Tuesday, March 24, 2009

What Colour Tie Goes With A Grey Shirt

Gone with the flow


for you Alex, for everything that we told and enthusiasm for your young ...

"The curious traveler who entered and saw a stonebreaker, drenched in sweat, with a thousand curses were trying to square, but with disappointing results, a huge granite stone. The traveler, curious, asked him what in reality was doing. The Breakers replied: "Do not you see, I have to try to square this cursed stone." "And what will you do tomorrow?" the traveler asked again, and the stonebreaker said: "Every damn day I have this damn square stones in the quarry! ". The Wanderer left the Breakers and, continuing on his way inside the cave, we came across another Breakers. He, too, drenched in sweat, was eyeing a huge stone with excellent results. But the energy that was expressed quite different from that of the first Breakers. The viandande asked what he was doing and the Breakers, raising his head, looked at him with eyes full of light in a radiant face and replied: "I'm giving my best contribution to building a beautiful cathedral."

often cite the parable of Saint-Exupery when I'm talking about 'motivation' with fellow managers and I do it because I do not think you can really 'motivate' people. At least not directly, through stimulation 'outsiders' such as rewards and punishments. I do not deny that some short-term result can also be achieved by monetary incentives and career or with a few more benefits, but are we really sure that they are suitable means to retain people, they become truly creative and efficient? Or is this a thinly-veiled blackmail?


Over the past thirty years ', Professor Teresa Amabile, a student of' Managerial Management Unit at Harvard Business School, has conducted extensive research on students and professionals to identify the secrets of the grounds and found that: first, the rewards encourage people to focus strictly on a task, carried out as quickly as possible and taking a few risks. Second, people feel controlled by the reward. They feel less autonomous, and this may interfere with the performance. Finally, extrinsic rewards can erode intrinsic motivation. People who see themselves as if they worked for money, approval or competitive success find their work less enjoyable, and therefore do not play well.
In contrast, intrinsic motivation comes into its operations where there is gratification, curiosity and sense of mastery - because the balance between challenging and objective awareness of their responsibilities - in addition, this type of motivation is closely tied to the feeling of being able to contribute to an act of 'generation'.

All this thinking about how important it is to channel our emotions into the pleasure of "doing what you do" without stubbornly put as a condition of the result or the final evaluation. When men and women are engaged in work they love and are enabled to be fully immersed in an activity in which they are valued and recognized, then they will see the creativity flowing. Even in the darkest hours. Often they take the feeling of working in a 'state of grace' or 'state of flow' - "... flow - The State In Which I know people are Involved in an Activity That Nothing Else Seems to Matter, the experience is so enjoyable Itself That people will do it even at great cost, for the sheer sake of doing it. "(Csikzentmihalyi, 1991) - in which time seems to suspended and everything runs smoothly and quickly to the result, in a sort of total emotional involvement all'innamoramento similar. The state of flow is born 'on the edge of chaos' between 'boredom' (induced by low-challenger) and anxiety (induced by excess pressure) and it is this fine line that managers can really build the conditions for the emergence of reasons: firstly, providing a clear vision and who can be 'in love', challenging but not unattainable, in which participation is required and not merely a creative executive.

First conclusion: we all need money and food to live, but some of us live for money or gorge themselves. Personally I do not think I would be happy to select candidates from the last category and I would not treat others as if they belonged there.
second conclusion: each of us has different motivations that drive him to get up every morning to go to work (work environment, colleagues, challenging goals, type of work, career opportunities, vocational training etc.).. The first failure of a manager is to infer that these differences are not significant and that there can be only one motivational strategy for everyone.
Third conclusion: If bonuses, increases and various awards have a limited effect in time and do not affect all in the same way, and it does not exist a motivational lever that is universal, then how can you meet the multiplicity of unexpressed needs of persons as You can address everyone without losing effectiveness?

Maybe it's the theme of 'Justification' is misleading, maybe it's a matter of perspective: we are looking at the details and we miss the floor, what would we see if we were to step back and look at the macro-needs, or better, what remains when our survival is assured. The primary need, then, what unites us all, at all latitudes and in all social communities is to 'make sense' to our action. We need to know that what we do has a purpose, its reason to exist. What we do is useful and appreciated as such. Even unconsciously we need to feel that our transition into a company - how on earth, however - will leave a trace, will come in some way for future generations. We are scheduled for this: it is part of our instinct for survival. Good leaders recognize the value of this and feel the energy of feed their team around a project, 'Vision, which can identify. How else would motivate the Breakers, if not teaching them to see beyond the single stone from the cathedral square?

