Common Sense and other Unique Approaches to Business

Use CloudHQ to sync your Google Drive and Dropbox Accounts

2014-08-01T12:35:00.005-04:00

If you’ve got a lot of cloud storage spread out across multiple cloud services like Dropbox, Google Drive, SugarSync, and Microsoft SkyDrive then you may suffer from the same pain I do in trying to keep some or all of the files in these service synched with the other.

cloudHQ provides the solution for that. CloudHQ makes managing and syncing multiple cloud storage services incredibly simple – and you don’t even have to install any extra software on your desktop

Here’s how the service works: first, you sign up for a free trial at cloudHQ’s website using your Google account, and you select the services you want to sync. In my case, I decided that I wanted to sync my Dropbox and Google Drive accounts first, although you can also select Basecamp, SugarSync, Box, Evernote, SkyDrive, and SalesForce. And just in case you ever need help along the way, there’s a convenient chat box that appears on the lower, left hand side of the screen.

Examples of When to use cloudHQ?

Backup Your Data

cloudHQ can be used as a backup solution. For example, if you use Dropbox, Evernote, and Basecamp, with cloudHQ you can backup and sync all your Dropbox files, Evernote notes, and Basecamp projects to Google Docs. So if somebody steals your laptop with Dropbox on it and that person then deletes all your Dropbox and Basecamp data, then thanks to cloudHQ you still have a backup - and no data will be lost.

Consolidate Your Data

cloudHQ can be also used as a solution to consolidate all your data in multiple cloud services to a central service. For example, if you or your company uses multiple services the cloudHQ can consolidate all data from multiple account to a central account to easier management.

Simplify Team Collaboration and Asset Management

cloudHQ can also simplify team collaboration by syncing all your data between multiple cloud services and accounts. For example, cloudHQ can sync all your Basecamp projects with a folder in Dropbox (or Google Docs or Box). So all your Basecamp data will be in Dropbox. Then you can use Dropbox (or Google Docs/Box) sharing capability to share the entire folder or just portion of it with your team members.

This means:

All members of your team will have access to Basecamp data (documents, messages, todos) both via Basecamp interface or via Dropbox/Box.
Each of team member can just upload files to Basecamp by just 'dropping' files into a folder on their PC.
This is also great for sharing things with your clients: you can give your client access to project data by sharing it via Dropbox (here is how to share data via Dropbox: https://www.dropbox.com/help/19/en).

Their Services currently include

To do Great Things, You Must Expect Great Things

2013-01-08T13:03:00.000-05:00

I came across a memo I had written to our team back in 2005. Within that memo, I was addressing what I, as the Leader, expected from my team and had inserted this statement from an unknown author...

Believe in your innermost being

that you will achieve what you set out to do,

and it will open the way for miracles to happen.

You'll find that life responds to your outlook.

What you expect to happen, happens.

Expecting something to happen energizes your goal and gives it momentum.

Your expectation will open or close the doors to your supply.

Expect great things, work with honor for them,

and they will surely come to you.

Your supply will always correspond with your expectations.

There is no medicine like hope, no incentive so great,

and no tonic so powerful as the expectation of something tomorrow.

You can't succeed beyond your wildest expectations

unless you begin with some wild expectations.

The dreams you believe in come to be.

What is interesting is that the things I focused on then are still relevant to what we need to continue to focus on now, and what I believe most teams need to have as an ongoing focus

The memo I wrote was as follows:

+++++++++++++++++++++ Beg of Memo ++++++++++++++++++++++++

As business picks up it will be more important than ever for each member of our team to know, understand and carry out what is expected of them from our clients, our peers and our team leaders. Doing so will allow everyone to better balance work and life as well as ensure our clients are getting what we promised them they would.

Every person's effort at NovoLogic directly affects every other person. As most of you know, my management/leadership style is very entrepreneurial and hands off, and I expect all team members to perform with enthusiasm, integrity, and initiative. Take ownership in what you do and the company, after all your success is the cornerstone of the company's success and vice versa. I can not stress it enough, every person's effort at NovoLogic directly affects every other person here, either in a positive or negative way.

Our General focus for the Next 6 months is the following:

Get deeper and wider into existing client accounts - Make them feel like they would not know what to do without us.
Develop better in-house training through cross training, personnel rotation on existing projects, and a formal "get started" program as well as ongoing "knowledge sharing sessions"
Continue to improve our systems to make it easier for new personnel to get started and reducing potential for errors by new and experienced personnel
Improve communication on Project Status and Expectations between the Client and Project Teams.

My Expectations for Each of you

Above all else, do what you promise and only promise what you can do.
Take pride in your work
Take ownership in your work, clients and office resources.
Your work schedule needs to be relatively consistent
Communicate your work schedule and location to your team members, managers and client. If location or hours of availability change, notify them immediately upon determining this.
Keep a written timeline and list of things you are supposed to be working on and communicate this to your team members and project manage.
Provide team members and project manager a daily status update of tasks accomplished, tasks not accomplished and action plan for getting them resolved.
Enter Time for work performed into the Project Master Database daily.
If an assignment is unclear or confusing, ask peer or manager for clarification immediately. Do not continue to work on the task blindly or in a state of uncertainty. If manager or peer is not readily available, move on to next task, after sending notification via phone call or email to manager about the confusion on the task.
On all assignments, get it done with the least possible effort first, then revisit to make it solid and perfect, if time allotted for task allows.
As soon as it becomes evident that a task is not going to get accomplished in the time or with the quality promised, communicate this to your team members and managers. If you are the one responsible for communicating with the client then let them know as well.
Prepare for and perform your duties in a professional manner.
Communicate in a Professional Manner.
If you need Help, ASK! Ask often and early.

Everyone at NovoLogic wants you to be successful, and we can only help you achieve success if you want it and work at it yourself.

+++++++++++++++++++++ End of Memo ++++++++++++++++++++++++

Maybe this memo will be an inspiration to you the reader or can be used to inspire your team to become the best they can be.

Day 4 at Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville FL

2012-11-30T09:25:00.001-05:00

Upon arriving today we were informed the rheumatologist we were schedule more see has become ill and will not be available today. But Mayo Clinic personnel are doing there thing and trying to get us in to see another DR. So we are still hopeful we can get in and see a rheumatologist during this trip. This is one of then more major specialist we really feel we need to see to get a definitive answer on the Ankylosing Spondolytis diagnosis, as well as to determine if I should get back on the biologic medicines like Humira or Enbrel or not.

