One of the reasons for launching Being Smarter a year ago was because of our wish to help people with workplace productivity.
In previous lives I spent many years watching people and businesses going about things the long way round… doing things in a particular way because… well it has always been done like that… not using technology to be more productive… or worse still using technology poorly and making things worse. I was inspired by some of these issues – and that was one of the reasons Being Smarter was born.
The 8.45 Club (one of our venture companies) has just re-released its course on workplace productivity. We’ve taken on board feedback, shortened it, and made the first session’s trial available without registration.
The course is made up of 12 video-based modules. (Do read them all, because there’s a bonus at the bottom of the page). Once you become a member, they are delivered to your inbox every two working days for a month and cover the following sessions:
Day 1: Keyboard shortcut keys – they speed up your life
We start with a free trial video and give you dozens of ways to increase your productivity by introducing you to the world of shortcuts. We throw down the gauntlet and say don’t do things in that way, just because you’ve been doing that for years – learn new ways to speed up you life. Will you rise to the challenge?!
Day 2: How to save hours a month through email productivity
We then focus on one of the biggest timewasters in business – managing email… and yes, it really is possible to do it better.
Day 3: Productivity monitoring – work out HOW you spend your time – then fix the problem
We then show you a way of getting organised and saying to yourself – are you really optimising the way you work (or your colleagues work?) We introduce a free tool which sits in the background and analyses how you spend your day at your PC. It’s invaluable and will almost certainly shock you at the end of the week when you look at the stats.
Day 4: How and why to share your desktop with anyone for free
We take a look at saving time and money from a travel perspective and see how easy it is to share your PC’s desktop with colleagues or customers, inside or outside of the firewall.
Day 5: Messy office? Not efficient and productive? There’s a link
Your office is a state isn’t it? Do you know where the post-it notes are? We give you plenty of thoughts from an industry leader on how to get more organised at home and at work. Note – this is bedtime reading as opposed to a video session today.
Day 6: Customize your desktop in seconds and save hours
We then move on to Day 6 and show you all kinds of time saving tips when it comes to customizing your PC to suit your needs, as opposed to Microsoft’s… This really isn’t for geeks – it’s for business people – so hang in there.
Day 7: To do list software – friend or foe?
Day 7 then moves on to talk about to do list software and gives you another free alternative which really should help you to get organised and improve the way your stats look from Day 3!
Day 8: Password management software – stop wasting time remembering your credentials
We then move onto the the tricky subject of password management software. How many passwords do you have – 10, 100, 1000? They are a fundamental part of every knowledge worker’s day and this advicelet shows you the perfect, secure way to manage them.
Day 9: Xobni review – Email productivity gets a boost with this awesome plugin
We then move onto looking at another real timesaver – back to email management and a plugin which should have been made by Microsoft originally – but they weren’t clever enough to think of it. We show you the plugin and the power it gives you when it comes to finding ’stuff’ in Outlook – which we all know takes ages… normally.
Day 10: How to write a good email – things you never think about (and should)
We may sound like we are teaching you to suck eggs – but we aren’t. Day 10 talks through some things to think about when you next write an email – taken from expert views in the industry. We bet it opens your eyes.
Day 11: Be more productive – how to fit 12 hours into 7.5
In our second and final piece of bedtime reading – we bring you a set of thoughts (ahem over 150) from industry leaders on the real vision for the course – squeezing 12 hours into your 7.5 hour day.
Day 12: Increase workplace productivity with this free mind mapping tool
And finally, we start with refreshing your memories on mindmapping – you’ve heard of it – but do you use it and do you want to spend £200 on the software? Well you don’t have to – it’s free now – and in the cloud – and excellent – we show you everything – warts and all today.
BONUS
To celebrate the relaunch of this already popular course – and as a thank you for finding Being Smarter… enter the coupon code “beingsmarter” in the registration box to receive a 50% discount until the end of September.
Workplace productivity can be found at this link. Enjoy!
How to leverage your next customer event
in Get organisedIt’s always great to write on subjects dear to your heart and ones based on personal experience. Today is both.
I’ve been lucky enough to watch many great presentations, speeches and seminars over the last few years, however have also been incredibly frustrated that no one apart from those in the room at the time can benefit from the experience. How long does it take event organisers to pull good speakers together? How long does it take speakers to put their materials together? Days? Weeks? And it’s all over in a few hours.
