What is Five S?

5S is a basic, fundamental, systematic approach for productivity, quality and safety improvement in all types of business.

What is a Five S?

A Five S program is usually a part of, and the key component of establishing a Visual Workplace. and are both a part of Kaizen -- a system of continual improvement -- which is a component of lean manufacturing.

The Five S program focuses on having visual order, organization, cleanliness and standardization. The results you can expect from a Five S program are: improved profitability, efficiency, service and safety.

The principles underlying a Five S program at first appear to be simple, obvious common sense. And they are. But until the advent of Five S programs many businesses ignored these basic principles.

What types of businesses benefit from a Five S program?

Everyone and all types of business benefit from having a Five S program.

Manufacturing and industrial plants come to mind first, as those are the business that can realize the greatest benefits. However, any type of business, from a retail store to a power plant -- from hospitals to television stations -- all types of businesses, and all areas within a business, will realize benefits from implementing a Five S program.

What are the Five S's?

Use the following links to learn more about 5S

• Sort - the first step in making things cleaned up and organized
• Set In Order - organize, identify and arrange everything in a work area
• Shine - regular cleaning and maintenance
• Standardize - make it easy to maintain - simplify and standardize
• Sustain -maintaining what has been accomplished

What will it cost me?

The shipyard industry is spending nearly a million dollars to develop a Five S program the industry can use, and to implement that program at two shipyards. On the other hand you can implement a Five S program without adding an extra dollar to your budget.

Realistically you probably will need to spend some extra money to get your Five S program going. There will be training time; man-hours spent to get your facility cleaned up and organized; equipment purchases, such as buying a quality labeling system; and time spent on sustaining your Five S program once it is in place.

Your actual costs will depend on where you are now - for example what is the condition of your facility? The further you are from meeting the goals of a Five S program, the more it will cost to implement one and the greater the benefits you'll see as a result of your Five S program.

(Graphic Products)

Getting Started With Kaizen

Kaizen focuses on creative solutions instead of capital expenditures.

Getting Started With Kaizen

There is more to implementing Kaizen than we can include on a single web page. However, the following serves as an overview of introducing Kaizen into an American workplace.

For most American companies Kaizen involves a significant change in the corporate culture. This is key. The attitudes of employees - from top management down to new hires will need to change. Kaizen needs to become something all employees do because they want to, and because they know it is good for them and the company. It can not be something employees do because management dictates that it be done.

That means that if management isn't ready to lead by example, Kaizen will not get off the ground.

Employee training and communication is important. Combined with that, direct involvement by the management is critical. For example, a manager spending a week on the shop floor working with employees to help and encourage them to develop suggestions will help. That manager should also ensure employees see their suggestions acted on immediately. Suggestions should not be implemented next month or next week, but today. In some cases, a suggestion submitted in the morning can be implemented that afternoon, or sooner

Keep employees informed about what happens with their suggestions. Don't have suggestions disappear into a management "black hole."

To get Kaizen started it can be helpful to bring in outside experts. They can work in your facility identifying problems that those close to the work may not see. This serves as a "seed" allowing employees to see how Kaizen works and to experience the benefits of Kaizen.

A significant obstacle to Kaizen in many corporations is that problems are seen as negatives. We don't like problems. Someone who is associated with a problem is likely to be negatively impacted (a lower raise, missed promotion, or even fired). In Kaizen, problems are opportunities to improve. With Kaizen we want to find, report, and fix problems. Kaizen encourages and rewards the identification of problems by all employees.

To encourage the submission of suggestions, a part of each supervisor's evaluation should be based on the number of suggestions submitted by those they supervise. Don't evaluate employees on the number of suggestions they submit, evaluate your supervisors and managers and how well they are doing at getting those who work for them to actively participate in Kaizen.

Managers should develop methods to help create suggestions and increase the number of suggestions. For example, set up teams of five to 12 people to evaluate work areas, processes, quality, productivity, and equipment availability/reliability. The team then makes suggestions for improvements, and they may even implement those improvements.

Train employees in using Kaizen tools such as 5S, Kanban, and Line Balancing.

Keep in mind that Kaizen is about action. Taking action to generate suggestions, and taking action to implement those suggestions immediately.

(by Steve Hudgik)

Wahat are the benefits Kaizen?

Kaizen is focused on making small improvements on a continuous basis.

What Are The Benefits Resulting From Kaizen?

Kaizen involves every employee in making change--in most cases small, incremental changes. It focuses on identifying problems at their source, solving them at their source, and changing standards to ensure the problem stays solved. It's not unusual for Kaizen to result in 25 to 30 suggestions per employee, per year, and to have over 90% of those implemented.

For example, Toyota is well-known as one of the leaders in using Kaizen. In 1999 at one U.S. plant, 7,000 Toyota employees submitted over 75,000 suggestions, of which 99% were implemented.

These continual small improvements add up to major benefits. They result in improved productivity, improved quality, better safety, faster delivery, lower costs, and greater customer satisfaction. On top of these benefits to the company, employees working in Kaizen-based companies generally find work to be easier and more enjoyable--resulting in higher employee moral and job satisfaction, and lower turn-over.

With every employee looking for ways to make improvements, you can expect results such as:

Kaizen Reduces Waste in areas such as inventory, waiting times, transportation, worker motion, employee skills, over production, excess quality and in processes.

Kaizen Improves space utilization, product quality, use of capital, communications, production capacity and employee retention.

Kaizen Provides immediate results. Instead of focusing on large, capital intensive improvements, Kaizen focuses on creative investments that continually solve large numbers of small problems. Large, capital projects and major changes will still be needed, and Kaizen will also improve the capital projects process, but the real power of Kaizen is in the on-going process of continually making small improvements that improve processes and reduce waste.

Learn how Fleetwood benefited from implementing Kaizen in this article reprinted from Quality Digest. And read about how Sony, in Terra Haute, Indiana, used Kaizen to dramatically improve production in an article reprinted from Manufacturing & Technology News.

