Archive for Management Tips
May 30, 2008 at 1:46 pm · Filed under Management Tips
One of the greatest challenges for the event organiser is to arrange a variety of activities that will appeal to everyone in the group. Obviously it is impossible to choose activities that will appeal to everyone, but it is important to have variety so that everyone will have something to enjoy.
The most common format for outdoor participation events is to have a range of activities. A group of thirty might be divided into five teams to attempt five different activities.
There is a general feeling that shooting and motorised activities are enjoyed more by men than by women. This is by no means a rule and there are always exceptions, but if an event is dominated by this sort of activity some people will enjoy it more than others.
Choosing the activities wisely will help; for example archery tends to be enjoyed by more people than clay pigeon shooting because some people find the noise and kick back of the shotgun too violent.
The best event companies will offer a wide range of activities and you can include ferret racing, duck herding and a whole assortment of activities which have a broad appeal. As well as the more physical participation activities you might consider including some puzzle based cerebral challenges; many prefer to think than to be active.
If you are very concerned about getting the choice right you can put all of the options down on a form and have the participants vote on which they would like to try.
The most important thing is to ensure that the organisers stresses that the event is run on a ‘challenge by choice’ basis. If someone decides that they do not want to do something they will not be forced to participate or humiliated. This is the last thing that should happen on a team building day.
One of the most popular types of event is the Treasure Hunt. These are popular because they are not particularly physically demanding and do not obviously appeal to either sex more than the other. Challenges can be built into the format and events can be tailored to a client’s particular needs.
Treasure Hunts can be run in more or less any location in town and country. London Treasure Hunts are extremely popular and professional organisers will know the best routes to ensure an interesting experience without teams spending hours in queues with the tourists.
There is a wide range of options available in the participation event industry. Organisers should consider the make up of their group and any special needs that people may have. Organisers should avoid simply choosing activities which appeal to their own preferences; working with a professional event company and taking their advice will ensure that an event with broad appeal is chosen.
James Coakes is Managing Director of Progressive Resources, The Teambuilding Company, one of the UK’s largest organisers of events for corporate clients.
May 16, 2008 at 3:42 am · Filed under Management Tips
Time is inelastic. Despite what some of us persist in believing, it will NOT magically expand to accommodate all we have to do. So, in order to maximize the time we have available, we have to spend it wisely.
Here’s how to do that.
STRUCTURE YOUR TIME
The very first thing to do is understand the structure of your time. If you think of the time you have available as some amorphous dimension, you will fritter it away on this and that without any real consideration of what is the best use of the time available. How many times have you got to the end of your day and felt like you’d accomplished nothing even though you’d been “busy” all day.
All time is not equal. If you’re a morning person, your morning time is worth more in terms of productivity than your late afternoon time.
So think of time as variable in terms of potential for accomplishment and identify your most valuable time. Do the same for your intermediate-value time and your lower-value time.
Reserve your most valuable time for your most intellectually demanding activities. Your intermediate value time should be spent on important tasks that don’t require quite the same level of concentration. Finally, reserve your low-value time for activities that don’t require much in the way of concentration.
Now, obviously, if you have a full-time job away from the home, the decision of how to spend your 9 to 5 hours will largely be out of your hands. So, the best you can do if you’re a morning person is to try and take care of some of your intellectually demanding activities first thing in the morning, say between 5:00 am and 7:00 am. On the other hand, if you’re a night owl, working a full-time job probably won’t be much of a problem for you.
If you run your own business from home, however, effectively structuring your time in terms of peak, intermediate and low-concentration blocks can make a profound impact on your productivity if you use that time intelligently.
IDENTIFY WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO
Now that you have some sense of how to best structure your time, you need to turn to what, exactly, you’re going to spend that time on.
That means identifying what you have to do. And that means identifying what you DON’T have to do as the flipside.
When identifying what you have to fit in to your schedule, think about all areas of your life. Making time for yourself is NOT something that you get around to only if there’s time left over. Making time for yourself is as much a priority as anything else.
A good way of identifying activities that should be included in your schedule is to test them against the criteria of furtherance of an objective. If the activity does nothing to further any objective, why are you even doing it?
So start by identifying objectives for your life. Consider categories such as health, finance, business/career, spiritual, family, social, intellectual and so on. Establish objectives for every area of your life that’s important to you.
Everything you do should bring you closer to an objective. If it doesn’t, again, why do it?
ALLOCATE YOUR ACTIVITIES
Now that you know how to best structure your time and what activities are going to lead you closer to your objectives, it’s time to allocate those activities against the time you have available and in accordance with your various concentration levels.
Begin by estimating how much time each activity in your day is likely to take. Be realistic about what you can really accomplish in one day. If you overload yourself you’re only going to stress out about what you’re NOT doing and that makes you less effective in what you ARE doing. So pace yourself. Just don’t WASTE time.