Currently waiting to see and orthopedist about the very inflamed and tensor Achilles Tendons I have and the pain in the arches and tops of my feet.

10:00 am - I definitely have tendinitis in both Achilles tendons. Though it is mild to moderate and should not normally be causing the level of pain I am experiencing. Getting ready for some more X-rays to make sure there is not an underlying bone issue. The Fibromyalgia is a good candidate for the cause of the amplification of the pain level I am feeling.

4:45 pm - we finished all appointments with all the various specialist I was assigned to see during this visit. The ultimate diagnosis is that I do not have a rheumatic condition like Ankylosing Spondolytis, which is wonderful news as thee diseases require taking very strong biologic medications and can cause very crippling changes to joints and bone structures. I was left a definitive diagnosis of Fibromyalgia and Central Sensitization Syndrome, which unfortunately has no cure at the present time.

So now I will need to focus on changing lifestyle to a more moderate constant level of activity, vs. the go as hard as you can as long as you can mentality I have had for most of my life. I have been fortunate enough to be accepted into the Mayo Clinic's Pain Rehabilitation Clinic program. It is a 3 week intense program that will help me reprogram my brain to better deal with the Central Sensitization Syndrome Symptoms, learn to determine and map out what a moderate constant level of activity for me is, and to rid myself of having to take narcotic pain medicine. This is something I am greatly looking forward to.

I feel so blessed to have been able to go through the Mayo Clinic process, thanks to the wonderful team I have at NovoLogic, an incredible mother-in-law who helped take care of our kids, and an amazing wife who helped pushed to get me there, and has been by my side through all the many doctors visits, my bad days, and the extra effort needed to kee our home running while I have been at a diminished capacity.

http://www.anaes.med.ed.ac.uk/univ/DrArtRoberts.pdf
http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/central_pain/central_pain.htm

Day 3 at Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville FL

2012-11-29T07:53:00.001-05:00

Another early start as we needed to get here before anyone else in order to get on a stand by list to see the Pain Psychology department. Good news is we did make it here before anyone else, so there is a good chance we can get into see them today instead of having to wait until March!

So now we are waiting for a scheduled appointment with the Physical Medicine/Rehab department. They are going to attempt to determine or rule out any physical reasons for pain.

10:00 am - completed visit with Physical Medicine/Rehab, they have ruled out Ankylosing Spondolytis , but want to get some more X-rays to be sure. Good news is I look great in the X-ray gowns! Based on this session, they are setting me up with a session with orthopedics as they believe I have a bad case of tendinitis in both Achilles, which may be an underlying issue. I did exhibit 26 pain points on my body, placing a diagnosis of fibromyalgia squarely in sight. Only takes 8 pain points to qualify....

1:30 pm - finished for day 3. Last sessions with the psychiatric pain group. They really helped me understand the reasoning behind the pain symptoms of fibromyalgia and based no the session with the I a scheduled to come back to the Mayo clinic in 4-8 weeks for a 3 week intensive program to learn how to manage pain without medication. Program sounds WONDERFUL and has 97% success rate of patients being medication free. There will be lifestyle changes we will all incorporate at home to make a difference. The program helps you rewire your Brian so to speak to help cal the sensory overload that is taking place in my body which is manifesting itself into the chronic pain.

We meet with the Orthopedist and Rheumalogist tomorrow but don't really think they will find anything else. Good news (blessing) is that Fibromyalgia doesn't lead to other conditions or diseases. Another blessing is that I have THOROUGHLY been tested for everything under the sun and I am healthy otherwise.

Although we were hoping they would find something with an easy fix, we both know that God is in control and has a plan for all of us. My wife and I both know God intervened this week with the schedule here at Mayo, making it possible to see the all doctors we saw in this one visit and He will provide and already has provided blessings in this situation. Although this won't be an easy road, with no cure, we do understand that this experience will help mold us into the people God needs/wants us to be. We are coming home with a new sense of hope because we have a game plan. Life won't go back to the way it was, but we can move forward with the way it will need to be.

Day 2 at Mayo Clinic - Jacksonville, FL

2012-11-28T06:52:00.001-05:00

6:00 am - Early start this morning, I have to be at mayo at 7:30 for stops by 4 different labs for different body fluid work-ups, then a trip to see an Endocrinologist finishing off the day with a psychiatric consultation. Not sure who needs that the most, me or my family for having to deal with me for the past 2 years.

9:00 am - 26 vials of blood lighter, we are now waiting to get into the Endocrinologist. I am excited and anxious at the same time to see what comes out of this appointment. The way they do things here at the Mayo just makes so much common sense, it makes you wonder why other facilities do not operate this same or similar way. So much more efficient to have DRs of differ specialties under one scheduling and management system, not too mention the same building.

12:30 - appointment with endocrinologist is over ruled it a few other possibles, but left with "do not see anything wrong here that could be causing your symptoms". Which is good and bad. Grabbed a ham panini and blueberry scone from the cafeteria, both surprisingly good considering it is hospital food. Endocrinologist is still waiting on results from a few of the labs that were done this morning but she was not "expecting" to see anything abnormal when they come in.

2:30 - finished final visit of the day was with a psychiatrist, was very helpful session, to let me know Iowa not going crazy, my pain was real and to help setup some possible non medicine treatments to manage pain. Also is going I work up and recommend changing some of current meds I am n for fibromyalgia and suggest I taper off of pain meds.

Long day but good day, going to crash and start over again tomorrow.

Day 1 at Mayo Clinic - Jacksonville, FL

2012-11-27T09:00:00.001-05:00

After two years of seeing multiple specialist, I am finally at the Mayo Clinic ready for my initial visit and evaluation. I am honestly hoping for a miracle, to either have a finite diagnosis and treatment plan or at least to get provided with a pain management plan that can effectively relieve the constant pain I have been experiencing all over my body for the past two years.

I have been preliminarily diagnosed with Ankylosing Spondolytis and Fibromyalgia, but so far none of the standard treatments for those diseases have been effective.

To date, I have seen the following specialist;

General Internist
Rheumatologist
Pulmonologist
Endocrinologist
Cardiologist
Neurologist
Infectious Disease Specialist

In an attempt to get answers and relief... The Mayo Clinic comes with a reputation for solving the unsolvable medical cases, so my hopes are high, hopefully not too high.

