As a content development manager, you face a wide variety of challenges. More work, higher standards, less resources, diverse geographies, cultures, and language backgrounds. This all-day workshop for senior managers will delve into the “soft skills” of management as well as the “nitty gritty” of staffing changes and team challenges.
Learn to use Delegation as a secret to Leadership Success in this presentation. You'll also find out how the top 5 delegation challenges, the pitfalls when you don’t delegate, a delegation worksheet and much more!
This talk will discuss the mantra "Fail Fast Fail often". Many believe this to be the key to success others believe it's the key to failure. This talk will discuss the pros and cons of the mantra and showcase how I have used this mantra to be very successful and what you should do when failure comes your way. Failure is never a question of if it's going to happen it's a question of when.
I had been sitting in a few team retrospectives and hearing the same old tired pattern of "what went well, what didn't, what can we improve". The teams were bored, I was bored, they were just doing mechanical Scrum. Retrospectives are such a powerful tool to drive continuous improvement, but what i was seeing was a stagnation and the true value of this event was being lost.
End of the Sprint was coming up so as the enterprise agile coach, I thought I'd provide some of my favourite patterns and ended up providing my 20 Scrum Masters with a playbook to accelerate and reinvigorate learning and improvement, retrospectives and ideas as well as links to where to find more.
Would love to share these patterns with you, discuss the pain points we were experiencing and how we were able to reinvigorate this event and improve overall quality of our delivery. It will be a workshop so would also love to hear your favourite patterns so we can share them with the group in this workshop and help inspire our teams to strive for activating real improvements.
More details:
https://confengine.com/agile-india-2019/proposal/8084/accelerate-improvements-through-retrospectives
Conference link: https://2019.agileindia.org
Barry Saiff -Managing Content Development Teams: Inner Mastery for Outer SuccessLavaConConference
n this session you will learn:
• How can you create outsourcing success?
• How can technical communicators influence outsourcing decisions?
• What are the potential pitfalls to watch out for?
• What are the potential benefits to maximize?
• Is outsourcing right for your organization? Is now the time?
Winning at Project Management with the Team PlaybookAtlassian
Managing a project is about more than just tracking the work. Your project teams have diverse skill sets, report to different managers, and may even have different visions of what to deliver. How's a project manager supposed to wrangle their team and deliver the goods without losing their mind?
That's where the Team Playbook comes in. From making sure you're building the right thing, to building team harmony, there are loads of project management plays. Join Sarah Goff-Dupont, Atlassian Principal Writer and Alastair Simpson, Head of Atlassian Design, Platform, Mobile & Comms, as they dive into what exactly these plays are and how they've helped various Atlassian teams master their project management. Whether you're a career project manager, or a project just "landed on your plate", you'll walk away with a game plan for keeping morale and quality high, and bottlenecks to a minimum.
Agile efforts typically begin in engineering but become stagnant when they fail to expand to other parts of the organization. This talk will explore the individual systems that must thrive for an entire organization to be agile. The four core elements that must exist for agility to scale with longevity and purpose are: alignment to strategy, customer-first values, lean discovery practices, and capacity for change. We will take an in depth look at how each element operates with agile methods and what is required for them to evolve within the business. Gain an understanding of how to move beyond following practices in isolation in order to achieve harmony in the full embrace of reciprocal agile principles at scale.
Learn to use Delegation as a secret to Leadership Success in this presentation. You'll also find out how the top 5 delegation challenges, the pitfalls when you don’t delegate, a delegation worksheet and much more!
This talk will discuss the mantra "Fail Fast Fail often". Many believe this to be the key to success others believe it's the key to failure. This talk will discuss the pros and cons of the mantra and showcase how I have used this mantra to be very successful and what you should do when failure comes your way. Failure is never a question of if it's going to happen it's a question of when.
I had been sitting in a few team retrospectives and hearing the same old tired pattern of "what went well, what didn't, what can we improve". The teams were bored, I was bored, they were just doing mechanical Scrum. Retrospectives are such a powerful tool to drive continuous improvement, but what i was seeing was a stagnation and the true value of this event was being lost.
End of the Sprint was coming up so as the enterprise agile coach, I thought I'd provide some of my favourite patterns and ended up providing my 20 Scrum Masters with a playbook to accelerate and reinvigorate learning and improvement, retrospectives and ideas as well as links to where to find more.
Would love to share these patterns with you, discuss the pain points we were experiencing and how we were able to reinvigorate this event and improve overall quality of our delivery. It will be a workshop so would also love to hear your favourite patterns so we can share them with the group in this workshop and help inspire our teams to strive for activating real improvements.
More details:
https://confengine.com/agile-india-2019/proposal/8084/accelerate-improvements-through-retrospectives
Conference link: https://2019.agileindia.org
Barry Saiff -Managing Content Development Teams: Inner Mastery for Outer SuccessLavaConConference
n this session you will learn:
• How can you create outsourcing success?
• How can technical communicators influence outsourcing decisions?
• What are the potential pitfalls to watch out for?
• What are the potential benefits to maximize?
• Is outsourcing right for your organization? Is now the time?
Winning at Project Management with the Team PlaybookAtlassian
Managing a project is about more than just tracking the work. Your project teams have diverse skill sets, report to different managers, and may even have different visions of what to deliver. How's a project manager supposed to wrangle their team and deliver the goods without losing their mind?
That's where the Team Playbook comes in. From making sure you're building the right thing, to building team harmony, there are loads of project management plays. Join Sarah Goff-Dupont, Atlassian Principal Writer and Alastair Simpson, Head of Atlassian Design, Platform, Mobile & Comms, as they dive into what exactly these plays are and how they've helped various Atlassian teams master their project management. Whether you're a career project manager, or a project just "landed on your plate", you'll walk away with a game plan for keeping morale and quality high, and bottlenecks to a minimum.
Agile efforts typically begin in engineering but become stagnant when they fail to expand to other parts of the organization. This talk will explore the individual systems that must thrive for an entire organization to be agile. The four core elements that must exist for agility to scale with longevity and purpose are: alignment to strategy, customer-first values, lean discovery practices, and capacity for change. We will take an in depth look at how each element operates with agile methods and what is required for them to evolve within the business. Gain an understanding of how to move beyond following practices in isolation in order to achieve harmony in the full embrace of reciprocal agile principles at scale.
Why I Built my Career with Atlassian Tools and You Should Too!Atlassian
Now, more than ever, organizations are investing in Atlassian tools. And the demand for people with knowledge on how to use them is at an all-time high.
In 7 years, I went from being a novice Jira user to becoming a Senior Atlassian Tools Engineer at Airbnb—increasing my salary by 63% in less than 3 years. Join me to learn why I decided to invest in Atlassian and how you can do the same. Explore how to navigate resources to find what you need, the importance of Atlassian University, and how to leverage your Atlassian skills to grow your career.
