Posts in ‘Project and Program Management’

4 tips for selecting the right consultant

by Brian Beedle, Aug 16, 2010

Vendor selection process can be an arduous, time consuming, and stressful task.  Receiving quotes that run the gambit of the budgetary spectrum, deciding which product will give your company the biggest bang for the buck and wondering if saving a dollar or two is really worth the frustration of finding the “right partner”.  Every Project Manager has dealt with these issues. In this article, Brian lists some key points may provide some clarity and assist with narrowing the decision-making process when seeking a value-added business partner. more…

Character and Personality #7: Courage

by Gary Monti, Aug 17, 2010

Tiger Woods’ difficulties with his swing and Mark Hurd’s (HP’s CEO) inability to fill out expense reports correctly can be traced back to complexes. In a very public way they both show how trying to succeed simply by ego has limits and the desire to be complete as Self will, when denied, erupt and wreak havoc without any regard to the consequences. more…

Working Hard – Still no progress?

by Vijay Peduru, Aug 18, 2010

According to most economic historians, the Industrial age ended about 20Yrs ago in 1989 when the Berlin wall came down and the internet came up. In the industrial age, working hard meant, using our body and working long hours i.e physical labor. The easiest way to do hard work in the post industrial age, is to love change, train ourselves to love challenges and question the status quo all by using and exerting our mind. more…

Flexible Focus #15: Karma and Connections

by William Reed, Aug 19, 2010

You reap as you sow. Therefore if we want to achieve positive results, you need to think, speak, and act positively. There is also collective Karma, which is often thought of as collective fate, but more constructively can be interpreted as collective action. Things are connected in ways that are not always obvious. Even when the connections are not obvious, it is possible to take small actions which use the butterfly effect to create good Karma. more…

A diverse workforce: The smart thing to do

by Robert Driscoll, Aug 20, 2010

Diversity in the workplace should not be limited to race, gender and age, but differences of views and personalities as well. If this diverse workforce is guided properly, they will share their unique knowledge and discuss their differences rather than what’s common between them. This will lead to generating innovative ideas that could potentially change the marketplace you are in. more…

Magesh is an accomplished software professional focused on building enterprise value through creative use of technology. Magesh enjoys working with people and is passionate about bringing out the best in everybody to achieve results that are larger than the sum of individual accomplishments.

Tagged as: active garage, brian beedle, Business Strategy, gary monti, http://activegarage.com, Leadership, possibilities, Project Management, Robert Driscoll, Strategy, technology, vijay peduru, william reed, www.activegarage.com

When conducting workshops on complex projects a common question is, “What characteristics must a leader have?” The next few blogs we will break away from temperament and cover several of the important character traits. The first is humility.

Conversations around this word can be all over the map. When asked for synonyms responses include “submissive,” “quiet,” and “unassertive,” and “cautious” to name a few. Let’s see if some clarity can be brought to the situation.

“To Serve”

We took a peek at humility in an earlier blog referring to samurai. “Samurai” means “to serve.” Samurai were humble. They knew their limits and worked within them. Getting the picture? If not, maybe it will become clearer by looking at one of my favorite quotes which happens to be anonymous:

“There are two types of people in the world – those who are humble and those who are about to be.”

Humility has less to do with affect (how we look to the outside world, e.g., quiet) and more to do with awareness; specifically awareness of one’s limitations. One reason teams come about is humility. Together we can work beyond our individual limits. Being humble, we can also pay attention to real boundaries and calculate how to push on them.

Humiliation

This all sounds well and good. But isn’t there an element of truth ringing in the words “submissive,” “unassertive,” etc.? No.

The meaning of humility may become clearer when compared to the word it is commonly confused with  – humiliation. There are two parts to the meaning of each word. The first part is the same, “To go to a small place.” It is in the second part where the words differ dramatically. With humility I choose to go to that small place. With humiliation…you probably have guessed it…I am pushed there by someone else!

