Newsletter Issue 241, October 2013

Sam Young Newsletter

Issue 241, October 2013

Hi guys,

If our roles have run out of challenge, how do we keep them fresh, and keep ourselves engaged? An HBR blogger has some good ideas. Check out Herminia Ibarra's Six Ways to Grow Your Job below.

How good are Test Instruments? Read on below for some views on MBTI. 

Go Home on Time Day   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.

 

Herminia Ibarra's Six Ways to Grow Your Job

Herminia Ibarra, author of Working Identity, has recently posted six tips detailing how we can get more out of our current roles on HBR's blog. However, that advice equally applies to career practitioners in guiding our clients. 

Herminia's tips were the result of discussions she had with Exec MBA students at Insead, where she lectures. 

However, as the HBR blog entries often require a membership sign in, so I decided to summarise what Herminia said so that you can all enjoy.

1. "Stay alert and attuned to your environment". Analyse and understand the external environment as much as the internal. For example, you could use the management models PESTELID (political, economic, socio-cultural, technological, environmental, legal, informational and demographic), SWOT (ie strengths, weaknesses, opportunities & threats) and Porters Five Forces so you understand your organisation and yourself. 
2. "Make strategy your day job, no matter what your title is". Think strategically about your job, so you are considering where you go from here, what you might want to do. Follow opinion leaders, gurus, do some reading, join some groups, get a mentor. 
3. "Create slack in your schedule". This allow you time to plan where to, for you, from where you are now. Allow yourself time to think and learn. One of Herminia's students summed this up perfectly: “We all managed to make time for our executive MBAs, while still doing our day jobs. When the program ends, don’t let the day job reabsorb the learning time. Keep the time to evolve your work”. 
4. "Sign up for a project outside your main area". Understanding the larger picture of your organisation will help you build broader internal networks, develop deeper understanding of your organisation, and of yourself and your talents. 
5. "Expand your contribution from the outside in". If you can't find something within your organisation, look outside to professional organisations, volunteer or board roles for something that will benefit both yourself and your organisation. Attend some conferences, write a paper; network and expand your area of influence. 
6. "Learn to delegate once and for all". Don't go through the budget line by line looking for efficiencies; delegate it to the people who are working with the budget items and ask them. This empowers those doing the work and means we move from micro-managing to leading.

When we start to get off track, we can always go back and ask ourselves four very simple but key questions which are still emblazoned on my brain long after completing my management degree (and I will tentatively attribute this to Robbins, 1991):

Where are we now 

Where do we want to go 

How are we going to get there 

How will we stay on course 

So this takes us right back to self-leadership, and our own acts of leadership.

References: 

• Ibarra, Herminia (25 September 2013). Six Ways to Grow Your Job. HBR Blog. Retrieved 1 October 2013 from http://blogs.hbr.org/2013/09/six-ways-to-grow-your-job/ 
• Robbins, Stephen P. (1991). Management (Third Edition). USA: Prentice-Hall International Edition

Test Instruments

When I take my students through a broad range of aptitude, personality, thinking, interests and values tests, I tell them that each test informs them of 1 degree of themselves as a 360 degree person. 

Their final assessment is a reflection, looking at themselves and their fit with the material we have explored in the course, as well as their own personal discoveries and a personal development plan. 

Hopefully that teaches them that no one test will give you insight into who they are, and we talk a lot about everything - including the mood in which you take each test - being situational. This means that some test results might not be the same the next time you take each test. 

Professor Adam Grant of the Wharton School in the US recently blogged an article critiquing MBTI. This has become a bit infamous quite quickly, as it was published on the LinkedIn network. Adam feels that MBTI is as useful as a horoscope at predicting work performance; and I personally think that Adam's criticisms are valid. 

However, I also still feel that MBTI has value, particularly in teaching students to understand and accept difference. Additionally, I don't think MBTI should be used as a sorting or selection device, because the design of the test was not to judge, but to provide insight. 

That didn't stop two government departments in New Zealand (The Department of Conservation and Ministry of Business & Innovation) doing just that recently!

