1. Integration. Integrating people into the organization was the original purpose of training. You trained employees so that they could continue the systems, purpose, and procedures of the organization. Take the Roman Empire, for instance. “The Roman Empire grew so large and survived so long because there was no car, no radio, no papers, and no phone. You appointed your governor to run a province, fully trained him at headquarters before he went, and then sent him off to run it.” (Antony Jay). In many big organizations, integration is still the number one reason for training people.

2. Beating the Competition. Today, just knowing how the organization functions isn’t enough to ensure its survival and that of the people in it. When faced by intense competition, employees who are well-informed, well-skilled, and highly committed become the chief reason for an organization’s success. As former head of General Motors, Jack Welch, said, “An organisation’s ability to learn, and to translate that learning into action rapidly, is the ultimate competitive advantage.”

3. Developing Assets. It is only in the last few decades that people have woken up to the fact that their employees are their most valuable asset. When that asset is developed, it becomes more valuable to the organization as well as the employees. A study by Robert Zemsky and Susan Sharman of the University of Pennsylvania found that a 10% increase in training spend resulted in an 8.5% increase in productivity. A similar increase in capital expenditure resulted in only a 3.8% increase in productivity. In other words, training pays.

4. Performance. It is strange that, while we would never accept that a top-class athlete, doctor or circus performer could ever achieve high standards without training, we so often ignore training in the workplace. We argue that we don’t have time to train, or the means to do it, or that nothing changes afterwards. But, if it can work in every other profession, why not in the workplace? After all, would you want to be operated on by an untrained surgeon?

5. Change. The rapid changes of recent years have transformed the way we view training at work. Where once it was something given to the unskilled and under-performing by specialist departments, now it is an essential for everyone.

“Whereas in former years an organisation could expect reasonable periods of technological stability between waves of change, today in more and more industries, one change rapidly follows another. The purpose of training is to help people develop skills not only for today’s technology but for tomorrow’s and the day after’s. Learning has to be continuous for everyone because organisations face continual change in products, services, processes, markets, competition and technology.” (”Training for new technology”)

6. Practice. One of the most important aspects of training is that it allows people to get things right for when it really matters. In his book “Global Challenge”, Humphrey Walters describes how his yacht crew prepared for the BT round-the-world race with an intensive period of training. When their yacht hit the Southern Indian Ocean, disaster struck: one of the crew went overboard. The rest of the crew had just 4 minutes to save him. Their pre-race training meant they knew exactly what to do. Without the training, he would have certainly drowned.

7. Developing Excellence. We are all born with talents and gifts which nobody else quite possesses as we do. Unfortunately, the vast majority of people either live in total ignorance of their potential or fail to develop it. When professional developers discover people’s unique potential, nurture it, build on it, develop it, and release it, they do far more than help those people perform. They create excellence.

“Luciano Pavarotti, arguably the greatest tenor in the world, was an average singer in the boys’ choir at school. But, by studying, practicing, and rigorous training, he became a peak performance of excellence.” (Charles Garfield)

Without training and development, an organization today is likely to struggle to beat the competition, achieve high levels of productivity, or keep its best workers. Put training at the top of your people agenda, and your success is almost guaranteed.

© Eric Garner, ManageTrainLearn.com

For instant solutions to all your management training needs, visit www.managetrainlearn.com and download amazing FREE training software. And while you’re there, make sure you try out our prize quiz, get your surprise bonus gift, and subscribe to our fortnightly newsletter. Go and get the ManageTrainLearn experience now!

On one level, I agree with what you say. But I believe very few of us find what you describe. We end up settling when we reach a point at which we realize it is either that or being alone.

I, for one, have never felt what you describe and recently have come to terms that I will not. I am 50, outgoing, attractive and independent, with two children who are blessings I would never have if I did not “settle.” I know I will never make that mistake again, and I find I am alone and probably always will be.

Is love the luck of the draw? Are some of us just luckier than others? Or is it something lacking in me? I would love to know.

Linda

Linda, sixty years ago the science fiction writer René Barjavel asked what would happen if you traveled back in time and killed your grandfather before he met your grandmother. Could this happen? If it did, you would not exist, so how could you travel back in time? This dilemma is known as the grandfather paradox.

