Installation, customization and configuration related to CIN needs to be carried out for the following applications (components) in SAP R/3. This should be a joint exercise by FICO, SD & MM consultant.

Financial Accounting (FI)
The following points are covered under this:

Taxes such as excise duty, sales tax & withholding tax
Chart of account & Financial account statement version & G/L
Vendor master (withholding tax and vendor invoice & payment

Material Management (MM)
The following points are covered under this:

Special Field in Material Master & Vendor Master
Incoming Excise Invoice
External procurement (Domestic & Import)
Subcontracting & Stock Transfer
Goods Movement & Excise duty
Capital Goods
Excise Register
In vendor master record, we were enter a details of CIN

Sale & Distribution (SD)
The following points are covered under this:

Special Field in Material Master & Customer Master
Pricing
Outgoing Excise Invoice
Sales from Factory & Depot (Plant status)
Outwards Movement of goods & Excise duty
Export under Excise Regulation
CENVAT Adjustment postings

In a Lonely Place | Nicholas Ray, 1950

Before watching Humprey DeForest Bogart in Nicholas Ray’s A Lonely Place, a few years ago now, I had never been wholly blown away by any of his performances. I could see the charm and the way he suited such Noir-ish roles as Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe, but it took until Ray’s film for me to truly appreciate his talent. With  In a Lonely Place Bogart is actually handed meat to go with his skeleton role, meat he goes after with twenty years’ worth of appetite to create one of the more intriguing characters in memory. Dixon Steele is a tired and laconic screenwriter whose disdain with the movie industry is matched only by his sharpened wit. Cash dwindling, Steele is roped back into the arduous task of adapting the latest trashy bestseller. Instead of taking the proposition seriously, he proceeds to invite a young hat-check girl home to sum up the story, a girl who is later found murdered with our hero as the prime suspect. Steele, however, is quickly cleared by mysterious blonde neighbour Laurel Gray (played by Gloria Grahame) and a whirlwind romance between the pair commences. As mentioned previously, I’ve always admired Bogart’s carving out of a niche for the strong silent type, indeed most of the characters he has portrayed have certain similarities. As an actor he is a man’s man, and this personality is strongly upheld in the roles with which he dealt. The character of Steele seems to deviate from this mean, and Bogart seems glad to be able to play with such layered personage.

Of course, there is still the wise cracking character trait for which Bogart became known, and who could do it better? His one-liners here are particularly keen, ensuring that the audience is immediately won over by Dixon Steele despite his contemptuous antics. As the film wears on, however, and the writer becomes embroiled in scribbling away at his plot, aggressive cracks appear in his previously calm nature, allowing both his companion Laurel and ourselves as the audience to question the earlier certainty of our man’s innocence. Steele is a fervidly imaginative storyteller and Bogie channels this nature quite expertly, in the end even we ourselves are unsure whether or not he is indeed capable of such a crime. In a Lonely Place shrugs off some pacing issues thanks to a remarkably incisive script, one that also aids in building our lead man’s staggering performance. This is less a film about the process of writing movies and more about the lonely place within one’s own psyche. We come to realise that Dixon Steele knows this place rather well, and this is exhibited vigorously through his increasingly destructive personality. This, in itself, leads In a Lonely Place to a well-placed twist to the man-alone ideal, riding an explosive Bogart performance to create one of the most layered and unconventional examples of the noir genre to which I have ever bared witness.

Our Rating:

Pre-production:

As Co Location and Props adviser (a job I share with Keziah), I’ve been seeing a lot of possibility in my surroundings for the location of a horror film. My school, the local park, my road, even my house – it’s creepy! I can see great locations all over the place to the point of obsession. The great thing about being Location and Props adviser as well as the scriptwriter means that I can see a location, e.g. a park and then think of a really creepy plot to happen there. Great, but terrifying… Ever looked at an innocent playground and imagined a massacre that could take place there? Or perhaps an empty field and seen Pennywise the ageless dancing clown from Stephen King’s It standing at the far end of it with a red balloon in his hand? Me either, but wouldn’t that be a good idea? As script writer, I can’t wait to get started on scribbling down a first draft but with so many ideas floating around the group, we need to pin one down first before I can even begin to write a script. When writing the script, I need to make sure that my directions for the actors are clear so there are no complications or confusions on the day of filming. It is important that everyone is clear on the script and their stage directions so no time is wasted on the day of filming. After I have written the final draft of the script, I think that it would be a good idea to have a short meeting with my group to go over the script and storyboard to make sure that everything will run smoothly on the day of filming.

Production:

During the actual production stage of filming the 2 minute horror opening sequence, I will be acting as a director. I will share this role with Valerie. I decided to take on this important and influential role because when writing the script and looking carefully at the location, I imagine how the scenes look and by acting as director I can make sure that the actors and shots protray the message that I have tried to put across in the script. As a director, it is important that I maintain good communication with both the cast and crew without neglecting to listen to others within my group.

Post – Production:

After the initial footage has been shot, it will need to be edited using the apple mac computers at school. As a group we will all contribute towards the final edited piece. As an editor, it will be my responsibility to make sure that the raw footage is put together in an original way that fits in with the typical horor conventions. Editors must select decent videos and prepare them for the final clip. Editing includes editing sound as well as video footage and so it requires creative skill and an understanding of the editing software.

Oh what a world we live in today. We are so heavily influenced by others (especially the media) that we are held in prisons when it comes to how we want to act. Breaking out of our cages is shunned upon, and in the end some may see it as “not worth it”. When it comes to gender roles, this prison scenario applies definitely.

Guys have to act like a man. Girls need to be ladylike. If there is any disturbance to this “delicate balance”, the world will be a monstrous place.

Heh…we are all so brainwashed into associated roles depending on our sex, we are unable to escape the will of others and be ourselves. We are all forced into a specific mould, depending on whatcha got down there! We are taught that boys can’t wear dresses and act compassionate, and girls can’t be tough and assertive.  For those who DO be themselves, they are humiliated and abused causing the whole “be yourself” ideal unworthy of the torment that it may bring.

Why does this happen? Well there are theories, some of mine revolve around the idea that people do not want to paint a target on their back, so they just “go with the flow”. When we are little and we do something that the opposite sex is apparently only supposed to do, we are punished for our actions. When we act the way others view as “correct”, we are rewarded with praise and positive attention. When we get older, we can be ridiculed if we do not seem “cool” or “popular” in school, and to be those things you must follow the trends and roles set by others. Apparently being yourself is uncool, in other words. After all these years of either praise or torment for not being who you want to be, you either remain yourself or follow the insisting gender trends that you have been moulded into for your whole life, and you ridicule others because you were taught that doing actions belonging to other, or no gender roles are bad. If the individual remains an individual and not a mindless slave of trends and roles, they would be highly likely the target of insults and be-littlement. Thus ultimately, follow the pre-set roles and you will be “normal”, follow your own path and you will be “wierd”.

Let me introduce somebody to you that denied set roles and has the willpower to be herself.  Angela Gossow is a woman from Germany. She sings Death Metal (and VERY WELL may I add!!). She is a member of a very well-known Death Metal band Arch Enemy (one of my favorite metal bands). What is her singing style you ask? Death Grunts (low, raspy growls). To be honest, when most people first listen to Arch Enemy, they think the lead singer is a male (I did at first too), and when they find out the singer is truly a female it’s a real shocker. I didn’t believe it at first myself, some years ago. Assuming such is once again assuming that girls sing softly and gently, while males do the screaming and yelling in music. Nope. Not the case! As with most things in this world, males and females are perfectly capable of doing it, although some people think they can’t because of their “gender role cage”. If people did not think like this, we could all enjoy the things we would love to do, without the ridicule brought onto us by others.

