On Motivation

On Motivation

Thinking about the way to maximize people’s involvement in your project, and full-heartedly follow you and push forward your project. How do you motivate them? There is nothing really new on this topic, people studied this area long and thoroughly. David J. Schwartz spoke about it in the The Magic of Thinking Big, illustrated by taking some largely ignored routes, like treating people the human way: “What’s the human approach?” Listening to opinions, never criticize but always praise publicly, using the sandwich approach to feedback … Recent research on human...

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“I will try ..” is a path to failure

“I will try ..” is a path to failure

If the Pygmalion effect describes the dynamic in which an individual lives up to great expectations, the set-up-to-fail syndrome explains the opposite. It is the Golem effect. But I’d like to  see it here from an own personal perspective: an internal view. Why are we so afraid to fail? I think that a great cause of failure is one’s mindset, right from the beginning. We can sabotage ourselves before we even begin, afraid of failure or embarrassment. We are not sure of ourselves, exterior factors, the very conjuncture we can expect, it’s a new / unknown path, close to the...

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Why Am I Doing This Thinking Online

Why Am I Doing This Thinking Online

In the last couple of days I had some debate with my wife on why writing everything down. This can be an annoying habit sometimes, I admit. Though, there is a long way towards I could say I’m exaggerating  Only trying to get out the best of me, and the situation at hand. Then I took some time for really thinking about it. All my big ideas implementation followed through to completion and all accomplishments came like this. Cause what good is a god given strike of genius that only happens into your head, when it dies being forgotten the second day, never having the chance of being...

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What’s a System Engineer

What’s a System Engineer

There is still an active discussion of what System Engineering and the system engineer is all about. I found a very interesting post on the matter here. The historical roots have created some of the differences in these definitions of “systems engineering.” For example, the INCOSE definition comes from its roots in electrical engineering and its early application in places like Bell Labs, the defense industry, and space programs.[1] All systems engineering definitions and all industrial engineering programs share a focus on a set of methods and techniques, although the particular methods and...

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How to: Handling Open Items Files

How to: Handling Open Items Files

We are living in an ocean of information. Always on the edge, laying out new stuff, still having to consider everything for the end result to be in the realm of real, useful and reliable. But how do you cope with that afflux of information, how do you grasp all it’s its intricacies and interconnection. How do you fund out what’s conflicting or missing? Can you hold everything inside your head? I cannot! And that’s why I need a tool to help. Something that can help organizing and managing  every finding of the entire team, and self. Why I found to be very helpful and...

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Managing the Customer – Training Notes

Managing the Customer – Training Notes

Out there, in the working field you sometime find yourself facing or handling all kinds of customers. When you have to deliver “bad news”, say “no” to customers or to people in power, you are often tempted to placate with a “yes”. It is indeed a challenge trying to balance the need to be customer-oriented and the need to deliver difficult messages to our customers. You always want to provide exceptional service to both your internal and external customers. However, in the real world, things might go wrong and mistakes are made. Nevertheless, your goal is to have a happy customer...

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