When you “settled,” how did you know the next man wouldn’t have been the perfect one for you? How did you know the children wouldn’t have been his and your children? When you are of the mindset of settling, you’re not thinking of love but of other things–marriage, a house, children. You’ve traded love for a time schedule.

When you “settle” for a house, how many more houses do you visit with your real estate agent? None. How do you know the next house wouldn’t be the one of your heart’s desire? When you are dating, married to, or pregnant by a man you settled for, how likely is it you can see or be seen by the one for you?

It would be as easy for us to say your children would have been in your future, if you’d waited. Now you want to discount this idea again, but you are closer to it now than when you settled–because now you don’t want to settle. This has more to do with patience than with luck. You don’t stop trying to balance your checkbook until things balance.

Perhaps it is your fate to come to this knowing now. Why could this not happen for you now? Why not tomorrow or next month or next year? When you are living your life fully, engaging with others, knowing what you want, why not now?

Wayne & Tamara

Theoretically Speaking

My relationship started off as a holiday romance and has had trouble developing into a normal relationship. We met in Spain and fell for each other immediately. We were both over the moon, but when we moved in together, things began to deteriorate.

He wasn’t sure what he wanted. I felt neglected and reacted badly by contacting an old flame. He thinks I nag. Once, in a rage, I told him I don’t want to be with him anymore. Now he’s angry and refuses to speak to me until he thinks things through. It upsets me because I know we’re both very much in love, but no matter what we do we can’t seem to make it work.

Jayne

Jayne, in science competing theories are tested against each other to determine which is true. You believe you and your boyfriend are in love. That is your claim.

We have an alternative hypothesis. It was a holiday fling. On our side we point to verbal rage, nagging, confusion, and unfaithfulness. What evidence is there for your theory?

Wayne & Tamara

Direct Answers - Column for the week of September 20, 2004

About The Author

Authors and columnists Wayne and Tamara Mitchell can be reached at www.WayneAndTamara.com.

Send letters to: Direct Answers, PO Box 964, Springfield, MO 65801 or email: DirectAnswers@WayneAndTamara.com.

Dave Wright is a retired television reporter and editor of www.pppretirementplans.com> PPP Retirement a site dedicated to the development of Positive, Productive and Profitable creative challenges to take you into and through retirement. He is also the producer of www.quotationmovies.com> Quotation Movies - mini-movies featuring a series of motivational quotations over spectacular landscape pictures.

Copyright © 2006 PPP Dave Wright - Reprints allowed but must include Resource Box.

In order to answer many of these questions I will draw on my own personal experience of having been a psychiatrist/psychotherapist for almost 20 years and for having been directly affected by “compassion fatigue”.

Much of my training was in traditional psychotherapeutic modalities i.e. analytical psychotherapy, interpersonal therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, as well as more alternative forms of therapy such as analytical hypnotherapy, imagery work and EMDR. My journey, as I think is the journey of most therapists, has been to find the most effective modality for my clients. The list I gave above is some indication of the time and energy I spent trying to achieve this end.

What was the net result of my efforts however? Well, in truth, over my 20 odd years in practice I found my emotional and physical energy becoming progressively drained. So much so that I developed what some might call Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.
What I came to recognize it as however was a state of “Spiritual Life Energy Depletion” (SLED for short).

My case of SLED is what I believe many therapists are now calling Compassion Fatigue. So what is SLED?

Well it’s just what it implies, a depletion of my spiritual life energy. Another way of saying that is that I was less and less present in my physical body because my “life energy” had been used up. Now since I am my life energy and my life energy is me that’s equivalent to saying that “I was used up”.

Hence the clients who were coming into to my office were (knowingly or unknowingly) essentially using up my life energy to sustain themselves. In the meanwhile I was being drained, being used up, or more dramatically I was dying! That’s what it means for one’s life energy to be drained or used up.

After I realized that this is not where I wanted to be I had to do some serious soul searching to understand what I had gotten myself into. I was of the mind that helping others was supposed to help one feel uplifted, joyful, content, fulfilled, energized, alive and loving life. Well clearly this wasn’t happening to me. In my view, it probably is an illusion that many therapists are still futilely searching for. In the process they too are being “used up”! Therefore we now have “Compassion Fatigue”.