Not sure what to expect here from Day 1, or even how long I will need to stay for this initial visit, but I will keep very one updated as the days progress.

10:50 am - made it through initial check in process, now waiting to be called back in to meet with general intern dr.

12:22 - completed initial physical exam and interviews, now waiting to find out appointment times with recommended specialist, blood work, etc. hoping to be able to get into most specialist the next few days. They also provide the ability to go standby form each specialist, which will involve a lot of waiting and no guarantee to see the DR n that day. basically a first come first serve scenario hoping for a cancelation or unexpected opening in the DRs schedule.

3:30 - after some X-rays,and a stop by one of them "labs" for some bodily fluid work-up, the first day came to a close. We made it bc lot the hotel room, where I crashed for about 3 hours, before waking up I eat then going back to bed.

Wishing vs Wanting to be a Professional

2012-10-06T18:17:00.001-04:00

If your client, employer, or team is counting on you and your efforts, you owe it to them to do what it takes to perform in a professional like manner, or to acknowledge you are not ready or willing for such an assignment.

Here is a checklist to determine how close to being a professional you are, no matter what your field of expertise.

As a professional:	As an amateur:
You show up everyday	You show up when you want to
You show up no matter what	You allow even little things to distract us
You stay on the job until the job is done	You stay on the job until it’s time to clock out
You diligently discover what is needed and wanted	You assume what others need and want
You master the technique of our trade	You try to copy others
You do not let mistakes slide by	You ignore or hide mistakes
You seek order in our work	Things are done haphazardly
You act in the face of fear	Fear deters you
You do not allow yourself any excuses	Excuses are used as a common tool
You come every day prepared to work	You do what you feel like doing
You produce more than is expected	You produce just enough to get by
You complete assignments as soon as possible	You are inundated with unfinished tasks and assignments
You never hesitate to ask for help	You go it alone, until you have no choice
You don’t take failure personally	You fear rejection and try to avoid it
You love taking on hard assignments	You try to get out of difficult work
You self-validate	You crumble under criticism
You do work others find boring despite it being boring	You put off work that is not interesting

If you bother to really pay attention, I am sure you will find there are many people working around you who are pretending to be professional, as our nation seems to no longer place an importance on professionalism.
Most people just tend to believe that amateur work is now "normal". Many businesses routinely accept less-than-good results. In fact, they probably do not know what work done by real professionals look like therefore it feels normal.

A three mile run to a couch potato will seem like very hard work, while a professional athlete can run three miles as a warm up. Our school systems routinely graduate students who cannot read, a doctor can graduate with a C average and wind up treating people for life and death conditions. “Just getting by” is an attitude far too many people accept and strive to achieve.

This is the attitude of amateurs not professionals.

The first step to becoming a professional is to decide you WANT to become professional. Then really, really, really commit to doing it, as there are no shortcuts.

So are you just wishing to be a professional or do you WANT to be a professional?

Why Culture is the Key to your Organizations Success

2012-09-25T14:45:00.002-04:00

Stemming the Tide of Diminishing Influence

In the early years of an organization, the personality of the founder(s) directly shapes the culture. But as the company continues to grow, reaching critical mass, the influence of the founders diminishes sharply. In its place, the culture tends to be shaped by a default set of factors – primarily the individual personalities of the various people groups that arise. Instead of a unified culture, organizations tend to develop pocketed “sub-cultures” that are often dis-united or even in conflict with each other.

A strong, unified corporate culture is a sight to behold. But it doesn’t happen spontaneously. It is the result of methodical, strategic intentions and careful, disciplined execution.

Discretionary effort - the power of culture

Discussions of culture can seem soft and irrelevant. But culture is the key to “discretionary effort” – perhaps the most valuable commodity an organization can cultivate. Discretionary effort is the highest form of engagement. It’s one thing for an employee to meet minimum requirements. But top-performing companies are characterized by people who give discretionary effort.

And culture is always the reason for this level of engagement. Here’s why.

People buy into ideas, but they sell out to cultures. For better or for worse, no other aspect of an organization matches the gravitational power of its culture. Mission and values are at best convincing. Vision and purpose are at best compelling. But culture alone has the potential to be captivating.

People are designed to be resilient - not resistant

Cultures influence us more than our beliefs, our parents, our role models, and our own intentions. Mechanically, the function of a culture is holistic, touching us intellectually, emotionally, and experientially, all at the same time. Against such an orchestrated front, none of our individual faculties is designed to resist. By nature, people are designed to be resilient - not resistant - adapting to their surroundings.

By nature, people are impressionable, not impregnable.By nature, people are interdependent, not independent.By nature, people yearn for suitable cultures to which to prescribe all their being.By design, people need cultures.

Cultures, even bad ones, inherently possess the environmental characteristics in which people are designed to thrive.

Cultural Engineers

A strong culture is not just your personality and vibe. It's a set of characteristics that are:

Deliberate
Distinct (different from the rest of the world and from other companies)
Objectified - like a republic... You can point to the constitution... It's a reference point, not a subjective opinion or someones personality.

It's defined by:

A common language
Rituals or practices
A “constitution” (or master plan)

With the help of our "cultural engineers", we at NovoLogic help companies draft a master plan for shaping their chain-wide culture as well as the communication strategies, tactical plans and social technologies, required to accomplish it.

Blendcasting - the art of culture building

With a holistic culture plan in place - a practice we call Blendcasting - the impact of events like seasonal conferences will begin to extend far beyond the normal spike of engagement that traditionally occurs around these events themselves. With the entire arsenal of culture-building elements in place, the corporate essence will permeate all aspects of the organizational experience - creating year-round engagement for franchisees, corporate staff, and store-level employees.

Do you feel your culture is diminishing? are sub-cultures developing within your organization? Is it time for you to start thinking about developing a culture plan?

Are your projects in PAIN?

2012-09-22T13:12:00.003-04:00

As I was contemplating what to write about this week I received a desperate phone call and an even more desperate email from 2 different clients. Both of them pleading with me to see what we could do to help them fix a "special project" that had gone awry.

While neither client or their projects had anything to do with the other, the reason their projects were now in a mess were due to the same underlying issue. A bad decision to hire “amateurs to perform professional job”.