( A picture of Angela Gossow while she is backstage at one of her band’s concerts.)

In some instances, some people get SRS (sexual re-assignment surgery) because they feel their gender and their sex is too distant from one another.I am not 100% sure as to why people feel this way, but it could be because others inflicted images of what a man and a woman have to be, and they can’t see themselves matching up to those images so they believe they were ment to be the opposite sex.(there are many other reasons such as genital dysphoria, I am sure).  I did some reading, and I found this article written by a doctor. It truly sums up the damage associations with gender and sex have done. This is the article, http://www.narth.com/docs/fitz.html, and quite frankly I think the guy is a sexist bastard (pardon my language, but it was VERY necessary!!!). He describes that boys who act “girly” (play with dolls, dress up, talk softly) are mentally messed up, and they apparently have problems that need to get fixed, as the same with girls who act “boyish”. The parents should be more strict with teaching the kid to  “act like a man”, “be a man”, etc (I kid you not, they said this line a lot…haha that rhymed). I won’t continue because I’m just gonna end up typing a page of nasty words out, but my point is society has to start realising a guy can play with dolls, a girl can play football (for examples) and that people can be whoever they want to be, and should stop scolding others for acting in a way that isn’t viewed as “normal”. Like my God..a boy who plays with an “action figure” can’t be told it’s a form of doll, or else he won’t play with it! He may have enjoyed it a second beforehand, but once the words doll were muttered, they can no longer play with it because he was taught “dolls are for girls”.

All I can say is as a society, we need to break the walls of gender roles down, and have a more androgyny society (or at least the free-f’ing will for people to be what they want to be and not be ridiculed by it!..there I go again =s). Well hopefully, in the future, we will see parents allowing their kids to act in whatever gender role they set up for themselves. If they want to wear dresses, play with trucks and dinosaurs, read comic books to their dolls and like to remind their parents that they love them who should be allowed to blow the whistle and say “that’s wrong”?

 REFERENCES

http://www.narth.com/docs/fitz.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_identity_disorder

Story from the UK Daily Mail.

Excerpt:

Working women have long complained that their man doesn’t pull his weight on household chores.

But his lack of effort on the domestic front could actually be a myth created by his partner, researchers have found.

According to a major study, female breadwinners exaggerate their partner’s uselessness around the home because they feel guilty about devoting too much time to their career, and not enough to their role of wife and mother.

By nagging their man over his alleged shortcomings, women feel more feminine because they can control the traditionally female role of maintaining the home and family, experts say.

‘Working women who provide the majority of the household’s income continue to articulate themselves as the ones who “see” household messes and needs as a way to retain claim to an element of traditional female identity,’ said Dr Rebecca Meisenbach, professor of communication at Missouri University.

Dr Meisenbach questioned 15,000 American female breadwinners for the study, to be published in the journal Sex Roles this week.

I posted on a related topic recently, regarding a new study showing that children of working mothers live unhealthier lives.

Bueno, este es mi primer intento de aplicar la edición de vídeos en el terreno sociológico, y digo intento por eso, porque, aunque en Sociología Visual la técnica de grabar y editar no sea la protagonista (técnica de la que yo carezco), igualmente no tengo formación específica en el campo de la Sociología Visual. Aunque esto, si Dios existe y quiere, pronto puede cambiar

Pero vayamos a lo importante. Para una asignatura de final de carrera llamada “Trabajo doméstico y vida cotidiana” tenía que hacer una exposición, junto con 2 chicos más, sobre el concepto de trabajo doméstico en base a una bibliografía: qué implica, qué simboliza, qué supone económica y socialmente y cómo podría medirse o calcularse, además de plantear al menos una pregunta para fomentar un debate posterior.

Pues bien, quizás sea porque se me ha alargado bastante la carrera y me tomo las cosas de otra forma (con menos pedantería), quizás se deba a que aborrezco las exposiciones aburridas o quizás simplemente se trate de que me encanta ponerme poco a poco a prueba en esto de editar vídeos, que a los miembros del grupo les propuse 2 cosas claras:

1. Que si usábamos el Power Point en la exposición nos limitáramos a no más de 3 páginas y que cada una de ellas fuera lo más escueta posible.
2. Qué les parecería poner un vídeo como final de la exposición, justo antes o después de la pregunta de debate.

A ambos les parecieron bien ambas ideas, es más, diría que la primera, de no haberla dicho yo, la hubiera comentado cualquiera de los 2. Y sobre la segunda idea, una vez me dieron su aprobación yo me puse a trabajar… En total estuve 4 días, quizás 4horas/día, entre buscar material, bajármelo, intentar mejorar el audio y editarlo para adaptarlo a mi uso y finalmente montar las imágenes.

Lo acabé justo la misma mañana del viernes, día en el que habíamos quedado para hacernos un seguimiento previo al lunes siguiente de la exposición (ayer). Les enseñé el vídeo y les encantó así que, una vez hablado todo, incluído lo del vídeo, me puse en contacto con la profesora y le hice saber que teníamos un vídeo para exponer al final de nuestra charla, que era breve y creíamos que se ajustaba a la materia PERO que no era académico, sino propio y que éste se guiaba por una canción cómica. Le adjunté el enlace del vídeo con la canción en cuestión y me respondió que le parecía una muy buena idea, y que adelante.

Y así, más o menos, fue como ayer lunes expusimos nuestro trabajo e introdujimos finalmente el vídeo:

Una vez rastreada la red en busca de un vídeo que hablara de la desigualdad de género sólo encontré 2 tipos de documentos:

1) Los que hacían referencia a la esfera pública: Mercado de Trabajo.

2) Los que hacían alusión a la esfera privada: Maltratos y, en el mejor de los casos y como reconocimiento al trabajo doméstico, limpieza (sólo una parte de lo que en realidad es el trabajo doméstico).

Encontré este audio de otras usuarias de Youtube y con él decidí montar un nuevo vídeo que permitiera visibilizar de una forma lúdica la gran parte del trabajo doméstico no reconocido y que, además, es el protagonista mayoritario de la desigualdad de género en términos absolutos (horas de trabajo).

* Sobre los roles de hombre y mujer en el hogar cuando se convierten en padre y madre:

Pese a que las mujeres se están introduciendo cada vez en mayor cantidad y mejores condiciones al mercado laboral, la desigualdad en éste por razón de género es todavía importante; pero ¿cuándo se equiparará el hombre a la mujer en el trabajo doméstico? ¿cuándo habrá igualdad dentro de los hogares?

La desigualdad de género dentro del hogar fomenta y agrava la desigualdad en el mercado laboral, así como la justifica; la tarea doméstica clave es el cuidado de los niños, que feminiza y naturaliza aún más todos los otros quehaceres de la casa.

Ejercer como padre no debería ser un derecho, sino un deber. Por la equidad.

