Documentation is a form of communication that allows us to share knowledge across all levels of an organizations structure, is readily available at all times, and is an essential part of a company’s best practice and improvement process. For example, through documentation, companies, employees, and clients are kept informed of business requirements for new or revamped deliverables. Information gathered from subject matter experts, from shadowing others, and from hands-on experience is explained in clearly written documents that are created for specific target audiences.
But what is the Return On Investment (ROI) of documentation? What if we didn’t have any?
Without any documentation:
Stakeholders, clients, managers, developers, analysts, testers, etc would not have the necessary information needed to get their jobs completed with accuracy. They need technically precise information that is written in a logical and concise manner. Documentation thus breaks down highly complex models into simpler easy-to-understand concepts, processes, and procedures via workflows and content for specific targeted audiences. As an example, if test cases were not documented, Testers would not know what scenarios or scripts to work on for their user acceptance testing to ensure quality products.
Legacy information would not be available to denote a systems structure or architecture, or to list original developers, or to communicate the knowledge for reproducing a similar system. If any developers or analysts were asked to create a similar model or project, time would be lost in researching information. They would not know, e.g., which database, platform, or system structure to use. They would have to spend time to initiate several meetings to gather all relevant information and would lose project time when all they would have had to do was refer to existing documentation. In other words, documentation saves the company time, money, and effort when processes need to be revisited.
Guides, manuals, marketing material, etc. would not be available to pass knowledge to consumers, clients, etc. Clearly written guides and training material are needed to provide basic understanding of fundamental key processes and concepts of the end product.
Any new users, hires, managers, developers, etc would not have the necessary resources to assist them in understanding the functionality of existing applications. Documentation walks users through various manual processes and provides best practices for using and building products.
Information transpired during time consuming technical meetings would be lost. Documentation is gathered for a products life cycle beginning with gathering requirements to passing data to the development team, to the testing phase, and finally to production. The content can consist of anything from its purpose to resources to various platforms and architecture.
Technical Writers use documentation as a tool to help readers see and understand technical information more easily. As a rule, documentation should be part of a company’s standardization process in order to avoid reinvention and duplication of a process, application, product, report, etc. This is especially needed in large corporations where there is a lot of information spread across multifunctional divisions or departments.
There really isn’t a mathematical way that I am aware of that currently measures the ROI of documentation. We know its value by the support it provides and its accomplished goal.
If you have ideas for the ROI of documentation, please leave a comment.
“I’ve fallen into this trap too many times. In my mind, I tell myself if I’m busy, I’m adding value. The reality is that we can be busy about the wrong things. And, if we don’t discipline our lives, we’ll find ourselves investing a lot of our time with little impact.”
Some leaders have this ailment called activity addiction. Do you? They think that having their plate overflowing each day means that they are excelling at their job. Being busy is not the same as being effective. Truthfully, some highly effective people are not overly busy. They have learned to focus on priorities, not activities; to delegate but not micro-manage; and to know when to act and when not to.
The most effective managers today are not addicted to being busy; rather, they are addicted to producing measurable results by doing the right things, in the right way and at the right time.
YES or NO!
People think focus means saying yes to the things they have to work on. But that’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. So pick carefully. Get together with your boss, team or board in the next week and answer these 6 questions:
What are the key things we have to accomplish this quarter?
Which are the most important or has the highest priority?
Why are they important to our team or organization?
When are our deadlines? How firm or how flexible?
Who are the key people or groups we must satisfy?
When faced with competing tasks or requests:
– What do we say yes to?
– What do we say no to?
– What do we put aside to later?
Management Success Tip
Make sure your time is used to its best advantage. If you’re like most hard-charging managers, you have a long to-do list and feel proud of it. Now take another look. Start a stop-doing list. Effective leaders have developed the discipline to stop doing anything and everything that doesn’t lead to the results they want.
Even those in the most benign of industries are bound to encounter situations where their reputation is in danger. Let your reputation get hurt and you’ll soon see the bottom line follow. One of the best ways to prevent this is by doing regular vulnerability audits, a multi-disciplinary risk assessment meant to determine both current and potential areas of weakness and strength, and to identify potential solutions.
