Saturday, September 20, 2003

Blogging in Corporate America. (SOURCE:studio id | Blogging in Corporate America)- A must read 52 page PDF.  Reviews blogging and how it can be used effectively in an organization. QUOTE This is a presentation I gave to the Usability Professionals Association on 16 September 2003. The full title was "Making sense of weblogs in the intranet: What they are, why people are using them, making them useful for knowledge management". I talked about weblogs inside my company, their use in knowledge management, and how my organization is hoping to make them usable for enterprise knowledge work if the number of blogs in the company increases significantly. UNQUOTE [Roland Tanglao's Weblog] 8:30:35 PM    comment []

Productive meetings start with planning. Basics of meetings. My good friend, David Badash, noted his top three goals when planning a meeting: 1. Keep the end goal in mind ~ What are your... [robinyap.com] Like meetings should be, David Badash's top three goals for a meeting are short and to the point.  Too often meetings become proving grounds for alliances.  Confusing forays between attendees send meetings into overtime.  All this isn't necessary.  By establishing common meeting objectives, i.e. what does the group want to accomplish, you can turn meetings into productive collaborations.  Remember, meetings are supposed to be short and to the point.  Why not get right to the point? Getting to the point is more than just staying on topic, it also means only inviting those people who are absolutely necessary to the meeting.  Each attendee should have a specific contribution, if not, they should have something better to do. How many meetings have you been to that really didn't require your presents?  How many other things could you have been doing with your valuable time?  Too often attendees don't know they can speak up and excuse themselves from meetings where they don't feel they bring any value. After a meeting, everyone should get right back to action.  You've probably seen continued discussions after a meeting, even the same issues coming up week after week.  Actions should be delegated immediately after meetings with a specific time frame for completion. So what does this have to do with business relationships?  You can focus your team with the right meetings, and make employees unproductive with the wrong meetings.  Before you call a meeting, do your homework and consider these tips. Justin Hitt helps executive build stronger relationships that can increase profits and create loyal customers.  For more information visit Inside Strategic Relations or call (757) 496-4324 [Iunctura Daily] 8:30:21 PM    comment []

Misdirected communications harms business relationships. No email 4u. John Cauldwell, the multi-millionaire owner of high street retailer Phones 4u, has banned staff from using email. [Ananova / Business] John Cauldwell does an extraordinary thing, he bans the use of e-mail as a tool for internal communications.  Yes, virtually forcing his 2,500 employees to work directly with each other face-to-face.  He says the biggest benefit of this ban would be increased customer loyalty as staff focus more on providing better service. While this isn't necessarily right for your business, consider the value of improving the quality of e-mail communications.  Many employees and managers hide behind e-mail, unproductively spending hours on things that could quickly be addressed by phone or in person. E-mail disrupts business in other ways.  It is difficult for most people to communicate in writing-- so many non-verbal elements of communications are lost.  Receivers of written correspondence frame what they read in the context of their own experiences.  This sometimes confuses the original message. Another challenge is that most employees write based on what they want to say, not necessarily what the reader needs to hear.  The wrong facts contribute to the wrong message.  E-mail isn't always the right medium for a particular message.  A lot of effort is required for good written communications, this same effort could be applied to improving customer service if a better communications tool was used.  Could you achieve the same results in less time if the messages was delivered in a phone call? Many successful leaders recommend taking at least two days to respond to any written communication.  This delay gives the writer time to consider the message and write from fact verse emotion.  Unfortunately, most e-mail messages are sent off quickly with little thought-- the instantaneous nature encourages jotting off a message this way.  I'd be interested in hearing about other peoples experiences with tuning communications channels to improve aspects of customer loyalty. Justin Hitt helps executive build stronger relationships that can increase profits and create loyal customers.  For more information visit Inside Strategic Relations or call (757) 496-4324 [Iunctura Daily] 8:29:55 PM    comment []