On reflection I had the following insights:

1. I had to find a way out of this negative energy vortex that was killing me.

2. I had to reassess my definition of what it meant to “help” others.

3. I had to find a new direction which was aligned with a more honest definition of what it meant to truly “help others”. One that was positive for both client and facilitator (I now no longer use the term therapist in relation to this new approach because it reflects a construct from the old tradional approach which I no longer entertain).

So I made the only decision (which some have said was courageous, but in my view was the only one I could make) and that was to leave behind everything I had spent most of my life working towards, my career.

On reflecting on the nature of “helping others” in a genuine way I developed a new approach which I call the Mind Resonance Process(TM) (MRP). MRP is an approach to helping others which diverges from the notion underlying my traditional training (i.e. that the way to help is to sustain your clients with your life energy, even if most therapists don’t even realize that this is what they are doing) and which supports both client and facilitator in what is essentially true about each of them.

This goes something like this:

Both facilitator and client are Divine Beings. The only thing that keeps them from recognizing this and living this are the conditioned beliefs that they carry about themselves and others. MRP is a tool that assists clients in releasing such conditioned beliefs thereby allowing them to remember and re-experience their true Divine Nature.

As one undergoes the MRP experience they reconnect to their own Life Energy in such a way that they no longer feel a need to “suck” life energy from the “therapist’ or others, for that matter, in order to go on functioning and living.

Another way of seeing what is going on here is that rather than individuals buying into the notion that life energy is limited (and therefore can only be secured from someone else) that instead it is avaliable in abundance and is accessible directly through an experience of one’s Divine Self. One just needs to find it there within them. This is the power of MRP.

The net result for both facilitator and client post MRP is that both experience a rise in their energy level, a greater feeling of aliveness, a feeling of lightness, a greater feeling a inner peace and calmness, greater emotional resilience, greater feelings of love and compassion, more inspired and able to reclaim control over every aspect of their lives and so much more.

In my view this experience, which I have repeatedly with clients is what I had always been looking for, for my self and others.

If you are a therapist suffering from something akin to Compassion Fatigue or an individual looking for a new experience of being helped kindly visit the web link below for an introductory consultation with MRP.

Dr. Nick Arrizza is trained in Chemical Engineering, Business Management & Leadership, Medicine and Psychiatry. He is an Energy Psychiatrist, Healer, Key Note Speaker,Editor of a New Ezine Called “Spirituality And Science” (which is requesting high quality article submissions) Author of “Esteem for the Self: A Manual for Personal Transformation” (available in ebook format on his web site), Stress Management Coach, Peak Performance Coach & Energy Medicine Researcher, Specializes in Life and Executive Performance Coaching, is the Developer of a powerful new tool called the Mind Resonance Process(TM) that helps build physical, emotional, mental and spiritual well being by helping to permanently release negative beliefs, emotions, perceptions and memories. He holds live workshops, international telephone coaching sessions and international teleconference workshops on Physical. Emotional, Mental and Spiritual Well Being.

Business URL #1: http://www.telecoaching4u.com

Personal URL: http://www.telecoaching4u.com/Spirituality_And_Science.htm

1. The Bald Patch

2. My height

3. My weight

4. The stutter

5. My lack of belief in myself

6. My career

THE BALD PATCH

Even though to some people it may seem trivial, I was born with a bald patch the size of a ten pence piece. As I went through childhood and especially the teenage years I became more and more self-conscious and paranoid about it.

It was especially noticeable when it rained or when I went swimming as my hair would become wet. People at school would ridicule me and I was forever trying to hide and cover the bald patch even though most people knew about it.

It hurt when people laughed at me and eventually I stopped going swimming altogether.

MY HEIGHT

Out of all of my close male family and friends, I am the shortest at 5ft 4. This probably should not influence my confidence however with people continually looking down on me it did. I have been called many names, the nicest being “Shorty”.

I was always jealous of other people taller than I was. I hoped that one day I might have a late spurt. This never came.

My height affected me with sport. I wanted to be a striker at football however the coaches only wanted people over 6ft tall. At snooker I am constantly have to use the rest which makes it difficult to play up to the best standard and at tennis I was constantly being lobbed. It also meant that I only felt comfortable dating women 5ft 3 and under which reduces the available market considerably.