The Team Playbook: A Recipe for Healthy TeamsAtlassian
The benefits of a high performing team are endless. They are autonomous, empowered, responsible and effective. At Atlassian, we've pioneered the Team Playbook, which is our way of scaling teams by getting smarter, not bigger, and driving a culture of continual improvement. Utilised by hundreds of teams within Atlassian, we've made our secret sauce not so secret. Don't come to this session for a lesson on theory...come to this session to hear the philosophies and principles of the Team Playbook from Dr. Dom, our internal team doctor, and insightful and practical stories from Georgie, one of our users of the Team Playbook. You'll leave this session invigorated, engaged and ready to take action.
Dom Price, Head of R&D and Work Futurist, Atlassian
Georgie Bottomley, Senior UX Research, Atlassian
Agile Transformation. Digital Transformation. Cultural Transformation. These are all hot topics. But, what does it actually take to start a transformation?
The answer: people, practices, and tools. Join Dominic Price, Work Futurist at Atlassian as he shares his experience in working with other top enterprise organizations. Learn about the trends affecting the future of teamwork, and proven practices that can power successful workplace transformation.
Create the Future of Work While You're Living ItAtlassian
Throw away your crystal ball because the future is already here. Yes, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and blockchain dominate the headlines. But the day-to-day manifestations of the future of work (i.e., the present) are more mundane – though no less daunting. We see it in the way businesses struggle to scale smart and stay one step ahead of disruption. Or how leaders try to manage a global, 24/7 workforce while tasked with meeting ever-increasing customer demands.
The time to take action is now. In this session, Dom Price will break down the five obsolete ways most of us are working, and share new, essential approaches to growth and retooling. He'll also reveal some of the collaboration hacks he's seen from enterprises around the world. Don't be a bystander. Come learn how to create a future where you and your team don't just survive, but thrive.
Designing for Agile Delight! Customer Obsessed Innovation at IntuitAtlassian
Innovating effectively in an Agile environment is no easy feat. Learn how Intuit applies an innovation culture and their own "Design for Delight" (D4D) process to deliver and enhance their enterprise agility program—and keep both internal teams and customers happy.
Explore this unique process around customer-driven innovation, deep customer empathy, and how to navigate rapid iterations with customers. Learn about how they applied their agile D4D process to solve key customer problems, and leave with the knowledge of how to deliver both features and customer delight.
Keynote includes eight parts:
- JIRA - A Success Story
- The People Behind the Curtain
- Turning Values into Success
- What Makes Us the Best Workplace in SE Asia?
- Building Great Products
- Better User Experience
Building Team Autonomy with Agile Development
Quality at Speed
WEBINAR: How To Avoid Unintended Project Consequences Using FMEAGoLeanSixSigma.com
During this 1-hour webinar you'll learn about some famous unintended consequences and how we can avoid them in our own worlds.
See more from this webinar including expert answers and tools referenced here: https://goleansixsigma.com/webinar-effectively-avoid-unintended-consequences-using-fmea/
10 Atlassian Tool Hacks to Improve Team CultureAtlassian
Your team is already running along with JIRA, Confluence, or HipChat enabling you to deliver awesome projects. But can they help you with team culture? How can you use the tools your team already has in place to cultivate an innovative and open culture?
This talk will cover different ways to use JIRA and Confluence to hack your team culture. We will give you tips on how to use Atlassian to make large organizations feel like small teams, build and maintain an innovative culture, and inject some fun and humor into your team - making your workplace feel a bit more enjoyable!
Sherif Mansour, Principal Product Manager, Atlassian
Remote Teams: Good For Your Company or Productivity NightmareDavid Hassell
Remote work arrangements have become more prevalent over the last decade, presenting managers with a unique set of challenges. These scenarios range from employees working from home once or twice a week, to nationally or globally distributed teams, or even companies who have no offices and operate exclusively from the cloud.
The 15Five team surveyed hundreds of managers, supervisors, and executives about their telework experiences. This included participants working in large and small businesses, in every major department, and in just about every vertical. Here’s what we discovered...
Sean Echevarria was invited back to NC State, his alma mater, to give advice to upcoming graduates for the Career Development Center's "Job Search Boot Camp". He shared 5 tips that he's gathered throughout the course of his career and explains what the career path paradox is.
If there is one constant in the tech industry, it's changing. We need to keep learning and adapting to stay current, but how do we know where to start and how do we stay on track?
You probably had a tough time proving your worth as a true leader during the last appraisal interview. Or maybe you’re a focused professional who’s willing to brush up on the leadership management skills for a successful career graph ahead.
HOW TO ADOPT A SERVANT LEADERSHIP MINDSET AT YOUR ORGANIZATIONHuman Capital Media
In most organizations, the leaders are the ones that hold the power. Their leadership style resembles one of a traditional hierarchy, where the leaders sit on a pedestal while making commands, have the control, and demand certain outcomes from their employees. Servant leaders are disrupting this traditional style of leading by putting the employees first, and research is finding that this disruption of the leadership status quo has many benefits.
Join Libby Powers from BizLibrary, as she explains the positive outcomes of leading from last. Adopting a servant leadership mindset will not only improve the leadership skills of the person who leads, but the whole organization will flourish with improvements in common business challenges like employee engagement and retention.
In this webinar, you’ll learn:
The qualities of a servant leader
How to transform command-control leadership into a serve-first mindset
Why companies need more servant leaders
Human beings optimize what they measure. If you manage the wrong metric, you will fail to achieve your desired outcome. But It doesn’t have to be this way.
The best skill startup investors have is choosing the right metric. They know that return on investment is years away, therefore they must have the ability to track progress toward the return.
If we can’t measure money and we can’t measure team productivity, what’s left?
In this highly actionable presentation, author and Startup founder Brant Cooper introduced the VALUE STREAM DISCOVERY TOOL, a step-by-step process for determining the right metrics to focus on. You’ll learn how to evaluate how customers behave throughout their journey, what tactics you might use to elicit that behavior, and how to measure their progress.
Additionally, the framework can be used to measure the progress of virtually any internal project, including innovation programs themselves!
Why I Built my Career with Atlassian Tools and You Should Too!Atlassian
Now, more than ever, organizations are investing in Atlassian tools. And the demand for people with knowledge on how to use them is at an all-time high.
In 7 years, I went from being a novice Jira user to becoming a Senior Atlassian Tools Engineer at Airbnb—increasing my salary by 63% in less than 3 years. Join me to learn why I decided to invest in Atlassian and how you can do the same. Explore how to navigate resources to find what you need, the importance of Atlassian University, and how to leverage your Atlassian skills to grow your career.
The Team Playbook: A Recipe for Healthy TeamsAtlassian
The benefits of a high performing team are endless. They are autonomous, empowered, responsible and effective. At Atlassian, we've pioneered the Team Playbook, which is our way of scaling teams by getting smarter, not bigger, and driving a culture of continual improvement. Utilised by hundreds of teams within Atlassian, we've made our secret sauce not so secret. Don't come to this session for a lesson on theory...come to this session to hear the philosophies and principles of the Team Playbook from Dr. Dom, our internal team doctor, and insightful and practical stories from Georgie, one of our users of the Team Playbook. You'll leave this session invigorated, engaged and ready to take action.