(by Steve Hudgik)

The Course in Mastery Day 4 - Taking Responsibility

The Course in Mastery Day 3 - The Daily Question

What would the person I would like to be...do what I'm about to do?

The Course in Mastery Day 2 - The Power of Dream

The Course in Mastery Day 1 - The Philosophy and Psychology of Success - Les Brown

Let's Define Lean Manufacturing

Here is the real, and simple, definition of lean manufacturing.

The Advantages Of JIT

Here is a quick list of 6 reasons you should implement a JIT Inventory System.

What Is 5S?

Simple explanation of the different sections and definitions of 5S.

Discover The Power Of Kaizen For Personal & Business Success

Jason Okuma conducts another one of his 'PRIVATE' Interviews Behind Closed Doors with a Young, Powerful, Japanese Business Man Who Exposes The Secret Principle of KAIZEN!

Learn How To Dominate Any Industry Worldwide Using This Sacred Principle...

In this Golden Interview, Jason Okuma Exposes How Japanese Giants have used the Power of Kaizen to Dominate and take over Industries around the Globe Including the Automobile and Technology Industries, and how YOU can apply these simple principles to YOUR Personal Life and Business to Achieve Success As Well!

Just look at what the US Car Manufacturers are going through right now and observe where the Japanese Car Manufacturers are right now.....The Power and Application of Kaizen Speaks for itself.

Many Personal Development, Self Improvement, Personal Growth Teachers such as Tony Robbins, Bob Proctor, Jim Rhone, Zig Ziglar, Les Brown, Robert Kiyosaki, Mark Victor Hansen, Jack Canfield, John Assaraf, and the many others out there all speak of this concept and it's effectiveness in other forms.

In this Exclusive Video, You will Hear From One of Japan's Top Technology Experts who personally applies Kaizen in his life and businesses.

You will discover:

1. What Kaizen Is
2. How to Apply Kaizen
3. Why is Kaizen so Effective

You'll be shocked at what you will learn....and how simple this teaching really is.

Jason Okuma's Passion for Empowering And Inspiring other Driven, Success Mindset Super Achievers and Entrepreneurs has lead to Exposing Such Personal Development, Mindset Transformation, Self Improvement and Personal Growth Technologies to this Powerful New Generation of Movers and Shackers.

Personal Kaizen

Personal Kaizen series
This is going to be the first video on Personal Kaizen series. There will be more videos after this on more details how individuals can use Kaizen method to improve ourselves.
People has the misconception that Kaizen is only for companies but this is not true. Kaizen can be applied into our personal life as well.
So check out this step by step video of teaching/ coaching you to use Personal Kaizen towards your Success.

Lean Six Sigma White Belt - Six Sigma

This video describes Six Sigma. This module is part of the White Belt program.

What Is Kaizen - Lean Manufacturing

Special Occasion Speeches-by Dr Richard L Weaver II

Giving a Special Occasion Speech - Toasts, Award Presentations, Acceptance Speeches, Keynote Addresses, Commencement Addresses, Graduation Speeches, and Weddings. First and foremost, when preparing a speech for a special occasion, analyze the expected audience carefully and adapt the speech specifically to those particular listeners. * Don't make your speech too long.
No one ever complains about any of these types of speeches being too short. The audience will be pleased to see you do what is necessary to take care of business and may want to take some photos, but they don't want to hear your life history. Be brief; be to the point, and be seated.

Impromptu Public Speaking-by Dr Richard L Weaver II

Some people have defined impromptu speaking as public speaking on the spur-of-the-moment without preparation. It is precisely this definition and especially the last two words that instill fear and panic in many people. And yet seldom is an impromptu speech given without preparation! If the "preparation problem" is resolved, much of the fear and panic associated with impromptu speaking can be reduced or controlled.

Stand Up, Speak Well-by Dr Richard L Weaver II

When I took my first speech class, it was an actress in my class who told me how to overcome my nervousness. She said, don't think of yourself as someone giving a speech. Instead, think of yourself as an actor delivering the speech. What this does is to allow us to step outside of ourselves and to be someone else — what actors must do. When you're someone else, you are no longer nervous, since its no longer you. So, the first thing to do is think of yourself as an actor on the stage.

Ten Myths of Public Speaking-by Dr Richard L Weaver II

Having taught public speaking for close to thirty years, I have had the opportunity to hear and debunk most of the myths surrounding the subject. When you hear weak or bad public speeches, often belief in these myths is directly responsible. It isn't the myths themselves that present the problem, it is the result of belief in them — the speeches themselves — that is problematic.

Writing a GREAT speech - Public Speaking Rules!

Leaving a lasting impression with your audience through positive words, a winning attitude, and confidence starts with knowing what you're doing. Communication that reflects clarity of your main points and ideas, eye-contact, pronunciation, are all essential to your success. Your purpose isn't to be just "good," and you don't want to be just "better." What you want is to be GREAT!

Fears and Phobias of Public Speaking - How to overcome them

How do you overcome the fear of public speaking? You start with learning the basic fundamentals of giving a GREAT speech. Learn the basics so you are prepared, in turn, building a foundation of confidence you need for public speaking. Before giving a speech, a little anxiety is normal; however, everyone is different and there is no one cure-all to conquer true fears and phobias. Get the fundamentals down and then discover what your true fear is.

Michael Jordan motivational - what can we learn from him?

"I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career.
I've lost almost 300 games.
26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed.
I've failed over and over again in my life.
And that is why I succeed."
- Michael Jordan

"Success isn't something you chase.
It is something you have to put forth the effort for constantly;
Then maybe it'll come when you least expect it."
- Michael Jordan

"Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligent win championships"

"We have the talent but heart is going to take us there"

The toughest thing to learn from him is....how to fly!

Succeed with a Positive Attitude

London Business School: Impacting management

Professor Michael Jarrett, Professor Nigel Nicholson and Professor Zeger Degraeve talk about impacting management.