Para rematar nuestra charla con él:

Y debo decir que gustó, y mucho. Ha sido la primera vez en mi vida que decenas de personas que no conozco ven proyectado un vídeo mío, y me sentí algo ruborizada, pero mereció mucho la pena. Al final la profesora centró más el debate en el vídeo que en la bibliografía y es más que probable que el vídeo quede vinculado a esa asignatura, como un recurso más, durante un tiempo indefinido.

Vamos, que estoy muy contenta

Pois é, fui na Liberdade de novo! Não tinha dito que precisava comprar mais coisas lá?  `.´

Um monte de tranqueirinha! hehe

Como sempre, estava calor e cheio de gente. hehe

Foi um trabalhão pra entrar e sair do SoGo, mas valeu à pena esquecer do mundo na Haikai, a melhor papelaria que tem lá. Você enlouquece com aquele moonte de coisas lindas, coloridas e kawaii, e dá pra achar desde chaveiros até todo tipo, cor e tamanho de papel de origami. Me acabo né?

Tô babando na mochila até agora. Ela é tão...colorida xD

Depois dei uma passada na Ikesaki, que dispensa apresentações. Comprei alguns esmaltes e alguns pincéis de make novos da ProArt (ouvi dizer que são bons, e o preço estava desejável, então não custa experimentar).

Esmaltes novos! Relevem a foto sobre a colcha da casa da vó! hehe

E FINALMENTE, comprei a minha mochila no melhor estilo Tokidoki que tava namorando há tempos.

Comprei também uma blusinha frente-única muito fofa esilo kimono. *.*

Aguardem resenhas da sombra preta que comprei (tava atrás de uma faz tempo também) e swatches de tooodos os esmaltes. =P

Kissu*

The last ABAA meeting for the year is nearly upon us — 8 Dec 2009. The topic of conversation will be ‘what is a business analyst’s role in an agile world’?

At first I thought this would be a very interesting conversation but the more I thought about it the more I thought it was a little naive to be asking the question in this way. Is there an actual role? … see for yourself . . .

Kanban

• Prescribes no formal roles

ZenAgile

• Samurai – the defender of the project
• Roshi – the project lead, teacher and mentor
• Sensei – the team’s mentor, leader and users’ champion
• Team – multi-disciplinary where its members are chosen based on need

Scrum

• Scrum Master – protector and champion of the team from The Powers That Be
• Product Owner – customer representative and stack prioritiser
• Team – multi-disciplinary based on need

Extreme Programming (XP)

• Tracker - measures and communicates the team’s progress
• Coach – like the Sensei in ZenAgile this is a supporting role that helps a team stay on process and help the team learn
• Tester – helps the customer define and write acceptance tests for user stories in the same way a Product Owner might do in Scrum
• Customer - defines what is the right product to build, determines the order in which features will be built, and makes sure the product actually work
• Programmer - implements the code to support the user stories
• Programmer administrator - manages the programmer environment

DSDM [1]

• Executive Sponsor – commits appropriate funds and resources
• Visionary – initialises the project by ensuring that essential requirements are found early on. The Visionary has the most accurate perception of the business objectives of the system and the project. Another task is to supervise and keep the development process in the right track.
• Ambassador User – the knowledge of user community into the project, ensures that the developers receive enough amount of user’s feedback during the development process.
• Advisor User – the one who represents important users’ viewpoints
• Project Manager – manages the project in general
• Technical Coordinator – designs the system architecture and controls the technical quality in the project
• Team Leader – ensures that the team works effectively as a whole.
• Developer – interprets the system requirements and model it including developing the deliverable code and build the prototypes
• Tester - checks the correctness in a technical extents by performing some testings. Tester will have to give some comments and documentation.
• Scribe – gathers and records the requirements, agreements, and decisions made in every workshop
• Facilitator – manages the workshops progress, acts as a motor for preparation and communication.

RUP

• Well, it has over 30 roles … so let’s not go there

If the essence of agile is simplicity then there’s certainly something wrong with some of these ways of working. The most striking thing in all of these is the lack of an actual, dedicated, business analysis role. There are certainly elements of a standard BA in DSDM’s Scribe and Facilitator roles. The Tester and Tracker roles in XP could also be done by someone with a BA background. Craig Brown of Better Projects has even suggested that a BA could undertake the role of the Product Owner in Scrum. But Scrum, ZenAgile and Kanban essentially take the most appropriate people with the most appropriate skills in order to acomplish a specific task or activity. In these, there is obvious room for a BA role to lead or follow, but no defined role for a BA to play as it’s task dependent.

So what is a business analyst’s role in an agile world? Just like there is no PM role in agile there is also no actual BA role either. In some areas that focus more on software engineering there aren’t even any standard analyst roles but moreover a focus on eliciting customer needs directly. It means that in some agile projects there may not be a perceived need to involve an analyst at all.

In reality, though, someone needs to assist with the following:

• Understanding users’ needs, wants, expectations, capabilities and attitudes
• Communicating and documenting those needs
• Translating those needs to those who will implement the project
• Ensuring that the output meets the needs of users and the strategic goals of the project and, moreover, the organisation as a whole

This reinforces that skills in business analysis are important for everyone in the project and not just a single role as is prevalent in traditional waterfall projects. It suggests that everyone, from the project lead, samurai or scrum master, should have these skills.

So what is a business analyst’s role in an agile world? There is no BA role. But everyone should definitely have a business analysts skills.

M

- – - -

1. http://www.businesspme.com/uk/articles/rh/49/Roles-of-DSDM.html

Medo, como vocês devem saber, é um sentimento fundamental pra que a gente continue vivo. Que o diga aquele menino que não sentia dor nenhuma e morreu aos 15 anos. Mas é o medo, muitas vezes, que freia nossa capacidade de aprendizado – especialmente no longboard, que á particularmente perigoso por causa da velocidade que adquire.

Meu irmão tem 18 anos e quando tinha uns 10 aprendeu a andar de skate com uns amigos. Andar, literalmente: ele não faz manobra nenhuma além de andar. No último final de semana, convidei-o pra dar um rolê conosco. Ele pegou o skatinho do meu outro irmão e saiu comigo na rua.

Enquanto eu ainda sou insegura pra caramba quanto a andar na rua, por causa dos carros, o moleque – que não subia num skate há 8 anos – pulou em cima do dele e fez o percurso em cima da prancha, na velocidade, porque a minha rua tem uma ladeira que é inclusive uma curva. Fiquei admirada, porque deu pra sacar que ele consegue fazer isso claramente porque tem muito menos medo de se machucar do que eu. Acabou que fomos no estacionamento em que costumo praticar e começou a chover em 20 minutos. Resultado: não andei nada.

No dia seguinte, no estacionamento, conheci mais alguns broders skatistas (os homens sempre se aproximam, coisa impressionante) e andei um bocado, cerca de duas horas. Fiquei ENCHARCADA de suor, foi realmente intenso o negócio. E percebi que se não sou corajosa como meu irmão, preciso perder o medo praticando, ganhando confiança. Melhorei muito minha base, velocidade das remadas e força nas pernas – mas principalmente segurança e equilíbrio em cima do skate. Agora, quando eu me desequilibro, simplesmente dobro as pernas e abaixo, e isso acontece intuitivamente. Antes, eu pulava do skate. Outra coisa é que já consigo andar mais naturalmente, sem precisar por o shape no chão, colocar o pézinho, remar… basta empurrar o shape com o pé, correr e pular em cima dele e eu já estou andando.

