacity, but at 90% or 80%.<o:p></o:p><br />
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<span style="color: #38761d; font-size: large;">2) Short Gains, Long Losses</span></h4>
Now studies do show there are slight short-term gains in demanding 60- or 70-hour work weeks, but only on demanding and sparse occasions. If an upcoming deadline needs to be met and the whole team is asked to put in more time, then it is conducive to ask for more. Yet employers have forgotten that these short gains cannot be maintained and, if continuously demanded, will end up as long-term losses. After the first <b>overtime </b>workweek, <b>productivity</b> begins to decline, and every consecutive <b>overtime </b>week that is demanded after, <b>productivity </b>falls even more rapidly.<br />
What’s worse is that, taking the previously mentioned deadline example, after the crisis is averted and the deadline is met, it takes the team several weeks for the burnout to be lifted and to resume a fully productive 40-hour work week, as a Business Roundtable study found. In other words, that small amount of 30% boost was <b>productivity </b>taken in advance and is now being paid back with interest.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13.333333969116211px; text-align: center;">Overtime:<br />
Not Necessarily Productive Time</td></tr>
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<span style="color: #38761d; font-size: large;">3) Overtime Isn’t Necessarily Productive Time</span></h4>
Now the most obvious, yet equally the most ignored, point. Many managers believe a direct 1-to-1 correlation exists between pulling <b>overtime </b>out of workers, yet the case is far from it. Here is an example from Robinson:<o:p></o:p><br />
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“<span style="background-color: white;">By the eighth hour of the day, people’s best work is usually already behind them (typically turned in between hours 2 and 6). In Hour 9, as fatigue sets in, they’re only going to deliver a fraction of their usual capacity. And with every extra hour beyond that, the workers’ <b>productivity </b>level continues to drop, until at around 10 or 12 hours they hit full exhaustion.</span>”<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><br /> Pushing people past their capacity doesn’t mean they will bring in more. Lack of rests leads to things such as careless errors that could take days to fix or unproductive uses of time such as checking emails and web surfing.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="color: #38761d; font-size: large;">So What of It?</span></h4>
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There will be managers that argue that they will get used to it or it is a demand of the market and world they work in, but to this I reply that you only hurt yourself and your company. Studies have shown over and over again that, overall, you get no more from a 10-hour day than you would have from an 8-hour day. So keep this in mind. The best and wisest supervisors and managers out there keep this in check and never have to go to <b>overtime </b>because 1) <span style="background-color: white;">they’re aware of the long-term <b>productivity </b>decline that follows, 2) keep the hard pushes as short as possible, only when they are a must, and 3) give the employees a couple of days off to recharge and rejuvenate.</span> As we at <b>WorkMeter have </b>always said, “It isn’t how long you work, but how you work.”</div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7665566465524343016.post-7515489029205861692012-05-25T07:30:00.000-07:002012-06-05T13:30:02.775-07:00Hitting a record: Raising Spain's Productivity by 40%<br />
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<span style="color: #38761d; font-size: x-large;">We First Conquered Spain...</span></h2>
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<span style="color: #38761d; font-size: x-large;">Now it's America's Turn</span></h2>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Our
motto has always been “You can’t manage it if you can’t measure it,” and this
is a milestone in our record. Based in Spain and growing exponentially,
<a href="http://web.workmeter.com/en/index.html" target="_blank"><b>WorkMeter</b> </a>has reached unprecedented levels in increased production: 40%. Quickly
gained rise and renown in the corporate world, executives and managers have
recorded it <a href="http://web.workmeter.com/en/increase-productivity.html" target="_blank"><b>increase productivity</b></a> of their employees by upwards of 30-40%,
refuting and outdating the stereotype of an “unproductive Spain”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">For
you first time readers who haven’t had a chance to look at it, let me tell you
how WorkMeter works. It monitors the time spent on various work-related
applications, such as databases, Outlook email, and online sites, then compares
it to the time spent on applications and sites not listed as work-related. It
then provided the employee and their supervisor access to detailed productivity
reports that show them just how productive they’ve been.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">As
opposed to contemporary methods of productivity reviews, WorkMeter is neither
invasive or correctional; it revolves around self <a href="http://web.workmeter.com/en/employee-motivation.html" target="_blank"><b>employee motivation</b></a>. It's a <a href="http://web.workmeter.com/en/productivity-software.html" target="_blank"><b>productivity software</b></a> that displays simple metrics to
the workers themselves regarding their activity usage and leaves it up to them
to take action, treating the employees as adults responsible for their work
instead of children who need constant supervision. This change of attitude from
the managers and supervisors has been recorded to effectively and drastically
<b>increase productivity</b> in the office, as Spanish companies can now testify.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">“As
soon as we realize how much time we spend in applications” CEO and founder Joan
Pons states, “we realize how to [better manage our time].”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/Q1Ac2SjG1Hg?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">“This
program guarantees productivity and allows more flexibility for workers,” he
continues to say. This touches on a topic I mentioned a few weeks back:
teleworking and workshifting. With 25% of Americans now teleworking, both in
the government and private sectors, WorkMeter gives them and the managers
access to better time, project, team, and<b> <a href="http://web.workmeter.com/en/time-management.html" target="_blank">time management</a></b> which will lead to an
increase in <b><a href="http://web.workmeter.com/en/index.html" target="_blank">employee productivity</a></b> and motivation. In Spain, the lack of this
was a big issue.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">“There’s
no trust in the employees here…The boss is like the police,” Pons comments. “I
think we work more hours because there’s no trust between managers and employees.”
It may be different here in America, but in Spain with a typical nine-to-nine
work day and the longer <i>siesta</i>, or
lunch break, this relationship does nothing to promote the motivation necessary
to increase productivity.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">"This is why companies both there and here block social
sites such as Facebook," WorkMeter's Chairman, Andre Angel, explains. "At WorkMeter, we believe companies should allow employees the freedom to use corporate assets for personal use as long as they are given feedback to maintain a responsible balance necessary to meet deadlines and accomplish their objectives."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">With
productivity dropping in Europe, WorkMeter was the cheapest and most effective
solution they found, <a href="http://web.workmeter.com/en/success-company-productivity.html" target="_blank">increasing Spain companies productivity</a> by upwards of 40%.
Similar effects are being seen here in the US, which is why the one-of-a-kind
software has been brought over to this side of the world. How much will it change
national company productivity? Will its effect be as dramatic and effective as
in Spain? Only time will tell, but the numbers never lie.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">If you want to see first hand what I'm talking about, see for yourself right <a href="http://web.workmeter.com/en/index.html" target="_blank">here</a>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7665566465524343016.post-38460912684565720382012-05-22T08:30:00.000-07:002012-06-05T10:32:13.613-07:00Instant Productivity & Success: How to change your life in 15 minutes<h2>
<span style="color: #38761d;"><span style="font-size: large;">Guest Blog By JC Duarte, The Strategy Guy</span></span></h2>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QTsCvnE0Xlc/T7qoZq1xrEI/AAAAAAAAAEY/JYOrt9CgNp8/s1600/Ladder.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QTsCvnE0Xlc/T7qoZq1xrEI/AAAAAAAAAEY/JYOrt9CgNp8/s1600/Ladder.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">"If an organization could teach only one thing to its
employees, what single thing would have the most impact? My answer was
immediate and clear: teach people how to learn. How to look at their past
behavior, figure out what worked, and repeat it while admitting honestly what
didn't and change it." This is the catch phrase that caught my attention
& inspired this blog article when I read HBR's leadership article <a href="http://blogs.hbr.org/bregman/2011/01/the-best-way-to-use-the-last-f.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+harvardbusiness+%28HBR.org%29&utm_content=Google+Reader"><span style="color: blue;">The Best Way to Use the Last Five Minutes of Your Day</span></a> by <a href="http://peterbregman.com/"><span style="color: blue;">Peter Bergman</span></a>.</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="color: #38761d; font-size: large;">15 Minute Magical Success Sessions</span></span></b></h4>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">10h15 & 17h45, could possibly be the two 15 minute increments
that will have the most significant impact on improving your quality of life.
Are you familiar with the Chinese philosopher, <span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laozi">Lao Tzu</a><u>'s</u></span> quote “The
journey of a thousand miles begins with one step”? Well, two 15 minute segments
of your day can give you greater control over your own destiny, both personal
& professional.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<h4>
<b><span style="color: #38761d; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Having a Master Plan </span></b></h4>
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 17px; font-weight: normal; text-align: justify;">How do you start out each day? If you’re like most people, you’ve got anywhere from a vague idea to a rock-solid plan, which in itself is a wide spectrum. Unfortunately, to add to this challenge, most of us have these in our head. The more advanced of you have written things down on a task or to-do list. How’s that working for you? Overwhelmed with the amount of tasks building up from day to day that you can’t seem to clear?</span><br />
<h4>
<b><span style="color: #38761d; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></b></h4>
<h4>
<span style="color: #38761d;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Here's your 1</span></b><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large; vertical-align: super;">st</span><b><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"> tip</span></b></span></h4>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">No more than 3 significant tasks per day!</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">And this is where your FIRST magical 15 minutes success session
comes into play. Just like Peter Bergman’s article suggests, before you pack it
in for the day, take a moment to reflect on the day just past. What worked?
