This month we examine ways to make strategic plans "come alive".
Problem/Question
I was asked recently to be part of a strategic planning session for our department. Since the department is quite large, it isn't possible to include all staff in the process. I think strategic planning is very important, but in past years, all the work put into it seems to have gone to waste. The strategic planning document seems to get put in the back of the drawer, and I suspect that most staff don't even read their copies. Since we put a lot of time and effort into the process, can you suggest any ways that we might make it worthwhile?
Answer
What you describe is probably the norm in organizations that do strategic planning. It is rare that plans of any sort are made to "come alive". To understand why this occurs is to take a step to altering the situation. Strategic planning can be one of the backbones of organizational functioning, serving to: · inform decision-making (eg. what we do, what we don't), · help staff determine both work unit and employee objectives · inform the staff development and personnel functions · form a basis for continuous improvement
One major reason for its failure is that it is often seen as an event, unlinked to anything else. One of the keys is to link it to the many other organizational functions through action, not just talk. If we consider strategic planning as long range planning, work units need to use it as a basis for their own shorter-term operational planning. If the larger department does it's strategic plan once a year, each work unit should be using that plan as the foundation for setting it's own goals and objectives for the upcoming fiscal year.
We use the term cascading to refer to the effects that a meaningful strategic plan can have. The departmental plan informs the divisional or work unit plan, which, in turn affects directly the allocation of resources and objectives for individuals.
The advantage of cascading lies in the use of the unit/individual objective setting process to focus on why the department is there, and to link, through concrete action planning, the departmental plan to the everyday activities of each staff member. Individual managers need to be held accountable for the integration of their own plans with the overall departmental plan. So that is often the best place to start; with those managers.
Many managers have inadequate experience in integrating strategic plans into everyday work. It may be a good idea, prior to the strategic planning process, for all participants to get together to plan out how they will make the plan come alive. While we often think of strategic plans in terms of formal release and distribution, the place where real success takes place is the everyday world. If each manager, in any decision-making conversations with staff, refers to the strategic plan as a guidepost for action, then staff begin to realize that it is not a "dead" document, but one that has practical and real relevance to their everyday worklife.
Here are some specific suggestions:
* Treat the strategic plan like a spider-web, with strands into all aspects of your organization, including budget, human resource development, objective setting and performance management, all decision-making at the everyday level, etc. It is part of a system of management, not a stand-alone piece.
* Use every opportunity to relate whatever is being discussed to the strategic plan. · Do your best to allow sufficient time to do the strategic planning process and do all the pieces. (About once a year we publish a model of integrated strategic/shorter term planning that you will find useful-see next month's newsletter).
* The strategic planning process is essentially a stepped process. That is, it is not something that can be completed in a single one day session. As such it is a good idea to communicate with staff and involve them at every step. At each step, participants go back to those not present, discuss the tentative decisions, and obtain input to bring back to the next planning session.
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Improving Communication -- Tips For Managers
Research indicates that managers spend somewhere between 50% - 80% of their total time communicating in one way or the other. This isn't surprising, since communication is so critical to everything that goes on in an organization. Without effective communication there can be little or no performance management, innovation, understanding of clients, coordination of effort, AND, without effective communication it is difficult to manage the expectations of those who are in a position to make decisions about your fate.
It can also be said that many managers do not communicate well, and do not set an organizational climate where communication within the organization is managed effectively. This isn't surprising, since a manager who communicates ineffectively and does not encourage effective organizational communication is unlikely to hear about it. Poor communication is self-sustaining, because it eliminates an important "feedback loop". Staff are loathe to "communicate" their concerns about communication because they do not perceive the manager as receptive. Both staff and management play out a little dance.
In short, you may be fostering poor communication, and never know it. You may see the symptoms, but unless you are looking carefully, you may not identify your own involvement in the problem. What can you do about it?
Your Role In Communication Improvement
Effective organizational communication, regardless of form, requires three things.
First, all players must have the appropriate skills and understanding to communicate well. Communication is not a simple process, and many people simply do not have the required depth of understanding of communication issues.
Second, effective organizational communication requires a climate or culture that supports effective communication. More specifically, this climate involves trust, openness, reinforcement of good communication practices, and shared responsibility for making communication effective.
Third, effective communication requires attention. It doesn't just happen, but develops as a result of an intentional effort on the part of management and staff. Too often, communication, whether it is good or bad, is taken for granted.
We can define your role in improving communication with respect to each of these. First, if you want to improve communication, you will need to ensure that you and staff have the skills and knowledge necessary to communicate effectively. This may mean formal training is in order, or it may mean that you coach staff and provide feedback so that they can improve.
Second, you play a critical role in fostering and nurturing a climate that is characterized by open communication. Without this climate, all the skills in the world will be wasted.
Finally, you must bring communication to the forefront of organization attention. If you make the effort to improve communication, your staff will recognize that it is important. If you ignore it, so will staff.
Some Specific Tips:
1) Actively solicit feedback about your own communication, and communication within the organization. Ask staff questions like:
* When we talk, are you generally clear about what I am saying?
* Do you think we communicate well around here?
* Have you got any ideas about how we could communicate better?
Consider including these questions (or similar ones) in your performance management process, or staff meetings.
2) Assess your own communication knowledge and understanding
(See self-assessment instrument on Page 5-sorry, not available online).
3) Working with your staff, define how you should communicate in the organization. Develop consensus regarding:
* a) How disagreements should be handled.
* b) How horizontal communication should work (staff to staff).
* c) How vertical communication should work (manager to staff, staff to manager).
* d) What information should be available and when.
Once consensus is reached, support the achievement of these goals through positive reinforcement and coaching.
4) Look at the impact of the structure of your organization and how it impacts on communication. Indirect communication (communication that is transferred from person to person) is notorious for causing problems. Look at increasing direct communication where the person with the message to send does it directly with the receiver.
5) Learn about, and use active listening techniques. This will set a tone and contribute to a positive communication climate. If you don't know what active listening is, find out. It's important.
6) Consider undertaking a communications audit. (see sidebar).
Conclusion
We only have space to give you a few tips, and communication is a very complex process. We suggest that you take the communication self-assessment checklist on the following page, to assess your own understanding and application of communication principles.
If you would like to increase awareness and attention to communication, consider copying the self-assessment checklist and distribute it to staff.
Suggest that they complete it for their own use, and follow it up by discussing organizational communication in a staff meeting.
Be aware that exploring communication patterns and effectiveness can bring to the surface a number of resentments and perceptions. If you aren't prepared to deal with these, it is best to look to an outside consultant.
It can also be said that many managers do not communicate well, and do not set an organizational climate where communication within the organization is managed effectively. This isn't surprising, since a manager who communicates ineffectively and does not encourage effective organizational communication is unlikely to hear about it. Poor communication is self-sustaining, because it eliminates an important "feedback loop". Staff are loathe to "communicate" their concerns about communication because they do not perceive the manager as receptive. Both staff and management play out a little dance.
In short, you may be fostering poor communication, and never know it. You may see the symptoms, but unless you are looking carefully, you may not identify your own involvement in the problem. What can you do about it?
Your Role In Communication Improvement
Effective organizational communication, regardless of form, requires three things.
First, all players must have the appropriate skills and understanding to communicate well. Communication is not a simple process, and many people simply do not have the required depth of understanding of communication issues.
Second, effective organizational communication requires a climate or culture that supports effective communication. More specifically, this climate involves trust, openness, reinforcement of good communication practices, and shared responsibility for making communication effective.
Third, effective communication requires attention. It doesn't just happen, but develops as a result of an intentional effort on the part of management and staff. Too often, communication, whether it is good or bad, is taken for granted.
We can define your role in improving communication with respect to each of these. First, if you want to improve communication, you will need to ensure that you and staff have the skills and knowledge necessary to communicate effectively. This may mean formal training is in order, or it may mean that you coach staff and provide feedback so that they can improve.
Second, you play a critical role in fostering and nurturing a climate that is characterized by open communication. Without this climate, all the skills in the world will be wasted.
Finally, you must bring communication to the forefront of organization attention. If you make the effort to improve communication, your staff will recognize that it is important. If you ignore it, so will staff.
Some Specific Tips:
1) Actively solicit feedback about your own communication, and communication within the organization. Ask staff questions like:
* When we talk, are you generally clear about what I am saying?
* Do you think we communicate well around here?
* Have you got any ideas about how we could communicate better?
Consider including these questions (or similar ones) in your performance management process, or staff meetings.
2) Assess your own communication knowledge and understanding
(See self-assessment instrument on Page 5-sorry, not available online).
3) Working with your staff, define how you should communicate in the organization. Develop consensus regarding:
* a) How disagreements should be handled.
* b) How horizontal communication should work (staff to staff).
* c) How vertical communication should work (manager to staff, staff to manager).
* d) What information should be available and when.
Once consensus is reached, support the achievement of these goals through positive reinforcement and coaching.
4) Look at the impact of the structure of your organization and how it impacts on communication. Indirect communication (communication that is transferred from person to person) is notorious for causing problems. Look at increasing direct communication where the person with the message to send does it directly with the receiver.
5) Learn about, and use active listening techniques. This will set a tone and contribute to a positive communication climate. If you don't know what active listening is, find out. It's important.
6) Consider undertaking a communications audit. (see sidebar).
Conclusion
We only have space to give you a few tips, and communication is a very complex process. We suggest that you take the communication self-assessment checklist on the following page, to assess your own understanding and application of communication principles.
If you would like to increase awareness and attention to communication, consider copying the self-assessment checklist and distribute it to staff.
Suggest that they complete it for their own use, and follow it up by discussing organizational communication in a staff meeting.
Be aware that exploring communication patterns and effectiveness can bring to the surface a number of resentments and perceptions. If you aren't prepared to deal with these, it is best to look to an outside consultant.
Monday, February 1, 2010
Business History
History of business & finance. The concepts of business and finance have been an integral facet of human activity since the development of the earliest civilizations. The earliest business transactions were based on a system of trade known as the barter system. In the barter system, prior to the emergence of systems of currency, goods were exchanged for other goods that were deemed to be of similar value. After the development of currency, goods were exchanged or sold for an agreed upon value in the form of money. The goods and the currency were thus interchangeable, so when goods were not plentiful, replacements could be readily purchased by using currency. The links included herein relate to the history and the human experience of business and finance.
Saturday, January 30, 2010
The Importance of Leadership In Managing Change
Front and Center - Leadership Critical To Managing Change
When change is imposed (as in downsizing scenarios), clearly the most important determinant of "getting through the swamp", is the ability of leadership to...well, lead. The literature on the subject indicates that the nature of the change is secondary to the perceptions that employees have regarding the ability, competence, and credibility of senior and middle management.
If you are to manage change effectively, you need to be aware that there are three distinct times zones where leadership is important. We can call these Preparing For the Journey, Slogging Through The Swamp, and After Arrival. We will look more carefully at each of these.
The Role of Leadership
In an organization where there is faith in the abilities of formal leaders, employees will look towards the leaders for a number of things. During drastic change times, employees will expect effective and sensible planning, confident and effective decision-making, and regular, complete communication that is timely. Also during these times of change, employees will perceive leadership as supportive, concerned and committed to their welfare, while at the same time recognizing that tough decisions need to be made. The best way to summarize is that there is a climate of trust between leader and the rest of the team. The existence of this trust, brings hope for better times in the future, and that makes coping with drastic change much easier.
In organizations characterized by poor leadership, employees expect nothing positive. In a climate of distrust, employees learn that leaders will act in indecipherable ways and in ways that do not seem to be in anyone's best interests. Poor leadership means an absence of hope, which, if allowed to go on for too long, results in an organization becoming completely nonfunctioning. The organization must deal with the practical impact of unpleasant change, but more importantly, must labor under the weight of employees who have given up, have no faith in the system or in the ability of leaders to turn the organization around.
Leadership before, during and after change implementation is THE key to getting through the swamp. Unfortunately, if haven't established a track record of effective leadership, by the time you have to deal with difficult changes, it may be too late.
Preparing For The Journey
It would be a mistake to assume that preparing for the journey takes place only after the destination has been defined or chosen. When we talk about preparing for the change journey, we are talking about leading in a way that lays the foundation or groundwork for ANY changes that may occur in the future. Preparing is about building resources, by building healthy organizations in the first place. Much like healthy people, who are better able to cope with infection or disease than unhealthy people, organization that are healthy in the first place are better able to deal with change.
As a leader you need to establish credibility and a track record of effective decision making, so that there is trust in your ability to figure out what is necessary to bring the organization through.
Slogging Through The Swamp
Leaders play a critical role during change implementation, the period from the announcement of change through the installation of the change. During this middle period the organization is the most unstable, characterized by confusion, fear, loss of direction, reduced productivity, and lack of clarity about direction and mandate. It can be a period of emotionalism, with employees grieving for what is lost, and initially unable to look to the future.
During this period, effective leaders need to focus on two things. First, the feelings and confusion of employees must be acknowledged and validated. Second, the leader must work with employees to begin creating a new vision of the altered workplace, and helping employees to understand the direction of the future. Focusing only on feelings, may result in wallowing. That is why it is necessary to begin the movement into the new ways or situations. Focusing only on the new vision may result in the perception that the leader is out of touch, cold and uncaring. A key part of leadership in this phase is knowing when to focus on the pain, and when to focus on building and moving into the future.
After Arrival
In a sense you never completely arrive, but here we are talking about the period where the initial instability of massive change has been reduced. People have become less emotional, and more stable, and with effective leadership during the previous phases, are now more open to locking in to the new directions, mandate and ways of doing things.
This is an ideal time for leaders to introduce positive new change, such as examination of unwieldy procedures or Total Quality Management. The critical thing here is that leaders must now offer hope that the organization is working towards being better, by solving problems and improving the quality of work life. While the new vision of the organization may have begun while people were slogging through the swamp, this is the time to complete the process, and make sure that people buy into it, and understand their roles in this new organization.
Conclusion
Playing a leadership role in the three phases is not easy. Not only do you have a responsibility to lead, but as an employee yourself, you have to deal with your own reactions to the change, and your role in it. However, if you are ineffective in leading change, you will bear a very heavy personal load. Since you are accountable for the performance of your unit, you will have to deal with the ongoing loss of productivity that can result from poorly managed change, not to mention the potential impact on your own enjoyment of your job.
When change is imposed (as in downsizing scenarios), clearly the most important determinant of "getting through the swamp", is the ability of leadership to...well, lead. The literature on the subject indicates that the nature of the change is secondary to the perceptions that employees have regarding the ability, competence, and credibility of senior and middle management.
If you are to manage change effectively, you need to be aware that there are three distinct times zones where leadership is important. We can call these Preparing For the Journey, Slogging Through The Swamp, and After Arrival. We will look more carefully at each of these.
The Role of Leadership
In an organization where there is faith in the abilities of formal leaders, employees will look towards the leaders for a number of things. During drastic change times, employees will expect effective and sensible planning, confident and effective decision-making, and regular, complete communication that is timely. Also during these times of change, employees will perceive leadership as supportive, concerned and committed to their welfare, while at the same time recognizing that tough decisions need to be made. The best way to summarize is that there is a climate of trust between leader and the rest of the team. The existence of this trust, brings hope for better times in the future, and that makes coping with drastic change much easier.