A coisa melhorou tanto que voltei andando pela rua, lá do estacionamento. Desviando dos carros e tal. RADICAL.

O próximo passo, amigos, é aprender a freiar. Depois disso, ninguém me segura. Quando vocês menos esperarem, estarei fazendo que nem o Adam Colton (queria é que o Adam Colton o próprio me ensinasse, mas enfim, não dá pra ter tudo):

Sem fotos da session do fim de semana de novo, porque dessa vez fui sozinha.

I’d been married for about a month and a half when my husband told me that I needed to start “taking on more wifely duties.”   WTF?!?!?

“Excuse me?”  I asked, and then went on.  “You married me.  I’m the same person I was two months ago.”

I found it absurd that the man I’d lived with for three years thought that I should suddenly morph into a five-star chef and meticulous housekeeper after the vows left my lips.  Turns out, it’s not so bizarre.  It should be, of course… but it’s not.

For some reason, many people assume their partner will change after marriage.  My ex looked at me and thought that I would “make a good wife”- for him, that meant I would cook and clean and have babies and quit my job to stay home and raise those babies.  I have no clue what gave him that idea.  When it didn’t happen that way, he felt betrayed.  It’s too bad he wasn’t clear about his expectations going into the marriage.  And it’s unfortunate that I wasn’t clear about mine either… of course, it was easy for me.  I had none.

The more people I talk to about their divorces or unhappy marriages, the more I see this problem:  The Role Expectation Issue. We’ve all heard about the high-level things that couples should talk about before marriage:  finances, goals, children, religious affiliations, living arrangements, etc…..  but that doesn’t always cover Role Expectations.  Someone once told me “…she expected me to turn into her father as she turned into her mother.”  That’s a huge problem.  Especially considering the bad rap of the in-laws… who wants to be expected to turn into them?  Total deal breaker as far as I’m concerned.

So what’s up with that?   What makes us think that a day spent in uncomfortable clothing, ending in a drunken dance fest, is going to change our partners into other people?  Why do we let it change ourselves?  Oh, wait… if we’re letting it change us, I guess that’s why we assume the other person will change too.  But that’s still wrong.  And it’s something that should be discussed beforehand…

“Honey, unless you are physically unable to do so yourself, I will never- ever- butter your toast as part of my morning ritual.”

…Let nothing go assumed.

A partir de amanha 24/11 o something lekal vai tar de cara nova galerinha -rs.

Aguardem, até amanha -rs

E mais: noticias das minhas férias, a repercussão das mil visitas, os rolês, as festas, as músicas, as histórias, o apagão. Infinitas impossibilidades aqui no something. [fechando voz de locutor de progama da tarde]. E estou a procura da batida perfeita de alguem pra me ajudar aqui, pra eu dar o ultimo convite no orkut e gente pra eu chamar pro google wave, mais detalhes… só dia vinte e quatro [voz de vanessãao mode off].

Enfim, agora eu vou postar todo dia, depois das 20:00, porque agora eu trabalho e é isso ai. Amo vocês e obrigada por entrarem mesmo eu estando ausente.

(Photo: stopnlook)

(Originally posted as a series November 16 -20, 2009 on The Blog of Jason Christensen – “Your Life as a Remote User”)

Times are tough right now. Raises are not being doled out, salary’s are being cut, 401K’s are not being matched, people are loosing their jobs…morale is low. Many managers may not be concerned if their remaining employees are unhappy; where do they think they are going to go in this economic environment? Don’t be short sighted; employees who are not happy are looking elsewhere and when the climate turns many will abandon ship. Now is the time to keep your employees exhilarated!

“So what can you do to motivate a team and create loyal employees when morale is low?”

—————————————————————————————————————————————————
In this economy it’s imperative employers concentrate on non-monetary motivating factors by:

1. Taking a genuine interest in people
2. Keeping an open line of communication
3. Helping people to understand the importance of their role
4. Bestowing recognition on your team
5. Cultivating career development plans

 

—————————————————————————————————————————————————

1. Take a genuine interest in people.

When times get tough people band together; they take a bona fide interest in one another.

• Find out what is going on in the life of your team members
• What is important to them right now
• Let them know you understand
• Do what you can to help them
• Offer advice if they are looking for it

Try making a mental list of everyone you may encounter today; think of what they are working on or what they have going on in their life and try to relate to them. People appreciate it when you take an interest in their lives. It will increase morale, let people know you care and help them realize they are not just another number in the corporate books.

Remote Note:

When your team is remote and you do not see them face-to-face this can be especially challenging. Take the time to work with each of them personally. Be sure to contact them weekly even if it is just to touch base. A one-on-one call will let them know you are thinking of them and will be there help should anything come up.

Keep in mind; this may be something you have to ease into if you have not shown an interest in the past; otherwise they may think you are prying and become suspicious. So take it slow, work to re-develop those relationships and with any luck it will lead to a motivated team, stronger group bond, greater retention rates, and increased team morale.

Think of others first, show interest in their lives, offer a helping hand.

2. Keeping an open line of communication.

An open door policy sends a message to your coworkers you are approachable, willing to listen and discuss issues as they come up. An open line of communication also acquaints you with your team in order to know what is important to them. If you are familiar with their goals and desires, you will be able to lead them more effectively grooming them for the next steps they wish to achieve. Without and open line of communication you are leading them blindly and will not get the synergies needed to achieve your goals.

• Ask employees for their ideas
• Be a good listener
• Take notes
• Work to find ways to incorporate their ideas into the corporate vision

You may be surprised at the good points of information they will provide to you. And when you do use their ideas and the employees see them in action you will be surprised by their loyalty to you and the company.

Don’t forget, communication is a two way street. People feel important when they know what is going on with their company. They feel a sense of power when they are “in-the-know” on breaking news. Reach out to your staff when there is news to be shared, organize your thoughts and convey a clear, concise, informational message without breaching company confidentiality.

Remote Note:

It can be tough to have a so called “open door” when you lead a team of remote users. Here are some tips to help:

• Always take their calls or return their calls as soon as you are available.
• If you only have a moment, let them know and schedule a definitive time to speak with them further.
• Hold weekly conference calls to allow for corporate communications, success and improvement stories as well as an open forum for issues affecting the team.

Keep an open line of communication, be a good listener and make them feel important.

3. Helping people to understand the importance of their role.

People like to feel needed, so helping people understand their contribution to the corporation and showing them their efforts DO make a difference will increase their morale. It is important for people to understand how each gear turns to keep the machine operating effectively. They need to understand the part they play in the overall corporate structure and the flow of the business.

Take a particular function in your business as an example:

• Where was it generated what is the intended outcome?
• What path had the process taken before it reached your team?
• Where did it go afterward?
• What was the result and how did it contribute to the goals of the company?

It is important to illustrate this so people understand their role is not idle and without function.

Another way to generate a feeling of contribution to the company is to delegate authority. Delegate authority by:

• Encouraging people to take on additional responsibilities
• Aligning them with the company goals
• Letting them take ownership of certain processes.

This increase in leadership responsibilities will build the bench strength of your team and increase fellowship amongst employees. Furthermore take the time to publicly recognize them and convey how their initiatives helped the company and/or the customer. Better yet invite the customer to take the time to provide a public testimonial of the employees efforts. This kind of respect in a timely manner will go a long way with your team.

