Links
Archives
This was supposed to be a personal blog, but now it contains more of misc things...
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
After a long time! -- II
Now, I am really surprised to find myself writing here after TWO years!!
Will try & continue to write here... [promise?!! ;-) ]
Tuesday, May 05, 2009
After a long time!
I'm surprised to find myself writing here after FOUR years!
Will try & continue to write here...
Wednesday, January 19, 2005
Knowledge Management - -some checklists!
BEGIN: It is a good idea to have an expert chosen for the role of 'Knowledge Manager' for that particular group / vertical / division.
*1* Knowledge Mgmt Checklist for Project Initiation:
The project initiation stage is one of the most information/knowledge intensive phases and requires the team to gather all the possible knowledge & also be aware of source of information! Here is some basic info. of interest which may turn out to be a life-saver at times! The pointers given here may help you think from the knowledge mgmt. perspective for your project. An ideal scenario for you would be to identify one person in your team to don the Knowledge Mgmt hat at all times!! Let's call him/her as K-Manager!!
1. Is the project team aware of the benefits of Knowledge Mgmt and how to apply its concepts?
2. Is the team aware that it can use the organisation-specific knowledge network to collect information and knowledge in the form of various documents available?
3. Is the team aware that it could leverage on the Best Practices being shared on such a network and also that it needs to share the best practices that it evolves in the process of the project?
4. Is the team aware of the various Knowledge Mgmt practices being followed in the vertical / horizontal?
5. Is the team in touch with the Knowledge Mgmt-related Success Stories that are published from time to time? This could inspire the team to tackle many problems with the Knowledge Mgmt wand!
6. Is the team aware that it can proactively identify Tech Gurus (Experts) so as to know what to do when there is a problem? (It can also register its own team members as experts in the database.)
7. Is the team aware that it can have its own way of ‘managing knowledge’ by setting up a simple system of its own? This system can then be selectively linked to the organisation-wide knowledge network. You can also store (and make available) some of the best practices documents / white papers.
8. Is the team aware that there are many reusable components that it can pick from the network & also contribute to it?
9. Is the team aware that it can pick up similar projects from the database of projects done in the organisation & garner valuable information/knowledge?
10. Is the team aware that it can be a part of a relevant network community on the knowledge network or even start a new k_network that might help the team brainstorm in its domain?
11. Is the team aware that it has to create a case study/expertise note for itself and make it available on k_network down the line?
Now, I would like to present a typical K_M (Knowledge Management) checklist used in the project closure/postmortem phase.
It is a practice for the Knowledge Mgmt "Prime" (the K-Manager) to be informed whenever a project is wound up; the reason being that no avenues should be left unexplored in terms of capturing knowledge and expertise. For all one knows, it could be lost forever if not captured at least at the time of project closure. In fact, doing an analysis of the knowledge that was generated, shared, and leveraged upon would help the team understand what it knows even better. The following exhaustive checklist will help the team introspect on these lines.
Knowledge Mgmt checklist for project closure/postmortem:
Were we on the right track: asking the right questions? Capturing the right knowledge?
• What went right and what can we learn from that for the future?
• What went wrong and what can we learn from that for the future?
• What can we share with others so they don’t make the same mistakes or take the same right steps?
Objectives:
• Analyze the need (and satisfaction of the need) for Knowledge Mgmt at the project level
• Identify experts who can volunteer on such a knowledge network
• Analyze and understand the processes (and not people)
• Help the team consolidate its explicit knowledge and learning
• Capture the knowledge and make it accessible to all
• Bring in awareness of the existing Knowledge Mgmt system for future use
• Help realize the need for Knowledge Mgmt in future projects
Part I: Team-Specific Knowledge Mgmt:
1. What kind of knowledge was needed for the project – domain/technical/language/software processes et al.?
2. Was there a need for knowledge sharing within the team? [Exhaustive / Moderate / Very less]
3. Was the need satisfied? [Completely / Only to an extent / Not at all/very minimal]
4. Does your team/group have its own Knowledge Mgmt system (apart from company’s organization-wide initiatives)?
5. What were the methods/processes/practices adopted to ensure that knowledge sharing and management happened?
6. Was there a need for focused knowledge acquisition/transfer among team members? e.g.: new recruits, integration of modules etc.
[a. If yes, were there any processes/best practices adopted?]