In organizations characterized by poor leadership, employees expect nothing positive. In a climate of distrust, employees learn that leaders will act in indecipherable ways and in ways that do not seem to be in anyone's best interests. Poor leadership means an absence of hope, which, if allowed to go on for too long, results in an organization becoming completely nonfunctioning. The organization must deal with the practical impact of unpleasant change, but more importantly, must labor under the weight of employees who have given up, have no faith in the system or in the ability of leaders to turn the organization around.
Leadership before, during and after change implementation is THE key to getting through the swamp. Unfortunately, if haven't established a track record of effective leadership, by the time you have to deal with difficult changes, it may be too late.
Preparing For The Journey
It would be a mistake to assume that preparing for the journey takes place only after the destination has been defined or chosen. When we talk about preparing for the change journey, we are talking about leading in a way that lays the foundation or groundwork for ANY changes that may occur in the future. Preparing is about building resources, by building healthy organizations in the first place. Much like healthy people, who are better able to cope with infection or disease than unhealthy people, organization that are healthy in the first place are better able to deal with change.
As a leader you need to establish credibility and a track record of effective decision making, so that there is trust in your ability to figure out what is necessary to bring the organization through.
Slogging Through The Swamp
Leaders play a critical role during change implementation, the period from the announcement of change through the installation of the change. During this middle period the organization is the most unstable, characterized by confusion, fear, loss of direction, reduced productivity, and lack of clarity about direction and mandate. It can be a period of emotionalism, with employees grieving for what is lost, and initially unable to look to the future.
During this period, effective leaders need to focus on two things. First, the feelings and confusion of employees must be acknowledged and validated. Second, the leader must work with employees to begin creating a new vision of the altered workplace, and helping employees to understand the direction of the future. Focusing only on feelings, may result in wallowing. That is why it is necessary to begin the movement into the new ways or situations. Focusing only on the new vision may result in the perception that the leader is out of touch, cold and uncaring. A key part of leadership in this phase is knowing when to focus on the pain, and when to focus on building and moving into the future.
After Arrival
In a sense you never completely arrive, but here we are talking about the period where the initial instability of massive change has been reduced. People have become less emotional, and more stable, and with effective leadership during the previous phases, are now more open to locking in to the new directions, mandate and ways of doing things.
This is an ideal time for leaders to introduce positive new change, such as examination of unwieldy procedures or Total Quality Management. The critical thing here is that leaders must now offer hope that the organization is working towards being better, by solving problems and improving the quality of work life. While the new vision of the organization may have begun while people were slogging through the swamp, this is the time to complete the process, and make sure that people buy into it, and understand their roles in this new organization.
Conclusion
Playing a leadership role in the three phases is not easy. Not only do you have a responsibility to lead, but as an employee yourself, you have to deal with your own reactions to the change, and your role in it. However, if you are ineffective in leading change, you will bear a very heavy personal load. Since you are accountable for the performance of your unit, you will have to deal with the ongoing loss of productivity that can result from poorly managed change, not to mention the potential impact on your own enjoyment of your job.
Leadership
The Responsive Manager/Leader
You Can Preview our help card on Responsive Managers by clicking here.
Also, for more help and information on leadership, advice, articles, leadership tools, and leadership experts, visit The Leadership Development Resource Center.
The Responsiveness Paradigm outlined elsewhere in this newsletter is applicable at a number of levels. For example, it applies to organizations in general, and the ability of the organization to respond to the needs of customers, staff and other stakeholders (eg. politicians, etc). It applies to non-supervisory staff, and their ability to respond to the needs of their managers, customers and co-workers. This month we are going to look at responsiveness as it applied to managers, leaders and/or supervisors.
Influence Of The Responsive Manager
The responsive manager tends to succeed by building bonds of respect and trust with those around him/her. Staff respond positively to responsive managers; they work more diligently, work to help the manager and the organization succeed, and will go the extra mile when necessary. That is because responsive managers act consistent with the principle that their jobs are to help their staff do their jobs. So, a basic inter-dependence emerges based on behaviours that show concern, respect and trust.
Responsive managers also influence those above them in the hierarchy. Because responsive managers have the ability to read and act upon the needs of their "bosses", they are perceived as helpful and reliable, or in a simple way, very useful. This allows them to get the "ear" of people above them in the system, and further helps get things done when needed.
Contrast this with the limited influence of the UNresponsive manager. The unresponsive manager is restricted in influence because those around him/her do not respect or trust them to look out for their welfare. Influence is more limited to the use of power coming from the formal position, and fear, a motivational component that is hard to sustain over time. Unresponsive managers tend to be perceived as self-interested, or at best uninterested in the needs of those around them. They also tend to be perceived by those above them as less reliable and less useful due to their focus on empire building, organization protection, and self-interest, rather than getting done what needs to be done.
How Do They Do It?
Responsive managers apply a number of specific skills and abilities to the task (as outlined generally in The Responsiveness Paradigm article). Above all, they appear to be "withit". Withitness
has a number of components. First withit managers are able to put aside their concerns to listen to (and appear to listen to) those around them. As a result, they know what is going on, and know what is both said, and said between the lines. They have the knack of appearing to know what people need even if those needs are not expressed directly.
However, knowing what is going on, and identifying the needs of those around them is not sufficient. The responsive manager also acts upon that knowledge, attempting to help fulfil the needs of employees, superiors, etc. Responsive managers wield influence to solve problems for those around them, often before even being asked.
Here's an example:
I was responsible for automating an office system in a government department. As happens sometimes, the Management Information Systems people were not keen on our going our own way on the project, despite the fact that they had indicated they could not do it for us in the near future. As a result their cooperation (needed for the project) was patchy. As team leader, I faced a number of roadblocks, despite the fact that our Assistant Deputy Minister wanted to see this project come to fruition. I regularly reported back to our Director, outlining progress and roadblocks. Every time I communicated roadblocks to the Director, they were removed within a short time, despite the fact that I did not request direct action. In addition, the Director advised and counselled me on how to deal with the "systems people" so I could have maximum impact. Despite the roadblocks, the project was completed on time and was very successful, much to the chagrin of some of the systems people, who I think were hoping we would fail.
This is a simple story, but one full of meaning. In this situation the Director was able to identify the project leader's needs with respect to the project, listening carefully, and identifying actions she could take to "smooth the path". Not only was the Director able to remove obstacles and fulfil the need of the project leader, but the Director responded on a deeper level, helping to teach the Project Leader methods of becoming more effective, fulfilling yet another need. All of this was assumed to be the proper role of the Director, and was done without expressing all of the needs specifically or explicitly.
We can contrast this with the unresponsiveness of the MIS people. They lectured, they fussed, they predicted dire consequences, rather than offering consistent, responsive help. They focused not on responding to the needs of their clients, but on some other factors having to do with control, and their own needs. Eventually, their lack of responsiveness resulted in the very thing they did not want; loss of control of the project. As a result of this project their overall status in the organization suffered, simply because at both an organization and individual level they were seen as barriers, rather than useful.
Let's look at one more example.
An employee had been working for a government branch for about a year, having moved to the city as a new resident. In a casual conversation, the supervisor noted that the employee wasn't looking at his best, and asked how he was feeling. The employee explained that he hadn't been feeling well lately, and sounded very tired and overwhelmed. The supervisor determined that the staff member didn't have a local family doctor, asked if he would like the supervisor to arrange an appointment, and proceeded to do so immediately. The problem turned out to be a minor one.
In this example we see again the ideas of "withitness" and responsiveness. The supervisor was able to identify that the staff member was in need of some help, despite the fact that the staff member did not state this explicitly. Note that the supervisor didn't pressure the staff member to go to the doctor, but identified needs, checked them out, and then acted upon them. In this case, help consisted of direct, helpful action.
These two examples are the stuff of loyalty and commitment. They are remembered years and years after the fact, and continue to extend the influence of managers. In this sense responsiveness is a critical component of management success, because it allows managers and supervisors to get things done, for the benefit of all players.
In the limited space we have, we have attempted to give you a feel of what responsiveness means. You might want to extend your own understanding by considering some of the following questions.
CONCLUSION:
1. If you are a manager or supervisor, how can you modify your own behaviours so that you become and are perceived as more responsive by a) your staff, b) your boss and c) your customers?
2. Again, if you are a manager or supervisor what is your definition of the "responsive employee"? Can you identify your "favourite employees", and consider how they are responsive to you? Our bet is you will find that your most valued employees are responsive.
3. If you are non-management, what would you need to do to be perceived as more responsive by the people around you?
You Can Preview our help card on Responsive Managers by clicking here.
Also, for more help and information on leadership, advice, articles, leadership tools, and leadership experts, visit The Leadership Development Resource Center.
The Responsiveness Paradigm outlined elsewhere in this newsletter is applicable at a number of levels. For example, it applies to organizations in general, and the ability of the organization to respond to the needs of customers, staff and other stakeholders (eg. politicians, etc). It applies to non-supervisory staff, and their ability to respond to the needs of their managers, customers and co-workers. This month we are going to look at responsiveness as it applied to managers, leaders and/or supervisors.
Influence Of The Responsive Manager
The responsive manager tends to succeed by building bonds of respect and trust with those around him/her. Staff respond positively to responsive managers; they work more diligently, work to help the manager and the organization succeed, and will go the extra mile when necessary. That is because responsive managers act consistent with the principle that their jobs are to help their staff do their jobs. So, a basic inter-dependence emerges based on behaviours that show concern, respect and trust.
Responsive managers also influence those above them in the hierarchy. Because responsive managers have the ability to read and act upon the needs of their "bosses", they are perceived as helpful and reliable, or in a simple way, very useful. This allows them to get the "ear" of people above them in the system, and further helps get things done when needed.
Contrast this with the limited influence of the UNresponsive manager. The unresponsive manager is restricted in influence because those around him/her do not respect or trust them to look out for their welfare. Influence is more limited to the use of power coming from the formal position, and fear, a motivational component that is hard to sustain over time. Unresponsive managers tend to be perceived as self-interested, or at best uninterested in the needs of those around them. They also tend to be perceived by those above them as less reliable and less useful due to their focus on empire building, organization protection, and self-interest, rather than getting done what needs to be done.
How Do They Do It?
Responsive managers apply a number of specific skills and abilities to the task (as outlined generally in The Responsiveness Paradigm article). Above all, they appear to be "withit". Withitness
has a number of components. First withit managers are able to put aside their concerns to listen to (and appear to listen to) those around them. As a result, they know what is going on, and know what is both said, and said between the lines. They have the knack of appearing to know what people need even if those needs are not expressed directly.
However, knowing what is going on, and identifying the needs of those around them is not sufficient. The responsive manager also acts upon that knowledge, attempting to help fulfil the needs of employees, superiors, etc. Responsive managers wield influence to solve problems for those around them, often before even being asked.
Here's an example:
I was responsible for automating an office system in a government department. As happens sometimes, the Management Information Systems people were not keen on our going our own way on the project, despite the fact that they had indicated they could not do it for us in the near future. As a result their cooperation (needed for the project) was patchy. As team leader, I faced a number of roadblocks, despite the fact that our Assistant Deputy Minister wanted to see this project come to fruition. I regularly reported back to our Director, outlining progress and roadblocks. Every time I communicated roadblocks to the Director, they were removed within a short time, despite the fact that I did not request direct action. In addition, the Director advised and counselled me on how to deal with the "systems people" so I could have maximum impact. Despite the roadblocks, the project was completed on time and was very successful, much to the chagrin of some of the systems people, who I think were hoping we would fail.
This is a simple story, but one full of meaning. In this situation the Director was able to identify the project leader's needs with respect to the project, listening carefully, and identifying actions she could take to "smooth the path". Not only was the Director able to remove obstacles and fulfil the need of the project leader, but the Director responded on a deeper level, helping to teach the Project Leader methods of becoming more effective, fulfilling yet another need. All of this was assumed to be the proper role of the Director, and was done without expressing all of the needs specifically or explicitly.
We can contrast this with the unresponsiveness of the MIS people. They lectured, they fussed, they predicted dire consequences, rather than offering consistent, responsive help. They focused not on responding to the needs of their clients, but on some other factors having to do with control, and their own needs. Eventually, their lack of responsiveness resulted in the very thing they did not want; loss of control of the project. As a result of this project their overall status in the organization suffered, simply because at both an organization and individual level they were seen as barriers, rather than useful.
Let's look at one more example.
An employee had been working for a government branch for about a year, having moved to the city as a new resident. In a casual conversation, the supervisor noted that the employee wasn't looking at his best, and asked how he was feeling. The employee explained that he hadn't been feeling well lately, and sounded very tired and overwhelmed. The supervisor determined that the staff member didn't have a local family doctor, asked if he would like the supervisor to arrange an appointment, and proceeded to do so immediately. The problem turned out to be a minor one.
In this example we see again the ideas of "withitness" and responsiveness. The supervisor was able to identify that the staff member was in need of some help, despite the fact that the staff member did not state this explicitly. Note that the supervisor didn't pressure the staff member to go to the doctor, but identified needs, checked them out, and then acted upon them. In this case, help consisted of direct, helpful action.
These two examples are the stuff of loyalty and commitment. They are remembered years and years after the fact, and continue to extend the influence of managers. In this sense responsiveness is a critical component of management success, because it allows managers and supervisors to get things done, for the benefit of all players.
In the limited space we have, we have attempted to give you a feel of what responsiveness means. You might want to extend your own understanding by considering some of the following questions.
CONCLUSION:
1. If you are a manager or supervisor, how can you modify your own behaviours so that you become and are perceived as more responsive by a) your staff, b) your boss and c) your customers?
2. Again, if you are a manager or supervisor what is your definition of the "responsive employee"? Can you identify your "favourite employees", and consider how they are responsive to you? Our bet is you will find that your most valued employees are responsive.
3. If you are non-management, what would you need to do to be perceived as more responsive by the people around you?
Monday, January 25, 2010
Tips for large scale business process outsourcing contracts
For some years now, the "sexy" part of the outsourcing industry has been very much business process outsourcing (BPO), covering such diverse areas as HR, finance and accounts, logistics, back office administration and even legal services.
in contrast, IT outsourcing has been increasingly seen as more of a commodity service, and as such is more mature and probably better understood as a result.
However, the reality is that just as businesses began to fully appreciate how much they were dependent upon their IT systems once they had been outsourced, so it is clear that the majority of BPO services are similarly dependent upon the IT systems which deliver them. What then are the implications of this for a typical BPO contract?
Establishing the service levels
A frequent challenge in BPO deals, is working out what kind of contractual service levels should be set. Unlike IT outsourcing deals (where internal departments will frequently have been measuring their performance in terms of such things as fix times and levels of availability, for some time, as part and parcel of good practice), customers can sometimes struggle to find metrics which are genuinely reflective of the "quality" of the BPO services, or to provide details of what the relevant levels of performance were before the BPO contract was signed.