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Welcom Address Samples

When the work is (mostly) passion for people


From the fertile minds of People Designers was born a search service and selection of personnel that revolutionizes the way in which candidates and companies entering the market.

Peoplexpress is a permanent selection of , a subscription service for businesses, which, in addition to the more standard evaluation and selection My 'on demand', will enjoy hours of a constantly updated basin of candidates already selected and available, equitable and sustainable cost . For the candidates, however, is a means of gaining visibility so qualified, with the knowledge that they can at any time to allow selectors access to the latest information and stay in pole position (with a normal operation 'refresh' ). The database, in fact, is managed by professionals are determined to find the right job at the right person holding the best for her - and is therefore not a cauldron of anonymous CVs incomplete, unclear, imprecise and often obsolete. In essence, Peoplexpress is therefore primarily a service with a strong ethical content, which in my opinion, for this is going to lag behind for future generations of consultants.

At this point, I must clarify that I have presented here this service for reasons of personal gain (my profit is in fact equal to 0, 00 Euro), but because I firmly believe in the basic philosophy of the people, now friends, that Designers work in People. Their idea was born from years of experience in the selection and training and above all by a sincere desire to offer something different and not only innovative but also a concrete way to help firms (including small and small budget) and jobseekers employment to meet for a lasting and mutual benefit.

In closing, I would like to appeal to all managers involved in recruitment of like me in the enterprise, to reflect the value of a selection conducted on a permanent basis: to try someone for a replacement, or when 'just can not We can do without 'is not a good foundation on which to build the future of a team, much less an entire organization! Instead it is constantly exploring the territory in search of a particular talent, even better, looking for a 'nice person', with an open mind and receptive, you can fall in love with a 'nice-this progetto' of course as long as there is one to offer ... but that's another story and we can talk later - full of curiosity and desire to learn new things. Maybe we will not be able to take it immediately, but in the meantime include it in a sort of 'wish list', we start a dialogue and maybe, when the time is ripe, we finally have peace of mind needed to deal with the final selection of a candidate is not acceptable but just what 'right'. Why settle for less?

For more information: www.peoplexpress.net

Friday, February 20, 2009

First Check Home Drug Testfaint N

The Culture of Creativity


published an extract from 'interesting article in a new friend known to the Congress Este in Rome, on 12 February.
I hope you like what has pleased me. Happy reading!

Maria Cecilia Santarsiero ( Studio Santarsiero )

[...] " unnecessary testing," said Alice. "You can not believe impossible things."
"I would rather say that you have little experience," said the Queen. "When I was your age, I always did for half an hour a day. Sometimes even I could believe six impossible things before breakfast. "
(Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll)

Of the many vital processes that cross the organization today, the culture of creativity is among those most needed to address the complexity of the changes taking place and be able to access the games of the competition.
In the Company of postmodern capitalism, in fact, is no longer producing goods to characterize the market, no longer the technological know-how available to everyone, but it is the knowledge and the knowledge to dictate the forms of competition and profit.
be innovative and fast on such land is the key to remain at the heart of new forms of market development.
The culture of creativity involves the development of consciousness to move into a world where there are no more pre-established models and valid for all situations, where there are no forced schemes, which makes creativity is no longer a feature of some functions or individuals, but an attitude and an ability to be their entire organization.
Creativity can not be learned in a vacuum, is not something that is done on command, is a form of interaction between learners 'el' environment.

But it is also the culture of creativity, the most impudent and the most subversive of the established practices of making daily organization and therefore one that is more resistance in the conquest of space to share and acceptance in hierarchical links in the chain and roles established.

I am speaking here not of artistic creativity as a virtue, genius, innate and / or acquired a particular individual, but rather an orientation of a will, a provision of the creativity that can certainly be the individual but also a community that has chosen to take creativity as a style, its way to experiment in new forms of relationship, address problems and trigger innovation processes.

