Be nice!

There is nothing worse than opening your email in the morning and you start your day with a rude, nasty message. Sometimes the sender doesn't even realize the tone of what he's written. Very quickly firing off email upon email, without truly thinking and proofreading, can be a deadly mistake in the professional world. Please take the time and read, re-read, stop and think and then send. Catch my video and you'll see what I mean: I also liked this article from Oprah.com, O, The Oprah Magazine | From the February 2009 issue of O, The Oprah Magazine.

"Call it premature-send syndrome: There you are in full, productive e-mail flow—clicking, replying, sending—wait, back up, sending? And there's your (unbelievably catty, excruciatingly self-incriminating) message dinging in the in-box of exactly the wrong person. Even when the message is harmless, e-mail tends to wick away the warmth and nuance you'd have delivering it face-to-face—often leaving your intended meaning to get lost in translation. Mirabai Bush, a senior fellow at the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society in Northampton, Massachusetts, teaches a mindful e-mail exercise to employees of corporations like Google; the goal is to make their exchanges more thoughtful and less likely to misfire. Bush suggests trying these simple steps five to 10 times over the following week: •Compose your e-mail. •Stop. Take one long, deep breath, counting to five on the inhale and again on the exhale. •Think of who you're sending your message to, and of how you want him or her to receive it. Could this person misunderstand and become angry or offended? Or think that you are being more positive than you intend? •Look at the e-mail again. •Change it if appropriate. •Send. "When I stepped back and thought about my e-mail before I sent it," one of Bush's students reported, "twice I picked up the phone instead. In each case, a relationship issue was involved and it was better to talk through it."

Great reminders! Let's be careful out there! References: Downloaded from the Internet, 4/5/12: http://www.oprah.com/money/Avoiding-E-Mail-Disasters-E-mail-Etiquette-at-Work Downloaded from the Internet, 4/5/12: http://careerplanning.about.com/od/communication/a/email_tips.htm

Google Spreadsheets. Quick and Easy!!

Spreadsheets will be easier than ever to share and update with others. Check out this video and see the action! As you could see in the video, I had no trouble making changes on the one spreadsheet and having them carry over immediately to the other copy. It was simultaneous. Imagine the possibilities!!

Read me quick!

Google Reader is a phenominal way to organize and read all of the blogs that you are following! I wondered how I was going to be able to keep up with all the latest and greatest postings and this is my answer.How easy it is so get a quick glance at any number of topics. Catch a quick glance of how to start right here: I found a nice short video about sharing any webpage through Reader.This is an amazing way to share information. References: Downloaded from the Internet April 1, 2012: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CcOust-I14&context=C4e8a029ADvjVQa1PpcFOLu2_OSVyF8JCOnLgayKUxCzCkDdXi8gE=

And the survey says:

Here is my survey from Google Docs. I'd love to send it to you. A couple of you have already! Please send me your gmail address (or email address) and I can send you the form. This little survey feature will be especially terrific in setting up business meetings between many companies. Right now we have to email each other as to what is the best date, time, etc. for our meetings. Our many vendors have sent requests directly to my Outlook schedule, but then I can't add a meeting room location, or add the video equipment that I may need for the meeting. This is especially true for my overseas vendors. I always have to have my Assistant set up the rest of the room with the proper equipment and room because you can't add anything unless you are the meeting organizer. This is a problem that can be adverted with the use of the survey feature! To be able to organize the meeting at the proper time and place and have the ability to pull in whatever media devices (like our portable video conference system)is going to be so much easier. The GoogleDocs programmers have been listening to the people that use it. They are constantly making upgrades and adding features. Most recently enhancements have been made to the Presentations GoogleDocs. From the website Google Docs - What's new:

Just launched! •Introducing a new Google presentations! Whether you’re trying to wow your boss with an end-of-quarter presentation or impress your classmates with an animated book report, the new version of presentations can help. Here’s a quick look at the latest features available in presentations: Character-by-character collaboration lets you see others’ updates as you edit presentations together. •Chat with collaborators directly within the presentation. •Draw organizational charts, flowcharts, design diagrams and much more right within Google presentations. •Transition between slides to add more effects to your presentation. •New and improved animations make your presentations more dynamic. •Shape linking lets you turn shapes within your presentation into hyperlinks that link to other slides, presentations, or webpages. •Revision history stores edits so you can revert back to previous versions. •New themes make it easy to create show-stopping presentations." The other nice addition is that you can download or drag and drop spreadsheets and pictures from other places directly into the Presentation with little effort. It is more user friendly and adaptable from other software and internet locations. What's your survey say? References: Downloaded from the intranet, April 1 2012: http://www.google.com/google-d-s/whatsnew.html

#1 Fan --- Google Docs

Checking out Google Docs for the first time, I thought to myself, here we go again - another word processing system that will try and outdo Microsoft. After watching all the videos on Google Docs - I've become the #1 Fan. It makes sense that we really don't need all of that extra fancy stuff when we're creating a document. Give me the information, make it fast, make the changes and get it out there! I love the way you can share all of the docs, comment, add additional details without saving, attaching and sending out again after each change. I can already think of all of the time saving activities that we could use in our own office. It took about 30 emails, 10 revisions, different comments from others, some forgetting to attach the attachment, etc. to get a simple form done for a registration for an upcoming event. This could have been a quick fix with less stress and everyone's comments would be next to the form as we went along. I have got to get our company using G-Docs. I plan on instructing my staff to start using this and also those on my Wellness Committee. This is where we have numerous members who are involved in event planning and occasions that come together to make things happen. I foresee taking my original idea, sending it out to our team, have everyone comment and add their suggestions and additions, and coming up with a finished document in no time. I can't think of quicker way to get things done. This makes sense for us. How could you use this in your company?

Check out this awesome website, GoogleDocs Community, where you can find hundreds of interesting quick videos on making the whole Google Docs experience better than ever for you: http://www.youtube.com/user/GoogleDocsCommunity/featured

What is a blog?? LOL

This could've been us 20 years ago!! Enjoy!

Reference: www.HRWorks.com/http:whensocialmediaandcompaniescollidempedzich

Jury Out on LINKEDIN!

I don't know about you but I can't make up my mind if I like LINKEDIN or not.  It seems like a good place to check on someone's credentials and such, but I don't see too much use for it unless you need a job.  (Thank God I'm not in that position)

Business owners do like this type of communcation I find out though. My cousin who is a Chiropractor swears by it and endorses it very enthusiastically. I can see that they may be able to get their name out as they join groups, so I can see that it is like free advertising. More recently I've received numerous requests for "Recommendations".  I don't feel comfortable doing this.  I also wouldn't recommend that you give a "Recommendation" for anyone that you may have terminated from your company.  I smell lawsuit there!!


The only time I have given a recommendation was for a former colleauge looking for work back here after he took another job down South. Even then, I still didn't feel real comfortable with this request.

WOW, whatever happen to HeadHunters! Just making their job easier I guess!!

I found this great "How To" video on youtube. Maybe this will help you decide if LINKEDIN is for you? References: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2PxAN-NS3w