You see, each of them felt the tasks needing to be done in order to complete the project were simple enough. One even stated their project manager indicated they felt it was as simple as "jumping out of a plane". To their point, when they broke out the individual tasks they "thought" needed to be done, it did seem pretty simple. This is where they made mistake number 1. Their ignorance of what it really took to do the job right caused them to underestimate the effort and the budget required.

Mistake number 2 was their arrogance in thinking they know how to do this and they would not need any outside help to figure this out, as this would undermine their perception with their peers and upper management. After all, they were hired to get this project done.

Because of the growing tide of siloed and even covert social hierarchies (narcissism) within their respective organizations, they made mistake number 3 by not getting advice or a gut check from other departments on their planned course of action.

The final culprit in their projects’ demise is their now normal culture of panic which has been developing throughout the organization as more and more people are hired who are not yet "professionals" themselves. These new hires have a tendency to want to prove they belong and mistakenly work in panic rather than urgency. You've probably witnessed the frantic paced effort of these new recruits yourself, so task saturated they can't remember to eat lunch. This is a sure sign of a culture of panic. Panic makes things worse. Urgency should make things better. When people are working in panic mode they tend to take shortcuts and not think things all the way through resulting in quick but often deadly decisions. This was mistake number 4.

So lets get back to the projects, the one’s that are as simple as jumping out of an airplane. After all, jumping out of an airplane is simple enough if you break it down into each of the tasks required;

jump
fall
pull cord
stop

While their projects;

rolling out training and communication for a new enterprise software application
broadcasting a live annual corporate event and providing a portal for the content to be viewed real time or 24x7 (after the events are over) by the rest of the organization.

These could be broken down into basic tasks that seem trivial however they grossly miscalculated the complexity of the timing of all the tasks and more importantly, the knowledge, skill, experience and perseverance required of the personnel should something unexpected occur during the process.

This is where each client learned the hard lesson of just how expensive it is to hire "just anyone" to help. You see, in a moment of panic due to skipping the detailed planning process for fear of not wanting to look weak by asking for help, and thinking they could do this alone and make a name for themselves, the new project managers made some really bad choices.

I have known both of the leaders we work with at these companies for over 5 years and have found them to be very competent professionals themselves in their own fields of expertise. The root problem lies with their organizations growing PAINs that have emerged as a result of their business growth. When I refer to PAIN, I mean the emergence of Panic, Arrogance, Ignorance, and Narcissism within their culture.

Fortunately, we were able to help them tactically and get their projects back on track and completed successfully. We then began implementing our process of PAIN management within the leadership and ranks of their organization.

So when you are faced with an important project, who do want working on your team ? Do you want true professionals or do you want amateurs who one day simply wish to be professionals or falsely claim to be professionals for a self serving purpose?

I would love your feedback and thoughts on this topic.

>> Google << Please buy GANTTER !

2012-08-29T16:39:00.002-04:00

Google Apps is a game changer for many small, medium and large enterprises. the ability to rid yourself of application installations and updates.

[Disclaimer - I nor NovoLogic is affiliated in anyway with Gantter.com and we are a certified reseller of Google Apps for business, and are a certified Microsoft Partner]

The debate will rage on whether or not Google Apps, Microsoft Office365, or some other player winds up dominating this space, but clearly Google Apps has a major head start on all competitors when it comes to a very integrated set of content creation, collaboration and scheduling tools.

A major component that has been missing from this toolset is project planning. For very small shops, you can get by with using the Google Spreadsheets for planning out small projects. But as you get larger or if you are responsible for planning/managing projects for larger clients like we do at NovoLogic, then something a little more sophisticated than a spreadsheet will be needed.

That's where Gantter.com comes in.

Everyone that has managed any kind of larger project is familiar with the defacto industry standard, MS Project. Gantter, is a SaaS model, free to use Social Generation Tool, that is a very good replacement for MS Project.

It is lacking many "enterprise" features of MS Project, but we have found that those missing features are only needed on the absolute largest of enterprise projects. At this time, Gantter doesn’t support a project baseline, which makes variance analysis and detailed task tracking difficult to perform, but at NovoLogic, we do this type of thing in ActiveCollab which provides our Time Tracking and Invoicing platform.

Now to the Title of this Post >> Google << Please buy GANTTER ! Gantter is the perfect level of functionality in a project planning tool that falls in line with Google's mission of providing easy and usable tools that support 80% of what workers need. It's interface is very much in line with Google's simple is better mindset.

Gantter does provide some integration with Google Apps via Google Drive add-on, but this integration is clunky at best. what is really need is a more realtime collaborative approach where more than one person can work on a project plan at the same time and communicate via in document chats like Google spreadsheets, or via comments like Google documents.

So Google if your listening, and I know you are :-) , please consider putting these guys on your acquisition list or at least work with the guys to help them more seamlessly integrate in with Google Apps. With this addition you would have a serious MS Product Suite Killer on your hands.

Looking for robust but not overly complex project planning tool? Go take a serious look at Gantter, why not? it's free!

If you need help with Gantter, ActiveCollab, or Google Apps, contact us and someone from our SMB team will be glad to determine how we can help.

Watch Demo of Gantter in action

Keep your passwords and possibly your reputation in tact

2012-08-16T10:39:00.001-04:00

Recently I lost a few twitter followers due to a possible hacked twitter account. I first started receiving crazy Direct Messages (DM) from random people I did not follow or even know.

Then several followers informed me they had gotten a crazy tweet from me similar to this one. ==>

I even received a few tweets like this from some of my followers, and those I follow.

Even though this may not be evidence my account was in fact hacked, it did create a profound awareness that I should be more diligent with my passwords on sites that I consider to be "trivial". We work on many projects for high profile companies, and take our internal password and security very seriously. We use complex passwords like this "6 OM-mzt 9_S$YA%xi6" and manage, protect and rotate these with incredible care.

But like many people, with my personal/recreational sites, I am just not as serious or cautious (call me lazy) with passwords I use or frequency with which I change them. (personal financial accounts aside).

So, putting into practice our Flawless Execution Methodology, we use in our client projects. I debriefed this event, and captured lessons learned that I am now putting into "Action".

Change all Personal Passwords Immediately
Use Harder Passwords
Leverage a Password Manager so I can stay "Lazy" but Secure

My company NovoLogic, is all about making the lives of people we come into contact with better not worse. So after apologizing to those I may have caused stress with the potentially hacked twitter account @novologic, I decided to write this post and share some of the information I have found around Personal Password Managers.