London Business School: Impacting marketing

Professor Nader Tavassoli and Professor Nirmalya Kumar talk about impacting marketing.

London Business School: Impacting leadership

Professor Rob Goffee, Professor Nigel Nicholson and Professor Zeger Degraeve talk about impacting leadership.

Why choose London Business School?

London Business School is consistently ranked as one of the top business schools in the world, and is committed to becoming the pre-eminent global business school.

Financial Management Goals

Having financial management goals is important, because it allows the investor to make informed financial decisions that must be made in order to hit those goals. Understand the two goals of financial management through the tips and advice from an experienced businessman in this free video.

Wealth Management Tips & Advice

Wealth management is very important because keeping money is just as difficult as making it. Manage and protect business and personal money with a wealth management plan using tips from an experienced businessman in this free video.

Dominic Barton of McKinsey & Co - Can China help power the global economy out of a crisis?

Can China help power the global economy out of a crisis?

After five years of double-digit expansion, the worlds fastest-growing economy has succumbed to the economic chill wind sweeping across the globe. Chinas economy slowed to an annual growth clip of 9 per cent in the third quarter from 10.1 per cent in the previous quarter ­ well below the consensus forecast of 9.7 per cent.

With the credit crisis buffeting global economic growth, Chinas industrial production and construction declined due to weaker export orders, factory closures for the Beijing Olympics and the sagging property market. However, retail sales growth remained

strong, while inflation eased amid falling commodity prices.

Nevertheless, Dominic Barton, Asia Pacific chairman of consultancy firm McKinsey & Company, is very bullish about where China is going to be over the next two to three years.

Harvard's Michael Porter on long-term strategy in a downturn

Harvard's Michael Porter on long-term strategy in a downturn.

Vision and Believing in Yourself by a Muslim Youth Speaker : Zohra Sarwari

Muslim Youth Speaker : Zohra Sarwari teaches Youth the power of self belief, motivation and how it can make you succeed! She is working as a Muslim Youth Speaker and a Coach.

The Power of Self Esteem by Zohra Sarwari

Achieve Your Goals: Zohra Sarwari

Achieve Your Goals: Zohra Sarwari

Time Management by a Muslim Motivational Speaker : Zohra Sarwari

Muslim Motivational Speaker : Zohra Sarwari's video is for anyone who wants to manage their time! Zohra Sarwari is a Muslim Youth Speaker offers online coaching and business program for muslim youth Aged 14 to 19 can Change their Destiny, Just in 9 Steps. Develop Leadership, Speaking, Writing, Entrepreneurial Skills, Self-Help, Manage your Time, make Money, Start your own Business and become Financially Independent. Learn all this from Zohra Sarwari: Speaker, Author and life Coach.

Be a Better Leader, Have a Richer Life - Prof. Stewart Friedman

An interview with Stewart Friedman, Professor, University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. Traditional thinking pits work and the rest of our lives against each other. But taking smart steps to integrate work, home, community, and self will make you a more productive leader and a more fulfilled person.

Innovate Like Google - Prof. Tom Davenport

An interview with Tom Davenport, Professor of Information Technology & Management, Babson College. While some elements of Google's success as innovator would be very hard to emulate, others can be profitably adopted by almost any business.

The Importance of Urgency - Prof. John Kotter

An interview with John Kotter, Professor Emeritus, Harvard Business School.

Without a true sense of urgency, any change effort is doomed. Watch John Kotter discuss the need for urgency and how managers create and sustain it in their organizations.

John Kotter on A Sense of Urgency

John Kotter answers questions on why he wrote A Sense of Urgency.

Social Intelligence and Leadership - Daniel Goleman

An interview with Daniel Goleman, Psychologist. See how you can use emotional and social intelligence to improve your own and your organization's performance.

Innovation at Procter & Gamble - A.G. Lafley

An interview with A.G. Lafley, Chairman and CEO, Procter & Gamble. Innovation is at the core of P&G's business strategy. See how P&G makes innovation an everyday practice in their organization.

The Five Competitive Forces That Shape Strategy - Prof. Michael E. Porter

An Interview with Michael E. Porter, Professor, Harvard University. Porter's five competitive forces is the basis for much of modern business strategy. Understand the framework and how to put it into practice.

Developing the CEO Within You - Prof. Joseph L. Bower

An interview with Joseph L. Bower, Professor, Harvard Business School. To become an effective CEO, work for companies committed to leadership development, and take responsibility for your own development on the job.

Winning Advice - Jack Welch

Pain Free Selling part 2 - Jeffrey Gitomer

Jeffrey Gitomer brings new philosophies to sales people and their practices. Here he discuses pain and selling strategies based on pain.

Pain Free Selling - Jeffrey Gitomer

Jeffrey Gitomer brings new philosophies to sales people and their practices. Here he discuses pain and selling strategies based on pain.

Zig Ziglar - Attitude Makes All The Difference

Zig Ziglar teaches people all over the world the fundamentals of sales and success. Here he tells a story of a woman with a negative attitude who hated her job, shifted her attitude and changed her life.

Unlearn the past to create the future: C K Prahalad

There was a time when the general belief was that the developed markets are the source of innovation and the benefits of their innovation may flow over time emerging economies like India. That the opposite could be true, that the world could be more equitable and that innovation could flow from emerging markets to developed markets was never seriously considered. Why is the obvious sometimes so hard to recognise? It’s because of the tyranny of dominant logic.

Dominant logic is the result of a pattern of socialisation. All of us are susceptible to it. Often, the dominant logic is implicit. For over fifty years, developed country managers, consultants and academic researchers have been socialised to believe that developing markets cannot be a source of innovation. The academic community has, by and large, accepted this notion as well. The dominant logic provides the theoretical lens with which we see the world. I think it’s time to challenge this received wisdom.