Most companies simply don’t conduct vulnerability assessments, because they’re often regarded as unnecessary expenses.
But Bernstein compares them to an inspection from a fire marshal: necessary and thorough. They should look at every aspect of the company. “There is a dearth of crisis management fire inspection going on,” he says.
Most crisis plans are based on response rather than known vulnerabilities, Bernstein says. And that’s a big problem, because what if the company, in the middle of a major crisis, discovers its phone system can’t handle a flood of calls or its website can’t handle thousands of visits all at once?
“All the plans in the world won’t stand up if you don’t have the infrastructure for them,” he says.
Much like athletes run through countless drills to build muscle memory, your organization must practice crisis scenarios on a regular basis to stay in shape to react properly. To discover what type of crises you’re most likely to encounter, you have to have the courage to ask the question, “Where am I vulnerable?”
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For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
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Stressful situations are all too common in a workplace that’s facing budget cuts, staff layoffs, and department changes. It may become harder and harder to manage your emotions under these circumstances. But it’s even more important now for you to do so.
After all, if management is forced into making more layoffs, they may choose to keep those who can handle their emotions, and work well under pressure. As the above quote shows, no matter what the situation is, you’re always free to choose how you react to it. So, how can you become better at handling your emotions, and ‘choosing’ your reactions to bad situations?
1. Stop and evaluate. One of the best things you can do is mentally stop yourself, and look at the situation. Ask yourself why you feel frustrated. Write it down, and be specific. Then think of one positive thing about your current situation. For instance, if your boss is late for your meeting, then you have more time to prepare. Or, you could use this time to relax a little.
2. Find something positive about the situation. Thinking about a positive aspect of your situation often makes you look at things in a different way. This small change in your thinking can improve your mood. When it’s people who are causing your frustration, they’re probably not doing it deliberately to annoy you. And if it’s a thing that’s bothering you – well, it’s certainly not personal! Don’t get mad, just move on.
3. Remember the last time you felt frustrated. The situation probably worked out just fine after a while, right? Your feelings of frustration or irritation probably didn’t do much to solve the problem then, which means they’re not doing anything for you right now.
4. Don’t surround yourself with worry and anxiety. For example, if co-workers gather in the break room to gossip and talk about job cuts, then don’t go there and worry with everyone else. Worrying tends to lead to more worrying, and that isn’t good for anyone.
5. Focus on how to improve the situation. If you fear being laid off, and you sit there and worry, that probably won’t help you keep your job. Instead, why not brainstorm ways to bring in more business, and show how valuable you are to the company?
Career Success Tip:
When you find yourself stressed, ask yourself one question: Will this matter in 5 years from now? If yes, then do something about the situation. If no, then let it go. In other words, don’t sweat the small stuff… and most of it is small stuff! So whatis the small stuff you are going to let go of? What’s the big stuff you’re going to keep?
We love our visual aids–especially when they work for us. However, when we fail to use them as intended, we are abusing them.
It is an abuse of a less serious nature, but important in the world of training and development, and of course, public speaking in general. I thought I’d dwell on a Cave Man basic of training a little. Using visual aids. My cave drawings were distracting my audience. Or, am I distracting my audience from enjoying my visual aids. Ever happen to you?
This a more traditional blog for me, but I thought it was time to direct some energy toward a basic, but essential part of training–the presentation or delivery of training, and the most important tool we have to use. After ourselves, of course. I’m talking about visual aids, how we abuse them, and hopefully, how not to abuse them.
The biggest problem speakers and trainers have with visual aids is in speaking to these inanimate objects in most cases and not their audience. We don’t yell at these objects. Maybe we curse the technology when it fails, but for the most part, we love our visual aids–especially when they work for us. However, when we fail to use them as intended, we are abusing them.
We like to use them as an outline or cue cards for what we are about to say. This becomes a problem when we get lazy, thinking the visual aid is what matters most. We need to go back to the basics once in awhile and think again who all this is for. We need to not insult our audience by reading the slides verbatim. While it is perfectly fine to refer to a bullet point or two and expand on it, taking each one becomes, not only repetitive, but also turns what could have been interesting, given your point of view, an exercise in the mundane. A speaker or trainer should never be mundane.
Visual aids: how we abuse them, and how not to abuse them.
