“In this age of wireless Internet and mobile email devices, having an effective meeting or working session is becoming more and more difficult. Laptops, Blackberries, Sidekicks, iphones, and the like keep people from being fully present. Aside from just being rude, partial attention generally leads to partial results. Multi-tasking is a myth (and there are lots of other articles corroborating Merlin’s points). This is especially damaging in highly collaborative and interdisciplinary fields like UX. Here at the office, we’ve begun to make most of our meetings ‘topless’ (i.e. no laptops allowed). I’ve gone a step further by trying to ban any form of networked communication from the working meetings I put together. While my colleagues here at Adaptive Path have been tolerant of my eccentricities, it’s not so easy when working with clients whose companies have a culture of being always connected and checking. So, I thought I’d share a few tips I’ve picked up for getting people to put down their Crackberries and actually do some work.”

“A one day summit in San Francisco, February 4, 2008. Learn how smart organizations are turning customer service from just a cost center into an engine for building culture and creating evangelists. This conference brings together innovative business leaders from several industries to share tips and suggestions about how they got their own organizations to do customer service differently. Confirmed speakers include Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos; Alex Frankel, author of ‘Punching In’; Michael Murphy, head of customer service for Virgin; Robert Stephens, founder of The Geek Squad; and many more…”

“It’s not PowerPoint’s fault that presentations have become boring and useless. After all, it just supplies the tools and it’s what we do with it that matters. Found this Hugh MacLeod PowerPuke cartoon that captures my thought perfectly.

Sure, PowerPoint comes with templates. Again, people don’t customize the presentation for their audience’s needs. They just fill in the headings and bullets without giving much thought. This compelled me to start this list of great examples.”

“Something I’ve been having to wonder about is the economy. The news is filled with talks of impending recessions, and discussions that it’s too late to do much about it.

However, my business, Adaptive Path, and all similar businesses of which I’m aware, are overwhelmed by work opportunities. We’re all turning down leads left and right (and, believe me, we’re grateful for the situation we’re finding ourselves in).”

“Effective goals are written. Many of us daydream about the things we would like to accomplish. But before we can achieve those dreams we must pick up a pen and write down the things that we most want to achieve. Once your goal is committed to paper, it becomes concrete. When you write out a goal, you give it life. You actually see what you’re thinking. You have a target to aim for … something that takes shape and grows legs. Your goal is no longer just a dream, it has now been given a sense of reality. Writing down your goals is always the first step toward achieving them. Goals not written down fall victim to the ‘out of sight … out of mind’ phenomenon!”

“It’s a pickle of a paradox: As our knowledge and expertise increase, our creativity and ability to innovate tend to taper off. Why? Because the walls of the proverbial box in which we think are thickening along with our experience.”

“So, credit card processing and set up and all that stuff is a real pain in the ass. It’s definitely intimidating to get started. The industry just feels dirty. So many companies offering merchant accounts, so many companies providing gateway software and integration, so many deals and discounts and conditions and terms and acronyms. What do we need? Who can we trust? How does it all work?”