Robin's Digest

Management Tip of the Day: Put an End to Procrastination

2011-12-21T09:05:00.001+08:00

To procrastinate may be human but it's not very rewarding. If putting off tasks is hindering your performance or making you unhappy, try these three things:

Identify what you put off. When you find yourself ignoring or delaying a task, ask yourself why. Knowing what you tend to delay can help break the cycle and prevent future procrastination.
Set deadlines. Break up tasks into smaller chunks and then create a schedule with clear due dates for each part.
Increase the rewards. Tasks with rewards far in the future are easy to put off. To make a task feel more immediate, focus on the short-term rewards. If there aren't any, insert your own. Treat yourself to a coffee break or a quick chat with a co-worker once you've finished a task.

The Daily Stat: If You Say I'm Special, I'll Buy

2011-12-21T09:03:00.000+08:00

In an experiment that provided participants with an opportunity to buy a discounted coffee mug, those who were told they had been randomly selected to get the discount were 3 times more likely to want to buy than people who believed everyone got the discount. Researchers Jerry M. Burger and David F. Caldwell of Santa Clara University say such "special" opportunities may be appealing because people's self-esteem is tied to factors that distinguish them from the crowd.

3 Types of Networks You Need

2011-10-25T21:47:00.001+08:00

3 Types of Networks You Need

The old adage "It's not what you know, it's who you know" is truer than ever in today's organizations. But how do you know whom to know? Here are three types of networks it pays to have:

Personal support. Form relationships with people who help you get back on track during a bad day. These may be friends or colleagues with whom you can just be yourself.

Purpose. Include in your network bosses and customers who validate your work, and family members and other stakeholders who remind you that your work has a broader meaning.

Work/life balance. Seek out people who will hold you accountable for activities that improve your physical health, mental engagement, or spiritual well-being.

Management Tip of the Day: 3 Networking Traps to Avoid

2011-10-04T10:55:00.001+08:00

Not all networking is created equally. In fact, developing certain kinds of networks can impair your career rather than bolster it. Here are three networking personas to avoid:

The biased leader. Don't solely rely on advisers who are similar to you. They only reinforce your biases. Look for people who have different backgrounds or values and will encourage you to make more informed decisions.
The superficial networker. A common networking mistake is to engage in surface-level interaction with as many people as possible. A bigger network is not a better one. Be sure your relationships have depth.
The chameleon. Don't change your interests, values, and personality to match those of whomever you're talking to. You'll end up more disconnected than when you started. Be true to who you are.

内在财富决定外在财富

2011-09-26T14:46:00.002+08:00

http://cn.wsj.com/gb/20110923/LJN075151.asp

我专注于精神财富。──约翰•坦普顿

000年7月，我因故避居于哈佛大学。一天，我接到《投资者商务日报》（Investor’s Business Daily，IBD）驻华盛顿记者站站长Brian Mitchell先生打来的电话，说他想写一篇关于“白璧德与中国”的报道，要我谈谈如何看待白璧德对中国的影响。白璧德这个名字，对今天的中国人来说，尤其对中国的投资者而言，相对陌生。但是，对上个世纪初的中国思想文化界来说，可以说是大名鼎鼎。欧文•白璧德（Irving Babbitt，1865─1933），在哈佛大学终身任教，是那个时代美国正统保守主义的思想领袖和主要代言人。

白璧德与中国有着一份不解的渊源。上个世纪二、三十年的中国思想文化界，基本上被两位美国思想家在中国的代理人所瓜分，而且两派之间发生了一场持续的论战。一边是哥伦比亚大学的杜威在中国的代理人胡适与新文化派，一边是哈佛大学的白璧德在中国的代理人梅光迪、吴宓与学衡派。学衡派信奉白璧德，如同胡适的新文化派之膜拜杜威。

白璧德的一些中国弟子们在中国结成了著名的学衡派。他们主办的《学衡》杂志把白璧德的思想传入中国。梅光迪、吴宓、林语堂、梁实秋都曾受教于白璧德门下，并深受其影响。据《吴宓日记》记载，当时正在哈佛大学游学的陈寅恪，曾由吴宓引见，与白璧德有过交流。而陈寅恪的思想带有明显的保守主义特征，这使得白璧德的文化保守主义也在中国现代思想脉络中留下了抹之不去的印痕。

比较起来，白璧德是信宗教的学者，杜威是个信科学的学者。白璧德有信仰、很传统、重道德、很人文；杜威轻视主义，重视问题，很科学、无信仰，世俗而唯物。白璧德认可看不见的超验法则，杜威认可看得见的科学实验。在这场交战，杜威的思想最终取胜。用那位记者的话说，杜威的胜利为后来反信仰的唯物主义的胜利铺平了道路。当然，也为埋藏资本市场和投资铺平了道路。螳螂捕蝉，黄雀在后。在上个世纪的中国，杜威战胜了白璧德，而马克思战胜了杜威。