However, it will frequently be the case that many of the types of service levels commonly seen in IT outsourcing deals (eg availability of particular applications/systems, times to resolve particular problems or to provide workarounds for them) will still appear, if only because the delivery of the relevant BPO services is dependant upon the integrity of the underlying IT systems and networks.
In any outsourcing deal, it will be essential for the customer to ensure that it has the right to make available to its supplier any particular materials or software which the supplier will, in turn, use in its provision of services to the customer.
Many forms of software licence now routinely provide that the scope of use extends to the licensed customer and any entity which it utilises to provide outsourced services to it, provided that such use is then limited to the provision of such outsourced services.
However, such provisions are less common outside of the "core" kinds of applications which the IT department is used to deal with, and may especially be lacking in relation to types of licences or contracts where outsourcing was not foreseen as such a possibility (including in particular therefore many forms of non IT business processes).
Particular care will accordingly be required in order to assess how many existing suppliers/licensors will need to be approached in order to give their specific consent to the use of their licensed products for the purposes of the envisaged BPO project.
Future licence rights
Many BPO services are provided from the supplier's own systems/facilities. For example, an outsourced HR payroll service may be hosted and run from a supplier's shared service centre. Whilst this may be simpler from a customer perspective and help ensure enhanced service levels, it raises difficult issues surrounding the customer's continuing licence rights (if any) to the system (and any modifications made to it on its behalf) following the end of the BPO contract.
By that point, the customer may have become largely dependent upon the supplier, and will at the very least need some time in order to migrate across to a replacement supplier, and for them to put in place a comparable system.
Some level of transitional services and continuing licence rights to access and utilise the original supplier's systems and software are accordingly highly likely to be required (albeit that the suppliers will inevitably be keen to ensure that such licence rights to no wider or longer than is absolutely necessary, given the fact that some of the real commercial differentiators for their service may well be the underlying software products which they have developed, and which they will accordingly not want their competitors to have access to).
DR and business continuity
In most large scale IT outsourcing contracts, the supplier's DR and business continuity obligations will be a key part of the contract, on the basis that the supplier will be expected to ensure that it has in place the necessary infrastructure to be able to reinstate the services in the event of a disaster event.
Whilst this may still be the case with BPO arrangements, one frequently finds that the customer itself is the most effective and convenient "fall back" option, and so may itself take on the BCP/DR arrangements.
If this is the case, the IT department will need to ensure that it arranges for regular checks and tests of its BCP plan, involving not just its own staff and systems but also those which interface with (or would need to replace) those of the BPO supplier.
Conclusion
IT issues and related services remain at the core of most BPO projects. Great care must accordingly be taken to make sure that the same issues that would be considered in the context of an IT outsourcing deal are assessed for likely relevance, and dealt with accordingly in the eventual BPO contract.
The customer's IT department must likewise be recognised as a key stakeholder in the overall process (much as the various business units should have had a major voice in connection with any proposed outsourcing of the IT function!), and consulted accordingly.
in contrast, IT outsourcing has been increasingly seen as more of a commodity service, and as such is more mature and probably better understood as a result.
However, the reality is that just as businesses began to fully appreciate how much they were dependent upon their IT systems once they had been outsourced, so it is clear that the majority of BPO services are similarly dependent upon the IT systems which deliver them. What then are the implications of this for a typical BPO contract?
Establishing the service levels
A frequent challenge in BPO deals, is working out what kind of contractual service levels should be set. Unlike IT outsourcing deals (where internal departments will frequently have been measuring their performance in terms of such things as fix times and levels of availability, for some time, as part and parcel of good practice), customers can sometimes struggle to find metrics which are genuinely reflective of the "quality" of the BPO services, or to provide details of what the relevant levels of performance were before the BPO contract was signed.
However, it will frequently be the case that many of the types of service levels commonly seen in IT outsourcing deals (eg availability of particular applications/systems, times to resolve particular problems or to provide workarounds for them) will still appear, if only because the delivery of the relevant BPO services is dependant upon the integrity of the underlying IT systems and networks.
In any outsourcing deal, it will be essential for the customer to ensure that it has the right to make available to its supplier any particular materials or software which the supplier will, in turn, use in its provision of services to the customer.
Many forms of software licence now routinely provide that the scope of use extends to the licensed customer and any entity which it utilises to provide outsourced services to it, provided that such use is then limited to the provision of such outsourced services.
However, such provisions are less common outside of the "core" kinds of applications which the IT department is used to deal with, and may especially be lacking in relation to types of licences or contracts where outsourcing was not foreseen as such a possibility (including in particular therefore many forms of non IT business processes).
Particular care will accordingly be required in order to assess how many existing suppliers/licensors will need to be approached in order to give their specific consent to the use of their licensed products for the purposes of the envisaged BPO project.
Future licence rights
Many BPO services are provided from the supplier's own systems/facilities. For example, an outsourced HR payroll service may be hosted and run from a supplier's shared service centre. Whilst this may be simpler from a customer perspective and help ensure enhanced service levels, it raises difficult issues surrounding the customer's continuing licence rights (if any) to the system (and any modifications made to it on its behalf) following the end of the BPO contract.
By that point, the customer may have become largely dependent upon the supplier, and will at the very least need some time in order to migrate across to a replacement supplier, and for them to put in place a comparable system.
Some level of transitional services and continuing licence rights to access and utilise the original supplier's systems and software are accordingly highly likely to be required (albeit that the suppliers will inevitably be keen to ensure that such licence rights to no wider or longer than is absolutely necessary, given the fact that some of the real commercial differentiators for their service may well be the underlying software products which they have developed, and which they will accordingly not want their competitors to have access to).
DR and business continuity
In most large scale IT outsourcing contracts, the supplier's DR and business continuity obligations will be a key part of the contract, on the basis that the supplier will be expected to ensure that it has in place the necessary infrastructure to be able to reinstate the services in the event of a disaster event.
Whilst this may still be the case with BPO arrangements, one frequently finds that the customer itself is the most effective and convenient "fall back" option, and so may itself take on the BCP/DR arrangements.
If this is the case, the IT department will need to ensure that it arranges for regular checks and tests of its BCP plan, involving not just its own staff and systems but also those which interface with (or would need to replace) those of the BPO supplier.
Conclusion
IT issues and related services remain at the core of most BPO projects. Great care must accordingly be taken to make sure that the same issues that would be considered in the context of an IT outsourcing deal are assessed for likely relevance, and dealt with accordingly in the eventual BPO contract.
The customer's IT department must likewise be recognised as a key stakeholder in the overall process (much as the various business units should have had a major voice in connection with any proposed outsourcing of the IT function!), and consulted accordingly.
Managing Large-scale Business Intelligence Solutions
Business intelligence is a cornerstone of every successful enterprise. Business-critical processes rely on business intelligence environments: demand-planning applications, marketing campaigns, personalized Web site content, and more are driven by knowledge obtained from business intelligence systems.
Access to business intelligence has gradually grown from tens of users to hundreds and even thousands, including fully automated processes that drive business processes. The largest business intelligence databases have grown from about 5 TB in 1998 to almost 30 TB in 2003 (as independently verified by Winter Corporation). Databases may well run into the hundreds of terabytes. Managing these large database environments, and guaranteeing their availability and performance with shrinking budgets, presents several challenges for IT.
We explore those demands, and suggest approaches to tackle them, in this article.
The Problem
Business intelligence is about using data to obtain competitive advantage. The more data you have, the better your decisions. You may also want to include all possible dependencies in order to make the right decisions. As a result, there is a natural tendency to consolidate data in one place.
Consolidation results in:
* More users accessing the (single) data set
* Queries accessing more data and hence using more resources in order to make good, qualified decisions
If you don't carefully manage this multi-dimensional growth, you may end up with an overloaded system that benefits no one.
The Challenges
From a manageability perspective, every IT department faces three major challenges:
Performance is key to the end users' experience when they use their business intelligence tools or applications to run queries. How long does it take to retrieve results?
Scalability is key to supporting ever-growing data volumes as well as growing numbers of users running complex queries. Your end-user population must be served appropriately despite growing data volumes and increased system demand.
Availability is also key, since more and more businesscritical processes rely on consolidated information in data warehouses. Availability of business intelligence depends on reliability of infrastructure components (servers, networks, etc.) and, of course, access to information stored within data warehouses.
In every business intelligence deployment, these three requirements go hand in hand. Every IT organization managing a large-scale business intelligence solution must ensure that all three requirements are met while keeping one important factor in mind: cost. Despite increasing data volumes and a growing end-user population, IT organizations don't get additional budget to address the requirements.
This article explains how organizations can implement today's technologies to address the requirements for a large-scale business intelligence deployment with a flat (or even reduced) IT budget.
By executing complex queries and workloads as multiple parallel processes (as opposed to a single process), query execution, data loading, and other database operations can be executed much more rapidly.
Performance
At a high level, there are two ways to address performance requirements in a large-scale business intelligence implementation:
* Add resources to the individual queries or data loads so they can finish more quickly.
* Be smart about the amount of resources used to satisfy the queries or perform the data loads.
Add Resources: Parallel Execution
Parallelism is the ability to apply multiple CPU and I/O resources to the execution of a single command. In a parallel query, the data is distributed across multiple CPUs that perform computations independently before the data set is combined to perform any remaining operations and be presented to the end user.
In a single-server environment, parallelism is implemented on multiple CPUs in the same server, each contributing to the execution of the command. In a multi-server clustered environment, multiple CPUs across multiple servers in the cluster can contribute to the execution of the command.
Today's database technology can automatically and dynamically set the degree of parallelism for a query, depending on query complexity, table size, hardware configuration, and the active system load. By executing complex queries and workloads as multiple parallel processes (as opposed to a single process), query execution, data loading, and other database operations can be executed much more rapidly.
Be Smart: Query Optimization
uery optimization techniques are crucial for good performance. Common optimization techniques include the use of indexes and summary tables. Queries that scan or access massive amounts of data to produce a query result can use summary tables and indexes to reduce the total resource consumption. Taking advantage of summary tables and indexes can save computation resources as well as I/O throughput.
Databases use internal statistics, such as the number of rows in a table and the estimated number of rows a query would retrieve, to choose the execution strategy. As a result, queries can be dynamically rewritten if the database optimizer decides that using summary tables and indexes is more efficient than retrieving the data directly from tables.
Be Smart: Partitioning
Partitioning large tables and indexes provides several benefits for query performance. Consider, for example, a table that contains sales data for the last three years, and assume the data has been partitioned by month. A query that retrieves sales figures for September 2004 will access only one out of 36 partitions, with a performance improvement of up to 36 times. Also, note that it does not matter whether the table contains three years of data versus five or 10 years—the query to retrieve September 2004 sales data will only access the partition that contains the September 2004 data.
Partitioning is extremely complementary to parallel processing. When a database assigns resources to queries, it takes partitions into account. Queries will run faster when separate processes access separate partitions.
Scalability and performance enhancements include running queries against multiple tables that share the same partition attributes in the partition definition. The “join” condition between tables will eliminate partitions, resulting in less data being accessed and faster query performance. Typically, different query requirements will result in using different partitioning mechanisms to ensure more granular access to individual partitions for fastest query performance. Among the common partitioning techniques: range and hash algorithms ensure an equal distribution of data across different partitions.
Be Smart: Data Compression
Data compression is a readily available technology that can address cost-effective storage of large data volumes online. Databases enable data to be stored in a compressed format to reduce data volume. The compression comes at a small performance cost, but the hit is only taken when the data is loaded in a compressed format. Query retrieval actually benefits from the data being compressed because less data needs to be read from the disks. In any business intelligence application, it’s always disk I/O that slows performance.
Data compression works hand in hand with partitioning. Data in business intelligence environments typically remains active for a certain period, after which it does not change any more. For example, a retailer may allow a 30- day return period after the purchase, after which the records will not change. Once data is “frozen,” it can be compressed and made available for query-only purposes. A time-based partitioning scheme helps in identifying the data set that can be compressed.
Be Smart: Cut Costs
In a typical business intelligence system, active and less-active data can be distinguished. Costs can be reduced if less-active data is stored on low-cost, typically lower-performing storage systems. Active (and typically more-recent) data can still sit on more expensive, highperformance storage to satisfy end-user queries. As data becomes less active, it can move to low-cost storage.
It’s also wise to consider compressing the data on low-cost storage to reduce the I/O bandwidth requirements when the data is still accessed.
If the less-active data is identified using the partitioning scheme, the partition can be used as a unit of data for movement and compression. For example, if a monthly partition scheme is used and data older than a year is considered less active, then every month it can be moved and compressed to a one-month partition.
Scalability
Scalability in a business intelligence environment covers two distinct but related aspects:
* Number of users
* Data volume
Number of Users
Database systems can handle hundreds or thousands of concurrent users. Database technology has progressed in several areas to make sure these users get all the resources they need when they need them.
Scale up or scale out. The terms "scale up" and "scale out" typically describe the differences between a single-server environment and a clustered system.
In a single-server environment, the system can be scaled by adding more CPUs or replacing single-core CPUs with double-core CPUs. This strategy is called scaling up. Even though the same approach can be used in a clustered environment, adding servers to a cluster to increase computing resources is also an option. This strategy is called scaling out. Both scaling up and scaling out are common strategies in business intelligence environments.
The limits of the scale-up approach are determined by the hardware limits of the system: the number of CPUs, number of dual-core CPUs, and how much memory fits in the server until it must be replaced. Most business intelligence systems have not outgrown the hardware restrictions of today¡¯s biggest servers, but large servers (as well as components for these servers) are expensive.
Clustered environments involve more—and different—hardware components. In general, the limits in a clustered environment are more software- than hardware-related. For example, how well does the system scale when nodes are added? How many servers can be included in a cluster?
Today's database technology is definitely ahead of the current requirements for business intelligence environments. A clustered database can provide a cost-effective infrastructure for large-scale business intelligence implementations.
Automatic memory management. Good memory management is key to supporting large numbers of users running concurrent, complex queries, often in conjunction with data loading. Database engines require memory to perform query and loading operations, and every query or load process needs memory to execute. Traditionally, DBAs would tune memory parameters and allocate memory for database operations and memory for every process that executes inside the database. This isn't the best approach because some processes require more memory than others. Besides, some users or processes may be more important than others.
Today, databases have built-in techniques to allocate memory to processes dynamically based on the system workload. DBAs define coarse limits for the maximum amount of memory that the engine is allowed to consume, and the database guarantees optimal execution within these boundaries. The result is more efficient memory consumption and better service (i.e., faster response times) to end users running business intelligence queries.
Resource management. DBAs need tools and utilities to manage the relative importance of users and processes. Resource managers can indicate that certain users or processes have to be restricted in their resource consumption for other processes to be serviced appropriately.
Resource managers also provide query governors to monitor ongoing activities in databases. Limits can be set to particular queries; if these queries go beyond the limits, an error is returned. Resource management tools should be applied to control memory allocations as well as CPU and I/O resources, enabling DBAs to automatically put systems resources where they are most needed.
