Eight Ways to Generate More Ideas in Groups

We know that if we generate more ideas we have a better chance of finding better ideas. Your goals should be to have a variety of approaches to help stimulate idea creation in your repertoire. By doing this you will improve the overall quality of ideas by virtue of having more to choose from.

Keywords:

facilitation, facilitator, meeting, team meeting, team building, workshop, training, brainstorming, creativity

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The scene is repeated in meeting rooms around the world every day. A problem has been identified and a group has gathered to solve the problem. When ideas are needed, the group decides to brainstorm. And all too often this exercise leads to a short list of not-that-creative ideas.

We know that if we generate more ideas we have a better chance of finding better ideas. This leads us to the logical conclusion that if we can find techniques to create more ideas, we will find better ones. No one technique however will guarantee the perfect solution. Instead your goals should be to have a variety of approaches to help stimulate idea creation in your repertoire. By doing this you will improve the overall quality of ideas by virtue of having more to choose from.

Whether you are unhappy with the current creativity of your group or are having good success with brainstorming sessions, but would like them to be even better, any of the eight suggestions below can help.

Look at problems in different ways. Get the group to change their perspective on the problem. Once people “lock into” one way of looking at things the idea flow will slow to a tickle. Have people take a new persona. Ask them to look at the issue from the perspective of another group – accounting, HR, or sales for example. Ask them to think about how their Grandmother or an 8 year old would solve the problem. These are simple ways to force people into a new perspective and the new perspectives will generate more ideas.

Make novel combinations. The ideas that land on the flipchart or whiteboard in a brainstorming session are typically considered individually. Have the group look at the initial list and look for ways to combine the ideas into new ones.

Force relationships. Once a group is finished with their initial list, provide them with words, pictures or objects. The objects can be random items, the words can come from a randomly generated list (email wordlist@KevinEikenberry.com and we’ll send you such a list), or from pictures in magazines or newspapers. When people have their random word, picture or item, have them create connections between the problem and their item. Use questions like, “How could this item solve our problem?” What attributes of this item could help us solve our problem?”

Make their thoughts visible. Have people draw! Too often the brainstorming session has everyone sitting except the person capturing the ideas. Let people doodle and draw and you never know what ideas may be spurred.

Think in opposites. Rather than asking your direct problem question, ask the opposite. “How could we ensure no one bought this new product?” could be one example. Capturing the ideas on “the opposite,” will illuminate ideas for solving the actual problem.

Think metaphorically. This approach is similar to forcing relationships (and is another way to use your words, pictures or items). Pick a random idea/item and ask the group, “How is this item like our problem?” Metaphors can be a very powerful way to create new ideas where none existed before.

Prepare. Too often people are asked to brainstorm a problem with no previous thinking time. If people have time to think about a topic, and let their brains work on it for awhile, they will create more and better ideas. Allow people to be better prepared mentally by sharing the challenges you will be brainstorming some time before the meeting whenever possible.

Set a Goal. Research shows and my experience definitely confirms that the simple act of giving people a quantity goal before starting the brainstorming session will lead to a longer list of ideas to consider. Set your goal at least a little higher than you think you can get – and higher than this group typically achieves. Set the goal and watch the group reach it!

While these suggestions have all been written from the perspective of a group generating ideas, they all work very well for individuals too. The next time you need to solve a problem by yourself, use these techniques and you will be astounded by the quantity of ideas you will generate!

Eight Ways to Sell Value - Not Price!

Today, more clients than ever before are questioning the value of the services they buy. With more choices, both online and offline, clients are demanding that professionals prove their worth or cut their prices.

Keywords:

sales selling value price differentiate unique

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If you want to get paid what you're worth here are eight ways to sell value - not price:

1. Be Unique. If there is nothing that differentiates you from your competition you become common. Webster defines the word common as, "ordinary or not special" and the only way buyers select one common service over another is price.
Take inventory of your skills, experience and knowledge. Are you a specialist in some area? Are you an expert in certain facets of your business? These and other differentiators can make you unique and valuable to a select group of clients.