Assign your most intellectually demanding activities to your peak concentration time. This may be writing a chapter of your ebook or writing an article for the next issue of your ezine. Assign your less concentration-intensive activities to your intermediate concentration time. This may be redesigning a web page or reading and responding to email, for example. Finally, assign your truly “no concentration required” activities to your low concentration periods. If you’ve allocated time to exercising, this would be a good time to do a workout.
KILLING TWO BIRDS WITH ONE STONE
There’s no reason why you can’t use the same time to accomplish more than one thing. For example, I am writing this article (a high concentration activity) on my laptop while enjoying coffee in a Santa Monica cafe (a low concentration activity).
GROUP LIKE TASKS
Grouping like tasks will allow you to accomplish more in the same amount of time. It is much more efficient to run three errands while you’re out and about rather than making three separate trips. Similarly, it’s more time-efficient to run one large load of laundry rather than two separate, smaller loads. So give some thought to these mundane sorts of activities too. There’s always a way to shave off a bit of time by grouping similar activities and doing them in one hit. Email’s another prime example. Far more efficient to check and respond to mail twice a day than to read and respond to each message as and when it comes in, thereby distracting yourself from what you were doing in the first place.
By thinking about what you have to do and scheduling those tasks in conformity with your concentration levels as well as grouping like activities, you will naturally make the most effective use of the time available. Your productivity will increase proportionately.
About The Author
Elena Fawkner is editor of the award-winning A Home-Based Business Online … practical home business ideas, resources and strategies for the work-from-home entrepreneur. http://www.ahbbo.com
May 13, 2008 at 10:05 am · Filed under Management Tips
Mining data is one of the keys to running an effective business. Here’s a primer on effectively managing your business data to maximize the efficiency of your business.
Effective data management plays an essential role for any growing business. Information technology has generated advanced tools for analyzing and managing data. Use of these tools can improve the performance of almost any operation. Steps made in capturing mass data electronically have developed the need for effective management strategies. Getting more and more data and transforming it into usable information is a major concern of today’s services and industries.
New technologies require new expertise, internal procedures and decision-making methods. Earlier companies were creating electronic databases, which were non-relational and difficult to use. Now with the use of highly sophisticated software and high-speed computers, businesses are reaping huge benefits from the computer/information revolution. Businesses are continuously making steps in managing data by using various tools to optimize information for sorting, searching and presentation in meaningful formats.
Many software programs and database applications are available on the market that enable companies to manipulate data in real time, capture knowledge for future use, ease the progress of operations to save time and costs and also to coordinate operations with partners.
The amount of data storage necessary and the duration it is kept online is growing swiftly, yet resources to manage data are limited. Data storage is a test to those companies wishing to maximize the value of their available data and also a huge task for storage professionals to manage and protect this data. Enterprises are struggling to bring together highly reliable platforms that can recognize where data is located in a company and whether it is utilized efficiently. Data management solutions must track, monitor and be vigilant of the conditions of your company data. It should also manage and distribute data efficiently. It should unify and simplify the administration of storage infrastructure.
Data is growing exponentially. Companies need maximum scalability, performance and production for data rigorous applications. They also need an easy to use, backup tool that provides transparency to where and how data and storage is utilized. Before choosing such and important process as data management, be sure to research your options and go with a solution that is flexible and scalable.
Halstatt Pires is with the Internet marketing firm - www.marketingtitan.com - a San Diego Internet marketing and advertising company offering automated web site systems - www.businesscreatorpro.com - create web databases, e-commerce sites, business lead management systems and more.
May 10, 2008 at 2:53 am · Filed under Management Tips
High school student are one of the busiest people in the world. This people study, takes classes, join school activities, and socialize. They have a lot of work in school and at home.
Being organized is essential in high school students. If you are a high school student, it may seem like you never have enough time to finish all your work in a day. You may feel that you are always running out of time and all you do is study and never get enough time with your friends and family.
You often wish that there should be more time in one day to enable you to finish all your work with extra time to hang out with your family and friends and start again tomorrow.
However, everything you need to accomplish in one day is possible if you are organized and plan everything you do in a day.
Here are some tips for you to follow to make high school life easier and have extra time for you are your friends and family:
Set goals everyday - Before you sleep, list down all the things you want to accomplish on the next day. This will help you to know what you are going to do and avoid doing unimportant tasks. With a “to do” list, you will get everything done more efficiently and faster.
Prioritize your list of goals - After you made your “to do” list, try to prioritize the goals you want to achieve. Put your most important goal in life on top of your priority and your least important goals to down below on the list.