Remote Note:

When your team is part of a remote workforce it can be especially challenging for them to understand the role they play in the company and the path processes take from inception to fruition. By illustrating to your team the route a business process takes whether it is through a slide presentation or work flow chart it helps them understand the function of their position and how they can affect the overall process.

In addition, it is important for the remote work force to understand the appropriate contacts for varied situations they encounter in their day to day. This will help them know where to go for answers when a problem arises.

Help your team to understand their overall role in the company and build bench strength through delegation.

4. Bestowing recognition on your team.

Expendable funds are minimal, but how do you recognize your team for a job well done? One of the best ways is to allow your employees a greater stake in the company. By offering your team options in the organization it generates a deeper interest in helping the company to succeed. The closer the ties, the more loyal they will be and the more desire they will have to look out for the best interest of the company.

A lesser option is to provide them with a gift they would not otherwise spend their own money to purchase. In better times companies had gift catalogs allowing the staff to pick from a selection of nice items. In today’s climate a more resonable token may be company logo merchandise. It allows the employee to boast his affiliation with a nice corporate logo while at a minimal cost to the company.

Let’s face it, people enjoy recognition, but the timing and context have to be right. Be sure to:

• Convey praise immediately with much encouragement
• Tie the recognition to the team goals and make it part of your repertoire
• Have recognition provided by an officer of the company, this is often times worth more than a material token
• Award people based on measurable goals

An award is good, but bragging rights are better!

Remote Note:

With a team of remote users it can be difficult to publicly recognize a job well done. A great vehicle for recognizing a team member is through a weekly newsletter. Create a short article touting the wonderful job they did and if you can get a customer testimonial it makes the achievement all the better. There is nothing like being able to show others your achievements right there in print.

Another great method is on your weekly team call where their colleagues can applaud them in person. It is always nice to have a quick pat on the back for a job well done.

What a terrific way to spark a friendly internal competition for your team members in order to vie for that top spot.

Awards and recognition generate loyalty and elevate morale.

5. Cultivating career development plans.

One of the worst feelings as an employee is not knowing where you are going with your employer. Take time with the individuals on your team and sit down with them to develop a clear career path showing them the next steps they can take based on their achievements. A great time to cover this is during biannual performance reviews. Take this time to provide constructive feedback AND discuss with them what they can do to grow with the company. Find out what you can do to help each of your team members advance and work to make it happen. Not only will it help them, but as management sees future leaders continually being produced from your staff it lets them know the value you offer to the company.

Develop your team using:

• Books and short articles on related topics
• Online Courses
• Out of office training workshops or seminars

When people are excused from their regular duties for a short period of time to participate in these type of events, it makes make them feel important amongst the crowd.

Out of sight out of mind.

Remote Note:
When you manage a remote team it is challenging to enhance the visibility of the work your team does. Often their achievements get overlooked by people who work in the office since they do not see your team members regularly. This can make it difficult for members of your team to exceed in the workplace and continually grow with the company. It is important to create campaigns to tout the accomplishments of your team. It could be through a company newsletter or possibly a weekly email stating the highlights of the week. Be creative and find a method which fits your corporate structure.

Take time with your team to make sure you understand what their goals are with the company and help them to develop and achieve those goals.

Keep your team on board! Think of others first by conveying an interest in their lives, talking with them frequently, letting them know they are doing a good job and you appreciate their contributions, then help them to develop in their careers. With any luck it will lead to a motivated team, stronger group bond, greater retention rates, and increased team morale.

I don’t think anything will top the Most Beautiful TV News Women of 2008 blog, but this’ll have to do for now.

So this is my list of the 20 most attractive actresses in movies.   I list them as the most “attractive” instead of “beautiful,” because though most of them are beautiful, “attractive” implies personality traits and other intangibles.  The roles are also important, though this isn’t a list of great actresses – it’s a list of the most attractive women in my opinion based on their roles in these movies.  So it’s sort of more the character than the person, since obviously I don’t know them.

Without going through the whole list, this competition was over before it began.  Linda Hamilton has the nice girl, innocent look in “Terminator” and she shows she has a lot of heart.  Then in “Terminator II” she becomes a bad ass.  Franka Potente in “Bourne Identity” has moxie and style.  If I had just seen her without her being in the role, she might not make the top 100, but she is pretty phenomenal in the role of Marie.

Sometimes it’s a particular scene that leaves the impression, like when Sigourney Weaver is possessed by a ghost in “Ghostbusters,” or when Phoebe Cates walks by the pool in “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” with an assist by the song “Moving in Stereo” by the Cars (one of the most underappreciated rock bands of all time).  Then there’s the woman as authority figure, like P.J. Soles who played an MP in “Stripes,” a variation on the teacher theme.  In “Silver Streak,” Jill Clayburgh looked wholesome; in “Basic Instinct” Sharon Stone did not.

Back before older women were called cougars, you had Jacqueline Bisset (“Class”), Anne Archer (“Patriot Games”) and of course, Anne Bancroft in “The Graduate,” who just edges out Katherine Ross from the same movie.  Believe it or not, Linda Fiorentino of “Vision Quest” was also an older woman although she played someone who was only 21 in the movie.  Her suitor in Vision Quest was 17.  I always thought her character was more like 25 until I saw the movie again.  Cheesy movie but great.

The mention of Sandra Bullock reminds me that I saw her twice in bars in Washington, D.C. about 10 years ago.  Each time she had her hair colored blond (or was wearing a wig) like she has it in her new movie “The Blind Side.”  It was definitely her.  Once was in Atomic Billiards in Cleveland Park.  I honestly can’t remember where the other time was.  Anyway, I went up to her to talk.   I didn’t mention anything about her looking like (or being) Sandra Bullock – just tried to talk with her but I have to say she was pretty underwhelmed.  She blew me off both times.  Then after that I told her I knew who she was.  Again, she was a little bit unimpressed.  Oh well.

So here you have it.  I’m going to add pictures later.

1. Linda Hamilton, Terminator
2. Linda Hamilton, Terminator II
3. Franka Potente, Bourne Identity and Bourne Supremacy
4. P.J. Soles, Stripes
5. Jacqueline Bisset, Class
6. Sigourney Weaver, Ghostbusters
7. Jill Clayburgh, Silver Streak
8. Linda Fiorentino, Vision Quest
9. Sharon Stone, Basic Instinct
10. Anne Bancroft, The Graduate
11. Katherine Ross, The Graduate
12. Anne Archer, Patriot Games
13. Julia Roberts, Ocean’s Eleven
14. Sandra Bullock, Speed
15. Lucy Liu, Charlie’s Angels
16. Jessica Lange, King Kong
17. Debra Winger, Officer and a Gentleman
18. Halle Berry, Swordfish
19. Robin Wright Penn, Forrest Gump
20. Ashley Judd, Double Jeopardy
21. Phoebe Cates, Fast Times at Ridgemont High

Honorable Mention:  Lynda Carter.  I know she was a TV actress and hardly did any movies, but I had to include her on the list. She can occasionally be spotted in Bethesda, MD and looks as great as ever.

Anyway, I’m sure I’ve missed a ton of attractive actresses but this is the list.  It was almost a year ago that I did the list of the most beautiful newswomen of 2008, and that blog entry has gotten more traffic than all my other blog posts combined.

