ASCII code list

Those of you with a shorter PC history may not have heard of the American Standard Code For Information Interchange, which is commonly known as "ASCII". ASCII codes were set up in the time of teletype machines, then migrating to DOS, where a bit did not equal a byte, and each letter had hidden code, and that code was ASCII. From there they appeared in IBM PCs along with many, many menus before mice came along.

The ASCII protocol helps our devices to communicate across platforms: that is, why a "d" on my PC is a "d" on my iPod, and a "d" on my Android phone. Of course, most devices now have a keyboard, largely sending ASCII codes to the same junkshop in the sky as teletypers, typewriters, fax machines, dial telephones, telegraph poles, and blackboards. However, ASCII codes so still have a use when we need to quickly key symbols which are NOT on our keyboards.

An ASCII code enables us to quickly key a set of shortcut keys to get a symbol, avoiding the slow and irritating meander through menus. Compare, for example, needing a GBP symbol: simply key Alt & 0163 = £.

However, trying to get a comprehensive list of all the ASCII codes is tricky. But recently I found a relatively full list at the following address: https://www.ascii-code.com/

I hope you find this list as useful as I do.

Sam

• Reference: ASCII Code (2021). The extended ASCII table. https://www.ascii-code.com/

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Favourite ASCII code symbols

For those of you who don't know, and ASCII code comes from the American Standard Code For Information Interchange (ASCII), which was set up in way back in the time of teletype setters. Crikey. It underpins why our devices can talk to each other, and why a "d" on my PC is a "d" on my iPod, and a "d" on my Android phone.

However, as most devices now have a keyboard which has superceded the need for codes, where ASCII codes still have an edge is when we need to key things with are NOT on the keyboard: symbols.

I do love a good ASCII code! With them we can quickly key a symbol, rather than trudging our way through menus. Compare, for example, keying the phrase "these things are not equal", or going to the Insert Ribbon | Symbol | More Symbols | searching for ages, with:

≠

Or keying "this is kind of equal to" with the menu palaver (and this one is REALLY hard to find), with:

≈

Or "therefore", the menu palaver (and we won't find this one), and:

∴

Or "change" (delta), menu, and:

Δ

OK: the latter two are fairly short words, but if I am using the whiteboard when in a lecture or a workshop, I use the symbols all the time.

To save time when keyboarding, the keyboarding of these needs to be much faster, time-wise, than having to write the entire phrase, or to search in the symbol function (which is clunky, and hit and miss, to say the least). This is where ASCII codes come in, as - with a few keystrokes - we can enter the symbol much more quickly than we can key in the phrase.

Where things tend to get tricky is in finding the ASCII code. However, recently I stumbled across a site containing some mathematical symbols, which contained some of the symbols listed above (Keynote Support, 2021), so thought I would write a short post containing four of my favourite codes, which are hard to find the ASCII codes for. The codes are as follows:

• Does not equal: Alt&8800 (Keynote Support, 2021)
• Is similar to: Alt&8776 (Keynote Support, 2021)
• Therefore: Alt&8756 (How to type anything, 2020)
• Delta/Change: Alt & 916 (Quora, 2015)

I hope these are useful :-)

Sam

References:

• How to type anything (2020). How to Type therefore Symbol (∴) in Word or Excel (on Keyboard). https://howtotypeanything.com/type-therefore-symbol/
• Keynote Support (2021). Fabulous Code Chart for Numbers, Math & Currency (ALT, HTML, and ASCII Codes). https://www.keynotesupport.com/internet/special-characters-math-currency.shtml
• Quora (2015). How do you make the delta symbol using the keyboard?. https://www.quora.com/How-do-you-make-the-delta-symbol-using-the-keyboard

read more "Favourite ASCII code symbols"

Alt and X symbol shortcuts

If you use keyboard shortcuts like I do, then you may find the new Windows 10 following table of symbols and their corresponding short codes very handy. While this is not a comprehensive list, it does hit some very useful ones - like the Euro symbol, a smiley face, and the sum symbol. I have often wanted a short code that I could easily remember for those, as it saves so much time fiddling around in menus. I use the current short code for the GBP all the time (Alt 0613).

An expansion in Windows 10 has added on the Alt & X controls, a command which has certainly added value to shortcuts (as you can see below).