What didn’t work? What’s within your control to improve your situation? What
are you going to do differently tomorrow? OK, now write that down, and more
importantly, block out time in your calendar for doing the things you need to
get done. I like to call this “making an appointment with myself”. Ever heard
the phrase “if you don’t have your own plan you’re destined to be part of
someone else’s?” If you miss this step, I’ll guarantee you that each day
will end with you having worked on everyone else’s plan instead of your own.</span></div>
<h4>
<b style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="color: #38761d; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></b></h4>
<h4>
<b style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="color: #38761d; font-size: large;">Finding Your Rhythm</span></span></b></h4>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Just like our biological clocks, and the rest of the universe, everything
around us works in cycles & rhythms, so why should you be any different. If
you respect your required sleep patterns, then your mind & body will be
ready for the challenges of each new day. Finding your rhythm also means
discovering your strengths & weaknesses, and applying a continual learning
process that helps you move from theoretical education to applied practical
behavioral change.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<h4>
<span style="color: #38761d; font-size: large;"><b style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></b></span></h4>
<h4>
<span style="color: #38761d; font-size: large;"><b style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Here’s your 2<sup>nd</sup> tip</span></b></span></h4>
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt; text-align: justify;">You can only effectively focus & execute tasks at optimal performance in 60 to 120 minute concentrated periods.</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt; text-align: justify;"><br />This means that it’s key to eliminate or avoid disruptions when
you’re doing “knowledge work” that requires concentration & focus. And if
you think about a typical day, plan it out properly, and hold yourself
accountable to being disciplined, I’ll bet you can find three 60-90 windows of
time where you can dedicate your focus to 3 significant tasks.</span><br />
<h4>
<b style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="color: #38761d; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></b></h4>
<h4>
<b style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="color: #38761d; font-size: large;">Here’s your 3<sup>rd</sup> tip</span></span></b></h4>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Even if you don’t want to listen to music,
put your headphones on anyway. And if you have noise canceling headphones,
better yet! </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">The fact is, people are less likely to interrupt you if they see
you concentrated on a task & with head phones on, as they will assume you
are listening to music, a tutorial video or something else that's important. If
your colleagues don’t happen to be this “cluey”, then by all means stand-up and
share with those immediately around you that you’re about to start very
important work that requires extreme concentration and that you’d appreciate
not being interrupted for the next 60 minutes. Try it, it works!</span></div>
<h4>
<b style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="color: #38761d; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></b></h4>
<h4>
<b style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="color: #38761d; font-size: large;">Back to Your Master Plan</span></span></b></h4>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">I said there were two 15
minute magical success sessions. Well your next most important 15 minute
increment is your early to mid morning pulse check. Just like a doctor’s visit
when your pulse is measured to see how you’re general health is, it’s key to
take a pulse of how your day has started in comparison to your plan from the
previous afternoon / evening, and to make any necessary adjustments before the
new day flies by.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">If you really want to be
on the ball & gain extra bonus points for a satisfying & highly
productive life, plan a pulse check just after lunch as well.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<h4>
<b style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="color: #38761d; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></b></h4>
<h4>
<b style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="color: #38761d; font-size: large;">Here’s your 4<sup>th</sup> tip</span></span></b></h4>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">I like to call these early to mid morning
pulse checks Daily Huddles. And typically I have my team leads or direct
reports join me on this huddle. We cover 3 simple things...<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">1.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><u><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">What’s up</span></u><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">; How did I perform since our last daily huddle & what did I
accomplish based on what I set out to do? How am I feeling about that? What am
I going to do differently?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">2.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><u><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">My Metrics for Today</span></u><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">; What are the three most significant things I
want to get done today, and what are the results (quantifiable) that I expect
to witness by the end of the day in order for me to declare it a success?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">3.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><u><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">What are My Stucks</span></u><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">; What’s holding me back from succeeding on my
plan? What are the interdependencies where I need help?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">This exercise is not
only a great activity to make sure that your focused on the things that need to
get done each day, and week, in order to reach daily, weekly & monthly
objectives, but likewise it gives you an opportunity to align & (if
necessary) adjust individual team members focus. It gives everyone a snap-shot
of what’s going on in their department & how it relates or contributes
toward success. And most importantly, it gives us all an opportunity to address
the things that are keeping us from succeeding (stucks), addressing them before
we miss our deadlines (otherwise known as failure).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Has anything in this article struck a nerve with you? Upon
reflection of these simple steps, is there anything new that you could apply to
your daily routine that would put you back in control of your life, both
personally and professionally?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7665566465524343016.post-51034716668630821312012-05-08T11:00:00.000-07:002012-06-05T13:30:37.996-07:005 Email Habits Your Doctor Will Thank You For<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<h2>
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="color: #38761d; font-size: x-large;">Email: How to Tame the Untamed Beast</span></span></h2>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">It’s your everyday morning: you wake up with the perfect plan for
the perfect day, everything laid-out and ready to go. You think to yourself </span><i style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">This is the day I’m going to catch-up and
relieve myself of all the stress</i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">. So you hit off, eat your breakfast, and
drive to your typical 9-to-5 office.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2647/3733557811_f781f95424.jpg" rel="nofollow" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 18px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2647/3733557811_f781f95424.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Try to convince your boss<br />
that this will <b><a href="http://web.workmeter.com/en/increase-productivity.html" target="_blank">increase productivity</a></b>.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Fast-forward
to the end of the day: you just left another heavy project and you’re </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">exhausted. You managed to get a good lead on your load, yet there’s still a
long ways to go. But for now, you’re just on your way home, looking forward to
that well planned R&R. You walk inside and are just about to heave a sigh
of relaxation when suddenly your phone buzzes. You pull it out and it’s Johnson
needing some quick help on the Smith report. </span><i style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Ok</i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"> you think </span><i style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">I’ll just
get this over with then it’s me time.</i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"> A couple of hours later and you’ve
finished.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">You go to the
shower, run it on hot, when your phone buzzes again. You look at it and it’s
your boss telling you there was an error in your last layout and was wondering
if you could come in that weekend. Excellent. Now you have your lost weekend to
fret about.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Then your
phone buzzes again. And again. And again. It’s like you never left the office.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="border-bottom: dotted windowtext 3.0pt; border: none; mso-element: para-border-div; padding: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: dotted windowtext 3.0pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">This is a
scenario we’re all familiar with. Yet the University of California in Irvine
recently released a study pointing out how poor work habits, particularly
relating to <b>email</b>, impact a person’s overall health and <b>productivity </b>in the
office. How you managing the main mode of communication in the office is a
strong indication of how stressful you allow your life to get. Luckily, there
are a few simple habits you can do to help bring that blood pressure down:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
</div>
<h4>
<span style="color: #38761d; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; text-align: left; text-indent: -0.25in;">1)<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">
</span></span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; text-align: left; text-indent: -0.25in;">Delete (Turn Off) Your Email When You Leave
Work</span></span></h4>
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"></span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://frugalcitygirl.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/no-smartphone.jpg" rel="nofollow" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://frugalcitygirl.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/no-smartphone.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This at home doesn't <b><a href="http://web.workmeter.com/en/increase-productivity.html" target="_blank">increase productivity</a></b>.<br />
It hurts it.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">
</span><br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"> <span style="font-size: 13.5pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">This is something most of us can do and that is not to take our work home with
us. You work at an 9-to-5 office and it should last just that long: from 9 till
5. During that time, your office life can, and often will, get very stressful,
so when it’s time for you to go home, leave it at the door. Same way how you
leave your personal life at the door of the office. Your time at home is a time
for you to kick back and relax because come the next day, it’ll start all over
again and your <b>productivity </b>has to be at it’s best. This is impossible if your
phone is buzzing off with <b>emails </b>every hour. The key: turn it off. You don’t
need to be checking your <b>email </b>constantly. Whatever comes, you can deal with it
tomorrow. This is your R&R, and keeping your mind busy with work 24/7 will
only make you worse at it, not better.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">
</span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
</div>
<h4>
<span style="color: #38761d; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; text-indent: -0.25in;">2)<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">
</span></span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; text-indent: -0.25in;">Create Priority Alerts</span></span></h4>
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">Now there are those of us who’s jobs entail a continuous line to the office and
cannot afford the luxury of turning off our <b>emails</b>. In this case, the Priority
Alert system is your best friend. What this does is allows you to set an alert
that goes off only if an <b>email </b>meets the required priority level, which is in
this case “high”. What this will do is any urgent <b>emails </b>you receive that
cannot wait until tomorrow will be buzzed to you and the ones that are of
lesser importance won’t be. The epitome of <b><a href="http://web.workmeter.com/en/time-management.html" target="_blank">time management</a></b> which takes us directly
to our next point.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">
</span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<h4>
<span style="color: #38761d; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">3)<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="color: #38761d; font-size: large;">Don’t Chain Events</span><span style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></h4>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Once you take care of
that urgent email, you have to resist the urge to look and take care of the
rest. Do NOT chain events. Once you start down this road, you won’t finish until
it is 4 hours into your home time and you’re <b>productivity </b>and health will take
the hit. This crucial <b>time management</b> skill will benefit you in both the long and
short run. So stick to that one important <b>email </b>and that one <b>email </b>alone.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 18px;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
</div>
<h4>
<span style="color: #38761d; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; text-indent: -0.25in;">4)<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">
</span></span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; text-indent: -0.25in;">Auto-sort: Use It</span></span></h4>
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"></span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://gijit.co/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/email_way_too_much.jpg" rel="nofollow" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="276" src="http://gijit.co/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/email_way_too_much.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">What's something that nobody wants<br />
but everybody has?</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">
</span><br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">This is a habit for within the office, as opposed to outside it. Use the
auto-sort. Create folders such as “meeting minutes”, “Smith project details”,
or “misc.” and set your <b>email </b>to automatically filter them into those folders.
What this will do is greatly unclutter your inbox and reduce that awful
sinking-in-the-gut feeling when you see torrents of unread <b>emails </b>are awaiting
you. By automatically sorting your <b>emails</b>, you can instead visit each folder in
turn and deal with their respective <b>emails</b>, thereby boosting your <b>productivity
</b>with a <b>time management</b> system.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">
</span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<h4>
<span style="color: #38761d; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">5)<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="color: #38761d; font-size: large;">Learn To Ignore</span><span style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></h4>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">This is a reiteration of a part of a previous step, but it’s important
enough to be reiterated. Learn to ignore some <b>emails</b>. Not permanently, but
until it’s time to deal with them. This habit is perfect in and out of the
office. If it isn’t urgent and your busy working, then ignore it. Worst comes
to worst, they will call you. But in the office, learn to stay focused on the
task at hand and out of the office, learn to stay focused on yourself. This is
possibly one of the hardest habits for employees to develop.</span></div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7665566465524343016.post-33384465324878520372012-05-01T09:56:00.000-07:002012-06-05T10:38:39.328-07:00Telework in the Government: Not Just for Businesses<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">A few weeks ago, you’ll remember we
spoke about the relatively new phenomenon that has hit North America, <b>teleworking</b>.
If this is your first time reading, <b>telework </b>is the practice of working
remotely from home, as opposed to from a corporate office or cubical. The
benefits of this are quite astounding, ranging from more raising <b><a href="http://web.workmeter.com/en/employee-motivation.html" target="_blank">employee motivation</a></b> and
<a href="http://web.workmeter.com/en/improve-productivity.html" target="_blank">increasing productivity</a> to saving the company millions in expenses. You can read
more about it in our previous post </span><a href="http://workmeter-en.blogspot.com/2012/04/telework-balance-of-home-and-work.html" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">here</a><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><u><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="color: #38761d; font-size: x-large;">Jumping on the
Telework Bandwagon</span></span></u></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.benzinga.com/files/armh_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://www.benzinga.com/files/armh_1.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Teleworking </b>like the best of us</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"> You would have expected other
companies to have been the first to embrace this new method of work. Maybe one
here and one there, first testing the waters to see how well it would work in
the general system. But believe it or not, it wasn’t businesses who took to it:
it was the government. Already passed by the US Senate, the US House of
Representatives accepted and passed it with a vote of 254 to 152, allowing a
much greater number of government employees to <b>telework</b>. The legislation
creates a policy framework and set of procedures in order to begin <b>teleworking</b>,
as opposed to prior, where <b>teleworking </b>was something difficult and near
impossible to achieve, causing less than 10% of the employees to participate.
