Newsletter Issue 169, July 2009

Sam Young Newsletter

Issue 169, July 2009

Hi guys,

Those of you who have heard of de Bono will be pleased that he is still hard at work. Read Edward De Bono - Still Thinking below.

To reclaim some hard disc space we have a tip on Compacting Outlook. 

Cunning Excel Function   TLAs for SMEs        Tips, Short & Hot Keys        Hot Linx

Don't forget, if you want to be taken off my mailing list, click here to send me a reply e-mail and I will remove your name.

Edward De Bono - Still Thinking

Two things happened recently to bring the lively and lateral thinking of Dr Edward de Bono to mind. I was browsing for books and came across the newly re-released Penguin Classics, of which a shining copy of de Bono's Six Thinking Hats leapt off the shelf and into my hand, and Kenn Butler wrote an article on de Bono in his Leadership series as he was coming to New Zealand as a guest of the local Human Resources Institute in June.

Dr de Bono struck a chord with my thinking when I was studying for my degree, along with Tony Buzan (he of mind-mapping fame). These gentlemen are both incredibly perceptive and creative thinkers. Six Thinking Hats has proved incredibly useful since I learned about it; using the six hats as lenses to really think through the ramifications of actions, decisions or strategies before putting that thought into practice. It is also very useful to put together groups and task them with using de Bono's hats to take a stance. You can really change the viewpoint of someone who has a preference for using a red hat (feelings) to being tasked with using a white hat (facts) to evaluate a project; or a black hat (critical) to a yellow hat (positivity). His thinking concepts relate to projects, to career practice, to business planning; basically to any kind of problem solving we humans need to do.

Having a new copy of the Six Thinking Hats is great - an opportunity to refresh the learning that took place all those years ago, and to renew the theoretical base that de Bono used in constructing this very, very useful cognitive model.

This year the European Union has appointed de Bono as an ambassador for the EU’s Year of Creativity and Innovation. In an interview with the National Business Review (http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/de-bono-still-trying-rid-world-uncreative-thinking-40-years-103691) while he was here in New Zealand, de Bono said that "uncreative thinking, rather than the likes of environmental degradation or the state of the global banking system, remained the gravest threat to mankind". Thought that is merely adequate, what he calls “excellent but not enough” he feels will lead to our downfall. He doubts whether sufficient people will heed his warnings. “I’m not really optimistic about this, you know, because very few people see the problem. We’re very complacent, very self-satisfied. Having been at some of the leading universities — Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard — I would say the attention given to what I’m saying about possibilities is minimal if not totally absent.

“I know the situation is improving in some countries — I know there are schools in New Zealand now where my work is starting to be taught in some classrooms — but people don’t see this lack of thinking as a problem. We’re content to leave the design aspect of thinking to just a few individuals, most of whom we don’t listen to anyway. ...I work with lots of big corporations, where people think computers are so wonderful — feed the information in, they say, let the computer analyse it, and we’ll just make decisions and set our strategy. But that’s extremely dangerous. Unless you develop the habit of looking at the information in different ways, you’re trapped in the very old concepts.”

Many of our Kiwi schools use the Six Thinking Hats model, the games, and the videos that de Bono has developed over his career. Those of you who have not yet heard of Dr de Bono, slide off to your local bookshop and pick up a wonderfully cheap Penguin issue of the Six Thinking Hats, then take a look at his website, http://www.edwdebono.com/index.html for the range of other materials he has to share.

Thanks Kenn, for your pointer to this NBR article. If any of you would like to be added to Kenn's weekly circulation list, email him at Kenn.Butler@police.govt.nz.

Compacting Outlook

When you delete an email in Outlook, it goes to your rubbish bin - your Deleted Items folder. When you empty the Deleted Items folder, all the deleted messages disappear — but they are actually still in your PST file.

While Outlook periodically reclaims that wasted space in the background, you can manually initiate the process, too. This makes good sense to compact manually after you have emptied the Deleted Items folder for the first time after a lot of spam, or after having a major folder clear-out.

To manually start reclaiming wasted space in your Outlook PST file:

1. from the File menu in Outlook, select 'Data File Management'
2. Highlight the desired PST file you want to compact (usually outlook.pst).
3. Click the Settings button
4. Click the 'Compact Now' button.