We should be about dynamic presentation, using those aids as intended, to enhance and add impact. Visual aids can also be the spice, adding beauty and clarity. A visual aid, such as a basketball being dribbled in by the speaker, serves to get our attention. Of course, the speaker should be talking about basketball or dribbling and use it as visual aid to elicit attention or make a point.
Bad visual aids can ruin a speech. Good visual aids can make it dynamite. If we don’t abuse them.
Even though we all know the rules, we can’t help but show all we know, be artistic if we are that, or technical/special effects genius–if we are that. Herein lies the danger: making too much of the visual aids we use or forgetting (a momentary lapse, I’m sure) of why we use them in the first place.
Visual Aid? The most important training tool we have to use. After ourselves, of course.
Amateurs put too much on a slide. “But the information is exactly what they need to know?” Yes, but do they need it at the exact moment you are speaking. I hope not–because that would be a pretty boring presentation. Take someone helping others to fill out forms. What happens when that form is blown up on the screen as a visual aid? Nothing! Well, eyes glaze over. When you do that no one’s going to read the document. If you pass a copy out to the group or even each individual, you will lost the entire group’s attention. Make an abbreviated snapshot but provide a copy the whole document as a handout if necessary. Make that handout (also a visual aid by the way even though you are handing it out) available at the end of the speech or training session unless you want your trainees or audience focusing on the printed page instead of listening to you. When you do that–even if the form or document is the subject of your presentation–you lose your value as a speaker. Once in the hand of the trainee or audience member, you’ve lost them to the printed page.
Better to focus your talk on what the audience needs to hear. If your talk is to help them understand the document, focus on what will guide them on their own–unless you are doing an over-the-shoulder with each of them.
Let’s not forget the basic advantages of visual aids. They do give us clarity, add interest, help people retain information, provide additional credibility, and an artful or dramatic image can be persuasive.
You’ll find the rest in an speech book chapter on visual aids.
Keep in mind. Good visual aids are one thing and how you use them is another. Simple is better than complex. You can either show us pretty pictures, put up lots of unusable data, make our audiences work harder or you can direct them to what you want them to see.
I know this is basic, but I still see visuals abused every day in the conference room, presentations that evoke boredom, elicit questions of “why me,” or “that’s cool, but what does it have to do with anything?” If your audience is thinking about your visuals in any way other than seeing them as adding to your presentation, something is seriously wrong. For lack of good visuals an entire presentation of valuable information, a speech of substance and meaning becomes a meaningless exercise. Visuals are an important part of the package, yes, but not all.
We all know the audience comes first. The speech or training is about them, and not about us; however, it is not about our visual aids either. We are married to our visual aids when we use them. Don’t abuse them.
Can’t get more basic than that from the Cave Man tradition. It’s tough writing on walls. Just enough works all the time.
Enough from the Cave Man. More platitudes and ruminations can be found on my website under What I Say. I am available for public speaking, presentation delivery and design, training development, consultation, speech and presentation coaching, etc. Just give me a call. My eBook, The Cave Man Guide to Training and Development, is out and available through major distributors, and I have a second book in the works based on many of my blogs here that I hope to publish early next year.
Meanwhile my dystopian novel, Harry’s Reality, is being offered through Amazon. Believe it or not, it’s about a world and a time when we don’t need people to ruin the world for us and we turn to an evolving artificial intelligence to fix the mess we started. Sound familiar? Not with all the twists, I put in it. ‘Nuff said for now. Happy training.
Last week I had the opportunity to hear Thomas Lockwood speak about design thinking at the ODN Conference in Baltimore. His ideas support those of others writing on this topic as well as Cairn Consulting’s Situational Thinking. To start let me reinforce his comment that design thinking is not the same as “design,” the former being a mindset the latter a work process. In Situational Thinking, design thinking links the linear and non-linear mindsets. I call it “Episodic Thinking” because it alternates between left and right brain cognition. Episodic Thinkers are contextually aware of their situation, which allows them to adapt their thinking style quickly and experiment by taking small actions. From Tom’s talk I distilled three additional key attributes of design thinking that highlight how they link together the two ends of the Situational Thinking Continuum:
Design thinking is strategic (covered this week)
Design thinking is collaborative (November 22nd)
Design thinking communicates (November 29th)
Design Thinking is Strategic
Design Thinking identifies the right problems and asks the right questions about them. This mindset opens us to the entire conversation continuum (See Figure 1) – dialogue, dialectic, and discussion. Strategy begins by identifying the right challenges and questions, and understanding them through dialogue. After exploring the complexity of the situation (divergence), we can test our assumptions and options with dialectic conversations and move to action (convergence) knowing that our tactics have emerged from the breadth of our conversation and the depth of our understanding.
