Monthly Archives: June 2008

business, Consultancy

Winning The Argument, Saving Time, and Getting the Job Done

1 Comment

A fundamental key to getting the work/job done is insuring that you carry your colleagues/customers support and if your work in the public sectors then the general public too.

What is winning the argument?

If you are responsible for implementing any sort of change with in an organisation than you are going to have to convince different parties of your intentions and that the project is going to benefit them so that you can gain there support and help in implementing the project.

It is necessary with all projects to go through a consultative process and allow the people that will be effected by the change to contribute to the process. More than lightly you will face some resistance to your ideas. Your job is to demonstrate how your ideas will be effective and calm the user fears. If you are confident about project one can prepare for this by listing potential problems/fears users may have. By setting this out on paper you will be saving your self time in the future and will prepare the path for a smother transaction.

When I talk about winning the argument. I am talking about rational working through of concerns and demonstrating the effects of the concerns people may have. Some people may say that different opinions mean that both parties are right. While this may be the case with some moral issues. Implement projects has nothing to do that with that. If the goals are clearly defined. For example: The goal of this project is to implement a new security systems for five thousand employees in unobtrusive way. One would have to make decisions that insured these goals are met. While there may appear to be much scope in the process when it is refined down it is quite distinct and clear.

The end result of this, is that time is saved, you win the argument and the job gets done.

Management

New Packages From Skype

Skype have just released some new packages, they are pretty cool as a long term user of Skype I can recommend them. You can make video conference personal/business calls. They also have a nice selection of telephones which are certified with their software. One of the main reasons that people use Skype is that it is cheap, very cheap to make local and international calls. You can call other Skype users free charge and Mobile phones can be called at low prices too.

Half year ago the service went though an over subscription period where the users had a less than perfect line quality and a few dropped calls, but since then it has increased it services and it now providing a top class quality service.

This what the website explains about Skype Mobile:

“If you have a mobile workforce, 3 Skypephone is the mobile they can use to stay in touch with free calls and instant messages to the office, clients, and anyone else on Skype. It’s a slim-line mobile packed with features – including Skype at the touch of a button. Travel with Skype, and have its benefits 24-7.”

Give it a go here:
Get an Unlimited World calling subscription from Skype
Call anywhere in the world for free on the 3 Skypephone

Personal

Twitter Updates for 2008-06-16

  • Just about ready for the week after a bout of light flu. #
  • @sherrilynne Thanks Sl just about, not moping around the house on a day like this 🙂 #
  • Off to the airport for some work. #
  • Working on new blog post: Using Arguments and Discussion to define policy #
  • New post: Carers get connected (http://workconnexions.com/node/671) #
  • New post: Why is the Sky Blue? (http://workconnexions.com/node/672) #
  • LeoC Re-plurk: I think I am going to have to increase the prize money on the wcx competition How much by? workconnexions.com/n.. /p/g08e #
  • @liors self employed have got no excuse as they are there own boss. If there are miserable then they really are useless. #
  • one blog post done, another three to do.. #
  • @sherrilynne Thanks, team work helps plus a lot of persistance and proofing. #

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E-Commerce, Management, money, Traffic

How Much more does your Youngest Employee Know about the Internet than You ?

What does it mean having a presence on the internet, can you buy a office and move your staff in. Well the answer to the question is yes. For internetholics it has been well known that you can buy virtual love to real estate on line. This can take several forms, Second life for example allows you to interact with an array of potential customers, build a virtual office, hire staff. You might well be thinking now this is great, this is just what I need, low overheads, no sloppy staff, work from wherever I choose. But there is a problem. While there are virtual millionaires on second life. Their virtual business supports a real life business and vice-a-versa.

So what does this mean, well there will be any number of businesses out there who have dipped there toe in the internet water to see what is on offer. If you really want to make that website pay for itself along with your internet connection and computers there are a number of things you will have to do.

First it is about getting as many links as possible pointing to your website. This is done by interacting and commenting in communities. Web 2.0 now offers users the chance to do traditional business but with new technology. The problem with this is that is not very well understood in general by people over 35. So the boss of your local taxi company, accountant etc does not really know what a blog is, or a virtual business etc. Now if they do not know, how can anyone expect it to be taken seriously in the company ranks. Of course you will have your office junior who will have a virtual girlfriend, do virtual sports, already spend a large percentage of his money on the internet and related hardware etc. While the rest of the your staff will struggle with an email attachment that the virus scanner has disallowed because it was told that it is possible for a photo to have a virus in it. Yes it is possible but in the whole of my 12 year IT career I have never come across it. Given that almost 50+ percent of photos on the internet are JPEGS. It is a threat but a low threat and one that we can live with. One cannot really compare it to the risk of not getting your work done for the client and the time it would involve to check every photo.