Yet just from these low numbers, the Office of Personnel Management estimated
it saved roughly $30 million a day on expenses. Not only that, but the Parent
and Trademark office estimated they too were able to save $1.5 million a year
through avoided rent expenses.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><u><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="color: #38761d; font-size: x-large;">How Does It
Work?</span></span></u></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"> What the bill does is have
government agencies decide which employees are eligible for <b>telework</b>. Those who
are eligible would be required to complete training programs before signing
<b>telework </b>agreements with the agency. As well, much like a company, not all
government employees would be eligible for <b>telework</b>, for obvious reasons. The restrictions
that limit those who can participate in <b>teleworking </b>are comprised of 3 simple
rules: those who have been officially disciplined for “being absent without
permission for more than 5 days in any calendar year”, those who have been
officially disciplined for “viewing, downloading, or exchanging pornography…on
a Federal Government computer”, and, for obvious reasons, those whose job
requires an on-site presence to accomplish, such as law enforcement officers,
park rangers, air traffic controllers, etc.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><u><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="color: #38761d; font-size: x-large;">Only a Matter of
Time</span></span></u></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"> When the government has acted before
the companies, you know somebody is behind. Companies are still slowly getting
into the business of having their employees <b>telework </b>for fears of loss of
<b>productivity</b>, despite the numbers to prove otherwise. Still remaining in an old
train of thought, they believe that the best work is office work and work from
home is simply unproductive work. So they turn to software such as <a href="http://web.workmeter.com/en/index.html" target="_blank">WorkMeter</a>, that allows them
to monitor their <b>employee's productivity</b> and gives them a chance to see with
their own eyes just how effective <b>teleworking </b>is.<o:p></o:p></span></div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7665566465524343016.post-65144931891188969412012-04-27T09:27:00.000-07:002012-06-05T10:42:14.020-07:00Minibreaks: When Not Working Means Working<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Earlier this week, we discussed the downside of having those
monthly updates. The IT guys coming in, trying to find the right software,
getting it installed, and having it work all in the first try is wishful
thinking. <b>Productivity </b>end up taking a hit and your <b><a href="http://web.workmeter.com/en/time-management.html" target="_blank">time management</a></b> goes down
the drain. But I had left you off with a cliff hanger: given these unproductive
moments updates leave us with, how can we turn it to our advantage? The answer is
simple: <b>minibreaks</b>.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.britstore.co.uk/photos/Kelloggs_SpecialK_Mini_Breaks_Original5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://www.britstore.co.uk/photos/Kelloggs_SpecialK_Mini_Breaks_Original5.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wrong kind of <b>productivity </b>minibreak<br />
(Image owned by Kellogg's)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<h3>
<span style="color: #38761d; font-size: x-large;">Long Breaks v. Minibreaks</span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Minibreaks </b>are exactly what they sound like. They’re short
breaks throughout the day in which the body rejuvenates its energy, unburdens its
stress, and recuperates its focus to resume work one the minibreak is over. Now
the conventional workplace has the concept of “breaks” down, but they utilize
it in a large sense, i.e. in your nine to five job, you get one large break,
which is your lunch period. To employers, this seems enough to keep <b><a href="http://web.workmeter.com/en/index.html" target="_blank">employee productivity</a></b> and <b>motivation </b>up, as it is set in the middle of the day and it
recharges your batteries. A study done in 2011, entitled <u>Cognition</u> by <b>Atsunori Ariga</b> and <b>Alejandro
Lleras</b> of the<b> University of Illinois</b> (<a href="http://news.illinois.edu/WebsandThumbs/Lleras,Alejandro/Lleras_sdarticle-17.pdf">linked
here</a>), proved that this simply isn’t true.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h3>
<span style="color: #38761d; font-size: x-large;">Burn in Before You Burn Out</span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://static.flickr.com/107/304148535_6ba6623c4d.jpg?v=0" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://static.flickr.com/107/304148535_6ba6623c4d.jpg?v=0" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Time outs is <b>time management</b><br />
<b>Minibreaks </b>are just work time outs</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Ariga and Lleras’ work led them to discover that short
breaks throughout the day are drastically more beneficial to maintaining focus
and <b><a href="http://web.workmeter.com/en/employee-motivation.html" target="_blank">employee motivation</a></b> than a single large burst. The effect of a break quickly
reaches a point of diminishing returns, in which the employees are no longer
benefiting and are then simply wasting time. Instead, keeping these breaks
small and plentiful throughout the day (such as 5 or 10 minutes every hour), is
enough to give the brain a momentary rest for it to come back more productive than
before. As well, these <b>minibreaks </b>provide time for the subconscious to work on
any problem solutions that might be eluding the employee, further hindering
their <b>motivation</b>. But that’s for another day.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h3>
<span style="color: #38761d; font-size: x-large;">Where do Updates Come In?</span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">By now, I’m pretty sure you can see how updates
can benefit instead of hinder. They are just another minibreak for the employee
to take. Instead of stressing about the halt in their <b>time management</b>, it has
become a moment for them to pause and recover before resuming their
<b>productivity</b>.</span>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7665566465524343016.post-10012115773286363792012-04-24T12:48:00.000-07:002012-04-24T12:48:59.853-07:00Updates Hurting Your Updates: The Unseen Bullet in Productivity’s Back<br />
<h3>
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><u><span style="color: #38761d; font-size: x-large;">The Norm</span></u></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Updates
are a necessary part of corporate life. If software becomes outdated, it must
be replaced. If the system manufacturer has released a new version, it must be
updated. Updates are done for the sake of bettering the tools at the employee’s
disposal. Otherwise, we would all still be sitting here using Windows ME while
the rest of the world ran Windows 7. Ask your typical employee what they think
of when they hear updates and you’ll hear things like “My computer will be
faster” or “These glitches will stop appearing”. Yet is that all there is to
updates? Is there something behind the scenes that we don’t know about?
Something that is hurting us as opposed to helping us? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<h3>
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="color: #38761d; font-size: x-large;"><u>Untimely Updates: The Double-edged Sword</u></span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">A
recent study done by </span><a href="http://www.embarcadero.com/appwave/pc-software-survey2012.html" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">Embarcadero
Technologies</a><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"> shows that 72% of Information Technology workers believe that the
constant searches, installations, and waiting for processes to finish drastically
hurts their productivity level. </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.embarcadero.com/images/survey_infographic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://www.embarcadero.com/images/survey_infographic.jpg" width="220" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Unforeseen Productivity Consequences<br />Cited <a href="http://www.embarcadero.com/products/appwave/pc-software-survey-2012" target="_blank">Here</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">“<span style="background: white;">Today's workers spend too much time in the antiquated
method of acquiring software and installing it on their PCs and maintaining
licenses,” </span>Michael Swindell, senior vice president of product management
and product marketing at Embarcadero, said. “<span style="background: white;">These
methods have to change to keep up with today's technologies. The growing trends
of BYOD (Bring Your Own Devices) and the Consumerization of IT are pushing the
need for "iTunes-like" app stores more than ever before</span>.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">He’s not far from the truth and you know it. While everyone
looks forward to the end result of their updates, they equally dread the
take-away time that comes before. The IT people take over your computer and you
are stuck twiddling your thumbs until they finish. They take time to find the
right update, download it, install it, then realize it’s for the wrong version,
and the process starts all over again. All the while, you’re anxiously waiting
to finish that project with the impending deadline. By this, the productivity
of the IT worker and the cubicle employee diminish; specifically, it diminishes
their work time by 67.1 hours, equating to about $2,851 per year, per employee.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h3>
<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="color: #38761d; font-size: x-large;"><u>The Fork in the Road</u></span></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">So what’s there to do about it? Employers have one of two
options: they can either organize these updates before or after hours, in which
IT employees would have to remain longer than usual, or they can use this gap
in work as a relaxation period for the employee. Now the former does not seem
to solve the issue as you are still holding back employees to work overtime and
costing the company money. Yet supervisors still choose it over the latter
because they rationale that keeping the worker busy. Yet this is the wrong
idea. How, you might ask? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Come back on Friday and find out.<o:p></o:p></span></div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7665566465524343016.post-74403025603189243852012-04-19T09:34:00.000-07:002012-04-19T09:48:15.486-07:00Telework: The Next Stage in Work-Home Lifestyle<h3>
<span style="color: #38761d; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"><u><b>What is Teleworking / Workshifting?</b></u></span></h3>
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16px;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16px;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">Working
shifting, or moving your work from the company office to the comforts of
your home, isn’t a new concept. Numerous careers allow employees to work shift and complete their tasks
from home. Yet it was never a largely accepted practice. Most of these were
cases tied to specific fields, whereas others allowed it in only specific
cases, such as illness or overtime. This is no longer the stance. According to
Randstad Canada’s latest </span><a href="http://www.randstad.com/press-room/research-reports" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">global Workmonitor
survey,</a><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"> "Telework", or the concept
of working from home, has begun to take root as more efficient than its counterpart.</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h3>
<span style="color: #38761d; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"><u><b>What will Teleworking Do For Me?</b></u></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bWpBF4Y4Dgs/T43iKg5YfFI/AAAAAAAAAEE/ZIjfIfQDYvg/s1600/Pic+2.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bWpBF4Y4Dgs/T43iKg5YfFI/AAAAAAAAAEE/ZIjfIfQDYvg/s400/Pic+2.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The effect of telework is in the numbers<br />
Cited: <a href="http://www.teleworkresearchnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2012/03/CA_State_of_Telework_9-18-11.pdf" target="_blank">Telework Research Network</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> In the everyday world, the demands
of life are often competing with the demands of work. This hurts productivity
as people find themselves bouncing from one obligation to another. Employee motivation takes a hit when
the stress becomes too great and the limited to non-existent </span>leisure<span style="font-size: small;"> web access, such as social sites or online shopping, doesn’t help either. Employee
productivity follows suit not long after. According to Stacy Parker,
Executive Vice President of Marketing at Randstad Canada, this makes a good
work life balance one of the premium qualities employees look for in their
employers. Telework provides this solution and eliminates the problem by
allowing them to easily manage both variants of tasks and maintain a healthier work-life
balance. Beginning in Canada and rapidly moving to and from </span><a href="http://www.teleworkresearchnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2012/03/CA_State_of_Telework_9-18-11.pdf" style="font-size: 12pt;">Southern
California</a><span style="font-size: small;">, telework is being
utilized to give employees the ability to control their lives and stay
motivated.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<h3>
<span style="color: #38761d; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-large;"><u><b>How Can I Make Sure It's Working?</b></u></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DB8HEqLDQqg/T43iMOc0JNI/AAAAAAAAAEM/RjlxsIJhYX0/s1600/Pic+1.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="182" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DB8HEqLDQqg/T43iMOc0JNI/AAAAAAAAAEM/RjlxsIJhYX0/s400/Pic+1.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Not just the employees will benefit from work shifting<br />
Cited: <a href="http://www.teleworkresearchnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2012/03/CA_State_of_Telework_9-18-11.pdf" target="_blank">Telework Research Network</a>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">Some
employers might wonder “Well if they are working from home, how can I make sure
they’re being productive?” This is easily solved with SaaS (Software as a
Service) tools such as WorkMeter that become cruxes in the telework community by allowing both the employer and the employee
themselves to see their productivity levels. By workshifting and teleworking
from the company’s computer, employees get the benefit of managing both lives
in a healthy manner, employers get the benefit of a productivity increase, and both benefit by seeing an increase in
company success.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">There’s
a reason teleworking is becoming a trend.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">Relevant
articles<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://workmeter-en.blogspot.com.es/2012/04/internet-freedom-of-new-generation.html">http://workmeter-en.blogspot.com.es/2012/04/internet-freedom-of-new-generation.html</a><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://www.marketwatch.com/story/work-life-balance-dynamics-change-global-survey-says-the-line-between-work-home-is-blurring-2012-04-12-7000">http://www.marketwatch.com/story/work-life-balance-dynamics-change-global-survey-says-the-line-between-work-home-is-blurring-2012-04-12-7000</a><o:p></o:p></div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7665566465524343016.post-52296331448475925112012-04-17T09:14:00.000-07:002012-04-17T09:14:12.789-07:00Andre Angel, CBS with Doug McElvein<br />
<h2>
<span style="color: #38761d;">Improving Time Management On The Company Clock</span></h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
A couple of weeks ago, our very own Andre Angel spoke on CBS
regarding the productivity habits of employees and how the monitoring culture
of employers is changing with the times. On the show, Total Information AM, he
was interviewed by Doug McElvein in regards to the dangers conventional employee productivity methods
possess in todays day and age.<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Join us in listening below.<br />
<br />
<div id="A5E3A03C5D43">
</div>
<script src="http://player.play.it/PodcastPlayer/Embed.js" type="text/javascript">
</script><script type="text/javascript">
player.render('fileUrl=http://cbsstlouis.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/work-efficiency-andre-angel.mp3&name=Total Information AM&artist=Doug McElvein&stationID=&configFile=config.xml&buttonColor=grey&buttonOverColor=blue&backgroundColor=#FFFFFF&guid=A5E3A03C5D43');
</script>
<br />
<br />
<br />
Angel lays out the groundwork, explaining how the existence of four generations in the work place makes banning and blocking sites downright harmful rather than helpful to the company, who instead should utilize cooperative means to increase productivity. With 56% of college graduates saying they would not work for a company that banned social sites, Angel gives light to a global software called “WorkMeter,” currently in use by over 1,000 companies worldwide, that solves the issue of time wasting through self-motivation and self-correction.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7665566465524343016.post-52489466997165853632012-04-09T08:00:00.000-07:002012-04-09T08:00:06.638-07:00Internet Freedom of the New Generation<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wtBX2ag-qmM/T34O9ldbKiI/AAAAAAAAACM/c_HjMNkd1ck/s1600/cisco_connected_world_modern_workplace1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Social Media: More Important Than You'd Think" border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wtBX2ag-qmM/T34O9ldbKiI/AAAAAAAAACM/c_HjMNkd1ck/s1600/cisco_connected_world_modern_workplace1.png" title="Employee Motivation Has A New Master" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">Social Media<br />More important than you'd think.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">The
world is changing; specifically, working world. Steadily and no longer slowly,
old mentalities are being replaced as new and fresh ideas and ideals are
brought in through younger generations. From the world beyond the
four-wall-cubicle, thoughts and expectations of freedom are being fought for.