Description	Symbol	Shortcut	ALT code	ALT+X code
Trademark	™	CTRL-ALT-T	ALT-0153	2122 ALT-X
Copyright	©	CTRL-ALT-C	ALT-0169	00a9 ALT-X
Registered	®	CTRL-ALT-R	ALT-0174	00ae ALT-X
Euro	€	CTRL-ALT-E	ALT-0128	20ac ALT-X
Pound	£		ALT-0163	00a3 Alt-X
Cent	¢		ALT-0162	00a2 Alt-X
Section	§		ALT-0167	00a7 Alt-X
Micro	µ		ALT-0181	00b5 ALT-X
Superscript 2	²		ALT-0178	00b2 ALT-X
Beta	Β			03b2 ALT-X
Infinity	∞			221e ALT-X
Bitcoin	₿			20bf ALT-X
Smiley face	☺			263A ALT-X
Square root	√			221a ALT-X
Pi	π			03c0 ALT-X
Omega	Ω			03a9 ALT-X
Alpha	α			03b1 ALT-X
Summation	∑			2211 ALT-X
Greater than	>			003e ALT-X
Less than	<			003c ALT-X

To get the Alt X controls to work, we simply key in the first four characters, then key "Alt" and "X" together. Too easy, once we know how!

However, what this list does not yet have is the symbol for approximately equal to. Now that will be VERY useful!

Sam

• Reference: Kaelin, M. (15 April 2020). 20 useful ALT commands and keyboard shortcuts for Office 365 apps. TechRepublic. https://www.techrepublic.com/article/20-useful-alt-commands-and-keyboard-shortcuts-for-office-365-apps/

read more "Alt and X symbol shortcuts"

Google Chrome shortcuts

We can forget sometimes that there are a number of ways to do things: hangovers from the time before computer mice, when the keyboard was king. I am talking about the world of the hotkeys and keyboard shortcuts.

I was reminded of some of those handy little tricks the other day, as I have been having sudden PC shutdowns. Luckily, Chrome remembers what we have had open, and we can simply go back into our history, and reopen those tabs that we had open before everything went black.

However, there is also a shortcut to do the same thing, once Chrome is open, simply key Shift, Ctrl & T, and you will reopen the Chrome tabs which were last open.

If we want to close our currently open tab, then we can key Ctrl & W. To open it again, simply key Shift, Ctrl & T again (if we keep using this command, it will reopen all our tabs in the order that we closed them).

To open a new tab and go to it, key Ctrl & T. To go to the right-most tab, key Ctrl & 9. To open a new window, Ctrl & N.

There is a full list of Google Chrome shortcuts here.


Sam

References:

• Google Support (2020). Chrome keyboard shortcuts. https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/157179?hl=en
• Comptuter Hope (12 January 2019). Google Chrome shortcut keys. https://www.computerhope.com/shortcut/chrome.htm

read more "Google Chrome shortcuts"

Gmail & Google Calendar Hotkeys

I recently watched a TechRepublic webcast on shortcut commands which detailed some really useful hotkey commands for using Gmail and Google calendar (Detwiler, 25 April 2018).

There are a couple of caveats on using these. Firstly, if some commands don't work, have a scout around in the settings to see if you have some conflicting options ticked. Secondly, some shortcuts won't work if you are inside a field. So ensure you have focus on the window, but aren't clicked into anything in particular.

The list of commands for each are below:

Gmail J - next converation K - previous conversation O - open conversation (at cursor) X - select conversation (not open) C - Compose new message # - Delete selected message U - Go back to previous list R - Reply A - Reply all F - Forward Shift I/U - Mark as read/unread Tab - move through fields

Google Calendar C - open full event screen Q - open quick add box1 - single day view 2 - single week view 3 - single month view 4 - 4 week view 5 - Schedule view J - next period in set view K - previous period in set view

Sam

• Reference: Detwiler, B. (25 April 2018). TechRepublic Dojo: Essential Gemail and Google Apps Keyboard Shortcuts. Retrieved from https://www.techrepublic.com/article/gmail-redesign-everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-new-features/?ftag=TRE684d531&bhid=40778246

read more "Gmail & Google Calendar Hotkeys"

Look Ma: no hands desktop!

