Quick and To the Point: Texting and Instant Messaging Protocols in the Workplace

Quick and To the Point: Texting and Instant Messaging Protocols in the Workplace by Laura Stack #Productivity

"Email, instant messaging, and cell phones give us fabulous communication ability, but because we live and work in our own little worlds, that communication is totally disorganized." -- Marilyn vos Savant, American newspaper columnist. Communication may be the most important factor in any partnership, and it's certainly a glue that binds a team together. But it comes in many forms, especially in the workplace. Two of those are texting and Instant Messaging (IM), which are common means of modern business communication today. How do we make the best use of each in a teamwork environment? At first glance, IM and text seem very similar, and sometimes we use the terms interchangeably. But they actually refer to distinct methods of electronic communication. Text is of course phone-to-phone, … [Read more...]

Building Consensus for Decisions

(C) 2015 Laura Stack. All Rights Reserved. … [Read more...]

Beyond the Talk: Why Only Performance Matters

Beyond the Talk: Why Only Performance Matters by Laura Stack #productivity

"An ounce of performance is worth pounds of promises." -- Mae West, American actress. "Confidence... thrives on honesty, on honor, on the sacredness of obligations, on faithful protection, and on unselfish performance. Without them it cannot live." -- Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States. If talk got things done, humanity would already have colonies all over the solar system, and we'd probably be reaching for the stars. Instead, we all but gave up on manned spaceflight more than 40 years ago, and decided to send (relatively) cheap robotic probes to the planets instead. Not that they've been a waste; we've learned a lot. But our entire species is still living on one planet. My point? Simply that with a few therapeutic exceptions, no amount of talking and … [Read more...]

Scoring Synergy With Outside Sources

"It is literally true that you can succeed best and quickest by helping others to succeed." -- Napoleon Hill, American motivational guru and author of Think and Grow Rich. "Interdependent people combine their own efforts with the efforts of others to achieve their greatest success." -- Stephen Covey, author, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People In chemistry, a "synergistic reaction" occurs when two substances interact to generate a greater effect than either would alone. This can have dangerous consequences, as when bleach and ammonia mix to produce chlorine gas. On the other hand, adding specific impurities to a silicon semiconductor can greatly boost its performance. In a situation like this, the whole proves greater than the sum of the parts. This principle can apply to human … [Read more...]