Design Thinking seeks unarticulated needs by seeing the whole system. The story Tom told was the design of Swifter®, a product that I have never liked. What is curious to me is that now that I understand the design thinking that drove its development, I will begin to use it! So, while the design mindset was instrumental in creating a product that saved time, reduced water consumption, and improved the cleanliness of the home, I am not sure that the promotion of the product contained the same mindset. This points out that design thinking must be used throughout the product development and commercialization process.
Rule of Thumb: Design/Episodic Thinking should be employed anytime you are moving from linear to non-linear thinking (How do we innovate the process of washing the floor?) and from non-linear to linear thinking (How can we make homeowners aware of the design benefits of Swifter®?).
Design Thinking harnesses abductive logic in order to adapt to constantly changing market environments. Design Thinking encourages innovation by understanding the practical value of the product as well as its contextual and experiential value. This bundled value is achieved using abductive logic (Figure 2). I loved the way Tom explained abductive logic, placing it between the deductive logic of business tactics (100% Reliability) and the inductive logic of pure design (100% Validity). This provides a way for leaders to understand and use it.
Pure business logic, deductive in nature, seeks to be 100% reliable – measurable, repeatable in many different environments and situations, predictable, consistent, and having a low degree of variability. Importantly, reliability does not imply validity; you can reliably measure the wrong thing.
Pure design logic, inductive in nature, seeks validity – disambiguation, understanding the need beneath the need, the extent to which a product, service, or idea corresponds to a need or desire in the “real” world (i.e. that of the customer). Design requires experimentation, contextual research, prototyping, co-creation, and fast failure. It seeks to tailor product to customer need and is best for niche markets or personalized customers.
Abductive logic recognizes multiple causes or explanations for situations, challenges, and environments (lumped together we could call these “reality”). This expands use and benefit beyond niche or personalized needs. Using hypotheses generated through observation, abductive logic tests for validity and reliability using action research – small steps that encourage feedback from the “reality” being tested in order to integrate the responses into the next prototype. In this way we can orient ourselves within the current reality, picking the best option for moving forward and eliminating those that are less desirable.
Design / Episodic Thinking uses inductive and deductive logic to gain validity for the widest range of target customer possible in order to increase reliability. The iterative process is abductive; it links successive approximations of “reality,” rapid prototyping your way forward. From physics we can borrow the idea of the wave-particle duality – our multiple and varied options exist as a wave of potential actions, which only collapses when we choose one to act on (particle). In a sense abductive logic only partially collapses the wave, keeping us connected to all the possibilities available to us while maintaining agility and resilience.
Next week the second aspect of Design Thinking: Collaboration.
Dr. Carol Mase is a consultant, coach, and small business manager. Contact her at 215.262.6666 and visit www.CairnConsultants.com for more information.
Hoping that, between last Tuesday and today, you haven’t used the four illustrations of bad fundraising technique, we continue with the theme/intent of this three-part posting.
Once in a while, the response to the cold Letter, the cold Call, the Invitation (out of the blue) or the Visit (not preceded by the appropriate education and cultivation) might be, “Of course, let me write you a check.”
That check, whether in 4 or 5 figures, is a “gift” that most non-profits would consider “major.” E.D.s and D.O.D.s often look upon a 4-5 figure check as a “gift-from-on-high,” and don’t realize that, as good as it might feel to get that check, they’ve wasted (at least, misused) a lot of time and effort.
If the contact was a suggestion by someone close to Mr./Ms. Gotbucks, the “gift” is likely to be a quid-pro-quo — a dilemma in which many Directors of Development and Executive Directors find themselves. The “prospect” knows that if s/he gives to his/her friend’s pet charity, then the friend will give to his/hers.