Dom Price, Head of R&D and Work Futurist, Atlassian
Georgie Bottomley, Senior UX Research, Atlassian
Agile Transformation. Digital Transformation. Cultural Transformation. These are all hot topics. But, what does it actually take to start a transformation?
The answer: people, practices, and tools. Join Dominic Price, Work Futurist at Atlassian as he shares his experience in working with other top enterprise organizations. Learn about the trends affecting the future of teamwork, and proven practices that can power successful workplace transformation.
Create the Future of Work While You're Living ItAtlassian
Throw away your crystal ball because the future is already here. Yes, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and blockchain dominate the headlines. But the day-to-day manifestations of the future of work (i.e., the present) are more mundane – though no less daunting. We see it in the way businesses struggle to scale smart and stay one step ahead of disruption. Or how leaders try to manage a global, 24/7 workforce while tasked with meeting ever-increasing customer demands.
The time to take action is now. In this session, Dom Price will break down the five obsolete ways most of us are working, and share new, essential approaches to growth and retooling. He'll also reveal some of the collaboration hacks he's seen from enterprises around the world. Don't be a bystander. Come learn how to create a future where you and your team don't just survive, but thrive.
Designing for Agile Delight! Customer Obsessed Innovation at IntuitAtlassian
Innovating effectively in an Agile environment is no easy feat. Learn how Intuit applies an innovation culture and their own "Design for Delight" (D4D) process to deliver and enhance their enterprise agility program—and keep both internal teams and customers happy.
Explore this unique process around customer-driven innovation, deep customer empathy, and how to navigate rapid iterations with customers. Learn about how they applied their agile D4D process to solve key customer problems, and leave with the knowledge of how to deliver both features and customer delight.
Keynote includes eight parts:
- JIRA - A Success Story
- The People Behind the Curtain
- Turning Values into Success
- What Makes Us the Best Workplace in SE Asia?
- Building Great Products
- Better User Experience
Building Team Autonomy with Agile Development
Quality at Speed
WEBINAR: How To Avoid Unintended Project Consequences Using FMEAGoLeanSixSigma.com
During this 1-hour webinar you'll learn about some famous unintended consequences and how we can avoid them in our own worlds.
See more from this webinar including expert answers and tools referenced here: https://goleansixsigma.com/webinar-effectively-avoid-unintended-consequences-using-fmea/
10 Atlassian Tool Hacks to Improve Team CultureAtlassian
Your team is already running along with JIRA, Confluence, or HipChat enabling you to deliver awesome projects. But can they help you with team culture? How can you use the tools your team already has in place to cultivate an innovative and open culture?
This talk will cover different ways to use JIRA and Confluence to hack your team culture. We will give you tips on how to use Atlassian to make large organizations feel like small teams, build and maintain an innovative culture, and inject some fun and humor into your team - making your workplace feel a bit more enjoyable!
Sherif Mansour, Principal Product Manager, Atlassian
Remote Teams: Good For Your Company or Productivity NightmareDavid Hassell
Remote work arrangements have become more prevalent over the last decade, presenting managers with a unique set of challenges. These scenarios range from employees working from home once or twice a week, to nationally or globally distributed teams, or even companies who have no offices and operate exclusively from the cloud.
The 15Five team surveyed hundreds of managers, supervisors, and executives about their telework experiences. This included participants working in large and small businesses, in every major department, and in just about every vertical. Here’s what we discovered...
Sean Echevarria was invited back to NC State, his alma mater, to give advice to upcoming graduates for the Career Development Center's "Job Search Boot Camp". He shared 5 tips that he's gathered throughout the course of his career and explains what the career path paradox is.
If there is one constant in the tech industry, it's changing. We need to keep learning and adapting to stay current, but how do we know where to start and how do we stay on track?
You probably had a tough time proving your worth as a true leader during the last appraisal interview. Or maybe you’re a focused professional who’s willing to brush up on the leadership management skills for a successful career graph ahead.
HOW TO ADOPT A SERVANT LEADERSHIP MINDSET AT YOUR ORGANIZATIONHuman Capital Media
In most organizations, the leaders are the ones that hold the power. Their leadership style resembles one of a traditional hierarchy, where the leaders sit on a pedestal while making commands, have the control, and demand certain outcomes from their employees. Servant leaders are disrupting this traditional style of leading by putting the employees first, and research is finding that this disruption of the leadership status quo has many benefits.
Join Libby Powers from BizLibrary, as she explains the positive outcomes of leading from last. Adopting a servant leadership mindset will not only improve the leadership skills of the person who leads, but the whole organization will flourish with improvements in common business challenges like employee engagement and retention.
In this webinar, you’ll learn:
The qualities of a servant leader
How to transform command-control leadership into a serve-first mindset
Why companies need more servant leaders
Human beings optimize what they measure. If you manage the wrong metric, you will fail to achieve your desired outcome. But It doesn’t have to be this way.
The best skill startup investors have is choosing the right metric. They know that return on investment is years away, therefore they must have the ability to track progress toward the return.
If we can’t measure money and we can’t measure team productivity, what’s left?
In this highly actionable presentation, author and Startup founder Brant Cooper introduced the VALUE STREAM DISCOVERY TOOL, a step-by-step process for determining the right metrics to focus on. You’ll learn how to evaluate how customers behave throughout their journey, what tactics you might use to elicit that behavior, and how to measure their progress.
Additionally, the framework can be used to measure the progress of virtually any internal project, including innovation programs themselves!
What if you’re not the CTO and you want to improve your quality, performance and stability?
How do you work with low buy-in, legacy, siloed organizations to break down barriers, blur borders and eliminate constraints?
We cover:
– tribes and guilds vs silos and departments
– easy wins
– low investment tools
– talking the talk and walking the walk
– trust and building confidence
We’re In a Leadership Development Crisis – Now What?
According to the 2015 annual survey by Deloitte, only 18 percent of organizations hold their leaders accountable for identifying and developing successors. Does this ring true with your organization? In this upcoming spotlight webinar, Howard Prager, president of Advance Learning Group, will share what learning leaders can do to make impactful succession planning programs and where dollars should be invested to achieve the greatest return.
During this spotlight webinar attendee will hear:
What the problem is with leadership development.
Where you can get the biggest bang for your investment growing your leaders.
What the best organizations do to deliver effective leadership development.
How you can grow your talent to be the leaders your organization needs.
DEVELOPING LEADERS IN YOUR ORGANIZATION - STARTING THEM OFF RIGHTHuman Capital Media
Do all leaders need the same things? In this webinar, we will explore the importance of competency alignment to different levels of leadership, focusing on developing new leaders for long-term career growth. This includes a discussion around whether each level of leader should receive the same leader competencies, and if not, how should they vary. Once leadership competencies are agreed upon in the organization, it is essential to find an effective leadership program that complements those competencies and your business objectives. This webinar will help you develop an action plan for choosing the most effective leadership program that’s right for your organization.