2. Choose Your Clients Carefully: Don't ever let your clients choose you or you will be at their mercy. If a deal is going to close successfully, the true professional should be in control, not the client.
To begin controlling your business, write down the attributes of the people you want as clients and then go out and get them with targeted marketing. I hope the first item on your list of attributes is that they are people you enjoy spending time with. Being a business owner is far too difficult to work with people you don't like just to earn a living.
Turn away people who don't meet your criteria. When you reject or refer clients it tells the world that you don't just work with anyone, you are selective which raises your perceived value. It also makes you unique from other businesses who will work with anyone who can bring them a paycheck.

3. Set High Standards: If you work with anyone and everyone your value drops. If people have to qualify to work with you your value increases. Of course you know that there are prospect who will ask you to give them a bid with no intention of ever buying from you. They’re planning to use your bid to leverage a discount with their current vendor or any one of a dozen other reasons that they want your knowledge but not your services. Then there are buyers who will waste your time and then purchase through another vendor (probably a relative).
Don't ever meet with a potential client until you ask a logical list of questions to determine their seriousness and loyalty. You need to know their motivation and if they are interviewing other vendors. You also need to know if they’re financially qualified. If you don't have serious, financially solvent, and loyal clients, why waste your valuable time with them?

4. Compete On Value, Not Price: No disrespect intended to other business models, but it doesn't take any special skill, experience or knowledge to compete on price. All you have to do is be the cheapest, but this is a losing game.
Some people may remember the gas price wars of the 1960's and early 1970's when there seemed to be a gas station on nearly every corner. To gain market share, one would cleverly lower its price, but then all the others quickly followed suit and the only result was that everyone's profit margin was reduced.
The way to get paid what you're worth is to visibly demonstrate your value to your clients. Competing on price does not create value.

5. Create Value In The Eyes Of Clients: Frankly, most people throughout the country believe that people in sales do little to earn their commissions. This is our fault because we should be educating them about how hard we work before ever accepting them as clients.
Keeping my prices firm was a problem until I started tracking of all the different duties required to earn my pay. I developed lists of activities I do for customers. This amazes clients because most have no idea how complicated their orders sometimes can be (whether it’s manufacturing, servicing, fulfillment, etc.)
Since I created these lists I've never had to cut prices. If a prospect asks for a discount I simply show them the list and say, "Here are just some of the activities I must complete to earn my money. Why don't you point out the things that you'd be willing to do instead of me. If you save me time then we can talk about saving you money because I earn every penny I get." When confronted with a list that runs nearly ten pages long their eyes glaze over and they usually respond with something like, "You're the expert, I expect you to do this work!" To which I simply say, "If you want me to do all of these activities on your behalf then you need to pay me what I'm worth. If you want to pay less, I'll see if I can find someone who will do less and maybe they can save you some money."

6. Educate Your Clients About How Much You Make. After speaking to thousands of agents all over the country for the past 15 years it's clear to me that the average prospect is clueless about how your prices are determined, factoring in overhead and other expenses we have to run our businesses.
Most business owners face the reality of having to pay 33% federal, 10% state and 13.2% self-employment costing a total of 56.2%. As a result, clients often say, "Wow, you are underpaid for handling all these activities for me!" This was exactly my intent by taking the time to explain how I earn my money and how little I actually keep. This way they never try to cut my prices because they know that, like them, I earn my money and I don't make as much as they may have previously thought.

7. Provide value that no one else offers. When prospects do business with me, they get a complete outline that explains my process from start to finish. It also includes samples, a list of service providers that could be involved in the process and much more. No other competing business offers any of these benefits, so if a client wants to work with me they must pay what I ask.

8. Reject price shoppers. Studies show that only 15-18% of people make their decision to purchase a product or service primarily based on price. This means that the majority of clients appreciate value and are willing to pay for it - if they see it.