采访结束，我放下电话，心里却产生了一连串的疑问。我是一位保守主义者，当然很喜欢白璧德的思想。可是，白璧德似乎是与投资者相距最远的人。《投资者商务日报》是证券投资家威廉•奥尼尔（亦称欧奈尔，William O’Neil,《证券投资二十四堂课》、《笑傲股市》的作者，CAN SLIM 投资战略的发明者）创办的一份专为投资者服务的特色专业媒体（Investors.com）。为什么《投资者商务日报》要关心这个话题？不仅如此，还要关心白璧德对中国的影响？我带着这些问题，等待答案自己到来。

我有一个爱好，开车从不听任何电台，而是边开车边听英语语音书。这样，开车也是阅读的继续，而且不消费视力。在我听完了美裔英籍投资大师坦普顿爵士（亦称邓普顿，Sir John Tempelton，1912-2008）的《内在财富的法则：精神与物质富足的原理》（The Laws of Inner Wealth: Principles for Spiritual and Material Abundance）之后，对上述问题的答案就自己浮现出来了。

作为在投资界声名卓著的过来人，坦普顿认为，一个人靠投资取得的财富，是由这个人的内在财富决定的。如果一个人没有内在财富，就算靠运气获得意外之财，也难以守住。想要积累外在的财富，必须先积累内在的财富；要致力于获得外在的财富，必须先获得内在的财富。获得内在的财富是有章法（laws）可循的。获得内在财富的方法，就是获得外在财富的方法。真正的投资者就像一个拾金者，他拾捡的是他内在的财富。他内在的财富越多，他拾到的外在财富就越多。

坦普顿爵士的这个理路完全是保守主义理解世界与事物的理路。就像我们所看到的那些物理法则一样，世界，包括人类和人类事物，是受一些恒久不变的法则支配的。人类不仅受外在的物理法则的支配，而且受内在的精神法则的支配。这些法则不是君王、投资者等凡人制定的，而是先天自在的，独立于所有人的意志的。人所能做的，不是自行制定或重写这些法则，而是去努力发现并遵循这些法则。白璧德所致力于的是揭示内在生活的真理，坦普顿所致力于的是揭示内在财富的法则。他们都很重视精神的力量，认为精神的法则无比重要。

坦普顿爵士还使用了一个特别的概念：精神红利（spiritual dividends）。精神红利来自一个人的精神财富。对投资者而言，精神红利有两种类型。一种是内在的红利，是对灵魂的回报（dividends in the soul），这种红利表现为你热爱你所从事的获得内在财富的工作；还表现为，你因为具有内在的财富而获得心灵上的安宁（peace of mind）。而精神红利的外在表现是奖励与你的内在精神财富相匹配的外在的物质财富。

在坦普顿看来，所谓投资，就是发现并遵从内在财富的法则，积累你的内在财富，适当的时候，打开你的精神财富的水龙头，你的物质财富将汨汨流出源源不断，并成就你的卓越和你的生命！因为你的内在财富决定了你的外在财富。

（作者刘军宁，北京大学政治学博士，中国文化研究所研究员，著有《保守主义》、《共和·民主·宪政》、《权力现象》等。文中所述仅代表他个人观点，您可以通过新浪微博与作者联系。）

Management Tip of the Day: 3 Ways to Build Confidence

2011-07-27T16:52:00.000+08:00

Few people succeed in business without self-assurance. But, everyone has bouts of insecurity from time to time. Here are three ways you can bolster your confidence:

Be honest. Know what you're good at and what you still need to learn. With an accurate assessment of your abilities you can tell the difference between self-doubt and lack of skill.
Practice. If there's a job or task that you're worried about, practice doing it. Preparation builds both skill
and confidence.
Embrace new opportunities. Playing to your strengths is smart, but not if it means you don't try new things. Conquer fresh challenges to remind yourself what you are capable of.

Manage Without Micromanaging

2011-05-25T10:53:00.000+08:00

from Harvard Business Review

Both new and experienced managers can struggle with how be involved in their employees' work without micromanaging. You want to be hands-on and provide support, but still give them autonomy to make decisions. There are two stages where it makes sense to engage more deeply: preparation and review. When the employee is laying out the plans for her work, your role is to ask crucial questions: Who should be involved? How does this fit into your goals? These conversations will assure you the employee is prepared and ready to act on her own. When the project is complete, do a post-action review. Reflect on what worked, what didn't, and what the employee learned. There's no need to get involved in between unless the employee is a novice or problems arise.