Ever cooked a roast dinner for 12 people? Spent 6 hours preparing it to see it all eaten in 15 mins? Well it’s the same thing with events, except with a roast dinner, I’m guessing you wouldn’t want to keep it for ever…
Today and tomorrow our team is working with one of our partner companies to record an expert seminar, given only to a select few. The speaker is then going to spend some time with us after the session, recording in a green screen studio and we are then going to turn the whole event into an ‘8.45 Club’ style course for them…
So what’s the point of all this?
And how will it be presented?
I believe that’s win, win, win…. and possibly win.
How are you leveraging your next event? http://the845club.com/bespoke
Guest post: Take it as a compliment when people poach your staff
in Get organisedIan Mash of Yeoman Consulting helps us to continue the theme of ‘practical ways to help your business life” by sharing some of his experiences of working at the coalface as a senior manager in one of the UK’s largest companies – BT.
Most businesses are people businesses in some shape or form. You rely on both the skill and intelligence of your staff in any given situation to keep the wheels rolling on the right track. That isn’t to say that those skills can’t be improved though…
It’s a part of any manager’s role to work with his or her people, giving them regular constructive feedback and helping to improve skill gaps. No end of year appraisal should be a surprise to the appraisee. These days there are lots of ways to address skill gaps from the traditional face to face course, through management books to the more modern and innovative online courses like The 8.45 Club. (unprompted – Ed).
Over the years I have only ever had one person push back about learning or improving skills, and that person was almost terminally self critical and lacking in confidence. Over time we addressed this by discussion and their attendance on a course on self perception. Later this manager was able to run and successfully manage a team of 40 disparate staff. The comment was made to me by the manager that they were now doing things that they never thought they would be capable of. It’s great to see this happen.
An important point from my perspective is that this isn’t about finding a course and putting the person on it. You can help to define the skills gap, but they need to take the action to select and get on the course. I hate it when the trainer goes around the room asking why people are there and someone says ‘my boss sent me’. Its not a good start and frequently those people just don’t get as much out of the training.
When you have a high performing team, you’ll know not just from the quality of the output but also from the fact that your colleagues keep poaching your people ‘because they’re so good’. It’s frustrating perhaps, but there is really no bigger compliment.
Ian Mash will be back with more pearls of wisdom in the next couple of weeks and can be contacted on +44 7860 621976 and via email at ian dot mash1 at btinternet.com
Audio blogging what do you think…?
in Get organisedNo need for text for today’s post – just click play…
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Managing knowledge: RSS is the most powerful free tool in business today
in Get tech savvyI only discovered RSS about 18 months ago and I don’t think it’s too much of an exaggeration to say that it has changed my (business) life. It is an enabler… it makes you smarter… and it helps you in managing knowledge – giving you an edge over your competitors and colleagues.
I naturally spend part of my day sending people information I think might be relevant to them – to help them in their jobs. To make them look good… to even make them money because of the usefulness of that information. I suspect many of my friends and colleagues think I sit there all day researching for them. I don’t. I let the Internet do the hard work for me…. I then sit back and watch.
RSS… Google Alerts… Google Reader. Three technological terms that if you don’t understand in business today then you are most definitely at a disadvantage.
You’ve seen the RSS icon a thousand times haven’t you? A million times maybe… have you ever thought to click it? to investigate what it might do? Possibly not.
Make a resolution today to get to grips with RSS… get to grips with Google Alerts and Google Reader. Then tell us below how amazed you are.
Intrigued?
The secrets of Managing knowledge are here… click the video to see the first session completely free.
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Workplace productivity – could yours be improved?!
in Get organisedOne of the reasons for launching Being Smarter a year ago was because of our wish to help people with workplace productivity.
In previous lives I spent many years watching people and businesses going about things the long way round… doing things in a particular way because… well it has always been done like that… not using technology to be more productive… or worse still using technology poorly and making things worse. I was inspired by some of these issues – and that was one of the reasons Being Smarter was born.
The 8.45 Club (one of our venture companies) has just re-released its course on workplace productivity. We’ve taken on board feedback, shortened it, and made the first session’s trial available without registration.
The course is made up of 12 video-based modules. (Do read them all, because there’s a bonus at the bottom of the page). Once you become a member, they are delivered to your inbox every two working days for a month and cover the following sessions:
Day 1: Keyboard shortcut keys – they speed up your life
We start with a free trial video and give you dozens of ways to increase your productivity by introducing you to the world of shortcuts. We throw down the gauntlet and say don’t do things in that way, just because you’ve been doing that for years – learn new ways to speed up you life. Will you rise to the challenge?!
Day 2: How to save hours a month through email productivity
We then focus on one of the biggest timewasters in business – managing email… and yes, it really is possible to do it better.