It is also important that you should be realistic on your list, try to base your list on what you need to achieve and not on what you want to achieve. If you have a long-term priority, it is probably best that you put it on the bottom of your list; you can always work on that tomorrow.
Use your spare time - You may not notice it but you have lots of spare time as a high school student. Try to add up the minutes of the school bus ride to school and the school bus ride back home.
You can use these times to study and do your homework. By doing this, you will get an idea on what you need to do on your homework when you get home. This allows you to finish your homework faster and have extra time for other things.
Working student - If you are a high school student and have a part time job, you can use your rest periods to do your homework or study. It is also ok to say no if your boss asks you to work on a school night and you have an important exam the next day. Tell him or her that you have to study for the exam.
Remember, work is not your number one priority as of now, it is only a part time job and the most important thing for a high school student is studying and passing the exams.
Finding the right time - Students have the “right time” to study. Students have specific time to study more efficiently. For example, you solved your math problems well on afternoons; do not wait until nighttime to it, then. When your mood shifts immediately start solving math problems as much as you can before you lose interest.
Taking notes - Writing down important notes is an effective way to study. It is much better than just plain reading. Writing down notes has an effect on your mind. You can understand the topic more effectively and memorize it more effectively than by just reading.
It is also important that you review your notes as your teacher might give a pop quiz on the next day. Reviewing your notes will help you be more prepared for the pop quizzes that your teacher may suddenly give.
Get enough sleep - Trying to stress yourself out studying when you are supposed to be sleeping can bring ineffective results and unwelcome health problems.
If you need to sleep you have to sleep, do not force yourself to study if you cannot effectively study. If you try to study in this situation, you will most likely waste your time.
Keep your goals realistic - Trying to accomplish unrealistic goals can often result in failure and frustration.
Set goals that is difficult but achievable. Setting realistic goals that is difficult and achieving it can give you self-worth and be proud on your achievements.
Gord Shin is owner of Time Management Tips websites. Please visit Time Management
Tips For College Students, Identity Theft Protection, Bass Fishing Guide for more information on these topics.
April 1, 2008 at 1:35 pm · Filed under Management Tips
6.Recognise that all vision has seasonal components within it
Vision takes on many forms and expressions.
I have watched four of my children grow from being dependent upon my support and advice, to now making their own decisions and plans without so much as a conversation with me. The plans I held for their lives have in part come to pass and in other areas not so. As a parent of vision, we too must recognize that other dynamics play a part within the whole.
Seasons in life have great rewards, but we cannot force a summer in the middle of winter.
“In the depths of winter I finally learned there was in me an invincible summer.” -Albert Camus.
I love that thought! We may not be able to change the seasons of our vision but we can look forward to the season that is to come. When there is a winter within your plans or a summer upon your resources, treat them both with the same response. Be thankful for the cleansing power of winter with an eye upon the warmth of summer.
As with our children, when they hit times of winter and we feel they should be living in a time of spring, we must recognize that with all the strategies available to us, we cannot live our plans through the choices of others. “Write your plans in the sand, and your goals in marble”
What did you really see?
As we have mentioned before in this topic, vision is all about foresight, seeing the invisible, creating a preferable future. Vision creates a finished picture for us, and our responsibility is to work towards it with the understanding, resources and skills at our disposal. One important aspect to keep in focus whilst moving towards that future is what is set before us is nearly always, more inviting to what we presently see.
Re-visit the former days, read the notes and consider the landmarks we have achieved. Take a deep breath and seek those that can support you towards your preferable future.
Don’t despise small beginnings
Years ago I was walking in my local park in Auckland, when I became aware of the thousands upon thousands of acorns that were spread all over the luscious green turf. I picked one up and
It immediately reminded me of the times I spent as a child playing “Conkers”. A game where the chestnut is suspended upon a string and a fellow competitor tries to smash it with theirs. Then my mind raced to my home and all the timber that is within it, both decoratively and structurally. By the end of the day, I had over 100 hundred different statistics that the “mighty Oak” was responsible for. And it all comes from one small acorn.
I placed this outside my office door with a note “what do you see?” The next day one of my colleagues had mischeviously entered my office and poured upon my desk and office furniture, hundreds of acorns and a further note “Now what do you see?”
Perspective is all about how you see it. Attitude is all about how you approach it. Vision is all about how you apply it.
Never despise the acorn, as fully-grown it provides far more than it could as a seed, but the potential was always there. What do you see?
Tony Mckeown is director of Coaching 4 life NZ and regularly travels the world speaking and motivating groups and conferences. His passion and personal mission statement in Life is “To bring a message of hope to a people of destiny”. Tony has authored many “How To” manuals along with regular weekly and monthly newsletters.
His services and free motivational downloads are available from his resource site http://www.coaching4life.net.nz