The Only Way to Get Important Things Done

2011-05-25T10:36:00.000+08:00

The Only Way to Get Important Things Done

"How can I get 7-8 hours of sleep when I'm with my kids from the moment I arrive home, and I need some time for myself before bed?"

"How can I find time to exercise when I have to get up early in the morning and I'm exhausted by the time I get home in the evening?"

"How can I possibly keep up when I get 200 emails a day?"

"When is there time to think reflectively and strategically?"

These are the sorts of plaintive questions I'm asked over and over again when I give talks these days, whether they're at companies, conferences, schools, hospitals or government agencies.

Most everyone I meet feels pulled in more directions than ever, expected to work longer hours, and asked to get more done, often with fewer resources. But in these same audiences, there are also, invariably, a handful of people who are getting things done, including the important stuff, and somehow still managing to have a life.

What have they figured out that the rest of their colleagues have not?

The answer, surprisingly, is not that they have more will or discipline than you do. The counterintuitive secret to getting things done is to make them more automatic, so they require less energy.

It turns out we each have one reservoir of will and discipline, and it gets progressively depleted by any act of conscious self-regulation. In other words, if you spend energy trying toresist a fragrant chocolate chip cookie, you'll have less energy left over to solve a difficult problem. Will and discipline decline inexorably as the day wears on.

"Acts of choice," the brilliant researcher Roy Baumeister and his colleagues have concluded, "draw on the same limited resource used for self-control." That's especially so in a world filled more than ever with potential temptations, distractions and sources of immediate gratification.

At the Energy Project, we help our clients develop something we call rituals — highly specific behaviors, done at precise times, so they eventually become automatic and no longer require conscious will or discipline.

The proper role for your pre-frontal cortex is to decide what behavior you want to change, design the ritual you'll undertake, and then get out of the way. "It is a profoundly erroneous truism that we should cultivate the habit of thinking of what we are doing," the philosopher A.N. Whiteheadexplained back in 1911. "The precise opposite is the case. Civilization advances by extending the number of operations we can perform without thinking about them."

Indeed many great performers aren't even consciously aware that's what they've done. They've built their rituals intuitively.

Over the past decade, I've built a series of rituals into my everyday life, in order to assure that I get to the things that are most important to me — and that I don't get derailed by the endlessly alluring trivia of everyday life.

Here are the five rituals that have made the biggest difference to me:

Abiding by a specific bedtime to ensure that I get 8 hours of sleep. Nothing is more critical to the way I feel every day. If I'm flying somewhere and know I'll arrive too late to get my 8 hours, I make it a priority to make up the hours I need on the plane.
Work out as soon as I wake up. I've long since learned it has a huge impact all day long on how I feel, even if I don't initially feel like doing it.
Launching my work day by focusing first on whatever I've decided the night before is the most important activity I can do that day. Then taking a break after 90 minutes to refuel. Today — which happens to be a Sunday — this blog was my priority. My break was playing tennis for an hour. During the week it might be just to breathe for five minutes, or get something to eat.
Immediately writing down on a list any idea or task that occurs to me over the course of the day. Once it's on paper, it means I don't walk around feeling preoccupied by it — or risk forgetting it.
Asking myself the following question any time I feel triggered by someone or something,: "What's the story I'm telling myself here and how could I tell a more hopeful and empowering story about this same set of facts?"

Obviously, I'm human and fallible, so I don't succeed at every one of these, every day. But when I do miss one, I pay the price, and I feel even more pulled to it the next day.

A ritual, consciously created, is an expression of fierce intentionality. Nothing less will do, if you're truly determined to take control of your life.

The good news is that once you've got a ritual in place, it truly takes on a life of its own.

Network for Quality, Not Quantity

2011-05-12T10:00:00.000+08:00

from: Harvard Business Review

If you were to take the advice of some self-help books on networking, you would amass as many Facebook friends and LinkedIn connections as possible. But research shows that bigger networks are not necessarily better. In fact, large networks can hurt your performance by putting too many collaborative demands on you. The people who network successfully tend to have more ties to people who are not very connected themselves. People with connections to the less-connected are more likely to hear about ideas that haven't gotten exposure elsewhere, and are able to piece together unique opportunities. Don't treat networking like a popularity contest. Find ways to connect with more than the usual suspects by reaching out to those who aren't surrounded by others.