References:

• Grant, Adam (17 September 2013). Say Goodbye to MBTI, the Fad That Won't Die. Retrieved 1 October 2013 from http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130917155206-69244073-say-goodbye-to-mbti-the-fad-that-won-t-die?trk=mp-reader-card 
• Evans, Steve (August 2013). When psychometric testing makes the national press, it’s rarely for positive reasons, and last Friday’s Dominion Post ‘expose’ was no exception. Retrieved 4 October 2013 from http://www.linkedin.com/groupItem?view=&gid=3017817&type=member&item=257073330&trk=groups_search_item_list-0-b-ttl&goback=.gna_3017817 
• Evans, Steve (July 2013). Using Psychometric Testing in Redundancy Selection. Retrieved 4 October 2013 from http://www.peoplecentral.co.nz/using-psychometric-testing-in-redundancy-selection/

Go Home on Time Day

Did you know that Australia has a "Go Home on Time" day? A LinkedIn compadré, Jessica Davidson, posted the Australian Institute's link on the HRINZ LinkedIn group today. She said "Ongoing research into workplace stress in Australia has promoted The Australian Institute and beyondblue to push what we think is a great national initiative: the 'Go Home on Time Day", taking place on November 20th. Organisations sign-up and push the initiative in their own workplaces. We think this is a great way to recognise challenges facing workers such as, balancing work and home life, overworking and switching off from work in down time." 

What is fascinating is that I think this is an awesome idea, when you think that going home on time should happen nearly every day! Not going home on time should be the exception, not the rule. 

So what does this say about our world when this type of thing is necessary? Sounds like we need a few more acts of leadership and deciding this is bad for us :-) 

• Reference: The Australia Institute (n.d.). Go Home on Time Day 20 November 2013. Retrieved 1 October 2013 from http://www.gohomeontimeday.org.au/?goback=.gde_3017817_member_277367951#!

TLAs for SMEs

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

• SIG, Special Interest Group. Usually an online group, but can be a cluster from any community which comes together as a sub-set of the main group for projects, education or discussion.

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

Tips, Short+Hot Keys

In this newsletter, we look at all you can do around printing:

• PowerPoint "Print a presentation or the current Help topic or redisplay hidden pointer and/or change the pointer to a pen" Ctrl & P 
• Publisher "Print a Help topic" Alt & O, Then P 
• Publisher "Print part or all of a publication" Ctrl & P 
• Windows "Display the Print dialog box (You also can choose the Print command from the File menu)" Ctrl & P 
• Word "Display nonprinting characters" Ctrl & Shift & * (Asterisk) 
• Word "Display Print dialog box" Ctrl & Shift & F12 
• Word "Display the Print dialog box or print the active Help topic" Ctrl & P 
• Word "Display the Print Preview dialog box" Ctrl & F2 Word "Go to end of Document or end of a list of Comments when reviewing Comments or move to the last preview page when zoomed out while working in Print Preview mode" Ctrl & End 
• Word "Move between options in a selected drop-down menu or dialog box or between some options in a group of options; add ENTER to select an option or move around a document while in Print Preview and zoomed in" Arrow Keys 
• Word "Move up one screen or toward the beginning of a Help topic in larger increments or In Print Preview, move back by one preview page when zoomed out" Page Up 
• Word "Print a mail merge document" Alt & Shift & M 
• Word "Scroll down one screen or toward the end of a Help topic in larger increments or In Print Preview, move forward by one preview page when zoomed out" Page Down 
• Word "Start of Document or go to the beginning of a comment when working in Comments field or go to the first preview page when zoomed out in Print Preview mode" Ctrl & Home 
• Word "Switch to Print Preview; use when working" Alt & Ctrl & I

Hot Linx

Cesar Kuriyama, an artist and advertising graduate, was inspired by Stephan Sagmeister on TED, and created his "One second every day" life recordings at http://www.ted.com/talks/cesar_kuriyama_one_second_every_day.html  

LinkedIn is the place to be, according to JobVite’s just out survey. Check out the rankings and the results at http://www.ere.net/2013/09/05/linkedin-dominates-social-media-sourcing-and-recruiting/#!

How many firms would be interested in providing instead of cash for employees to take courses? Check out US Uni MOOCs - like Coursera & EdX - at http://www.openculture.com/free_certificate_courses#!

When you do a presentation, do you know how to deliberately create learner engagement and make the learning ‘sticky’? Check out Faculty Focus’ list of tips at http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/teaching-professor-blog/encouraging-student-participation-why-it-pays-to-sweat-the-small-stuff/

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

read more "Newsletter Issue 241, October 2013"

Newsletter Issue 240, September 2013

Sam Young Newsletter

Issue 240, September 2013

Hi guys,

What happens when our workplace happiness is eroded? Check out The Psychological Contract, and what we can do to repair it, below.

Who says we can't have it all? They obviously haven't read Collins & Porras on The Genius of the 'And'. 

Excel Cell Colour Filtering   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.

 

The Psychological Contract

OK. So who has heard of the psychological contract? 