MY WEIGHT

During senior school I was very thin. This may have been the result of my parents turning vegetarian when I was twelve. At the time there were very few replacement foods and it seemed as though we went from having meat and two veg to just two veg.

As my parents cooked the food I had little option but to also turn vegetarian. After a few weeks I approached them and told them that I missed and wanted to eat meat. They were understanding to a degree and said:

“If you want it, you cook it”

At this age I could only really be bothered to cook properly a few days of the week and that gradually became less and less.

People at school would call me names like skin and bone and my weight became another area of paranoia for me.

THE STUTTER

At the age of four I developed a stutter. This became gradually worse as I became older even though my parents were told that I would grow out of it.

For what fluent people would class as simple tasks like reading from a book at school, answering questions, saying my name and address, ordering items at the bar or in a restaurant, and speaking on the telephone became a constant battle.

It was a very frustrating impediment, as I seemed to be able to talk quite fluently to people I knew well and whom I felt comfortable with, but at other times especially under any form of pressure could not say a word.

At the age of twenty two after about eleven months of sheer hard work and practice I managed to overcome the stutter and I now help other people who stutter to achieve fluency as well as helping people with confidence problems.

MY LACK OF BELIEF

I always had a lack of belief in certain areas.

I would notice a female in a bar for example and would want to go over and talk to her but would have the negative attitude of I’m not good enough, why would she be interested in me? I stutter, I have a bald patch, I have a menial job and I am very thin.

Even if I approach her and am successful, I would then be expected to buy her a drink, possibly phone her, possibly meet her parents, and maybe even get married! The thought of attempting these things with a stutter and with a lack of social confidence was far too daunting for me.

I left school at sixteen mainly due to a lack of confidence and the stutter, but then had the problem of finding a job. Again my lack of belief came shining through. Who would want to employ somebody with a stutter, who has a lack of confidence and who is shy around people?

MY CAREER

After leaving school at the age of sixteen I now had to find employment. Suffering with a stutter and a general lack of confidence meant that work involving the phone or regular interaction with other people were not really an option.

I decided that I could probably cope with filing duties in an office and eventually gained a position at an insurance company.

I started at the lowest grade, a grade two and the work was routine and mundane. The average time to stay at this level before being promoted was six months. The grade three post involved sharing a phone and this is something I found very difficult to use.

To become upgraded you had to apply in writing to the personal officer and then if you passed the interview were then promoted. My attitude was that if I don’t apply I would stay as a grade two, which is what I wanted. I was probably the only person in the country who did not want to be promoted.

My boss would ask me at regular intervals why I was not applying and I would make up an excuse. To keep him happy I took the insurance exams. After three years I had completed the first qualification which was a set of five exams. To my horror my boss congratulated me by stating that he was upgrading me to a grade three starting Monday without the need of an interview.

This promotion should in effect have given me a confidence boost however with my stutter out of control under the pressure and some of my colleagues mocking me I became more and more withdrawn and depressed.

I would be invited to social events and would make up excuses of why I could not go as I had a lack of belief that I could cope with the occasion and all the socialising involved.

Stephen Hill has a number of websites including:

stuttering
therapy

alternative health treatments

lasik surgery

Don’t worry, if you think you are behind the times, because you are not. People are just starting to get wind of the “Feeds Method” of gathering information. But if you prepare now, there’s a good chance you may be well ahead of your competition.

The good news is that feeds are good for any size business, even if you don’t have a web site. Companies such as ours, provides for any size business, online or offline, big or small, to get their information to their customers safely.

The big reason feeds are becoming so popular is that there is no transfer of information to the user’s computer. Unlike e-mail there is no data sent to the user’s hard drive. The user cannot be spammed or sent junk mail or download a virus using a feeds reader. The feeds reader user, your customers etc., controls the information they view.

Business finds it exciting because people will use the feeds reader to gather information and stay updated on products, services and information they have an interest in. Some businesses, that have been using mailing lists, have been frustrated in the last couple of years with the increase of Spam and junk mail filters. Many of their customers simple do not receive or read the messages sent because the filters read the mail as Spam or Junk Mail and most times deleted.

As well small, and home based businesses, can now get equal billing with the world’s largest companies. On our site we list the smallest company with the biggest. It’s up to the user which feeds they enter into their reader to view.

