Related Articles

Taking Care of Middle Manager Bounce Off
How many times have the management consultants been 'in' and after leaving, have left little or no trace of their passing?Despite massive investment there is no discernable performance improvement, the retention figures still look as if we are running a call centre and our safety record is second to everyone.Why is it that what seemed a logical and progressive implementation model failed to have any lasting impact on our business?Could it have anything to do with 'Middle Manager Bounce Off'?'Middle Manager Bounce Off' is a little understood phenomenon that appears most frequently in the wake of a management initiative or a consultant driven implementation.

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Biometrics and "Return On Investment"
At this time of tight budgets, the mantra of business is "Return On Investment!" With few exceptions, expenditures are measured against the bottom line. Outlays for capital expenses are strictly evaluated in terms of profitability and the total cost of ownership.

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Is Your Brain Getting the Memory Full Message? 5 Ways to Free Up Room on Your Brains Hard Drive
Lynn was tapped to head up the project team for a major company restructuring. She began her first team meeting by delegating steps and due dates to the various department heads.

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Are You Using the Right Form of Energy?
As we near the end of summer, here is a question I have for you, "Are you using the right form of energy to grow your business?" Are you having trouble growing your small business as fast as you want? Are you making all the right moves and still the business just inches forward? Read this article and see if you are using the right form of energy to grow your small business?Head EnergyMy consulting experiences have taught me there are two types of business energy. I call the first type "head energy".

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Innovation Management - Measuring Failure!
Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation whilst innovation can be defined as idea selection, development and commercialisation.There are distinct processes that enhance problem identification and idea generation and, similarly, distinct processes that enhance idea selection, development and commercialisation.

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Never Wrestle with a PIG
The business books at the library and book stores fill many shelves. Some authors tend to run a little long at the keyboard.

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Service Level Agreement (SLA) Boot Camp
Service Level Agreements, or "SLA's" are tricky but useful mechanisms for managing the risk of an on-going relationship with IT service providers. Unfortunately, most SLA's that show up in service contracts as worthless, cosmetic paper additions.

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Two Critical Success Factors in an ITIL Implementation
Any IT manager who wants to pursue the IT Service Management journey by implementing the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) needs to understand two very important factors well in advance.? The first factor is to have dedicated, trained and committed process owners.

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Project Managment: Land the Plane Stop Doing and Start Succeeding
We all spend time on planning vacations. If it's not you then it's probably your significant other or travel agent.

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Innovation Management - how will we make the go or kill decisions?
Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation whilst innovation can be defined as idea selection, development and commercialisation.There are distinct processes that enhance problem identification and idea generation and, similarly, distinct processes that enhance idea selection, development and commercialisation.

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Great Hires: Avoid Costly Mistakes
Picking people for a job is like going to the store to buy apples. Before you go, you ought to know whether the apples are to be eaten fresh, make into applesauce, baked into a pie or made into juice.

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Organizational Structure, Creativity, Innovation
Organizational structure can inhibit or foster creativity and innovation. The problem with organizational structure though, is that it is resultant of many factors, including history, organic growth, strategy, operational design, product diversity, logistics, marketing, client base, supplier base and so forth.

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Performance Management Made Easy
Performance Management is a process that both employer and employee often fear!Why is this so!There is much misinformation about the performance management process and performance appraisals in management circles today. We often think that best practice demands that we must performance appraise 'no matter what'.

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Performance Management - Getting The Most Out of Your Employees
Managing for Best PerformanceIn it's simplest form, performance management is a common sense set of discussions that make sure people are clear about what they need to do, have the support to do it and get open and honest feedback on their performance.Any performance management process should answer 4 important questions for your employees:· Direction: What do I need to do and how well? · Feedback: How am I doing? · Rewards: What happens when I do well? · Support/Development: What happens when I need/want help?Lets look more closely at each of these:DirectionEmployees are not mind readers.

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Change Management: Getting Everyone on Board the Change Train
How do you get everyone on board the change train that is gaining speed and heading out of the station? How do you get your people to, not only go through the motions, but also actually "buy into" the changes that are necessary? People's resistance to change is not entirely irrational; it stems from good and understandable concerns. Here are the six most common reasons people resist change and tactics to convert this resistance to commitment.

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Keeping Team Meetings Vibrant
Meetings can be the life-blood of an organisation or the death.It all depends how you approach them.

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Procrastination and JDI!
In a management role procrastination can seriously hold back progress and demotivate individuals and teams who, full of innovation and drive to move forward, get frustrated and confused when action is held up. There are a number of steps that will help the procrastinating manager.

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Strategic Outsourcing: Testing the Outsourcing Waters and Staying Afloat
Before Gertrude Ederle began her historic swim off of Cape Griz-Nez, France, she underwent extensive training for endurance and technique-even though she was already an accomplished record-breaking swimmer with Olympic medals to her name. Outsourcing IT may not garner the same attention as being the first woman to swim the English Channel, but it is no less important to gather as much experience and knowledge as possible on a small scale before diving in for the big swim.

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The Seven Cs: Partnership Danger Signs - Conflict Becoming the Norm - Part 1
A series of articles exploring the seven critical areas that can indicate a partnership is in trouble.Conflict Becoming the Norm - Part 1Dr.

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A Tricky Supervision Challenge
Many managers believe that treating their team members as responsible adults will assure excellent results. The truth is that while this usually is effective, some people need much firmer limits than others to perform their jobs.

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