Cunning Excel Function

Did you know that there is a clever little Excel function called "LEN()" that will allow you to measure the length of a character string in another cell?

For example, if - in the cell A2 - you have "Katherine of Aragon", and enter - in cell B2 - the formula "=LEN(A2)"; B2 will return the value 19. There are 19 characters, including spaces, in "Katherine of Aragon".

You can also count all the characters except spaces by using =LEN(SUBSTITUTE(A2,” ”,”")). which in this case would return 17.

You could equally enter a number in A2. For example, "1058666" will return 7. If cell A2 it is formatted for NZ currency with two decimal places, even though it reads "$1,058,666.00", it will still return the value of 7. The underlying number is still the same.

Why would you want to use this function? A couple of quick examples; you might want to sort older stock numbers from new - eg 11 vs 13 digit barcodes; you might want to know the greatest number of characters you have in a field for specifying data length for a database; or you might be changing systems and preparing information to be imported from Excel into a database, so need to identify fields that will be over the set length for the database before you import the data.

Easy when you know how, isn't it!

TLAs for SMEs

Here are this newsletter's TLAs (Three Letter Acronyms) for you:

• XLR connectors, Canon's "X" series, Latch and Rubber. An audio connector used by professionals or "prosumers" musicians or others using PA systems: they're generally three pin PA connectors, about half an inch in diameter, which allow "balanced audio" splitting signal from, say, a mic, inverting one of the signals, then reinverting it and recombining the two signals at the other end, almost eliminating electrical hum on long cables.

Please feel free to email me with any TLAs that you want to get the bottom (meaning!) of.

Tips, Short+Hot Keys

Over the next few newsletters, we are looking at all the things you can do with Alt, Shift, Ctrl in Windows Media Player. This is our second section in this series:

• Windows Media Player "Show the anchor window menu" Alt & F6, Alt
• Windows Media Player "Show the Help menu" Alt & H
• Windows Media Player "Show album information in the Copy from CD feature" Alt & I
• Windows Media Player "Cancel copying in the Copy to CD or Device feature" Alt & L
• Windows Media Player "Search Media Library" Alt & N
• Windows Media Player "Show the Play menu" Alt & P
• Windows Media Player "Stop copying in the Copy from CD feature" Alt & S

Hot Linx

While largely focused on families, the Simple Savings site is worth a trawl through for a range of ways to cut costs for business on their tip sheet page. Go to http://www.simplesavings.co.nz/downloads/

In September there will be an Australia/New Zealand Small Business Conference held in Palmerston North by the Small Enterprise Association. For details, check out http://seaanzconference.massey.ac.nz/

If you need to create graphics for Powerpoint or for your faceplate on your phone or PDA, check out Debbie Mayo-Smith's You Tube video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYEALX23b5Q about what RedKid can do for you - they are at http://www.redkid.net/generator/ 

Find out if you are leading your organisation effectively through these challenging economic times by taking the survey at http://www.mindsetgroup.biz/downloads and receive a free overview leadership report (or you can pay for an in-depth analysis).

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                                Catch you again soon!! E-mail your suggestions to me here

read more "Newsletter Issue 169, July 2009"

Newsletter Issue 168, July 2009

Sam Young Newsletter

Issue 168, July 2009

Hi guys,

Check out Bill Taylor's exploration of what is the right leadership for the times in Entrepreneurs vs Commerce Degrees below.

We take a quick look at a www.simplesavings.co.nz tip in Reducing Debt & Expenses. 

Moving 'My Documents'   TLAs for SMEs        Tips, Short & Hot Keys        Hot Linx

Don't forget, if you want to be taken off my mailing list, click here to send me a reply e-mail and I will remove your name.

Entrepreneurs vs Commerce Degrees

As if people with Commerce Degrees (MBAs is US parlance) didn’t have enough problems already; initially they were being likened to monsters, and the cause of the economic meltdown. Now scuttlebut is that they don’t have what it takes to turn things around. Bill Taylor on his recent Harvard Business blog post “MBAs vs. Entrepreneurs: Who Has the Right Stuff for Tough Times?” says “As the economy experiences the most deep-seated changes in decades, maybe it’s time to change our minds about what kinds of people are best-equipped to become business leaders.” He's got his money on the entrepreneurs to drive economic recovery.

