Diplo Learning Corner

Get your brain in motion

Month: July 2015 (Page 1 of 2)

A difficult profession…

30/07/2015 /

The story of “The Blood Telegram” shows how difficult it can be, for a diplomat, to tell what he believes to be the truth. Here’s an interesting review by The Economist of the book by Gary Bass, a Princeton academic, analyzing America’s role in the Bangladesh war of independence in 1971.

U.S. diplomat Archer Blood put his career at risk by revealing Pakistan’s crimes against Bangladeshi citizens fighting for independence in a telegram to Washington, then strongly allied with Islamabad, the occupying power.

A difficult profession

Image source: Flickr – Shamir (CC – BY – 2.0)

 

7 steps to improve your time management

23/07/2015 /

Although there is no one size that fits all solution, Carthage Buckley, on Coaching Positive Performance,  lists 7 steps that can help each of us improving our time management and the quality of our results.

1. Become aware : if you want to create real and last change you need to understand exactly where your time is going

2. Analyse your data: collect the time and the percentage of time spent on each activity and consider the results, are you happy about that?

3. Identify tasks which are not necessary: very often a task is being performed for no other reason than it has always been done

4. Identify the tasks that can be automated

5. Identify the tasks that can be delegated or outsourced: if you work alone and you have nobody to delegate to, consider the possibility of outsourcing

6. Make gradual changes: Pick 2-3 small changes that can have a positive impact on your time management

7. Right task, right time: examine your energy levels and make the best use of them. Assign your most important tasks to periods of highest energy

For more: How to improve your time management quickly

Time management

Salvador Dalì – The persistence of memory, 1931

 

 

The essence of power

22/07/2015 /

Power is not a means, it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power.

George Orwell (1903-1950)

Image source: wikicommons

15 quotes to inspire great teamwork

21/07/2015 /

The difference between success and failure is a great team.

A successful leader is one who can inspire his or her team members to work better together toward a common vision and goals.

Here are 15 quotes from well-known coaches, athletes, business leaders, and authors that will inspire you and your team members to work better together:

– “Individual commitment to a group effort–that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.” –Vince Lombardi

-“Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships.” –Michael Jordan

-“Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision. The ability to direct individual accomplishments toward organizational objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results.” –Andrew Carnegie

-“Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much.” –Helen Keller
“Remember teamwork begins by building trust. And the only way to do that is to overcome our need for invulnerability.” –Patrick Lencioni

-“I invite everyone to choose forgiveness rather than division, teamwork over personal ambition.” –Jean-Francois Cope

-“None of us is as smart as all of us.” –Ken Blanchard

-“Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.” –Henry Ford

-“If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself.” –Henry Ford

-“The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team.” –Phil Jackson

-“Collaboration allows teachers to capture each other’s fund of collective intelligence.” –Mike Schmoker

-“It takes two flints to make a fire.” –Louisa May Alcott

-“Unity is strength. . . when there is teamwork and collaboration, wonderful things can be achieved.” –Mattie Stepanek

-“To me, teamwork is the beauty of our sport, where you have five acting as one. You become selfless.” –Mike Krzyzewski

-“The best teamwork comes from men who are working independently toward one goal in unison.” –James Cash Penney

 

Read more: Dave Kerpen on Inc.

 

team

Image source : Luigi Mengato – Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

Eighty/Twenty

16/07/2015 /

80 and 20. For those who are familiar with management consulting techniques, these two figures may say a lot:

  • 80% of a company’s profits come from 20% of its customers;
  • 80% of a company’s complaints come from 20% of its customers;
  • 80% of a company’s profits come from 20% of the time its staff spend;
  • 80% of a company’s sales come from 20% of its products;
  • 80% of a company’s sales are made by 20% of its sales staff.

The 80/20 rule basically states that, in many circumstances, 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes.

This rule is formally known as the Pareto principle, after the Italian economist who, in the last decade of 19th century, observed that 20% of Italian population owned 80% of the land in the country.

Many business consultants built upon this intuition solid analysis tools in order to improve companies’ results, in terms of revenues, sales, profits.

But some of them, as Richard Koch, went further, trying to convince us that the 80/20 rule, like few more simple principles similar to that, “work extremely well for making money, for your career, and for your happiness and value to others.”

80-20

Image: Flickr – Keith Chu – 80/20: it’s a rule (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Why we are giving our life away

14/07/2015 /

We all claim to be multi-tasking. But it is not true. Multi-tasking is actually inefficient. Multi-tasking has a cost. In fact, distractions seriously risk to impact on our jobs, our carreer and, above all, our life. We are no more able to focus on a single thing. There’s a lot at stake. Do you want to give “it” away?, asks Tracy Davidson in this TEDx.

Tracy Davidson is anchor of NBC10 News Today. She has been awarded many different prizes related to her job and her commitment in empowering women both personally and professionally.

09/07/2015 /

In this interview by Meredith Bell, Denny Coats explains why it takes time to ingrain a leadership skill. Every action that we do comes from the brain. It is only by repetition that we can strenghten the neural pathways in our brain in order to make our behaviour pattern more natural.

How to master leadership skills

Image source: Flickr – Borghy52 (CC – BY – NC – ND – 2.0)

 

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