Sasquatch or Windigo?

This says it all — props for adding creative fun to the Olympic brand. Vancouver is a beautiful city and I would love to be there for the festivities.

clipped from www.boingboing.net Drawn! ran Meomi‘s fabulous designs for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic mascots. They just need to add a ‘frop pipe in that Yeti’s mouth and all will be good. Leave it to Canada to have a cryptozoological beastie like a sasquatch as its Olympic mascot. Earlier today Vancouver 2010 unveiled their Olympic and Paralympic mascots: Quatchi the Sasquatch, Miga the Sea Bear, and Sumi the Thunderbird. Link (Thanks, Scott!)

Poor Leaders Suck Companies Dry

By E. Brown

I visited a company this morning that has been through a very volatile year. A new CEO had been brought in about a year ago. The leader had no previous experience in the industry he was brought into. Immediately, he started making sweeping changes.

So far, this does not sound uncommon for most mid to large organizations. However, follow on and then see what you think.

Spin: Employees were told there would be a reorganization
Most typical reorgs go through a process such as:
Discovery/evaluation – company direction, company structure, mission and vision, staff skill sets, company assets, customer base, etc.;
Planning/strategy – maintain or change course based upon key criteria established in the discovery phase, communicating with key stakeholders, etc.;
Execution – executing on the plan with no regrets;
Evaluation – checking milestones along the way, overall evaluations after changes take root are usually 1-3 years after the execution. There are also change management principles that are put into use regarding communication throughout the company, creating a guiding coalition, setting quick-wins, etc.

Unfortunately, none of this is what transpired.

Reality: Employees felt leadership did not know what they were doing
Instead of one cut and rearranging personnel, based on the Discovery phase, there were a series of lay-offs and no-win situations that drug out over the course of 6 months. Several employees I spoke with said they had been moved from department to department and from manager to manager routinely within a 4-5 month time period.

Some employees were terminated on one week and then hired (or asked) back the following week. About a dozen employees were hired and then mysteriously let go within their first three months of employment. Other employees were put into extreme situations, being asked to work as much as 80-120 hours, in what they termed “no win” situations, so that final termination was based upon “poor job performance”. Extremely talented personnel were fired, after which less qualified employees were hired to replace those positions.

Instead of encouraging communication, fear and intimidation were the rule of the day. Half cutting remarks, and in some cases lies, were told during staff gatherings. Everyone was looking out for themselves and the company moral was in the toilet.

After about a year, the new CEO said it was time to leave. Yes, the insecure leadership vampire had struck and left another hollowed out shaking company in its wake.

This company is now committed to a new course. No one knows what the future may hold but employees, fearing for their jobs or new and giddy with rose-colored glasses, trudge on in hopes that tomorrow will be a brighter day than the one before.

Words of wisdom
Do a solid review of potential leadership candidates. Don’t let their “sucking up” people-skills cloud your judgment. He or she may be a very nice person and also a very wrong fit for the job. As the old saying goes, “measure twice, cut one.”

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13 Tips For Making The Most Of Your Time

I am always looking for good ideas about time management — these are good. The Ririan Project is an excellent resource site and provided these tips.

clipped from ririanproject.com Some people always seem to get everything done in a day; others find getting anything accomplished to be a struggle. What separates the frenetic, time-starved man from the productive one? Surprisingly, not much.Whether in your personal or professional life, here are some solid tips to maximize every hour of your day.1. Get out of bed quickly. 2. Organize your day. 3. Foresee efficiency obstacles. 4. Allocate specific times for specific tasks. 5. Set and respect deadlines. 6. Develop shortcuts. 7. Maximize your productivity habits. 8. Combine tasks. 9. Visit the gym early in the day. 10. Don’t take on too much. 11. Plan some downtime. 12. Cut down on social time. 13. Finish what you start. Regain control over how you use your time. Stop running after time and you’ll feel less stressed and more energized. You’ll get everything done, with time to spare.

Buying Tech Gadgets? Patience Is Still A Virtue.

Waiting a little while can save you $$ and frustration.

clipped from www.webuser.co.uk Waiting for the price of hyped gadgets to come down is the most sensible strategy, according to research. David Kuo of Fool.co.uk said: “We’ve tracked some of the top gadgets on the market today and on average, �87.20 has been slashed since a product first launched. If you can hold out until the original hype has died down, you can make some significant savings.” “However, if you do find the latest technology too tempting, there are some gadgets that hold their value longer than others, but there are no guarantees they will do so over the long term,” Kuo said. Fool.co.uk found that the Nintendo Wii was still the same price – �179 – as it was in December 2006. However, a Samsung Blu-ray Disc player that went on sale in March 2006 for �800 now cost only �476, a saving of �324. One example of waiting for prices to come down being the best option was seen recently when the Apple iPhone was launched in the US. Apple shaved $200 (around �100) off the price just two months after it was launched.

Firefox 2 vs. Firefox 3 Comparison

Great side by side comparison of new features in Firefox 3 Beta with the older Firefox 2.