So as I put this one up, and the previous one just below this, part of the hope is that more people will read the other parts of my blog that deal with www.mikeneedsakidney.com, which by the way, isn’t just for me but is designed to raise awareness for all people who need kidneys.  While I’m on the topic, check out the song that the Dirtbags, the Redskins Appreciation Club band did for me.

I don’t do pain, even in my imagination

In my last post I described an exercise for testing the depth of our positive attitude: write a novel about myself and make myself feel pain.  I tried it.  It was hard!  I’m glad to know that I am not a masochist.

But I learned a little.  I learned that we hate to lose our ‘role’ and that I hate to be around people who are just pretending to have a ‘role’.  From there, I found myself listing the HR procedures for increasing belonging and the metrics to show how much value these procedures add to a company.

A manifesto for HR!

My worst nightmare

My worst nightmare is being in zombie-land.  I hate being in places where people have become cynical and at best are just “deteriorating as slowly as possible“.

Of course, I don’t really hate it ~ I am terrified by it.  We are terrified by anything which assaults our personalities.  I’m an INTFJ or a shaper/completer-finisher/resource-investigator.  I don’t do incoherent, lazy, out-of-it.   I may be misguided.  I may be slothful about many things.  But I will always have a purpose.  If I am going to be rudderless, I do it on purpose!

Our nightmare is not to have a role

This was my insight from the novel-writing exercise.   We are all terrified by the prospect of not having a role, or not belonging to our communities and workplaces.  We are very sensitive to rejection.  Even the nuances of rejection send us into a flat spin.

Many things that can lead us to feel that we don’t belong

A lot of things can lead to a sudden feeling that we are out of place.

• Our general confidence
• Policies of the firm which signal who is in and who is out
• Cliques and favoritism
• Mismatches with our own hopes and dreams
• And storming – good old crises of confidence

Recraft your way to belonging

• Heaps has been written in the last few years about recrafting jobs to meet our personal needs.  A waitress tenderly sweeping the floor of the cafe with good music playing in the background is recrafting her job just as the young guy who also works there recrafts his job by trying to sweep as fast and vigorously as possible.  Both put their personal stamp and sense of meaning on the job.

• Poet David Whyte gives the same advice.  Begin with the ground, the hallowed ground on which you start.  Find meaning and belonging in what you already have and build from them.

• Positive psychologist,  Christopher Petersen calls expanding from what we have “building a bridge while we walk on it”.

• And for a good speech showing this is not just for me and you, but for the smartest and the brightest, listen to Dr Rao on Googletalk (YouTube).

Recrafting when we feel rejected

It is tough to recraft when we feel rejected though ~ for this reason.  We hate being rejected and we are loathe to admit that we have been excluded.

• One, it hurts.
• Two, we catastrophize and think that if this person rejects us, then everyone else will too.
• Three, we worry that if we dismiss rejection, we may dismiss feedback that will help us manage future relationships.
• Four, we catastrophize and think that if this relationship is not worthwhile, none will be worthwhile.
• Five, we worry that the information that we have been rejected will be used against us!

Rejection put us in an emotional spin and bullies know it!  They’ll use rejection to keep you off balance.

That said, how do you work on finding the good in situation when you are feeling lousy?

Recrafting when we we are afraid

I would say we should do three things.

• Make an objective assessment of the situation, as clinically as any staff officer in front of a paper map miles from the front line.
• As you are not sitting behind the lines and you are actually in the thick of things, do as you would in battle. Move yourself, everyone else and everything you need out of the firing line.
• Consider all the options including the options for negotiation and resumption of pleasantries.

This is really hard to do.  Believe me ~ being rejected by people like employers and teachers, on whom you depend, will frighten you almost as much as getting shot at.  In many ways it is worse.  You can allow yourself to be frightened by bullets as long as you act responsibly.  But to admit you are being “dissed” by your own side rips the guts out of you.

So you do the three steps: you take defensive actions, you try to be pleasant, you take time to make an objective assessment.  And guess what 90% of your energy is going into defending yourself from your own team!

Time spent on mending relationships in a firm

You are now being defensive and so is the next person and so is the next.  Guess what?  Anyone who wants to overrun this outfit, or take on this company, is going to win!

The firm is now in peril

This is my biggest nightmare.  It is quite clear once the spiral of defensive starts, the only thing allowing this firm to survive, is the incompetence of the opposition.  Anyone wanting to ‘take’ them would only have to distract the staff more for the whole ’shooting match’ to fall apart.

What is the alternative to a firm where we are all watching our backs?

Inevitably, things do wrong in companies.  People do bump against each other quite unwittingly.  Feelings are hurt.  If we want to be successful (survive),we need to establish is a working culture where people are able to deal with shock and surprise without passing it down the line.

How do we stop defensiveness spreading?

Good HR departments, generally in larger firms work hard to keep a positive atmosphere  (I did say good.)

• Good firms develop strong systems to minimize the management by whim. The reason they do that is to remove the objective threat to one’s employment that accompanies disagreements.  When there is no objective threat, then people can attend to mending their fences.  Good firms don’t allow people who are party to any “dissing”, in either direction, to take part in decisions about each others employment contract.

• Good firms go to great lengths to manage the assimilation process ~ known as on-boarding or induction. They work with people through the forming, storming and norming stages and then take a watching brief during the performing stage coming back in when there are changes in a team or when someone leaves.

• Good firms take some trouble to build diverse teams and to educate people why they need the very people who seem very different from themselves.  HR also takes some trouble to make sure that a team is not made of people who are too similar too each other and that the important bridging roles of team player and chairperson (the lazy roles!) are also present.

• Good firms insist that everyone has an active career plan which is reviewed with you openly by committees chaired by senior members of the firm.

• Good firms monitor diversity assiduously and keep a watchful eye on the formation of cliques.  HR is quick to intervene to minimize behavior that is rejecting and removes people’s attention from their own job.

• Good firms design jobs carefully making sure that is is easy to get down to work (autonomy), that growth is possible in the job visible (competence) and that jobs allow us express ourselves meaningfully (relationships).  Work has goals, feedback built into the task itself, adequate resources, dignity, respect, physical safety, contractual safety, mentors and coaches.  We don’t want people so confused about how their jobs fit into the wider whole that they cannot think straight.

This is what I do for a living

My job is to make a system so that we are able to work together even when we are rubbing up against people.  I will see the effects of my systems in several ways:

• People attempt to resolve difficulties without fear of their contracts.  People take the initiative; people don’t use the employment contract as a threat; negotiation of the employment contract is kept separate from other decisions; there is no fear in the organization or cynicism.
• The output of people does not vary significantly when they move from group to group.   Nor does the output vary between people with different demographic characteristics.
• The time taken for people to settle into the organization is known and the process is monitored and taken as seriously as quality on a Toyota assembly line.
• Everyone has an active career path, we are mindful of who should be seriously thinking about progressing onto other firms, and we treat their onward progression as part of our competitive edge.
• Deployment of individuals is not only done for and to individuals.  Teams are deployed so that they are balanced.  They are given time to bed down and their boundaries are respected.  Team work is not disrupted without investments being made in the time it takes to reestablish a team.
• We have designed each job so that it has clear goals measurable by the incumbent, they can see how well they are doing and they can step-into the job in an orderly way sharing their successes publicly with others.

HR Metrics

To monitor my system, I have metrics on each process.  I also monitor HR Costs/Sales in each business unit and over time.  When people have the time to attend to their jobs, I would see small improvements in the ratio.

