DaChispa

I had a problem accessing my wireless connection recently so rang my service provider for help. I had a very clear idea of what I thought it wasn’t so kept ignoring the suggestion of the technical guy on the end of the line by telling him ‘no it can’t be that because it hasn’t changed’. Eventually, with gentle persistence, he got me to do what he asked and, lo and behold, the problem was resolved. This was clearly a case of a little knowledge being a dangerous thing and is a microcosm of another issue that I see all the time in business. We bring in an expert to help solve a problem or deliver a solution and then only implement it if it fits our pre-defined concept of what we are expecting. Maybe if we didn’t frame the problem in the form of the answer we think we want and really listened to what they were saying, we might get better results.

I have learnt a valuable lesson – listen to the experts. They usually have more experience than you and can actually be right!

I went to an event recently to promote ‘The Rock Dynamic’ http://www.rockdynamic.com/ who offer an intriguing approach to team building. They ask the team to create a rock group – complete with publicist and technical support as well as the performers. No musical ability is required and everyone starts on a level playing field. The outcome seems to be that people not only re-discover how their team works, but also surface individual strengths that more formal team building exercises don’t.

After all, everyone at some stage, dreams of being a rock star.

It is astonishing the amount of technical change I have seen in my working life. I vividly remember the first time I was introduced to email. Suddenly I could get messages to someone immediately and scheduling meetings was easy. Human behaviour was still much the same challenge though – to ensure that I could schedule meetings using the ‘new’ technology, I had to take some draconian measures to ensure that everyone’s diary was up to date. This largely involved booking important meetings based on what people’s diaries said. If they were incorrect, they had to cancel the un recorded meetings – people soon got the message.

However, the more times change, the more they stay the same. Administrators still manage their boss’s in tray – electronically now – and I still see the same sort of problems, for example:

- chasing down the corridors has been replaced by the blackberry call
- piles of paper waiting to be filed has been replaced by Word documents hidden away on C: drives or personal storage devices and not in electronic repositories
- the paperless office is still a ways off – people still like to print papers to read and annotate – although environmental changes of attitude are having an effect

However, technology is at the forefront of automating for bad human habits – electronic filing is increasingly becoming seamless and the introduction of better e-readers might spell the end of the reign of paper. Time will tell. I recall that I had a great deal of difficulty introducing the first PC network into one company – few outside of the IT department could see the benefit. It seems crazy now, but who is to say what current pre-conception will be seen as short sighted in a few years time.

Inspired following my last post, I did a quick search for Twitter tools to see what was available out there. I don’t know why I was suprised that there are so many, it is a pervasive tool. Anyway, here are a few links that I found that list some examples:

-Twitter toolbox on mashable.com

-A SAP blog – but these Powerpoint Twitter tools can be used without SAP

-This twittip site might be a bit technical, but worth a look

I think this is only the tip of the iceberg….

I experienced a good example of how someone gets more traffic to their website recently – this post actually demonstrates Lee Gilbert’s success in promoting it as I am writing it as a direct result of the ‘freebies’ that he offered in return for registering and filling out a survey. I registered because I was interested in what his report ‘The Secrets of Using Social Networking to Promote You and Your Business’ might have to say. It was useful – I summarise the Twitter tools he talks about below (click to enlarge).

I guess the point is not that I got a lot of new information about social networking (although I did get some), but he actually demonstrated what he was talking about by getting me to his site and then to talk about it to others because it was useful. Find out more – don’t jump if you have your speakers on, his video starts almost as soon as you hit the site.

I went into an estate agent yesterday and was hit between the eyes by the simplest example of knowledge at the point of need I have ever seen. There, on the wall, at least 2 metres high and wide, was a local map of the area – almost done as a piece of art. How incredibly useful is that? Not just so that you know where you are going, but to give a client a quick overview of the area in which a property is located. Brilliantly simple.

I was given a really good tip by a former trainer today as I struggled to get rid of permanent marker pen writing on a white board. If you write over the permanent marker with the correct type of pen (i.e whiteboard non permanent marker), and then wipe it off as normal, it will miraculously disappear.

A tiny but perfectly formed example of knowledge in the right format, at the right time to be useful – made my day!

Here is an interesting presentation about google searches. In addition to being quite informative, it demonstrates a slightly different approach to presenting as epitomised in the Prezi software it uses.

I get the concept, but find it quite difficult to change my linear approach – Powerpoint has a lot to answer for!

Just read an article about improving your pension by shopping round for annuities. One of the suggestions it made was to check whether you could get a better deal if you were a smoker or had a health condition (eg cholestorol, high blood pressure etc) as, if you had a shorter life expectancy, companies might pay you more if they thought it would be for less time.

I had to smile, first time that having high blood pressure might have a positive result!

I’ve broken a bone in my foot and have found it a real eye opener – some obvious realisations, and some not so apparent. First of all – pain and over compensating for part of the body that doesn’t work properly is really, really tiring. Secondly having a visible injury means everyone you know stops and talks to you – which from a KM point of view, is a goldmine! Finally – mobility scooters are really dangerous. I am in the ideal house for someone who can’t walk well – a stairlift (really slow), walking sticks and 2 mobility scooters. I’ve used the scooters to get into town and you really have to think about what you are doing. Cars don’t see you and pedestrians think you are faster than you are. I can understand why elderly people get into difficulties with them. I won’t use it unless I have to.