What I mean by psychological contract is our informal emotional connection with our work: those reciprocal obligations & commitments that help us to define our employee and organisational relationships. Our psychological contract is an emotional bond that binds us to our organisations in a healthy way. This bond helps us sustains our employment relationship over time.

A good psychological contract will mean we see a balance between our effort & what the organisation returns to us; in our eyes. This is an exchange relationship, based on our own perception (so our employer may not agree with our view). It is also unusual in that it is our own power in the workplace: the psychological contract is driven by us, as the employee.

Now, like so many other things in our working environments, you can't see, touch or taste the psychological contract. It is implicit and covert; it is intangible. Because of its very nature, unless you are aware of its existence, it can be easily damaged. Small things can erode it, like allowing people to operate using unsafe practices ("they don't care about us here").

It is also very informal. It counterbalances the formal - and legal - Individual Employment Agreement (IEA or employment contract). Where the IEA is written, if we actually worked on a clause by clause basis, you could see that our working relationships would very quickly disintegrate. Relying solely on our legal obligations would not create healthy or trusting relationships in the workplace.

The psychological contract in some ways is the individual compadré of the collective organisational culture. They both have similar intangible aspects, and are both essential for good environments. Ignore both at your peril!

Over time, our psychological contract gets a bit battered through the wear and tear in the relationship. It is unusual these days for staff to continue with one company all the way to retirement, and to have a healthy psychological contract at the end of their employment.

So what happens when our psychological contract gets damaged? When we feel that the balance has swung too far to the employer's side and we start to feel used?

Remember that the employer is unlikely to agree with our view; or be able to see the breaches of our psychological contract from their perspective. Repeated breaches will mean we trust our employer less, our job satisfaction will erode and our performance will fall. This can then become a vicious cycle, where both parties end up relying clause by clause on the IEA.

Gottschalk (2013) feels that when this happens, it is important to look at "the underlying dynamic[s]" of the situation. She suggests that we - the employee and the employer - need to evaluate:

• The valence (value) of the rewards from the employee's perspective 
• The health of the communication channels to discuss the psychological contract. If there are no mechanisms for psychological contract conversations, create them 
• Inter-party trust levels on "career support, behavioral consistency and integrity" 
• The expertise in creating employment relationship transparency 
• Performance feedback systems for both organisational and individual goals 
• If staff are encouraged to work to their strengths

It is rare that breaches are purposely caused or are driven by malice. It is usually created by the employer being unable to put themselves in the shoes of the employee; and from there it is fuelled by a lack - and sometimes a wilful lack - of shared understanding of each other's position. 

If organisations can make employment a conversation with employees, everyone benefits.

References: 

• Gottschalk, Dr. Marla (15 August 2013). Mending the Psychological Contract. Retrieved 16 August 2013 from http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130815133307-128811924-mending-the-psychological-contract-at-work 
• Maguire, H. (2003). The changing psychological contract: challenges and implications for HRM, organisations and employees. In R. Wiesner & B. Millett (Eds) Human Resource Management: Challenges and Future Directions. Australia: John Wiley & Sons (pp.87-103)

The Genius of the 'And'

Jim Collins wrote about "The Genius of the And" in his 1994 book, co-authored with Jerry Porras, "Built to Last: Successful habits of visionary companies". 

Jim and Jerry talked about having a visionary mentality, and not buying into the fact that our choices are largely binary. In other words, not taking an 'you can ONLY have this or that' choice. Perhaps the idea of being a little greedy is not a bad way of thinking about the choices in front of us. 

I am reconsidering this concept of Jim and Jerry's in light of the wee piece I posted earlier in the week about an OpenPolytechnic advert which has segued its strapline from "leave your buts behind" into the message of the 'and'. "I can do this AND that". 

The binary idea is that “you can have low cost or high quality”. The AND is both: you can have low cost AND high quality (we only have to think of China's growing powerhouse of manufacturing to see that this future is entirely true). 

To quote Jim and Jerry "embrace both extremes" at the same time; figure out a way to have both - or many - choices (1994, p. 44). Visionary companies find ways to do well in both the short-term and long-term, rather than sacrifice one for the other. Jim and Jerry note that they are not talking about balance, but rather, they are seeking behaviours that seek to acquire both choices to the maximum possible. 

So, just like life is not full of simple, binary choices, neither should it necessarily be full of moderate applications of those choices. Why not try to cram as much as possible in? 

References: 

• Collins, Jim & Porras, Jerry (1994). Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies. USA: Collins Business Essentials 
• OpenPolytechnic (2013). Open Polytechnic TV Commercial - And and But. Retrieved 3 September 2013 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aDIqxqLBck 

Excel Cell Colour Filtering

Cool - did you know that you can set conditional formatting to show certain cells in a certain colour if they are - eg - greater than a particular number; that you can sum just those items that show in a certain colour?

