business

First of all, what is considered a risk? If we are going to identify the risks we will need to know what to look for. I have heard risk defined as the effect of uncertainty on objectives. That definition is all right but a bit too vague. To effectively identify risks for a particular project or initiative, I think you have to be a bit more specific to the objective.

As risk relates to the Project Stream™, best practices would dictate that each level is completed before the next level begins. As indicated in the diagram above, overlapping levels (as shown) will result in incidental risk and compromised results. This is a common occurrence and typically happens when levels stretch out and do not have a disciplined schedule for milestone start and completion.

“Delays have dangerous ends.” – William Shakespeare

When the project start and finish date are fixed, milestone durations should be planned with contingency durations. Otherwise any expansion of a milestone duration may compromise the adjacent milestones or possibly even the overall project risk.

Risk management scheduling is a critical part of project planning. The more time you spend crafting the schedule, the better chance you will have of project success. If you plan it well, you will be able to use the process schedule to effectively manage the project scope, schedule and budget.

“True nobility is exempt from fear.” – William Shakespeare

Make a Plan, Have a Plan. You will be glad you did!

Don’t be afraid to look to the past when crafting your plan for the future.…

Men who are interested in dating transsexuals often get caught up in wondering how to approach dating someone who may not be like a “traditional” woman. I won’t lie, a transsexual woman who was born in a male body is not the same as a genetic woman. However, men should be careful not to treat transsexuals as if they do not have many of the same feelings and desires of any other woman they would meet. Unfortunately, most men online will approach transsexuals as purely sex objects or freaks of nature with no other qualities to be desired. This couldn’t be further from the truth.

It goes without saying that the pornography industry and ignorant elements of society have perpetuated stereotypes of transsexuals as sex objects who offer nothing more to society than to serve as entertainment. It is also commonplace for men to feel that transsexuals somehow are in need of sexual encounters with all of the horny men that come online praying for attention. I am here to tell you that the vast majority of transsexuals are NOT in desperate straights for sexual attention.

If your goal is to date a transsexual woman then you must learn transgender terminology and grasp the concept that transsexuals are seeking out love and friendship just as anyone else would.

One important rule of thumb is knowing what to call a transsexual you are interested in getting to know. DO NOT use the word “shemale.” It is very offensive and will get you nowhere in establishing a meaning friendship or perhaps long term relationship. The word shemale is used in pornography, but is not tolerated by most self respecting transsexual women who are looking to gain the respect that we all deserve no matter our gender. Most transsexuals would prefer just to be called your friend or girlfriend. Whatever specific gender identity they possess is not something that needs to be at the forefront of every conversation or introduction.…

Formula for Change:

Step One:

Assessment of the situation – what is true now & what are the desired goals or results
Here is the start. What is it that you want to be different? You need to discover and be very specific about what is the current situation and how do you want it to be different. To do this, use your Coach's assessment and gather input from all interested and involved parties.

Step Two:

Learning – techniques, tools, etc.
Discover what you need to learn and how to learn it. To do this you need to talk with people. A mentor relationship may be the key to new ideas. Coaching may provide the push. Peers may have advise, opinions, or ideas that you need. Classes, books, or articles may help.

Step Three:

Practice – take action & pay attention

This is a key. You need to take action to have change come about. It does not happen by itself. Use the familiar settings to practice. Or look for new settings to try out your change.

Step Four:

Feedback – score results against goals
Always utilize your own self-analysis – check in with your self right after your practice to see if you obtained the desired results. Independent observers can also be helpful. Pick someone you trust and which opinion you value and ask them to observe you. Then afterward ask for their feedback. Also important is to utilize your Coach's observations and feedback.

Now based upon results you obtain and feedback, go back to either more Learning and / or more Practice. Do not be hard on yourself and keep this cycle up until you obtain your goal. …

Whether you are planning a class reunion or a family reunion, one of the biggest obstacles to overcome is how to get people to purchase tickets for the event.