NOTE: Click images below to enlarge.

clipped from duggmirror.com Firefox Beta 3 has been released some days ago, I have installed it and made a little comparison with Firefox 2.0 to see some of the changes. When you zoom with firefox 2 you can only zoom the text and not the images, but now with Firefox 3 the images are also zoomed, so you can zoom a page with text and images, or only images pages. One of the biggest changes on Firefox 3 is the way it manage bookmarks, and its interface also changed. Check out that now tags is possible, what I have tried was to import my delicious directly to Firefox and the tags were not imported as I have thought it could have been, maybe a mistake considering how many people is using delicious out there. By the way, and talking about delicious there is not yet a plugin for it by the time this post is being written, there is one for stumbleupon just released yesterday. Places – New to Firefox, it helps you navigate in your “favorite” pages, the most visited, the most used tags, the recently visited, etc. Password remembering The Add-ons dialog box has another option called Plugins, where you can manage the plugins installed on your Firefox browser. A good addition. Page Info dialog box helps you easily find the rss links on a page to subscribe to it. Share This With Others

Jajah Weighs In On Skype And VoIP

This could spell T-R-O-U-B-L-E for Skype and other VoIP services.

clipped from www.webuser.co.uk Making telephone calls over the internet for little or no cost has been possible using VoIP (voice-over internet protocol) for a while now, but a new innovation from Jajah means that you don’t have to be logged on to the internet to do so. By calling a local telephone number, then inputting the number of the phone you wish to call, you can get a number sent to you by Jajah Direct. Calling the number will connect you with the person you wish to call at a greatly reduced rate. Typically, VoIP services require you to be logged into the internet, using a headset to talk to the person you are calling. Jajah’s solution is so different that “you don’t recognise it as VoIP any more Setting up a Jajah account is free, and you don’t have to do it through the web either as you can do it over the phone. The Jajah website will tell you the number of your local access number and also has information about how much it costs to call various countries around the world and is completely carrier-friendly

NEW Firefox 3 Beta

I love Firefox. After this version has been tested I look forward to upgrading.

clipped from www.webuser.co.uk The beta version of the third incarnation of Mozilla’s open source browser, Firefox, is available to download online. However, Mozilla has cautioned anyone who isn’t a developer or part of its testing community not to download it. “These beta releases are targeted to web developers and our testing community to gain feedback before advancing to the next stage in the release process. The final version of Firefox 3 will be released when we qualify the product as fully ready for our users,” Mozilla said. Firefox is a popular option for those who shun Microsoft products. It generally doesn’t suffer the same level of security attacks as the Internet Explorer browser, though the current version, Firefox 2, has required patching up recently. Many of the new features in the beta of Firefox 3 are security-focused, including better malware protection and integration with your existing anti-virus software, informing it when you download files.

Chief Happiness Officer Does America

Alexander Kjerulf is asking Americans about their work. Let him know what you think.

clipped from positivesharing.com I’ve already talked to employees and managers at Coca-Cola, CNN – and Hooters :o) You can see pictures from my trip here. And here’s something I’ve noticed: Everywhere I go, I ask the same question, namely “what makes people happy at work here.” And I’ve noticed that the answers are never about work itself. People talk about career opportunities, they talk about salary and benefits, they talk about getting free concert tickets. No one (so far) has said “Well, I really like my job because what I do is fun, and I get to work with some really nice people.” The closest was Dmitri Shrekengost of Coca-Cola who said that he has many friends at work, and indeed, Coca-Cola looked like a fairly happy workplace. So here’s the question: Is that typical? Is that really how most Americans view work – as a means to an end rather than something that could (and should!) be pleasant in itself? What do you think?

Anti-Social Networking?

The dialog about VR and IRL relationships rages on. What are your thoughts?

clipped from www.internetevolution.com LifeAt.com, as reported by The New York Times, is a new network of social sites for people living in the same apartment buildings or housing complexes where they can post user profiles and stay in the know about what’s happening in the building and what’s good in the ‘hood. In other words, it’s like the bulletin board in the lobby, except it allows for online self-promotion and costs around 6,000 big ones for each building, making it a tad pricier than corkboard. Each building registered at LifeAt is given a password-protected Website that allows for exclusive access. One might say the password acts as your online doorman. One just did, actually. And, call me crazy, but isn’t this service really fostering anti-social networking? (What? You’re crazy!) You’re probably right. What better way is there to meet your neighbors than hiding behind your apartment doors and stalking their online profiles? This is not getting to know you so much as it is getting around getting to know you.

Beautiful Use of Typography

clipped from anamorphosis-kate.blogspot.com Some beautiful typography from Homework, an independent graphic design studio and consultancy, founded in 2002 by Jack Dahl. [Via Evasion] Labels: art direction, graphic design, homework

Are You A Net Promoter?

No, this is not about the Internet. It seems that “Customer No-Service” has gotten so bad, someone had to write a book.