I found 3 Personal Password Managers which are free. 2 of which are rated very highly by PC Magazine.

These Products allow you to have different and complex passwords for your different sites, but access them from one secure password. So if one of your on-line accounts get hacked your other accounts are safe, since they all have different passwords. something most of us are guilty of not doing.

Dashlane - is a newer personal password manager but get very high ratings from PC Magazine. It is a little more limited in the number of Operating systems and Browsers it supports, but they seem to be working hard to expand this. It is available for Mac OS X and Windows and has an App for iOS devices.
Norton has recently released Norton™ Identity Safe which it is offering for Free until October 1, 2012. If you download it before then it will be free of charge forever. No strings attached. this might be a great option for those who use Norton Antivirus.
LastPass 2.0 - is a new version of a Password Manager that has been around for a while. We actually leverage this for our client and work protected systems, and like Dashlane gets very good marks from PC Magazine. LastPass gets a leg up for me as it works with a very broad range of operating systems and browsers.

The Real Lesson Learned here is that while someone hacking into my recreational/social account does not cause me any direct personal or financial harm, it could do something worse, it could cause serious damage to my credibility and reputation. The perception from others who I have never met but who may have received a less than flattering tweet from me could do damage that could be very hard to repair.

So learn from my mistake and leverage a Password Manager to help reduce the possibility of your account and your reputation from being compromised.

demo of augmented reality I did back in 2009

2012-08-14T14:08:00.001-04:00

demo of augmented reality I did back in 2009. love to hear how you think this tech could be used - http://t.co/d1qXTfA2 #chat2lrn #marketing

Tweeted on August 14, 2012 at 11:53AM

Tolerance, vicious and other unknown words

2012-07-27T17:19:00.000-04:00

It seems by the amount of misuse of the word Tolerance and Vicious lately, our countries inhabitants need a refresher on what these words actually mean, and how to use them appropriately.

lets start with the word Tolerance:

Tolerance: The ability or willingness to tolerate something, in particular the existence of opinions or behavior that one does not necessarily agree with

By its definition this word does not mean that someone who voices their opinion but who does not impact another persons existence, activities, or ability to voice their own behavior is intolerant of that individual.

Likewise someone who claims someone else is intolerant simply by the voicing of an opinion who differs from their own is not practicing tolerance themselves.

A great example of this can be seen by the ignorant comments and use of this word by the Mayor of Chicago, Rahm Emanuel, Proco "Joe" Moreno is Alderman of the First Ward of Chicago, the Muppet Corporation, and Thomas M. Menino, Mayor of Boston. Each of them has publicly stated that a person was intolerant because they expressed an opinion and view on what constitutes a marriage.

They do not claim this person is intolerant because he or his company are not tolerant, of the lifestyle of the people who do not share his opinion, to the point that he refused them service or employment.

They do not claim this person is intolerant because he or his company is Not tolerant of others that disagree with his opinion and treats them any differently than those that do.

No this person is apparently Not tolerant to Rahm, Proco, Menino, and the Muppets, simply because he voiced his opinion and his opinion did not reflect their own.

If I could meet these "boys of intolerance" I would have to say to them

"You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means." - Inigo Montoya,

Now lets turn to the word vicious

vicious: Deliberately cruel or violent or Immoral

I want go into as much dialog or ranting here, but I think anyone who is looking at this objectively would find it incredibly hard to label the person Mr. Rahm, Proco, Menino, and the Muppets are attacking in the media as anything but the opposite of vicious.

As a good friend of mine Ken Coleman stated, "There is a great divide between strong convictions and hateful actions. A civil society can and must discern between the two...Each of us get to choose what we believe. Does our opinion hold greater value than those we disagree with?"

Unless our society can learn this and do it quickly the economic issues we face will be the least of our worries.

The bigger issue here is not this man's opinion but why in America everyone is not standing up for his right to peacefully, morally and tolerantly express his opinion.

I will end by showing this comments from MARK STEYN

"Americans talk more about liberty than citizens of other Western nations, but, underneath the rhetorical swagger, liberty bleeds. When Mayor Menino and Alderman Moreno openly threaten to deny business licenses because of ideological apostasy, they're declaring their unfitness for public office. It's not about marriage, it's not about gays, it's about a basic understanding that a free society requires a decent respect for a wide range of opinion without penalty by the state. In Menino's Boston, the Freedom Trail is heavy on the Trail, way too light on the Freedom."

God bless America, and May god have mercy on us all.

5 monkeys : because we have always done it that way

2012-07-19T21:27:00.000-04:00

Here is a story, not sure if it is fact or fiction. a Professor in business school at University of Georgia used it in one of his lectures while I was there.

A study was done where they started with a cage containing five monkeys. Inside the cage, they hung a banana on a string and placed a set of stairs under it. Before long, one monkey went up to the stairs and started to climb towards the banana. As soon as he touched the stairs, they sprayed all of the other monkeys with cold water. After a while, another monkey makes an attempt with the same result – the other monkeys are sprayed with cold water. Pretty soon, when another monkey tries, the other monkeys will try to prevent it.

After it is evident that none of the monkeys will attempt to go up the stairs to get the bananas, the researchers put away the cold water. they being to remove one monkey from the cage and replace it with a new one.

Each time they do this the new monkey sees the banana and tries to climb the stairs. To his dismay, all the other monkeys attack him, preventing him from going up the stairs. After another unsuccessful and painful attempt, he knows if he touches the stairs he will be assaulted, without ever knowing why.

The researchers continue by removing another of the original five monkeys and replacing it with a new one. The newcomer goes to the stairs and is attacked.

The previous newcomer joins in the punishment with enthusiasm!

This is done again by replacing a third monkey with a new one, then a fourth, then the fifth. Every time a newcomer takes to the stairs, he is attacked, with no understanding of why.

Keep in mind eventually none of the monkeys beating the newcomer have no idea why they are not permitted to climb the stairs or why they are participating in the beating of the newest monkey.

whether or not this is a true story is irrelevant, as the story points out that we as leaders and even followers, must always be questioning the why of each and every action, process, best practice and policy that we engage with or are aware of.

otherwise we just become another monkey.

for those that do not like reading here is a video explaining this courtesy of Jeff Bridges.

10 ingredients to business health and career success. Best of all, it's fad-free.

2012-07-02T13:22:00.003-04:00

10 ingredients to business health and career success. Best of all, it's fad-free.