TechRepublic's Ed Bott has another set of great tips on using the Windows environment, using shortcuts. He recently posted a "how to" on Windows keyboard shortcuts, which allow users faster access to our desktop or open sessions:

• Minimise all open windows to view the desktop: key Win & D
• Minimise all windows: key Win & M
• Restore all minimised windows: key Win, Shift & M.

These shortcuts are particularly useful if you are trying to paste formatting, or simply quickly navigate to a shortcut or programme which is not pinned on your taskbar.

Too easy :-)


Sam

• Reference: Bott, E. (11 October 2017). Manage app and Explorer windows with keyboard shortcuts. Retrieved 12 October, 2017 from http://enews.techrepublic.com/hostedemail/email.htm?CID=47219102855&ch=46880190F9540913AA5F8D9395753746&h=f3860246aa7a11c8577292e48f6ee778&ei=WsPuCgErN&schema=echo3

read more "Look Ma: no hands desktop!"

Environment Variables: shortcuts to Windows folders

Oooo! How's this for a handy shortcut by Ed Bott, of TechRepublic?

Ed advises that you can save at least half a dozen keystrokes by using - what he calls - Windows "environment variables".

Ed provides the example that, if we wanted to go to our user profile in File Explorer, we might start typing the path C:\Users\[our user name], but if we use environment variables, we can shortcut that. The environment variables contain a 'reserved name', bracketed by percentages, which provide a shortcut to specific system folders. We access them by keying the name into the address bar or search box, and hitting Enter. For example:

%userprofile%

...and that takes us to our profile.

Ed is kind enough to provide a list of some useful examples:

• %localappdata% The hidden folder in your user profile where Windows apps store your data
• %windir% The folder containing Windows system files; usually C:Windows
• %public% A special user profile that contains folders for Documents, Downloads, Music, Pictures, and Videos, intended for sharing on a home network
• %temp% or %tmp% The normally hidden folder where Windows and apps can store files necessary for one-time tasks

Ed finishes up by saying "Some people write these variables using mixed case (%ProgramFiles%, for example) to make them easier to read. But they're not case sensitive, so skip the Shift key if you want".

Sam

• Reference: Bott, Ed (2 March 2016). Windows tip of the week: How to save time with environment variables. Retrieved 3 March 2016 from http://enews.techrepublic.com/hostedemail/email.htm?CID=33023177696&ch=F7187AE9A93D577764159724DB8B4518&h=8c182ce3a053ea5a2a1fd71e31ed2d75&ei=s9JnrGCNB

read more "Environment Variables: shortcuts to Windows folders"

Intersection: YouTube transcripts and Find & Replace

For all my classes, I create video clips of my PowerPoint presentations, and upload them to YouTube. This means that students can double-check with the materials ...if they need to, or if they've missed something in class.

One thing that many people don't realise is that YouTube creates a transcript of everything that is uploaded. You can access the transcript by clicking the "more" and the three dots underneath (…) the video link, then selecting the transcript option from the pop-up menu.

The words of the transcript will show underneath that, which you can then copy (using Ctrl & C), and paste the transcript into MS Word.

However, the text that you paste into Word has a load of line breaks and transcription times. While this may be useful for analysis, it is not so useful if you just want to provide students with a script.

It can also take quite a long time if you have to go through in manually delete the times and the line breaks.

Recently, I posted an article on MS Word find and replace function. The find and replace function comes in useful here too, but you need to know the right codes to be able to get rid of the numbers and the breaks.

Using Word's find and replace function, the code to get rid of double-digit minute and second times, and line breaks is:

^p^#^#:^#^#^p

However, that will still leave you with all the single digit minute and second times, and line breaks. So you need to repeat the find and replace, using this code:

^p^#:^#^#^p

Then you should have just your words alone.


Sam

• Reference: MS Office Support (n.d.). Find and replace text and other data in a Word document. Retrieved 25 February 2016 from https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Find-and-replace-text-and-other-data-in-a-Word-document-c6728c16-469e-43cd-afe4-7708c6c779b7#__toc282774575

read more "Intersection: YouTube transcripts and Find & Replace"

Toggle CAPS to lowercase

Did you know that there is a set of hot keys so we can toggle all caps to lowercase?

If you didn't, you are not alone. Neither did I. Then this morning, an colleague of mine asked me what the hot keys were. I consulted Dr Google.

Those keys are Shift & F3.

So now we all know :-)

Sam

read more "Toggle CAPS to lowercase"

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/

---

                                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"