Data Volume
Today’s database technology can easily handle almost any imaginable data volume. The restrictions are not in data size, but rather in the type of analysis performed. From a data-size perspective, DBAs want to make sure they do not waste time managing the data volume.
Data management for a large business intelligence system is not really different from data management for any other system. As a general rule, data should be striped across many disks in order to get the throughput needed for queries. Storage software (or even database software) can take care of storage striping across disks. Data can automatically be rebalanced when disks are added (or removed). DBAs only need to tell the system that a disk or logical volume should be added to the storage pool and the software automatically does the rebalancing.
Data compression is also an important factor to keep the storage costs under control. Data that is not frequently accessed can take full advantage of the available storage because it does not have the same throughput requirements that frequently accessed data has. Frequently accessed data should sit on many disks in order to get sufficient throughput.
Backup and recovery. Data size also poses a challenge for backup and recovery strategies. Organizations want to make sure they can recover from a disaster, but they don’t want to backup their full 100+ TB business intelligence database. Consider the amount of resources necessary to perform a full system backup of that size within a reasonable time!
Currently, database backup and recovery utilities must only make a full database backup once. From that point, the utility will track the incremental changes so that it never needs to take a full backup again. A restore operation would restore the initial full backup and roll forward any changes.
Availability
Availability in the context of a business intelligence system has two dimensions. First, the system must be available to end users. Second, data must be available when users want to access it.
System Availability
Clustering technologies have always been praised for the high availability achieved through server redundancy. If a server in a cluster fails, other servers take over the workload, and with transparent application fail-over capabilities, the impact to end users is minimized.
The impact of a server failure in a cluster is proportional to the number of servers in the cluster. If one server in a two-node cluster fails, then 50 percent of the computing power is lost. However, if one server in an eight-node cluster fails, only 12.5 percent of the computing resources are lost.
High-availability solutions also include complete fail-over sites. Every new commercial database contains utilities to set up a fail-over site using data replication. Fail-over can be used in single-server environments to increase system availability. However, this is generally not the most cost-effective approach. More recently, multi-node business intelligence systems on low-cost components running Linux have been implemented, proving that highly available clusters can be implemented at an extremely attractive cost.
Data Availability
Data availability is key to a successful business intelligence system. Business decisions must be made that take into account all relevant parameters.
Clusters: Shared-Disk versus Shared Nothing. At a high level, there are two common storage architectures for clustered databases:
* Shared disk: in a shared-disk environment all servers can access the full data set.
* Shared nothing: in a shared-nothing environment, individual servers bear responsibility for a particular data slice. A hash-based distribution is applied to the data to achieve an equal data distribution across all servers. Note that queries in a shared-nothing architecture have minimal parallelism equal to the number of servers owning the data being accessed by the query.
Overall, system availability benefits from a cluster of servers. If one server fails, the remaining server(s) continue to serve queries and other operations. In a shared-disk architecture, all that is lost is the computing resources that the failed server provided. In a sharednothing architecture, however, the data that the server was responsible for can be lost. Depending on the query, the full data set requested may not be accessible.
Shared-nothing architectures typically do have an answer to high availability for the entire data set. However, the disk size would have to be doubled in order to implement such a solution.
Disk Failure. Disks (and any other component) may fail in a business intelligence infrastructure. As more disk space (perhaps in low-cost storage units) is used, the likelihood of a failure increases. It's important that the data be safe even if that happens; the system should continue to run without interruption.
The most common approach to handling disk corruption is by using a data-mirroring technique. Obviously, a data mirror requires additional disk space, but generally one needs disks to satisfy throughput requirements. When a disk turns out to be bad, it must be taken offline, data must be rebalanced across the remaining disks, and the system should continue to operate without interruption. Today's storage-vendor and database software can handle such a scenario.
Data Volume. Sheer data volume is a challenge for a large business intelligence implementation. However, business decisions benefit from the availability of large amounts of data. Trend analysis may not be useful if only one year of data is available; but if it can analyze trends based on five or more years worth of experiences, it may suddenly be able to derive valuable information.
Data compression, the ability to implement low-cost storage solutions, and partition-based data management all enable organizations to give users access to more data.
Backup and Recovery. In the ideal world, systems never break. Clustering eliminates server failure as a common cause of unplanned downtime, but this can still happen during power outages or natural disasters. The reality is that systems do fail, and businesses need to be prepared. They must implement a backup and recovery strategy that efficiently manages protection and restoration of business intelligence solutions.
Because of the sheer volume of data, this task deserves careful attention—something database vendors know. For the successful management of large-scale business intelligence backup and recovery processes, the IT department must consider:
* Large business intelligence systems should not be taken offline unnecessarily. The system has to remain available while the backup is running, even though the backup should run during less active hours. Online logging capabilities can track smaller changes that occur during the backup cycle so a complete environment can be restored from the last backup, and a point-in-time recovery can restore changes that occurred since the last data load. Note that some of the data loads are reproducible, so data loads may not explicitly write logs to enable a point-in-time recovery. One would restore the backup and re-run the data load process to reach the same situation.
* Make partitions of the database read-only. Data in business intelligence environments typically remains active for some time, after which it does not change. Unchanged data only needs to be backed up once. Backup utilities take the read-only property into account during a backup-and-restore scenario.
* In conjunction with read-only capabilities, data compression reduces the volume of data to be written to backup devices.
In clustered environments, backups can be managed by assigning servers in the cluster to perform backups, while other servers remain busy servicing the needs of end users. Whichever strategy or best practice is being implemented, be aware that to backup and recover tens of terabytes is a much greater challenge than that of the (smaller volume) OLTP systems.
Cost-Saving Opportunities
Business intelligence solutions are valuable to businesses. However, an organization must avoid business intelligence solutions that become prohibitively expensive and must be scaled down or allow the business intelligence efforts to be eliminated altogether.
This article has explored several approaches to reducing expenses:
* Implement clusters on low-cost components
* Use low-cost storage solutions for less active data
* Implement data compression to reduce the data volume
* Take advantage of the infrastructure's self-managing capabilities
In addition, there are cost-saving opportunities that are less obvious at first glance but may well be feasible in the mid- to long-term. The opportunities below reduce the number of components to manage:
* Take advantage of the database as an ETL engine. Database technologies have advanced. While a separate ETL engine was the obvious choice a number of years ago, you may be able to leverage the database engine and eliminate the entire environment to manage and maintain covering the ETL requirements.
* Databases have become smarter and smarter, and provide sophisticated analytical capabilities. Why not use these instead of extracting data into a separate environment in order to perform analytic calculations or mine the data?
* Take advantage of database technology to manage data storage, high availability, and backups.
Conclusion
Managing large-scale business intelligence solutions can be a difficult and challenging task. Business intelligence environments have three major requirements: performance, scalability, and availability. Nothing is impossible if there is an unrestricted budget; but realistically, IT departments still face cost restrictions.
When planning large-scale business intelligence deployments, size matters. Think carefully about available database-related technologies capable of meeting performance, scalability, and availability requirements.
Access to business intelligence has gradually grown from tens of users to hundreds and even thousands, including fully automated processes that drive business processes. The largest business intelligence databases have grown from about 5 TB in 1998 to almost 30 TB in 2003 (as independently verified by Winter Corporation). Databases may well run into the hundreds of terabytes. Managing these large database environments, and guaranteeing their availability and performance with shrinking budgets, presents several challenges for IT.
We explore those demands, and suggest approaches to tackle them, in this article.
The Problem
Business intelligence is about using data to obtain competitive advantage. The more data you have, the better your decisions. You may also want to include all possible dependencies in order to make the right decisions. As a result, there is a natural tendency to consolidate data in one place.
Consolidation results in:
* More users accessing the (single) data set
* Queries accessing more data and hence using more resources in order to make good, qualified decisions
If you don't carefully manage this multi-dimensional growth, you may end up with an overloaded system that benefits no one.
The Challenges
From a manageability perspective, every IT department faces three major challenges:
Performance is key to the end users' experience when they use their business intelligence tools or applications to run queries. How long does it take to retrieve results?
Scalability is key to supporting ever-growing data volumes as well as growing numbers of users running complex queries. Your end-user population must be served appropriately despite growing data volumes and increased system demand.
Availability is also key, since more and more businesscritical processes rely on consolidated information in data warehouses. Availability of business intelligence depends on reliability of infrastructure components (servers, networks, etc.) and, of course, access to information stored within data warehouses.
In every business intelligence deployment, these three requirements go hand in hand. Every IT organization managing a large-scale business intelligence solution must ensure that all three requirements are met while keeping one important factor in mind: cost. Despite increasing data volumes and a growing end-user population, IT organizations don't get additional budget to address the requirements.
This article explains how organizations can implement today's technologies to address the requirements for a large-scale business intelligence deployment with a flat (or even reduced) IT budget.
By executing complex queries and workloads as multiple parallel processes (as opposed to a single process), query execution, data loading, and other database operations can be executed much more rapidly.
Performance
At a high level, there are two ways to address performance requirements in a large-scale business intelligence implementation:
* Add resources to the individual queries or data loads so they can finish more quickly.
* Be smart about the amount of resources used to satisfy the queries or perform the data loads.
Add Resources: Parallel Execution
Parallelism is the ability to apply multiple CPU and I/O resources to the execution of a single command. In a parallel query, the data is distributed across multiple CPUs that perform computations independently before the data set is combined to perform any remaining operations and be presented to the end user.
In a single-server environment, parallelism is implemented on multiple CPUs in the same server, each contributing to the execution of the command. In a multi-server clustered environment, multiple CPUs across multiple servers in the cluster can contribute to the execution of the command.
Today's database technology can automatically and dynamically set the degree of parallelism for a query, depending on query complexity, table size, hardware configuration, and the active system load. By executing complex queries and workloads as multiple parallel processes (as opposed to a single process), query execution, data loading, and other database operations can be executed much more rapidly.
Be Smart: Query Optimization
uery optimization techniques are crucial for good performance. Common optimization techniques include the use of indexes and summary tables. Queries that scan or access massive amounts of data to produce a query result can use summary tables and indexes to reduce the total resource consumption. Taking advantage of summary tables and indexes can save computation resources as well as I/O throughput.
Databases use internal statistics, such as the number of rows in a table and the estimated number of rows a query would retrieve, to choose the execution strategy. As a result, queries can be dynamically rewritten if the database optimizer decides that using summary tables and indexes is more efficient than retrieving the data directly from tables.
Be Smart: Partitioning
Partitioning large tables and indexes provides several benefits for query performance. Consider, for example, a table that contains sales data for the last three years, and assume the data has been partitioned by month. A query that retrieves sales figures for September 2004 will access only one out of 36 partitions, with a performance improvement of up to 36 times. Also, note that it does not matter whether the table contains three years of data versus five or 10 years—the query to retrieve September 2004 sales data will only access the partition that contains the September 2004 data.
Partitioning is extremely complementary to parallel processing. When a database assigns resources to queries, it takes partitions into account. Queries will run faster when separate processes access separate partitions.
Scalability and performance enhancements include running queries against multiple tables that share the same partition attributes in the partition definition. The “join” condition between tables will eliminate partitions, resulting in less data being accessed and faster query performance. Typically, different query requirements will result in using different partitioning mechanisms to ensure more granular access to individual partitions for fastest query performance. Among the common partitioning techniques: range and hash algorithms ensure an equal distribution of data across different partitions.
Be Smart: Data Compression
Data compression is a readily available technology that can address cost-effective storage of large data volumes online. Databases enable data to be stored in a compressed format to reduce data volume. The compression comes at a small performance cost, but the hit is only taken when the data is loaded in a compressed format. Query retrieval actually benefits from the data being compressed because less data needs to be read from the disks. In any business intelligence application, it’s always disk I/O that slows performance.
Data compression works hand in hand with partitioning. Data in business intelligence environments typically remains active for a certain period, after which it does not change any more. For example, a retailer may allow a 30- day return period after the purchase, after which the records will not change. Once data is “frozen,” it can be compressed and made available for query-only purposes. A time-based partitioning scheme helps in identifying the data set that can be compressed.
Be Smart: Cut Costs
In a typical business intelligence system, active and less-active data can be distinguished. Costs can be reduced if less-active data is stored on low-cost, typically lower-performing storage systems. Active (and typically more-recent) data can still sit on more expensive, highperformance storage to satisfy end-user queries. As data becomes less active, it can move to low-cost storage.
It’s also wise to consider compressing the data on low-cost storage to reduce the I/O bandwidth requirements when the data is still accessed.
If the less-active data is identified using the partitioning scheme, the partition can be used as a unit of data for movement and compression. For example, if a monthly partition scheme is used and data older than a year is considered less active, then every month it can be moved and compressed to a one-month partition.
Scalability
Scalability in a business intelligence environment covers two distinct but related aspects:
* Number of users
* Data volume
Number of Users
Database systems can handle hundreds or thousands of concurrent users. Database technology has progressed in several areas to make sure these users get all the resources they need when they need them.
Scale up or scale out. The terms "scale up" and "scale out" typically describe the differences between a single-server environment and a clustered system.
In a single-server environment, the system can be scaled by adding more CPUs or replacing single-core CPUs with double-core CPUs. This strategy is called scaling up. Even though the same approach can be used in a clustered environment, adding servers to a cluster to increase computing resources is also an option. This strategy is called scaling out. Both scaling up and scaling out are common strategies in business intelligence environments.
The limits of the scale-up approach are determined by the hardware limits of the system: the number of CPUs, number of dual-core CPUs, and how much memory fits in the server until it must be replaced. Most business intelligence systems have not outgrown the hardware restrictions of today¡¯s biggest servers, but large servers (as well as components for these servers) are expensive.
Clustered environments involve more—and different—hardware components. In general, the limits in a clustered environment are more software- than hardware-related. For example, how well does the system scale when nodes are added? How many servers can be included in a cluster?
Today's database technology is definitely ahead of the current requirements for business intelligence environments. A clustered database can provide a cost-effective infrastructure for large-scale business intelligence implementations.
Automatic memory management. Good memory management is key to supporting large numbers of users running concurrent, complex queries, often in conjunction with data loading. Database engines require memory to perform query and loading operations, and every query or load process needs memory to execute. Traditionally, DBAs would tune memory parameters and allocate memory for database operations and memory for every process that executes inside the database. This isn't the best approach because some processes require more memory than others. Besides, some users or processes may be more important than others.
Today, databases have built-in techniques to allocate memory to processes dynamically based on the system workload. DBAs define coarse limits for the maximum amount of memory that the engine is allowed to consume, and the database guarantees optimal execution within these boundaries. The result is more efficient memory consumption and better service (i.e., faster response times) to end users running business intelligence queries.
Resource management. DBAs need tools and utilities to manage the relative importance of users and processes. Resource managers can indicate that certain users or processes have to be restricted in their resource consumption for other processes to be serviced appropriately.
Resource managers also provide query governors to monitor ongoing activities in databases. Limits can be set to particular queries; if these queries go beyond the limits, an error is returned. Resource management tools should be applied to control memory allocations as well as CPU and I/O resources, enabling DBAs to automatically put systems resources where they are most needed.