Make smart decisions based on real-world experience, logical reasoning and solid ideas that pass the laugh test.
Face your fears with courage and humility; work like you have nothing to lose, not like you have to hold onto what you have.
Create an innovative product or service that solves a big problem or meets an important need better than anything else out there.
Do whatever it takes to win and keep customers.
Have genuine passion for your work.
Go above and beyond to do your job to the best of your ability and get things done with a positive, can-do attitude.
Treat everyone -- your boss, employees, coworkers, peers, customers, vendors, partners, everyone -- the way you think you deserve to be treated.
Figure out what you really want to do for a living that will make you happy.
Stop hoping, wishing and dreaming and start planning, doing and executing.
Stop searching for the easy way out: Trying to figure out how to game the system and get more than you deserve in less time and with less work. There's no such thing.

If you focus on these 10 things and forget about all the fads, you've got a pretty good chance of coming out on top. It's common sense, we've always known it, and if it's news to you, it's about time.

read full article by Steve Tobak here

To prepare for tomorrow, it’s worth asking the team today:

2012-06-28T13:46:00.003-04:00

To prepare for tomorrow, it’s worth asking the team today

In what ways are we functioning now that strengthens us for unforeseen challenges?
Considering the “fire” we’re currently facing…what do we do to ensure we’re stronger because of it?
Despite the circumstances, why is it important for us to still realize and activate our potential?
Given what we’re going through as a business, what does it look like for us to heal as a team moving forward?

read full article here

via @Figliuolo

2012-06-09T23:32:00.001-04:00

Great Leaders Should Move to a Cubicle http://t.co/ir91Ir8c via @thoughtLEADERS : http://twitter.com/Figliuolo/status/211657720200314882 http://t.co/ir91Ir8c

Am I an Idiot? - It takes courage to play the long game

2012-04-26T14:52:00.000-04:00

Original Article by Ross & Vannoy | 26 April 2012

Parents of teenagers will understand this. (You’ll still grasp the meaning without rushing out and having a child.)

A senior leader and I were discussing the joys and challenges of being a father to teenage daughters. He shared, “The other day I asked her with a smile, ‘What’s the best thing that happened to you today?’ And what did I get in return? Rolled eyes and a slow shake of the head.”

My friend laughed and then sighed. “So I look around the room and wonder, ‘Am I an idiot?’ What have I done or missed that would provoke such a response?”

I laughed. I often live the same experience with my daughter.

My friend reminds me that values-based leadership is a lifestyle. It takes courage to play the long game, to see beyond the insulting moments and do what’s right – even when the feedback falsely suggests we’re incompetent. It takes guts to communicate ‘I’m in your corner’ when the person hearing the message wants to shove you out.

Here’s to the mothers and fathers, the people, and the leaders who are able to serve others even when they’re not being served in return. Here’s to your ability to move forward. You inspire.

Your comments are valuable to our entire community, share your comments below so other leaders benefit from your good thoughts.

13 Qualities Courageous Leaders Demonstrate

2012-04-05T09:07:00.001-04:00

Original article posted by Ross and Vannoy

1. Some leaders speak up for what they believe is right and pay a price…or they don’t speak up and pay a price. (Which price do you want to pay?)

2. Some people wait to see what happens. Others make things happen.

3. A team either innovates…or uses the innovations of others.

4. Accountability can’t be delegated successfully. It is a choice.

5. Some leaders express themselves – and some leaders spend their time making judgments of others.

6. Realizing and activating the potential in every interaction of every day changes everything. (Are we doing this? Do we know how to do this?)

7. When a person tells a lie, they reveal a truth about who they are.

8. Manipulation is a sick form of control. Where are we ready to relinquish the need for things to go “our way”?

9. Either customers feel truly listened to – or not. There’s no “maybe.”

10. Today’s routines are tomorrow’s habits. (Are we working our plan?)

11. Every interaction either builds a partnership…or tarnishes an idea of what could be.

12. An illusion: That an organization can sustain momentum by squeezing more out of its people. Releasing potential remains rare and more successful.

13. What’s the difference between working for a company that has one purpose – to make money – and a company that has “soul?”

Your comments are valuable to our entire community, share below so other leaders benefit from your good thoughts.

How to save money on Airfare

2012-02-24T09:07:00.002-05:00

Booking early is the surest way to find affordable air fare. Flight prices generally increase in intervals over the months and weeks prior to a departure date. Start searching for tickets as soon as possible. Both the average price and average price dispersion ( variation in prices across sellers of the same item ) increase as the departure date approaches; the rate of these increases also increases over time.

Generally try and book your tickets 21 days out for the best price, and then certainly 15 days out.

What's the absolute best time to purchase a ticket directly from the airlines? Turns out it's Wednesday from midnight to 1a.m. in the time zone of the airline's "home base." (For instance, Delta is headquartered in Atlanta)

Why? That's when the computer systems of most airlines get rid of the reserved but unbooked lower fare reservations.

You can hedge your bets further by scheduling flights during dips in demand such as mid-day (generally 10 am to 2 pm) or mid-week (Tuesday, Wednesday or early Thursday). And Increasingly, the price gap between one-stop and non-stop flights is widening, so always be sure to check both options.

Fig. 1 Depicts the price fluctuation of the cost of a ticket for the 90 days leading up to the flight.

Corporate Training Budgets are expanding - are you keeping Pace?

2011-12-07T12:12:00.001-05:00

According to recent research by Training Magazine, 32% of companies are increasing their training budgets increased 24%, as these companies bet that a better trained workforce, more engaged leaders and improved workforce skills are the answer to pulling out of the economic downturn.

What is interesting, is that most companies reported that the time employees spend in formal training was reduced this past year, yet the total spending on training increased. NovoLogic's thought on this, is more companies are investing in upgrading their learning technologies, including social, mobile and informal training (performance support) systems so the workforce can get the information and skills reinforcement they need, without the need to stop and attend a formal training experience (whether in person or on-line).

source of image - http://www.trainingmag.com/sites/default/files/trg_2011IR.pdf

2011 saw a significant rise in the average expenditure for training outsourcing: $606,563, up from $257,871 in 2010. An average of 23 percent of the total training budget was spent on outsourcing. The level of outsourcing is expected to stay relatively steady in 2012.

source of image - http://www.trainingmag.com/sites/default/files/trg_2011IR.pdf

Work Life Balance is a Myth - it is really about the Rythm

2011-12-07T12:05:00.001-05:00

"Work-Life Balance." - from Jon Gordon's weekly newsletter

It’s a phrase we hear often. But I don’t think it really exists. At least not in the way most "experts" talk about it.