Don't forget that real professionals earn their money by helping clients maximize value, minimize costs, save time, and much more. If potential clients don't appreciate this then feel free to refer them to your competition.
You don't need every prospect and you certainly don't need every buyer to be successful. If all someone wants is a cheap transaction, send them to a vendor who competes on price and wish them both luck!

Eight easy steps to managing your website development

Managing your website development need not cause you sleepless nights providing you learn the secrets of successful project management. Perform the best practices in project management and give your project the best chance of success.

Keywords:

web site development, project management, web development

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Define objectives

Objectives guide everyone on the project to your final goals. Are your objectives to sell your product online, to provide customer support, to promote investor relations? Carefully decide and clearly document your objectives.

Decide the critical success factors – the things at the end of the project which tell you if you’ve been successful. Make them measurable so you know if you’ve achieved them. For example, the website development should result in an increase in online sales of 25% by year end.

Stakeholder analysis

A stakeholder is someone with an interest in your project’s success (or failure). Decide who they are and whether they support your project. Perform stakeholder analysis by classifying them (high or low) according to how motivated they are in helping (or blocking) your project and how influential (high or low) they are.

Highly influential and supportive people are your allies. Gain their support whenever you can. Aim to reduce the influence of people who are both highly influential and against your project as these people could act to damage your project.

During your stakeholder analysis, draw up strategies for dealing with each group of stakeholders.

Define deliverables

Deliverables are tangible things produced during the project. Talk with key stakeholders to help define deliverables. Will your website design include web page layouts and sitemap for use by the programming team? What is the content for each page? Write all this down.

Key stakeholders must review and agree the deliverables accurately reflect what they expect to be delivered.

Project planning

Define how you will arrive at your objectives. This involves planning how many people, resources and budget are required. If delivering this in house, decide what activities are required to produce each deliverable.

For example, you might decide a web designer will develop page layouts and navigation diagrams. You might decide the marketing team will supply all product details and photographs. You might decide the finance manager will set up merchant and payment gateway accounts to enable e-commerce transactions via your website. If outsourcing work, specify exactly what the sub-contractor should deliver.

Estimate the time and effort required for each activity and decide realistic schedules and budget. Ensure key stakeholders review and agree the plan and budget.

Communication planning

Hold a kick off meeting with the team and explain the plan. Ensure everyone knows exactly what the schedule is, and what is expected of them.

For example, the web designer needs to know that he is to produce page layouts and navigation diagrams based upon the marketing manager’s requirements. He needs to know his expected start and end times.

Share your project communication plan with the team. This should include details of report templates, frequency of reporting and meetings, and details of how conflicts between teams and their members will be resolved.

Project tracking

Constant monitoring of variations between actual and planned cost, schedule and scope is required. Report variations to key stakeholders and take corrective actions if variations occur. To get a project back on track you will need to juggle cost, scope and schedule.

Suppose your programmer hits technical problems which threaten to delay the project. You might recover time by re-organising or shortening remaining tasks. If that’s not possible, you might consider increasing the budget to employ an additional programmer, or consider reducing the scope in other areas.

Be aware that any adjustments you make to the plan might affect the quality of deliverables. If you need to increase the budget, seek approval from the project sponsor.

Change management

Once started, all projects change. Decide a simple change strategy with key stakeholders. This could be a committee which decides to accept or reject changes which comprises of you and one or more key stakeholders.

Assess the impact of each change on scope, cost and schedule. Decide to accept or reject the change. Be aware that the more changes you accept the less chance you have of completing the project on time and within budget unless you reduce scope in other areas.

Suppose the marketing manager wants to add a popup window to display full size photographs of products. Assess the impact of this change. You might need to remove some remaining tasks to include this change and stay within budget. Or, it might be impossible to include the change without increasing the budget or schedule.

Don’t blindly accept changes without assessing the impact or your project will overrun.

Risk management

Risks are events which can adversely affect the success of the project. Identify risks to a project early. Decide if each risk is likely or unlikely to occur. Decide if its impact on the project is high or low.