We need to bring back a dash of curiosity, creativity and imagination into the discipline of academic research. To create the future, we have to un-learn the past. We all know the learning curve, but equally important is the forgetting curve — the rate at which we unlearn old habits that hinder our ability to spot emerging opportunities.

The fact is, emerging economies today are becoming the laboratory for new business models. Countries like India are resource constrained so you just have to be innovative here. 800 million Indians live in poverty — can they become a source of innovation and growth? Aspiring young consumers want world class goods and services at low prices. The challenge is to figure out how to do it.

There’s a market for everything in India be it laptops or packaged food. For example, India presents a new challenge and an opportunity for those in the healthcare business; a poor country with over 45 million people with diabetes. How do we get the life long service for diabetics who are poor at a price they can afford? There are big opportunities for building disruptive business models. Today, thanks to new technologies, connectivity and globalisation, price-performance envelopes are changing faster, in every industrial sector, than anyone would have expected.

A truly disruptive business model radically alters the economics of the industry. In the emerging markets, cell phone services offer an excellent example of disruptive innovations that have altered the economics of an entire industry. Bharti Airtel, for example, is adding three million new connections to its network every month, which will make it the largest cellular service provider in the world next to China Telecom, which operates as a monopoly.

Another characteristic of disruptive innovations is that they enlarge the size of the market. They improve functionality and make it difficult for incumbent players to react swiftly. And being based on logical, internally consistent business principles, they are sustainable in the long run.

Emerging market companies offer examples in the field of IT, ITES, pharmaceuticals and FMCG that fit all these characteristics. In India, we have disruptive products like the one cent shampoo sachet, the $20 hotel chain (Ginger), the $30 cell phone, the $35 DVD player, the $30 cataract surgery (Aravind Eye Hospitals) and the $2,000 car (Tata Motors). These products have taken things from the rich to the masses. They’ve used what RA Mashelkar calls ‘Gandhian engineering’, embracing resource constraints in the quest to do more with less for more people.

When you look at the companies that have achieved this, you find their aspirations are greater than their resources. Here, it’s stretch and strategic intent that drives the innovation process. Imagination constraints, I’ve found, are far worse than resource constraints.

Disruptrive, resource-constrained innovation necessarily starts with a perspective best described as : “Price-Profit = Cost”. It makes use of advanced technology and leverages assets that are unique to the market. It has scale and logistics and it has the capacity to collaborate with other players.

For those who create the theories of management — us academicians — there’s a need to cultivate curiosity about new phenomenon and emerging markets and pass this to the next generation of scholars. Instead of the usual denominator management that we’ve come to be so good at, we need to focus on next practices, look for the new, the outliers. We need to think of strategy as innovation, tighten the academic-business link and build a new research connection. What’s needed is a transition in our thinking, to an inclusive model of growth where you do more with less for more people.

(The article is based on the opening address by the author at the Strategic Management Society conference at ISB, Hyderabad)

(The Economic Times)

MBA: The top ten business schools

The top ten business schools, according to the Financial Times, are headed by London Business School and Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, ahead of Harvard Business School in the US.

=1. Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania

The world's first collegiate business school, founded in 1881. Ranked top by the FT every year. Has a staff member for every 17 students. Alumni include Warren Buffett, Donald Trump and Terry Leahy, the chief executive of Tesco.

=1. London Business School

Established in 1964. Alumni include The Hon Wong Kan Seng, the Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore, Sir John Sunderland, the chairman of Cadbury Schweppes and David Davis MP.

3. Harvard Business School

Founded in 1908, located across the Charles River from the main Harvard campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Alumni include George W. Bush, Michael Bloomberg and Jamie Dimon, chairman and chief executive of JP Morgan Chase.

4. Columbia Business School

Established in 1916 in New York City. Alumni include Warren Buffett, Alexander Haig and Wolfgang Bernhard, the chairman of Volkswagen.

5. Insead

Founded in 1957, has a campus in Fontainebleau and Singapore. Alumni include Lindsay Owen-Jones, the chairman of L'Oréal, Helen Alexander, the chief executive of The Economist Group and Philip Hampton the chairman of J Sainsbury.

=6. Stanford University Graduate School of Business

Established in 1925 in California. Faculty contains three Nobel Prize winners. Alumni include Ben Bernanke, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Sir Howard Davies, the director of the London School of Economics and John F. Kennedy (who dropped out).

=6. IE Business School, Madrid

Founded in 1973. Alumni include Richard Alden, the chief executive of ONO and vice-president of Cable Europe, Claudio Aguirre, a former chairman and chief executive of Merrill Lynch and Magda Salarich, the chief executive of Santander Consumer Finance.

8. China Europe International Business School

Established in 1994 in Shanghai. The first exclusively Asian-based school to reach the top ten.

9. MIT Sloan School

Founded 1914 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Executive programme shaped by Alfred P. Sloan Jr, a former chairman of General Motors. Alumni include Kofi Annan, Benjamin Netanyahu and Magdalena Barreiro, a former finance minister of Ecuador.

10. New York University Stern School

Established 1900 in Greenwich Village. Students are nicknamed "Sternies." Alumni include Friedrich Hayek, Alan Greenspan and Niall Ferguson.

(Telegraph.co.uk)

Golf Mental Tip: Will Power. "Just Do it."

by Carey Mumford

We are not sure about the origins of such expressions, but we do know they were at least reinforced over a number of recent years by more than one "guru." Many folks are familiar with and fond of the philosophies of those like Maxwell Maltz, Anthony Robbins, Zig Ziglar, Napoleon Hill, Og Mandino, and others who say something like "If you can think it, you can do it." That may be OK as far as it goes, but once examined, it becomes clear that will only be true provided you have the required resources to initiate it. It's certain we won't do much without the thinking, but that's only half way home.