Now, that focus of </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">freedom</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"> has
seeped in from the cracks in the walls and has arrived at the working world
with an entourage of young professionals and recent graduates.</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><u style="color: #38761d; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: xx-large;">The
Freedom Demands of the Employees</u></div>
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A report entitled <a href="http://www.cisco.com/en/US/netsol/ns1120/index.html" target="_blank">Cisco Connected World Technology Report</a> was published in 2011 by Cisco depicting the growing trend in the importance of internet freedom and social media. Done on 2,800 college students in the United Kingdom, all were asked on the importance of internet freedom and social media in comparison to salary.</div>
<br />933 believed having internet freedom and access to sites such as Facebook and Twitter was as “important as air, water, food, and shelter,” indicating a critical factor in employee motivation. <br /> <br />1,120 stated that they would accept lower-paying jobs that allowed them their freedom to social media and from internet blocks over a higher paying job that restricted them.
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">1,960
acknowledged </span>to breaking IT policy on a regular basis by attempting (and even succeeding) at bypassing security measures meant to restrict their online access. <br /> <br />This new wave of future employees are emerging like a grass-root movement, refusing positions that don’t meet their freedom requirements and setting a new bar in employee-employer social media relations. This growing trend is something that old employers are having trouble adapting to.</div>
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<u style="color: #38761d; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: xx-large;">The
Productivity Fears of the Employers</u></div>
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If you’ve been keeping up with us, you know very well that maintaining and increasing productivity is always high on the employers list. So, naturally, when they see demands for increasing internet freedoms, they usually provoke thoughts of “Well why do you want more access” and “Are you going to be wasting time surfing the web as opposed to working?" But it doesn’t have to be that way. <br /> <br />This increased trend of internet freedom doesn’t come from the slackers; it comes from the motivators. They don’t see it as a sink hole to waste company time and money, but instead as a tool to pause and recharge their batteries. <a href="http://web.workmeter.com/en/improve-productivity.html" target="_blank">Job motivation</a> is a large factor in productivity and if granting access to Twitter allows them to return to work refreshed, then so be it. In the end, the problem for the employers should be the websites themselves, but the <a href="http://web.workmeter.com/en/index.html" target="_blank">time management</a> of the employees. <br /><br /><br /><u style="color: #38761d; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: xx-large;">The
Middle Ground</u><br />
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Effective time management is where both the employers and employees must meet; granting access with the assurance that it won’t be abused. Here, conventional software and productivity monitoring programs don’t work since they focus on preventative measure, as opposed to motivational goals. They snoop and locate sites that employees spend a large amount of time on and place a website block, preventing future access. <br /><br />
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New <a href="http://web.workmeter.com/en/work-productivity.html" target="_blank">productivity software</a>, such as WorkMeter, which has grown rapidly in Spain’s industry, take on a different approach. They work by monitoring application usage on productive and unproductive applications, then displaying the activity graphs to the employer AND the employee. This grants the future hires the internet freedom they wish all the while letting their employers unintrusively see the levels of their productivity. </div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
college students are growing from pre-graduates to post-graduates and in no
time, they will take over the workforce. The advancement of <a href="http://web.workmeter.com/en/success-company-productivity.html" target="_blank">company productivity</a> depends on who will gain them by deciding to take the first step in workplace freedom and <o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">embrace this new
method of improving productivity.</span></div>
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</div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7665566465524343016.post-29314903053567954442012-04-05T09:10:00.003-07:002012-04-05T09:10:34.107-07:00Break Time and the Website Block: Friend or Foe?<h2 style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">Look at yourself now. Sitting there, many of you in that cubicle with those dull grey-colored walls surrounding you. If you an employee, you’re wondering if you’ll be caught or how you should be getting some work done, as opposed to taking your unplanned break time on the web. You revel in the fact that you found a way to entertain yourself around the website block. If you’re a supervisor, you’re basically wondering the same thing, with the added thought of whether or not there should be a website block on this. </span></div>
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<u style="color: #35631e; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 26px;">Should you be taking your break time right now?</u></h4>
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It’s the never-ending cycle of employee against employer. Through the stress, the employee finally caves, throws caution to the wind, and begins their break time on the spot. The employer, wishing to meet their deadlines and push productivity to the max, searches out these distracting sites and places a block on them. Yet what they fail to realize is that this cycle in and of itself is counter-productive and that these unplanned break times are, in fact, increasing <a href="http://web.workmeter.com/en/work-productivity.html">work productivity</a>.<br />
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It's not time wasting; it's <a href="http://web.workmeter.com/en/index.html">employee productivity</a> enhancing!</u></h4>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_V6RlDgEofo/T32-_uuCIsI/AAAAAAAAAAc/SGvS5rqV_-k/s1600/Facebook+Banned+in+Workplace.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_V6RlDgEofo/T32-_uuCIsI/AAAAAAAAAAc/SGvS5rqV_-k/s320/Facebook+Banned+in+Workplace.jpg" title="The Facebook Block" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Most popular website to block.<br />
Also the hardest.</td></tr>
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A relatively recent study was done by <a href="http://www.aomonline.org/aom.asp?ID=251&page_ID=224&pr_id=448">Don J.Q. Chen and Vivien K.G Lim of the National University of Singapore in 2011</a> proving that allowing unplanned break times on the internet (in moderation of course) and not placing a website block on entertainment and social sites do boost productivity. You’ll find this much similar to the older study I mentioned in the past by Dr. Brent Coker of the Department of Management and Marketing at Melbourne University in 2009, which had garnered the same results. </div>
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Both studies were approached similarly: a control group was set in a normal work environment, another was allowed to take their break time in anyway other than online, and the third was given complete online access without the website block on social, entertainment, and shopping sites. The results were the same: the third group was marginally more productive than the other two.<br />
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Don't block. Manage.</u></h4>
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This self-regulated break time, this power given to the employees, allows them to determine on their on factors if they need a break or not. This opportunity allows them to return to work, refreshed, rejuvenated, and even motivated, as opposed to feeling like they have to work around the website blocks or forced to resume their projects. Naturally, too much break time has the opposite effect which is why it’s critical to give the employees a <a href="http://web.workmeter.com/en/index.html">non-intrusive monitoring system</a> that would show them how productive they are being or how much time they are wasting. <br />
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See related articles <a href="http://workmeter-en.blogspot.com.es/2011/02/internet-usage-productivity-compliment.html">here</a> and <a href="http://workmeter-en.blogspot.com.es/2011/12/top-10-ways-employees-waste-time-at.html">here</a>.</div>
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</div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7665566465524343016.post-15448434439737003612012-03-09T05:19:00.000-08:002012-03-26T08:16:54.382-07:00WorkMeter - 'Eli Daniel Group' success storyIt seems like anywhere we go or whatever we do these days, we are being monitored and tracked. Soon the monitoring and tracking could come to your work computer.<br/><br/>A program called <strong><a href="http://web.workmeter.com/en/index.html">WorkMeter</a></strong> allows managers to track what websites employees log onto, what programs they use and how productive employees are as they go about their days.<br/><br/>“The idea behind WorkMeter is not about spying. The idea is to build a database or look at a performance of an employee from a time management perspective,” said Andre Angel, the Chairman of WorkMeter.<br/><br/>Angel said WorkMeter worked best when managers included employees in the process.<br/><br/>“Nobody is doing anything malicious. Employees want to work, want to improve what they’re doing, and if you give them that feedback, they improve,” Angel told CW 33 News.<br/><br/>Chris Lawson, the CEO of the staffing company The <a title="Eli Daniel Group" href="http://www.elidaniel.com/">Eli Daniel Group</a> in Allen, Texas, recently installed WorkMeter. Employees at first were less than enthused about the new software.<br/><br/>“I was a little concerned at first because I really thought it was going to be Big Brotherish, Chris and management looking over your shoulder wanting to know what you are doing every moment,” said Kendra Fox.<br/><br/>But the Eli Daniel Group included employees from the start, allowing each person to follow their own productivity with a dashboard on their computer.<br/><br/>“It’s not like it is me over your shoulder wondering what you are doing all of the time. It gives the individual the real time information,” said Lawson.<br/><br/>Fox believed WorkMeter was only as successful as how it was implemented.<br/><br/>“As long as they explain it right and kind of pitch it the right way and make sure their employees are on board and kind of including them in the process, then I think people will be OK with it,” said Fox.<br/><br/><strong><a title="WorkMeter video" href="http://www.the33tv.com/about/station/newsteam/kdaf-workmeter-can-track-employees-every-move-on-their-work-computer-20120301,0,7023097.story">Click here to watch the video</a></strong>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7665566465524343016.post-42999007131729577262011-12-06T15:02:00.000-08:002012-03-26T08:16:54.392-07:00Top 10 ways employees waste time at work24/7 Wall St. looked at a number of workplace studies on how people spend time online, and found that most say<span style="text-decoration:underline;"> employees with PCs spend 20-plus hours a week on the Web while at work—and about a quarter of that is for personal use</span>. 24/7 Wall St. broke those 5 squandered hours down into the top 10 “time wasters”:<br/><br/><strong>1. Social Networks:</strong> 1 hr, 14 min/week; apparently, 77% of employees who have access to Facebook from work check it at least once a day.<br/><strong>2. Online Games:</strong> 34 min/week<br/><strong>3. Email:</strong> 27 min/week<br/><strong>4. Portals like AOL, Yahoo!:</strong> 14 min/week<br/><strong>5. Instant Messaging:</strong> 13 min/week<br/><br/>How much time is spent watching pornography at work? It’s staggering. Follow <a href="http://247wallst.com/2010/09/30/the-top-ten-ways-workers-waste-time-online" target="_blank">this link</a> for more information, or <a href="http://web.workmeter.com/en/balance-work-family.html" target="_blank">read what we think</a> ...<br/><br/> Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7665566465524343016.post-4581145748413875002011-07-06T09:30:00.000-07:002012-03-26T08:16:54.394-07:00Productivity is More Than Just a Mathematical Formula<p style="text-align:justify;"><a href="http://workmeter.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/productivity-math.jpg"><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-330" title="Productivity Math" src="http://workmeter.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/productivity-math.jpg" alt="" width="140" height="140" /></a>Wikipedia defines “productivity” as <em>a measure of output from a production process, per unit of input</em>, and this is where the fundamental problem of the modern day business begins.</p><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">Without real & measurable business benefit as a subsequent output of labor input, then what you are measuring is simple activity & NOT "productivity".</p><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">True productivity starts at "why", gains momentum at "what" and accelerates on continuos & measured improvements.</p><br/><br/><h4 style="text-align:justify;"><span style="text-decoration:underline;">The Power of "Why"</span></h4><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">People don't do what they're told, people do as they believe! The way we exercise our thoughts are through actions, likewise we exercise our beliefs through engrained habits or behavioral patterns. Ever go on a road trip that you weren't convinced was right for you? How did that workout for you? Were you enthusiastic about overcoming the challenges that appeared along the way? Did you look on the bright side of ever set-back?</p><br/><p style="text-align:justify;"><em>“Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.” - John Fitzgerald Kennedy;</em> A strong sense of purpose, something you can identify with, believe in.. is always a sure bet to get you enthusiastic about the journey your company is about to take you on. It's purpose that gives you faith & courage to seek alternative paths and make proactive efforts to achieve your milestones faster. Purpose is the first key to engagement & commitment to excellence.. it's the self imposed response to an employee who briefly asks themselves "why bother".</p><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">What's your company's "why"and how do remind everyone every day of it? And this is just the 1st step..