I've been doing some work recently for a client to implement an Integrated Management System. "What's that?" I hear you say...
Contrary to what you might expect, it's not a computer system - it's a system in the style of a Quality Management System like ISO9001, or an Environmental Management System like ISO14001. The IMS takes the common parts of systems like these and creates a uniform approach across the organisation. (The standard we were using is PAS99:2006.)
The team created some quite pithy insights to explain it to the really busy client personnel (and I mean REALLY BUSY!):
"A way to communicate 'how we do things around here'" "A way for the Senior Management to communicate their expectations." "A way to ensure the equitable satisfaction of all stakeholders as the business grows and evolves."The components are simple:
1 - Communicate expectations from a very senior level executive. 2 - Create a formal process and organisation by which the IMS will be governed. 3 - Create a framework for its content that allows people to find what they need. 4 - Figure out what content should be included. 5 - Divide-up ownership of the content, to ensure it is created by the right people. 6 - Create an over-arching review process to ensure that the IMS content is integrated across functions 7 - Implement a document management system that allows broad read-only access to documentation, and limited publication rights (OK, there is a computer system component). 8 - Launch. Re-launch. Re-launch. etc.Yes, you guessed it, the hard part is getting the organisation to accept it, adopt it and provide the content. I'll blog a little more on this in future, as there's some neat content insights I want to share...what goes in it, and how to organise it. -- Philip Greenwood
A while ago I published a blog piece on the use of sound in the office environment to 
. But I’m an interested amateur where environmental sound is involved…
The morning comes, and with that excited feeling in your stomach you turn up to your new job. You are truly ‘engaged’.. you’ve seen your new employers marketing literature, you’ve bought into the story they tell their customers about their fast moving, innovative, go-getting team, and you are ready to become a part of that; one of the shiny happy faces staring out from the cover of the “new joiners” information pack. One of the high achievers, part of the family… ready to make a difference!
In one of those distracted moments I started wondering what I could do to have more of the “flow” moments – the good ones. I’ve had a study at home for many years, so it’s pretty established and comfortable, to my mind – although my fiancee calls it “the man room”. 
Can I get away with that title? Probably not, but Nina Platt can, 
This is a true story: A few weeks ago god cooked me dinner! (Please note the small “g” – I don’t wish to offend). It was the last evening of my 39th year, and the charter yacht was secure on a swinging mooring off the coast of Croatia. The crew (my fiancee) and I were relaxing at the end of a breezy day of sailing when we noticed a small motor boat pulling into a jetty in the bay. On board this fishing boat there was a crew of three, including one man – clearly in charge - with long grey hair, a long grey beard, skin brown as a berry, and wearing just silver swimming trunks. My crew looked at me, and as if reading my mind, said: “Hey, there goes god!”
This question has been playing on my mind: If stories are the most effective tool of influence, but are an inefficient way to communicate facts, what kind of communication style is most effective in today’s “attention deficit” business world? So for an experiment, let me try out a communication style: The “reduced” story line.
The good people at MindJet have allowed me early access to their MindManager Project Management JetPack. As I read that sentence I realize that many readers won’t have a clue what I’m talking about, so let me explain:
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