Take for example, the HR Costs/Sales ratio in manufacturing which is usually around 10%.  If people are able to do their job only 10% better, then the ratio will increase from 10/100 to 9/100 or done the other way from 10/100 to 10/110 or a 1% in Gross Profit.  That is generally going to be “pure” profit ~ that is, it is money that comes available for new equipment, training and even medical insurance and holidays.

When we are making more money because we aren’t worrying, then that is good profit indeed!

We do what concerns us and we are terrified by its loss

So it seems making a role for everyone comes from greatest concern -that we are going to have to sit around faking it.  That  led me to think that everyone wants a meaningful role.  Not everyone wants to sit around making meaningful roles. Who would make the money if we did?  While other people are off making things and selling things, it is my job to create an organization where we can get along without needless friction.

An emotionally healthy company requires good systems.  We must be able to work without fear.  Problems must be refereed as they arise and early.  And we must trawl our systems looking for emotional bruising that is getting buried.  If we continue to hide the casual rejection of people “because we can”, it will eventually cost us our livelihood. While we are all protecting ourselves from each other, our opposition will be taking over our business.

Simply, I am doing my job when you are able to do yours and I do this job because I cannot imagine what it is like to live defensively all day long!

PS I still don’t think I did the exercise properly.  It is very hard to imagine pain ~ even on a make-believe character that looks, moves and talks just like us!

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• Do you live restlessly in the shadow of adrenaline-inducing goals? (flowingmotion.wordpress.com)

I’m always in catch up mode with my reading. I finally got to Ian Glazer’s “Access Certification and Entitlement Management” on a plane to California. If you are in the market for access certification, trying to understand how to construct and approach to managing entitlements or just want to understand the moving parts of access in any reasonably complex organization, then this is a must read. What got me thinking most was the tone of the paper. Essentially it boils down to the good advice to make sure you define boundaries for tasks well and get the people from the business who should own the information to become the owners by the end of the process. Ian also encourages you to use whatever resources you can, even if they make strange bedfellows. It reminded me very much (and I’m going to mix analyst firms here so forgive me) of Earl Perkin’s thoughts about making the auditor your friend and making sure you “care, but not too much”, which he communicated at the Gartner IAM Summit last week (and blogged about previously as well).

All this got me thinking about the actual content of such IT to business communication regarding access certification. And, since I was trapped on a 6+ hour flight with a power outlet but no internet, I came up with this small, tongue in cheek video. I know the terms will feel like nails on a chalkboard to some since they are not exact. But I really tried to exercise that “it’s more important that they get the right ideas and not the exact right terminology” notion as best I could.

It has been quite a while since my last post. I am trying to get back into the swing of things.  I am completely healed from the surgery, at least physically. At times I still tussle with the fact that I will never have any biological children of my own. I know that this is something that I cannot change, and I will come to accept it one day. But, it is a process.

The most busy time at my job is almost over. We are wrapping up the election, but unfortunately, we may have 6 recounts in our county. So, that will mean not being able to take off days as soon as we would have liked.  I am so ready for a vacation!!!

My little cousin is turning 19 on December 3rd, and she is a die hard Aaliyah fan. She wants an Aaliyah canvas painting. It’s $88 on eBay. I think I am going to get it for her, and that will be her birthday/Christmas present. I honestly believe that she can do the painting herself. She draws, and the girl has skills. Here is the painting she wants.

My brother sent me a text a couple days ago asking if I was butch or femme. Today he sent a text stating that I must be butch because I plan on getting locks somewhere in my going natural process. He stated that he “despises” hard lesbians, and he believes that butches wear locks. Now, this is my thing. It’s hard enough for gays and lesbians to deal with stereotypes and incorrect information from straight people, but to also hear it from gays disheartens me. Oh yeah, my brother is gay. I told him that I don’t do roles. I am neither butch or femme…I am just as comfortable in a dress and heels as I am in jeans and tims.  He stated that there is always a butch and femme in gay/lesbian relationships. This, I do not believe. My wife and I have two friends who are in a relationship, and they are both “butch”. I have friends who are in a relationship and they’re both “femme”. So, to say that there is always one and the other is not true.

He asked me if I was the “boy”. He feels that because a woman “fixes up stuff” around the home, she is “butch”. I don’t believe this either. If a woman who identifies as “butch” cleans the house and cooks, does that make her “femme”? No, it makes her a woman who cleans and cooks. I just don’t like labels. Never have. I am who I am, and that’s it. Don’t try to put me in a box. I cook, clean the house, and I fix things around the house. What does that make me? It makes me an adult with a wife and a home.

I talked to my new natural hairstylist today. I am going to go tomorrow to show her the picture of how I want my hair and we will make an appointment from there. Part of me is so excited about having it cut because I am tired of dealing with two textures. There is part of me that is also nervous…wondering how it will look. I will get through it though. Will post pics once the deed is done.

I have been perusing blogs and I came across usweetpea here on wordpress. That is where the image to the left came from. She has a blog post up there where she talks about an Etsy seller. You all know I love Etsy, and that I sell my products on there also. Well, here is the image that she posted that I fell in love with. I gotta have this! If you also like this, you can purchase it on the Etsy website in Ten23 Designs shop. There are lots of lovely items this shop. Swing by and see what you can find.

So we conclude this video series with 2 videos that sum up with how to use this idea to get what I think we all want – which is – to find out very quickly where we are now and then to see what we can do to affect our culture to start to get us on the path to the outcomes that we seek.

Of course the choice to do this is ours but all will be able to see it and the choices.

In this video we look at why would we care.

We have seen that we understand by seeing patterns. Until now we have focused on tangibles. Stuarts premise is that there is more value at looking at the pattern of the intangibles.

The key intangible is culture. So if we can see this pattern, we can map our way to the future.

Key to this pattern is our role.

We know what this is for parenting.

If we follow this we can have a quick look at any organization and see where it is and then make some valid decisions about what is going on and what to do.

It is as simple as seeing your role clearly.

All the gaps stem from this.

In this video we look at how we can use this new tool to “See” a new view of reality just as Galileo or Pasteur offered a new insight.

Start with “What is our role and then how can we be more effective”

Then is the culture and leadership aligned

Then is the org aligned

Then is the service/product aligned

The there must be a “face” can be an icon or a story.

We have relationships with a “face/icon”

Not with an institution. Icons and Symbols are best.

All must be aligned.

Without this you can all be very very hard creating entropy.

When you do this it will not be hard. With all aligned – there is very little friction. Flow – which is also a reward in itself.

Esta é a estação de trens de Basel, Suiça. Aqui, as bicicletas são bemvindas, não apenas para serem transportadas em trens, mas no estacionamento exclusivo para bicicletas, no subsolo:

Uma das rampas de acesso

Lockers e vendedor automático de câmara: vários tamanhos e tipos de bico

A rapaziada realmente pedala

(Photo: ralphbijker)

Times are tough right now. Raises are not being doled out, salary’s are being cut, 401K’s are not being matched, people are loosing their jobs…morale is low. Many managers may not be concerned if their remaining employees are unhappy; where do they think they are going to go in this economic environment? Don’t be short sighted; employees who are not happy are looking elsewhere and when the climate turns many will abandon ship. Now is the time to keep your employees exhilarated!