That 4-figure-check, by some amazing coincidence, is likely to be for the same amount as the check his friend/partner/acquaintance wrote to the non-profit organization that contacted him/her at Mr./Ms. Gotbucks suggestion.
If his/her name was provided by an acquaintance or was obtained from a “list,” there would be (much) less likelihood that Mr./Ms. Gotbucks will write a check — there would be less motivation, if any, to do so.
Whatever the size of the check you manage to solicit/obtain/wheedle/beg from this “prospect,” it will be for an amount that the “donor” considers a token — doing-what-has-to-be-done-to-keep-the-scales-balanced, or just to get rid of you. It’s “Go Away Money.”
In other words, “Here’s a check. It’s all you’re going to get. Now, Go Away!!” And, from then on, you have a donor who doesn’t return your calls, respond to your mail or show any interest in learning about or becoming involved in what you do.
Now, don’t get me wrong!! I’m not suggesting that you shouldn’t take the check, or even that you shouldn’t make the effort to get it in the first place. The point is, by the above method, you will not realize sufficient/appropriate value for your investment — you (may) end up with a check, but not a constituent.
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This three-part posting concludes next Tuesday … with an emphasis on “real” major gifts fundraising.
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Have a comment or a question about starting, evaluating or expanding your fundraising program? With over 30 years of counseling in major gifts, capital campaigns, bequest programs and the planning studies to precede these three, I’ll be pleased to answer your questions. Contact me at AskHank@Major-Capital-Giving.com
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Have you seen The Fundraising Series of ebooks ??
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= If you would like to comment/expand on the above, or would just like to offer your thoughts on the subject of this posting, we encourage you to “Leave a Reply” at the bottom of this page, click on the feedback link at the top of the page, or send an email to the author of this posting.
I thought, “I can give a talk as an enrichment lecturer.
It was an amazing experience. Perhaps, “amazing” isn’t the right word, but it was an experience I will never forget. Nor should you if you ever decide to speak or lecture on a cruise ship. Sounds like great fun to anyone who likes cruising and enjoys talking to groups. Even though I am an experienced speaker and feel comfortable interacting directly with my audiences, my first experience was a real learning curve for me personally.
There’s nothing quite like a cruising audience.
Imagine a speaking arrangement where you find yourself speaking after the adult glee club practice and before the BINGO group? The subject doesn’t really matter, does it? It doesn’t even matter it is not long after lunch. I found myself in such a situation, but I asked for it–not once, not twice, but three times–and I got what I wished for. Whether it was a good idea remains to be seen, but I learned from it, and now I hope to share the experience with you.
How many times have we warned others and fallen victim ourselves to being enticed into doing something we really aren’t prepared to do? You may have guessed already that I’m talking about giving a speech or presentation without proper preparation because the opportunity sounds sooooo good and how awesome the event and the client will sound on your resume. So, you do it. A topic you know so well you can wing it now. You think.
I am so guilty of doing what I teach my students not to do about being prepared to speak. Even if a wonderful opportunity presents itself. Still, I am busted. Was it worth it? In experience. It’ll still go on my resume. Does it exactly make me proud? No. Why? Because it was ill advised by an expert: me. I should know better. Okay, I’m human. There are circumstances where we find ourselves looking back and knowing we should have restrained ourselves and didn’t. You know, the too much dessert, too many drinks with friends; but this was different. This was the golden opportunity.
I was going about my business preparing to take a family vacation aboard a cruise line, and I thought, “I can give a talk as an enrichment lecturer. That might be fun and perhaps another venue to explore.” I am a communicator I told myself; I can speak about virtually anything. (I don’t believe that completely, but I was going for the dramatic effect.)
I wrote a letter to the cruise line asking for the opportunity. I already knew by looking at the website that this particular cruise line allowed qualified guests to speak and even brought others in for no pay. If the speaker was a big name, he or she would come under the heading of entertainment; I was just looking for opportunity and a chance to get a free cruise every once in awhile. I didn’t hear back from the cruise line and wrote a second letter, this time naming the cruise director and making all manner of social media to make contact. I finally received a letter saying, “Thank you, but we usually have people talk on very cruise-related topics like oceanography, cultural anthropology, famous ports of call, etc.” Or, words to that effect. Oh, “and if I wanted to contact the cruise director, remember he is a busy man on ship and may not have the time to see you.”