Nice People Apparently Doing Bad Things

These definitions are morally neutral. Let me explain. You might know of a couple going through the following situation. One member (A) of a couple gets the job offer from heaven! The problem is it requires uprooting and moving to another city. This can humiliate the other partner (B) who might ask, “What about me?” Assuming A is free of any malicious thoughts of manipulating B, B still is saddled with an unfairness that needs to be addressed.  The challenge of interdependence is present. (For more on interdependence, see William Reed’s blog.) B is going to have to take a risk in order to work interdependently with A.

Fast-Paced Organizations

This issue shows up on the job on an almost daily basis. When a company says they are fluid, flexible, and fast-paced and will work to meet or exceed customer needs a set of questions comes to mind including, “Is the leader humble?” and “Does the leader watch for potentially humiliating situations and work with those who get pushed there?”

The principles by which the leader lives come into play. In the blog on navigating through change management the need for the leader to be steadfast, open, and available is discussed, i.e., the leader staying humble and stable – serving as a reference point for those who are feeling a bit humiliated as well as those who are getting to stay on their chosen path. Both groups of people are part of the success.

The Payoff

It is hard to overstate how much humility combined with interdependence contributes to creating a powerful team. Trust is present which fuels a feed-forward instead of a looking-back-and-wondering-what-happened frame of mind. The awareness of limits leads to better decision-making so not only is the team moving faster there is a higher probability of sustaining success. So, the next time humble pie is being served consider asking for a second slice.

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With over 30 years experience, Gary Monti consults/teaches/mentors/speaks in change management and project management with a focus on compassion and respect in the workplace. The work is grounded in project management, chaos and complexity theories combined with Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

Tagged as: active garage, center for change management, Character and personality, gary monti, humiliation, humility, Leadership, Project Management, teamwork, to serve

Integration: Keys to the successful merger of companies

by Matthew Carmen, Aug 2, 2010

Companies merge to increase profits through increase efficiency. But according to CNBC, nine out of ten mergers do not fully meet the goals of their acquisition. The main task that takes place in successful integrations is proper reparation within operational areas. This includes putting together processes and procedures that will need to take place to reach the corporate goals. In this article Matthew describes how he participated in a merger at a large entertainment company and what contributed to its success.  more…

Character and Personality #5: Don’t pull that trigger!

by Gary Monti, Aug 3, 2010

Sometimes you don’t want to confront your fears and uncomfortable situations. This causes blind spots into which organizations can fall an disappear. Instead of taking short cuts and jumping to action we should explore options, analyze our assumptions and manage risk. more…

Managing a project requires actions

by Guy Ralfe, Aug 4, 2010

Just because the project has a plan does not mean we simply have to conform to it. A plan is created when certain realities are true. But as the project is implemented, things change and new realities open up. We need to constantly update our plan and make adjustments based on changes that occur through out the implementation phase. Guy sites an example from his recent experience in this article. more…

Flexible Focus #13: Finding focus in the frames

by William Reed, Aug 5, 2010

Creativity happens much better when you are in your favorite cafe than when you are in your cubicle. Even better, the Mandala Chart offers a fresh approach that helps you find focus in the frames. Once you understand the value and attraction of working with the Mandala Chart on paper, you can increase your skills and improve your results with practice. Here are 8 steps that can help you get started.  more…

Author’s Journey #33: 7 Keys to Profitable Special Events

by Roger Parker, Aug 6, 2010

Last week, Roger discussed some of the ways authors can attract profitable speaking invitations. In this week’s article he takes the idea of “speaking for profit” to the next level, which involves creating, marketing, and producing special events like conferences, seminars, and workshops. more…

Magesh is an accomplished software professional focused on building enterprise value through creative use of technology. Magesh enjoys working with people and is passionate about bringing out the best in everybody to achieve results that are larger than the sum of individual accomplishments.