Attendees will learn:
Which competencies are the most valuable for your new leaders
How to effectively instill those competencies in your new leaders
How to select the right leadership program for your organization
Wouldn’t you like to know the future of staffing software? Of course, you would — and by attending this webinar you’ll learn the 10 most critical trends in staffing tech. By understanding these trends and what’s driving them, you’ll make better staffing technology purchases. Staffing tech isn’t rocket science, but technology advancements are moving quite fast. Our three goals for this session are that you’re aware, you understand and you’re confident about the immediate future of staffing tech.
During this session, you will learn about:
Get a full map of the current HCM software market.
Find out the 10 staffing tech trends you’ll need to watch.
Understand how evolving staffing tech will affect your work.
The so-called “skills gap” in American business is well documented. Business Roundtable says 97 percent of CEOs say it’s a critical issue.
We wanted to learn more about this gap and what we could do to address it. What we learned turned into a totally disruptive learning approach that has the promise of developing the next generation workforce — workers who are not only knowledgeable but also capable of using their knowledge to produce productive business outcomes.
In this webinar, you will:
Learn the seven power skills that CEOs agree are critical to business today and how to integrate them into education and training.
Hear about case studies where these power skills have been integrated into content.
Practice these seven skills yourself
We work with more people today than ever before. The scale, speed, and sprawl that collaboration requires are some of the biggest challenges facing organizations today. Today’s collaboration needs are dynamic and varied, from complex collaboration portals to small innovation teams. How can an organization succeed in enabling collaboration while mitigating or reducing the risks that come with it? How do we design and empower the right experiences to enable a new kind of compliant collaboration that is needed to meet future demands, all while leveraging the latest innovations from Microsoft collaboration platform Loop to Microsoft Viva.
Join Richard Harbridge, a Microsoft MVP and internationally recognized expert on Microsoft 365 and the Digital Workplace, in partnership with Colligo, as he shares insight on how to better plan, design, integrate and enhance collaboration within your organization. Hear proven approaches from tackling and managing Teams, SharePoint, and Community sprawl to enabling improved employee experiences that bring collaboration, process, and more directly into the places people already work like Microsoft Teams and Outlook today. Be inspired by actionable advice and solutions that maximize the power of metadata and integrate into the flow of work so that collaborated content is automatically (by default) protected, retained, categorized, and managed.
In this session you will hear:
Why compliant collaboration is essential to future-ready digital design, and how you can play a crucial role in creating the foundation for sustainable, scalable, and responsible collaboration that keeps pace with significant marketplace innovation.
Real-life industry examples of what it takes to make effective collaboration possible.
Practical techniques you can use to bridge silos, increase productivity, and deliver better outcomes for your teams.
See examples of Microsoft Office collaboration software and powerful solutions from the community and specialist vendors like Colligo for solving real challenges around collaboration and content today.
This webinar was presented by Elliot Masie and David Wilkins as part of learning focused webinar series. In this presentation, Elliot and David discuss key learning trends.
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To meet the demand for content, do you take a “peanut butter” approach and spread your resources evenly – but thinly – across the whole product? Or do you grease the squeakiest wheel, which means you neglect a wheel that’s more vital to the business? Either way, outside forces dictate how you’ll use your resources. Soon you’ll have a lot of mediocre content that doesn’t represent your team’s value. And that makes it hard to get headcount and funding.
LavaCon 2017 - DITA: Start Small, Grow Big Using Open Source ToolsJack Molisani
You’re considering using DITA and would like to try it out without incurring significant upfront costs, but also keeping your options open longer-term. Where do you start? How will you approach the challenges of content creation, content management, and publishing your content? There are in fact plenty of options. The good news is that XML and DITA are open standards. This has led to a healthy ecosystem with quality commercial and inter-operable open source tools, that do away with vendor lock-in and keep operating costs down. We will discuss the three challenges, show an example of how end-to-end solutions can be built based upon Git and other open source tools. In fact, the result may be better than you’d expect.
LavaCon 2017 - Feed the Goldfish in 19 Minutes and 52 SecondsJack Molisani
Content consumption patterns have dramatically changed over the last decade. The maximum selective sustained attention span of a human being is about 20 minutes. The length of this talk. Latest research shows that the transient attention span of human beings has even gone down from 12 to 8 seconds over the last decade – even a goldfish has a longer attention span.
To communicate technical content in the future successfully, we need to move from drops to drips, deliver smaller content chunks, improve findability and searchability and tailor content to the content consumer’s role and context automatically.
LavaCon 2017 - How UX and Content Can (and Should) Work TogetherJack Molisani
The Farmer and the Cowhand Should Be Friends, or, How UX and Content Can (and Should) Work Together.
Let’s be frank: If UX designers had their way, the only words you’d ever see on the web are lorem ipsum. And yet, words — from interfaces to microcopy to long narratives — are integral to the usability and delight of any web product. Based on his years of UX experience and love of good content, Dylan will talk about ways to bring the two sides together to make better things on the web.
LavaCon 2017 - Implementing a Customer-driven Transition to DITA Content: A S...Jack Molisani
When customer expectations uproot your documentation processes and PDF content offering, how do you mobilize a team that has used the same tools and processes to create book-based, unstructured content for over two decades? When new demands drive the change for structured content to support a myriad of users and multi-channel publishing, the logical choice is a DITA workflow.
Join Ciena, The Content Era and Adobe Tech Comm at LavaCon 2017 Portland for an immersive workshop that highlights how a DITA workflow is possible with familiar tools, a modest budget, and creative handling of the content.
LavaCon 2017 - Evolving the New Content OrderJack Molisani
We are at a critical moment in history, with knowledge bursting at the seams of our organizations. Many of us still struggle to manage numerous modes of omnichannel content engagement: published, interactive, and automated. The solution requires vision to move towards a new order of content intelligence encompassing our organization’s entire knowledge graph. It requires spanning silos, especially between marcomm and techcomm. Join Cruce Saunders as he explores the new content stack, and how to future proof content assets to meet the demands of ever-evolving customer experiences.
LavaCon 2017 - Managing Stakeholders Across the Content Ecosystem: The Key to...Jack Molisani
Trying to implement an content strategy that supports your customers across their entire journey–or even just sell the idea to decision makers? Having problems getting it to fly? More than any other single aspect, stakeholder management is critical to getting support for and implementing a unified content strategy (or ANY project, for that matter). You need to understand THEIR needs and ensure that you’re communicating continually to quiet objections and move your project forward. And it’s not always easy–especially when you’re leading initiatives across silos and teams with no direct authority. Influencing those stakeholders is key!
In this session, Andrea will discuss the success factors to aim for, and the behaviors that can trip you up, when managing stakeholders to successfully support your clients, solve business problems, and drive revenue and customer loyalty!