Data Volume
Today’s database technology can easily handle almost any imaginable data volume. The restrictions are not in data size, but rather in the type of analysis performed. From a data-size perspective, DBAs want to make sure they do not waste time managing the data volume.
Data management for a large business intelligence system is not really different from data management for any other system. As a general rule, data should be striped across many disks in order to get the throughput needed for queries. Storage software (or even database software) can take care of storage striping across disks. Data can automatically be rebalanced when disks are added (or removed). DBAs only need to tell the system that a disk or logical volume should be added to the storage pool and the software automatically does the rebalancing.
Data compression is also an important factor to keep the storage costs under control. Data that is not frequently accessed can take full advantage of the available storage because it does not have the same throughput requirements that frequently accessed data has. Frequently accessed data should sit on many disks in order to get sufficient throughput.
Backup and recovery. Data size also poses a challenge for backup and recovery strategies. Organizations want to make sure they can recover from a disaster, but they don’t want to backup their full 100+ TB business intelligence database. Consider the amount of resources necessary to perform a full system backup of that size within a reasonable time!
Currently, database backup and recovery utilities must only make a full database backup once. From that point, the utility will track the incremental changes so that it never needs to take a full backup again. A restore operation would restore the initial full backup and roll forward any changes.
Availability
Availability in the context of a business intelligence system has two dimensions. First, the system must be available to end users. Second, data must be available when users want to access it.
System Availability
Clustering technologies have always been praised for the high availability achieved through server redundancy. If a server in a cluster fails, other servers take over the workload, and with transparent application fail-over capabilities, the impact to end users is minimized.
The impact of a server failure in a cluster is proportional to the number of servers in the cluster. If one server in a two-node cluster fails, then 50 percent of the computing power is lost. However, if one server in an eight-node cluster fails, only 12.5 percent of the computing resources are lost.
High-availability solutions also include complete fail-over sites. Every new commercial database contains utilities to set up a fail-over site using data replication. Fail-over can be used in single-server environments to increase system availability. However, this is generally not the most cost-effective approach. More recently, multi-node business intelligence systems on low-cost components running Linux have been implemented, proving that highly available clusters can be implemented at an extremely attractive cost.
Data Availability
Data availability is key to a successful business intelligence system. Business decisions must be made that take into account all relevant parameters.
Clusters: Shared-Disk versus Shared Nothing. At a high level, there are two common storage architectures for clustered databases:
* Shared disk: in a shared-disk environment all servers can access the full data set.
* Shared nothing: in a shared-nothing environment, individual servers bear responsibility for a particular data slice. A hash-based distribution is applied to the data to achieve an equal data distribution across all servers. Note that queries in a shared-nothing architecture have minimal parallelism equal to the number of servers owning the data being accessed by the query.
Overall, system availability benefits from a cluster of servers. If one server fails, the remaining server(s) continue to serve queries and other operations. In a shared-disk architecture, all that is lost is the computing resources that the failed server provided. In a sharednothing architecture, however, the data that the server was responsible for can be lost. Depending on the query, the full data set requested may not be accessible.
Shared-nothing architectures typically do have an answer to high availability for the entire data set. However, the disk size would have to be doubled in order to implement such a solution.
Disk Failure. Disks (and any other component) may fail in a business intelligence infrastructure. As more disk space (perhaps in low-cost storage units) is used, the likelihood of a failure increases. It's important that the data be safe even if that happens; the system should continue to run without interruption.
The most common approach to handling disk corruption is by using a data-mirroring technique. Obviously, a data mirror requires additional disk space, but generally one needs disks to satisfy throughput requirements. When a disk turns out to be bad, it must be taken offline, data must be rebalanced across the remaining disks, and the system should continue to operate without interruption. Today's storage-vendor and database software can handle such a scenario.
Data Volume. Sheer data volume is a challenge for a large business intelligence implementation. However, business decisions benefit from the availability of large amounts of data. Trend analysis may not be useful if only one year of data is available; but if it can analyze trends based on five or more years worth of experiences, it may suddenly be able to derive valuable information.
Data compression, the ability to implement low-cost storage solutions, and partition-based data management all enable organizations to give users access to more data.
Backup and Recovery. In the ideal world, systems never break. Clustering eliminates server failure as a common cause of unplanned downtime, but this can still happen during power outages or natural disasters. The reality is that systems do fail, and businesses need to be prepared. They must implement a backup and recovery strategy that efficiently manages protection and restoration of business intelligence solutions.
Because of the sheer volume of data, this task deserves careful attention—something database vendors know. For the successful management of large-scale business intelligence backup and recovery processes, the IT department must consider:
* Large business intelligence systems should not be taken offline unnecessarily. The system has to remain available while the backup is running, even though the backup should run during less active hours. Online logging capabilities can track smaller changes that occur during the backup cycle so a complete environment can be restored from the last backup, and a point-in-time recovery can restore changes that occurred since the last data load. Note that some of the data loads are reproducible, so data loads may not explicitly write logs to enable a point-in-time recovery. One would restore the backup and re-run the data load process to reach the same situation.
* Make partitions of the database read-only. Data in business intelligence environments typically remains active for some time, after which it does not change. Unchanged data only needs to be backed up once. Backup utilities take the read-only property into account during a backup-and-restore scenario.
* In conjunction with read-only capabilities, data compression reduces the volume of data to be written to backup devices.
In clustered environments, backups can be managed by assigning servers in the cluster to perform backups, while other servers remain busy servicing the needs of end users. Whichever strategy or best practice is being implemented, be aware that to backup and recover tens of terabytes is a much greater challenge than that of the (smaller volume) OLTP systems.
Cost-Saving Opportunities
Business intelligence solutions are valuable to businesses. However, an organization must avoid business intelligence solutions that become prohibitively expensive and must be scaled down or allow the business intelligence efforts to be eliminated altogether.
This article has explored several approaches to reducing expenses:
* Implement clusters on low-cost components
* Use low-cost storage solutions for less active data
* Implement data compression to reduce the data volume
* Take advantage of the infrastructure's self-managing capabilities
In addition, there are cost-saving opportunities that are less obvious at first glance but may well be feasible in the mid- to long-term. The opportunities below reduce the number of components to manage:
* Take advantage of the database as an ETL engine. Database technologies have advanced. While a separate ETL engine was the obvious choice a number of years ago, you may be able to leverage the database engine and eliminate the entire environment to manage and maintain covering the ETL requirements.
* Databases have become smarter and smarter, and provide sophisticated analytical capabilities. Why not use these instead of extracting data into a separate environment in order to perform analytic calculations or mine the data?
* Take advantage of database technology to manage data storage, high availability, and backups.
Conclusion
Managing large-scale business intelligence solutions can be a difficult and challenging task. Business intelligence environments have three major requirements: performance, scalability, and availability. Nothing is impossible if there is an unrestricted budget; but realistically, IT departments still face cost restrictions.
When planning large-scale business intelligence deployments, size matters. Think carefully about available database-related technologies capable of meeting performance, scalability, and availability requirements.
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Success in a Sales Career
Effective Communication
Working Towards a Better World Through Better Communication Skills, Interpersonal Relationships and Personal Growth
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* About Hodu.com
* Meet Azriel
Success in a Sales Career: Is This Book Ahead Of Its Time?
Posted by Azriel Winnett in July 8th 2008 under: business communication, business ethics, customer service, marketing Tags: business, customer relations, marketing
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Are you looking for some simple steps to improve your sales techniques and increase your personal profit? Well, if I were working in sales, or training for a career in that field, I would probably tell you: “Yes, sir, that’s exactly what I want!” Especially if I weren’t doing too well up to this point.
A recently published book-with-a-difference kicks off with the above question. And certainly, it’s the kind of opener you would except, seeing that the volume is billed on its front cover as “The Fundamental Guide to Achieving Extraordinary Sales and Sustaining Loyal Customers.”
But that question is immediately followed by a sentence that brings you back to reality: “Sorry we’re not about to let you play that small.”
The title and sub-title already give you a clue why not: The Trusted Advocate: Accelerate Success With Authenticity and Integrity. The books authors, John Mehrmann and Mitchell Simon, insist that the way we are accustomed to define success is entirely illusory. Many of their readers will start off highly skeptical of that thesis, but doubts will be quickly dispelled as the authors’ highly readable analysis of the inseparable relationship between success, on the one hand, and the twin concepts of authenticity and integrity on the other, unfolds.
It’s more than a pity that the authors (or anyone else) didn’t write and publish this book many years ago. Its fresh – almost revolutionary – approach to its topic is decades overdue. One could say with much justification that this is a work ahead of its times.
Mehrmann and Simon make it easy for us to internalize what we have read as we are gently provoked to apply the knowledge to our own individual situations. It seems to me that “individual situations” should encompass whatever we are doing with our time, both in our professional and private lives, for here are workable ideas relevant to a far wider circle than that of sales professionals in the narrow sense alone.
Why? Because, in effect we are all salespeople. At times we need to “sell” the ideas and principles we strongly believe in, or ask our boss for a raise in salary or better working conditions, or even to persuade a friend or fellow worker to desist from a bad habit that’s disturbing us. I would even say that the recipient or beneficiary of a sales transaction, not only the initiator, can be called a sales person. After all, when we need a product or service, we want to negotiate the best deal for ourselves among all the suppliers available.
Working Towards a Better World Through Better Communication Skills, Interpersonal Relationships and Personal Growth
* Home
* About Hodu.com
* Meet Azriel
Success in a Sales Career: Is This Book Ahead Of Its Time?
Posted by Azriel Winnett in July 8th 2008 under: business communication, business ethics, customer service, marketing Tags: business, customer relations, marketing
No Comment
Quantcast
Are you looking for some simple steps to improve your sales techniques and increase your personal profit? Well, if I were working in sales, or training for a career in that field, I would probably tell you: “Yes, sir, that’s exactly what I want!” Especially if I weren’t doing too well up to this point.
A recently published book-with-a-difference kicks off with the above question. And certainly, it’s the kind of opener you would except, seeing that the volume is billed on its front cover as “The Fundamental Guide to Achieving Extraordinary Sales and Sustaining Loyal Customers.”
But that question is immediately followed by a sentence that brings you back to reality: “Sorry we’re not about to let you play that small.”
The title and sub-title already give you a clue why not: The Trusted Advocate: Accelerate Success With Authenticity and Integrity. The books authors, John Mehrmann and Mitchell Simon, insist that the way we are accustomed to define success is entirely illusory. Many of their readers will start off highly skeptical of that thesis, but doubts will be quickly dispelled as the authors’ highly readable analysis of the inseparable relationship between success, on the one hand, and the twin concepts of authenticity and integrity on the other, unfolds.
It’s more than a pity that the authors (or anyone else) didn’t write and publish this book many years ago. Its fresh – almost revolutionary – approach to its topic is decades overdue. One could say with much justification that this is a work ahead of its times.
Mehrmann and Simon make it easy for us to internalize what we have read as we are gently provoked to apply the knowledge to our own individual situations. It seems to me that “individual situations” should encompass whatever we are doing with our time, both in our professional and private lives, for here are workable ideas relevant to a far wider circle than that of sales professionals in the narrow sense alone.
Why? Because, in effect we are all salespeople. At times we need to “sell” the ideas and principles we strongly believe in, or ask our boss for a raise in salary or better working conditions, or even to persuade a friend or fellow worker to desist from a bad habit that’s disturbing us. I would even say that the recipient or beneficiary of a sales transaction, not only the initiator, can be called a sales person. After all, when we need a product or service, we want to negotiate the best deal for ourselves among all the suppliers available.
Responding to Angry Customers
Writing about people who work in the customer service industry, site contributor Andy Hanselman points out that its often easier to stick to a prepared script than to think and use your initiative.
In other words, whenever you’re confronted with a query or a complaint that has the slightest smell of some similar case that you have handled sometime in the past, the automatic pilot in your brain immediately takes over. Without giving the matter a second thought (you don’t want to die of over-exercise, do you?), you churn out, parrot-like, the same response that you gave on countless previous occasions.
And of course, since you’ve temporarily disabled an otherwise very nimble brain, you don’t take into account that there might be certain critical differences in this case. This could have unfortunate consequences, as Andy explains.
On the other hand, the best of customer service people know that sometimes the brain just shuts down automatically, and it’s not because of apathy, neglect, or any conscious decision on your part.
This happens when get a call or a visit from an irate customer who claims to be hopping mad (and backs up his claim with every inch of his body), because your product or service isn’t worth tuppence, you sold it to him under false pretenses, you and your company are a bunch of swindlers, or whatever.
Now, if you do manage to keep reasonably calm when this sort of thing happens, we do have some excellent tips to help you come out tops in such a situation.
But very often, it’s not quite so simple. Somehow, you perceive of the irate customer’s vicious assault as a personal attack on your integrity. Your emotions take over the show. You feel so hurt that your just can’t think straight. Your brain shuts down. The temptation to return fire with fire is overwhelming. You might give as good as you get, return rudeness with rudeness, or just walk away or slam the telephone receiver down.
In other words, whenever you’re confronted with a query or a complaint that has the slightest smell of some similar case that you have handled sometime in the past, the automatic pilot in your brain immediately takes over. Without giving the matter a second thought (you don’t want to die of over-exercise, do you?), you churn out, parrot-like, the same response that you gave on countless previous occasions.
And of course, since you’ve temporarily disabled an otherwise very nimble brain, you don’t take into account that there might be certain critical differences in this case. This could have unfortunate consequences, as Andy explains.
On the other hand, the best of customer service people know that sometimes the brain just shuts down automatically, and it’s not because of apathy, neglect, or any conscious decision on your part.
This happens when get a call or a visit from an irate customer who claims to be hopping mad (and backs up his claim with every inch of his body), because your product or service isn’t worth tuppence, you sold it to him under false pretenses, you and your company are a bunch of swindlers, or whatever.
Now, if you do manage to keep reasonably calm when this sort of thing happens, we do have some excellent tips to help you come out tops in such a situation.
But very often, it’s not quite so simple. Somehow, you perceive of the irate customer’s vicious assault as a personal attack on your integrity. Your emotions take over the show. You feel so hurt that your just can’t think straight. Your brain shuts down. The temptation to return fire with fire is overwhelming. You might give as good as you get, return rudeness with rudeness, or just walk away or slam the telephone receiver down.
How Corporate Internal Communicators Can Impact Customer Relations
As one who appreciates the infinite value of good health, I don’t believe whoever invented Coca-Cola did a favor to the human race. But I take my proverbial hat off to the Coke employee in this little anecdote related and commented upon by Angela Sinickas of Sinickas Communications, Inc.
A woman tried to buy a Coke from a vending machine, but it malfunctioned and swallowed some of her money. By a happy coincidence, the worker from Coca-Cola who refills the machines showed up at that moment. Hearing her story, he apologized, returned her money and offered her a Coke for free. Praiseworthy in itself, but there’s more.