Tagged as: active garage, author's journey, Business Management, business planning, Business Strategy, Communication, gary monti, Guy Ralfe, Matthew Carmen, roger parker, william reed, Writing for Business, www.activegarage.com

I recently had to jump in and manage a project in deep distress. The project was 5.5 weeks into an 8 week schedule and the project was only barely 20% complete. This was a construction project so easier to measure completion than say IT projects.

When I jumped into the project we were about to be removed from the project, I begged for 48 hrs to produce a recovery plan but settled on a compromise of 24 hrs – this was my first commercial construction project so not much time!  In discussing the situation with the general contractor, they kept on telling us how far behind schedule we were against the original (baseline) project plan. This was the original project plan laid out before the project began.

The conversation was just hopeless to the situation – telling me how late each section is; does not give any direction with which to act to remediate the situation. When I asked what were the priorities and what dependencies existed I received the response “they are all critical!”

When the plan was originally built it was obviously constructed based on a number of constraints and priorities known at the time. Today those priorities were in a very different arrangement due to the impact of not having various sections complete that have an impact on others also working on the project.

What I set about doing was to produce a plan, a recovery plan, that defined the work that needed to be completed and by when based on current priorities so that it still remained a comprehensive plan. This plan set out the new objectives and the “new reality” we needed to produce for a satisfactory outcome – with this defined it was shared with the team who now knew what was required. Looking at the project this way provided tangible targets to manage the resources and production against. The obvious problem was – being told you are late yesterday and again today does not provide you any point of reference with which to act.

Another successful tactic we used was not to focus on the small details but rather identify the three or four key fronts we needed to make progress on and constantly reevaluated the plan every day to determine if we had made enough progress… and also, did we need more people and could we shift the load around between teams?

This was a recovery plan but in essence it is no different than it should be for any project correctly managed. Projects are living and evolving ecosystems – a plan helps us anticipate the future and organize a number of people/organizations for the execution of the project. What we need to remember is that when the situation no longer reflects the plan the plan needs to be adjusted and some actions need to take place as a result or the outcome cannot be the same. To manage projects you need to manage the project and not just read the plan!

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This article was contributed by Guy Ralfe, co-founder of Active Garage and co-author of the upcoming book ProjectManagementTweets. You can follow Guy on Twitter at gralfe.

Tagged as: actions, expediting, Guy Ralfe, managing, Plans, progress, Project Management, Schedule, www.activegarage.com

Would you like to quickly determine where synergies and problems exist in an organization? Come along to see how knowing individual’s temperaments can help predict possible outcomes in situations.

Traits

Temperament refers to preferred ways of thinking. Traits refer to preferred behaviors. They correlate well. Let’s look at a mythical company with the following temperament mix:

CEO – NT (intuitive thinker)

Senior staff member – NF (intuitive feeler)

Operations manager – SJ (sensing judger)

Programmer – SP (sensing perceiver)

None of them want their time wasted. The problem is with their perception of time. Here is the order in which they prioritize past, present, and future. Also, their nicknames have been included to give a hint as to where their priorities lie.

TRAIT	Nickname	Past	Present	Future
NT	Field Marshal	2	3	1
NF	Organizer	3	1	2
SJ	Enforcer	–	1	–
SP	Doer	1	2	3

So how does this play out in the work place? Take a look at the table below.

TRAIT	Nickname	Positive Traits
NT	Field Marshal	Sees where the company can be in the future. Sets standards and holds to them. Delegates today’s activities to others. Strategic thinker Holds on to the vision throughout difficulties. Leads the way and doesn’t waver. Main interest is achieving dreams and accomplishments. The past informs the future. Incorporates lessons-learned into future plans.
NF	Organizer	Takes interest in others and how they are brought together to get things done. Pays attention to the overall-balance among key factors Puts “teeth” into the NT’s strategic plans. Will look towards the future by focusing on generating cooperation today. Works as a shock absorber between the NT and lower ranks.
SJ	Enforcer	Focuses on NOW. Stays on task and gets things done. Knows the limits of available resources. Tactically-oriented. Supports the strategies that come down from above
SP	Doer	Prefers a structure be presented within which work can be performed. Wants to know what the orders are for getting work done. Prefers others develop strategies. Wants involved when tasks are defined.