TechRepublic's Susan Harkins has posted a great tip on just how to do this, using standard Excel functions and tools. To have all your numbers over a certain level show in a different colour and sum:

• Highlight your data range
• Ribbon: Home tab | Styles Group | Conditional Formatting | Highlight Cells Rules | Greater Than
• Enter your chosen number in the dialogue box (NB: you can change the "Light Red Fill with Dark Red Text" by clicking the drop down list)
• Click OK
• Highlight your data range
• Ribbon: Data tab | Filter

Now you can select Filter by cell colour or by font colour from the filter drop down. So, so easy.

Check out Susan's original post at http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/windows-and-office/conditional-formatting-tricks-sum-values-in-excel-by-cell-color/?ftag=TREe331754&s_cid=e064&tag=nl.e064&ttag=e064  

TLAs for SMEs

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

• LMAO, laughing my a*** off (variant, LMFAO). Texting shortcuts. Often found in those iPhone autocorrect funnies (eg at http://keep0smiling.blogspot.co.nz/2013/08/even-more-very-funny-autocorrect-fails.html)

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

Tips, Short+Hot Keys

In this newsletter, we look at shortcuts for print preview:

• IE "Close Print Preview. " Alt & C 
• Outlook "Close print preview or Accept when responding to an E-Mail schedule request" Alt & C
• Outlook "Open Print Preview & display the Print Preview properties box" Ctrl & F2 Then Alt & S or Alt & U 
• Outlook "Open print preview" Ctrl & F2
• Word "Display the Print Preview dialog box" Ctrl & F2
• Word "Switch to Print Preview; use when working" Alt & Ctrl & I

Hot Linx

Adam Pacitti developed a fantastic pull strategy to find work. Read on at http://jobs.aol.com/articles/2013/08/06/unemployed-man-got-60-job-offers/

Hmm. Why does a bookseller buy a newspaper? Let's think magnitude here: Amazon buys the Washington Post. Read more at http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/18/business/expecting-the-unexpected-from-jeff-bezos.html?pagewanted=all&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=pulsenews&_r=0

Have you ever written your own recommendation letter? The "You write it, I'll sign it" style of letter? Do you think this is a legit way to get such letters written? Check out http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130716230619-17970806-why-mbas-are-writing-their-own-recs

Martin Ellis puts his projections on the line about the future of recruiting in a decade’s time at http://corporatehandyman.co.uk/for-candidates/how-will-recruiting-look-10-years-from-now?goback=.gde_4658233_member_261810036

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

read more "Newsletter Issue 240, September 2013"

Newsletter Issue 239, August 2013

Sam Young Newsletter

Issue 239, August  2013

Hi guys,

Have you ever wondered what happens when you click on those “One Weird Trick” ads that pop up in your sidebar? Check it out below.

What happens when anyone can sign up for a course, anywhere in the world: and it's free? Education Disruption, that's what. 

Excel's Quick Analysis Tools   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.

 

Those "One Weird Tip" Ads

Alex Kaufman posted a great article entitled "Prepare to Be Shocked!" on 30 July 2013, detailing the "crudely drawn Web advertisements promise easy tricks to reduce your belly fat". 

As Alex notes, they seem like scams, but he got to pondering just what makes these "weird tips" weird, and went so far as to suggest an article on this growing phenomenon might be in order. The Slate website obligingly commissioned Alex to check it out.

Alex started off soft, with a diabetes cure: “discover how 1 weird spice reverses diabetes in 30 short days” (yeah, right!). 

In Alex's words "The ad showed a picture of cinnamon buns. Could the spice be... cinnamon? Maybe I would find out. The link brought up a video with no pause button or status bar. A kindly voice began: 'Prepare to be shocked'. I prepared myself. As 'Lon' spoke, his words flashed simultaneously on the screen, PowerPoint-style. As soon as he started, Lon seemed fixated on convincing me to stay until the end. 'This could be the most important video you ever watch,' he promised. 'Watch the entire video, as the end will surprise you!' Every time Lon seemed about to get to the spicy heart of the matter, he’d go off on a tangent. This video wouldn’t stay on the Internet for long, he said. The cure is for people 'ready to put down the flaky answers'. Indeed, 'if you’re looking for a miracle cure or new age fad, leave this page now.' Lon also took pains to trash the medical establishment. Big Pharma has been lying to you, he said. They profit every time you take their pills, or inject yourself with their needles. But the secret spice Lon discovered can free you of the lies and the needles. You will 'look and feel like you were never sick'. Your doctor will confirm your cure, astounded." 