E 'disposition to believe that what seems impossible has its reason to exist, as well as answer the Queen to Alice, quite disheartened the possibility to believe impossible things. [...]

To make room for the culture of creativity an individual, group, organization must be prepared to destroy it before it builds. (Schumpeter). To understand this, just refer to the more typical actions that we implement in practical activities.
To renew a table of color is necessary to remove what remains of the previous coating, to renovate a house must accept the disappearance of space and functionality that we were accustomed to, even just throw an old habit that we've gotten spoiled mental and emotional energy costs. [...]

Maynard Keynes identified the real problem companies more than half a century ago: "The difficulty lies not in new ideas, but in the evasion of old ideas that branch out to those who have been educated as most of us, in all corners of the mind." [...] The culture of creativity subvert the principles on which very often, corporations, decisions are made:
"has always been done this way, this is the right way to go, our boss wants us to act In this way, according to our research and our data is so you have to do "
replacing it with a principle much more unstructured and anxiety: let's try and see ... [...]

Very often what happens is that instead of just because markets, competitive strategies and regulations change, the pre-existing mental models of customers and their needs, competitors and their strategies, rules of the game and the game itself, changing, as organizations tend to excel in doing so that "it was important yesterday."
directional control systems limit creativity because of their dependence on rationality, order, routine, responsibility, role, power, systems of measurement are the foundations of rationality to which we are so fond of.

Creativity aims to expand the context within which to make the decision, is more concerned with asking the right questions than to arrive to answer as quickly as possible, focusing equally on the careful observation of facts and interpretation of the facts.
It focuses equally on the skills of reflection (which require a certain detachment from the temporal problem) and focus on the intuitive powers that tend to accelerate troubleshooting.
is not the absence of rules that fosters creativity, but it is the excess of rules that inhibit it.

Monday, February 2, 2009

Toe Hurts After Cut From Pedicure

suggested reading: Paul Watzlawick - How to become unhappy


If you are intoxicated, having been thoroughly improbable half a dozen recipes for happiness, if you've had enough of senseless advice guru and sexologists, technocrats and teachers of life, instead of preaching about being and having inner peace, this book is for you. Also, you can not appreciate that this "modest proposal" to learn how to become unhappy, if you feel that the traffic light turns red just for you, and if the assiduous practice of the suspect ended up shaping your intuition, if you say often, 'L' I told ..."; if you try a quiver (of unspeakable joy? of anger?) when targeted by the paradoxical and paralyzing exhortation: "Be spontaneous !"... To attack, in a fit of philanthropy, aspiration so deadly encysted as a concept in our tradition - Happiness -, Watzlawick mobilize all the tricks of argument, all the means, intelligence critical to the black humor, presenting them with an ironic mirror, keeping alive a constant tension between the fun and to recognize the discomfort, but not deprived of the pleasure of 'interpret the message: how to be happily unhappy? how not to get too much unhappiness? or other? (Cover notes)
.......
In these times of crisis, the long faces around us seem to invite us to adjust the mood on the context, as if it was in bad taste to be too happy ... This thought inspired me so the purchase of a very provocative book titled: How to make her unhappy. I will recommend it highly.

advantage of relative peace given to me by a cooling principle, I devoured this short essay with the ravenous greed of a neurotic seeking catharsis: yes, I also from time to time delay in some masochistic game of self-pity. And they smile a detached, aware of the trap, a vice as old as humanity: the illusion dell''infelicità necessary '.

It 's true: we humans like to think that unhappiness is (always and only) out of us, an exogenous variable in short ... an inevitable condition that overwhelms us and we try in vain to flee for life.
Yet happiness is a state of mind that belongs to us just as human beings: it is a quality inherent in freedom and self-consciousness of all sentient beings. Because happiness is above all a choice - because we are free to react to adverse events without being suffocated by them, separating the 'what happens' in life, 'what we' - and is therefore aware of our nature, we forget to remember it when you want to suffer, when we stop obsessively seek the reasons why 'we must' be unhappy.

is worth to bring about the conclusion of the book, quoting Dostoyevsky :
"Everything is good. ... More. Man is unhappy because he can not be happy. For that reason alone. That's it, everything! Who understands it will be happy now, immediately, at the same time ... "

Ve leaving it as a reflection of the evening ...