Day 3: Productivity monitoring – work out HOW you spend your time – then fix the problem
We then show you a way of getting organised and saying to yourself – are you really optimising the way you work (or your colleagues work?) We introduce a free tool which sits in the background and analyses how you spend your day at your PC. It’s invaluable and will almost certainly shock you at the end of the week when you look at the stats.
Day 4: How and why to share your desktop with anyone for free
We take a look at saving time and money from a travel perspective and see how easy it is to share your PC’s desktop with colleagues or customers, inside or outside of the firewall.
Day 5: Messy office? Not efficient and productive? There’s a link
Your office is a state isn’t it? Do you know where the post-it notes are? We give you plenty of thoughts from an industry leader on how to get more organised at home and at work. Note – this is bedtime reading as opposed to a video session today.
Day 6: Customize your desktop in seconds and save hours
We then move on to Day 6 and show you all kinds of time saving tips when it comes to customizing your PC to suit your needs, as opposed to Microsoft’s… This really isn’t for geeks – it’s for business people – so hang in there.
Day 7: To do list software – friend or foe?
Day 7 then moves on to talk about to do list software and gives you another free alternative which really should help you to get organised and improve the way your stats look from Day 3!
Day 8: Password management software – stop wasting time remembering your credentials
We then move onto the the tricky subject of password management software. How many passwords do you have – 10, 100, 1000? They are a fundamental part of every knowledge worker’s day and this advicelet shows you the perfect, secure way to manage them.
Day 9: Xobni review – Email productivity gets a boost with this awesome plugin
We then move onto looking at another real timesaver – back to email management and a plugin which should have been made by Microsoft originally – but they weren’t clever enough to think of it. We show you the plugin and the power it gives you when it comes to finding ’stuff’ in Outlook – which we all know takes ages… normally.
Day 10: How to write a good email – things you never think about (and should)
We may sound like we are teaching you to suck eggs – but we aren’t. Day 10 talks through some things to think about when you next write an email – taken from expert views in the industry. We bet it opens your eyes.
Day 11: Be more productive – how to fit 12 hours into 7.5
In our second and final piece of bedtime reading – we bring you a set of thoughts (ahem over 150) from industry leaders on the real vision for the course – squeezing 12 hours into your 7.5 hour day.
Day 12: Increase workplace productivity with this free mind mapping tool
And finally, we start with refreshing your memories on mindmapping – you’ve heard of it – but do you use it and do you want to spend £200 on the software? Well you don’t have to – it’s free now – and in the cloud – and excellent – we show you everything – warts and all today.
BONUS
To celebrate the relaunch of this already popular course – and as a thank you for finding Being Smarter… enter the coupon code “beingsmarter” in the registration box to receive a 50% discount until the end of September.
Workplace productivity can be found at this link. Enjoy!
How to spot the trend
in Get organisedWe are pleased to announce today on Being Smarter another guest blogger, Ian Mash of Yeoman Consulting here in the UK. Ian helps us to continue the theme of ‘practical ways to help your business life” by sharing some of his experiences of working at the coalface as a senior manager in one of the UK’s largest companies – BT.
He starts today with a top tip on trend spotting.
Assimilating data quickly is a true management skill. Some managers can look at a page of figures (in for example a business case) and start asking deeply searching questions immediately. They can see anomalies and trends just from looking at the figures. However, not many of us can do this naturally and we have to rely on tools and techniques to guide us through.
Prior to working my education was science based but I didn’t have any business training per se until I did my MBA and that gave me a few tools to use.
But, the most useful everyday financial tool to me, is just a simple hand drawn graph to spot the trends.
It’s amazing how just say 4 data points drawn can show the anomalies in the trend that don’t immediately jump out of a financial analysis on the page and give you the leverage to start asking searching questions. Why does profit drop in year 3? Why is there a disproportionate capital spend in year 4? Etc.
It won’t give you the answers, but will start sensible digging with you and your team.
Ian Mash will be back with more pearls of wisdom in the next couple of weeks and can be contacted on +44 7860 621976 and via email at ian dot mash1 at btinternet.com
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Social media – cut the fluff and explain it in plain English
in Get organisedI seem to spend quite a lot of time explaining to people the power of social media. For some people, the penny drops. For other people there is much head scratching. For a different group of people, they plain don’t get it, don’t believe you and quite frankly, they prefer not to embrace change and the power that change can bring.
I’m not going to try and reinvent the wheel on this post – instead, I want to refer you to an expert in the field who’s written one of the best explanation I’ve seen about this whole mysterious area to the uninitiated.