As you have probably guessed by now, there can be a dark side to all this.

TRAIT	Nickname	Negative Traits
NT	Field Marshal	Doesn’t hesitate to change on-going work in order to leverage the future. Believes the project is complete at the moment of delegation. Does not want to be distracted by problems from the present. Risk management is for nay-sayers. It can distract from the future. Positive criticism downplayed or ignored. Negative criticism emphasized. Little interest in people and their requirements. Can ride roughshod over others and have a short memory regarding those behaviors
NF	Organizer	Can lose sight of the need to mend problems from the past since there is push for today and the future.
SJ	Enforcer	Rules are to be enforced, not questioned. The past can’t be fixed and the future is out of reach so don’t waste time on either of them. Finds strategizing, planning, and spending time on what-ifs boring. Wonders if strategies are sane.
SP	Doer	Wonders if the plan is sane. Can be rebellious yet wants no risk. Can go in own direction without informing others. Gauges work and others based on how the SP was treated in the past. Change is viewed with suspicion. The past needs to be resolved.

The Leadership Challenge

You can see that avoiding wasting time can quickly turn into a multi-dimensional problem quickly. Taking the time to understand others pays huge dividends by providing clear vision as to strengths and limits in situations. With that as a base planning and execution can proceed realistically.

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With over 30 years experience, Gary Monti consults/teaches/mentors/speaks in change management and project management with a focus on compassion and respect in the workplace. The work is grounded in project management, chaos and complexity theories combined with Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

Tagged as: active garage, behaviors, center for change management, CEO, Change Management, gary monti, organizational thinking, organizations, Project Management, psychology, team management, temperament, traits

Your readiness for managing your supplier after the negotiation

by Brian Superczynski, Jul 19, 2010

Organizational needs are routinely satisfied by external vendors. Letting the vendors manage the relationship will be like the tail wagging the dog. It will lead to serious issues not limited to mushrooming cost. Vendor management includes the negotiation process before the contact is signed, having an organizational structure to manage vendors and having an mature process to monitor the lifecycle of your agreements. more…

Character and Personality #3: Orientation and Energy

by Gary Monti, Jul 20, 2010

Two major components that go into determining one’s temperament are Orientation and Energy. Orientation refers to how we prefer to interface with the outside world. The two approaches are Judging (don’t confuse with Judgmental) and Perceiving. Two possibilities for gaining energy are Extroverts and Introverts. A person can have a combination of these traits and of course these are not the only once – there is a whole slew of these. Understanding these traits will help you manage people and teams better. more…

Social Media and Tribes # 6: Changing the world is addictive

by Deepika Bajaj, Jul 21, 2010

A tribe is constituted of people who care about a specific topic or interest or looking to bring a specific change. Tribes are needed to change the world and social media has created tremendous opportunity to create and lead tribes. Read this article to understand how to gain advantage using social media and not get simply distraught by its demands. more…

Flexible Focus #11: The Principle of comprehensiveness

by William Reed, Jul 22, 2010

In this article you will find an optical illusion. As you increase your field of vision, you will be able to see more white dots. The message here is, you need the ability to see the big picture, the details and the relationships all at the same time. Mandala Chart can help us regain our bearings by seeing our business comprehensively. This will enable us see the opportunities that are never obvious, because the exist in the spaces between. more…

Author’s Journey #31: Managing and Marketing information products

by Roger Parker, Jul 23, 2010

Information products are an author’s best friend; they offer far more profit potential than authors can earn from book sales alone. Last week, Roger’s post explored the 3 main issues involved in creating profitable information products: copyright, format, and topic. This week’s post takes a look at creating a process to produce, market, and schedule information products. more….

Magesh is an accomplished software professional focused on building enterprise value through creative use of technology. Magesh enjoys working with people and is passionate about bringing out the best in everybody to achieve results that are larger than the sum of individual accomplishments.