It apparently took Lon forever to get to the money shot, ie, when you have to take that punt and load your credit card details. The average customer endurance required for any of the weird tip deals is 15 to 30 minutes of blah. There's a reason for that. Alex talked to Michael Norton, a marketing professor at Harvard Business School, who said "Research on persuasion shows the more arguments you list in favor of something, regardless of the quality of those arguments, the more that people tend to believe it. Mainstream ads sometimes use long lists of bullet points—people don’t read them, but it’s persuasive to know there are so many reasons to buy”. Lon is actually an actor who works for South Dakota firm, Barton Publishing. Barton market a broad range of 'health' foods... ie, cinnamon. Etcetera.

Michael Norton continues. “People tend to think something is important if it’s secret,” Michael said. “Studies find that we give greater credence to information if we’ve been told it was once ‘classified.’ Ads like this often purport to be the work of one man, telling you something ‘they’ don’t want you to know.” 

The ads have an element of illicitness, secret knowledge, and providing simple, 'natural' answers to complex problems. The long spiel helps to bolster the ad’s credibility, as does the conspiracy of the 'Big Pharma' people who are certainly not going to tell you the truth else they would lose all that lovely moolah if you didn't pay blindly.

So why "weird"? Alex asked Oleg Urminsky from the University of Chicago School of Business, who said “A word like ‘weird’ is not so negative, and kind of intriguing. There’s this foot-in-the-door model. If you lead with a strong, unbelievable claim it may turn people off. But if you start with ‘isn’t this kind of weird?’ it lowers the stakes.” The same for the shonky graphics: you want to look a bit amateurish, to imply "one man against the system".

Alex relates that when you grit your teeth and watch to the end of the videos, you will have the option to eliminate "belly fat using the thoroughly disproven extracts of garcinia cambogia and acai. And diabetes—just add cinnamon. The weirdest trick of all, of course, was getting anyone to click in the first place".

Yep, I am with you, Alex.

References:

• Kaufman, Alex (30 July 2013). Prepare to Be Shocked! What happens when you actually click on one of those “One Weird Trick” ads? Retrieved 19 August 2013 from http://www.likemotion.com/show/63963/how-ldquoone-weird-trickrdquo-conquered-the-internet-what-happens-when-you-click-on-those-omnipresent-ads-slate-magazine

Education Disruption

I was sent a link recently advising me of an online course at a US University on Emotional Intelligence. I checked out the course, watched some clips, have only a sketchy idea what I will be doing... so I signed up.

The course takes eight weeks, and while I won't get a qualification, I will possess the knowledge, and will get a certificate of completion. As this is a course on Emotional Intelligence, it will come in useful for teaching leadership, as that is one of the many components that I take my students through. It will add value to my teaching through adding richness to my current level of knowledge. 

The amazing thing is that this knowledge exchange is free. 

This is a MOOC - a massively open online course, being run by "Coursera", the online arm of Case Western Uni in Cleveland, USA. The course instructor is a leadership legend, Richard Boyatzis, writer of many books, journal articles and chapters on leadership, emotional intelligence, mindfulness and competence. 

Who would turn this opportunity down? 

Yep, I am busy. And yes, this is going to be a bit of a wedge. But I figure that it is worth throwing some time at having the chance to learn directly from a real leadership scholar.

All of which made me think. An early 20th century economist, Joseph Schumpeter, noted that significant advances often arrive arm in arm with "creative destruction"; we win some and we lose some (Manyika et al, 2013). Cars moved us faster, further and more smoothly, but farriers, coach builders, saddlers and blacksmiths largely ended up out of business. Those once mainstream professions have now moved into the micro market of specialist artisanship.

Clayton M. Christensen of Harvard has written a lot on this field, which is now known as "disruptive innovation". In an interview earlier this year with Art Kleiner of s+b (Strategy and Business Magazine), Clayton related "At the fundamental level, most jobs don’t change very much, even though the technology does. When he was the emperor of Rome, Julius Caesar had to exchange messages rapidly with his far-flung governors. He used horsemen with chariots. Today, we have FedEx, but the job hasn’t changed. If you’re focused on the job that has to be done, you’ll be more likely to catch the next technology that does it better. If you frame your business by product or technology, you won’t see the next disruptor when it comes along". 

Generally when we think of education, we see a classroom. But fundamentally, it is about one person learning something from an 'expert'. That expert can easily be online, and the learner anywhere in the world, connected via a website - a transfer point. They don't have to be at the transfer point at the same time; in fact, as far as internet learning goes, it is easier on the learner if the expert is not there. It takes the pressure off the learner.