The woman insisted on paying for her drink, but took the opportunity to express her shock at how much one had to pay for a bottle of Coke nowadays. The worker commiserated with her about how high prices were, but explained in the nicest way just how much the higher price of oil affected the cost of his product, from the oil used to make the plastic bottle to transportation costs. He mentioned specific percentages and dollar figures. He quoted how low Coke’s profit margin actually was on that bottle she’d just purchased.
A good ending, but how did he know so much?
So how did that potentially negative encounter with the Coca-Cola brand end? The customer didn’t walk away believing that tomorrow she would be paying less for Coke than she did today, but she certainly left with a far more positive feeling both for the brand and for the way her concerns had been addressed. And that, after all, is what good customer service is all about!
But how did the vendor maintenance man, who presumably ranked pretty low in the corporate pecking order, happen to be so knowledgeable on the intricacies of product costing? One must assume, points out Ms. Sinickas, that he was appropriately briefed , whether on a formal or informal basis, by someone inthe company who served as an internal communicator. And the successful imparting of that knowledge requires a careful definition of goals followed by meticulous planning and preparation.
In Sinickas’ words: “Especially in difficult financial times, the more we communicators can do to help our employees learn what they need to know in order to interact more positively with customers, the more we demonstrate our own value to the bottom line. Let’s be sure we actually measure that ultimate behavioral impact we have, not just whether our employees heard our messages.”
A woman tried to buy a Coke from a vending machine, but it malfunctioned and swallowed some of her money. By a happy coincidence, the worker from Coca-Cola who refills the machines showed up at that moment. Hearing her story, he apologized, returned her money and offered her a Coke for free. Praiseworthy in itself, but there’s more.
The woman insisted on paying for her drink, but took the opportunity to express her shock at how much one had to pay for a bottle of Coke nowadays. The worker commiserated with her about how high prices were, but explained in the nicest way just how much the higher price of oil affected the cost of his product, from the oil used to make the plastic bottle to transportation costs. He mentioned specific percentages and dollar figures. He quoted how low Coke’s profit margin actually was on that bottle she’d just purchased.
A good ending, but how did he know so much?
So how did that potentially negative encounter with the Coca-Cola brand end? The customer didn’t walk away believing that tomorrow she would be paying less for Coke than she did today, but she certainly left with a far more positive feeling both for the brand and for the way her concerns had been addressed. And that, after all, is what good customer service is all about!
But how did the vendor maintenance man, who presumably ranked pretty low in the corporate pecking order, happen to be so knowledgeable on the intricacies of product costing? One must assume, points out Ms. Sinickas, that he was appropriately briefed , whether on a formal or informal basis, by someone inthe company who served as an internal communicator. And the successful imparting of that knowledge requires a careful definition of goals followed by meticulous planning and preparation.
In Sinickas’ words: “Especially in difficult financial times, the more we communicators can do to help our employees learn what they need to know in order to interact more positively with customers, the more we demonstrate our own value to the bottom line. Let’s be sure we actually measure that ultimate behavioral impact we have, not just whether our employees heard our messages.”
Friday, January 15, 2010
Automotive Repair Business
Starting an automotive repair business requires through knowledge and experience of automotive repairs. Moreover, it also demands learning ability, patience and determination, in order to turn into a successful entrepreneur.
To start with any business, the most essential pre-requisites are, capital, complete knowledge about the technical and commercial aspects of the business, considerable experience of working at the grass root level and enough space to set up the business. Apart from this, strong determination, patience, urge to compete and move ahead in the business and most importantly, an ability to learn new things and take calculated risks, are a few important qualities required to become a successful businessman.
Opening up an automotive repair business is the first step towards turning into an entrepreneur and become an 'employer', rather than remaining an 'employee'. You might have assisted some other mechanic for a few years, but now it is your turn to begin with your own automotive repair business and thus, stand out distinctively in this enormous business competition. Automotive repair business is not a child's play. You need to plan a lot and then move further to launch your business. Here are some factors that you need to consider before starting the automotive repair business.
How to Open an Auto Repair Business?
How to run a successful auto repair business? Well, planning, organizing, managing and sustaining the four most important pillars, holding the success of any business and automotive repair ones is not an exception to it. You will be facing ups and downs, success and failures, etc. However, it is imperative to face all of them and yet, sustain in the competition. However, these are advanced aspects of the business (but you need to be aware of these in the beginning itself). Starting an automotive repair business needs the consideration of the following factors.
Volume and Scope of the Business
Logical thinking and planning are the most significant factors involved in this part. Logical thinking refers to thinking about the scope of your own knowledge and capacity to handle the business. If you want to evolve gradually, you can begin with an automotive repair business offering few services such as, tire replacement, brake repairs or replacement of other parts of the vehicle. You can include, operations which are not too complicated and can help you earn considerable profits. Once, your business gets settled, you can move on to introduce newer and advanced services, which will attract more customers, thereby contributing to larger profits. Logical thinking would thus decide the scope of your business. Planning refers to the process which starts, once the logical thinking process gets over. Once, you have decided on everything you can, start planning things accordingly, like arranging space by either buying it or taking it on lease, mobilizing financial funds, etc. Planning would thus decide the volume of your automotive repair business.
Checking Out the Law
As soon as you are done with planning the preliminary necessities, you can proceed to check out law and order, associated with setting up an automotive repair business. The most important document in this regard is the licensure to open the business. It is necessary to obtain a license from the Department of Agriculture, garage operating license and sales certificates and documents in order to open and further run the automotive repair business.
Organizing and Managing Financial Funds
Capital is amongst the most important factors required to set up a business. For this, you need to contact financial institutes offering business loans. Look out for financial institutes offering a low rate of interest (needless to say!). You need to prepare an automotive repair business plan and then explain it to the concerned authorities, so that they get convinced about the success and substantial nature of your business. Using the financial resources wisely, also forms a significant part of starting and operating the business.
Set Up Business Systems and Recruit Staff
Your automotive repair business is not just a garage, but it is a well planned organization, which intends to offer the best possible customer service. It is therefore necessary for you to set up well defined and well organized systems, so that the administration, as well as the operations department of your business, function efficiently. For this, you need to open a bank account in the name of your business and also initiate an invoice system, so as to define a pattern of printing work orders. Now, another challenge in front of you is to, recruit staff. You will need experienced mechanics and some people looking after the administration issues of your business. Contact recruitment agencies for this purpose. This would ensure, some good candidates applying for a job in your organization. Set up parameters for technical knowledge, personal qualities, intellectual abilities, experience etc, while interviewing and further, recruiting the candidates. Once employed, clear out things such as, payments, code of conduct, entry and exit formalities, leave policy, operating procedures etc.
Marketing, Promoting and Advertising
From the point of view of attracting more and more clients, you need to do some marketing and promotional activities. You can either do the work yourself, by studying the current market situation, position of your nearest competitors and the needs and demands of the customer. Or else, you can opt for marketing services providers, who will do the work for you, by charging the stipulated fees. Promoting and advertising, go hand in hand, you need to advertise and then promote your business, so that people come to know about your services. Prepare automotive repair business cards to advertise your business on an individual level. You can contact advertising agencies and specify the targeted customers and the area, wherein you want your business to be advertised the most. Read more on business marketing.
Automotive repair business is a serious one and therefore, fulfillment of commitment and optimum customer satisfaction, do have a lion's share in increasing the profits of your business. Remember, the more organized and dedicated you are, the more are your profits and the higher is your success rate. So now, just go ahead and initiate your first step towards becoming a successful businessman. Good luck!
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
How to Make a Budget
in today's tough financial conditions, there are many people who want to know how to make a budget plan to save on or cut down their expenses. This article comprises the steps regarding how to make a budget and stick to it.
The main aspect of knowing how to make a personal budget is first cutting down on the expenses, assessing your exact income, comparing it will the recurring expenses, and then planning how you will spend the money in an economical manner. Another factor related to budget planning is that you should essentially have a strong determination to keep the spending and expenses low. There are many cases when people plan a budget, but due to an improper determination, they incur expenses much more than what they actually planned. If you are wondering how to make a budget for college students, you just need to note down the financial support from parents and your own earnings; and compare these two common factors with your expenses related to rent, food, supplies and books, etc. This will surely help you in making a good budget. If you are thinking how to make a budget chart, simply refer to the following steps.
Monthly, Quarterly, or Yearly Budget
Before you start your financial planning, decide on what is the time period that your are making the budget for. Is it monthly, quarterly, per six months, or yearly. This is the first step that you need to take which will give you a general idea as to what the volume of the expenses and income will be. A majority of the people want to know how to make a budget on a monthly basis, as most of the bills come every month. Planning a monthly budget is a good way to keep elaborate details of the income and expenditure. A monthly financial plan can also be a part of the yearly budget. Normally, individuals prepare a yearly budget for a long term basis. Preparing a yearly budget may require lot of calculations and estimates.
Figure Out Your Income
The next step in budgeting is to assess and note down your aggregate income. You need to list your fixed income and not the occasional income. Usually, fixed income includes per month salary, child support, alimony, and other similar means. Sometimes, you may earn an additional income using your hobby, but this cannot be considered as a regular income. A budget should be a record which lists all the certain sources of income. If at all, you are self-employed and your income is not regular, you can estimate the median financial gains per month for making a budget plan.
Find out the Expenses and Spendings
This is when you need to know how to make a budget sheet. Make a budget sheet and include all the expenses that you have to incur in the time frame you are making the budget for. The sheet may list all the fixed expenses such as monthly rental, car insurance payments, car loan defrayals, telephone and other bills; or variable expenses such as food and entertainment expenses and electricity, water, and gas charges, etc. Evaluate an average of the total expenses that you normally incur in the decided time frame.
Compare Income Over Expenditure
Now, you should compare your income (all taxes paid) with your expenditure for that particular time frame. This is a very crucial part of budget planning. Calculate how much amount you have left after paying all the expenses. For making a good budget, there should necessarily be a certain amount left after paying all the expenditures. If the expenses are more than the overall income, you firstly need to cut down on the expenses, get rid of debt, and try to save money. If there is some amount left after paying the expenses, you can think of calculating how much money can approximately be saved.
Make a Detailed Budget Plan
You can now make a detailed budget plan with listing all the expenses, allotting the payments to the respective expenditures, and determining how much amount can be saved monthly or quarterly or whatever the time frame might be. Make sure you keep a track of all the petty spendings by storing the bills and receipts. This will certainly help you in preparing the budget for the next time period.
Make a Detailed Budget Plan
You can now make a detailed budget plan with listing all the expenses, allotting the payments to the respective expenditures, and determining how much amount can be saved monthly or quarterly or whatever the time frame might be. Make sure you keep a track of all the petty spendings by storing the bills and receipts. This will certainly help you in preparing the budget for the next time period.
Leadership
The Responsive Manager/Leader
The Responsiveness Paradigm outlined elsewhere in this newsletter is applicable at a number of levels. For example, it applies to organizations in general, and the ability of the organization to respond to the needs of customers, staff and other stakeholders (eg. politicians, etc). It applies to non-supervisory staff, and their ability to respond to the needs of their managers, customers and co-workers. This month we are going to look at responsiveness as it applied to managers, leaders and/or supervisors.
Influence Of The Responsive Manager
The responsive manager tends to succeed by building bonds of respect and trust with those around him/her. Staff respond positively to responsive managers; they work more diligently, work to help the manager and the organization succeed, and will go the extra mile when necessary. That is because responsive managers act consistent with the principle that their jobs are to help their staff do their jobs. So, a basic inter-dependence emerges based on behaviours that show concern, respect and trust.
Responsive managers also influence those above them in the hierarchy. Because responsive managers have the ability to read and act upon the needs of their "bosses", they are perceived as helpful and reliable, or in a simple way, very useful. This allows them to get the "ear" of people above them in the system, and further helps get things done when needed.
Contrast this with the limited influence of the UNresponsive manager. The unresponsive manager is restricted in influence because those around him/her do not respect or trust them to look out for their welfare. Influence is more limited to the use of power coming from the formal position, and fear, a motivational component that is hard to sustain over time. Unresponsive managers tend to be perceived as self-interested, or at best uninterested in the needs of those around them. They also tend to be perceived by those above them as less reliable and less useful due to their focus on empire building, organization protection, and self-interest, rather than getting done what needs to be done.
How Do They Do It?
Responsive managers apply a number of specific skills and abilities to the task (as outlined generally in The Responsiveness Paradigm article). Above all, they appear to be "withit". Withitness
has a number of components. First withit managers are able to put aside their concerns to listen to (and appear to listen to) those around them. As a result, they know what is going on, and know what is both said, and said between the lines. They have the knack of appearing to know what people need even if those needs are not expressed directly.
However, knowing what is going on, and identifying the needs of those around them is not sufficient. The responsive manager also acts upon that knowledge, attempting to help fulfil the needs of employees, superiors, etc. Responsive managers wield influence to solve problems for those around them, often before even being asked.
Here's an example:
I was responsible for automating an office system in a government department. As happens sometimes, the Management Information Systems people were not keen on our going our own way on the project, despite the fact that they had indicated they could not do it for us in the near future. As a result their cooperation (needed for the project) was patchy. As team leader, I faced a number of roadblocks, despite the fact that our Assistant Deputy Minister wanted to see this project come to fruition. I regularly reported back to our Director, outlining progress and roadblocks. Every time I communicated roadblocks to the Director, they were removed within a short time, despite the fact that I did not request direct action. In addition, the Director advised and counselled me on how to deal with the "systems people" so I could have maximum impact. Despite the roadblocks, the project was completed on time and was very successful, much to the chagrin of some of the systems people, who I think were hoping we would fail.
This is a simple story, but one full of meaning. In this situation the Director was able to identify the project leader's needs with respect to the project, listening carefully, and identifying actions she could take to "smooth the path". Not only was the Director able to remove obstacles and fulfil the need of the project leader, but the Director responded on a deeper level, helping to teach the Project Leader methods of becoming more effective, fulfilling yet another need. All of this was assumed to be the proper role of the Director, and was done without expressing all of the needs specifically or explicitly.
We can contrast this with the unresponsiveness of the MIS people. They lectured, they fussed, they predicted dire consequences, rather than offering consistent, responsive help. They focused not on responding to the needs of their clients, but on some other factors having to do with control, and their own needs. Eventually, their lack of responsiveness resulted in the very thing they did not want; loss of control of the project. As a result of this project their overall status in the organization suffered, simply because at both an organization and individual level they were seen as barriers, rather than useful.
Let's look at one more example.
An employee had been working for a government branch for about a year, having moved to the city as a new resident. In a casual conversation, the supervisor noted that the employee wasn't looking at his best, and asked how he was feeling. The employee explained that he hadn't been feeling well lately, and sounded very tired and overwhelmed. The supervisor determined that the staff member didn't have a local family doctor, asked if he would like the supervisor to arrange an appointment, and proceeded to do so immediately. The problem turned out to be a minor one.