LavaCon 2017 - Future-proof Your Content: Beyond Traditional Publishing for S...Jack Molisani
This session delineates why the most common publishing methods in today’s technical space cannot survive into the middle of the next decade. Tools and methodologies are required that are scalable for vast increases of “atomic” content and to dozens of more language targets. Discover what the minimum ingredients are for survival in terms of tools, workflows and content strategies.
LavaCon 2017 - Silos. (And other concepts that make us average)Jack Molisani
Content crosses silos, giving content developers a unique perspective of the good, the bad, and the ugly. Years of experience leads to insight, but can also paralyze innovative ideas.
Has your experience given you tribal knowledge and wisdom, or preconceived notions that are no longer true or helpful?
In this keynote, Megan Gilhooly discusses new ways of thinking that challenge common business trends. She will provide examples highlighting how your ability to think critically and your passion for forging new trends can help you throughout your content career.
LavaCon 2017 - Management Workshop Part 1: Leadership and Management in Techn...Jack Molisani
Some of the unique challenges that Tech Comms managers face are offshoring, outsourcing, vendor management, managing across countries, justification of resources etc. In this workshop we will work with real life scenarios and learn from solutions that have been implemented in organizations to manage and lead effective content management teams. You will be exposed to ideas and and handy tools that we to build your team with a varied set of skills for scalability and longevity.
The Art of the Pitch: WordPress Relationships and SalesLaura Byrne
Clients don’t know what they don’t know. What web solutions are right for them? How does WordPress come into the picture? How do you make sure you understand scope and timeline? What do you do if sometime changes?
All these questions and more will be explored as we talk about matching clients’ needs with what your agency offers without pulling teeth or pulling your hair out. Practical tips, and strategies for successful relationship building that leads to closing the deal.
Key Trends Shaping the Future of Infrastructure.pdfCheryl Hung
Keynote at DIGIT West Expo, Glasgow on 29 May 2024.
Cheryl Hung, ochery.com
Sr Director, Infrastructure Ecosystem, Arm.
The key trends across hardware, cloud and open-source; exploring how these areas are likely to mature and develop over the short and long-term, and then considering how organisations can position themselves to adapt and thrive.
JMeter webinar - integration with InfluxDB and GrafanaRTTS
Watch this recorded webinar about real-time monitoring of application performance. See how to integrate Apache JMeter, the open-source leader in performance testing, with InfluxDB, the open-source time-series database, and Grafana, the open-source analytics and visualization application.
In this webinar, we will review the benefits of leveraging InfluxDB and Grafana when executing load tests and demonstrate how these tools are used to visualize performance metrics.
Length: 30 minutes
Session Overview
-------------------------------------------
During this webinar, we will cover the following topics while demonstrating the integrations of JMeter, InfluxDB and Grafana:
- What out-of-the-box solutions are available for real-time monitoring JMeter tests?
- What are the benefits of integrating InfluxDB and Grafana into the load testing stack?
- Which features are provided by Grafana?
- Demonstration of InfluxDB and Grafana using a practice web application
To view the webinar recording, go to:
https://www.rttsweb.com/jmeter-integration-webinar
Dev Dives: Train smarter, not harder – active learning and UiPath LLMs for do...UiPathCommunity
💥 Speed, accuracy, and scaling – discover the superpowers of GenAI in action with UiPath Document Understanding and Communications Mining™:
See how to accelerate model training and optimize model performance with active learning
Learn about the latest enhancements to out-of-the-box document processing – with little to no training required
Get an exclusive demo of the new family of UiPath LLMs – GenAI models specialized for processing different types of documents and messages
This is a hands-on session specifically designed for automation developers and AI enthusiasts seeking to enhance their knowledge in leveraging the latest intelligent document processing capabilities offered by UiPath.
Speakers:
👨🏫 Andras Palfi, Senior Product Manager, UiPath
👩🏫 Lenka Dulovicova, Product Program Manager, UiPath
Essentials of Automations: Optimizing FME Workflows with ParametersSafe Software
Are you looking to streamline your workflows and boost your projects’ efficiency? Do you find yourself searching for ways to add flexibility and control over your FME workflows? If so, you’re in the right place.
Join us for an insightful dive into the world of FME parameters, a critical element in optimizing workflow efficiency. This webinar marks the beginning of our three-part “Essentials of Automation” series. This first webinar is designed to equip you with the knowledge and skills to utilize parameters effectively: enhancing the flexibility, maintainability, and user control of your FME projects.
Here’s what you’ll gain:
- Essentials of FME Parameters: Understand the pivotal role of parameters, including Reader/Writer, Transformer, User, and FME Flow categories. Discover how they are the key to unlocking automation and optimization within your workflows.
- Practical Applications in FME Form: Delve into key user parameter types including choice, connections, and file URLs. Allow users to control how a workflow runs, making your workflows more reusable. Learn to import values and deliver the best user experience for your workflows while enhancing accuracy.
- Optimization Strategies in FME Flow: Explore the creation and strategic deployment of parameters in FME Flow, including the use of deployment and geometry parameters, to maximize workflow efficiency.
- Pro Tips for Success: Gain insights on parameterizing connections and leveraging new features like Conditional Visibility for clarity and simplicity.
We’ll wrap up with a glimpse into future webinars, followed by a Q&A session to address your specific questions surrounding this topic.
Don’t miss this opportunity to elevate your FME expertise and drive your projects to new heights of efficiency.
State of ICS and IoT Cyber Threat Landscape Report 2024 previewPrayukth K V
The IoT and OT threat landscape report has been prepared by the Threat Research Team at Sectrio using data from Sectrio, cyber threat intelligence farming facilities spread across over 85 cities around the world. In addition, Sectrio also runs AI-based advanced threat and payload engagement facilities that serve as sinks to attract and engage sophisticated threat actors, and newer malware including new variants and latent threats that are at an earlier stage of development.
The latest edition of the OT/ICS and IoT security Threat Landscape Report 2024 also covers:
State of global ICS asset and network exposure
Sectoral targets and attacks as well as the cost of ransom
Global APT activity, AI usage, actor and tactic profiles, and implications
Rise in volumes of AI-powered cyberattacks
Major cyber events in 2024
Malware and malicious payload trends
Cyberattack types and targets
Vulnerability exploit attempts on CVEs
Attacks on counties – USA
Expansion of bot farms – how, where, and why
In-depth analysis of the cyber threat landscape across North America, South America, Europe, APAC, and the Middle East
Why are attacks on smart factories rising?
Cyber risk predictions
Axis of attacks – Europe
Systemic attacks in the Middle East
Download the full report from here:
https://sectrio.com/resources/ot-threat-landscape-reports/sectrio-releases-ot-ics-and-iot-security-threat-landscape-report-2024/
Transcript: Selling digital books in 2024: Insights from industry leaders - T...BookNet Canada
The publishing industry has been selling digital audiobooks and ebooks for over a decade and has found its groove. What’s changed? What has stayed the same? Where do we go from here? Join a group of leading sales peers from across the industry for a conversation about the lessons learned since the popularization of digital books, best practices, digital book supply chain management, and more.