7. Did the team require a mentoring process? If yes, was it adopted and how effective was it?
8. Did the team need a database of FAQs and Tips? If yes, was it developed and used?
9. Were there any Brainstorming exercises? Were there any Ideas generated in the process?
10. What was the role of Knowledge Mgmt system/sharing mechanisms?
Part II: External Sources:
11. What were the various sources of information?
12. Were any components, templates, tools, and processes reused?
13. Were any external experts/other Projects info made use of?
14. Which were the websites that the team visited for information?
Now, in this concluding portion, I would like to mention a few things about knowledge network, reuse and knowledge capture:
Part III: knowledge network, Reuse and Knowledge Capture
15. Did the team attend or request for Knowledge Mgmt orientation programme?
16. Did the team use knowledge network – Tech-knowledge network/"connect (*)"/Sales Support/"war rooms"
17. Have the team members registered as experts in "connect (*)"?
18. What are the “parts” of knowledge can be made explicit –that is, documented? How much has already been documented and uploaded onto knowledge network?
19. Were there any best practices that the team evolved? Has it been documented and uploaded onto knowledge network?
20. Were any reusable components, templates, tools, and processes developed and uploaded onto knowledge network?
Part IV: Significance of Knowledge Mgmt:
21. What, according to the team, was the importance of knowledge sharing in the project?
22. What was the Knowledge Sharing/Knowledge Mgmt impact on productivity, quality, schedules and learning?
23. Is the team aware of the Knowledge Mgmt rewards scheme (E and A)?
Part V: Customer Knowledge Mgmt
24. What was the knowledge gained by the team by interacting with the customer?
25. What kind of knowledge was needed by the customer from the team and was it available and accessible to the team on a timely basis?
[a. If applicable, what was the impact on the project because of the lack of knowledge/processes for the same?]
26. Did the team receive any accolades from the Customer on performance- based issues which can be traced back to the presence and utilization of Knowledge Mgmt systems/concepts/practices – both company-wide initiatives as well as group/team level initiatives?
So, what are the action items?
* Upload all those documents (irrespective of the type of document) that you’ve identified into knowledge network- Documents' knowledge network as long as they don’t violate any customer commitments.
* Get the experts in the team to register as experts on knowledge network – "connect (*)"!
* If you’ve not been making use of knowledge networks, please ensure that you register as members and make use of appropriate knowledge networks, if any, at least for the future.
* Ensure that you’ve entered all the required information in the projects' database while closing your project in organisation specific (integrated) process automation tool.
* Weblinks to resourceful websites that you may have visited during the course of the project. This can be done on Documents' knowledge network.
* If you’ve got any reusable components, please send that across so it can be stored on knowledge network.
* If you want to share success stories on how you made use of knowledge network to aid you in your project, do write in so it can be published.
Did it help you? Wishing you all the best!
Friday, December 17, 2004
By E-mail: 10 strategies for stress management
Effective stress management is essential for increasing your productivity. Keeping yourself happy can work wonders for you.
Organize Yourself - Take better control of the way you're spending your time & energy.
Control Your Environment - In this way, you can either get rid of stress or get support for yourself.
Love Yourself - Remember, you are a unique individual who is doing the best you can.
Reward Yourself - It really helps to have something to look forward to.
Exercise Your Body - Exercise your heart & lungs regularly, a minimum of 3 days a week for 15-30 mins.
Relax Yourself - Dreaming counts, along with meditation, progressive relaxation, exercise etc.
Rest Yourself - Sleep 7-8 hours a night. Take study breaks. There is only so much your mind can absorb at one time.
Be Aware of Yourself - Be aware of distress signals such as insomnia, headaches etc.
Feed Yourself / Do Not Poison Your Body - Eat a balanced diet. Avoid high calorie foods that are high in fats and sugar.
Enjoy Yourself - It has been shown that happier people tend to live longer, have less physical problems, and are more productive.
Tuesday, November 30, 2004
Birthday of my friend, Anju
Wish You a Very Happy Birthday, Anju. Many Happy Returns of the day.
Best Wishes to you.
Thursday, November 25, 2004
New Entry via e-mail
Here’s an informative column by Caroline Baum!
Thanksgiving Is Incentive Success Tale: Caroline Baum (Correct)
(Corrects in first paragraph that Bradford was colony's second governor. Commentary. Caroline Baum is a columnist for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are her own.)
By Caroline Baum
Nov. 24 (Bloomberg) -- It is the tradition of this column every year at this time to relate the story of Thanksgiving. For source material, I relied on the accounts of William Bradford, the second governor of the Plymouth Bay Colony (Bradford's History ``Of Plimoth Plantation'').
For most Americans, Thanksgiving is a holiday from work, a time to gather with friends and family and celebrate with a huge feast. If children know anything about the origins of this national holiday, declared each year by presidential proclamation, it's that the Pilgrims set aside a day to give thanks for a bountiful harvest in their new land, where they came to escape religious persecution.