</p><br/><br/><h4 style="text-align:justify;"><span style="text-decoration:underline;">The Direction of "What"</span></h4><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">"If you are working on something exciting that you really care about, you don't have to be pushed. The vision pulls you." - Steve Jobs; Follow-up strong purpose with a clearly articulated & understood vision, and your powerful formula is more than half-way there.</p><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">People more quickly propel themselves toward something they can visualize.. almost touch & feel.. than into a dark tunnel or foggy cloud. How quantifiable is your company's vision? How absolutely clear is the short, medium & long terms goals / objectives of your organization.</p><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">What mechanisms are you using on a regular basis to remind people of what your vision is.. the end point of your journey'.. and most important, what are the regular (rhythmic) interval checks or pulse-checks that measure your progress and as well what's left to achieve? Yet this is merely your 2nd step..</p><br/><br/><h4 style="text-align:justify;"><span style="text-decoration:underline;">The power of metrics.. measurements & continuous improvements</span></h4><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">What doesn't get measured doesn't get done, because people don't do what you EXPECT.. they do what you INSPECT!</p><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">That's the reality of human nature, and to assume anything else is a guaranteed formula for disaster. If purpose (Mission) & vision need to be quantifiable, then even more so does execution. As Thomas Edison once said, "Vision without execution is hallucination." But how do you know that you're executing? After-all, how do you know whether your teams are being "productive" or simply busy (activity)?</p><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">If you've got your act together in what regards setting & measuring against performance, how are you ensuring your team is continuously measuring progress and growing through key learning?</p><br/><p style="text-align:justify;"><em>“Vision without action is a dream. Action without vision is simply passing the time. Action with Vision is making a positive difference.” - Joel Barker..</em> Action with vision is measurable! It's when you can identify whether employee's behavioral patterns at work are producing business results. For this, you need to be able to measure activity that drives results and not just activity working on the applications or environments you've deemed productive. I can spend an entire day in a word processing application, just like I can in a spreadsheet, but unless I'm producing business results, it's all just a hallucination.</p><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">On the contrary, in parallel to measuring where I'm investing my time, how many uninterrupted & focused work sprints I'm able to generate in a day, if i can associate my activity to quantifiable increases in business results.. then I can confidently state that I'm productive.</p>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7665566465524343016.post-27025852114302680082011-06-27T05:39:00.000-07:002012-03-26T08:16:54.385-07:00How Facebook(ing) Can Improve Work Productivity<p style="text-align:justify;"><a href="http://workmeter.wordpress.com/?attachment_id=5308" rel="attachment wp-att-5308"><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-5308" title="The Social Network" src="http://thestrategyguysite.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/The-Social-Network.jpg" alt="" width="118" height="98" /></a><a href="http://uninews.unimelb.edu.au/news/5750/">In a study dating back almost 2 years ago</a>, Melbourne University's department of Marketing & Management demonstrated how a workforce that takes planned work breaks with Facebook is actually 9% more productive.</p><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">The fundamentals behind why this works can be found in guaranteeing the appropriate strategy, effective communication & engagement principles so that a workforce can plan for success. It's about <a href="http://thestrategyguysite.com/productivity/instant-productivity-how-to-change-your-life-in-15-minutes/">finding the right rhythm</a> & <a href="http://thestrategyguysite.com/strategic-planning/better-time-management-exercise-plan-your-day-to-succeed/">planning your 60-90 minute work sprints</a>.</p><br/><br/><h3><em>Social networks are NOT the problem</em></h3><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">The problem most companies are facing today isn't the Internet or Social Media, it's the lack of effective Leadership. 86% o senior executive agree that the biggest challenge is to mobilize their workforce, yet 53% of staff are unable to explain their companies strategy. What's wrong with this picture? Leadership is about setting direction & delegating, it's about using a “story-telling cascade” to build a shared and compelling narrative about the need for change.. or the results you expect to achieve. The competitive advantage of the twenty-first century is increasingly derived from hard-to-copy intangible assets such as company culture and leadership effectiveness.</p><br/><br/><h3><em>People Strategies First</em></h3><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">Leveraging insight from <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1118024621/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thestrategyguy-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=1118024621">Beyond Performance: How Great Organizations Build Ultimate Competitive Advantage</a><img style="border:none!important;margin:0!important;" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=thestrategyguy-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1118024621&camp=217145&creative=399373" alt="" width="1" height="1" border="0" />; Charles Darwin’s observation that “the fittest win out at the expense of their rivals because they succeed in adapting themselves best to their environment” may have become something of a cliché in the literature on change management, but it has never rung more true in the business world. The ability to manage an organization dynamically so that it can both shape its environment and rapidly adapt to it is becoming the most important source of competitive advantage in the twenty-first century. Success is about winning not just in the marketplace for customers, but also in the marketplace for talented employees.</p><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">The role of business in society is changing. As we work more and socialize less, the time we have left for traditional activities involving our family, our local community, and our religious institutions is declining. As a result, our sense of meaning and identity is increasingly derived from the workplace (our jobs) and the marketplace (the products and service we buy). The message is that talented employees are not content to be cogs in a machine geared to hitting quarterly performance numbers. They want to work in dynamic workplaces where they feel empowered to make meaningful, positive change happen.</p><br/><br/><h3><em>You Can't Manage What You Can Measure</em></h3><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">Once you've got your people strategy effectively in place, what mechanisms will you use to measure active contribution toward company results? How will you address the 7 simple questions that drive your strategic plans; <strong>Who, What, When, Where, How, Why?</strong> And most importantly, how will you answer the always difficult “but <strong>Should</strong> we <strong>or Shouldn’t</strong> we?” questions?</p><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">By empowering your team with a solid Vision and aligning them around agreed strategies, you'll also need to ensure a fine balance of productive <a href="http://thestrategyguysite.com/people-leadership-development/better-time-management-exercise-plan-your-day-to-succeed/">work sprints</a> coupled with <a href="http://thestrategyguysite.com/strategic-business-planning/the-best-productivity-transformation-tip-ever/">recovery breaks</a>.</p><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">Why not let them Facebook when you know you're already getting he very best out of your people? What measurements do you have in place that give you confidence of how your team is engaging their available productive capacity?</p>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7665566465524343016.post-7982688776568875572011-06-20T02:21:00.000-07:002012-03-26T08:16:54.408-07:00How-To Fix the Open Space Syndrome<p style="text-align:justify;">Let's be honest.. the advent of Open Space Offices had more to do with economics than productivity. That said, other than death & taxes, every challenge has a (or various) solution(s).</p><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">The current work environment provided by most employers who support an Open Space layout is highly unproductive for <em>getting work done at work</em>. Interruptions & easy distractions are only a few inconvenient truths of why an open space working environment can become highly unproductive. That's what I call "Open Space Syndrome".</p><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">Open spaces are economical solutions for housing employees, and <a href="http://thestrategyguysite.com/productivity-getting-things-done/the-best-kept-productivity-secret-an-innovative-space/">in the right configuration</a> can still gain effective transversal (cross functional area) awareness without compromising the concentration required to deliver effective results.</p><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">Here are some solutions I've found to help open spaces become more productive.</p><br/><br/><h3>Focus Time</h3><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">If you have to do work that requires focus & concentration, find a quite & unused space in or around your office building. The secluded corner table of the coffee shop downstairs, the park bench across the street, the conference room that's not in use, the library down the street or even the office cafeteria during off-peak hours. These are all spaces that you can move to in order to get important work done.</p><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">The pre-requisit is that your management team has realized the benefit of fitting out the office with laptop computers connected to docking stations or keyboard, mouse & screens. Given the increased computing power of portable computers and the flexibility of cloud computing based storage solutions, Desktop computers are dinosaurs / anchors that just don't cut it anymore.</p><br/><br/><h3>Visual Hints</h3><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">Have you ever seen an "on-air" sign in a radio or television station? Do you remember the last time you walked into a bank, took a number & headed to the information desk? Those are only a few practical reminders of things you can do in your open space office environment in order to get more work done. If you're part of a work team, agree amongst yourselves a rotating "customer service" schedule to take questions and issues from other departments & functional areas. Make it visibly clear who's "on-call" by placing a bright tennis ball on the screen of the person providing Customer Service.. or get even more creative and make-up a sign to hang somewhere visible.</p><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">Another effective tip is to put headphones on, even if you don't want to listen to music, so that people will assume that you're taking an online course, speaking on Skype or indeed focused on a task whilst listening to music.</p><br/><br/><h3>Semi-Open Spaces</h3><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">Glass partitioning works best to provide an open-plan feel and still be conducive to "noise" cancelation. Glass partitioning also provides the added benefit have creating more "white-board" space to draw up brilliant half-baked ideas & capture spur of the moment brainstorms.</p><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">In <a href="http://thestrategyguysite.com/productivity-getting-things-done/the-best-kept-productivity-secret-an-innovative-space/">an earlier article this year</a>, I highlighted how the <a href="http://www.mci-group.com/">MCI Group</a> has developed a really inspiring open-plan workspace in their Zurich offices.</p><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">The above are only a few effective solutions & I'd like to hear yours. If you're working in an open space & have found handy tricks to maximize your productive moments in-spite of the challenges, I'd love to hear / read your experiences.</p>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7665566465524343016.post-90201010395460574662011-06-06T07:43:00.000-07:002012-03-26T08:16:54.413-07:00How your business is slowly dying<p style="text-align:justify;"><a href="http://workmeter.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/mind-the-gap.jpg"><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-233" title="mind the gap" src="http://workmeter.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/mind-the-gap.jpg" alt="" width="148" height="119" /></a>Every business expert will agree that <em>"you can't manage what you cant's measure"</em>, yet most of you reading this post are slowly killing your companies prospects to profitably grow because you don't have the appropriate measurements in place.</p><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">In your case, "the gap" is the space between your perception and reality. According to a recent survey conducted by <a href="www.3s.eu ">3S</a> in 305 Iberian based mid-size companies, only 37% of senior executives categorized their companies as very good or excellent at executing strategy. When we scratched deeper below the surface, we found that more than 50% of employees were disengaged with their company's strategy, and that 31% recognized they didn't have the necessary measures in place to ensure effective execution of their strategies to reach required business results for success.</p><br/><br/><h3 style="text-align:justify;">Flying Blind</h3><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">76.8% of the companies admitted to flying blind (perception based), without the necessary performance measurements to determine if their strategies were successful or not. The same figure of 23% blamed the current economy as the cause that limits their capacity to grow.</p><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">With numbers that evident, you can only cringe at the wasted productive capacity, and it's no wonder that companies are in the troubles they are in today. Imagine +76% of the planes in the sky flying around with no radar for day.. would you get on a plane that day? This is shear madness, yet having worked across 5 continents over the past 26 years, I can confirm this isn't unique to Iberia, it's just more severe here.