20% of the information that gives you 80% of what you need to know

Author: Asad Zaidi (Page 31 of 34)

Improve Your Body Language

body language,non verbal,communication skillsWe have all heard at some time or another how important body language is as a component of communication. Here are some essential rules for more effective communication:

1. Don’t cross your arms or legs – You have probably already heard you shouldn’t cross your arms as it might make you seem defensive or guarded. This goes for your legs too. Keep your arms and legs open.

2. Maintain eye contact – If there are several people you are talking to, give them all some eye contact to create a better connection and see if they are listening. Keeping too much eye-contact might seem a bit weird and no eye-contact might make you seem insecure.

Continue reading

The Mathematics of Persuasive Communication

A great article by Philip Yaffe (a former Wall Street Journal feature writer) on writing, speaking, communication

At first glance mathematics and persuasive communication – writing, and particularly public speaking would seem to have little in common. After all, mathematics is an objective science, whilst speaking involves voice quality, inflection, eye contact, personality, body language, and other subjective components.

However, under the surface they are very similar….

Continue reading

Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination

A reproduction of the commencement address by J.K. Rowling of Harry Potter fame at Harvard University – copyright June 2008. A truly extraordinary speech

President Faust, members of the Harvard Corporation and the Board of Overseers, members of the faculty, proud parents, and, above all, graduates,

The first thing I would like to say is ‘thank you.’ Not only has Harvard given me an extraordinary honour, but the weeks of fear and nausea I’ve experienced at the thought of giving this commencement address have made me lose weight. A win-win situation! Now all I have to do is take deep breaths, squint at the red banners and fool myself into believing I am at the world’s best-educated Harry Potter convention…

Continue reading

7-S McKinsey Framework

McKinsey 7-S frameworkIf you want to look at a framework for the purpose of change management and organizational development, you may want to study the 7-S framework. This is a model that describes how to organize to effectively organize and manage the various elements of an organization in an integrated manner. Consider this as just an introduction or maybe a reminder to get you on the road to further study and deliberation on the subject of change management

Continue reading

Introduction to Appreciative Enquiry

Appreciative Enquiry – AI – is an exciting alternative approach to organizational change developed by two American organization behavior professors, David L. Cooperrider and Suresh Srivastva.In the usual change management model, management thinking is generally based around looking for and fixing problems.  In AI, the focus is identifying what works well in the organization, understanding what is behind that, and doing more of it. The purpose of this is to allow this positive energy to spread throughout the organization or team or unit. AI creates an environment where more and more focus is applied to finding the previously unknown and unrecognized areas of good practice, and enabling the rest of the organization in a similar way…

Continue reading

« Older posts Newer posts »

© 2025 Management Insights

Theme by Anders NorenUp ↑