Link to video recording: https://bnctechforum.ca/sessions/selling-digital-books-in-2024-insights-from-industry-leaders/
Presented by BookNet Canada on May 28, 2024, with support from the Department of Canadian Heritage.
UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series, part 3DianaGray10
Welcome to UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series part 3. In this session, we will cover desktop automation along with UI automation.
Topics covered:
UI automation Introduction,
UI automation Sample
Desktop automation flow
Pradeep Chinnala, Senior Consultant Automation Developer @WonderBotz and UiPath MVP
Deepak Rai, Automation Practice Lead, Boundaryless Group and UiPath MVP
Securing your Kubernetes cluster_ a step-by-step guide to success !KatiaHIMEUR1
Today, after several years of existence, an extremely active community and an ultra-dynamic ecosystem, Kubernetes has established itself as the de facto standard in container orchestration. Thanks to a wide range of managed services, it has never been so easy to set up a ready-to-use Kubernetes cluster.
However, this ease of use means that the subject of security in Kubernetes is often left for later, or even neglected. This exposes companies to significant risks.
In this talk, I'll show you step-by-step how to secure your Kubernetes cluster for greater peace of mind and reliability.
Epistemic Interaction - tuning interfaces to provide information for AI supportAlan Dix
Paper presented at SYNERGY workshop at AVI 2024, Genoa, Italy. 3rd June 2024
https://alandix.com/academic/papers/synergy2024-epistemic/
As machine learning integrates deeper into human-computer interactions, the concept of epistemic interaction emerges, aiming to refine these interactions to enhance system adaptability. This approach encourages minor, intentional adjustments in user behaviour to enrich the data available for system learning. This paper introduces epistemic interaction within the context of human-system communication, illustrating how deliberate interaction design can improve system understanding and adaptation. Through concrete examples, we demonstrate the potential of epistemic interaction to significantly advance human-computer interaction by leveraging intuitive human communication strategies to inform system design and functionality, offering a novel pathway for enriching user-system engagements.
2. @SaiffSolutions @davewilks #LavaCon #SaiffSolutions #techcomm
About Your Presenters
Getting to Know You
Tailoring Your Workshop
Three Contexts for Extraordinary Achievement
Manager’s Toolkit: You’ve Got to Have CHARM
Management: A Sacred Trust (The Soft Skills)- CARVE! THRIVE!
AGENDA
3. @SaiffSolutions @davewilks #LavaCon #SaiffSolutions #techcomm
Keys to Success: Motivation (SLAP!), Feedback
Awareness, Bias, Culture: You, Your Organization, The World
Improving Processes and Tools, Intrapreneurship
Staffing: Changes, Additions
Offshore Outsourcing
AGENDA
4. @SaiffSolutions @davewilks #LavaCon #SaiffSolutions #techcomm
About The Speaker: Barry Saiff
Technical communications leader
33 years of experience in technical documentation
Led content development teams at Symantec,
Oracle, IBM, and GE
Founded Saiff Solutions, Inc. in 2011
Provides technical writing services to large
enterprises in Australia, Japan, Canada, and US
Twitter: @SaiffSolutions
5. @SaiffSolutions @davewilks #LavaCon #SaiffSolutions #techcomm
About The Speaker: Dave Wilks
Technical Writer at Cloud Elements
Built a geographically dispersed team from
1-15 at Willis Towers Watson
Servant leader focus
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/davewilks
Twitter: @davewilks
7. @SaiffSolutions @davewilks #LavaCon #SaiffSolutions #techcomm
What are Your Interests/Experiences
in Managing Technical Writers?
• Managing a team of writers?
• Leading a team, without management authority?
• Managing outsourced or offshore writers?
• Hiring? Firing?
• Working for a good manager?
• Working for a not-so-good manager?
• What else?
Have you experienced:
8. @SaiffSolutions @davewilks #LavaCon #SaiffSolutions #techcomm
What Should We Focus on
1. What do you most want to get out of this workshop?
2. Where does your content team fit in your corporate structure?
3. What is your current/past management experience?
4. Which staff changes are you least experienced in: hiring, firing, transfers,
outsourcing, other?
5. What types of training does your team participate in?
6. Is your team geographically, culturally, or linguistically diverse?
7. What is your biggest challenge - Process? Team Issues? Staffing? Other?
Some of you received these questions via email:
9. @SaiffSolutions @davewilks #LavaCon #SaiffSolutions #techcomm
Extraordinary Achievement
• Your staff (local, in-sourced)
• Your expanded team (remote, outsourced)
• Your organization
Enable excellence for:
How do we achieve extraordinary
results consistently across all of
these dimensions?
10. @SaiffSolutions @davewilks #LavaCon #SaiffSolutions #techcomm
When facing any difficult situation,
start with:
Curiosity and
Humility, proceed with
Awareness,
Respect, and
Mastery
Manager’s Toolkit: CHARM
11. @SaiffSolutions @davewilks #LavaCon #SaiffSolutions #techcomm
Management is a sacred trust. As a manager,
at any level, you have the power to:
• Destroy careers
• Destroy jobs
• Destroy morale
• Destroy the enterprise
12. @SaiffSolutions @davewilks #LavaCon #SaiffSolutions #techcomm
Management is a sacred trust. As a manager,
at any level, you have the power to:
• Build careers
• Achieve miracles
• Treat people fairly
• Develop lifelong relationships of trust
13. @SaiffSolutions @davewilks #LavaCon #SaiffSolutions #techcomm
Management is a sacred trust. As a manager,
at any level, you have the power to:
• Turn lives around
• Empower people to be more effective
and productive
• Enable people to learn things that make
them more successful
• Turn the enterprise around
14.
15. @SaiffSolutions @davewilks #LavaCon #SaiffSolutions #techcomm
Caring
• The enterprise
• The results
• The people
• The process
The fundamental way of being of a manager is caring.
A manager cares about:
16. @SaiffSolutions @davewilks #LavaCon #SaiffSolutions #techcomm
Caring: Responsibility
• A manager is trusted with power, and
faces opportunities to abuse that power.
• A manager must, at times, be selfless,
and act against their own (narrowly
conceived) self-interest.
17. @SaiffSolutions @davewilks #LavaCon #SaiffSolutions #techcomm
Caring: Bureaucracy
• A good manager is a creator of healthy administration, and an
enemy of bureaucratic corruption and inertia.
• The mission, the customers, the enterprise, the people, and
the results are more important than the rules.
• A good manager strives for continuous improvement, rational
administration, fairness, and productivity gains.
18. @SaiffSolutions @davewilks #LavaCon #SaiffSolutions #techcomm
Caring: A New Idea?
Have you ever thought
about management in
terms of caring?
Yes? No?
19. @SaiffSolutions @davewilks #LavaCon #SaiffSolutions #techcomm
Acess
Have you ever had difficulties or
stress at work because your
manager had no time for you?
Yes? No?