Corey Pavin supplied the occasion for a real time illustration of this demeanor in the second round of the US Open. He slid a putt past the hole, and the commentator said "He didn't talk to it." His colleague replied "That's what happened." That's could be a "ho, ho, ho," applied to "will power," or it could be a patent belief. If they were joking, that's OK, but it surely fits the modern mind-set.

Why mention this? Because it is among the subtle, soaking, seductive, saturation of the mind set of modern America, and it not only affects our politics and religion, it also invades and prejudices the learning and playing of our golf. It comes at us relentlessly, as in the drive-thru "everything." If something cannot be gained or achieved instantly, frustration and/or some form of despair, if not resignation is apt to follow. Take a close enough look and you will notice the boundary less folly of an over-indulged culture.

How many golf training aids, for instance, can you mention that promise to "fix'" you up in five, maybe six, swings? So "will power" and "just do it" keep being nurtured, if not re-created, over and over.

If "will power," was all that it is most often touted to be, a lot of "self-willed" types would have won the lottery long ago and become champions on the golf course, as well as in other walks of life. Even if "will power" worked, as advertised, it wouldn't fill voids in personal resources. We've all heard that worn comment "he willed it in the hole." So who needs a putter? Perhaps you have even heard or read the words "You have to will yourself to do better."

The expression itself - "will power" - is arguably designed to fill a vacuum left by not having embraced things like ability, skill, habits, self-understanding, responsibility, perseverance, self-discipline, commitment, motivation and/or folks who do know those things to instruct us. It certainly has not embraced the normal time-frames of any developmental process that has commensurate value.

Depending on the condition of our resources, the expression "will power" blows a destructive trumpet creating an inner command that one's system should "try harder," and that, among other things, will add stress on top of stress. The primary advocates of will power rarely mention self-discipline or self-understanding. They just pledge allegiance to "Just do it!" Under that gun, what used to be a simple flinch once in awhile in our games can be transformed easily into a full fledged case of the "yips."

Assumptions applied to "will power" are many.

"Will power" suggests to a non discriminatory system, upon making a mistake, that it is guilty as sin and must be failing in its quest to "just do it." As if anyone needed more anxiety, that is sure to pound more into the system. Any process breakdown is a candidate to be seen as failure and that can turn quickly into self-defeating attitudes. It becomes a recipe for golfing tension, forcing the swing and play into diminishing degrees of accuracy and/or consistency. Oh, sure, we all have somehow "played through" minor instances, more than once, but what a commentary that provides! It's like saying, "Yep, I had a wreck, but I still managed to drive myself to the hospital." It's not so easy to "play through" any major moments.

When those expressions ("will power" and "just do it") appear, they bear a resemblance to duct tape and Bondo. They form a patchwork means of holding things together in relief of an "injured" game or filling a gap in processes related to inner challenge (motivation), or perhaps a "cover" for incomplete preparation in a solitary game that threatens to leave us where we didn't want to go.

But, in an instant satisfaction culture, If something is not satisfying us, all we have to do to dismiss it is "pigeon hole" it or give it a result oriented name. Then we don't have to deal with its meaning or the process steps required to reach a goal. If I call myself a "hacker," I free myself from any need or attempt to improve. And that sort of demeanor will be found quite different for each one of us.

So "will power" really gets used as shorthand for having vacated or missed the harder, but more productive, routes in our early developmental years. Those were marked by opportunities to engage in self-knowledge, self-discipline, taking responsibility, finding skills and habit development. If that mission was fulfilled, it is a cinch it was supported by appropriate commitments while learning and preparing. "Will power" is an easy out for those who somehow missed the early fundamentals. It has become the guy in the gallery shouting out "Get in the hole!!" It's the person who believes that "positive thinking" will work even with insufficient skill or preparation. Such expressions invite a journey that is more concerned with short termed wishful thinking than with long term success and satisfaction.

To begin with, "Just do it" really only fits approximately 11% of the population who make up the bottom line oriented behavior style known as Driver (the ones who produced these expressions). About 19% more are the "social animals" we refer to as Persuaders, who may use the expression, but follow it with a "Ho, ho, ho" (the ones who would rather party). The other 70% (Craftsmen - laid back and steady - and Analyzers - detailed and precise) may give lip-service, but quietly smirk or pay little attention to such slogans, since they are more apt to recognize veneer when they see it. All of that is built into the genetic fabric of human behavior. So will power is little more than a cerebral exercise for most. You will seldom, if ever, hear a process statement connected with "Just do It?" (Ask the question "How do you do that?" and see what you get for a response).

When self-understanding and self-discipline are present (as opposed to self-indulgence and absence of knowledge of human behavior), the expression "will power" is no longer needed. It is subsumed in the context. The power of will is already there. It needs no flag waving. It only needs relevant information and management tools.

Our take is that the power of will is no more or less than the accompanying commitment we need to build and implement our skills and habits. If we don't have the tools, there is no power that will compensate. And by all means it is only part of a process and not just a way to arrive without making the trip.

If all you desire is a chance to be with friends and "diddle" with the game, you won't need any of this, but if you are looking for growth and development in your game (or life), the preceding is prologue and pre-requisite.

(Gulf news update)

Killer Presentation Skills - J. Douglas Jefferys

shows you a few of the simple behaviors you need become both comfortable and effective at public speaking.

What makes a great presentation? - Dr Reesa Woolf

Nido Qubein: Why Immigrants Become Millionaires

Nido Qubein came to the United States as a teenager with no knowledge of English, no contacts and only $50 in his pocket. Today he is a successful businessman and award-winning motivational speaker. How did he do it? Learn from Nido how to achieve success and significance in business and life by: Creating meaningful change that moves you to a deeper, more satisfying level; Distinguishing among tasks, goals and purpose; Developing strategies for going beyond communicating, selling and training; Discovering how the 21st century rewards extraordinary people.

