Tools & Methods

Eight Mistakes to Avoid in Intercultural Negotiation:

TipDrop / By

Eight Mistakes to Avoid in Intercultural Negotiation:

  1. Avoid looking at everything from your own definition of what is “rational,” “logical” and “scientific.”
  2. Avoid pressuring the other party with a point that he/she is not readily prepared to accept; wait for a more favorable time.
  3. Avoid looking at issues from the narrow perspective of self-interest.
  4. Avoid asking for concessions or compromised which are politically or culturally sensitive; you will not succeed with this kind of approach.
  5. Avoid adhering to your agenda if the other party appears to have a different set of priorities.
  6. Avoid speaking in jargon (i.e. using colloquialisms), which can confuse the other party and even create a feeling of mistrust.
  7. Avoid passing over levels of authority in manners that compromise the sensibilities of middle level officials.  The top tier of the hierarchy may have the power to commit the organization or governing entity, but implementation will require the support of people at intermediate and lower levels.
  8. Avoid asking for a decision when you know that the other party is not able to commit.

Don’t forget to use your Email Signature for Free Advertising and Promotion

Tools & Methods / By

A big part of your business comes from your email so it makes sense to advertise your products and/or services with every email that you send out. You can do this by having an email signature or ‘Signature Tag’ in your email. Outlook and most email clients (including outlook.com) allow you to set up your ‘Sig Tag’ so it is automatically added to each and every email going out, including replies and forwards. We often add our Facebook or LinkedIn tag in the signature – but why not make it more productive and advertise your products!

For example, in Outlook 2010, go to the home tab ‘File’ up on top left (first tab), and then select Options (usually on the bottom). When the options page opens select Email then click on the ‘Signatures’. Here you can create several signatures for different email addresses if you like or for different actions (like in a reply or in a forward). This way, you could have a certain ‘Sig Tag’ for your email groups and another one for your personal email and so on. For Outlook Express, go to Tools and then Options – then you click the Signatures tab on top of the box. In Outlook.com (new live mail) click on the ‘Gear Wheel’ on the right then select ‘More Email Settings’

A few things you want to remember when composing your signature:
1. Do not make it into a novel- no more than a few lines to get your message across.
2. Try to capture email addresses for follow-up sales and contacts if you have an ezine.
3. Offer something free that people can click and get – but make it as few clicks as possible.

Here are some examples of sigtags:
Sincerely,
RoyMogg
Free download will help increase sales

Click to access downloadhere.pdf


Subscribe to my free ezine to help improve your biz
mailto:subscribe@mysite.com
————
Thank you,
RoyMogg
RoyMogg is a marketing specialist who has
written many successful ebooks. Check out
my latest ebook here and sign up for a free gift.
http://www.signuphere.com
————-
Warm regards,
RoyMogg
25% discount on all orders from this link. Click here
and get a free gift with your order and discount.
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—————
Don’t pass up the chance to advertise and/or promote your products and/or services with every email you send! Change your ‘sigtag’ periodically to feature your current specials or sales or holiday events.

Let’s do this today!

Doing a Feasibility Study

Tools & Methods / By

Is your project feasible?

The best way to find out whether your project is feasible is to complete a Feasibility Study. This process helps you gain confidence that the solution you need to build can be implemented on time and under budget. So here’s how to do it in 5 simple steps…

Completing a Feasibility Study

A Feasibility Study needs to be completed as early in the Project Life Cycle as possible. The best time to complete it is when you have identified a range of different alternative solutions and you need to know which solution is the most feasible to implement. Here’s how to do it…

Step 1: Research the Business Drivers
In most cases, your project is being driven by a problem in the business. These problems are called “business drivers” and you need to have a clear understanding of what they are, as part of your Feasibility Study.
For instance, the business driver might be that an IT system is outdated and is causing customer complaints, or that two businesses need to merge because of an acquisition. Regardless of the business driver, you need to get to the bottom of it so you fully understand the reasons why the project has been kicked off.
Find out why the business driver is important to the business, and why it’s critical that the project delivers a solution to it within a specified timeframe. Then find out what the impact will be to the business, if the project slips.

Step 2: Confirm the Alternative Solutions
Now you have a clear understanding of the business problem that the project addresses, you need to understand the alternative solutions available.
If it’s an IT system that is outdated, then your alternative solutions might include redeveloping the existing system, replacing it or merging it with another system.
Only with a clear understanding of the alternative solutions to the business problem, can you progress with the Feasibility Study.

Step 3: Determine the Feasibility
You now need to identify the feasibility of each solution. The question to ask of each alternative solution is “can we deliver it on time and under budget?”
To answer this question, you need to use a variety of methods to assess the feasibility of each solution. Here are some examples of ways you can assess feasibility:

Research: Perform online research to see if other companies have implemented the same solutions and how they got on.
Prototyping: Identify the part of the solution that has the highest risk, and then build a sample of it to see if it’s possible to create.
Time-boxing: Complete some of the tasks in your project plan and measure how long it took vs. planned. If you delivered it on time, then you know that your planning is quite accurate.

Step 4: Choose a Preferred Solution
With the feasibility of each alternative solution known, the next step is to select a preferred solution to be delivered by your project. Choose the solution that; is most feasible to implement, has the lowest risk, and you have the highest confidence of delivering.
You’ve now chosen a solution to a known business problem, and you have a high degree of confidence that you can deliver that solution on time and under budget, as part of the project.

Step 5:
It’s now time to take your chosen solution and reassess its feasibility at a lower level. List all of the tasks that are needed to complete the solution. Then run those tasks by your team to see how long they think it will take to complete them. Add all of the tasks and timeframes to a project plan to see if you can do it all within the project deadline. Then ask your team to identify the highest risk tasks and get them to investigate them further to check that they are achievable. Use the techniques in Step 3 to give you a very high degree of confidence that it’s practically achievable. Then document all of the results in a Feasibility Study.

After completing these 5 steps, get your Feasibility Study approved by your manager so that everyone in the project team has a high degree of confidence that the project can deliver successfully.

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