How It Works.

Consumers, or web surfers use a reader to view feeds. Let’s say a consumer visits your web site and you have a feed for them to use if they wish. You would list the feed URL for them to copy and a small icon that indicates if it is an RSS or XML file etc. They copy and paste the feed URL into their reader and view you feed. The feed has one or more items. Each item has a title, such as “ABC Home Decor”, a small description such as “Visit our store or web site to get 40% off all in stock furniture”, and a link to the page you want your visitors to view on your web site or if you don’t have a web site a page we would provide you.

The feed itself, which can contain one or many items, is a basic file. It is a RSS or XML file that is stored on your server or on ours. The consumer reads the file with a reader. The file is not a web page but similar to an e-mail message without the data transfer to the user’s computer.

You can update the feed 24/7, thus having the most up to date information on hand for the viewer of the feed. Whether you run a large online or offline corporation, a small business in a small town, or a home business, you can update your customers and potential customers immediately and 24/7.

The Bottom Line.

Really you don’t need to know how feeds work, unless you are going to do it yourself. Simply understand that feeds are an exciting new communication tool that anyone can use. They are safe, and can be updated in real time. Feeds are easy to add to readers and easy to implement on your web site or from your offline business. They are something you should seriously consider for your business.

Try out feeds and how they work with our free reader at:
1Feed.com

About The Author

Bob Power has been an Internet entrepreneur for longer than he would like to remember. He is currently on a voyage of learning, thanks to his readers, who have asked him to answer questions about topics they want more information on. You can see some of the surprising, and at times exciting results, and variety of topics and paths this has taken him on at…
What I Now Know.

These articles my be reproduced exactly as shown above. No revisions or changes are permitted. Please e-mail Bob to let him know where you are using the article.

There are other useful definitions in this field, for example, creativity can be defined as consisting of a number of ideas, a number of diverse ideas and a number of novel ideas.

There are distinct processes that enhance problem identification and idea generation and, similarly, distinct processes that enhance idea selection, development and commercialisation. Whilst there is no sure fire route to commercial success, these processes improve the probability that good ideas will be generated and selected and that investment in developing and commercialising those ideas will not be wasted.

Synergy of Craft and Art

The synergy of craft and art combine to produce quality creativity. The exact definition of art depends on the precise endeavour, but craft can be more universally articulated and includes:

a) Structure. Ideas are much easier to develop when they are situated within a framework.

b) Process. A coherent work process increases output and a consistently refined process consistently refines and improves the quality of output. Improves methodology, knowledge and procedure to eventually maximise performance.

c) Incremental productivity. Breaks up a larger whole into smaller, more manageable pieces. Produces more output than a “do your best” approach.

d) Prolific production. Increases the probability of quality occurring. The most valuable creations tend to be produced when the creator is being most prolific.

These and other topics are covered in depth in the MBA dissertation on Managing Creativity & Innovation, which can be purchased (along with a Creativity and Innovation DIY Audit, Good Idea Generator Software and Power Point Presentation) from http://www.managing-creativity.com/

You can also receive a regular, free newsletter by entering your email address at this site.

Kal Bishop, MBA

**********************************

You are free to reproduce this article as long as no changes are made and the author’s name and site URL are retained.

Kal Bishop is a management consultant based in London, UK. He has consulted in the visual media and software industries and for clients such as Toshiba and Transport for London. He has led Improv, creativity and innovation workshops, exhibited artwork in San Francisco, Los Angeles and London and written a number of screenplays. He is a passionate traveller. He can be reached on http://www.managing-creativity.com/

Golden Globe performer James Gandolfini plays the title role of Tony Soprano, a middle-aged father of two, loving husband, and successful businessman. But contrary to a typical sitcom, Tony finds himself irritated by his kids Anthony and Meadow (Robert Iler and Jamie Lynn Sigler), he cheats on his wife Carmela (Edie Falco), and the business organization responsible for his success is the mafia (of which he is the local boss). All the confusion in Tony’s life leads to massive amounts of stress, prompting him to regularly visit a therapist, Dr. Jennifer Melfi (Lorraine Bracco) - one of the few outsiders he trusts. Following a classic prime time soap opera format, quite similar to the hit TV show Dallas, The Sopranos provides audiences with a glimpse into the life and times of a mafia boss, where we find out that being a mob kingpin isn’t the glamour life often portrayed in the movies…