There is much speculation in the US about where elite degree holder talent will flow to now, and Bill reports the New York Times as having said "fewer shiny young minds are embarking on careers in finance and business consulting", chronicling the difficult career choices for business students, with US business graduates going into government, science and teaching.

Bill is not so sure that elite US business school graduates equates to real talent in the business world. He questions whether these people are "best-equipped to become business leaders".

Bill goes on to say "Is our fascination with the comings and goings of MBAs as obsolete as our lionization of investment bankers and hedge-fund managers? Is it time to look elsewhere for the "best and the brightest" of what business has to offer?" He continues:

'One place to look for answers is the fascinating research of Professor Saras Sarasvathy, who teaches entrepreneurship at the Darden Graduate School of Business at the University of Virginia.

'It's been a long time since I've encountered academic research as original, relevant, and fascinating as what Professor Sarasvathy has done, in a series of essays, white papers, and a book. Her work revolves around one big question: What makes entrepreneurs "entrepreneurial?" Specifically, is there such as thing as "entrepreneurial thinking" — and does it differ in important ways from, say, how MBAs think about problems and seize opportunities?

'The answer, Sarasvathy concludes, is an emphatic yes — and the differences boil down to the "causal" reasoning used by MBAs versus the "effectual" reasoning used by entrepreneurs. Causal reasoning, she explains, "begins with a pre-determined goal and a given set of means, and seeks to identify the optimal — fastest, cheapest, most efficient, etc. — alternative to achieve that goal." This is the world of exhaustive business plans, microscopic ROI calculations, and portfolio diversification.

'Effectual reasoning, on the other hand, "does not begin with a specific goal. Instead, it begins with a given set of means and allows goals to emerge contingently over time from the varied imagination and diverse aspirations of the founders and the people they interact with." This is the world of bootstrapping, rapid prototyping, and guerilla marketing.

'The more Sarasvathy explains the differences in the two styles of thinking, the more obvious it becomes which style matches the times. Causal reasoning is about how much you expect to gain; effectual reasoning is about how much you can afford to lose. Causal reasoning revolves around competitive analysis and zero-sum logic; effectual reasoning embraces networks and partnerships. Causal reasoning "urges the exploitation of pre-existing knowledge"; effectual reasoning stresses the inevitability of surprises and the leveraging of options.

'The difference in mindset, Sarasvathy concludes, boils down to a different take on the future. "Causal reasoning is based on the logic, To the extent that we can predict the future, we can control it," she writes. That's why MBAs and big companies spend so much time on focus groups, market research, and statistical models. "Effectual reasoning, however, is based on the logic, To the extent that we can control the future, we do not need to predict it."

'How do you control the future? By inventing it yourself — marshalling scarce resources, understanding that surprises are to be expected rather than avoided, reacting to them fast. Ultimately, she says, entrepreneurs begin with three simple sets of resources: "Who they are" — their values, skills, and tastes; "What they know" — their education, expertise, and experience; and "Whom they know" — their friends, allies, and networks.

' "Using these means, the entrepreneurs begin to imagine and implement possible effects that can be created with them...Plans are made and unmade and revised and recast through action and interactions with others on a daily basis."

'Sounds like a plan to me! So the next time you read an article about what MBAs are doing, don't forget to think about what entrepreneurs are doing as well. They're the ones with the right stuff for tough times.'

Check out Bill Taylor's original article at http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/taylor/2009/05/mbas_vs_entrepreneurs_who_has.html?cm_re=homepage-041409-_-lede-_-headline

Reducing Debt & Expenses

In having a trawl around the internet, I came across a little site called "www.simplesavings.co.nz" which, although focused at savings you could make in the home, does have sensible spin offs for business savings too.