</p><br/><br/><h3 style="text-align:justify;">Flying with Radar</h3><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">What are you currently doing to measure the performance & productivity of your team?</p><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">You don't have to go immediately overboard and jump straight into a full fledged <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_performance_technology">Human Performance Technology</a> Program. You should start out slow.. take baby steps with a Productivity Management tool like <a href="http://web.workmeter.com/control/en/home.htm">WorkMeter</a>. Easy to implement & even easier to use, it engages your employees in discovering how to transform learning into more productive habits. Unlike other "performance monitoring" tools, WorkMeter is an educative "performance analysis" tool, and the best one I've used to date that helps me quickly experience increased results. It's employee friendly nature fosters internal healthy competitive growth & development without management having to step in. Once you set the strategy, your team does the work & the learning themselves.</p><br/><br/><h3 style="text-align:justify;">Eliminate the Gap</h3><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">Don't hold your finger to the wind to figure out if a storm is coming! Plan purposefully with concrete data & facts that will have you better predict the future of your organization based on historical trends. Join the new era of empowered organizations that confidently determine their own future success based on solid metrics. The execution of an idea is always more important than the brilliance of the thought, so stop dreaming about being more productive and get down to measuring it so you can manage it.</p><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">The growth of an organization is simply the accumulated growth of the individual relationships that constitute it, and it now rests on your shoulders to eliminate the gap created by perception by empowering your employees with metrics (measurements) they can learn, develop & grow from.</p>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7665566465524343016.post-80063429151053904222011-02-18T01:00:00.000-08:002012-03-26T08:16:54.409-07:00Internet usage & Productivity; Compliment or bitter rivalry?<p style="text-align:justify;"><a rel="attachment wp-att-5452" href="http://workmeter.wordpress.com/?attachment_id=5452"><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-5452" title="Internet Productivity" src="http://thestrategyguysite.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Internet-Productivity.jpg" alt="" width="230" height="178" /></a>Can you recall before the advent of the internet, and this is still true today in many public service locations, how you could walk into a workplace & spot at least 1/2 of the employees reading a newspaper or standing by the water-cooler in idle chatter?</p><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">Yes folks, before the internet came to be, companies already had productivity issues! All the internet did, as with every other positive aspect it also brought about, was accelerate what was already right or worng about our organizations.</p><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">The great debate is on.. and every man and his dog has an opinion, so let me share with you my own. The internet, like anything else in life, is only a distraction in the workplace if your organization lacks the disciplined effort to <em>engage it's key-stakeholders in the activities required for both employee & employer to succeed</em>. The fact is that the internet is a significant & key enabler of innovation, including finding new ways to become more productive by sharing best practices. But don't take just my word for it, let's explore the messaging that's prevelant out there today.</p><br/><br/><h4><a href="http://blog.timesunion.com/capitol/archives/544/surprise-internet-monitoring-leads-to-less-internet-use/"><span style="color:#0000ff;">Surprise: Internet monitoring reduces Internet use</span></a></h4><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">And if you declare a police state, putting armed officers on every street corner you'll reduce crime. But is that what you really wanted? What's your objective? To have people use the internet less or for them to be more produce more work that drives desirable results? If the latter is your choice, then focus on getting your team on-board with a sound game-plan for achieving success. Give them the skills, knowhow, resources & effective communication strategies that will keep them highly engaged, motivated & productive. The internet isn't the real issue.. it's more than likely that you're just not doing a great job of motivating people to do the right things at the right time required to achieve success.</p><br/><br/><h4><a href="http://www.techjournalsouth.com/2010/08/social-networking-at-work-leads-to-productivity-loss/"><span style="color:#0000ff;">Social networking at work leads to productivity loss</span></a></h4><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">So I guess when I last connected to someone on LinkedIn, which in turn resulted in a transaction where I was engaged to perform a key (remunerated) project, that wasn't productive? Or when I tweeted a question about what best product / service to use in order to execute on a particular task.. and I received valuable feedback that reduced the chance of my wasting time on a product that someone else had already deemed poor.. I wasn't really being productive? Social networking at work can only lead to productivity loss if your people aren't focused & engaged, or don't have the skill set / knowhow to leverage social networking to their benefit.</p><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">To Lee Fayer, and others alike who make claims that <a href="http://www.financenews.co.uk/fnews/social-networking-costs-14-billion-pounds-a-year-in-lost-work-time/">"social networking costs 14 billion pounds a year in lost work time"</a>, I would say that you're just looking for excuses to cover up ineffective people management & engagement. For the record, let me say that if your people are spending more than 1h per day on the likes of Facebook <span style="text-decoration:underline;">when "they should be working"</span> <em>(and this phrase is key)</em>, then you've got a management, motivation and or engagement issue.. and not an internet usage issue.</p><br/><br/><h4><a href="http://m.bnet.com/blog/businesstips/why-your-employees-are-more-productive-when-they-facebook-at-work/10198"><span style="color:#0000ff;">Why Your Employees Are More Productive When They Facebook at Work</span></a></h4><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">The sciences of biology & psychiatry prove that <a href="http://thestrategyguysite.com/strategic-planning/the-best-productivity-transformation-tip-ever/">human beings need recovery breaks</a> intermingled with intense work segments in order to maximize their effectiveness & productivity. It's a proven fact that when you allow people to perform completely unrelated tasks in-between work-tasks, they increase their focus and output as a consequence of reaching a higher state of concentration & throughput immediately following their break.</p><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">Dr. Brent Coker's work entitled <a href="http://uninews.unimelb.edu.au/news/5750/">"Freedom to surf: workers more productive if allowed to use the internet for leisure"</a> is more than just common sense, it can also be proven by the practical nature of the following factual diagram brought to us by our friends at <a href="http://uninews.unimelb.edu.au/news/5750/">WorkMeter</a>.</p><br/><p style="text-align:center;"><a rel="attachment wp-att-5489" href="http://workmeter.wordpress.com/?attachment_id=5489"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-5489" title="WM_emp_react_full" src="http://thestrategyguysite.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/WM_emp_react_full.jpg" alt="" width="474" height="291" /></a></p><br/><br/><h4>Because you can't manage what you can't measure</h4><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">As this graph shows, when a control element is introduced there is a natural tendency for reduced activity. Yet when the appropriate effective management tools, engagement principles & strategic initiative motivate a workforce, what you begin to witness is true productivity <em>(driving company results)</em> which can actually supersede previous levels of "activity".</p><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">What are you focusing on these days? Activity which might not be directly contributing to desired results, or productivity by using the right empowerment & engagement principles that guarantee your team get's on-board with your strategic plan?</p><br/><p style="text-align:justify;"> </p><br/><p style="text-align:justify;"><span style="color:#000000;">Guest Blog by <a href="http://es.linkedin.com/in/jcduarte">JC Duarte; The Strategy Guy</a><br/></span></p>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7665566465524343016.post-46604706605312953352011-02-16T07:59:00.000-08:002012-03-26T08:16:54.398-07:00Quick Win Productivity Tip-of-the-Day; Digitalize<p style="text-align:justify;"><a rel="attachment wp-att-5397" href="http://workmeter.wordpress.com/?attachment_id=5397"><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-5397" title="Digital" src="http://thestrategyguysite.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Digital.jpg" alt="" width="109" height="72" /></a>This morning's bank experience... I'm not naturally organized when it comes to finical matters. That said, it doesn't mean I can't be great at it, it's just going to take me extra effort, energy, a framework & discipline until it becomes a newly engrained habit. That's how life works!</p><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">So when I went to my bank this morning to establish additional accounts <em>(buckets)</em> for segmenting & putting funds aside for my various obligations & plans, my digitalization strategy.. which I put into effect some years ago.. came into very productive use!</p><br/><br/><h4>The Challenge</h4><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">For whatever reason, my identity details in the bank records had expired, and without the physical documentation I would have had to come back another day.. wait in another line to be attended to.. and start explaining my needs all over again.</p><br/><br/><h4>The Solution</h4><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">Fortunately I've digitalized my life, so with the stroke of a few keys on my smartphone, tablet pc or Laptop (in this case laptop) I accessed my <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dropbox_(service)">Dropbox</a> account & promptly handed (emailed) over my previously scanned legal identity.</p><br/><br/><h4>The Reward</h4><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">What turned out to be a 1h exercise, which I initially estimated at 45m, could have been double or triple <em>(including more inconvenient trips to the bank)</em> had I not had all my relevant information at the <em>(extended)</em> tips of my fingers.</p><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">I don't do back-ups anymore.. my working files <em>(directories)</em> in my laptop are permanently & instantly synced with Dropbox, which means anywhere in the world, from any device, I can access my information. I share files (or directories) with clients for immediate productivity. No longer do I need time-consuming file transfers or deal with e-mail limitations. This morning's practical example is only one.. Dropbox & digitalization <em>(virtualization)</em> of a significant part of my life has given me more time for me to do the things that really matter to me.. providing me a significant increase in work-life balance.</p><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">How are you virtualizing? How are you digitalizing? If you're not, then how are you still getting stuck in your traditional off-line world / frameworks? How are they empowering or limiting you?</p><br/><p style="text-align:justify;"><span style="color:#000000;">Guest Blog by <a href="http://es.linkedin.com/in/jcduarte">JC Duarte; The Strategy Guy</a><br/></span></p>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7665566465524343016.post-1674974275612939422011-01-31T06:28:00.000-08:002012-03-26T08:16:54.383-07:00HR Management 2.0<p style="text-align:justify;" lang="en-US"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;"><span style="font-size:medium;">Human resources have been managed in much the same way for 30 years.</span></span></p><br/><p style="text-align:justify;" lang="en-US"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;"><span style="font-size:medium;">The environment has changed, the media has changed, the tools have changed, and this is producing effects that companies often do not know how to manage.</span></span></p><br/><p style="text-align:justify;" lang="en-US"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;"><span style="font-size:medium;">In the past the control was applied, nowadays you have to manage the privacy of the employee, the flexible working hours and the social benefits. In the past you had to manage the effort, now you have to manage the talent. In the past the industry was managed, and now people in offices are managed. Initiatives such as teleworking and flexible working hours, or pay for targets in these new environments are often very difficult or almost impossible to implement.</span></span></p><br/><p style="text-align:justify;" lang="en-US"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;"><span style="font-size:medium;">A new management 2.0 based on metrics will be required in order to confront this new paradigm. A policy of transparency and awareness regarding the employee's contribution. An objective basis for management and decision-making that also respects the privacy of individuals.</span></span></p><br/><p style="text-align:justify;" lang="en-US"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;"><span style="font-size:medium;">We need new policies and adequate tools for present and future, to ensure continuous improvement and enabling emerging trends in human resources management.</span></span></p><br/><p style="text-align:justify;" lang="en-US"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;"><span style="font-size:medium;">Companies will have to continue adapting these new methodologies, unless they will be surprised by management problems, productivity, safety ... etc.</span></span></p><br/><p style="text-align:justify;" lang="en-US"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,serif;"><span style="font-size:medium;">WorkMeter provides the necessary assistance to start this transition and assist companies in implementing new methodologies and processes with HR. For a cost of less than 1% of an employee's salary, and exceptional ROI (sometimes only 1 week), this productivity management platform enables metrics to be a transparent and objective concept, allowing many of the initiatives that this new human resources management is demanding, and also significantly improving the time management and productivity of employees.</span></span></p>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7665566465524343016.post-42120687785716409712011-01-10T08:47:00.000-08:002012-03-26T08:16:54.390-07:00Have you ever thought about the impact that Christmas Holidays have on