Your people need regular access to you, and
you need access to your management.
20. @SaiffSolutions @davewilks #LavaCon #SaiffSolutions #techcomm
Being Respectful
Don’t accuse.
Remember CHARM.
Even if you don't think you
are accusing or blaming, if
the other person thinks you
are, you are responsible for
their perception.
This is particularly important
in Asian cultures.
21. @SaiffSolutions @davewilks #LavaCon #SaiffSolutions #techcomm
Being Respectful
A manager knows how to manage
their emotions, without dumping
them on people in the workplace.
Understand the difference between
passion and emotion. Be responsible
for the impact of your actions.
A manager does not react. A manager
creates.
22. @SaiffSolutions @davewilks #LavaCon #SaiffSolutions #techcomm
Being Respectful of Yourself
Expand the realm of what you consider
yourself responsible for.
Do not accept being treated with less
than full respect.
Give yourself a break.
You will make mistakes, in fact, you
must make some mistakes in order to
learn how to improve.
BALANCE Infographics: 7 Elements of Respect
23. @SaiffSolutions @davewilks #LavaCon #SaiffSolutions #techcomm
Vision
Without vision, management is damaging. Be
inspired, and you will inspire others.
Keep the mission, vision, and values of the
organization alive, in everyone.
Make sure people understand how their
work forwards the whole.
Are you clear about the mission or
the vision of your organization?
Yes? No?
24. @SaiffSolutions @davewilks #LavaCon #SaiffSolutions #techcomm
Expect Excellence
Dr. Wayne Dyer was well
known for the idea, based on
extensive research, that we
create what we expect.
Be aware of your expectations.
Choose them wisely.
25. @SaiffSolutions @davewilks #LavaCon #SaiffSolutions #techcomm
TRUST
Caring – Trust = Micromanagement
Trust is the currency of business success.
Without trust, nothing is possible.
You must calibrate trust for each person/situation.
What do you trust me for? Do you trust me to do my job well?
Would you trust me to protect your daughter from harm?
These are very different questions.
26. @SaiffSolutions @davewilks #LavaCon #SaiffSolutions #techcomm
TRUST
Team (We are all on the same one.)
Relationships based upon
Understanding,
Sensitivity, and
Tolerance
Calibrate your level of trust in each
person wisely. Believe in people.
27. @SaiffSolutions @davewilks #LavaCon #SaiffSolutions #techcomm
Being
Question for managers: Who am I being?
Get clear on who you are, as a manager and a leader. For
example, here is my statement:
I am an authentic, caring, challenging, dedicated mentor.
What is yours? (Feel free to steal from mine.)
To get clear on your statement:
• Notice, ask for feedback
• Envision (Whom do you aspire to be like?)
28. @SaiffSolutions @davewilks #LavaCon #SaiffSolutions #techcomm
Being Authentic
An inauthentic manager is an ineffective manager.
To increase authenticity, clarify your inauthenticities.
Everyone has inauthenticities.
Ask for help: What don’t you believe? How would you not trust me?
Ask yourself: What do I really care about? What don’t I?
Separate the facts from your story.
Get training: Never stop learning about yourself.
Highly recommended: http://www.landmarkworldwide.com
29.
30. @SaiffSolutions @davewilks #LavaCon #SaiffSolutions #techcomm
Empower Excellence: Integrity
• Examine: How might I be the source of
the problem?
• Learn from failures and successes.
• Do not cut corners (deceive, break the
law, share information prematurely or
inappropriately).
31. @SaiffSolutions @davewilks #LavaCon #SaiffSolutions #techcomm
Empower Excellence: Integrity
• Hold yourself accountable for the results
of your team, and for your impact on
their self-image & performance.
• Model behaviors and attitudes you want
to develop.
• Work at least as hard, and smart, as your
staff.
32. @SaiffSolutions @davewilks #LavaCon #SaiffSolutions #techcomm
Integrity: The Power of Your Word
Why are promises important?
• Descriptive language vs Creative language
• Flowers
• Personal power: What is it? What is its source?
• Beyond keeping promises - Honoring your word:
o When you cannot, pro-actively take responsibility
for mitigating the impacts on others.
o Calibrate your promises: Not too much, not too
little either – expect great things!
35. @SaiffSolutions @davewilks #LavaCon #SaiffSolutions #techcomm
Motivation: A, M, P, T, AF
Three Key Factors for Motivation:
1. Autonomy
2. Mastery
3. Purpose
Great 11-minute video on motivation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuF
Two Orientations of Motivation:
• Toward (things you want)
• Away from (things you don’t want)
36. @SaiffSolutions @davewilks #LavaCon #SaiffSolutions #techcomm
Feedback
Frequent! Accurate! Clear! Specific!
Do not fail to tell someone that they made a
mistake.
Do not fail to praise someone, often.
Do have regular one-on-one meetings with
each person.
Do not fail to provide formal
performance reviews at least annually.
Remember CHARM! CARVE! THRIVE!
37. @SaiffSolutions @davewilks #LavaCon #SaiffSolutions #techcomm
Enabling Excellence: Training – Why?
Imagine: Your boss tells you (for the first
time) that you are failing at x, y, and z, and
you are being demoted, or fired.
Would you rather have had a chance
to improve first?
Would you rather have had some
effective training?
38. @SaiffSolutions @davewilks #LavaCon #SaiffSolutions #techcomm
Improve Processes and Tools
Are you using the best processes and tools?
Ask yourself three questions:
1. What is your purpose?
2. Who is your customer?
3. Is your customer happy?
Link: http://www.squawkpoint.com/tutorials/process-improvement/
39. @SaiffSolutions @davewilks #LavaCon #SaiffSolutions #techcomm
Speak Management’s Language
Changing a process or a tool can be expensive.
Understand upper management’s priorities.
Present a business case:
• Short and long term benefits to customers, company.
• Impact to existing products or processes.
• Cost (time, licenses, training, etc.)
• Return on investment (payback time, cost savings.)
40. @SaiffSolutions @davewilks #LavaCon #SaiffSolutions #techcomm
Be an Effective Intrapreneur
• http://saiffsolutions.com/home/tech-comm-intrapreneurship-5-
key-approaches-infographic
• https://www.slideshare.net/SaiffSolutionsInc/content-leadership-
forum-how-to-be-an-effective-tech-comm-intrapreneur
• https://www.brighttalk.com/webcast/9273/271827
41. Awareness, Bias, and Culture
• A changing world = Diverse styles/contexts
• Cross-cultural teams: Aware leadership
• Each culture has strengths, and challenges
@SaiffSolutions @davewilks #LavaCon #SaiffSolutions #techcomm
42. @SaiffSolutions @davewilks #LavaCon #SaiffSolutions #techcomm
The World is Changing
Companies market their
products internationally.
Users are diverse.
Localization of products and
supporting documentation
requires cultural awareness.
43. • Between company strategy and their employees.
• Between team members who may be in many locations.