I have done online courses before. However, I have had to pay for them. This will be the first expert-delivered MOOC I have undertaken.

I will report back on how it goes at the end of the year!

References:

• Kleiner, Art (June 2013). The Thought Leader Interview: Clayton M. Christensen, The Discipline of Managing Disruption. Strategy + Business, March 2013 online. USA: Booz & Company Inc. Retrieved 19 April 2013 from www.strategy-business.com/article/00170?pg=all
• Manyika, James; Chui, Michael; Bughin, Jacques; Dobbs, Richard; Bisson, Peter & Marrs, Alex (May 2013). Disruptive technologies: Advances that will transform life, business, and the global economy. USA: McKinsey Global Institute. Retrieved 16 August 2013 from http://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/McKinsey/dotcom/Insights%20and%20pubs/MGI/Research/Technology%20and%20Innovation/Disruptive%20technologies/MGI_Disruptive_technologies_Full_report_May2013.ashx

Excel's Quick Analysis Tools

Did you know there was a cool wee tool in Excel 2007 on that allowed you to analyse 'instantly'? It is so easy to use, and I bet you have seen it time after time, and not noticed that it was there - I certainly didn't!

When you select a data range, the Quick Analysis tool appears as a tiny icon in the bottom left-hand corner of your data. It gives you single-click access to many of Excel's data analysis tools, many of which you've probably already used, accessible from this icon. 

• Format: Preview and apply some of Excel's most popular conditional formats. Eg select Greater Than and Excel will prompt you for specifics; greater than what?
• Charts: Preview and apply specific chart structures. Here's a quick tip: most of the time, you'll want to select the header text when choosing Charts. 
• Totals: Preview and insert basic calculations like sum, count, average, and so on. 
• Tables: Preview pivot tables. 
• Sparklines: Preview and insert sparkline graphics (really automatic).

Thanks to TechRepublic's Susan Harkins for providing this tip. The full article is at http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/windows-and-office/analyze-data-instantly-with-excel-2013s-quick-analysis/   

TLAs for SMEs

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

• WUG, Windows User Group. A set of people who have interests, goals and expertise in using Windows software, who meet regularly to discuss and share ideas. May be virtual, may be confined to a location. Usually provide expert help and guidance to others, and assist in IT projects.

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

Tips, Short+Hot Keys

In this newsletter, we look at all zoom shortcuts:

• Access "Open the Zoom box to conveniently enter expressions and other text in small input areas" Shift & F2 
• Access "Zoom in or out on a part of the page" Z 
• Excel "Display the full set of commands on a menu or move to the next page when zoomed out (in Print Preview)" Ctrl & Down Arrow 
• Excel "Move by one page when zoomed out (in Print Preview)" Page Up Or Page Down 
• Excel "Move one character up, down, left, or right or move between options in the active drop-down list box or between some options in a group of options or, in Print Preview, move around the page when zoomed in; add ENTER to select an option" Arrow Keys 
• Excel "Move one word to the right or move to the last page when zoomed out (in Print Preview)" Ctrl & Right Arrow Excel "Move to the first page when zoomed out in Print Preview" Ctrl & Up Arrow or Left Arrow 
• IE "Display a list of zoom percentages. " Alt & Z 
• IE "Zoom in. " Alt& + (Plus) 
• IE "Zoom out. " Alt & - (Minus) 
• Outlook "Zoom" Alt & Z 
• Windows Media Player "Zoom to 100 percent" Alt & 2 
• Windows Media Player "Zoom to 200 percent" Alt & 3 
• Windows Media Player "Zoom to 50 percent" Alt & 1 
• Word "Go to end of Document or end of a list of Comments when reviewing Comments or move to the last preview page when zoomed out while working in Print Preview mode" Ctrl & End 
• Word "Move between options in a selected drop-down menu or dialog box or between some options in a group of options; add ENTER to select an option or move around a document while in Print Preview and zoomed in" Arrow Keys 
• Word "Move up one screen or toward the beginning of a Help topic in larger increments or In Print Preview, move back by one preview page when zoomed out" Page Up 
• Word "Scroll down one screen or toward the end of a Help topic in larger increments or In Print Preview, move forward by one preview page when zoomed out" Page Down 
• Word "Start of Document or go to the beginning of a comment when working in Comments field or go to the first preview page when zoomed out in Print Preview mode" Ctrl & Home

Hot Linx

Don't forget to connect with the Great NZ Employment Survey and get your views in there! Rush off and complete it now at http://lnkd.in/FWSjY8 