In this example we see again the ideas of "withitness" and responsiveness. The supervisor was able to identify that the staff member was in need of some help, despite the fact that the staff member did not state this explicitly. Note that the supervisor didn't pressure the staff member to go to the doctor, but identified needs, checked them out, and then acted upon them. In this case, help consisted of direct, helpful action.
Conclusion
These two examples are the stuff of loyalty and commitment. They are remembered years and years after the fact, and continue to extend the influence of managers. In this sense responsiveness is a critical component of management success, because it allows managers and supervisors to get things done, for the benefit of all players.
In the limited space we have, we have attempted to give you a feel of what responsiveness means. You might want to extend your own understanding by considering some of the following questions.
1. If you are a manager or supervisor, how can you modify your own behaviours so that you become and are perceived as more responsive by a) your staff, b) your boss and c) your customers?
2. Again, if you are a manager or supervisor what is your definition of the "responsive employee"? Can you identify your "favourite employees", and consider how they are responsive to you? Our bet is you will find that your most valued employees are responsive.
3. If you are non-management, what would you need to do to be perceived as more responsive by the people around you?
The Responsiveness Paradigm outlined elsewhere in this newsletter is applicable at a number of levels. For example, it applies to organizations in general, and the ability of the organization to respond to the needs of customers, staff and other stakeholders (eg. politicians, etc). It applies to non-supervisory staff, and their ability to respond to the needs of their managers, customers and co-workers. This month we are going to look at responsiveness as it applied to managers, leaders and/or supervisors.
Influence Of The Responsive Manager
The responsive manager tends to succeed by building bonds of respect and trust with those around him/her. Staff respond positively to responsive managers; they work more diligently, work to help the manager and the organization succeed, and will go the extra mile when necessary. That is because responsive managers act consistent with the principle that their jobs are to help their staff do their jobs. So, a basic inter-dependence emerges based on behaviours that show concern, respect and trust.
Responsive managers also influence those above them in the hierarchy. Because responsive managers have the ability to read and act upon the needs of their "bosses", they are perceived as helpful and reliable, or in a simple way, very useful. This allows them to get the "ear" of people above them in the system, and further helps get things done when needed.
Contrast this with the limited influence of the UNresponsive manager. The unresponsive manager is restricted in influence because those around him/her do not respect or trust them to look out for their welfare. Influence is more limited to the use of power coming from the formal position, and fear, a motivational component that is hard to sustain over time. Unresponsive managers tend to be perceived as self-interested, or at best uninterested in the needs of those around them. They also tend to be perceived by those above them as less reliable and less useful due to their focus on empire building, organization protection, and self-interest, rather than getting done what needs to be done.
How Do They Do It?
Responsive managers apply a number of specific skills and abilities to the task (as outlined generally in The Responsiveness Paradigm article). Above all, they appear to be "withit". Withitness
has a number of components. First withit managers are able to put aside their concerns to listen to (and appear to listen to) those around them. As a result, they know what is going on, and know what is both said, and said between the lines. They have the knack of appearing to know what people need even if those needs are not expressed directly.
However, knowing what is going on, and identifying the needs of those around them is not sufficient. The responsive manager also acts upon that knowledge, attempting to help fulfil the needs of employees, superiors, etc. Responsive managers wield influence to solve problems for those around them, often before even being asked.
Here's an example:
I was responsible for automating an office system in a government department. As happens sometimes, the Management Information Systems people were not keen on our going our own way on the project, despite the fact that they had indicated they could not do it for us in the near future. As a result their cooperation (needed for the project) was patchy. As team leader, I faced a number of roadblocks, despite the fact that our Assistant Deputy Minister wanted to see this project come to fruition. I regularly reported back to our Director, outlining progress and roadblocks. Every time I communicated roadblocks to the Director, they were removed within a short time, despite the fact that I did not request direct action. In addition, the Director advised and counselled me on how to deal with the "systems people" so I could have maximum impact. Despite the roadblocks, the project was completed on time and was very successful, much to the chagrin of some of the systems people, who I think were hoping we would fail.
This is a simple story, but one full of meaning. In this situation the Director was able to identify the project leader's needs with respect to the project, listening carefully, and identifying actions she could take to "smooth the path". Not only was the Director able to remove obstacles and fulfil the need of the project leader, but the Director responded on a deeper level, helping to teach the Project Leader methods of becoming more effective, fulfilling yet another need. All of this was assumed to be the proper role of the Director, and was done without expressing all of the needs specifically or explicitly.
We can contrast this with the unresponsiveness of the MIS people. They lectured, they fussed, they predicted dire consequences, rather than offering consistent, responsive help. They focused not on responding to the needs of their clients, but on some other factors having to do with control, and their own needs. Eventually, their lack of responsiveness resulted in the very thing they did not want; loss of control of the project. As a result of this project their overall status in the organization suffered, simply because at both an organization and individual level they were seen as barriers, rather than useful.
Let's look at one more example.
An employee had been working for a government branch for about a year, having moved to the city as a new resident. In a casual conversation, the supervisor noted that the employee wasn't looking at his best, and asked how he was feeling. The employee explained that he hadn't been feeling well lately, and sounded very tired and overwhelmed. The supervisor determined that the staff member didn't have a local family doctor, asked if he would like the supervisor to arrange an appointment, and proceeded to do so immediately. The problem turned out to be a minor one.
In this example we see again the ideas of "withitness" and responsiveness. The supervisor was able to identify that the staff member was in need of some help, despite the fact that the staff member did not state this explicitly. Note that the supervisor didn't pressure the staff member to go to the doctor, but identified needs, checked them out, and then acted upon them. In this case, help consisted of direct, helpful action.
Conclusion
These two examples are the stuff of loyalty and commitment. They are remembered years and years after the fact, and continue to extend the influence of managers. In this sense responsiveness is a critical component of management success, because it allows managers and supervisors to get things done, for the benefit of all players.
In the limited space we have, we have attempted to give you a feel of what responsiveness means. You might want to extend your own understanding by considering some of the following questions.
1. If you are a manager or supervisor, how can you modify your own behaviours so that you become and are perceived as more responsive by a) your staff, b) your boss and c) your customers?
2. Again, if you are a manager or supervisor what is your definition of the "responsive employee"? Can you identify your "favourite employees", and consider how they are responsive to you? Our bet is you will find that your most valued employees are responsive.
3. If you are non-management, what would you need to do to be perceived as more responsive by the people around you?
10 Tips for Becoming a Smarter, Social Business Person
The web is filled with social networks: We have Twitter for meeting new people, Facebook for old college buddies, and Bebo for those of us who don’t want to hang out with the mainstream. Those social networks are rarely viewed as corporate services — they’re relaxing at the end of a long workday, not playgrounds for more business activity. But I would argue that social networks provide value to a business person on several levels, whether it be for those furiously working each day in a cubicle or for others closing big deals on the golf course.
Social networks can help make you a smarter business person, and there’s a lot of corporate value to be found in them. (Did you know that Dell has made over $6 million from Twitter alone?) It’s time to exploit them for your business, and here’s how:
1. Get involved. The only way to use social networks to improve business is to join some sites. LinkedIn is a good start, but you’ll need to do much more if you plan to make your social life profitable. Social networks require participation. If you don’t get involved, you’ll never find value in the social web.
2. There’s more than LinkedIn. There’s little debating that LinkedIn is ideal for those who want to network with other professionals. But Twitter, Facebook and the rest also provide real value to a business person. In many cases, they allow you to find folks you might have otherwise missed offline. They also provide you with a “cheat sheet” of information, like interests and education, that could help you close a deal. For example, I recently got in touch with a local professional who needed some basic tech services. I used Facebook to get to know him and what his interests were. When we finally had a chance to meet, I referenced his love of the New York Yankees and some films we both enjoy to get the conversation started, which may have helped me close the deal.
3. It’s networking, but online. One of the first rules you learn in any business school is to network. It’s not always what you know, it’s who you know. Social-networking sites are ideal for those who want to network. You can use them to get back in touch with old friends, get to know colleagues, or network with other local professionals trying to do the same. You wouldn’t believe how easy it is to get to know clients when you’re introduced by a mutual acquaintance.
4. Don’t underestimate Twitter’s value. It might not seem like the best choice for a business person at first glance, but after further inspection, you might find that Twitter is a fine networking platform. It’s filled with active members who want to get to know others, and there are far more professionals than you think. And thanks to several third-party Twitter tools, like WeFollow, it shouldn’t take long to find folks in your area you want to target. WeFollow lets you find people based on categories. So if you want to find entrepreneurs, you can. If you want to find marketing professionals in New York, you can do that, too.
Dell, for one, has shown just how important Twitter can be to a company’s bottom line by offering sales through its Twitter feed, listening to what customers are looking for, and telling those followers about available coupons. In the meantime, besides the $6.5 million it’s pulled in from using the site, it’s attracted a whopping 1.5 million followers looking for deals.
5. Join the conversation. Once you join social networks and you know who you want to target, start talking. Get to know what they discuss and join that discussion. Social networking is not about being shy; it’s about being willing to open up in an online world that has stayed anonymous for far too long. That means you’ll need to talk about your interests and topics that others in your social network are engaged in.
6. It’s not about the numbers. Although some believe the more friends or followers you have on your favorite social network, the better, I don’t. If you want to turn your social life into more business, find followers and friends who either improve your relations with the surrounding community or increase your prospects of securing clients. Don’t waste time with big follower numbers. Most times, it’s that core group that will provide the most value. A company in my hometown currently has a little over 200 followers on Twitter. But according to that company’s owner, they’re some of the store’s most reliable customers; when the owner sends out sales information or coupons, these are the folks who are most likely to redeem them. Twitter lets you engage in extremely effective marketing for free.
7. Don’t stick to business. The worst thing you can do on a social network is just talk about business. Remember that many folks want to leave business at the office. Use social networks to find common ground and get to know each other. When you feel comfortable that a relationship is developing, then throw in the business.
I learned this lesson the hard way when I first started using Twitter. I didn’t discuss topics my followers cared about. Instead, I focused all my tweets on the tech business. Some folks stopped following me; others asked me to stop talking about business so much. It was a great wake-up call. Today, I talk about tech and business, but I also discuss other topics that are important to me and my followers.
8. Don’t go overboard. Don’t think that you need to join every new site that crops up. Instead, stick to two to four social networks. By doing so, you can still be on the sites that other folks are on, but you won’t get caught up in trying to update every site you use.
I wish someone had told me this a long time ago. At this point, I belong to well over 35 social networks. They range from the big ones like Facebook to relatively unknown services like Plurk and Identi.ca. For a while, I tried to keep all those profiles up-to-date. But it became too time-consuming and I was forced to scale back. Today, I maintain active updates on Twitter, Facebook and FriendFeed. Everything else is left dormant.
9. Share what you know. Social networks provide value because users can share their expertise. If you’re into stamp collecting, let us know. If you’re an expert in derivatives, tell us about it. Don’t simply regurgitate what you see in so many other places on the web. Although I write about technology for a living, I’m actually quite knowledgeable in financial topics and baseball history. I was surprised to see how many of my social-networking buddies have those same interests, and it’s helped us form a better professional bond.
10. Remember your employer. Anything and everything you say is a direct reflection on those who employ you. Don’t use profanity. Don’t say nasty things about the competition. Just as you would at any dinner meeting, represent your company well. Companies have worked with PR companies for years to disseminate only the information they want shared, and today, any employee can say anything with a click of a button. If you plan to help your business through social networks, remember that your job could be on the line if you say the wrong thing.
These are just some tips to being a smarter, social businessperson. If you have any others to share, let us know in the comments below.
Monday, January 11, 2010
Effective Meetings
Managing Meeting Problems
If you are called upon to chair meetings, you will doubtless encounter some common problems that occur when any group of people get together. While these problems are common, if they are left unmanaged, they will cause long term problems. Unmanaged meeting problems will result in wasted time, frustration, and a general dread of attending meetings in which these problems occur unchecked.
Before we discuss some strategies for addressing these common problems, one basic approach needs to be stressed. Make sure that there are agreed-upon roles and processes for the meetings. That is, it must be clear to all attendees what is expected in terms of behaviour, and how breeches of these expectations will be dealt with. One critical role that MUST be defined is that of the chair. Attendees and the chairperson must be on the same wavelength.
We suggest that a group that meets on a regular basis establish meeting parameters, roles and chairperson authorities early in their life cycle. We also suggest that the group revisit these parameters periodically to see if they are working, or need revision.
Remember that when roles and authorities are not clear from the outset, meetings can deteriorate into procedural wranglings" that are largely unproductive. Get the roles clear from the beginning so that you will not have to deal with them in each and every meeting.
Long-Windedness
Some people are naturally long-winded. They talk a lot. Unfortunately, long-winded people can monopolize meeting time, and turn off other meeting participants.
If you are chairing a meeting with long-winded people in attendance, you need to take some action. The general rule to any intervention is to start with the most subtle or mild approach, and then increase "force" as required.
Try using a non-verbal "stop sign". One common one is holding up one's hand, palm outward towards the speaker. Generally, this will be better received by the speaker if it is accompanied by a smile rather than a frown or obvious anger. Make sure that you don't thrust your hand too quickly, since that will be considered an aggressive act.
Another non-verbal tactic is the "Aha sign". The "aha sign" consists of one finger held up, and is used to signify that you are enthusiastic about a point the speaker has made. Generally, you will follow up this sign with a comment like "John, your point about x is excellent. I really want to hear what Barb thinks about that idea." You couple the non-verbal sign with what we call a "redirect" cue (see next point).
Use the redirect cue to signify that you want another person to respond to the issue. It is best to jump in when the speaker is catching a breath, saying something like "Mary, thank you for your ideas. Brent, do you have any comments on whether we should [whatever]?"
Finally, you may have to take a strong stance. For example, interrupt with "Fred, we have agreed that it is important that we accomplish x,y, and z before we leave today. I appreciate your comments, but I am going to insist that we move on. Perhaps if we have time at the end of the meeting, we can come back to this." Then move immediately to the next agenda item. Keep in mind that this approach may result in some ruffled feathers. It may be appropriate to speak privately to the long-winded person after the meeting to explain why you felt this was necessary so that meeting goals would be met.
Involving The Silent
Some people are naturally reticent to speak in meetings. The chairperson must respect individual differences of this type, while at the same time setting up a climate that increases comfort levels, and inviting quiet attendees to be more involved.
You can ask silent group members to be involved. The way you do it is important. The best approach to involve a shyer person is to pose a specific question to that person. The question should be one that the person can answer easily. After the initial answer, you can probe for more detail. For example:
Chair: John, you talk to more customers than any of us. Do they ever talk about what they want from us?
John: Uhh...sometimes.
Chair: What kinds of things do they tell you?
Also, make sure that meetings are respectful and that ideas and people are not attacked. Again, enforce rules that have been established by group consensus early on. If necessary, when a person's position is being challenged, support that person by highlighting a positive aspect of what the person has said.
If there are chronic silent meeting attendees, you may want to approach each one privately to ask if they are benefitting from attending meetings, and to find out if there is any way that the meetings can be made more effective.