Management Tip of the Day: Give Up Your Guild Mindset

2011-01-26T01:04:00.000+08:00

Give Up Your Guild Mindset

Guilds were set up in the Middle Ages to protect and further the skills and knowledge of their members. For example, blacksmiths might band together to defend trade secrets and corner markets. Unfortunately, this mentality is still alive and well in many companies today in the form of silos. Functions like marketing, sales, and IT have their areas of special expertise and at times expend energy trying to guard it from others. Competition between functions can be helpful, but not if it leads to unproductive jousting. Nurture the healthy instinct to compete but focus it on external forces — not internal ones. Functions should work together to become a team of specialists that spans silos.

Management Tip of the Day: Get Your Idea Approved

2011-01-12T00:37:00.000+08:00

When you have a great idea, don't assume that others will share your enthusiasm for it. Whether a recommendation or proposal is approved is often less about the value of the idea itself than how it is presented. Here are three things you can do to give your next proposal a fighting chance:

Build allies. Meet with stakeholders before you need their formal approval to generate interest and pre-sell them on the idea.
Keep it simple. Don't weigh your proposal down with tons of data and analysis. Too many details can distract an audience. Be straightforward and concise.
Highlight the benefits. Your audience will want to know what's in it for them. Be sure to position the idea in terms of the benefits they stand to gain.

Daily Stat: Groupon Leaves Some Businesses Dissatisfied

2010-12-13T00:48:00.001+08:00

42% of a sample of 150 businesses that ran Groupon promotions between June 2009 and August 2010 said they wouldn't run a Groupon promotion again, according to a study of the social-media coupon site by Utpal M. Dholakia of Rice University. One of the main reasons: A significant proportion of Groupon redeemers are extremely price sensitive, barely spending beyond a discounted product's face value. Google has bid to purchase Groupon for $6 billion.

Management Tip of the Day: Abolish Great Meetings

2010-12-02T20:31:00.000+08:00

Abolish Great Meetings

Having a "great meeting" often means that everyone in the room agreed on a topic without debate or discomfort. Yet, most great ideas are born from conflict and differences of opinion, rather than effortlessly run meetings. Next time you are organizing a meeting, don't focus on making it go smoothly. Instead, pay attention to moving your business objective forward. Only invite people who truly have a stake in the goal, not those who have a territorial claim or just want to be heard. Good results come from complex, iterative, and challenging processes. Rather than making sure your ideas and discussion fit perfectly into the hour time frame, be willing to leave the issue unresolved and have another "bad" meeting to follow up.

The Daily Stat: Unimportant Posts Can Get You Unfriended on Facebook

2010-11-09T23:25:00.001+08:00

The number 1, 2, and 3 reasons why people get unfriended on Facebook are: Frequent, unimportant posts; posts about polarizing topics such as politics; and inappropriate posts, such as racist comments, according to research by Christopher Sibona, a graduate student at the University of Colorado Denver. 57% of respondents to his survey unfriended for online reasons, while 27% did so for offline behavior.
Source: Business School student finds top reasons for Facebook unfriending

Why expensive consultancy firms are giving away more research

2010-11-05T15:28:00.001+08:00

from economist: original article here

IN THE run-up to the climate-change conference in Copenhagen last year, a curvy graph was passed around by policymakers and NGOs. It showed various options for cutting carbon-dioxide emissions. At one end of the chart were simple efficiency improvements which would both cut CO2 and save money; at the other end were costly technologies like nuclear power and carbon capture. Climate-watchers found the graph useful for demonstrating how many money-saving or cheap technologies there were. As one veteran put it, “We all speak McKinsey’s language now.” The graph was indeed put together not by a tree-hugging NGO, but by the for-profit consultancy.

All consulting firms seek to provide what they annoyingly call “thought leadership”. McKinsey’s rival, the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), became well known in part by distributing its ideas freely. Consultancies now put out short opinionated papers as well as data-laden reports such as BCG’s recent one on wind power in China or PricewaterhouseCooper’s on electronic health records. Fiona Czerniawska of Sourceforconsulting.com says the number of such reports from the top 25 firms has quintupled since 2004. Free reports are expensive to produce: Tom Rodenhauser of Kennedy Information, a firm that monitors consultancies, reckons they cost up to 5% of gross revenues. Are they worth it?

Ironically, given how much grief they would give a client who failed to answer such a question precisely, the consultancies cannot prove they are. Clients rarely say they hire a firm on the strength of its free publications. But the firms nonetheless defend the growing practice as a form of marketing. Costly consultancies like BCG and McKinsey are hired by chief executives or those near that rank. Their reports (and, increasingly, their webinars and podcasts) are an excuse to contact potential clients and a way of boasting about the brainpower they can apply to problems.

