Survival Tips for Meetings

Here is an interesting article regarding meetings. Don't be scared it is just the first two or three sentences that are in german. It can hopefully provide a little help to make your meetings easier to go through.

Meetings in general can be good if they are structured correctly and if the person who is facilitating them knows what they want to get out of it and if you don't have too many of them. For some jobs it will be inevitable that you have many meetings (e.g. Sales Reps, Executives etc.) and in this case this article is missing the point. This is for people who regularly go to meetings which they don't necessarily enjoy.

Hairline Cracks Could Cost EADS 100 Million Euros

Little errors can have a big impact. This article about small cracks in the Airbus 380 is a good example for that. As a customer I expect quality. So don't come back to me with excuses why something doesn't work or even worse try to hide it.
Be open with what went wrong otherwise I will lose trust. This happens especially quickly with things that are potentially life threating (e.g. medical devices, airplanes etc) . Come back with a short, understandable plan on how you plan to fix it. Once it is fixed then make sure that I understand what you did do that I (as the customer) have a chance to appreciate it.

Doesn't that very much sound like good Project Management Practices?

The Adult brain can change

I guess it isn't exactly News that adults can still learn new things but it's still interesting to see this confirmed in a study. Check this out.

In quite some places I get the feeling that the will to learn something new is not very strong. Maybe it's because people feel more in control when they do the things they already know BUT then you don't learn anything new. I want to learn new things, do something new because I don't want to spend life on "repeat" mode.
How much do you challenge yourself? I think we can only grow when we do something new on a regular basis. And new things tend to be intimidating in the beginning. We  don't know them and hence we don't control them and don't know how to deal with them. But we can learn new things. So don't be afraid of making mistakes, that is part of the learning process.

Are Mergers the only way to grow?

Here is a link to an article about the failed merger of the NYSE and Euronext. What do you think? Are mergers the only way to grow? At least for these giant companies to grow substantially and to get any measurable stock gains.

Smart Paint can monitor buildings

The future use of technology will probably go beyond what you may think. Check this article about smart paint. Sure, some of these technologies still need considerable development but still at one point they will be available. Are you prepared for these changes? Personally and professionally? Do you know enough about these emerging technologies so that you have a chance to benefit from them financially? If you are interested in this topic I recommend a good book about these "future oriented" technologies from Daniel Burrus "Flash Foresight". Check it out it and be amazed by what might be coming our way.