I, like most people, have never been able to balance the scales of work/life on a day-to-day basis. Rather, I’ve come to realize that the dance between work and life is more about rhythm than balance.

There is a rhythm to life and there is a season for everything.

For me, there is a time to work hard and a time to rest. There is a time to be on the road and a time to be at home with my family.

My wife and I look at our year as whole and we plan our schedule according to the seasons of our life knowing I’ll be slammed in August, September and October and slower in December and July.

We plan for when I’ll be working and when I’ll be more engaged with the family.

You can do the same.

You may have a different rhythm and your seasons may be shorter or longer than mine but you can look at your life on a weekly, monthly, and yearly basis and schedule times to work hard, recharge, renew, play, and engage with your family/friends/significant other.

However, regardless of your rhythm and work schedule I want to encourage you to fully commit to your seasons.

People tell me all the time that they feel guilty that they are not at home with their family when they are at work. And to make matters worse they also feel guilty that they are not working when they are at home.

A double dose of guilt is a recipe for misery.

Instead, when you are working hard realize this is your season to do so... and also make plans for time to recharge, renew and spend quality time with the people you love.

When you are working, commit fully to your work. When you are home with your family or significant other, commit fully to engaging with them and enjoy your personal time.

By understanding your rhythm, planning and committing to the seasons of your life you may not achieve perfect work-life balance but you will create a flow and rhythm that makes you happier, more productive and... less guilty.

The Secret of Teams: What Great Teams Know and Do

2011-11-11T09:38:00.001-05:00

Mark Miller, Senior VP of Leadership Development at Chick-fil-A gave me an advance copy of his new book, and I am glad he did. the Secret of Teams: What Great Teams Know and Do, is Mark's Second Book on Leadership and Teams. I love the way Mark uses a story to get his points and message across, as it is so relate-able.

In the story, the main character, Debbie, is faced with going out and learning what makes great teams great in order to develop a program in her company that will help their teams become more effective. Her company is starting to decline and her boss and mentor challenges her to help right the ship.

Debbie, and her team decide to go and "Learn from the Best" by visiting with a retired special forces general, a NASCAR pit crew and a restaurant that is part of a very successful franchise organization.

In visiting with these three completely different "teams" Debbie discovers that they all share some common characteristics; each group placed an incredible amount of intentional focus on making sure their team members were a good fit for their team (character, competency, and chemistry), each group also placed an equal amount of effort and focus on making sure their teams members had the right skills needed to perform at their best, through repeated practice, coaching and training; last but not least the leaders of the teams worked very hard to create a real personal bond between themselves and their team as well as between the team members as well.

Debbie realizes that the secret to getting great results is having Talent, Skills and Community, and that it is the combination of all three that is the magic formula. If any one of these is missing the team will never reach its full potential.

The Secret that is told in Mark Miller's book is very similar to the approach we use at NovoLogic, we call it Flawless Execution. and it was very reaffirming that the the attention we pay to selecting our talent, the systematic process of accelerating the experience and knowledge of our team members through briefings, and mutual support, and the community we develop through our work cycle debriefs and corporate values, is in line with what Mark has come to understand is responsible for High-Performing Teams.

If anyone would like to come visit and talk with our High-Performing Team, just give us a shout, we would love to share and help get some more people to join the Movement described in Secret of Teams: What Great Teams Know and Do.

Landing Pages 3.0

2011-11-08T11:02:00.000-05:00

The art and science of landing pages and on-line lead generation have been undergoing a lot of study, analytics and advancement over the past 3 - 5 years. The guru's at Marketing Profs have created a great article explaining the emergence and success of what they are calling Landing Pages 3.0

This content is from an article published by Marketing Profs

1. Multiple Pages Providing Deep, Rich Content

The rise of content marketing has probably had the most influence on the recent round of landing-page evolution. Respondents expect more meaty content when they click through to a page—not just teasers for something after they convert.

One way marketers are meeting that demand is by deploying microsites. Yes, microsites. However, these are not the microsites of the Old Web, the overweight Flash productions that required expensive creative agencies to build.

The new breed of microsite is pure HTML, a collection of several pages linked together by a set of lightweight navigation choices. They load quickly, they're SEO friendly, and they can be built quickly and inexpensively.

For example, consider the following images of the first few pages from an Intuit microsite promoting its new GoPayment product:

Like a traditional landing page, the goal of the Intuit microsite is to convince people to convert on a specific offer; In this case, sign up, and request a free card reader—a pretty straightforward call-to-action. In a previous generation of landing pages, the first page of this experience would have been sufficient: a video, a little teaser text, several social proof logos along the bottom, and a brightly colored "Start Now" button.

But with this six-page microsite, Intuit provides substantially more content to the respondent. The second page in this series shows a great visual presentation of how the product actually works. The third page delves into pricing details. Rates and fees are not relegated to the fine print; they're a featured piece of content here. Other pages in the microsite are dedicated to press accolades and customer testimonials.

Note that the call-to-action is propagated across pages, with the same language, imagery, and "Start Now" button. The purpose of that experience is the same as a single landing page—but with a lot more real content ahead of the conversion point. Even if visitors aren't ready to convert when they first visit, they can learn useful information about the product and form a strong, positive impression of the brand.

2. Compelling Design That Isn't Cookie-Cutter

For a long time, landing pages generally didn't look very good. Graphic designers and usability professionals were rarely involved in their production, mostly because they were built in the service of text-driven search marketing.

But with CMOs taking fresh interest in "customer experience" as the foundation of their brands—from the first touchpoints a prospect has with a company online—landing pages are undergoing a design renaissance. After all, in many scenarios, landing pages are the first impression potential customers have of your company. Don't you want to stand out from the crowd?

For instance, take a look at the first few pages of this microsite—another microsite-as-landing-page example—from the Centre for Arts and Technology

This landing experience, designed for potential students interested in fashion design and merchandising, lets visitors explore a program overview, career opportunities, and a list of courses. As in the Intuit example, this set of pages contains rich and detailed content. The call-to-action—again, replicated consistently across all pages in the microsite—asks visitors to fill out a short form to begin a dialogue with a program adviser.