The Sopranos (Season 5) DVD offers a number of dramatic episodes including the season premiere “Two Tonys” in which Tony makes a play for Dr. Melfi following his recent separation from Carmela, but Carmela calls on Tony for help in fending off a bear that keeps returning to their house. Meanwhile, Christopher gets in an argument with Paulie when he realizes he’s always stuck paying for dinner… Other notable episodes from Season 5 include “All Happy Families…” in which Tony and Carmela fight over A.J.’s behavior while Carmela becomes interested in A.J.’s school guidance counselor, and “Marco Polo” in which Tony and Carmela reunite (at least for one evening) after she invites Tony to her father’s birthday party…

Below is a list of episodes included on The Sopranos (Season 5) DVD:

Episode 53 (Two Tonys) Air Date: 03-07-2004
Episode 54 (Rat Pack) Air Date: 03-14-2004
Episode 55 (Where’s Johnny?) Air Date: 03-21-2004
Episode 56 (All Happy Families…) Air Date: 03-28-2004
Episode 57 (Irregular Around the Margins) Air Date: 04-04-2004
Episode 58 (Sentimental Education) Air Date: 04-11-2004
Episode 59 (In Camelot) Air Date: 04-18-2004
Episode 60 (Marco Polo) Air Date: 04-25-2004
Episode 61 (Unidentified Black Male) Air Date: 05-02-2004
Episode 62 (Cold Cuts) Air Date: 05-09-2004
Episode 63 (The Test Dream) Air Date: 05-16-2004
Episode 64 (Long Term Parking) Air Date: 05-23-2004
Episode 65 (All Due Respect) Air Date: 06-06-2004

About the Author

Britt Gillette is author of The DVD Report, a blog where you can find more reviews like this one of The Sopranos (Season 5) DVD.

Nowadays numerous online video production and publishing businesses operate to satisfy business goals of different corporations. Apart from businesses presentations, videos are also in use to capture precious instances of life for example anniversaries, birthdays, special festivities; travel etc. Small camcorders with digital chips are currently extensively accessible on the consumer market. Short films have grown to be very popular on top of being quite informative & humorous. In actuality online videos allow people to relate better to the subject matter than any other sort of online communications.

Today, several people are setting up video production and publishing companies as need of these brands of agencies are on the rise. It’s also easy to get hold of loads information from the internet about video production just with a small number of mouse clicks. The expansion of online video industry has helped the rise of short-format online video commercials and to make eye-catching commercials, a high-quality video production and publishing firm is vital. Internet videos play a critical role in carrying out of corporate campaigns and at this instant online video publishing is a very popular concept with the web users. As a result, across the globe video production and publishing plays a major responsibility. For online video publishing solutions that best meet the needs of your business, visit the Vidify website today.

Make sure that you answer these questions carefully and honestly:

1. I keep spending too much time on unappealing activities and less time doing things that I really want to do.

True

False

2. I often feel I don’t have enough time for myself or for my priorities.

True

False

3. No matter what I do, I can’t seem to get enough done and always feel stressed, tired, overcommitted, and/or exhausted.

True

False

4. Since retirement, I don’t feel that I’m accomplishing my retirement goals.

True

False

5. I often feel guilty when I can’t do the things that make me happy.

True

False

If all of your answers were “false” then you’re on the right track. Congratulations, you’re leading a balanced life and have a very low stress level. If you answered “true” to 1 or more questions then you can really benefit from these 5 steps which will help you more effectively balance your life

Dr. Cynthia Barnett is a “refired” educator who had reinvented her life moving from the school house to an entrepreneurial venue.. She is the author of “Stop Singing the Blues: 10 Powerful Strategies for Hitting the high Notes in Your Life, and RE-FIRE, Don’t Retire: 7 Secrets of Highly Successful Retirees She was featured by Time magazine for their article on women in mid-life who have reinvented themselves.

If you are ready to “RE-FIRE” your life sign up for my free 7 day audio mini course on the 7 biggest mistakes retires make and how to avoid them for an extraordinary life at http://www.refiredontretire.com