Tom Hopkins: The Customer's Biggest Fear

Turn the art of selling into a simple science using the proven tried-and-true techniques of the nation's top sales champion, Tom Hopkins. Tom helps you master the art of selling by presenting: Effective questions that persuade people to buy; Clients' 10 most common money-spending fears and how to relieve them; Substitutes for 8 fear-producing words that make people feel uncomfortable; 5 ways to make a great first impression; Tips on the art of closing the sale.

Tom Peters: People in China Starving For Your Job

Tom Peters: Business Should Be Energetic and Passionate

Tom Peters, a self-described "professional loudmouth" who has been compared to Emerson, Whitman, Thoreau and H.L. Mencken, declares war on the worthless rules and absurd organizational barriers that stand in the way of creativity and success. In a totally outrageous, in-your-face presentation, Tom reveals: A re-imagining of American business; 2 big markets - underserved and worth trillions!; The top qualities of leadership excllence; Why passion, talent and action must rule business today.

Napoleon Hill - what the mind can conceive and believe, the mind can achieve

SEE and HEAR Napoleon Hill explain how it is true that what ever the mind can conceive, and believe, the mind can achieve. Regardless of how many times you may have failed in the past, or how lofty your hopes may be. He breaks this down in easy to understand point form for immediate transformation of your life. He also talks about the wisdom billionaire Andrew Carnegie shared with him nearly hundred years ago, and how this information was instrumental in his own personal success, and the success techniques he was able to teach millions of others.

How Important Is Being Friendly - Jeffrey Gitomer

How Important Is Friendly find out from Jeffrey Gitomer.

Life Long Learning - Jeffrey Gitomer

Jeffrey Gitomer discusses the importance of learning everyday and your dedication to enriching yourself.

Beginning The Engagement - Jeffrey Gitomer

Jeffrey Gitomer explains the importance of engaging the customer and the beginning of that process.

No Risk No Reward - Jeffrey Gitomer

Jefrey speaks on risk and how you have to have risk if you want anything in sales - or life.

Weathering The Tough Economy - Jeffrey Gitomer

Jeffrey Gitomer brings new philosophies to sales people and their practices. This week Jeffrey explains what the tough economy means to the salesman and how he can ride it out.

How to Get Ahead - Jeffrey Gitomer

Jeffrey Gitomer's list of things you can do as a sales person to get ahead and stay ahead.

Doing Your Best - Jeffrey Gitomer

Good Management Is Predictive Management Not Reactive Management

Many managers believe that their job is to resolve problems that arise. While that is true, it is only the lesser part of the job. More importantly, a manager's job is to prevent problems. This is the difference between reactive management, which solves problems as they occur, and predictive management, which tries to prevent many problems from arising in the first place.

Reactive Management

Reactive management deals with problems as they come up. It is a management style that is much admired for its ability to quickly get the resources back into production, whether those resources are machines or people. If you are good at reactive management, you are:

• Decisive and able to act quickly,
• Able to find the root cause of events,
• Creative and able to develop many solutions,
• Innovative and able to find new ways to solve problems, and
• Calm and in control in the midst of a "crisis".

Someone who is good at reactive management is able to remain calm, quickly analyze the problem, and find its root cause. Rather than getting lost in the symptoms, they are able to think up many possible solutions, some proven and some new, and select the best choice. They are equally quick at implementing the solution to resolve the problem.

A reactive management style clearly is a desirable skill set for a manager to have. By quickly solving problems they are able to get the people and/or machine quickly back to work and productive again. However, it's not the best style. Managers should concentrate on improving their ability in predictive management as well.

Predictive Management

Predictive management focuses on reducing the number of problems that require reactive management. The more problems that can be prevented through predictive management, the fewer problems will need to be solved through reactive management. If you are good at predictive management, you are:

• Thoughtful and analytic,
• Not likely to go chasing after the current panic,
• More aware of the important than the merely urgent issues,
• Able to identify patterns in data and patterns of failures,
• More focused on "why" did something go wrong, rather than "what" can be done to fix it, and
• Able to keep the big picture in mind when working through the details.

Someone who is good at predictive management is sufficiently detached that they can identify the conditions that lead to certain problems and can implement procedures to reduce or eliminate the problems. Rather than being concerned about the immediate problem, they are able to relate current conditions to earlier information and predict when problems might arise.

A predictive management style is an important ability for a manager to have. The more problems that can be prevented through predictive management, the fewer resources will need to be spent on reacting to problems that have arisen. Predictive management does not replace reactive management, but it reduces the need for it.

Getting Better At Predictive Management

How does a manager get better at predictive management? The best way is practice. Focus some time every day on predictive management and on developing the skills listed above. Here's an example of practicing the predictive management behaviors so you can get better at it.

• Schedule a meeting with yourself so you can block out a half hour of time. Close your door. Set your phone on do-not-disturb. Turn off your cell phone and pager.
• Pick the problem that has been the biggest headache for your organization. Then allow yourself to just think about it.
  • When did it happen most recently?
  • What caused it?
  • What warnings or indicators did we have before it happened?
  • What did we do to fix it?
  • What could we have done to prevent it?
  • What can I do now to reduce the chances of it happening again?
• Start monitoring the warning signs you noted above.
• When those signs next appear, apply the previous solution before the problem gets big. Evaluate the results and adjust as needed.

The more you practice predictive management the better you will be at it. You will still need your ability in reactive management, but just not as much. Your resources will be used more on getting things done than on fixing problems and you'll have more time to think about and prevent more problems from arising.

(About.com)

Randy Pausch Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams

Carnegie Mellon Professor Randy Pausch (Oct. 23, 1960 - July 25, 2008) gave his last lecture at the university Sept. 18, 2007, before a packed McConomy Auditorium. In his moving presentation, "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams," Pausch talked about his lessons learned and gave advice to students on how to achieve their own career and personal goals.

Napoleon Hill recalls the Wisdom of Andrew Carnegie

Napoleon Hill discusses his first meeting with Andrew Carnegie and his commission to write the Carnegie Success philosophy.

