Elena Méndez Díaz-Villabella
Supertemps are top-level managers who have realized that they are often better off, both financially and emotionally, working for various companies on a project-based or temporary basis. We’re now living in a world where even the “permanent” jobs are temporary. Companies are increasingly hiring experienced executives as interim managers, or “SuperTemps”, instead of consultants.
The act of snubbing someone in a social setting by looking at your phone instead of paying attention.
Term coined as part of a campaign by Macquarie an advertising agency behind the campaign - McCann Melbourne - invited a number of lexicographers, authors, and poets to coin a neologism to describe the behaviour.
Start thinking of employees as “Allies on a Tour of Duty”.
The expression “Tour of Duty” comes from the military, where it refers to a single deployment. Obviously, it´s unwise to run a business exactly like a military unit, especially in today´s world, but military and business tours of duty have one important thing in common: “ A focus on honourably accomplishing: a specific finite mission”.
In business, a “tour of duty” is an ethical commitment between employer and employee. It´s written down and agreed to by employee and manager. A tour of duty has a specific mission with a realistic time horizon. For example: Ship this product in 18 months. Be sure the tour of duty promises specific career benefits for the employee. For example: Over the next 18 months, you will develop excellent negotiation skills. Avoid vague promises to employees like “you´ll get valuable experience”.
Tours of duty, reveal the “central paradox” of employment age…”Acknowledging that your employees might leave is how you build the relationship that convinces great people to stay”.
Extract from the book “The alliance”
The term has be coined for business by Reid Hoffman, Ben Casnocha and Chris Yeh.
Simultaneous WRITTEN generation of ideas.
Don´t confuse with "Brain Storming": Simultaneous ORAL generation of ideas.
It's a big source of frustration when running an idea-generation session: All too often, brainstorming sessions are dominated by one or two people who shut everyone else down.
How bad can it get? According to Leigh Thompson, J. Jay Gerber Professor of Dispute Resolutions and Organizations, research indicates that in a typical six-person meeting, two people do more than 60 percent of the talking. Increase the size of the group, and the problem only gets worse.
What to do? Hand out pens and cards and get everyone writing—brainwriting.
Don´t listen to the HiPPOs!
HiPPO is an acronym for the "highest paid person's opinion" or the "highest paid person in the office." The acronym is used to describe the tendency for lower-paid employees to defer to higher-paid employees when a decision has to be made.
The term can also be used to describe an organization's reliance on human instinct rather than data in the decision-making process.
"When it comes tho the quality of decision-making, pay level is irrelevant and experience is valuable only if it is used to frame a winning argument. In most companies, experience is the winning argument. We call these places "tenurocracies", because porquer derives from tenure, not merit". Extract from "How Google works" by Eric Schmidt and Jonathan Rosenber.
Professions resulting from the combination of more traditional professions. In some cases also developing to serve as a bridge between the on-line and off-line world. The barriers between professions are evened. Be willing to jump across specialist knowledge boundaries as technologies and disciplines converge, developing a blend of technical training and 'softer' collaborative skills.
One characteristic critical to world-class teams is “divine discontent.” It is an attitude to learning and growth that is never satisfied with past achievements but always searching for the next challenge. It is remarkable how many sports players and teams are perpetually dissatisfied with their performance. After what seems an outstanding performance they appear ill at ease. Outsiders may even think them churlish.
The building block of oragnisations should be small teams. The 'Two Pizza Rule' Is Jeff Bezos' secret to productive meetings: The more people there are, the less productive meetings will be.
Amazon´s Jeff Bezos has a "two-pizza team" rule: Teams should be small enough to be fed by two pizzas. Small teams ge more done, and spend lesss time worrying about who gets credit. Small teams are like families: they can bicker and fight, but they usually pull together at crunch times.