The imagery—models showing off bold, new fashions—is not an afterthought, but arguably the very heart of these pages. The images communicate a visceral, visual message that mere words could hardly match. As an example of an increasingly popular Web-design technique, one primary image expands across the background of each page behind the text and the form. The image binds the entire layout together.

Yet, as impressive as the page layout looks, it's really not complicated. By displaying one good image per page, compressed for speed, and by including a couple of CSS styling tricks, each page delivers a high-impact impression using fairly simple HTML.

In other words, with a little bit of smart design input, any business should be able to produce landing pages of this caliber. Don't have a designer on your staff? Consider tapping into professional resources, such as those at novologic.com.

3. More Interactivity and Exploratory Interfaces

Another way landing pages are becoming more interesting is that they are starting to incorporate more interactive and exploratory features as part of the user interface. Instead of simply presenting a linear piece of text, landing pages might encourage visitors to click on different elements on the page to identify what's most relevant to the visitor.

The simplest incarnation of that might be an embedded video that visitors could click to watch, or a "lightbox" that lets visitors zoom in on a particular image, or a simple layout of multiple tabs of content that break out the different features of a product. (The previous microsite examples are a little like that.)

However, the interactivity on landing pages can also be much more sophisticated. For instance, when Google—known for its relatively conservative user interfaces—launched Google Plus, it published a very cool landing page where people could learn about the new offering:

Seemingly hand-drawn colored lines emanate from different icons and labels, and visitors can pan out from and zoom in on the page, much as they might with Google Maps. When visitors click on an icon, a new layer appears on the page with details about that feature:

The page offers an engaging experience that helps prospective users to quickly discover what Google Plus has to offer.

Of course, not every landing page needs to take its user experience quite that far. For a good example of an exploratory interface that is impressive but much easier to produce, consider the following images of a microsite-as-landing-page used by Dell:

The microsite is organized around vertical markets, such as education in this example. Each vertical market page includes several subtopics—such as "Connected Campus" in the second screenshot—that display a brief description and a link to more information when users hover over them. Clicking on the "What people are saying" icon opens a new layer over the page with snippets and links to customer endorsements and other kinds of social proof.

Again, although those features look impressive, the HTML and CSS used to implement them is relatively straightforward. Open source JavaScript libraries, such as jQuery UI, have made such advanced Web-based user interface elements largely plug-and-play.

4. Social Media Integration and Micro-Conversions

No aspect of digital marketing has escaped the impact of social media. Landing pages are no exception, and their integration with Facebook and Twitter is now common. Consider this example by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Georgia:

Although the primary call-to-action on this page is the "Get Started on a Quote" form near the upper right corner, the option to "Like" the company's sponsored health community on Facebook is a prominent secondary call-to-action. The "Like" option also doubles as a form of social proof, displaying others who have joined.

Such "Likes" and "follows" have become a new kind of micro-conversion, a low hurdle for visitors who are interested in your offerings but who may not yet be ready to take the primary call-to-action. By joining your social network, however, they can stay in the loop and learn more about you over time.

For visitors who are ready to move forward, a social micro-conversion doesn't have to be a disruptive detour. Because Likes and follows happen in-place, via JavaScript, the user stays on the page and can immediately continue on to the primary call-to-action.

Most Web analytics packages, such as Google Analytics and Adobe SiteCatalyst, let you track such social micro-conversions as page events. That's important, especially when you're A/B testing different page designs, because it allows you to weigh their contribution as part of your overall performance metrics.

Note that sometimes social share buttons can make sense on the "thank you" page of your landing experience, after visitors have converted. If your offer (e.g., a webinar) is something that the respondents might deem socially beneficial, they may well consider sharing it with friends and followers.

5. Mobile Accessible in a Multi-Device World

Because of the proliferation of smartphones and tablets, a growing percentage of traffic to landing pages is via mobile device.

In the case of visitors who arrive via tablets, primarily the iPad, you won't have to do much. Generally, your desktop-sized landing pages will render beautifully as is.

However, because the iPad does not support Flash, avoid Flash elements on your landing page, including Flash-based video players. That's not so problematic, however, because almost all Web-based interactive features—such as those described earlier in this article—are implemented using CSS and JavaScript, which work fine on tablets.

Smartphones are a little more challenging because although they can render regular, full-sized Web pages, they require visitors to do a lot of zooming and scrolling with their fingers. That can be a bit frustrating, which is not how you want your respondents to feel.

You can accommodate smartphone users who visit your landing page in two ways. The first is to implement the CSS and HML of your page so that it automatically reflows and adapts itself to the size of the user's browser. Though that solution allows the same page to serve all users, it can also impose constraints on your design and content that may be less than ideal. When A/B testing different designs using this solution, you may find that one design is better for mobile users whereas another is better for desktop users.

A more flexible solution is to implement a separate, simpler page specifically for mobile visitors, such as the following example by Overland Storage:

On your primary landing page, you can redirect visitors who have a mobile "user agent" identifier—e.g., iPhone, Android, Windows Mobile—to the version that is built for their device. (If you're driving traffic from mobile ads, you can skip the redirect and link directly to the mobile landing page.)

The advantage of using two pages—one for smartphones and one for everyone else—is that it lets you tailor the experience on each device without sacrificing the native properties of either. You can run independent A/B tests to optimize each.

For instance, your mobile version might apply a much simpler design, incorporate more one-click choices (because clicking is often easier than scrolling in that context), and emphasize phone numbers that enable instant click-to-call shortcuts.

Brookwood vs Grayson - High School Rivalry done the right way

2011-10-27T16:44:00.000-04:00

Many high school rivalries can get out of hand, and you see in the news all the time kids and parents displaying less than model behavior. So it is very refreshing to see two high schools in Gwinnett County that are having some good ole clean fun with each other in what is really a big time rivalry. Grayson High School and Brookwood High School are two 5A schools that are less than 10 miles apart, and both have excellent athletic programs, academic achievements and some incredibly talented and gifted students.

Those students have recently showed off their talents off the field by creating some fun, entertaining, and honestly very well done videos that poke fun at one another. Their fun is not made at anyone's expense but rather in a good humor and upstanding way.

Thank you Brookwood and Grayson Students for setting yet another good example for our community. You guys have illustrated the concept of competing with vs. competing against. Go hard on the field, but always respect your opponent. My hats off to all of you....