“So what can you do to motivate a team and create loyal employees when morale is low?”

—————————————————————————————————————————————————
In this economy it’s imperative employers concentrate on non-monetary motivating factors by:

1. Taking a genuine interest in people
2. Keeping an open line of communication
3. Helping people to understand the importance of their role
4. Bestowing recognition on your team
5. Cultivating career development plans

 

—————————————————————————————————————————————————

3. Helping people to understand the importance of their role.

People like to feel needed, so helping people understand their contribution to the corporation and showing them their efforts DO make a difference will increase their morale. It is important for people to understand how each gear turns to keep the machine operating effectively. They need to understand the part they play in the overall corporate structure and the flow of the business.

Take a particular function in your business as an example:

• Where was it generated what is the intended outcome?
• What path had the process taken before it reached your team?
• Where did it go afterward?
• What was the result and how did it contribute to the goals of the company?

It is important to illustrate this so people understand their role is not idle and without function.

Another way to generate a feeling of contribution to the company is to delegate authority. Delegate authority by:

• Encouraging people to take on additional responsibilities
• Aligning them with the company goals
• Letting them take ownership of certain processes.

This increase in leadership responsibilities will build the bench strength of your team and increase fellowship amongst employees. Furthermore take the time to publicly recognize them and convey how their initiatives helped the company and/or the customer. Better yet invite the customer to take the time to provide a public testimonial of the employees efforts. This kind of respect in a timely manner will go a long way with your team.

Remote Note:

When your team is part of a remote workforce it can be especially challenging for them to understand the role they play in the company and the path processes take from inception to fruition. By illustrating to your team the route a business process takes whether it is through a slide presentation or work flow chart it helps them understand the function of their position and how they can affect the overall process.

In addition, it is important for the remote work force to understand the appropriate contacts for varied situations they encounter in their day to day. This will help them know where to go for answers when a problem arises.

Help your team to understand their overall role in the company and build bench strength through delegation.

-What are you doing to build the bench strength of your workforce? Please leave a comment and let us know.
-How do you communicate workflows and processes within your group? Please leave a comment and let us know.

~Check back daily for the additional series segments.~

REALIZACIÓN DE UN PROYECTO

¿QUE PREFIERES, EL TRABAJO O LA CARCEL?

I’ve been saddened to read online that theatre, film and television actor Edward Woodward has died in hospital today at the age of 79. Mr Woodward was known for playing roles such as TV’s Callan & The Equalizer and also film roles Sgt Neil Howie in the Wicker Man and Tom Weaver in Hot Fuzz among many others. He had been suffering from various illnesses including pneumonia. Various people who worked with him have been paying tribute including Barbara Windsor and Simon Pegg. He is survived by his second wife actress Michelle Dotrice and four children. Thanks for reading.

Sou só eu ou, depois que você começa a andar de skate, observa o espaço urbano sempre pensando que determinado lugar seria uma boa pista?

Percebi isso porque essa semana tô aqui em Belo Horizonte e me arrependi de não ter trazido meu pequeno carrinho. Obviamente que isso seria impossível, já que estou a trabalho e o long não é exatamente uma coisa fácil de transportar, mas não posso deixar de olhar pra esse Museu do Ofício aqui em frente, com uma praçona em que as pessoas quase não transitam, e lembrar do meu skate.

Aliás, achei estranho mas ainda não vi ninguém andando aqui em BH. Onde será que estão os skatistas mineiros?

Enfim, to aqui pra falar da minha última SESSION. Adoro usar essa palavra, parece até que eu realmente sei o que estou fazendo quando subo no skate. No fim de semana passado, desci pra dar um rolê no sábado e no domingo, no primeiro dia na ladeirinha de trás da casa da Gabi,m e no segundo no pátio vazio do Paço Municipal.

Percebi uma melhora significativa no meu condicionamento físico, provavelmente porque dessa vez eu não vacilei e fiz alongamento antes. Ou seja, aguentei durante mais tempo remando em cima do skate sem desmontar de cansaço.

Outra coisa: melhorei muito meu ‘timing’da remada. Percebi que se você entender direitinho a velocidade do skate e a força do impulso que você dá, pode aproveitar o movimento para se esforçar menos e inclusive machucar menos o pé. Eu tava fazendo muito esforço e obtendo um resultado muito pequeno nas remadas, e isso melhorou bastante.

Andei cerca de 40 minutos no sábado (só), tentando aprender o footbreak, e no domingo foram umas duas horas. No fim, acabei dando um mal jeito nas juntas e subi pra casa mancando, mas foi só falta de condicionamento físico mesmo, porque no dia seguinte eu tava bem.

Também não cai, perceptivelmente melhorei meu equilíbrio sobre o skate. Claro que estou longe de estar totalmente a vontade sobre ele. Mas claramente estou mais desenvolta. Percebi que não pareço mais alguém aprendendom lutando pra não cair de cima dele na maioria do tempo.

Ainda me falta mais tempo pra praticar, até porque ainda tenho muito medo de andar na rua, porque não estou segura e cair no meio dos carros pode ser fatal. E já tô sentindo falta de dar um rolê. Mas segunda tô de volta, daí quem sabe…

Now in the confession of the Trinity we hear the heartbeat of the Christian religion: every error results from, or upon deeper reflection is traceable to, a departure in the doctrine of the Trinity (Herman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, vol. 2, God and Creation, 2:288).

What a remarkable and fascinating statement penned by Herman Bavinck! Though it may be an overstatement in some ways, I think he is right. Any doctrinal or ecclesiastical issue can ultimately be traced back to an unbiblical and unorthodox understanding of the persons, roles, and relationships between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

One example of theological and practical error seen today in the home and the church is the practice of egalitarianism in church roles and marriages. Many vehemently oppose the idea that women are subordinate to men concerning roles in the church and in marriage. The argument is that if women are subordinate in roles, if women are to be submissive to their husbands and church leadership, then men are superior to women as human persons. Yet, they argue that because the Bible says that men are not superior humans to women, then all roles should be equal! And so we see women usurping roles within the church that have been ordained by God to be fulfilled by men alone (e.g.- elder), and we see women refusing to be submissive within their marriage to their husbands.

Yet, this isn’t a cultural reaction and issue as much as it is a blatant rejection of the Biblical and orthodox understanding of the Trinity! Egalitarianism is a perfect example of Bavinck’s summation mentioned above. The fruit of egalitarianism can be traced back to the root of rejecting the orthodox understanding of the Triune God. For, we see time and time again from the Scriptures that though the Father, Son, and Spirit are all the same in substance and equal in power and glory (WSC, 6), the Son is subordinate to the Father in their roles and relationships.

We see this reality, for example, in the following verses:

1 Corinthians 15:25-28:

For he [Christ] must reign until he [God] has put all his enemies under his [Christ] feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For “God [the Father] has put all things in subjection under his [Christ's] feet.” But when it says, “all things are put in subjection,” it is plain that he [God] is excepted who put all things in subjection under him [Christ]. When all things are subjected to him [Christ], then the Son himself will also be subjected to him [God] who put all things in subjection under him [Christ], that God may be all in all.

John 5:19, 26-27, 30

So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise…For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man…“I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.

John 17:4

I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.

Therefore, Egalitarianism should not be seen as a secondary issue, because it strikes at the locus of the Christian confession by holding to a radically unbiblical understanding of the Trinity!