What I had wanted and what I got were two different things. I wanted some subject-matter ideas that the cruise line would like someone to talk about and given time I could have researched and put together a pretty good presentation. Instead I was a little put off by the response, even though it was a perfectly fine response from a customer service point of view. From my point of view, however, I was insulted they hadn’t jumped at the chance to have me speak. Actually I was disappointed I had not sold myself to them well enough.
I did what I am not known for doing: I backed down and said, okay, I’m on vacation. To be perfectly honest, this is what my wife wanted anyway, but she supported me. Two days into the cruise I heard the cruise director say he had an open door. Bold little me decides just to meet him and thank him for the courtesy of even being considered an “enrichment lecturer” for free. I had given up reluctantly on my original course of action. I walk into his office confident and sure I am just being courteous. The cruise director is a veteran communicator himself, and smooth. He looks at me, and as soon as he hears my name, he has my letters to cruise company on his computer as well as my resume and other materials I sent.
“I have an opening if you want to speak. Are you interested.”
“Sure,” I said, feeling victorious after all.
“What do you want to talk about?”
I pause, then realizing he has the letters right in front of him where I have made suggestions, point that out to him.
“Whatever you want to talk about is fine. Just let me know by the next port of call.”
“I’ll see what I can do,” I said rather introspectively. “Thanks so much for opportunity.”
“Great! We’ll videotape it and send it to corporate so they can call you when they have a need for someone of your skills and talents.”
I’m smiling now. “By the way, where exactly would I be speaking? What conference room?”
“The big room. The auditorium” If you have never seen a cruise ship auditorium, it is an actor or speaker’s dream, but it was way more than I expected.
“Wow…great!” Then, jokingly, I said, “The last cruise line when I attended an enrichment lecture had about twelve guests.”
He just looked up at me and smiled, “Oh, I think I can guarantee you more than that.”
If you have never seen a cruise ship auditorium, it is an actor or speaker’s dream, but this was way more than I expected. Especially for this opportunity.
True to his word, I did get more than twelve. The “big room” became the very large and unusually arranged disco lounge. Nothing to be disappointed about really. Interesting sight lines. I had a headset mic, which was great for mobility, and my slides were on screens all over the room. I was set…almost.
As I had looked at the schedule in the morning the day I would speak, I saw, of course, the change of venue and the event and audience that would precede me and the one that would follow. No worries. No panic. I’m a professional. I think I can handle any crowd, although I have to tell you those single-minded BINGO players are set on what’s to come in the room next, and it doesn’t matter if you are talking about more important matters like our world’s self destruction.
So, here I am to give a talk on What If.What if you come home and nothing is as it was when you left? What if you can’t talk to someone without going through technology first? What if your world is ruled by the machines we left behind? Remember, we were on a cruise and most of those devices don’t work without costing a fortune and the Internet (still costing a fortune) works slowly. Most people use their smart phones to take pictures, not talk or text. Seemed pretty connected anyway.
This one is one of the smaller cruise ship auditoriums. As an actor or performer, a speaker or a teacher–this is room to die for.
Some audience members were genuinely interested in my topic; you’d think I paid them, they were so supportive, but most of the eyes were glazed over thinking of the excitement of BINGO and the riches they could win. I also had chosen to remain flexible and interact directly with the audience as I like to do; hence, the headset. I was going to do some dramatic interpretation of a few scenes of my new novel–the topic I’ve already mentioned, but decided that might be too scary just to hear myself talk. Instead I talked about it, what it was about, why I wrote what I did, and why I would publish it the way I intended–electronically instead of the traditional. (Topical reasons, in case you’re wondering.)
Did I bomb? Honestly, I think it hurt me more than it did them; they were waiting for BINGO. So, it was a small bomb. I was still making a pretty good show for a guy without a real audience. And, it was all my fault. I hadn’t prepared as I would for any other engagement, and had to rely of sheer instinct and tap dancing talent. Not that it was bad. We are always our worst critic or so I keep telling myself especially in this situation. Next time will be different.