For a bit of a laugh, take a tour through Jeff Wysaski's list of "Book Titles With One Letter Missing", where the covers have also been cleverly arranged to support the change in meaning. Go to http://www.pleated-jeans.com/2013/07/01/book-titles-with-one-letter-missing-20-pics/#more-65235 

Susan Harkness from TechRepublic has another great set of Excel tips for us at http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/window-on-windows/three-excel-solutions-for-questions-asked-by-readers/7939?tag=nl.e064&s_cid=e064&ttag=e064&ftag=

The Guardian has some great tips on how we can improve our health AND our work by being more active. Check it out at http://careers.guardian.co.uk/stay-active-office-top-tips?CMP=&et_cid=40954&et_rid=7351727&Linkid=How+to+stay+active+in+the+office

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

read more "Newsletter Issue 239, August 2013"

Newsletter Issue 238, August 2013

Sam Young Newsletter

Issue 238, August 2013

Hi guys,

When it comes to Email, are you a Luddite or an acolyte? Or do you love to hate it? Read Email: Luddite vs Acolyte below.

When we hire, are we really hiring people with tools that are  Accurate Performance Predictors? Read on below. 

Laying Ghosts to Rest   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.

 

Email: Luddite vs Acolyte

I read an interesting post about companies giving up email (Edmond, 29 July 2013). "Really?", I thought, so I read on. The CEO in question headed up a volunteer sports organisation in Australia, and has chopped his, and his employees time back to next to nothing by making people go and talk to each other. Apparently 66% of his company emails were in staff emailing each other.

All very well if the people you need to talk to are in the same office - even the same building - at the same time, on the same day. But even then, I would say that if you are directing someone to a website, it is more efficient to post a clickable link than to go and tell them what the link is, letter by letter (that's even providing you can remember it).

Yes, we must ensure that we remember to have real conversations. However, I think we can do the mundane things, and the tasks that need to be ticked off, via email, not matter how close we are.

And where does that leave the customers of the sports organisation? Will they telephone each one individually to tell them of their decisions? Can anyone afford that amount of time or resource these days? I would suspect not. So I would imagine that their customer emails will stay exactly the same.

While it has some merit in principle, in general I disagree with the views presented in Cameron's article. Email is a communication tool of the present, it helps us be more productive, providing we use it consciously and judiciously.

Perhaps the Australian company needed to put some thought into how and when they should use email, then invest in some training so everyone got the same message. I feel they are in limiting themselves and are in serious danger of throwing out the baby with the bathwater.

In my view, productivity comes down to good planning, and from making decisions yourself about being available or unavailable. As I work from home three days a week, and live way out in the country with no landline (would cost $10k to put it on), and a cellphone that only works outside, I can tell you that I couldn't chose to live my life as I do without email and Skype. 

If it is raining, email & Skype are my only connection tools, because I am not going to stand outside in the rain to talk to people if I can do it comfortably inside on the PC. Most of what I do is face to face as a lecturer and consultant in careers and management. 

I know that to build rapport, I need to be face to face with my clients. On the two days I come into town, I have meetings and lectures. On the other three days, I am accessible via email, Skype & cellphone. As long as I am focused on the work I need to get done, and plan my day, I don't have any trouble with managing email. During deadline times, I turn my phone to silent and turn off Outlook to prevent distractions. 

However, on the days that I am in town, I know I will get 'no' work done. Everything will revolve around people, talking, meeting, catching up, drop ins and 'by the way' conversations. That could be seen as frustrating, but I don't see it that way. I plan for it - it is when I am accessible. 

And the other thing I love about email is that I can bang out an email when I find something I need to do: then the person at the other end can deal with it when they get time. It is in process instead of being another thing I need to remember to do. I like that :-)

Reference: Edmond, Cameron (29 July 2013). Digital death: Should you be giving up email? Retrieved 1 August 2013 from http://www.hrmonline.co.nz/article/digital-death-should-you-be-giving-up-email-177596.aspx 

Accurate Performance Predictors?

As a member of the HRINZ LinkedIn group, I was reading a member post the other day that was really fascinating. Posted by Anna Sage of Sage Advice in Wellington, it detailed the predictive validities of a variety of hiring tools:

1. Assessment centres - potential (0.53)
2. Ability tests - job performance and training (0.50)
3. Structured interviews (0.44)
4. Bio-data (0.37)
5. Assessment centres - performance (0.36)
6. Personality tests (0.33)
7. Unstructured interviews (0.33)
8. References (0.17)
9. Self-assessments (0.15) 

All pretty poor, really, at predicting success - performance - on the job! It amazes me that we still use references, if they are less useful than 1 in 5 of being accurate. In fact, why on earth we use anything from Bio-data on down is pretty moot. CVs don't even get a rating.

