While my Projects page gives an overview of some of the ventures i am currently involved in. I wanted to write a short piece about the importance of Communication within a team, project or business.

So what do we mean by ‘Communication’ then?

Upon a simple Google search of the term ‘Communication’ i found relentless articles about this topic. I see Communication as a fundamental part of any business. We spend our whole lives wrapped around modern technology making it easier to communicate, yet we seem to still find it difficult to keep track of our conversations, progress, tasks and deadlines.

Why is this?

Most conversations sort of drift along; in business, this is wasteful; as a manager, i seek communication rather than general chit chat. To ensure an efficient and effective conversation, there are three considerations:

• you must make your message understood
• you must receive/understand the intended message sent to you
• you should exert some control over the flow of the communication

I find that i spend most of my days in and out of meetings, with clients or with team members, i am hopping from Starbucks to Costa to Nandos (it’s a tough life eh).

In any organization, “meetings” are a vital part of the organization of work and the flow of information. They act as a mechanism for gathering together resources from many sources and pooling then towards a common objective. They are disliked and mocked because they are usually futile, boring, time-wasting, dull, and inconvenient with nothing for most people to do except doodle while some opinionated has-been extols the virtues of his/her last great (misunderstood) idea.

Your challenge is to break this mould and to make your meetings effective. As with every other managed activity, meetings should be planned beforehand, monitored during for effectiveness, and reviewed afterward for improving their management.

“A meeting is the ultimate form of managed conversation; as a manager, you can organize the information and structure of the meeting to support the effective communication of the participants.”

I love the quote above. “A meeting is the ultimate form of managed conversation.”
Such a powerful statement. So why do i chose to place myself in meeting after meeting, than just sit at home handling emails and organizing my schedule and tasks via my macbook?

Other than getting me out the house and forcing me to jump into my Superman phonebooth to become the business warrior i am; nothing achieves a higher and more definitive rate of productivity than a face to face meeting with your team.

• It allows you and your team to express opinions, problems and queries and clear them up without having to wait for your mail to refresh.
• You can explain in depth your theories, practices, strategies and plans.
• Most importantly it allows you to take time and understand each other, creating valuable group cohesion and work bonded relationships.

Today i entered a meeting with a rain cloud over my head (literally), but after a few chicken wings, some Peri Peri and a group hug. All done and dusted, onwards and upwards!

Reference Links:

http://www.see.ed.ac.uk/~gerard/Management/art7.html?http://www.ee.ed.ac.uk/~gerard/Management/art7.html

Image:
Google

If you don’t know about TED already, it’s my favorite site. It is one of the most informative and inspirational places to visit on the net and this video will give you a glimpse into how, with Jamie Oliver speaking for his first time at a TED conference on the ignorance we have on food and our diets.

The TED Prize is awarded annually to an exceptional individual who receives $100,000 and, much more important, “One Wish to Change the World.” Designed to leverage the TED community’s exceptional array of talent and resources, the Prize leads to collaborative initiatives with far-reaching impact.

“Every child should be taught to cook in school, not just talk about nutrition all day. Good food can be made in 15 minutes. This could be the first generation where the kids teach the parents.” – Jamie Oliver

Jamie’s wish upon winning the TED Prize is to set up a worldwide organization to teach children the importance of food from infant level upwards. For more information see Jamie’s Wish here.

It’s been a kind of rough few days and i wanted to write something to help those that may also be going through any hard times whether it be work related, relationships, financial or anything else.

Our lives tend to be carried by emotions and i find that especially within myself, although my business decisions are generally based on analysis and are conservative, my personal decisions, especially when i am emotionally involved, are rash and uncontrollable.
I look back over the years and can see similar traits of where i have excelled in enterprising and understanding theory within business, but have always had weaknesses with becoming emotionally attached to something or someone (this can relate to a partner or are business you created from scratch yourself).

As time passes, we encounter challenge after challenge that sets us apart as humans, each one being more difficult, and while we should learn from previous mistakes, sometimes it’s easy to get so emotionally involved that our knowledge and our ability to analyze a situation goes out the window.

So i am sitting here wondering about the last few days and how i got myself into a situation that i never really imagined being in (not anytime soon anyway). How it got to the point, that i had forced a decision to be made, when if i had approached the scenario with the same thinking i use within business, would the outcome have been different?

While i don’t want to think too much about my decisions and the possibility of regretting the outcome, as i never want to live in regret. I can only try to understand the large gap that separates my head and my heart, without being too cliche.
I know i am not the only one in this position, and while thousands of people go through pain and anguish everyday, and moreover, while we watch as a country that has been destroyed by natural disaster, where thousands of lives have been ruined, i remain positive about my future, the opportunities that are ahead and the challenges i will encounter as time passes.

I believe that every challenge we come up against is a test of our character; our ability to overcome. The theory that ‘whatever doesn’t kill me, can only make me stronger’ is one that i fully accept and understand. Yet in many situations i have this involuntary desire to object against my inner strength and ability and can fall weak to my emotions, especially the memories of what we once regarded as ‘that perfect place’.

