The Class of 2009 August 31, 2005
Posted by Tim Raines in: business, marketing , add a commentEvery year for a number of years, Beloit College has released the Beloit College Mindset List, which offers a world view of today’s entering college students. While the idea of children who were born in 1987 becoming men and women is quite a shock in and of itself, the Mindset List seeks to give us all an idea of just how different the frame of reference is for these college freshmen.
Here’s some hightlights:
- They don’t remember when “cut and paste” involved scissors.
- Pay-Per-View television has always been an option.
- They never had the fun of being thrown into the back of a station wagon with six others.
- Voice mail has always been available.
- For daily caffeine emergencies, Starbucks has always been around the corner.
Understanding–and communicating with–a given segment of the population requires a paradigm shift. What is their frame of reference? What is important to them? What are their fears? Their joys? Their motivators?
Keep these questions in mind when planning your next promotion, meeting, advertisement or any communication with prospects.
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Get Back to Work August 18, 2005
Posted by Tim Raines in: business, marketing, management , add a commentSince meetings and communication seem to be a theme this week, I’ve found another article on communication that I think is a helpful tip for those of us who find our minds wandering in endless meetings. In short, how to get your head back to where it’s supposed to be: the subject at hand.
During the course of the day, our minds are constantly churning over hundreds of extraneous thoughts: to-do lists, ideas, plans and so forth. So picture this: you’re in an important meeting where your mind starts to wander. Perhaps it’s something the speaker said, a noise outside the room or the shoes your co-worker is wearing. Whatever the cause, you’re now focused on something else.
Brad Isaac has an interesting post on this very problem–and how to conquer it. His solution? Take notes.
Short, one- or two-word notes will allow you to remember that idea or to-do and then get your mind back to the subject at hand. The bonus: the speaker will think you’re that much more interested in what they’re saying.
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Listening and Hearing August 17, 2005
Posted by Tim Raines in: business, marketing, management , add a commentWe’ve all heard the old adage about listening vs. hearing. And we all know that true communication requires not just the transfer of an idea, but the understanding of that idea–whether you agree with it or not. Sometimes, though, in the meeting room, over the dinner table or at the local pub, everyone’s speaking their mind, but no one is really listening. That is, there is no communication taking place.
Doug Sundheim, in discussing this problem, says:
The conversation is dysfunctional - meaning that it doesn’t produce a deeper understanding of the issues at hand. Eventually, when a decision must be made, it’s often the person who has spoken the loudest, longest, or with the most conviction that wins - whether it was the best idea or not.
Luckily, he offers some pretty good solutions, too.
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When Two Sides of an Argument Collide August 12, 2005
Posted by Tim Raines in: business, management , add a commentEver been in a meeting (or a bar, for that matter) where two opposing opinions are being “discussed”? How do you get each side to see the merits of the other? How can you keep the discussion from heating up or even boiling over?
Doug Sundheim has an interesting idea: play Devil’s advocate. By allowing each person to argue in favor of the other person’s ideas, they’ll be able to see the merits–and pitfalls–in their own idea. Doug has some additional suggestions for doing this by yourself when you’ve reached an impasse with someone. And it works even if you don’t have an adversary. You can use this method to take a look at any idea or assumption you may have to give you a different way of thinking about it.
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Does the 80/20 rule apply to your life? August 9, 2005
Posted by Tim Raines in: business, management , add a commentWe’ve all heard the 80/20 rule as it applies to sales: 80% of your business comes from 20% of your customers. It’s a pretty straight-forward prinicple and seems to work out most of the time.
What if that same principle was applied to the work you actually do? Could it be that we could actually work less and accomplish more? That is…could we be more sucessful with less work?
Richard Koch has an interesting post regarding applying the 80/20 rule to the amount of work we do. From the article, “Businesses have known for a long time that they can improve their position enormously by concentrating on the key 20 percent of activities. But why cant people do the same? It turns out that we can. We can make our lives enormously better by doing less. The secret is not to do less of everything, but to do less of the great majority of things we do that dont work very well for us. And to do more of the very few things that do
deliver what we want.”
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Could BestBuy’s System Work for Your Business? August 5, 2005
Posted by Tim Raines in: business, management , add a commentThe July 25th issue of TIME magazine contains an interesting article about BestBuy’s introduction a few years ago of a system dubbed results-oriented work environment, or ROWE. Under the system, employees’ time clocks are no longer watched. What matters is that the job gets done on time. How, where and how many hours it took is irrelevant.
Employees seem to love it because it creates a much more flexible environment in which to work…and, more importantly, live. One employee is quoted in the article as saying, “It isn’t perfect. The family doesn’t always win. But the family doesn’t always lose either. I don’t feel guilty anymore.”
Could this environment work for your employees? Could it work for your business?
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On this date in history…
Posted by Tim Raines in: business, construction, public utilities , add a comment1914 - The first electric traffic lights were installed–in Cleveland, Ohio.
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On this date in history… August 4, 2005
Posted by Tim Raines in: business, public utilities , add a comment1922 - The death of Alexander Graham Bell, on August 2nd, was marked by AT&T and the Bell Systems by shutting down all telephone switchboards and switching stations. The shutdown affected 13 million phones.
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Top Trade Magazines
Posted by Tim Raines in: business , add a commentFreeTradeMagazines.com has just released its report of the top 10 magazines for the month of July. In order by number of subscriptions, the top magazines are:
- Construction Business Owner
- Kitchen & Bath Design News
- Remodeling
- Qualified Remodeler
- Wood Digest
- Jobsite Magazine - Framing and Drywall
- Period Homes
- Promo
- Construction Site News
- Specialty Coffee Retailer
It appears that the construction industry is going strong, leading the list with eight of the top ten spots.
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New Bill for Small Business Health Insurance August 3, 2005
Posted by Tim Raines in: business, management , add a commentThe U.S. House of Representatives approved a bill that would allow major trade associations to bargain with health insurance providers on behalf of their members nationwide, potentially allowing them to negotiate discounted policies. Similar measures have passed in the House in the past, but have not made it past the Senate.
The bill would allow trade groups, chambers of commerce and other business groups to bargain across state lines like many large corporations and labor organizations already do.
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