Managing Disputes
Conflict in meetings can be productive. If the conflict energy can be funnelled into developing constructive solutions, new ideas can emerge from the conflict. However, some disputes that occur in meetings are about things other than finding solutions. They may be about personal agendas, stylistic differences, power or other things. Meetings are usually not the best place to address these agendas.
Disputes that are non-constructive are characterized by lack of listening, personal attacks or innuendo, and hostile tones of voice.
First, the chair should avoid taking sides if the dispute is non-constructive, although if the chair is also the group manager, it may be necessary to supply an arbitrary solution. If the chair is at the same organizational level as the disputing parties, stay away from taking a side.
Second, stop the dispute early. As soon as you see signs that the discussion is becoming non-constructive or insulting, jump in. For example, you can say something like "I don't think we are going to resolve your disagreement at this point, so I am going to ask that we move on. John and Mary may want to talk about this in private."
Or, "Remember that we agreed that we would discuss issues rather than personalities. If we can return to the issue at hand, we can continue this important discussion, otherwise I am going to ask that we stop now."
Third, don't become involved emotionally. React calmly and firmly, not with anger.
Finally, if a full scale verbal brawl ensues, consider adjourning the meeting. A coffee break may be enough to cool off tempers. If not, the meeting may have to be stopped. There is no point having non-constructive angry discussions where nobody is listening.
Conclusion
The chairperson plays important roles in managing meeting problems that occur. If rules have been developed by the group, it is far easier to enforce these rules without appearing to be arbitrary or heavy-handed. By managing the long-winded, the silent people involved in disputes, a considerable amount of time can be saved, and meeting can become more productive and positive for all those attending.
If you are called upon to chair meetings, you will doubtless encounter some common problems that occur when any group of people get together. While these problems are common, if they are left unmanaged, they will cause long term problems. Unmanaged meeting problems will result in wasted time, frustration, and a general dread of attending meetings in which these problems occur unchecked.
Before we discuss some strategies for addressing these common problems, one basic approach needs to be stressed. Make sure that there are agreed-upon roles and processes for the meetings. That is, it must be clear to all attendees what is expected in terms of behaviour, and how breeches of these expectations will be dealt with. One critical role that MUST be defined is that of the chair. Attendees and the chairperson must be on the same wavelength.
We suggest that a group that meets on a regular basis establish meeting parameters, roles and chairperson authorities early in their life cycle. We also suggest that the group revisit these parameters periodically to see if they are working, or need revision.
Remember that when roles and authorities are not clear from the outset, meetings can deteriorate into procedural wranglings" that are largely unproductive. Get the roles clear from the beginning so that you will not have to deal with them in each and every meeting.
Long-Windedness
Some people are naturally long-winded. They talk a lot. Unfortunately, long-winded people can monopolize meeting time, and turn off other meeting participants.
If you are chairing a meeting with long-winded people in attendance, you need to take some action. The general rule to any intervention is to start with the most subtle or mild approach, and then increase "force" as required.
Try using a non-verbal "stop sign". One common one is holding up one's hand, palm outward towards the speaker. Generally, this will be better received by the speaker if it is accompanied by a smile rather than a frown or obvious anger. Make sure that you don't thrust your hand too quickly, since that will be considered an aggressive act.
Another non-verbal tactic is the "Aha sign". The "aha sign" consists of one finger held up, and is used to signify that you are enthusiastic about a point the speaker has made. Generally, you will follow up this sign with a comment like "John, your point about x is excellent. I really want to hear what Barb thinks about that idea." You couple the non-verbal sign with what we call a "redirect" cue (see next point).
Use the redirect cue to signify that you want another person to respond to the issue. It is best to jump in when the speaker is catching a breath, saying something like "Mary, thank you for your ideas. Brent, do you have any comments on whether we should [whatever]?"
Finally, you may have to take a strong stance. For example, interrupt with "Fred, we have agreed that it is important that we accomplish x,y, and z before we leave today. I appreciate your comments, but I am going to insist that we move on. Perhaps if we have time at the end of the meeting, we can come back to this." Then move immediately to the next agenda item. Keep in mind that this approach may result in some ruffled feathers. It may be appropriate to speak privately to the long-winded person after the meeting to explain why you felt this was necessary so that meeting goals would be met.
Involving The Silent
Some people are naturally reticent to speak in meetings. The chairperson must respect individual differences of this type, while at the same time setting up a climate that increases comfort levels, and inviting quiet attendees to be more involved.
You can ask silent group members to be involved. The way you do it is important. The best approach to involve a shyer person is to pose a specific question to that person. The question should be one that the person can answer easily. After the initial answer, you can probe for more detail. For example:
Chair: John, you talk to more customers than any of us. Do they ever talk about what they want from us?
John: Uhh...sometimes.
Chair: What kinds of things do they tell you?
Also, make sure that meetings are respectful and that ideas and people are not attacked. Again, enforce rules that have been established by group consensus early on. If necessary, when a person's position is being challenged, support that person by highlighting a positive aspect of what the person has said.
If there are chronic silent meeting attendees, you may want to approach each one privately to ask if they are benefitting from attending meetings, and to find out if there is any way that the meetings can be made more effective.
Managing Disputes
Conflict in meetings can be productive. If the conflict energy can be funnelled into developing constructive solutions, new ideas can emerge from the conflict. However, some disputes that occur in meetings are about things other than finding solutions. They may be about personal agendas, stylistic differences, power or other things. Meetings are usually not the best place to address these agendas.
Disputes that are non-constructive are characterized by lack of listening, personal attacks or innuendo, and hostile tones of voice.
First, the chair should avoid taking sides if the dispute is non-constructive, although if the chair is also the group manager, it may be necessary to supply an arbitrary solution. If the chair is at the same organizational level as the disputing parties, stay away from taking a side.
Second, stop the dispute early. As soon as you see signs that the discussion is becoming non-constructive or insulting, jump in. For example, you can say something like "I don't think we are going to resolve your disagreement at this point, so I am going to ask that we move on. John and Mary may want to talk about this in private."
Or, "Remember that we agreed that we would discuss issues rather than personalities. If we can return to the issue at hand, we can continue this important discussion, otherwise I am going to ask that we stop now."
Third, don't become involved emotionally. React calmly and firmly, not with anger.
Finally, if a full scale verbal brawl ensues, consider adjourning the meeting. A coffee break may be enough to cool off tempers. If not, the meeting may have to be stopped. There is no point having non-constructive angry discussions where nobody is listening.
Conclusion
The chairperson plays important roles in managing meeting problems that occur. If rules have been developed by the group, it is far easier to enforce these rules without appearing to be arbitrary or heavy-handed. By managing the long-winded, the silent people involved in disputes, a considerable amount of time can be saved, and meeting can become more productive and positive for all those attending.
The Impossible Colleague - Tips For Dealing With Difficult Coworkers
This month marks the return of our On The Line Column, where we deal with difficult workplace situations in a question and answer format.
Problem
For the past few years I have had to work fairly extensively with a colleague who is just impossible. He is arrogant, stubborn, sometimes abusive, and acts like he is right about almost everything. At first I tried to ignore it, but it just gotten worse. It's so bad, I feel like every night when I go home, all I think about is how miserable this person is. It is also affecting people around us, since we all spend so much time talking about this person.
How do I deal with this situation?
Answer
Most people use the term personality conflict to describe this situation. I don't like that term because it implies that the problem is largely unfixable since it is unlikely that either you or the other person is going to change their personalities. To get anything constructive out of this you are going to have to get down to specific behaviours, not personalities.
Some background things to consider. These situations tend to occur over time. Small annoying behaviours left unattended move to bigger more annoying behaviours. You indicate that you tried to ignore these things at the beginning, and that probably contributed to the problem. Consider these basic principles:
In any relationship, both people influence the other's behaviour. In almost every conflict situation, both parties bear some responsibility for where "things are at".
Focusing on blame will just drive you crazy. The key to these situations is to focus on what YOU can do to make things better. It doesn't matter who is at fault, if your concern is to make things better.
You have little control over the personality, and even behaviour of another person. Your best bet is to focus on your own behaviour change. Ask yourself: What am I doing that contributes to this unpleasant situation, and What can I do to change what I am doing. It sounds like what you are doing now isn't working so you have to look for another approach.
Here are some ideas:
1. At a time when both you and the other person or calm, ask if you can talk to them (do it privately-this is between the two of you). Approach the situation in a non-accusatory manner (not easy if you are frustrated). Try something like this:
John, I've noticed that you and I seem to have our differences. I have some ideas about how we might be able to work more effectively together, but I would like to know from you what I can do to help. Can you think of anything I could be doing so we could get along better?
Follow his up with proper listening, so John knows you are truly concerned and interested.
When possible find things to agree on, and offer something. If the conversation is going well, you might want to make a request (one is good). Like the following:
John, what would help me is that when we are at meetings and I am talking, that you wait until I am finished to make your comments, since it really distracts me if you talk before I am finished, and I can't listen properly to you when I am distracted.
2. Since you are clearly frustrated, it is likely that you are doing things that convey your frustration to the other person. You shouldn't have to take abuse and smile, but neither should you be attacking or reacting in kind. It is important that you deal with things firmly, but nicely, and without dramatics. No eye-rolling, no heavy sighing, no guerilla activities. If the other person is rude or nasty to you, you can respond with quiet dignity and set limits regarding the specific behaviours, but if you react angrily, you will almost always make the situation worse.
3. Immediately stop making the situation one for public discussion or discussion with other staff members. This is disruptive to the organization, but worse, it will make it more difficult to fix the situation. When you gossip about someone else, you tend to focus on the worst parts, and paint that person in a negative way. That affects your thinking and actually shortens your patience, particularly when you get covert support from others. Do you want to win or do you want to fix the problem (Note: you usually can't "win".
4. The time to have dealt with this situation was early on, with a combination of politeness, firmness, and limit setting. In some situations, the conflict has become so polarized that you may need help in dealing with it, both practically, and personally, to change your way of looking at it. One possibility is to talk to your manager and explain the situation as objectively as possible. That means saying something like: John and I seem to be having some trouble getting along, and it seems to be affecting everyone". Please don't go in trying to convince the "boss" how bad the other person is...it just makes you look like the problem.
Request help or suggestions, and focus on fixing the problem, and taking some responsibility for it. The outcome may be that the manager may bring you both together to talk about the situation and work out a plan, or even that you and the other person might get involved in mediation, or some other form of intervention.
5. Please keep in mind that you have both rights and responsibilities in these situations.
Your responsibilities include:
* approaching the other person in a polite, problem-solving way to work things out.
* avoiding actions (like gossip) that make the situation worse.
* a willingness to recognize that you have probably contributed to the problem.
* listening to the other person rather than trying to convince or bully them.
* seeking help from others in a dignified, open and constructive way.
Your rights include:
* setting behavioral limits and consequences when nasty, abusive behaviour is directed at you.
* the expectation that the other person will work in an open problem solving and courteous way.
* an expectation that management will help, but may not be able to solve the problem without your cooperation and that of the other person.
Problem
For the past few years I have had to work fairly extensively with a colleague who is just impossible. He is arrogant, stubborn, sometimes abusive, and acts like he is right about almost everything. At first I tried to ignore it, but it just gotten worse. It's so bad, I feel like every night when I go home, all I think about is how miserable this person is. It is also affecting people around us, since we all spend so much time talking about this person.
How do I deal with this situation?
Answer
Most people use the term personality conflict to describe this situation. I don't like that term because it implies that the problem is largely unfixable since it is unlikely that either you or the other person is going to change their personalities. To get anything constructive out of this you are going to have to get down to specific behaviours, not personalities.
Some background things to consider. These situations tend to occur over time. Small annoying behaviours left unattended move to bigger more annoying behaviours. You indicate that you tried to ignore these things at the beginning, and that probably contributed to the problem. Consider these basic principles:
In any relationship, both people influence the other's behaviour. In almost every conflict situation, both parties bear some responsibility for where "things are at".
Focusing on blame will just drive you crazy. The key to these situations is to focus on what YOU can do to make things better. It doesn't matter who is at fault, if your concern is to make things better.
You have little control over the personality, and even behaviour of another person. Your best bet is to focus on your own behaviour change. Ask yourself: What am I doing that contributes to this unpleasant situation, and What can I do to change what I am doing. It sounds like what you are doing now isn't working so you have to look for another approach.
Here are some ideas:
1. At a time when both you and the other person or calm, ask if you can talk to them (do it privately-this is between the two of you). Approach the situation in a non-accusatory manner (not easy if you are frustrated). Try something like this:
John, I've noticed that you and I seem to have our differences. I have some ideas about how we might be able to work more effectively together, but I would like to know from you what I can do to help. Can you think of anything I could be doing so we could get along better?
Follow his up with proper listening, so John knows you are truly concerned and interested.
When possible find things to agree on, and offer something. If the conversation is going well, you might want to make a request (one is good). Like the following:
John, what would help me is that when we are at meetings and I am talking, that you wait until I am finished to make your comments, since it really distracts me if you talk before I am finished, and I can't listen properly to you when I am distracted.
2. Since you are clearly frustrated, it is likely that you are doing things that convey your frustration to the other person. You shouldn't have to take abuse and smile, but neither should you be attacking or reacting in kind. It is important that you deal with things firmly, but nicely, and without dramatics. No eye-rolling, no heavy sighing, no guerilla activities. If the other person is rude or nasty to you, you can respond with quiet dignity and set limits regarding the specific behaviours, but if you react angrily, you will almost always make the situation worse.
3. Immediately stop making the situation one for public discussion or discussion with other staff members. This is disruptive to the organization, but worse, it will make it more difficult to fix the situation. When you gossip about someone else, you tend to focus on the worst parts, and paint that person in a negative way. That affects your thinking and actually shortens your patience, particularly when you get covert support from others. Do you want to win or do you want to fix the problem (Note: you usually can't "win".
4. The time to have dealt with this situation was early on, with a combination of politeness, firmness, and limit setting. In some situations, the conflict has become so polarized that you may need help in dealing with it, both practically, and personally, to change your way of looking at it. One possibility is to talk to your manager and explain the situation as objectively as possible. That means saying something like: John and I seem to be having some trouble getting along, and it seems to be affecting everyone". Please don't go in trying to convince the "boss" how bad the other person is...it just makes you look like the problem.
Request help or suggestions, and focus on fixing the problem, and taking some responsibility for it. The outcome may be that the manager may bring you both together to talk about the situation and work out a plan, or even that you and the other person might get involved in mediation, or some other form of intervention.
5. Please keep in mind that you have both rights and responsibilities in these situations.
Your responsibilities include:
* approaching the other person in a polite, problem-solving way to work things out.
* avoiding actions (like gossip) that make the situation worse.
* a willingness to recognize that you have probably contributed to the problem.
* listening to the other person rather than trying to convince or bully them.
* seeking help from others in a dignified, open and constructive way.
Your rights include:
* setting behavioral limits and consequences when nasty, abusive behaviour is directed at you.
* the expectation that the other person will work in an open problem solving and courteous way.
* an expectation that management will help, but may not be able to solve the problem without your cooperation and that of the other person.
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