I recently found, that although ‘life’ (in inverted commas) gets us down, depressed, negative, upset, worried, confused, uncertain etc, it is the art of ‘progression‘, that keeps us believing in ourselves. Meaning that if you are able to move past this challenge and conquer whatever has the potential to hold you down, then you have progressed. You have moved forward, and while your brain and heart will still hold the memory, the wound will heal; thus in short, you have succeeded in that challenge.

I like to think of things on an annual cycle, for example, is the position you are in now, a step further than the position you were in this time last year? Was 2009 a successful year for you? Did you end it further ahead than you was at the end of 2008?
It was for me; as i graduated from University, participated in a great challenge with Orange Rockcorps, created and established an array of business ventures, networked efficiently thus creating new opportunities, made some great friends and also met a wonderful girl (i really don’t have to explain the outcome of this though).

This is just a brain dump of my thoughts and feelings, merely because writing this out, allows me to read about myself from an external angle. It will also act as an archive that i can look to further down the line, to monitor my progress.

I want to end this post, by stating this analogy.

Every challenge is like a chapter in a story; the story of your life. While the chapter will eventually come to an end, it does so to let another chapter begin. The next challenge will not be the final chapter in your life, and as your story goes on, each chapter will make it easier to understand what this story is about. As you progress, the book will become clear and you can conquer the rest of the story with ease.

As always, this is a blog of my honest thoughts and feelings, and if this helps you in anyway, please post your comments below. Any comments are appreciated and i hope you enjoyed the read.

Now for the general reader, i should problem inform you that this isn’t the understanding of how the police break down doors and storm a building all guns blazing. That would be SWAT and stands for Special Weapons And Tactics. SWOT simply stands for: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.

Phew, glad we cleared that up; now a SWOT Analysis will help you or your business massively because it will allow you to look closely at the foundations that build up the specifics to you or your company.
Generally in life and in business we spend too much time looking into the details of every minor building block, and this can cause problems with time management and being swamped in these ‘minor issues’.

You are trying to maintain and build upon any Strengths. Ideally, you must confront your Weaknesses honestly with a view to doing something about them.You would like to take advantage of any Opportunities that may present themselves. Tactics are required to minimize any Threats to your vision, team performance or problem solving.

I recently put together my personal SWOT analysis and below i have pasted one bullet point for each area as an example.
I found it very useful and also quite liberating, as it allowed me to really be honest to myself about some of my weaknesses, when generally we don’t get a chance to expose these.

Strengths:
I am excellent with communication as it is key to be on top of all correspondence, and make sure I have time to keep up to date with anyone who could be of benefit to any opportunity I am involved in.

Weaknesses:
I can get bored easily, and like to mix up my day with different tasks. I tend to get distracted by what other people are doing; especially when I am not busy with a task that has a deadline.

Opportunities
Utilizing connections with Social Networks especially within Digital or the Music Industry. Understanding sites such as Twitter that allow you to communicate with anyone and learning ways to manipulate this application to my benefit.

Threats
Procrastination and using sites like Facebook to entertain myself, when i should be making more use of my time by researching for clients, editing my websites or building networks.

If you have done a SWOT Analysis before or if you create one from this, please let me know as i would love to hear your feedback.

Luca

This week i was set the task of creating a Personal Appraisal, so that i can pinpoint certain things about my character and about the direction in which i am heading.
Appraisal offers a valuable opportunity to focus on work activities and goals, to identify and correct existing problems, and to encourage better future performance. Thus the performance of the whole organization is enhanced.

The 4 main reasons for Appraisal are:
Motivation and Satisfaction – Performance appraisal can have a profound effect on levels of employee motivation and satisfaction – for better as well as for worse.
Training and Development – Performance appraisal offers an excellent opportunity – perhaps the best that will ever occur – for a supervisor and subordinate to recognize and agree upon individual training and development needs.
Recruitment and Induction – Appraisal data can be used to monitor the success of the organization’s recruitment and induction practices.
Evaluation – At its most basic level, performance appraisal is the process of examining and evaluating the performance of an individual.

So within these four values, i was set a specific set of questions on how to construct this task.
- What is my Ultimate Vision?
- Why am I Doing This?
- 3 areas to strive for?
- Define a set of goals that i want to achieve.

Those are four questions that can help to define your reasons for the job, task, project, challenge of which you are undertaking. Take time to think about each area, as it will help you to understand yourself and your thinking. Be clear and honest, and try not to think too hard about it, as the answers are within you, and not within research.

As this blog acts as a diary of my thoughts, and i want to be able to help others with my knowledge and understanding, i have decided to lay out my answers below. They are honest and i hope it helps you to put together your own thoughts and visions.

Note: This is a personal performance appraisal, directed at my path within Digital and Social Media and learning to become a life skills coach. The answers may not work for you also.

My Ultimate Vision
The vision and plan is to create a financially free life style by working in various areas of Digital and predominantly public speaking to organizations about standard intrinsic life skills that most people ignore. I want to educate anyone who wants to listen and build up a reputation to be a successful life coach within the industry.