But what really surprised me was the follow up list that Anna posted; her "what is most popular" hiring assessment tools with employers (in decreasing order of popularity, based on some research Anna did between 1991 and 2006):

1. References - 93% (predictive validity 0.17)
2. Structured panel interviews - 88% (predictive validity 0.44)
3. Structured one-to-one interviews - 85% (predictive validity 0.44)
4. Competency-based interviews - 85%
5. Ability tests - 75% (predictive validity 0.50)
6. CVs - 74%
7. Personality questionnaires - 60% (predictive validity 0.33)
8. Assessment centres - 48% (predictive validity 0.53 or 0.36)
9. Online selection tests - 25% (predictive validity 0.15)
10. Bio-data - 7% (predictive validity 0.37)

If Anna's data is accurate, then why do employers and recruitment agencies still request the same old materials and hire as they do? It beggars belief. 

Reference: Sage, Anna (July 2013). LinkedIn HRINZ Group: When psychometric testing makes the national press, it’s rarely for positive reasons. Retrieved 1 August 2013 from http://www.linkedin.com/groupItem?view=&gid=3017817&type=member&item=257073330&qid=5a50d1e1-39b9-4023-a76c-d70980a5ef6f&trk=group_items_see_more-0-b-ttl 

Laying Ghosts to Rest

Does your PC or laptop have 'phantom' drive letters showing in Windows Explorer? If you do, there is a way to get rid of them. 

• Click the Microsoft key on your keyboard to bring up the Start menu.
• In the 'search' box, key compmgmt.msc 
• Right-click the app in the search-results box and select 'Run as administrator'
• In the Computer Management window, double-click Disk management (under Storage). The phantom drive letter will appear at the bottom of the window
• Right-click the drive you want to delete. Select Change Drive Letters and Paths, and then "Remove"

Easy. Thanks to Bryan Malakou, Windows Secrets reader, for this tip at https://windowssecrets.com/langalist-plus/multiple-options-to-obtain-recovery-discs/, article 4: A tip on deleting phantom drive letters (20 June 2013). 

TLAs for SMEs

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

• QSE, Quality Safety Environment. Have a workplace where there is good focus on creating a positive, healthy and safe climate for staff.

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

Tips, Short+Hot Keys

In this newsletter, we look at using Ctrl and Enter:

• Access "Insert a new line or open the selected table, query, form, report, data access page, macro, or module in Design view" Ctrl & Enter 
• Excel "Enter a formula as an array formula" Ctrl & Shift & Enter 
• Excel "Fill the selected cell range with the current entry or make the chart active, or select the first object" OR "Make the chart active (step 6 in selecting an embedded chart with drawing toolbar turned on)" OR "Select the first object (step 4 in selecting an embedded chart with drawing toolbar turned on)" Ctrl & Enter 
• IE "Add "www." to the beginning and ".com" to the end of the text typed in the Address bar " Ctrl & Enter 
• Outlook "Send/post/invite all (NB: doesn’t work in Word Mail)" Ctrl & Enter 
• PowerPoint "To the next title or body text placeholder (see note)" Ctrl & Enter 
• Publisher "End one column of text and begin a new column" Ctrl & Shift & Enter 
• Publisher "Insert a frame break" Ctrl & Enter
• Word "Insert a column break" Ctrl & Shift & Enter 
• Word "Insert a page break at the cursor's position in a document" Ctrl & Enter

Hot Linx

The four ‘Qs’ of career success are all quotients, and they can be found at http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130621191454-73785410-the-four-qs-of-career-success?goback=.gde_2115428_member_253042622

While pundits are complaining about offshoring, no one yet is talking about the onshoring already happening – check out http://www.zdnet.com/ibm-jobs-move-changes-new-zealands-narrative-7000017434/?s_cid=rSINGLE&ttag=rSINGLE

To get the most out of that next presentation, ensure you are engaging these 10 body language tips at http://www.slideshare.net/soappresentations/10-powerful-body-language-tips-for-your-next-presentation?utm_source=slideshow&utm_medium=ssemail&utm_campaign=weekly_digest

ZDNet have a list of things that you may or may not know that you can do online. A couple of these are really cool like shareyourmeal and the use of 404 for lost notices. Go to http://www.zdnet.com/things-you-didnt-know-you-could-do-online-7000016213/?s_cid=rSINGLE&ttag=rSINGLE 

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

read more "Newsletter Issue 238, August 2013"