Other Work Related Blogs
Since I’m very new at writing this blog, I like to look for other people that are writing this space. I’m primarily looking for bloggers. I found two that I will link to on an ongoing basis. A = The Bing Blog Summary – Stanley Bing is a Fortune columnist and best-selling author of business [...]
A New Effort to Crack Down on Illegal Immigrants
Julia Preston in an NY Times article titled ” US Set for a Crackdown on Illegal Hiring” talks about the federal government’s, particularly the Department of Homeland Security with the
Social Security Administration, intention to toughen rules requiring a business to fire a worker who falsified their social security number. This is a means to go about the immigration reform that
Congress couldn’t agree on. …
Team
The San Antonio Spurs won the 2007 NBA Championship. It is their fourth title since the NBA had a lock out prior to the 1999 season. The team isn’t guided by someone that dominates statistically. The team dominates by having no single strength or weakness. They do everything very well, not great, but that is the point. Add all those very goods up and you get great. That is also why they are enduring team. There isn’t a counter scheme for the scheme they run. You simply have to outplay them. What is meant by that is exemplified by Shaquille O’Neal and the Lakers. The team won three championships from 2000-2002. But in 2004, the team was exploited by a Pistons team that knew how to counter the moves the Lakers made. The Pistons had answers for O’Neal by defending him with Ben Wallace. Kobe Bryant did very well to pick up the slack, but that turned the team into a one dimensional one that never got going (this problem persists for them).
PowerPoint Manipulation
For those of you that don’t work for a big company, I apologize, this is pretty specific to the PowerPoint culture.
Microsoft built two iconic product sets, the OS for the mainstream public and a great office suite. Thanks to Wikipedia, I discovered that PowerPoint was originally developed in 1987 for Apple. It was purchased later that year by Microsoft and added to the Office suite in 1990. You can learn more by going to the Wikipedia entry for PowerPoint.
So what does this have anything to do with anything?
I often find myself proving myself or my idea through the use of PowerPoint. I usually get less than 10 slides and sometimes just 1. To adjust, everyone gets very good at drawing pictures, because, hey, a picture’s worth a thousands words, right? But what I’m realizing is that those thousand words might be mostly wasted. What if one word or phrase does achieve as much as a picture?
Using Fables
For kicks I ordered and read Our Iceberg is Melting: Changing and Succeeding Under Any Conditions by John Kotter and Holger Rathgeber. Kotter is the guy that wrote Leading Changeand The Heart of Change. I’ve read neither of them but I’ve heard of each. I figured this would be a new way to get exposure to his ideas. But what Kotter does is take an idea from Spencer Johnson ( Who Moved My Cheese?) and creates a 147 page fable about Penguins. This book is easy to read and I wouldn’t expect anyone to take more than 3 hours to read the first time. Simplicity is key.
Innovative Training
Full disclosure, the company I’m talking about employs my uncle.
During times of positive economics, companies tend to spend a little more on training. It is considered an extra edge to help the company continue with its fortunes. During down times it is considered nonvital. Down times do force companies to innovate to survive though and that is good for the next wave of trainees. One unique approach is a company called Teaching and Training by Design. They specialize in Leadership Development, Organizational Systems Development, Team Building, Diversity/Cultural Competency, Communication, and Personal Development. …
US Government Hiring?
Anne Fisher writes a column for CNNMoney and Fortune (I think its all the same, but there must be a subtle difference) and on Thursday (7/26/07) she cites a website called Partnership for Public Service. It is a great resource for anyone looking for a job in the public sector. The Partnership for Public Service says that the US Federal Government is hiring almost 200,000 by 2009. The huge hiring push is partly because of the baby boomers retiring. I don’t know about the benefits for the federal government, but that number can’t be as high on the private side. …
Top Earning Towns
Money magazine does a feature about the best places to live every year. I noticed this year that they did one section on the top earning towns. The magazine might have done this in the past as well, but I paid attention to it this year. Number one on their list is Hillsborough, California at $263,456 as the median income. Number 25 on the list is Southlake, TX at $152,991. So about $110,000 separates number 1 from 25.
Two questions spring to my mind and I’m pretty sure the first one isn’t mentioned anywhere. …
Motivating Work
There is a saying that goes “I work to live, not live to work” and what that implies is that there are more important things in that person’s life than work. It is a reasonable statement. It also hints that the person isn’t completely fulfilled, in a professional sense, with the work being performed.
In the ultra competitive environment of today’s world there is great focus on math and science programs, with engineering being an output. The US is often criticized for falling behind the rest of the world in those areas. Tests prove that out. However, I rarely read about …
Earning Season
We are currently in a period where corporations are reporting their year end or second quarter earnings. I expect most companies to do well, but what I’m not sure of is how well? I’m probably oversimplifying but in my opinion two factors pulled the US out of the poor economy in 2001 and 2002: interest rates were lowered creating a housing bubble and the job market tightened. …