Planning a reunion is hard enough, but when you don’t know how many people to expect, it is next to impossible. It is very important to know well in advance how many people are coming to the reunion events you are planning. How else can you predict the size of the space you should rent, the amount of food to order, and what kind of entertainment to book?

The following 5 tips are essential if you want to make your life easier as the organizer of your class reunion or family reunion.

1. Generate a lot of interest for the reunion. The best way to do this is to create a class reunion website or family reunion website where you can communicate all of the details of events, and entertain everyone with some great content from years gone by. There are reunion website builders that require no special skills or knowledge to make a professional website that will help in the entire planning process and increase attendance at the reunion.

2. Guarantee your guests that if the reunion ends up getting cancelled they will get a refund. This is another concern that many people have, so if you alleviate this worry, you remove another excuse they may have not to pay for their ticket.

3. Come up with some incentives for people to commit early to the reunion. Offer people an early bird special, and discount the price for people who purchase their tickets by a certain date.

4. Offer people who buy tickets by a certain date a chance at entering a draw to win a prize if they buy their tickets by a certain date. The prize can be a free ticket to the event or a gift that you are able to get for free from a member of the committee.

5. Give people several options to pay for a ticket. That means allowing people to send a check by mail, pay cash in person or pay with a credit card on your class reunion website or family reunion website. Paying by credit card is much easier than writing a check, so if you only accept checks you give people another reason to procrastinate and put off making a decision about coming to the reunion or not.

Another great reason to create a reunion website is that people like to know who else is coming to the reunion. Encourage people to spread the word about the reunion website and update their profiles so people can connect before the big event.…

If you were to ask me to pick one factor that was responsible for conflict–I’d have to choose miscommunication, hands-down, as the primary factor. Why? Because miscommunication opens up the triangle of other factors that inevitably leads to conflict.

Let us discuss this miscommunication conflict triangle. Picture a triangle with miscommunication taking one side, fear taking another, and assumption taking the third side.

Miscommunication

How does miscommunication happen? It happens when one side doesn’t communicate enough information to us, or we misinterpret the real meaning of their words. In either case, we get a different meaning of their words than they intended. With the advent of e-mail and IM chat, this is a becoming a common problem now-a-days because type-based communication is asynchronous communication, meaning that people do not communicate in real time–its essentially a telegram. Asynchronous communication does not allow for immediate feedback response, so our minds have to interpret what the other person is saying based upon their typed words alone. Although most common in typed-based communication, miscommunication can also occur in any type of communication setting. Another common type of miscommunication is no communication or a lack of communication.

Fear

People always fear the worst outcome. In miscommunication, the mind will fill in the missing information with their own creative insight, which is often fear-based. Think of the husband who is out late and forgets to call his wife. Because there is a lack of communication there, she begins to worry and her mind immediately switches to fear mode. Self-talk occurs and it takes the form of her own fears. Did something happen to him? Is he cheating on me? Our minds will always think of the worst possible outcomes based on our fears and insecurities.

Assumption Believed As Truth

Our minds need logical explanations to events. One of our most basic needs is the need to have answers and the need for reasons and explanations. Absent those needs, our minds switch to a fear-based mode where we have to satisfy our need for answers with that of assumption. Assumption is a derivative of fear because we always assume the worst based on our fears and insecurities. Assumption therefore fulfills our need for a logical explanation for the unexplainable event and we tend to become locked into that assumption, believing it as truth. The wife, who might be insecure about their relationship, might remember the time when she caught her husband flirting with the secretary, and her fears will drive her to make the assumption that her husband must have gone out to meet her.

What To Do?

When we are faced with miscommunication, we must keep our minds open to additional possibilities without adopting a certain truth about the other person until we know exactly from them what they are thinking. How can this be accomplished? Well, your fears and assumptions will automatically kick in. There is no way to fend against that because that is how our minds are wired. Instead of adopting those assumptions …