Tagged as: active garage, author's journey, Business Management, business planning, Business Strategy, Communication, deepika bajaj, Entrepreneurship, gary monti, http://activegarage.com, Innovation, invincibelle, Leadership, possibilities, roger parker, Sales and Marketing, Social Media, technology, william reed, Writing for Business, www.activegarage.com

When shopping on line when do you decide to purchase? If the features are fairly close to what you want do you go ahead and buy? Or, do you search and search until all the facts have been gathered before making a decision?

What about when you are on the road? At the end of the day would you like to go explore a new restaurant with one of your fellow team members or does going back to the hotel room to just “be” feel best?

In the previous blog gathering and processing information preferences were discussed. Here we will look at the two other major components that go into determining one’s temperament, orientation and energy source. As with the gathering and processing of information what is discussed below is about preference. Each of us practices all the temperament traits but, based on neural wiring, we have preferred ways of orienting and getting energy.

Orientation

Orientation refers to how we prefer to interface with the outside world. There are two approaches:

Judging, or J, which means there is a desire to come to closure on an issue. The person who buys on-line once fairly close to the desired goal is J, and;

Perceiving, or P, which means there is the desire to get more information. The person who researches on-line (even after making the purchase) is P.

Let’s avoid some common misperceptions regarding these terms. Judging is different than being judgmental. To repeat, judging is the desire for closure and is neutral. Being judgmental is making value statements, e.g., “That person is good (or bad, as the case may be).” Perceiving is the desire to gather information. It is separate from having insight or a crystal ball.

Energy

There are two possibilities for gaining energy:

Extraverts, or E’s, gain energy from being around others, socializing, and wanting to deal with exterior things. E’s can tend to make a lot of contacts without going deep, and;

Introverts, or I’s, who prefer going off by themselves to gain energy and turn inward. I’s can tend to have few contacts and go deep into relationships.

E’s are often called “solar panels” because they like excitement and going around soaking up other’s energy. I’s are often called “batteries” since going off and recharging depleted energy stores is a must.

Keep in mind; it’s where one gets energy that determines whether their temperament is E or I. In other words, you can have quiet Extraverts and energetic Introverts. A shy person can be an E and someone who is “out there” can be an I. Culturally, there is a good deal of confusion over this issue which leads to misunderstandings. You can thank Freud for a lot of this because of his big investment in trying to tear down Jung through trash-talking. But that’s fodder for another blog.

Energy, Orientation, and Teams

What value does all this have? The answer is simple. Knowing how a person gets energy and their orientation can both explain and help resolve conflict. For example, an EJ (Extraverted-Judger) may get tired of working on a task, feel he’s done enough, and want to improve his sense of well being by talking with someone and getting their attention. If the person whom they approach is IP (Introverted-Perceiver) then sparks can fly. Why? The IP could get his sense of well-being by being left alone to both stay centered and go deep on a particular task and get more information. You can see where this is going.

When we look at the combinations associated with E vs I and J vs P it becomes increasingly obvious how holding a team together can be a big challenge. But let’s not stop there. Throw in Sensing (S) vs Intuition (N) and Feeling (F) vs Thinking (T) from the previous blog and we are off to the races!

Future blogs will look at issues associated with all the combinations. As Dickens would say, “It can be the best of times and the worst of times.”

With over 30 years experience, Gary Monti consults/teaches/mentors/speaks in change management and project management with a focus on compassion and respect in the workplace. The work is grounded in project management, chaos and complexity theories combined with Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

Tagged as: active garage, center for change management, character, Character and personality, energy, extrovert, feeling, gary monti, introvert, intuition, judging, judgmental, orientation, perceiver, personality, sensing, Thinking

Ever sit in a tense meeting where tempers are beginning to flare? Listening to the disagreeing parties does it suddenly hit you they are violently agreeing!? How can that happen? What is going on? The same reality is being addressed so why all the commotion? Everything else being equal it might be a difference in temperament, i.e., the individuals gather and process information differently.