I wasn’t set up. The cruise line wasn’t laughing at me. They even sent me a nice letter suggesting cruise lines and services that hire lecturers. I am grateful for that, truly. I fell to temptation. My eyes glazed over as well–over a dreamy opportunity.
That’s my story about getting what you wished for, and not being prepared to be what the moment should have been. My next excursion will be more dynamic. I will have a presentation with lots of great graphics and I will charge my subject like a rhino into the din. I will be entertaining as possible and all the audience will have to do is sit there and take it in. Winging it is not an option. It never should be. We all know that. But there is always temptation. The cruise director may be the devil’s own (although he treated me with the utmost respect), my good sense should have ruled. But I learned and I’m always happy to learn. And, look I got to write about and pass my story on to you. It’s not all bad. Now, if I can only hide this blog from my public speaking students…
I’m ready for my next training adventure. Are you? Just as this comment section is for you to tell me what you think, my website is always there for your perusal and response to anything I write as well. My opinions are mine alone. By the way, the book, published by Amazon, Harry’s Reality is a science fiction thriller about what happens when the world decides an evolving artificial intelligence can take care of the world’s problems better than we can. I have another book that is available now called The Cave Man Guide to Training and Development, which is a look at this training world of eyes through a different perspective. Mine, of course. Happy training.
Last November in honor of Thanksgiving, I discussed the need to practice gratitude in a post. Studies on gratitude show that people who practice it have lower levels of stress hormones in their blood, are in better physical health, sleep more and are happier (The Positivity Company). And while these benefits of gratitude affect the practitioner of gratitude(sometimes referred to as one having a gratitude attitude) they also have an impact on the receiver of the practice. As mentioned in my post last year, it creates a win-win. In HR we are often looking for the win-win and we spend hours trying to figure out ways in which to create it and build it into our cultures.
So in an effort to build happiness within myself and others, I am going to take the first step in building a culture of gratitude by practicing it right here. Here are the things that I am thankful for all year, but seem to only write about during November. In the coming year, I will work harder to practice this all year.
My husband. Without the support of my husband, I would not be able to spend hours doing what I love. He takes care of the little things that get missed while I am learning all I can about HR.
My Job. I get to go to work every week and do what I love. I get to spend time trying to figure out how to build a better culture, how to bring in the best talent, and how to make real impact from the HR department.
My Other Job. I love being able to work with HR students. They are so excited to get started in the field. Their enthusiasm about is inspiring.
Carter McNamara. Carter started this wonderful resource of information that can be accessed for free. He has provided a platform for me to write about one of my favorite topics.
Fellow HR Bloggers. There is a big list of bloggers that I read almost daily. I am inspired by their passion for moving our field forward. While this list doesn’t cover all of them here are a few of my favorites:
Sheri Mazurek is a training and human resource professional with over 16 years of management experience, and is skilled in all areas of employee management and human resource functions, with a specialty in learning and development. She is available to help you with your Human Resources and Training needs on a contract basis. For more information send an email to smazurek0615@gmail.com or visit www.sherimazurek.com. Follow me on twitter @Sherimaz.
Are you ready for a crisis? You may think you’ve got your bases covered, but unless you’re running regular crisis simulations and training sessions, I’d be willing to bet that there are serious gaps in your planning. This weakness is a common one, as Jonathan Bernstein pointed out in a recent interview for Entrepreneur magazine:
The failure to plan tops Bernstein’s hit parade of crisis management mistakes. A close second? The failure to provide backup for critical suppliers, key personnel, computer systems (off-site, please) and pretty much any piece of your business that you can’t live without. He proffers this food services scenario: “If all the lettuce from a particular area is deemed to be suspect, and that’s where you get all your lettuce, what are you going to be putting on your burgers this week if you don’t have a backup supplier?”
With some slight imagination it’s not hard to change this situation to fit nearly any business. Rely on your website to do business? What happens when your provider’s servers go down? Do you have any key admin personnel without whom everything goes to heck? Got a backup for her or him?
Establishing secondary providers and other forms of backup are just a small part of a complete crisis plan. Take a look around your business and identify your weak spots, there may be more than you think!
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For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
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