What children -- and many adults -- don't know is that things weren't always good for the Pilgrims, a group of English Separatists who landed at Plymouth Rock in 1620 and established the Plymouth Bay Colony.
The first winters were difficult: The weather was harsh, and crop yields were poor. Half the Pilgrims died or returned to England in the first year. Those who remained went hungry. Despite their deep religious convictions, the Pilgrims took to stealing from one another.
Finally, in the spring of 1623, Governor Bradford and the others ``began to think how they might raise as much corn as they could, and obtain a better crop than they had done, that they might not still thus languish in misery,'' according to Bradford's History.
Old-World Baggage
One of the traditions the Pilgrims had brought with them from England was a practice known as ``farming in common.'' Everything they produced was put into a common pool, and the harvest was rationed among them according to need.
They had thought ``that the taking away of property, and bringing in community into a common wealth, would make them happy and flourishing,'' Bradford recounts. They were wrong. ``For this community (so far as it was) was found to breed much confusion and discontent, and retard much employment that would have been to their benefit and comfort,'' Bradford writes.
Young, able-bodied men resented working for others without compensation. They thought it an ``injustice'' to get the same allotment of food and clothing as those who didn't pull their weight.
A New Way
After the Pilgrims had endured near-starvation for three winters, Bradford, with the advice of the leaders of the colony, decided to experiment when it came time to plant in the spring of 1623. He set aside a plot of land for each family, that ``they should set corn every man for his own particular, and in that regard trust to themselves.''
The results were nothing short of miraculous.
Bradford writes: ``This had very good success; for it made all hands very industrious, so as much more corn was planted than other ways would have been by any means the Govr or any other could use, and saved him a great deall of trouble, and gave far better content.''
The women now went willingly into the field, carrying their young children on their backs. Those who previously claimed they were too old or ill to work embraced the idea of private property and enjoyed the fruits of their own labor, eventually producing enough to trade their excess corn for furs and other desired commodities.
Incentives
Given appropriate incentives, the Pilgrims produced and enjoyed a bountiful harvest in the fall of 1623 and set aside ``a day of thanksgiving'' to thank God for their good fortune. ``Any generall wante or famine hath not been amongst them since to this day,'' Bradford writes in an entry from 1647, the last year covered by his History.
With the benefit of hindsight, we know that the Pilgrims' good fortune was not a matter of luck. In 1623, they were responding to the same incentives that men and women still respond to almost four centuries later.
To contact the writer of this column:
Caroline Baum in New York at cabaum@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this column:
Bill Ahearn at bahearn@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: November 24, 2004 12:12 EST
=================================================
Wednesday, November 24, 2004
Are you always stressed & burdened in office? If so, follow these tips & get more work done in less time.
01) Increase your productivity: Organize your desk, remove things you don't use everyday, keep high-priority items in plain sight.
02) Manage your time well: Set specific deadline when people give you tasks. Keep them on master calendar & post it prominently.
03) Deal with your colleagues in style: Take their guidance but don't let them take charge of you.
04) Fight stress effectively: Don't keep anything pending for the last minute. Plan out your schedule in advance & work accordingly.
05) Don't throw your weight around: Avoid jargon & be modest. Ask 'How about doing X?' instead of 'Why don't we do X?'
06) Learn to listen to others: Don't start thinking about your next response while the other person is still talking.
07) Hold effective meetings: Interact with colleagues & discuss problems, if any. Also look for their solutions.
08) Express yourself to your boss: Take initiatives & communicate your ideas to your superiors. Don't let others tell you what to do.
Here's something interesting to read! I have posted one more at: http://www.alcblog.jp/d/2000370/
Why things go wrong!
Do you worry that your next stock buy or business move may be a mistake? Then check these 'universal' laws on why things go wrong...
01> If anything can go wrong, it will.
If anything can't go wrong, it will.
02> If you take due precautions, something else will go wrong.
03> When things go wrong, don't go with them. If you are in a hole, stop digging.
04> You will never run out of things that can go wrong.
The less you do, the less can go wrong.
05> You can never tell which way the train will go by looking at the track.
Always assume that your assumption is invalid.
06> Being punctual means only that your mistake will be made on time.
07> Sometimes it takes several years to recognize the obvious.
The simpler it looks, the more problems it hides.
08> If you don't know the answer, someone will ask the question.
You don't have to explain something you never said.
09> Be kind to everyone you talk with.
You never know who's going to be on the jury.