So a balanced sensible approached is needed for work and business security so it can work at an optimum. No longer can staff say “Oh I do not understand” when a web page fails to load and the message on the screen reads your internet connection is on available at this time due to maintenance work. Involving your company on the internet is fundamentally about involving your employees. We do seminars about web 2.0 but it has to come from the top down. I suggest that smaller companies get the youngest employees to tell them what they know about the internet. This will serve two purposes one you see just what the internet can do, and two you will have a starting point to building an online presence for your company.

Personal

Twitter Updates for 2008-06-13

  • I am not sure if the week is too short, or whether i have been persistent enough. hmmm #
  • New post: David Davis on Liberty (http://workconnexions.com/node/668) #
  • Just been rated Excellent as a Consultant by three Customers in two days. Laughing… that has made my day I may even put it on the website.  #
  • New post: How to Get Lower Priced Petrol? (http://workconnexions.com/node/669) #
  • Looking for some digg love http://tinyurl.com/687ybj #
  • @andybeal oh god I am going to sound old here, I think House of Lords has just made You tube really cool 🙂 #
  • @andybeal he he – PS I love the twitter counter it would be cool if it showed the followers too. #
  • @joanne834 Very Good question, no easy answers, though it starts with building trust like strategies into the relationship. #
  • New post: City Cars Service Centre – Now Open (http://workconnexions.com/node/670) #
  • @guykawasaki It is definitely to the point, no messing about. #

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ideas, Management, sales

How to Get Lower Priced Petrol?

See what you think and pass it on if you agree with it

We are hitting 123.9 a litre in some areas now, soon we will be faced with paying 2.00 a ltr. Philip Hollsworth offered this good idea:

This makes MUCH MORE SENSE than the ‘don’t buy petrol on a certain   day campaign that was going around last April or May! The oil companies just laughed at that because they knew we wouldn’t 
continue to hurt ourselves by refusing to buy petrol. It was more of an inconvenience to us than it was a problem for them. BUT,whoever
thought of this idea, has come up with a plan that can really work.

Please read it and join in!

Now that the oil companies and the OPEC nations have conditioned us  to think that the cost of a litre is CHEAP, we need to take  aggressive action to teach them that BUYERS control the market place
not sellers. With the price of petrol going up more each day, we  consumers need to take action. The only way we are going to see the  price of petrol come down is if we hit someone in the pocket by not
purchasing their Petrol! And we can do that WITHOUT hurting ourselves. Here’s the idea:

For the rest of this year DON’T purchase ANY petrol from the two biggest oil companies (which now are one), ESSO and BP.
If they are not selling any petrol, they will be inclined to reduce their prices. If they reduce their prices, the other companies will have to follow suit. But to have an impact we need to reach literally millions of Esso and BP petrol buyers. It’s really simple to do!!

Now, don’t wimp out at this point… keep reading and I’ll explain how simple it is to reach millions of people!!

I am sending this note to a lot of people. If each of you send it  to  at least ten more (30 x 10 = 300)… and those 300 send it to at  least ten more (300 x 10 = 3,000) … and so on, by the time the
message reaches the sixth generation of people, we will have reached  over THREE MILLION consumers! If those three million get excited and
pass this on to ten friends each, then 30 million people will have been contacted! If it goes one level further, you guessed it… ..

THREE HUNDRED MILLION PEOPLE!!!

Again, all You have to do is send this to 10 people. That’s all.(and  not buy at ESSO/BP) How long would all that take? If each of us  sends this email out to ten more people within one day of receipt,
all 300 MILLION people could conceivably be contacted within the  next 8days!!! Acting together we can make a difference . If this makes
sense to you, please pass this message on.

PLEASE HOLD OUT UNTIL THEY LOWER THEIR PRICES TO THE 69p a LITRE   RANGE 

It’s easy to make this happen. Just forward this email, and buy your  petrol at Shell, Asda,Tesco, Sainsburys, Morrisons Jet etc. i.e.  boycott BP and Esso
 

development, Traffic, Websites, work connexions

A Great New Competition

There is a great  new competition over at Wcx where bloggers can win a hundred dollars and a month of free advertising. All they have to do is to post there best blog on www.workconnexions.com to enter. Work connexions focuses on business development and has become a resource community center of information to grow your business. With high page rank and quality information just posting on the website will increase your Internet presence. Success!