Lawrence Fine

Whether it’s in a formal classroom, an organizations training facility or other location much of our training is done in 45 minute sessions or longer.

The question we must ask is why?

Why that long? Is it really in our best interests to go that long in our sessions? Would it make sense to teach in short bursts (3-10 minutes) by breaking things down to shorter, simpler sessions? Would we learn better if we had five 10 minute sessions instead?

Next time you are in a one hour training session take a look around at the 30 minute mark and see how many people are paying attention vs how many are are drifting away.

Short simple bursts of teaching can make a world of difference. Give it a try

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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We can get grants for part of the funding. We can get tax credits to help sustain the business. We can get interns to provide inexpensive labor. We can spend a great deal of time and effort arranging all of this funding.

An alternative is to focus on doing your business. Work as many hours as necessary to keep costs down so you don’t have to pay others. Reduce expenses and quickly find a way to generate revenue so you can operate at a profit and cover your expenses. It’s not as glamorous as spending your days with people who have money hoping to get funding but deep down, if you spend more of your time figuring out how to be profitable and less of your time figuring out how to get funding, you will be successful long term.

Just something to think about.

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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Communication can easily be misunderstood. It’s even easier to have a miscommunication with the written word as opposed to the in person spoken word.

When people are speaking with each other they can hear intonation, see body language, read gestures etc.

With the written word we only get the words. Because of this humor, sarcasm, connotations can all be misconstrued.

The thing to remember is when someone misunderstands what you wrote, it frequently is because of the readers preconceptions.

When someone misunderstands a written word, it’s not good enough to just correct the misunderstanding. You should also try to understand where it came from, why they interpreted things the way they did etc. When you do this, you will be able to vastly improve your communication.

Just something to think about.

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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What are your real needs?

Do you really need a newer car, a bigger house or a new wardrobe?

Deep down, do you really even want those things or are you just trying to get them to fit in with others?

Outside of the basics (food, water, basic shelter, air etc) the things we really need aren’t material goods. For many of us, we need friends, thought, motivation etc.

The next time you say “I need that” give it some thought and try to determine whether you really do need it, or, if you really even want it. If you are buying things to prove something to others, reconsider.

When one gets rid of the “needs” they don’t really need, it allows them to focus on the non materialistic needs that we both need and want.

Just something to think about.

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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Yesterday I did a 75% review with a client. This simply means doing a review of a project when it’s 75% done.

The logic behind this is when you are 75% done with a project you typically have something you can show. It might not be fully functional but typically the flow can be seen, the logic is apparent, the look is obvious. At the 75% period, if you review the project with others, people can have input, modifications can be requested and final decisions can be made.

If you wait till the project is 100% done it’s frequently much more difficult to make changes and also much more costly.

In this particular case, we are developing a distance learning module for a company to use with their initial hires. While going through the 75% review they realized they forgot to ask for something in the original specs. If we had waited till the end and then had to make this change, it would have added a few days and a few thousand dollars to the project. By making the request at the 75% stage it added, at most, one hour of added work and no additional expense.

Whether the project is building a house, creating a software program, designing a practice plan for a team or anything else, consider doing a 75% review, they are quite helpful.

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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Recently I called a friend with a suggestion on how he could use his expertise and, combined with some technology that exists, he could start a nice little business. The technology is a program designed by a large company for much bigger projects and this program is a dumbed down version that would work quite well for this person.

After playing around with the program for a bit this person called me and said he thought it would be better to create a similar type program that would be a bit streamlined and would eliminate some features that aren’t needed.

To purchase the program I found would cost less that one thousand dollars. To develop this from scratch would cost around two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. This is a great example where good is good enough.

Sometimes it would be nice to have something that is perfect for your needs but when there is already something out there that is more than adequate if the cost to develop is prohibitive that go with what is good enough.

Great is wonderful but sometimes good is good enough.

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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If today were yesterday what would you do different?

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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Many people use industry standards to see how their particular business is doing. They compare their numbers to industry standards and from there can determine if they are doing well or poorly.

The problem with this is what if the industry is wrong?

What if these standards have been holding the industry back for years?

To use an athletic event as an example we can go back to Roger Bannister and the 4 minute mile. It was thought to be impossible to run a mile in less than 4 minutes. Because of this belief, no one was able to break 4 minutes. For whatever reason, Roger Bannister felt he could do so and with this belief he became the first person to run a mile in under 4 minutes. Once he accomplished this, others were able to do as well. In his case, the industry (or sport) held back the participants because of the belief.

Are you sure you are comparing your numbers to the right standards? Might it make sense to have someone from outside your industry take a look with a different perspective? The advantage in doing this is the person from outside your industry doesn’t have the preconceived ideas based on industry standards.

Knowing industry standards is important but then, determining whether the standards are what you should be comparing to is even more important.

Just something to think about.

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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Technology can be used for some amazing things these days, People can use it for many different reasons.

The problem is it’s easy to use technology as a replacement for dealing with people when it is best to use technology to improve the way we deal with people.

It’s easy to use technology as a way to communicate with people in a way you don’t have to actually deal with them personally. The problem is, this isn’t in our long term best interests.

It’s one thing to use technology for unimportant purposes (game playing, menial communication between distance acquaintances etc) but otherwise, use technology to improve the way you deal with people and not to replace the way.

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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“I know a great house you should look at”.

“I heard about a great hotel you should stay at”.

“I read about a wonderful restaurant you should try”.

“The tripadvisor/Yelp/amazon reviews for that are great, you should try it”.

The problem with these type of statements is they are making some assumptions. First, it assumes I have the same taste as someone else. For example, someone might be recommending a 7500 square foot home and while it might be beautiful, I prefer a 500 square foot home so it’s not for me. Or, some people might rate hotels based on their amenities while I might care more about their location. Or, someone might be recommending a great Italian restaurant and I might not like Italian food.

Even if we like the same things, that doesn’t mean we have the same judgement. A person might know I like Mexican food and they might like it as well but if their accustomed to much higher quality cuisine, we might not agree.

The thing I truly don’t understand is why people are so willing to take strangers recommendations for things. I understand that if I’m looking at reviews for a hotel and they are all negative that probably wouldn’t be one I would want to stay at but to take someones recommendation just because they are willing to express it doesn’t make sense to me.

Does this mean I don’t take other peoples recommendations? No that isn’t what I’m getting at. I very rarely will take a strangers recommendation and even if it’s someone I know well, unless they know my likes and dislikes and have an opinion on that particular subject that I respect, I rarely will care what they say.

If I’m looking at online reviews I tend to ignore the extremes. If a few reviews LOVE it, a few HATE it and the rest think it’s good but not great, I would assume it’s in the good but not great category. It’s too easy for a person or organization to give themselves a high ranking or for a competitor to give them a negative ranking so I ignore the extremes and then would assume it’s toward the middle. This still doesn’t mean I’m going to agree but at least it’s a start.

Just something to think about.

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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