From various engagements, consultants get to see the best practices of top organizations worldwide. A good tool or technique usually becomes part of the consultant’s repertoire of best practices.
In the last few months, I have learned the concept of “the ask”. In a project, you need to have a clear understanding of the “project sponsor’s ask”. What is it that s/he is asking you to deliver?
When delegating tasks to team members, be explicit on what you are “asking” them to do. Do you want them to review the documents and provide feedback, or do you want them to edit and finalize the documents?
Instead of simply forwarding an e-mail with an FYI tell them what to do with it—“no action is needed” or “add a calendar reminder”.
A clear “ask” can expedite the completion of tasks.
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My old car needed a paint job on certain rusty spots. I’m hoping to get a few more years from it for my teenager. I stopped by at the auto shop, got an estimate and then they took in my car.
Tough economic times dictate that we cut costs. Here are three no-cost team building activities that I learned from Scouting.
Just because your company is cutting costs does not mean that you should cut down on team building and training activities as well. We could all use an occasional low-cost team building activity to lift the team’s spirits—and have the team polish their communication, persuasion and negotiation skills in the process.