The creator of Simple Savings, Fiona Lippey, has set up this great little site full of savings tips, and has an annual debt reduction planner that you can download (free) at http://www.simplesavings.co.nz/downloads/calendar2009-nz.pdf. As part of that download, she has some tips on how to remain focused on making savings, called "Transform your life in just 10 minutes a day":

1. Rule No. 1: Set your alarm clock and timer! Your alarm clock is your daily reminder to make 10 minutes of Simple Savings time every day. When your alarm clock goes off, set the timer for 10 minutes. Then get to work! Make sure you stay focused until the timer goes off. [Diarise in Outlook - and make it important - and stick to it]
2. Rule No. 2: Make the new habit easy to do. Choose the best time of day for your own personal Simple Savings time. Make sure it fits into your lifestyle, so it is easy for you to maintain and succeed... whenever is easiest for you. [Ditto as per 1]
3. Rule No. 3: Decide out loud. Decide out loud and write down what it is you are going to do each day in your Simple Savings time. This will help you stay committed and focused. [To better fit the work environment - publish this in a weekly e-update to staff]
4. Rule No. 4: Reward yourself. When you succeed, remember to pat yourself on the back. Every little step you make towards your goals is going to have a massive impact on your life. [Ditto as per 3 - let staff know the results in your e-update]
5. Rule No. 5: Write down what you have gained. Keep a record of your achievements so you can look back and see how far you have come. The change is so gradual that sometimes you will think you haven’t made any headway at all, but keeping records will refresh your memory and chances are you will be surprised. [Ditto as per 3 - annual recap of results in your e-update]

Elsewhere in the download there is the idea of having a savings theme each month - which I particularly like as it makes it easier to focus on different aspects and categories of expenses and debt.

By being aware of your habits - and weaknesses, then taking control of them, you will find you have reduced debt and expenses significantly.

Changing the 'My Documents' Default Location

Sometimes the default location of your My Documents folder doesn't suit: particularly those who like to have all their software on one sector or partition of their hard drive and all their files in another (usually for back-up purposes). It used to be hard to do, but from Windows XP onwards, it is actually very easy; but finding the information can be quite difficult. Thanks to Fred Langa - of LangaList fame - I have the instructions.

To change the location of your Vista My Documents folder:

• right-click the folder in Windows Explorer
• Select Properties
• Click the Location tab and click Move. If you see only a text box under "Target folder location," enter the new location for the folder there and click OK.
• Navigate to and select your preferred location for your My Documents folder
• Windows will ask if you want to move everything in the current folder to the new one; you probably want to say yes.

To change the location of your XP My Documents folder:

• right-click the folder in Windows Explorer
• Select Properties
• Click the Target tab. In most cases, you'll find the same Restore Default, Move, and Find Target buttons as in Vista's dialog box. If you see only a text box under "Target folder location," enter the new location for the folder there and click OK.
• Windows will then make the move for you, placing your My Documents folder and all its contents in the spot you chose.

Easy peasy.

TLAs for SMEs

Here are this newsletter's TLAs (Three Letter Acronyms) for you:

• FYEO, For Your Eyes Only. An indication that privacy applies on an email. However, not entirely effective, as emails should be treated as public information.

Please feel free to email me with any TLAs that you want to get the bottom (meaning!) of.

Tips, Short+Hot Keys

Over the next few newsletters, we are looking at all the things you can do with Alt, Shift, Ctrl in Windows Media Player. This is our first section in this series:

• Windows Media Player "Repeat the playlist/stop repeating the playlist (toggle)" Ctrl & T
• Windows Media Player "Stop playing the current item" Ctrl & S
• Windows Media Player "Restore the Player from mini Player mode" Alt & Shift & P
• Windows Media Player "Shut down Windows Media Player" Alt & F4

Hot Linx

Anyone needing a flu pandemic checklist, go to http://www.effectus.co.nz/documents/Effectus-PandemicITChecklist.pdf and download the pdf. A great shortcut for business from Effectus!

Think twice about making people redundant; read http://www.business.govt.nz/Under-the-spotlight/Restructure-your-business-and-hold-on-to-your-staff.aspx and think about some restructuring alternatives first

Anyone interested in entering the 2009 Westpac Nelson Tasman Chamber of Commerce Business Awards can download the entry forms & information from the NTCC website at http://www.commerce.org.nz/nelson/business_awards/

A great formula example for trimming Excel trailing or leading spaces and various other cleverosities can be found at http://www.timeatlas.com/mos/5_Minute_Tips/General/Finding_Excel_Word_Count/

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                                Catch you again soon!! E-mail your suggestions to me here

read more "Newsletter Issue 168, July 2009"