• Between past practices and future possibilities
@SaiffSolutions @davewilks #LavaCon #SaiffSolutions #techcomm
Managers are at the Interface
Between company strategy and their employees.
Between team members who may be in many locations.
Between past practices and future possibilities
44. @SaiffSolutions @davewilks #LavaCon #SaiffSolutions #techcomm
Managing Cross-Cultural Teams
Three Key Success Factors:
1. Mix cultures and locations.
Having a mix of cultures in one
location makes a huge difference.
2. Ensure editing, quality control,
and inclusion.
Make all writers have the
advantages they need to succeed.
45. @SaiffSolutions @davewilks #LavaCon #SaiffSolutions #techcomm
Managing Cross-Cultural Teams
A key success factor for Saiff Solutions:
Our writers in the Philippines work with
American, Canadian, Indian, and Filipino
editors and managers (local and remote).
Our editors each have at least 10 years of
technical writing/editing experience.
46. @SaiffSolutions @davewilks #LavaCon #SaiffSolutions #techcomm
Managing Cross-Cultural Teams
3. Embrace differences by increasing your awareness!
Understanding cultural differences – between countries, professions,
departments, companies – is crucial to your success. Consider:
• How do these people learn best?
• How do they typically handle conflict?
• What does “Yes” mean to them?
47. @SaiffSolutions @davewilks #LavaCon #SaiffSolutions #techcomm
Managing Cross-Cultural Teams
Learn to listen newly: hear what you
are missing.
Learn to speak newly: add what you
assume and others do not.
Continually expand your awareness
to new levels.
You cannot succeed in this without
getting to know people well.
48. @SaiffSolutions @davewilks #LavaCon #SaiffSolutions #techcomm
Managing Cross-Cultural Teams
Management entails awesome responsibility and awesome
opportunity. Both are magnified by a mixture of cultures.
They may hide from you the impact of how you are being.
Many Americans, Japanese, and others regularly raise their
voices, or interpret silence as a sign of agreement and support.
49. @SaiffSolutions @davewilks #LavaCon #SaiffSolutions #techcomm
Managing Cross-Cultural Teams
Many Asians are socialized to defer to authority figures, and
foreigners, even those not in positions of authority. They may be
unwilling to say “no” or disagree with you, to ask questions or ask
for help, especially if you (even unknowingly) raise your voice or
exhibit frustration or anger.
50. @SaiffSolutions @davewilks #LavaCon #SaiffSolutions #techcomm
Seek Out The Strengths
To be successful with people in other cultures, you need to be
sensitive. You need to be willing to change. You need to give up
the idea that your culture is better. All cultures have strengths
and weaknesses. Learn the strengths and weaknesses of your
culture and other cultures.
51. @SaiffSolutions @davewilks #LavaCon #SaiffSolutions #techcomm
Asking Questions
Why aren’t they asking enough questions?
How do you* respond to questions that seem
pointless? Stupid?
Are you* open to people who think differently?
Are all questions welcome? Really?
Why aren’t they asking enough questions?
What does respect mean to you? To them?
*Anyone in authority
52. @SaiffSolutions @davewilks #LavaCon #SaiffSolutions #techcomm
Respect
Respect in the Philippines (and some other Asian cultures):
• Defer to authority/role, age, whiteness, experience, wealth.
• Be quiet. Appear attentive. Agree. Do what you are told.
• Do not challenge or question authority. Support leaders.
Respect in the USA (and many non-Asian cultures):
• Tell the truth, respectfully. Do not withhold key information.
• Ask questions, appropriately. Contribute. Speak up.
• Do what you say you will. Do not lie. Support the team.
53. @SaiffSolutions @davewilks #LavaCon #SaiffSolutions #techcomm
Conflict/Culture Clash
Some Common US approaches to conflict:
• Discuss. Argue. Raise voices. Blame. Apologize. Resolve/Not.
• Challenge. Brainstorm together. Resolve/Not.
Some Common Filipino approaches to conflict:
• Avoid. Work around. Await opportunity to resolve.
Some Common Filipino responses to US approaches:
• Withdraw. Resent. Sabotage. Leave.
Some Common US responses to Filipino approaches:
• Give up on the Asians. Blame. Assume stupidity/incompetence.
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Management Style
Management in Asia is frequently “Command and Control:”
• Management as supervision
• Intensely hierarchical
• “The manager always knows best”
This management style does not encourage:
• Collaboration
• Asking questions
• Prioritizing quality over deference to authority
All over the world, people frequently leave jobs because of their managers.
This may also explain why they don’t ask questions.
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In Summary: Things Are Not Always
What They Seem
Mistakes
...could be due to incompetence. But also think about:
• The clarity of your expectations
• Your communication style
• Your openness to questions
• Differences in display of respect
• All the “authorities” involved and the above issues for each of them
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Staff Changes - Firing
• Do your homework: Follow processes, document
• Has the person received specific, actionable feedback? Have
they been given a chance to improve? Have you considered
various viewpoints?
• Is the person a negative influence? A bad cultural fit? Or
someone different who contributes something valuable?
• Not being able to fire people can destroy an organization.
• Firing the wrong people can destroy morale.
• Once you decide, act with authority.
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Staff Changes - Transfers
Transfers into your team:
• Orientation, inclusion
• Team cohesion, team building
• Are they a good fit? What are their
career goals?
Transfers out of your team:
• Understand their goals
• Support their ambitions
• Make it work for your team
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Staff Changes - Hiring
Hire for attitude (89%) and skills (11%)
• Know your culture, seek a good fit
• Value and encourage diversity
• More heads are better
• When needed, test
• After hiring: orientation, team-building, inclusion
Do you have a good onboarding process? Orientation?
What if you cannot get hiring authority/budget?
Can you outsource/offshore while maintaining/improving quality?
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Staff Changes – How to Make
Outsourcing Work
Assess process maturity and content strategy first,
and improve if needed.
• Include Tech Comm in planning.
• Ensure a realistic financial analysis.
• Identify & communicate vision & benefits.
• Incorporate team feedback.
• Focus on career development.
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Staff Changes - How to Make
Outsourcing Work
Carefully choose country:
• Consider language, infrastructure, labor pool.
• #1 country in business English: Philippines
Link: http://www.globalenglish.com/business_english_index
Carefully choose provider.
Start with a low-risk pilot project.
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Understand and accommodate
the differences:
• Time zone
• Language
• Culture
• Expertise
• Background, context
Staff Changes - How to Make
Outsourcing Work
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Include all tech writers in meetings,
reviews, scrums, defect tracking,
wiki/intranet, email list, etc.
Document testing, review = key
parts of the project schedule
Staff Changes - How to Make
Outsourcing Work
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Can We Help You?
What are your greatest challenges?
Staff changes
Resources/capacity/constraints
Team/personnel
Bureaucracy/management support
Cross-cultural/geographic issues
Other?
If Saiff Solutions could assist you in
overcoming your challenges, would you
be interested in a free consultation?
Yes, please contact me directly.
Not right now, possibly later
No, thank you.