Risks that are likely to occur and have high impact are the severest risks. High impact but unlikely risks, or low impact but likely risks pose a medium threat. Unlikely and low impact risks pose the least threat.

Create a mitigation plan of the actions necessary to reduce the impact if the risk occurs. Start with the severest risks first, then deal with the medium risks. Regularly review risks. Add new ones if they occur.

Suppose the marketing manager cannot decide what he wants from the website. Without knowing what the marketing manager wants, the team cannot deliver a website to meet his expectations. You assess this risk as highly likely to occur and having high impact. Your mitigation plan might be that the web designer develops page layouts to be reviewed by the manager early in the project.

Summary

Performing best practices in project management will give your website development project the best chance of success.

Eight Steps On How to Get Hired

Just how hard for us to get a job? Is there such any way to get hired easily? I give you eight easy steps to follow on how to get hired and understanding how to look for a job.

Keywords:

job search, job, job bank, job listing, australian job search, job search australia, job listing australia, australian jobs

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Nowadays getting hired is very difficult. It is more than just passing a resume, applying and forever hoping to get hired. Well it is time to stop hoping and start really getting hired.

Here are the steps on how to get pass job searching and start working.

Self Analysis

To start job searching you must first analyze yourself on what you want to be. You can be a Bum, an Entrepreneur, a Young Professional, or a Student Seeking Higher Studies. If you choose to be a Bum, Entrepreneur or a Student then you should stop reading this article and continue to pursue the career path that you chose. However, if you choose to become a Young Professional continue reading because all the information you need to get hired is in this article.

Preparation

Why do we need to prepare before job searching? Because Companies/Employers are very selective and among the numerous number of applicants they have they will choose the most deserving and who will make their company more productive. They are not looking to teach you, they are looking to get instant results from you. The other reason is competition, if you had an experience in working you may have a distinct advantage but nevertheless it is still the Companies/Employers that will have the decision when hiring an applicant.

Looking For a Company

Where do we look for a company that are hiring? A lot of companies post their job vacancy in, for example, newspaper ads, radio, TV, job fair, employment agencies, Internet, and if your University has College Placement Office they can provide you a job vacancy listing also. Another way of looking for a company is through Networking, when looking for a company you must always be resourceful; ask the people you know that is working for a company if they have an opening. When you find a company then you must prepare for the next step.

Resume

Books, magazines and the internet are the example of the resources you can get on how to make a presentable resume but the only point is be true to on what you will write. Don’t put on your resume what you do not know.

Cover Letter

Just like in making a resume there are a lot of resources in how to make a cover letter. Before you make a letter make sure that you know where to send the cover letter that you will make. It should be either on the Human Resource Supervisor or the Employer.

Interview

If the Company/Employer called your for an interview, you must also prepare for it. Again, why do we need to prepare? As I have written earlier companies are very selective. So what do we need to prepare?

Check Company

Why do we need to check the company? If you where ask by the interviewer what do you know about the company? What do you think your answer will be? It is much better if you know the history of the company as well as the product or services that they offer to their clients. You don’t exactly need to know all the information of the company, just a bit of knowledge about them is well enough.

What is the Job About?

You don’t apply for a job not knowing what the job is all about. It is foolishness in your part to apply for it. Before applying for the job position make sure you qualify for the requirements the company is asking for.

During the interview, the interviewer may it be the Human Resource Supervisor or the Employer will not just look at your credentials in your resume but also your personality as well. You must show the interviewer maturity, right attitude, and presentable appearance. It is important to make yourself presentable because you are offering your services to them and if they see you not well dressed they may think that you take their company for granted.

If you comply with what the company needs and they believe that you will be an asset to them in terms of productivity of their company. Automatically you will get hired and the very next day you can see yourself working in the company.

But if you see yourself not get hired, the answer lies in you; The Company doesn’t necessarily want you but you just don’t want to get hired, just as plain as simple as that.