The Truth?

The pure and simple truth is rarely pure and never simple. Oscar Wilde

The truth. So alluring. So promising. If we only knew the truth, everything else would just fall into place. Sadly, the "truth" of a relationship, situation or event is always hard to come by.

The fact is that no matter what the relationship, situation or event, what you see is never what you get --WYSINWYG for short. No matter how new your software, fast your computer, good your analysis or frequent your focus groups, you will always operate on partial information. You'll never fully know the "truth." But there is real power in WYSINWYG. It reminds us that there is always something more going on. There's always something just out of site that will transform the routine into the wonderful. WYSINWYG requires that you never lose touch with your capacity for surprise and remain vigilant for opportunity. Leaders, who confidently declare that they have "seen it all," have lost more than their capacity for surprise. They have actually lost the ability to anticipate change and prepare for it. You'll never completely know the truth, so remember WYSINWYG and take a second look.

George Ebert is the President of Trinity River Seminars and Consulting, a firm specializing in the custom design and delivery of team building, personal growth and ethicaldevelopment programs. Mr. Ebert is a highly sought after speaker, educator and consultant with over thirty years experience in both the public and private sectors. He has presented widely throughout the Unites States. He is the author of the management cult classic, Climbing From the Fifth Station: A guide to building teams that work!

---

Management - Mary Poppins Style!

Mary Poppins describes a style of management which has for too long been hidden in many businesses and organisations.Think about it.She's "Practically perfect in every way" - is that not what we want... Read More

Goodwill is an Intangible Asset

'Goodwill' is regarded as an intangible asset in a business. Goodwill carries a value over and above the tangible assets of a business, and representing all benefits derived from the distinctive location, trade... Read More

Why Outsourcing Could Be The Best Thing You Do For Your Business

While it's probably not true to say that the traditional 9-5 job is on its way out, it IS true that more and more businesses these days are starting to see the value... Read More

Strategies for Planning and Conducting Effective Meetings

Did you know that business executives spend about half their time sitting in meetings? In fact, 40 to 50 percent of their working hours are consumed by meetings, according to a study by... Read More

Managing Meetings

Plan/prepare - lack of purpose causes aimless meetings. Know why you're there - what the meeting is for.Unnecessary meetings waste time, and regular meetings, e.g. weekly, become habitual/traditional, regardless of need. Only have... Read More

Tales from the Corporate Frontlines: Ideas for Everyday Training

This article relates to the Training competency, commonly evaluated in employee satisfaction surveys. It tells the story of a group of team leaders who worked together to find ways to use information sharing... Read More

Looking through the Glass Ceiling - Women in Management

Women have made tremendous contributions to society at every level; consider Joan of Arc, Golda Meier, Indira Gandi, Condalezza Rice.In writing this article my attention is to open the eyes of small business... Read More

Basic Management Skills

Recent studies have shown that industrial supervisors are working at less than 60 % of their potential. Basic management skills training is guaranteed to change all this and at such little costManager in... Read More

Jewelry Use by Employees

Many companies have dress codes, which include jewelry. Some companies do this because they do not wish to offend customers who are of various faiths by employees who wear necklaces with religious symbols.... Read More

Hire The Person, Not The Resume

"? [get] the right people on the bus, the right people in the right seats (and the wrong people off the bus) and then [figure] out where to drive it." - Jim Collins... Read More

What Every Manager Should Know About How to Reduce the High Cost of Employee Absenteeism

Employers pay a high price for absenteeism, often more than they may realize, in terms of both financial and production losses and employee morale. Managers may view the tasks of finding a substitute... Read More

Protect Your Organizations Proprietary Information

The other day one of our overseas clients called in a state of near panic, to ask a question. At issue was whether they had unwittingly violated U.S. law by transferring technical information... Read More

I Am Not A Number - Why Too Many Change Projects Fail

Many of you will recognise this quote from the 1960s TV show, "The Prisoner". Patrick McGoohan used the phrase to describe his frustration at not being treated as an individual, and being kept... Read More

What to Ask When You?re Invited to a Meeting

1) Where is the agenda? A meeting without an agenda is like a journey without a map; it will always waste your time. Once you have the agenda, make sure that it consists... Read More

Three Business Lessons From The US Postal Service

There was a buzz in the air recently about the US Postal Service. Seems as though they were running into a budget deficit in the billions.The Postal Service claimed they must cut Saturday... Read More

Employee Retention: Its a Changing Game

As a management consultant, I have seen some poorly conceived retention policies at otherwise well-run companies. The philosophies underlying these policies lack some basic knowledge of two things:1. human nature, and2. the changing... Read More

One Simple Idea to Grow Your Business

Perhaps the most common theme I've heard in working with business owners or managers is that they rarely have time to plan for the future. They are so busy with day to day... Read More

Leading Meetings: The Top Three Challenges

What do people really find challenging about leading meetings? Here are the top three questions that keep on cropping up followed by guidelines or simple ways to keep meetings under control and on... Read More

Conquering the Number One Problem in Business--Poor Communication

The Number One problem in business is poor communication: between coworkers, with clients, across functional areas, up the food chain. When I ask anyone I meet "What's the one thing that causes problems... Read More

Creativity and Innovation Management: The Value Of Due Diligence

Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation whilst innovation can be defined as idea selection, development and commercialisation. There are other useful definitions, for example, creativity can be measured according... Read More

Knowledge Management - Creating a Sustainable Yellow Pages System

How can I "know who knows" None of us can personally know more than around 250 people, yet we want our companies to be smart, learning organisations where it's easy to find the... Read More

Tales from the Corporate Frontlines: Adapting Human Resource Functions

This article relates to the human resource functions competency, commonly evaluated in employee satisfaction surveys. It deals with employee feelings with regard to the quality and implementation of the human resource role within... Read More

Managers Who Spend PR $$ Wisely

If you are a department, division or subsidiary manager, your budget is a precious possession whether you work for a business, a non-profit or an association. So why stand by while your public... Read More

Training Managers and New Trainers

Training managers use many of the same interpersonal and analytical skills that other types of departments use. In particular, they need to be good communicators, and highly skillful in interpersonal relations. They need... Read More

Prioritise Your Day - Keep Focus - Win!

Whether you run your own business or manage a team, there are times when things don't go to plan. Like:-Your key people don't show up.A deadline shifts.Your boss turns up unexpectedly.You get really... Read More

Phone Sex is Bad for Business

On August 3rd/2005, Reuters reported that a German man had colluded with a phone sex operator to defraud his employer's company out of approximately 16,000 Euro or almost 20,000 US dollars, by making... Read More

Innovation Management ? Time to Market or Time to Success?

Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation whilst innovation can be defined as idea selection, development and commercialisation.There are other useful definitions in this field, for example, creativity can be... Read More

How to Reduce Temporary Employee Turnover

The use of temporary services to stock a farm of employees is beneficial in a number of ways for an employer, and detrimental in others; but the one that will always be heard... Read More

Twitch Speed: Reaching Younger Workers Who Think Differently

Every parent, educator, and manager knows that "Nintendo children"--those born after 1970 and raised on video and computer games, Walkmans, the Internet, etc.--are different. Unfortunately, the Gen-X discussion has focused mainly on the... Read More