Thought-provoking reports also help recruit the talented. Many graduates join consultancies and put up with being merely affluent—instead of joining investment banks and becoming obscenely rich—for the intellectual stimulation that consulting seems to offer. BCG, for example, recently invited all its staff with doctorates (a few dozen) to a conference to swap Big Ideas. Many of the ideas, from biology to musicology, influenced the subsequent year’s research programme.

Producing free research especially helps young consultants prove their worth, both to clients and to others within the firm. Christopher McKenna, a historian of consulting at Oxford University, says clients may balk at paying handsomely for a “young punk” of a consultant. A young punk who has written an impressive paper is a different matter. Spots for year-long stays at the consultancies’ in-house think-tanks such as the McKinsey Global Institute, BCG’s Strategy Institute and the IBM Institute for Business Value are fought over fiercely.

Is the research they produce any good? Some thought leadership is “academic masturbation”, says Mr Rodenhauser, but some of it is excellent: McKinsey’s analysis of China’s economic data, for example, or IBM’s specialist writing on technology. The effect of putting out free reports may be hard to measure, but Lenny Mendonca, McKinsey’s head of knowledge development, is not about to stop. “We only worry if we’re spending enough,” he says.

$$$ comes slowly

2010-09-21T15:47:00.000+08:00

打工就像储蓄，虽然稳定，但赚不了太多

What's Out

2010-08-23T00:40:00.002+08:00

按需分配

2010-08-23T00:31:00.000+08:00

什麼叫按需分配，就是當你剪短頭髮後洗頭液少用一些，長(zhang 3)長(chang 2)後多用一些。

KPMG Buys Supply Chain Consultancy

2010-07-21T15:20:00.000+08:00

Auditing firm acquires Grant Thornton consulting division to expand capabilities

KPMG announced the acquisition Monday of the U.S.-based supply chain consulting division of Grant Thornton, expanding the auditing firm's financial and operations services.

KPMG will retain 23 supply chain professionals employed at Grant Thornton. The purchase for an undisclosed sum includes the group’s proprietary software and contracts with what KPMG said are “select Fortune 500 companies.”

KPMG said the purchase comes as more companies are undertaking top-to-bottom restructuring of operations, from supplier relationships to financial management across the supply chain.

“As the already strong demand for large scale transformation and restructuring assistance continues to grow, this acquisition helps us provide the functional breadth and depth needed by large organizations across several key industry sectors," said Mark A. Goodburn, vice chairman and head of advisory at KPMG. “It's also consistent with our continuing strategy to build superior large-scale transformation capabilities to serve the world's top organizations.”

from JOC: KPMG Buys Supply Chain Consultancy

10 Rules to Instantly Improve Your Presentations

2010-05-31T22:03:00.000+08:00

10 Rules to Instantly Improve Your Presentations

排行榜：英国《金融时报》全球五百强企业排名 - FT中文网

2010-05-31T21:04:00.000+08:00

排行榜：英国《金融时报》全球五百强企业排名 - FT中文网

100 Search Engines Every Business Student Should Bookmark

2010-05-26T23:24:00.000+08:00

100 Search Engines Every Business Student Should Bookmark

省心又赚钱的“全天候”投资组合

2010-05-24T01:23:00.001+08:00

要

是有一种"全天候"投资组合，虽然构成几乎是一成不变的，却能够在几乎所有的市场环境下表现得可圈可点，你会有兴趣吗？

我觉得答案会是肯定的──特别是在经历了又一天令人难以置信的动荡之后。在这一天中，道琼斯工业股票平均价格指数由涨变跌，从前市上涨近100点到收盘跌了115点。

Management Tip of the Day: Think Twice Before Updating Your Facebook Status

2010-05-16T17:07:00.000+08:00

It's becoming an increasingly common storyline: job candidate loses job opportunity because prospective boss finds unflattering information online. If you think you might be in the job market any time soon, or ever really, be sure that you think twice before you post anything online. This applies to photos, comments on blogs, tweets — anything that can be linked back to you. Even small bits of information or comments that you feel are innocuous could count against you with future employers. This doesn't mean you have to avoid all online activity, just be careful and thoughtful about the image you send to anyone who wants to know more about you.

The Daily Stat: Transformation Efforts Need Grassroots Input

2010-05-12T21:57:00.001+08:00

Employee engagement is a key success factor for organizational transformation. In a recent McKinsey survey, nearly 100% of respondents who characterized their companies' change-management initiatives as extremely successful said employees could contribute ideas to shape the efforts. And nearly aquarter of the extremely successful transformations were planned by groups of 50 or more, compared with just 6% of unsuccessful transformations.