A User's Manual: To You

Your iPhone has one. So should you. Providing detailed instructions on how you operate can be a great dysfunction defuser. In your “Managerial User’s Manual,” you can describe your preferences, your style, what makes you apoplectic. After all, most bosses would claim, “Hey, I’m not toxic, just misunderstood.”
A user’s manual is a clear and concise document that communicates to others one’s motivations, work style, management and delegation style, communication and feedback style, learning and decision-making style, values, personal style, and any other information that can help reduce misunderstandings, accelerate mutual understanding and facilitate better collaboration with your team.

http://www.businessweek.com/stories/2008-08-12/a-users-manual-to-you 

Teleworking: The myth of working from home

Yahoo has banned its staff from "remote" working. After years of many predicting working from home as the future for everybody, why is it not the norm?

When a memo from human resources dropped into the inbox of Yahoo staff banning them from working from home it prompted anger from many of its recipients.

"Some of the best decisions and insights come from hallway and cafeteria discussions, meeting new people, and impromptu team meetings," the memo said.

"Speed and quality are often sacrificed when we work from home."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21588760

Management Tip of the Day Write Your First Draft Fast

Sometimes the hardest part about writing a memo, report, or proposal is getting the words on paper. The key is to write all of your thoughts down before you can overthink them. Then decide how to best structure them. Once you’ve done that, rapidly write your first draft. Don’t wait for inspiration. Write against the clock, giving yourself 5-10 minutes for each section. Resist the urge to perfect as you write. Save the editing until the draft is finished. If you find yourself stumped, move on to a section you’re more comfortable with and come back to the problem area once you’ve found your flow.

http://business.time.com/2013/02/25/write-your-first-draft-fast/

New Study Uses Tweets To Rank America’s Happiest Cities, States

Be warned: your next tweet could be used to determine how happy you are.

A new study by researchers at the Vermont Complex Systems Center at the University of Vermont studied more than 10 million geotagged tweets from 2011 to rank the happiest U.S. cities and states. Focusing on the how often positive or negative words appeared in tweets, the team used its “hedonometer” to gauge which American destinations are the happiest and posted its findings here.

http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/02/25/new-study-uses-tweets-to-rank-americas-happiest-cities-states/ 

iWatch: Is it time for wearable computers?

We have gradually accepted more and more intrusive forms of technology. Is the smart watch the next logical step? 

There’s nothing the internet likes more than rumours about Apple products – apart, possibly, from cute cats. In the last few days, it is the former that has preoccupied countless netizens.

Specifically, it was rumours about the possible appearance of an iWatch from the Cupertino tech giant. The frenzy of speculation was sparked by a piece written by interface expert and ex-Apple employee Bruce Tognazzini, who argued that a watch would “fill a gaping hole in the Apple ecosystem” and herald a new phase in how we interact with technology.

The article offered no proof that Apple was working on a watch – or that the device that was rapidly christened an iWatch was even a timekeeper (could iWatch be the name of the long awaited TV from Apple?). But the story – true or not – offers a fascinating insight into the rapidly emerging field of wearable computing.

For Tognazzini – the designer behind the Apple Mac’s original user interface – what’s at stake is computing that is able to treat you, for the first time, as a human being. Today, smartphones know roughly where we’re standing, the logins for a selection of our online profiles, and hold a selection of apps and files. Tomorrow, wearable computing might know everything from your altitude and posture to your pulse, blood type, height, weight, and daily routines, right down to the way you take coffee from different stores.

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20130215-time-for-wearable-computers 

How to Check Your Facebook Privacy Settings

Graph Search is a new tool for Facebook that makes it easier to look for people, places, things and photos. Although Facebook has a search feature already, Graph Search is much more powerful, allowing you to search based on phrases like “restaurants my friends like” or “photos of my friends from college.”
What this means is that the things you’ve liked, the places you’ve been and the photos you’re in–even from  years ago–are now much easier to dig up. Facebook seems aware of this, and in a new blog post, the company explains how Graph Search works for teens, and provides additional safety tips for all ages.
Facebook is rolling out Graph Search slowly–to use it, you still have to join a waiting list–but because some people are already using it, it’s not too early to check on your privacy settings and activity

Read more: http://techland.time.com/2013/02/15/how-to-check-your-facebook-privacy-settings/#ixzz2LAwV1yLF

What is going on in there?

I once knew a man, a Jamaican, who when he first came to England always answered truthfully when asked ‘How are you?’ A bit sniffly, he might reply; or he would describe his indigestion, or the twinge in his left knee. One day a woman lost patience: ‘Look,’ she snapped, ‘there’s something you must understand; in England, the answer to “How are you?” is “I’m fine, how are you?”’ So he’d been told, and he didn’t need telling twice: for all the English care, you can die and stiffen on the street.

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v31/n21/hilary-mantel/what-is-going-on-in-there 

Royal Bodies

Last summer at the festival in Hay-on-Wye, I was asked to name a famous person and choose a book to give them. I hate the leaden repetitiveness of these little quizzes: who would be the guests at your ideal dinner party, what book has changed your life, which fictional character do you most resemble? I had to come up with an answer, however, so I chose Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, and I chose to give her a book published in 2006, by the cultural historian Caroline Weber; it’s called Queen of Fashion: What Marie Antoinette Wore to the Revolution. It’s not that I think we’re heading for a revolution. It’s rather that I saw Kate becoming a jointed doll on which certain rags are hung. In those days she was a shop-window mannequin, with no personality of her own, entirely defined by what she wore. These days she is a mother-to-be, and draped in another set of threadbare attributions. Once she gets over being sick, the press will find that she is radiant. They will find that this young woman’s life until now was nothing, her only point and purpose being to give birth.