Napoleon Hill - How To Get Rich Via The Law Of Attraction

Napoleon Hill, the author of "Think and Grow Rich," a book that discloses the secrets to getting rich according to Andrew Carnegie and 500 other very wealthy men, explains how to get rich using The Secret, The Law of Attraction.

W.Clement Stone - The Success System that Never Fails Part 2

W.Clement Stone explains his remarkable Success System that Never Fails in his own words. A must for those who seek knowledge.

W.Clement Stone - The Success System that Never Fails Part 1

W.Clement Stone explains his incredible Success System that Never Fails in his own words. A must to all who seek knowledge.

The Two Most Important Words In Sales - Jeffrey Gitomer

Jeffrey Gitomer reveals the two most important words in sales and how they can make you into the best sales person you can be.

How to acheive and maintain a Positive Mental Attitude - Jeffrey Gitomer

Jeffrey Explains how to acheive and maintain a Positive Mental Attitude and the importance of doing it.

Programming Yourself for Success - Anthony Galie

Anthony Galie describes a simple way to program your own Subconscious mind.

Jack Canfield: Getting Over a Difficult Situation

Jack Canfield: Planning Your Day

Be effective in tough times and win back trust: Stephen Covey

Stephen R Covey has this knack of delivering the goods in a way that others sit up and listen. When the he penned The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People in 1989, few imagined it would sell 15 million copies worldwide. Even its audio version became the first non-fiction audio-book in US publishing history to sell more than a million copies. With this success, Covey was set for self-help stardom .

Time magazine named him one of the 25 most influential Americans in 1996 and ‘The Chief Executive’ magazine named ‘7 habits’ as the most influential book of the 20th century. Covey followed this chartbuster with The 8th Habit where he observes that effectiveness does not apply to the knowledge-age worker.

Instead, he contends “the challenges and complexity we face today are of a different order of magnitude” . So The 8th Habit prods people to “find your voice and inspire others to find theirs.” His other best-sellers include First Things First and Principle-Centred Leadership.

The 76 year old vice chairman of professional services firm Franklin Covey, who will be in India in a few days time, believes a recession is the right time to gain competitive advantage. Though a bit concerned about the argumentative traits of Indians, he is a great admirer of the country’s spiritualism and believes that if channeled properly, it can lead to the country becoming a global powerhouse again.

As a thought leader, Covey today is the toast of many a government and corporation for advice on managing change, and that includes President-Elect Barrack Obama’s transition team. Having worked with ex-Presidents like Ronald Reagen, George Bush Sr, and Bill Clinton, he is now helping foster a more creative culture in Obama’s team. Excerpts from a candid interview with CD:

How can you be effective in time when negativism is so pervasive ?
This is a perfect time to create long-term competitive advantage . It’s in times like these that people can adapt and make sacrifices . This is really an opportunity for creative businesses to gain long-term competitive advantage. Even if we find that we are not in control of anything, one always has the power of choice to do what one can do.

Every management expert says that tough times should be used to build competitive advantage. But is it easy to think about building competitive advantage when all you are thinking of is survival?

It’s tough because everything around people is negative. When the external factors over which one has no control in a way start to become negative it starts to affect our creative juices. You have to be creative in these times and take advantage of this ‘valley’ and turn it into a ‘peak’ , a new initiative can make a difference and the key to that is to move away from the industrial age model because the industrial age model is top down and command-and-control.

And tough times help unleash the creative force in people’s own professional lives and that feeds upon itself and the creative juices get going again. It’s not easy but it’s within reach. And it’s the perfect time to do so.

Do you believe it was plain greed that was responsible for the present state of many companies?
Yes. People were being rewarded for the wrong things and that leads to greed. It’s an example of using an Industrial Age model in the new Knowledge Worker Age we are in today. We had a risk reward system that bred greed. Today confidence is pretty low, people are becoming very pessimistic and almost paranoid and it dries up all the creative juices within us.

Hasn’t trust been the biggest casualty in recent times?
Exactly. It’s because of misaligned systems. The system rewards people for the wrong things, for not being creative but more on the lines of getting the numbers. And then that’s all that’s in their minds.

This profits vs principles war is seeing the wrong winner in some cases. Do you think there needs to be a rethink on the ‘hows’ of the business?
I think that’s part of it. People have to look up to themselves to begin with - an inside out approach. They must also learn how to involve other people all the way; to involve the entire organisation to look at these issues; to develop systems and structures which reward the right things.

What’s the new model of openness that you are advocating these days?
It involves being clear and transparent. In taking the reality of what is happening with the people and then asking them: What do you think we can do in this situation? You will find that it will work on the basic underlying forces that produce trust and openness. We have had misaligned systems that rewarded people for wrong things and this has been happening all around the world.

This is the perfect time to unleash people’s creative energies and come up with new creative ideas and companies can do this with suppliers and their customers because everybody is feeding on the paranoia and the fear.

It’s like a cancer that feeds upon itself and people get victimised by all these forces. So they criticise, they complain, they compare, they become cynical, they compete. This is the perfect time to take advantage of this and turn it around. And you have to be creative on how to do that and that will be the main challenge.

Why have you focused on habits to bring about change?
Because people co-relate habits of thought and habits of actions which are completely misaligned with these new realities. And it’s like trying to play tennis with a golf club. The habits, not only of people, but also the structures of the system (Covey calls them habits of organisations) of the organisation are misaligned. The result is that people get negative and pessimistic and discouraged and disparaged and that feeds on itself.

(The Economic Times)

Randy Pausch Lecture: Time Management

Carnegie Mellon Professor Randy Pausch gave a lecture on Time Management at the University of Virginia in November 2007.

Time ripe for companies to focus on quality management: expert

By Shveta Pathak

Companies should use dampened business sentiment as an opportunity for organisations to review their processes and make improvements that help them reduce costs along with improving efficiency through total quality management (TQM) practices, said quality management professionals.