Temperament can also be called “wiring.” Wiring refers to both preferred and challenging, more difficult pathways in the brain. This can be seen in PET scans of the brain. Take two people who have different wiring and ask a simple question like, “How’s the project doing?” The scans will show different areas of the brain being active depending upon one’s wiring.

If a person has yet to mature they will focus on their preferred pathways and be resistant to (afraid of) hearing anything that requires going to those weaker areas of the brain that are more challenging. Confusion between the conclusions and the path taken to get there occurs and, voila, violent agreement appears.

Let’s look at two aspects of neural wiring and information gathering/processing as viewed by Carl Jung . They are the irrational and the rational. Each has four modes of operation giving a grand total of eight modes.

For each of us one mode predominates. We can do the other seven but just prefer the one. Looking at how these modes operate can shed light on why people agree or disagree. Also, it can show how team members may bond or play “odd man out.”

The Irrational

The irrational refers to how we gather information. It’s called irrational because it is instinctual as in non-rational. There is no thinking involved. We just do it. Jung called the two main ways we gather information Intuitive and Sensing. In turn, each has two subdivisions called introverted and extraverted. This gives us:

Introverted Intuition – Ni. The Ni person is the “Aha!” individual seeing patterns and boiling them down to sharp insights. Details are secondary and there is a comfort with unclear situations.

Extraverted Intuition – Ne. The Ne loves to break new ground. Exploring just comes naturally to the extroverted Intuitive. There is a desire to exhaust all the possibilities and challenge the status quo.

Introverted Sensing – Si. The Si brings order and clarity to situations by linking the present with the past and working to develop precise pathways to the future. Detail and clarity are extremely important.

Extraverted Sensing – Se. The Se makes things happen – now! The Se has no room for nonsense. “Action” is the word of the day, every day. “This way has always worked” and “urgency” are two things they stress.

The Rational

Once we have the information we need to process it. This processing is what Jung called the “rational.” There are two main methods of processing information, Feeling and Thinking, with introverted and extraverted subcategories. They break down to:

Introverted Feeling – Fi. The Fi focuses on the importance of ideas especially those about which they feel strongly. The main drive for an Fi is priorities based on convictions.

Extraverted Feeling – Fe. The Fe loves to coach people and looks after their welfare. Building positive relationships is important.

Introverted Thinking – Ti. The Ti focuses on theory and loves to explain the how and why of things.

Extraverted Thinking – Te. The Te brings organization and structure to situations working like a conductor massaging roles and responsibilities until they are well defined and work is flowing.

Team Members and Stakeholders

Has a specific person popped into mind when reading the descriptions? If so – great! It signifies the process of empathizing with others. This is key for establishing leadership and forming teams. This material will take us on an interesting ride into the human psyche and figuring out how to get things done.

A few last points: Remember each of us has all eight functions. There is just a preferred one that dominates based on neural wiring. Avoid labeling people and leave them space. Leaders nurture the process of growing into the remaining seven.

With over 30 years experience, Gary Monti consults/teaches/mentors/speaks in change management and project management with a focus on compassion and respect in the workplace. The work is grounded in project management, chaos and complexity theories combined with Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

Tagged as: active garage, center for change management, Character and personality, Fe, Fi, gary monti, Irrational, Jung, Ne, Ni, Rational, Se, Si, Te, Ti

What can Cloud do for you?

by Marc Watley, Jun 28, 2010

The recent AT&T/iPad security debacle provided some sensational headlines. But that does not mean you should stay away from cloud computing. If you follow Marc’s recommendations in this post, you can adopt Cloud solutions to remain competitive and do so in a secure and highly available fashion. more…

Leadership and Mythology #8: Myth, Self-Discovery and Business

by Gary Monti, Jun 29, 2010

Tired of doing things you regret? Wonder why the behaviors continue even though they sabotage your position? Vacillate from submission to aggression when making business deals? Want to stop all this and just stay on your unique path? Wonder where the Hell that path is? Read this article to understand the three level of truth and how they tie to your Myth. more…