Why am I Doing This?
1) Because i have found that i understand the industry and the market 2) To prove to myself and those around me that i have the ability to succeed in a chosen path and create something from nothing.

I have participated in many different areas of business and have found that the one trait that i take with me into all areas is Leadership. I have an organic skill at being able to inspire and motivate others and find that i am at my peak when all those around me are benefiting from advice i have offered. While i am growing every day, i feel that my knowledge and understanding of leadership and motivational strategy is at a substantial level to offer advice to others, but still find that using the information for my own understanding is more difficult, mainly due to fear factors that i need to combat based around success and failure.

3 areas to strive for:
- To contribute something positive to humanity. This can be accomplished through inventing a great product or service, establishing a charity which really causes results, or becoming an asset to society.
- To develop a vision and life path and be confident that this path will lead me to personal success and happiness. The greatest tragedy in life is not death, but living without a purpose.
- To understand that life is short and the more we procrastinate that more of life we waste away. I want to provide myself with the opportunity to experience as much of the world and different cultures as possible.

Clearly defined goals in what you want to achieve:
- I want to create a clear cut goal setting theory that simplifies the path from idea to execution. This would mean an improvement of my planning and strategic methods.
- To be healthy in body and mind: By regularly taking part in fitness and living a healthy lifestyle, waking up early everyday and creating a winning routine that i stick to.
- To be part of a leading organization within the industry, not as an employee, but as an influencer, partner or creator.
- To have a leading reputation of helping people to achieve in their projects, and create a personal product ie: a website or book that means i do not need to qualify myself to get clients.
– To be financially free, with a significant income, shares in business and beginning on the property ladder.
- Finally, to be able to look after my parents financially so they no longer have to worry.

Any questions or feedback would be appreciated, if you could leave a comment below.

While watching Celebrity Big Brother, which is actually quite jokes this time around and at the same time browsing the net (yep multi-tasking), i took a look at the tabs i have open and decided that i would write a short post about the sites that i use most regularly (bookmarks).
So what sites do you visit most frequently and it would be interesting to know what everyone has as their home page too!

So my home page is Google (durr) and generally i don’t use Google unless i am researching, so my first click will be towards a bookmark in my toolbar. Now, we all have that one site which we click to before we click anything else, and for a long time mine was Twitter, but for the last few days, my first click is of course… this one (my blog that is).

So these are my most visited sites and what i generally utilize each one for:

Twitter: 2009 was a huge year for the microblogging site and while 140 characters isn’t a lot to work with, i use it primarily to network with people that are either within my field (digital and music) or interested in my blog.

Facebook: The king of social networks has a firm place in my browser, although i spend most of the day closing the tab and re-opening it due to the distraction.

HotUKDeals: A great site for finding the best consumer deals in the UK, trading with members in the forum that is much more respected than eBay and also using the forum features within in deal or trade. Love it!

Gmail: I use Gmail rather than using Mac Mail simply because of the chat feature within the page. Very handy to speak with your mail contacts.

TED: Ted.com is one of my favorite and also most inspiring bookmarks. It’s primarily a video site built on ‘Ideas Worth Spreading’. The content is King and watching one video will turn you into a super geek jam packed with knowledge!

The Worst Kept Secret: A blog site designed to teach you ‘what you didn’t learn at school’. Based around Music and Media, TWKS uses Social Media to teach common sense life skills in a fun and entertaining way.

Team Supreme: Whilst i spent the best part of six months blogging about Urban Music, and although my writing game kicks arse, i was always playing catch up with the content kings at Team Supreme. Forget Limewire, these guys are your source for Urban Music!

SBTV: While this kid has the YouTube game locked with a cast iron door and secured with a pair of iron giant bodyguards, his new website is not only looking swish, but also throwing up all that tip top content from the YouTube channel and more! Created by the genius’ over at Creative Nerds, SBTV is one video site to keep in your toolbar.

Income Diary: The blog site that gives us a direct insight into making money online. Michael Dunlop created the site and is a 20 year old on his way to becoming a gazillionaire.

Chris Brogan’s Blog: There are a shed load of people in the digital world claiming to be ‘Social Media Gurus’, but this guy has his writing and advice down to a tee. Brilliant posts and great information for bloggers and internet geeks!

Mashable: Lets keep it simple: Mashable is ‘The Social Media Guide’.

Google Analytics: One of the most genius sites in internet history. This application allows you to embed a simple piece of code within your site or blog and monitor all of your statistics. From where your viewers are coming from, whose talking about what and where they go to when they leave your site. It’s the ultimate geek tool!

IGN: Last but not least. Any gaming geek wouldn’t be complete without a daily visit to the Internet Gaming Network (IGN). Trailers, Reviews, Ratings and News, it has it all!

There you have it, these are the main sites that i will check every day. You may be wondering why i don’t check a news site like BBC, and it’s because Twitter covers that for me. Simples!

What sites do you visit regularly? Are your favorite sites making your time spent on the internet worth while? Have you found any of my bookmarks interesting or informative?