Productivity? <br/><br/><a href="http://workmeter.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/holidayp.jpg"><img title="Holiday(P)" src="http://workmeter.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/holidayp.jpg" alt="" width="251" height="201" /></a><br/><br/> <br/><br/><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:x-small;">We all know that</span></span></span><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-family:Arial CE,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:x-small;"> </span></span></span><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:x-small;">h</span></span></span><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-family:Arial CE,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:x-small;">olidays are a great period, when families gather to spend more time together, people buy gifts for their loved ones, everyone is celebrating and the work productivity....decreases.</span></span></span><br/><p lang="zxx"><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-family:Arial CE,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:x-small;">As an employee it;s normal for you to feel more tired at the end of the year and tend to daydream of holidays, Christmas parties or rest.</span></span></span></p><br/><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-family:Arial CE,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:x-small;">It is not a surprise that you are less productive around holidays, the true problem is that your productivity </span></span></span><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-family:Arial CE,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:x-small;"><em>tends to decrease two weeks before Christmas and it continues the next two weeks in January</em></span></span></span><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:x-small;">, according to various researches made by deeply PRODUCTIVITY professionals.</span></span></span><br/><p lang="zxx"><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-family:Arial CE,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:x-small;">Distractions met during the month of December as parties and celebrations, legal holidays, extra vacation, bowl games, shopping and presents, and most of all, the pressure you feel to meet the holiday expectations of those around you can cause serious stress times and you can easily loose the focus and concentration you need at your work, resulting in a decresed productivity and poor results.</span></span></span></p><br/><p lang="zxx"><span style="color:#000000;"> <span style="font-family:Arial CE,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:x-small;">So, what can you do in order to spend some great holidays with your family and also mantain an adequate level of your work productivity?</span></span></span></p><br/><p lang="zxx"><span style="color:#000000;"> <span style="font-family:Arial CE,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:x-small;">First of all, you should make a list with the most important tasks you must finish and the period of time you assign to each task. </span></span></span></p><br/><p lang="zxx"><span style="color:#000000;"> <span style="font-family:Arial CE,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:x-small;">Having your time management well balanced, will give yourself the right amount of time to complete your projects and make extra time for your family and friends. </span></span></span></p><br/><p lang="en-US"><span style="color:#000000;"> <span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:x-small;">One of the greatest tools that I have personally tried and that will help you get organized and avoid things getting out of control is WorkMeter, a software that will help you make objective decisions based on real facts, bringing performance and high results in you work. If you want to find out about the benefits WorkMeter brings and how it works please read carefully the information presented in its official site: <a href="http://www.workmeter.com/">www.workmeter.com</a></span></span></span></p><br/><p lang="zxx"><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-family:Arial CE,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:x-small;">Secondly you should let your collegues and clients know what;s going to be your scheduele at least with two weeks before Christmas, so they will not come with demands in the last minute. Before you leave let your clients know who is the person that;s going to replace you during your absence, otherwise you risk being called during the holidays and you will have to do all your Christmas shopping in the last minute and in a non-traditional manner, similar to the people in the video below:</span></span></span></p><br/><p lang="zxx"> </p><br/><p lang="zxx"><span style="color:#00007f;"><span style="font-family:Arial CE,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:x-small;"><span style="text-decoration:underline;">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3L0hZGO94ac</span></span></span></span></p><br/><p lang="zxx"> </p><br/><p lang="zxx"> </p><br/><p lang="zxx"> </p><br/><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-family:Arial CE,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:x-small;">In order to avoid such situations, you can </span></span></span><span style="color:#b80047;"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:x-small;"><strong>1) </strong></span></span></span><span style="color:#b80047;"><span style="font-family:Arial CE,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:x-small;"><strong>update your calendar and note any important event </strong></span></span></span><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-family:Arial CE,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:x-small;">or meeting that you do not want to miss and have to postpone it for later. </span></span></span><br/><br/><span style="color:#b80047;"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:x-small;"><strong>2) Secondly</strong></span></span></span><span style="color:#b80047;"><span style="font-family:Arial CE,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:x-small;"><strong>, if your inbox sometimes grabs you by the neck and suffocates you</strong></span></span></span><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-family:Arial CE,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:x-small;">, don;t you think that during Christmas things will change or improve, actually it;s going to be worse. Advertisments, Christmas greetings, special offers, these are just some of the "buddies" that will keep company to your daily work mails.</span></span></span><br/><p lang="zxx"><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-family:Arial CE,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:x-small;">It is a good idea cleaning your Inbox before and especially after Christmas, so you will start the new year with a fresh inbox and a fresh mind.</span></span></span></p><br/><span style="color:#b80047;"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:x-small;"><strong>3)</strong></span></span></span><span style="color:#b80047;"><span style="font-family:Arial CE,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:x-small;"><strong>Traveling during holidays is not one of the best options</strong></span></span></span><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-family:Arial CE,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:x-small;">, because the airports are stuffier, there isn't a seat to be had, constant announcements, gate changes and delays, just the kind of things you really want to avoid during holidays. If yet is extremely necessarily for you to travel during holidays, prepare yourself for worst case scenarios: keep the airline's reservations office number with you in case your flight is going to be</span></span></span><br/><p lang="zxx"><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-family:Arial CE,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:x-small;">canceled and call the airline, or download from the airline's site, to find out their policy in case of delays, before you buy your plane ticket.</span></span></span></p><br/><span style="color:#b80047;"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:x-small;"><strong>4) </strong></span></span></span><span style="color:#b80047;"><span style="font-family:Arial CE,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:x-small;"><strong>And last, but not least</strong></span></span></span><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-family:Arial CE,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:x-small;">, don;t forget that Christmas is a time to be happy and leave behind all the problems and worries you dealed with during the year, so simply enjoy these holidays with the people you most love</span></span></span><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:x-small;">.</span></span></span><br/><p lang="zxx"> </p><br/><a href="http://workmeter.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/holidayp.jpg"><br/></a>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7665566465524343016.post-13496614728820170842011-01-10T07:43:00.000-08:002012-03-26T08:16:54.380-07:00How to STOP E-mail from killing your productive day<p style="text-align:justify;"><a rel="attachment wp-att-5151" href="http://workmeter.wordpress.com/?attachment_id=5151"><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-5151" title="email vomit" src="http://thestrategyguysite.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/email-vomit.jpg" alt="" width="131" height="124" /></a>You wake up with the perfect plan for the perfect day. This is the day you're going to catch-up & relieve yourself of the terrible stress of coming home each day overwhelmed that you haven't gotten all of your work done.</p><br/><p style="text-align:justify;"><em><strong>Fast-forward to the end of the day</strong></em>; you're driving home utterly dejected at the thought of yet another day of endless e-mail. Another day in which everything you wanted to get done, everything that was important to YOU, was still left to do as the night sky fell on your day.</p><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">Sound familiar? How often do you wish you hadn't opened up your e-mail? This past Friday, <a href="http://workmeter.wordpress.com/2011/01/07/instant-productivity-success-how-to-change-your-life-in-15-minutes-2/">amongst a series of quick tips on productivity</a>, I also wrote about NOT starting your day with e-mail, but rather one significant task that you need to complete.</p><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">Let's face it, after many years of trying, no matter how good you get at providing alternative means for people to communicate, you just can't seem to get away from the tsunami that e-mail often represents to what should have been a perfectly productive day. What makes it worse, is that you are NOT an innocent bystander. By having consciously chosen to open your e-mail first thing in the morning, you have opened up <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandora%27s_box">Pandora's Box</a>.</p><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">And yet again your day will be planned out for you by others, instead of you having minimal control.</p><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">The other day I heard a phrase that stated; "you'll never be promoted for being an excellent e-mail, but you'll surly be fired for not delivering on required goals". So why have you become so addicted to e-mail?</p><br/><br/><h4>Turn push & alerts off - Be purposeful in your activities</h4><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">If a squeaky wheel is consistently in your ear, you're going to stop what you're doing to oil it. Be purposeful & retrieve your e-mails when you're ready to deal with them, especially until you have built up your new e-mail behavior.</p><br/><br/><h4>Plan your e-mail breaks</h4><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">Just like any other part of the day that you want to be in control of, get used to planning your e-mail breaks. That's right, let's call them e-mail "breaks". When you first wake-up, instead of opening your e-mail or checking your Blackberry, kiss the wife, go have a cup of coffee, breakfast, spend time with the kids, & make sure they're set for their new day.</p><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">If you took my previous tip, you reviewed your past day last night & structured the respective new day to be a better one. When you first walk into the office get right down to business & knock-out that first significant task. Today, just for today, schedule yourself no more than 2 x 1 hour breaks to read e-mail.. somewhere around 10am & 4pm.</p><br/><br/><h4>E-mail as a file folder</h4><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">And guess what, if in order to access that work-file you need to access your e-mail, then approach your e-mail like a file folder on your hard drive. Go in & extract ONLY what you need, instead of giving-in to the temptation of reading your e-mails.</p><br/><br/><h4>Filter your e-mail</h4><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">Apply filters so that e-mail from important people, your boss, clients, etc.. automatically goes into separate folders for you to address when you're ready. Avoid going into an unstructured general "Inbox".</p><br/><br/><h4>Hunt & peck your e-mail</h4><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">Don't read your e-mail from top/bottom. Be purposeful & scan the "from" & "subject". Open ONLY those e-mails that are relevant to the work you're performing at-the-moment, or things you know you need to address now.</p><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">Leave casual reading & other distractions that will take you off in a tangent for the coffee, lunch or evening break.</p><br/><br/><h4>Action your e-mail</h4><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">Even if that means re-marking it as "unread" and assigning a task for yourself to complete something more significant. If you can address an e-mail within 1-2 minutes, do it immediately, otherwise trash-it, schedule it for later casual reading or action.</p><br/><br/><h4>Just try it</h4><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">I can hear all of the reasons why none of this will work.. I've heard them all before.</p><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">Can I just ask you to try it for one day? If it seems to work, try it a 2nd day? And if someone gets upset that you took too long to answer their urgent e-mail, was really that urgent? Was it really urgent to YOUR job & deliverables that you had to complete? If so, teach your colleagues to come see you, or ring you when they've got something REALLY urgent.