I often tell companies that without customers they would not be in business. Yet, it never ceases to amaze me how many organizations are self-absorbed and do not think about who they are serving and how they are serving them.

clipped from www.netpromoter.com Net Promoter is a discipline by which companies profitably grow by focusing on their customers. A successful Net Promoter program includes 5 elements: 1) metrics proven to link to growth 2) leadership practices that instill customer focus, passion, and values 3) organizational strategies to ensure adoption 4) integration with core business processes 5) operational systems to support the initiative One simple question – Would you recommend us to a friend or colleague? – allows companies to track promoters and detractors and produces a clear measure of an organization’s performance through its customers’ eyes. More Promoters are customers who are so enthusiastic about a firm or brand that they not only increase their own purchases, but also refer their colleagues or friends. More Detractors are customers who feel so badly treated that they cut back on purchases, switch to the competition, and warn others to stay away from the company. More

Kids And Virtual Worlds

The promise and pitfalls of Virtual Worlds — parents need to get involved.

clipped from www.news.com Kids who are active members of virtual worlds are learning how to socialize, how to be technologically savvy, and how to be good little consumers. Researchers estimate that more than 50 percent of kids on the Internet will belong to such an environment by 2012 “Knowledge is changing. It (used to be that it) was a set of facts, now it’s not so much a ‘what’ but a ‘where,’ in which kids learn how to find information,” Thomas said. “That’s going to be the single most important skill–the ability to adapt to change.” The panelists advised parents to take an active approach with their kids in virtual worlds. Thomas, for example That’s according to a group of academics and researchers who met Wednesday evening at the University of Southern California to discuss the effects of virtual worlds on children today. The panel came together to talk about the promise and pitfalls of virtual worlds from an educational and commercial viewpoint.

Texas Schools Use iPods For Mobile Learning

I love this. Mobile learning and teaching is great for JIT (just in time) training. A natural by-product of this effort is team work and communities of practice.

clipped from learninginhand.com The Dallas Morning News published the story Grand Prairie Schools Welcome iPods in Classrooms. It features Whitt Elementary in Grand Prairie, Texas where teachers are using 321 iPods “to teach kids about subjects they might otherwise find boring.” The iPods have only been in use a couple of weeks at the school, but the media players have inspired teachers to have these ideas: Use GarageBand to produce a song about states of matter. Listen here. Help teach English Language Learners and foreign languages. Video students being revolving planets. Produce a podcast about the American Revolution. View video about season changes. Allow students to take the iPods home (as long as they are returned the next day). Whitt teachers are embracing change and are doing great things for students. The activities and teacher/student creation of media seem to be the most powerful parts of how teachers are changing instruction.

Relationships = Productivity

If you read this blog, you know I am all over this. However, one thing I will strongly oppose is the “good old boy” network. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with plumbing your network for qualified people to work with. The problem is when you bring friends into the business because they are your friends. Don’t do it! Be intentional with the kind and quality of people you hire.

clipped from 800ceoread.com Blumenthal believes there is simply no stronger motivation for good performance than strong relationships and hopes to revolutionize leadership with a deceptively simple equation: Relationships = Productivity. He warns of an epidemic of “ineptivity” (motion without reason) has lead to a state of disenfranchisement within business, and a good leader who attends to people’s needs can prevent mutiny.

Wii-style technology with Nokia Phone!

Watch this video of a new Nokia phone — Cool!

clipped from ubiquitousthoughts.wordpress.com I ran across this post (click on the link to get the video) on the Moblearing blog via the Handheld Learning forum. Make sure to watch the entire video. This was just too cool to let go!Image Credit: By Samir website: http://www.bysamir.fr/nokmote/nokmote.png

Mobile Learning 2007 Podcasts Are Here

I have not heard these yet, but I am looking forward to it.

clipped from mlearning.edublogs.org If you’d like to hear the proceedings of the MLearn 2007 conference, you can now access all of the session recordings courtesy of the Talking VTE Podcast and Stephan Ridgway.� The photos don’t usually match up with the various sessions, but the content is all there and there’s plenty of gold in “them thar presentations.” :)

Hand Held Learning 2007

Mobile learning is coming of age…finally!

clipped from mlearning.edublogs.org Wow. Watching Tim Tarrant from the Training and Development Agency for Schools in the UK. They’ve been equipping their teachers with laptops for a decade, and, in the last few years, with PDAs. They’ve also assisted with supporting and developing teachers in the use of these tools. (Slides here: http://www.slideshare.net/HandheldLearning/tim-tarrant-tda video here: http://handheldlearning.blip.tv/file/454948/).

4 Reasons Why Curiosity Is Important

I love this — always be a learner and always stay curious!

clipped from www.lifehack.org The important thing is not to stop questioning… Never lose a holy curiosity. Albert Einstein Curiosity is an important trait of a genius. I don’t think you can find an intellectual giant who is not a curious person. Thomas Edison, Leonardo da Vinci, Albert Einstein, Richard Feynman, they are all curious characters. Richard Feynman was especially known for his adventures which came from his curiosity.

Timing Is Everything [PICS]

Some of these I have seen before. while some were new to me. All of them are incredible (and maybe a little painful) to look at.

clipped from sawse.com