Social Media and Tribes #4: Tribal leadership

by Deepika Bajaj, on Jun 30, 2010

The word “tribe” has become part of the popular lexicon. If you have wondered what constitutes a tribe and how they function, this article is for you. People who end up as tribal leaders are the ones who leave the tribe better than they found them. more…

Flexible Focus #8: Memory is a slippery slope

by William Reed, Jul 1, 2010

Just like there is a learning curve, there is a forgetting curve. Without periodic review we forget what we learn and in a month’s time we retain only 20% of what we learned a month before. In this article William give describes how to use the Mandala Chart to improve retention. more…

Author’s Journey #28: Creating a marketing plan for your book

by Roger Parker, Jul 2, 2010

During the past 10 weeks, Roger’s post have covered different approaches to marketing your book, including list-building incentives, one sheets, and obtaining pre-publication quotes. This week’s article ties the previous 10 installments together and closes Part 3, Planning, by discussing the importance of creating a book marketing plan as early as possible. more…

Magesh is an accomplished software professional focused on building enterprise value through creative use of technology. Magesh enjoys working with people and is passionate about bringing out the best in everybody to achieve results that are larger than the sum of individual accomplishments.

Tagged as: cloud computing, deepika bajaj, gary monti, invincibelle, IT Finance, published and profitable, roger parker, Social Media, william reed, www.activegarage.com, www.invincibelle.com, www.publishedandprofitable.com

3 Steps to making the Outsourcing choice

by Matthew Carmen, Jun 21, 2010

It is now rare to find a company, of any size, that hasn’t outsourced some portion of their IT functions.  This could be as small as an application or as large as the company’s entire IT department.  If you’re considering outsourcing within your own organization, Matthew’s article will help you think through the next steps in detail.  more…

Leadership and Mythology #7: Zeus, Greed and Change

by Gary Monti, Jun 22, 2010

Being greedy can lead to disastrous results. Nurturing your network and cultivating abundance is critical for sustained success and peace of mind. Greed and its consequences show up in Greek mythology. The lessons are quite relevant today especially in a complex, chaotic business world. more…

Social Media and Tribes #3: Mob mentality

by Deepika Bajaj, Jun 23, 2010

Contrary to popular conventions about the Web opening minds, people are more likely to read information or participate in social groups that reinforce what they already believe. A tribe can show dramatic increase in the undesirable action compared with doing nothing at all, because it demonstrated that lots of others engaged in the behavior. But if your message to your tribe is right, you can make positive change happen.  more…

Flexible Focus #7: Inside the lines

by William Reed, Jun 24, 2010

Thinking outside the box is a synonym for creativity. Although this metaphor has captured the popular imagination, the real challenge is to engage in applied creative thinking that solves real problems. Just like tennis is a game that is played entirely within the box, the most exciting and productive creative work is often produced and performed inside the box. In this article William explains how to use the Mandala chart to expand your thinking and stay within the lines.  more…

Author’s Journey #27: Building relationships with your readers

by Roger Parker, Jun 25, 2010

It is increasingly obvious that the whole point of writing a book is not to sell books, but to build long-term and profitable reader relationships. Consider your book the core of your long-term self (or business) marketing plan. In this scenario, your book becomes the hub of a relationship-building strategy that begins long before your book appears and continues for years afterward. more…

Magesh is an accomplished software professional focused on building enterprise value through creative use of technology. Magesh enjoys working with people and is passionate about bringing out the best in everybody to achieve results that are larger than the sum of individual accomplishments.

Tagged as: active garage, author's journey, Business Management, Business Strategy, deepika bajaj, Entrepreneurship, gary monti, http://activegarage.com, invincibelle, Leadership, management, Matthew Carmen, possibilities, purpose, roger parker, Strategy, Writing for Business, www.activegarage.com