</p><br/><p style="text-align:justify;"><span style="color:#000000;">Guest Blog by <a href="http://es.linkedin.com/in/jcduarte">JC Duarte; The Strategy Guy</a><br/></span></p>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7665566465524343016.post-35689870469767271722011-01-05T10:58:00.000-08:002012-03-26T08:16:54.388-07:00The Productivity Paradox – STOP blaming the Internet!<p style="text-align:justify;"><a rel="attachment wp-att-4557" href="http://workmeter.wordpress.com/?attachment_id=4557"><img class="alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-4557" title="Reflection in the Mirror" src="http://thestrategyguysite.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Reflection-in-the-Mirror-150x150.jpg" alt="" width="150" height="150" /></a>Whilst reading "<a href="http://www.tut.fi/units/tuta/teta/mittaritiimi/julkaisut/internet.pdf">How the Internet Affects Productivity</a>" by Mika Hannula & Antti Lönnqvist, I was compelled to share my outrage at the irresponsible "blame-game" ineffective typical management insists on playing to cover-up their own inefficiency & mismanagement.</p><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">For the record; "<em>the execution of an idea is always more brilliant than the thought</em>", and the Productivity Paradox that so many books & papers have been written on has more to do with the false measurement methods and conceptual misunderstandings applied, than it does looking for someone other then ourselves to blame!</p><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">In this blog post you'll find examples of, and learn how / about;</p><br/><br/><ul style="text-align:justify;"><br/> <li>The Internet is NOT to blame for productivity loss</li><br/> <li>The do-or-die relevance of having a strategic plan</li><br/> <li>The mistake of ignoring critical measurements</li><br/> <li>Productivity is NOT about speed</li><br/></ul><br/><br></br><br/><h4 style="text-align:justify;">Reality Check #1 - The Internet is here to stay!</h4><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">The use of the Internet is NO longer an option! If you haven't figured this out yet, then you might as well find the rock you just crawled out from beneath and quickly get back under it. Better yet, just bury your head in the sand like an ostrich and wait until the next ice-age hits.</p><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">Think about your last purchase for a minute, what's more productive? Placing an add in a magazine, billboard or an intrusive pop-up in a web browser.. or a recommendation from a trusted source? Imagine an online marketplace, such as <a href="http://www.linqia.com/">Linqia</a>, where companies identify, connect and engage with masses of highly targeted consumers participating in online communities and groups. A +30% engagement rate would be proof enough for me to realize that the Internet is The Place to promote my offering instead of old-school printed media.</p><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">When you're looking to wine & dine your sweetheart, or evaluating your next holiday option, do you search on-line before going to the travel agent? That's if you even bother to leave your house & go to the agent in the first place. Who do you trust more? The experiences of your peers as recounted through pictures & stories, or those looking to profit from you booking a picture postcard illusion?</p><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">The issue with the Internet these days is that corporations don't take the time to establish an effective strategy, including the necessary education for you to be effective. You can either spend the rest of the day doing Google searches and be overwhelmed by information overload, or you can be educated & given the narrow focus that will lead you to the promise-land of scalable / highly valuable on-line content.</p><br/><br/><h4 style="text-align:justify;">Reality Check #2 - You HAVE to have a plan!</h4><br/><p style="text-align:justify;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Rohn">Jim Rohn</a> is noted for stating; “<em>If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much</em>.” As in life.. in business! Is there really any difference? If you don't have a plan, better yet.. an effective plan, than I can guarantee you'll soon find yourself on someone else's journey!</p><br/><p style="text-align:justify;"><span style="text-decoration:underline;">1st</span>, don't blame your employees if they're surfing the internet instead of doing "productive" work unless you've thought about the expected outcome (effective = outcome focus) of the tasks they're performing as it relates to your over-all success strategy.</p><br/><p style="text-align:justify;"><span style="text-decoration:underline;">2nd</span>, guarantee your staff understands (have them repeat it back to you) your strategy, how it relates to their tasks, and how their individual contributions will contribute toward your success. That's called the <em>buy-in process</em>, and it's the primary difference between successfully executing on an idea vs. just having a brilliant thought!</p><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">Oh, and if your plan is to block "non-productive" internet sites, such as YouTube, Facebook, etc.. think again.. you better confiscate their smartphones when they walk through the doors in the morning as well. Unless your people are part of your success plan, then it's not a <em>success plan</em> to begin with.</p><br/><br/><h4 style="text-align:justify;">Reality Check #3 - If you can't measure it, you can't achieve it!</h4><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">“In life, as in football, you won’t go far unless you know where the goalposts are.” – Arnold H. Glasgow</p><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">Have you ever driven around in circles because you didn't have a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Positioning_System">GPS System</a>? Well that's about as effective as you'll be if you don't have appropriate measurements of where you are.. where you want to be.. by when.. and in what condition when you get there. There's far too much focus on throwing tools at problems instead of first understanding them. A faster car will only increase the speed at which you drive around in circles!</p><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">The majority of productivity issues I've seen in organizations have absolutely EVERYTHING to do with lack of planning & strategy, and less to do with lacking technology. Technology is a facilitator, and it's also been known to facilitate / speed your rapid decline when you aren't conscious how quickly that hole you've dug yourself into is getting deeper by the second.</p><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">Of the most effective measurement tools I've found to-date to improve productivity has been a little app called <a href="http://web.workmeter.com/control/en/home.htm">WorkMeter</a>. WorkMeter WORKS because it's much more than just about comparing input vs. output. Thinking that productivity is that simple a consequence is just as fool hearted (as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Drucker">Peter Drucker</a> would say) as the single greatest error and deception of our modern accounting system. Which is that PEOPLE are listed in the "liability" column as compared to the "asset" column of corporate balance-sheets.</p><br/><br/><h4 style="text-align:justify;">Reality Check #4 - Productivity is NOT about speed!</h4><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">Have you ever heard the phrase <em>beauty is in the eyes of the beholder</em>? Well, unless you realize that <em>value</em> is to <em>beauty</em> as <em>beholder</em> is to <em>customer</em>, then you'll NEVER be productive. Worse yet, you'll never be effective! Productivity is LESS about how fast you achieve something, and more about how EFFECTIVELY you achieve it.</p><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">Who is your customer? If you're in business, regardless of leadership role, you have both internal & external customers. Internal customers are the colleagues that are co-dependent on you in some form to get their own job done. Whether a colleague awaiting your revision of their concept, a component in a larger over-all process, or the guy in the next cubicle who's mood you influence with your own. External customers are those who see <em>the beauty</em>, and therefore value, in your products.. leading them to purchase more.</p><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">Take the example of a Hollywood screenwriter whose productivity is measured in words typed per minute instead of the quality of the output. What's the goal? To get a script written quickly, or to have an interesting script that an audience is willing to fill a movie house to watch? In the first case, the pace at which it's written counts, not the quality of the screenplay itself. How likely are you to shell out your hard earned cash to go watch this movie? This is a typical example of poor productivity measurement. The effectiveness of the output of a writer contributes to the productivity of the writing process, since the customer finally defines the writer’s unit output. The effectiveness of the text written by the writer is without any doubt noticed by the customer, and the over-ruling measurement of productivity!</p><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">In summary, if you want to have effective productivity.. true productivity, you need</p><br/><br/><ol style="text-align:justify;"><br/> <li>An Effective Plan</li><br/> <li>Employee Buy-in (Momentum, Enthusiasm & Alignment)</li><br/> <li>Understand Your Internal & External Customer's True Needs & Perceptions</li><br/> <li>Measure, Act / Adjust & Measure Again (Incremental Progress Toward a Predefined Outcome)</li><br/> <li>Educate, Acknowledge & Celebrate Success</li><br/> <li>Forget Your preconceived Notion of Productivity / True Productivity = Customer Value Perception</li><br/></ol><br/><br></br><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">How many of these can you CONFIDENTLY "tick-off" as complete or under-control?</p><br/><br/>Guest Blog by <a href="http://es.linkedin.com/in/jcduarte">JC Duarte; The Strategy Guy</a>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7665566465524343016.post-1073175436055927432011-01-04T05:57:00.000-08:002012-03-26T08:16:54.378-07:004 Steps to Boost Productivity & Employee Retention<p style="text-align:justify;"><a rel="attachment wp-att-5105" href="http://workmeter.wordpress.com/?attachment_id=5105"><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-5105" title="Productivity Dollars" src="http://thestrategyguysite.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/Productivity-Dollars1.jpg" alt="" width="97" height="99" /></a>How would you like to boost the productivity in your organization whilst addressing employee retention? How would that impact your bottom line & overall company culture?</p><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">Whilst reading a <a href="http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Boosting_the_productivity_of_knowledge_workers_2671">McKinsey Quarterly</a> document recently, I decided to add some more practical thoughts to the four barriers workers face in their daily interactions.</p><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">Their analysis focuses specifically on Knowledge Workers, which make up more than 40% of the US work force. I was quite surprised to find that they didn't list as a key barrier "distraction", which is the #1 enemy of productivity in any workplace.</p><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">In addressing these 4 barriers, you will bring about greater alignment & cohesion amongst your employees, increasing retention & strengthening company culture.</p><br/><br/><h4 style="text-align:justify;">Step 1; Physical and technical barriers</h4><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">In addition to social media tools, company intranets, <a href="http://www.yammer.com">yammer</a>, etc., create Communities of Practice made up of people who could benefit from one another's advice. Encourage your staff, <span style="text-decoration:underline;">and allocate time</span>, to communicate their experiences and benefits gained through such practice communities. Encourage you team to have virtual & non-virtual lunch breaks with colleagues across disciplines with your organization by getting them outside of the comfort zones.</p><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">Bridge any physical distances through the usage of electronic tools with viedo-conferencing and occasional in-person meetings.</p><br/><br/><h4 style="text-align:justify;">Step 2; Social or cultural barriers</h4><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">Engagement is key to success, so start with your new hire orientation, and then rehire your existing employees all over again. Create a series of case studies by having your team share practical examples that shine on your company Values, Mission, Vision, and how your processes & norms contribute to their integrity. Encourage a culture of knowledge sharing and collaborative problem solving, including these items within your periodic performance reviews and ensure team leaders clearly communicate what's expected, whilst setting an example. Foster & leverage communities of practice which will help your staff be more engaging.</p><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">Communicate & keep all of these successes highly visible! In addition to technology tools like an intranet, hang signs, post bulletin boards, white boards, flip charts, etc. Make it visual!</p><br/><br/><h4 style="text-align:justify;">Step 3; Contextual barriers</h4><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">Rotate employees across teams and or divisions so that they get a wider understanding for what's going on outside of their own silos, and a better comprehension as to what activities they can influence with this added clarity. Create company forums, online through your intranet, or off-line where your staff can share knowledge & experiences across disciplines. Encourage your team to have lunch with a colleague from a new area of your organization on a bi-weekly basis & watch the contextual barriers come down like a house of bricks.</p><br/><br/><h4 style="text-align:justify;">Step 4; The barrier of time</h4><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">Perform an analysis of where people are spending their time. Ensure that job roles & responsibilities are updated, understood & appropriate for <span style="text-decoration:underline;">the results you expect</span> from your staff (teams & individuals). Then quantify the gap between expected activity / results vs. actual activity / results. Take the respective learnings & transition them into new habits.</p><br/><p style="text-align:justify;">How are these barriers impacting your current environment? What steps can you take to start addressing them immediately? Remember, the longest journey starts with a first single step.</p><br/><br/>Guest Blog by <a href="http://es.linkedin.com/in/jcduarte">JC Duarte; The Strategy Guy</a>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0