10> Always do exactly what your boss would do if he knew what he was talking about.
11> A good place to start from is where you are.
You never know how soon it is too late.
12> Things go wrong all at once, but things go right gradually.: The less you have to do, the slower you do it.
Sunday, October 31, 2004
Now, I am writing this from a small town in Japan called TOYOSHINA. This is in Nagano prefecture - near Niigata-ken - where the deadliest earthquake occured a few days ago.
That's all for now.
Will blog some more later....
Best wishes to those who read!
Monday, January 19, 2004
SPACE-ALC-EIJIRO
英辞郎、えいじろう、EIJIRO
ココログル - ココログ(Cocolog)専用検索エンジン
インフォシーク-：EXCEED英和辞典
Yahoo! JAPAN Dictionary (kokugo, Waei, etc.)
Microsoft Terminology - Home Page
@nifty辞書
Pera-Pera Penguin--Daily Yomiuri
tokyo journal
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan Web Site
郵便番号検索
Mariam Webster ENGLISH Dictionary
LEO English-German Dictionary
Two donkeys met at a wayside and got talking. One was a robust looking
fellow who was without a master; the other a miserable looking specimen who
belonged to a brick-kiln owner. The robust fellow hee-hawked: "What's
matter with you?? You look famished and woebegone."
"My master is very cruel. He gives me very little to eat, loads me with
hundreds of bricks and beats me with his stick."
"So! Why don't you run away ?"
The lean-thin donkey explained, "You see my master has a very pretty
daughter. He also beats and abuses her."
"What's that to do with you.?"
"Every time he thrashes the girl he says 'one of these days I'll marry you off to this donkey'. So my job has better prospects, you see."
PRAY YOU REALLY HAVE BETTER PROSPECTS NEXT YEAR!!
Happy New Year !!!
A few months ago, there was an opening with the CIA for an assassin. These highly classified positions are hard to fill, and there's a lot of testing and background checks involved before you can even be considered for the position.
After sending some applicants through the background checks, training and testing, they narrowed the possible choices down to 2 men and a woman, but only one position was available.
The day came for the final test to see which person would get the extremely secretive job. The CIA men administering the test took one of the men to a large metal door and handed him a gun.
We must know that you will follow your instructions no matter what the circumstances" they explained. "Inside this room, you will find your wife sitting in a chair. Take this gun and kill her."
The man got a shocked look on his face and said, "You can't be serious! I could never shoot my own wife!" "Well", says the CIA man, "You're definitely not the right man for this job then."
So they bring the second man to the same door and hand him a gun. "We must know that you will follow instructions no matter what the circumstances", they explained to the second man. "Inside you will find your wife sitting in a chair. Take this gun and kill her."
The second man looked a bit shocked, but nevertheless took the gun and went in the room. All was quiet for about 5 minutes, then the door opened.
The man came out of the room with tears in his eyes. "I tried to shoot her, I just couldn't pull the trigger and shoot my wife. I guess I'm not the right man for the job." "No" the CIA man replied, "You don't have what it takes. Take your wife and go home."
Now they're down to the woman left to test.
Again they lead her to the same door to the same room and handed her the same gun. "We must be sure that you will follow instructions no matter what the circumstances, this is your final test. Inside you will find your husband sitting in a chair. Take this gun and kill him."
The woman took the gun and opened the door. Before the door even closed all the way, the CIA men heard the gun start firing. One shot after another for 13 shots. They heard screaming, crashing, banging on the walls. This went on for several minutes, then all went quiet.
The door opened slowly, and there stood the woman. She wiped the sweat from her brow and said, "You guys didn't tell me the gun was loaded with blanks! I had to beat him to death with the chair!"
[1]
One day many years ago at a school in South London a teacher said to the class of 5-year-olds,
"I'll give £20 to the child who can tell me who was the most famous man who ever lived."
An Irish boy put his hand up and said, "It was St.Patrick." The teacher said, "Sorry Alan, that's not correct."
Then a Scottish boy put his hand up and said, "It was St.Andrew." The teacher replied, "I'm sorry, Hamish, that's not right either.
Finally, a Gujarati boy raised his hand and said, "It was Jesus Christ."
The teacher said, "That's absolutely right,Jayant, come up here and I'll give you the £20." As the teacher was giving Jayant his money, she said, "You know Jayant, since you're Gujarati, I was very surprised you said Jesus Christ." Jayant replied, "Yes, in my heart I knew it was Lord Krishna, but business is business!"
So, the title goes like this: "MindBlog - for myself"!
And, so here I start....
More in my next entry.
Have a great day.