Adopting TQM practices during this phase could actually help businesses differentiate from others and take care of costs without necessarily cutting jobs, said Sunil Thawani, chairman of the continual improvement subgroup of the Dubai Quality Group, who is country counsellor for American Society for Quality in the UAE.

The subgroup is working towards generating awareness among professionals and organisations.

"The need to adopt TQM is very high in the present scenario. An oganisation, be it in manufacturing, trading or services, with customer focus can see continual improvement in services, costs and delivery by adopting these practices. Dubai is ahead of many other countries in applying these practices but the need is to take it ahead. The present scenario presents an opportunity to do that," Thawani told Emirates Business.

In the ongoing situation when organisations face a pressure on costs, the role of quality management professionals, he said, is to have a re-look on the existing processes. Applying techniques like Lean, Kaizen and Six Sigma and deriving value benefits at this time could help organisations offer better services and survive through the recession.

"Here is an opportunity that needs to be tapped. Cost is an outcome of a process so if you renew the processes you can reduce the costs."

By going in for processes that are efficient, organisations would be in a better position to offer value services to customers.

Many organisations are doing it but you need to do it comprehensively, convert benefits into dollars.

If the processes are inefficient, they ought to realise the consequences, the strategies may not get implemented, budgets may get out of control, customers may get poor services, there could be delivery inconsistencies and a lot of other problems, he said.

"Currently, organisations are still absorbing the impact of the severity of the economic turmoil.

"They need to take it as a wake up call and get out of the mindset that it would be costly to differentiate," said Thawani.

(Emirates Business)

Peter Drucker - the father of modern management

"The greatness of Peter Drucker"

by Steve Arneson

Throughout the year, I thought it’d be fun to profile some of the giants in the leadership development field, and provide some insight into their best works. Let’s start with a man who is widely considered to be the father of modern management, Peter Drucker. It’s hard to overestimate the influence Drucker has had on generations of leaders; a great deal of the theories and ideas we use today were created by Drucker in the 1950’s. Now that’s staying power!

Peter Drucker was born in Vienna in 1909, and started his career as a journalist in Hamburg and Frankfurt. Drucker fled Germany in 1933, and moved to London, where he worked as the chief economist for a private bank. In the late 1930’s, he and his wife Doris moved to the U.S., and in 1943 he became a naturalized citizen. He also began a long and successful career as a university professor, first at Bennington College (1942-1949) and later at New York University (1950-1971). Drucker moved to California in 1971, where he developed one of the country's first executive MBA program for working professionals at Claremont Graduate University. From 1971 to his death in 2005 he was the Clarke Professor of Social Science and Management at Claremont.

Drucker's career as a business guru took off in 1942, when his initial writings on politics and society won him access to the internal workings of General Motors. He had become fascinated with the issue of authority during his time in Germany, and when he shared his curiosity with GM executives, they invited him to conduct what amounted to a "social audit" of a complex business setting. For two years, Drucker attended every board meeting, interviewed employees, and analyzed production and decision-making processes. The resulting book, Concept of the Corporation, popularized GM's multi divisional structure, and led to numerous articles, consulting engagements, and additional books. Interestingly, GM hated the book - Alfred Sloan was said to have ignored it as if it never existed. Drucker had suggested that the auto giant might want to reexamine a host of long-standing policies on customer relations, dealer relations, employee relations and more (hmm... think he was ahead of his time?).

Throughout his career, Drucker expanded his position that management was "a liberal art" and he infused his management advice with interdisciplinary lessons from history, sociology, psychology, philosophy, culture and religion. He also believed strongly that all institutions, including those in the private sector, had a responsibility to the whole of society. "The fact is," Drucker wrote in 1973, "that in modern society there is no other leadership group but managers. If the managers of our major institutions, especially in business, do not take responsibility for the common good, no one else can or will."

During his long consulting career, Drucker worked with many major corporations, including General Electric, Coca-Cola, Citigroup, IBM, and Intel. But Drucker's insights extended far beyond business. He served as a consultant for various government agencies in the U.S., Canada and Japan, and worked with numerous non-profit organizations to help them become successful, often consulting pro-bono. In fact, Drucker anticipated the rise of the social sector in America, maintaining that it was through volunteering that people would find the kind of fulfillment that he originally thought would be provided through their place of work. "Citizenship in and through the social sector is not a panacea for the ills of post-capitalist society, but it may be a prerequisite for tackling these ills," Drucker wrote. "It restores the civic responsibility that is the mark of citizenship, and the civic pride that is the mark of the community".

Drucker wrote dozens of books, penned a regular column for the Wall Street Journal for more than 20 years, and wrote extensively for the Harvard Business Review, The Economist, and The Atlantic Monthly. If you’re interested in reading some classic Drucker, I’d suggest the following works:

• The Practice of Management (1954) – this seminal work still holds up well today
• The Effective Executive (1966) – a primer on focus and results
• Managing in Turbulent Times (1980) – timeless lessons; could have been written in 2009!
• Managing Oneself (HBR – 1999) – a classic on what’s important
• They’re Not Employees, They’re People (HBR – 2001) – the title says it all
• The Essential Drucker: Peter Drucker's Essential Writings on Management (2001) – a compendium of his best works
• What Makes An Effective Executive (HBR – 2004) – a modern synopsis of his 1966 book

Because he wrote so much, Drucker was also a quote machine. Here are some of my favorites:

• The best way to predict the future is to create it.
• Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.
• What's measured improves.
• Efficiency is doing better what is already being done.
• The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn't said.
• There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.
• Rank does not confer privilege or give power. It imposes responsibility.

In closing, I had the chance to see Peter Drucker speak a conference late in his career, and was mesmerized by the great man. Everything he said dripped with common sense, and it was so cool to hear him talk in that thick Austrian accent about long-standing concepts that had relevance then, and still do today. If you want to trace the roots of our field, pick up a copy of The Practice of Management, and be prepared to be enthralled by the scope of Drucker’s insights and vision.