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v35/n04/hilary-mantel/royal-bodies 

Facebook reassures members over teen privacy in Graph Search

Facebook has sought to reassure members that its new Graph Search system will not expose teenagers’ profiles to adults they don't know. 

Graph Search is being gradually introduced to the social network's one billion members after it was announced by Mark Zuckerberg last month.

The new system has provoked privacy concerns, because it allows members to search for information on Facebook such as "single women in London". Graph Search returns a list of members who meet the criteria and set their privacy setting such that whoever entered the search is allowed to see their profile.

Facebook today said it had taken special measures to ensure that teenagers were not exposed to potentially dangerous strangers.

"As with all of our products, we designed Graph Search to take into account the unique needs of teens on Facebook," it said in a blog post.

In particular, Graph Search follows the existing rule on Facebook that teenagers are not allowed to make their profile visible to anyone more distant than a friend of a friend. 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/facebook/9873330/Facebook-reassures-members-over-teen-privacy-in-Graph-Search.html 

 

Apple’s Retail Strategy Proves That If They Build It, You Will Come (And Spend)

Apple is a unique company in that even if you break down its individual lines of business and view them as distinct from the whole, it can still be regarded as immensely successful in a number of different areas. As a hardware company, it’s a success; as a software and services provider, it’s a success; and as a retail chain, it’s a success. And Apple’s physical retail presence shows such steady upwards growth that it, rather than any product, could be the site of the company’s greatest innovation over the next few years.

http://techcrunch.com/2013/02/14/apples-retail-strategy-proves-that-if-they-build-it-you-will-come-and-spend/ 

China wird Deutschlands Land der Ideen

Für deutsche Firmen ist China längst nicht mehr nur ein billiger Produktionsstandort. Viele lassen dort auch Neues entwickeln. Konzerne und Mittelständler eröffnen reihenweise Forschungszentren. Viel wichtiger als niedrige Löhne sind dabei andere Motive.

Und wieder wird ein rotes Band durchschnitten. Dieses Mal in Peking bei Audi. Der deutsche Autobauer eröffnet in der chinesischen Hauptstadt sein neues Forschungszentrum für Asien.

300 Entwickler werden hier in Zukunft Fahrzeuge an fernöstliche Bedürfnisse anpassen, sagt Audi-Chef Rupert Stadler. Es gehe um Fahrzeugentwicklungen, "die wir dann vielleicht in Langversionen darstellen. Da sind die Sitzeinlagen, die etwas weicher, etwas komfortabler, angenehmer sind - so wie es der Chinese wünscht." Es gehe auch um Navigationsthemen, die in China aufgrund der Schriften und der Schriftzeichen anders seien.

http://www.tagesschau.de/wirtschaft/china-labor-statt-fliessband100.html 

Apple iWatch 'heading into production'

Fresh leaks about a wrist-wearable version of Apple’s iPhone – inevitably dubbed the iWatch – have suggested that development of the device is far more advanced than previously thought and could be heading towards the production stage. 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/apple/9866999/Apple-iWatch-heading-into-production.html

 

Why do politicians use business jargon?

Going forward. Leverage. Level playing field. In the business of politics, politicians increasingly use corporate buzzwords. Why, asks Sally Davies.

There was a line that stood out in Barack Obama's second inaugural address last month, but not in a carve-it-on-the-Lincoln-memorial sort of way.

Before 800,000 onlookers, the freshly anointed US President had just recited the famous passage from the American Declaration of Independence, proclaiming man's unalienable rights to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness". 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21337849 

Facebook Graph Search: The Emperor Needs New Digital Clothes

I have to admit that I’m not much into clothes. Give me some comfortable jeans and a clean shirt and I’m ready to go. My better half has a different position on this topic. Sometimes she takes 30 minutes or more just to decide what to wear. Apparently this gene is being passed down to my granddaughters who, when over at our house, also spend more time than I think necessary to get ready to go out the door — even if we’re just going to a movie theater where it’s dark the whole time. But I am beginning to think that when it comes to a digital world, I may need to be more cognizant of my digital clothing.

http://techland.time.com/2013/01/28/facebook-graph-search-the-emperor-needs-new-digital-clothes/ 

How do I keep my job away from the chopping block?

I’ve worked for my company for three tumultuous years, during which I have seen six people be dismissed – out of a staff of only 16. Everyone is worried, thinking “Am I next on the chopping block?”

I have always met or exceeded goals, I am well-liked, my subordinates perform well, and I have branched out to take on instructor duties.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/careers/career-advice/life-at-work/how-do-i-stay-safe-from-the-chopping-block/article8121768/ 

Wanted: A user manual for the boss

Not long ago, I bought a new Braun toaster because I was fed up with the way the old one left a golfer’s tan on one side of the bread and ignored the other side altogether. It is early days, but the new one appears to work much better.

Yet what is even more impressive than its ability to grill bread on both sides simultaneously is that it came with a 15-page manual telling me how to operate it. Do not use unattended, it said. Only use in upright position. Do not place toaster in a heated oven. Do not use for other than its stated use.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/careers/career-advice/wanted-a-user-manual-for-the-boss/article8257455/