David Meerman Scott draws an analogy between social media and going to a cocktail party. If you ever meet a colleague or friend who raises an eyebrow on the subject of social media. Refer them right here.
Take it away David.
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51 lessons learnt in year 1 as an entrepreneur
in Inspiring storiesBeing Smarter is a year old today. A year ago to the day, I sat at my desk with a blank canvas, a very small amount of money and a clock ticking. It’s been a fascinating journey – The 8.45 Club was born, I’ve met some great new people and learnt so much.
I wanted to share the (at least) 51 things I’ve learnt so that I can potentially help you as well as acknowledging the folks who’ve helped me…
Here’s to the next 12 months.
Follow me on Twitter if you’d like to stay in touch.
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5 ways to recruit smarter
in Get organisedMy wife is recruiting like crazy at the moment and I feel her pain… she works for a large corporate and the red tape around the recruitment process is a total nightmare. Of course it has to be done fairly and correctly, but it got me thinking that there must be a better way.
We’ve compiled a top 5 thoughts on how to recruit smarter. If you would like to add to the list – feel free below.
1) Is it time to ditch interviews?
How much can you really tell about someone in an hour’s interview? What if they interview badly and are plain nervous? What if they turn up 10 mins late because of a traffic jam, but interview really well? You then face a big dilemma.
As ever the marvellous Seth Goddin has some thoughts on this subject. I wholeheartedly agree with his approach, because I’ve done it!
2) Look online – but not the way you think
There are a number of fascinating stories around how people have been proactive online to secure their next dream role – so why not take advantage of the creativity which is out there and go search them out. Assuming you are looking for a dynamic, innovative, creative think outside of the box type of person, reach for the Google button. BUT whatever you do – don’t go near a jobsite. Instead use some of the keywords you associate with the job and see who crops up.
One of the fascinating stories we’ve found is Steve Chazin. He was made redundant from Apple, having spent nearly 10 years there. Instead of following the traditional path, Steve started a blog and wrote the e-book, Marketing Apple. He now does his dream consulting job, all because people found him as opposed to him finding them.
3) Generation Y – know your audience
Recruiting is a two way process – your candidate needs to actually like the look of your business and want to work there. Think about that as they sit across the table from you (assuming 1 doesn’t apply). Generation Y expects a lot. They want to know that your business is forward thinking. They want to know there’s opportunity. Most importantly they need to know they are going to like YOU. So sell yourself during the interview process. It’s like buying a house – ask yourself how gutted you would be if you lost that person to the competition.
The excellent folks at Tomorrow Today talk about this a lot. Here they talk about the war for talent.
4) Think about the cost of recruitment
Not something you necessarily think about, however if Microsoft can reduce their recruitment costs – you can too.
5) References
Be very sceptical of anyone who can’t provide a reference with a phone number. Where policy allows, ALWAYS call a reference before any offer of employment is made. It’s amazing the number of people who a) don’t bother and b) rely on written references. In 1 minute we’ve just found a dozen sites offering fake references, which we’re certainly not going to link to here!
Have a list of questions in advance and CALL at least one person. Doing that will be far more enlightening than requesting three written ones.
BONUS POINT
If you come across someone during the recruitment phase who clearly needs advice on how to come across at interview. Be a good citizen and point them at this Selling Yourself resource.
Happy recruiting.
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Is your company outofdate like these five huge European businesses?
in Get organisedEveryone has pet hates don’t they? Well one of mine is to see websites and other marketing collateral showing copyright dates with anything other than the current year. This becomes even more tiresome when you’ve actually informed the owner (who you know!) and they still don’t change it! (The two companies I’ve talked to in the last month shall remain nameless).
It’s got me thinking – why does it bother me so much – and does it bother anyone else? It bothers me simply because of my expectations around the speed of information change online. If someone hasn’t posted on a blog for a month, you assume the site is out of business… if someone is quoted in an article with a date from more than six months ago – you start to assume that they couldn’t get anyone better… We are all starting to demand real-time information – anything more than a few hours old is simply not uptodate enough. Am I being fair?
So back to the copyright thing. If you discover a new site and are wondering whether it is authorative – look for the copyright notice – is it showing this year? If not – vote with your feet – the owner hasn’t bothered to update it – the information is probably out of date. I’ve just done my own (very random) little survey (which took around 15 mins) and would suggest the following site owners take a look at the following:
All the above are top European companies, who almost certainly employee dozens of people to run their websites. How are you faring?