Rules of high performance Essay Example for Free

Rules of high performance Essay This week our text discusses the definition of organizational behavior and in particular its applied focus, and our lecture focuses on high performance organizations (HPOs). Right at the intersection of those would be the â€Å"Ten Golden Rules of High Performance† listed below. What do you think should be added to the list? Is there anything on the list that you disagree with? Please support your opinion with evidence from our readings and also from your own work and life experience. Please also remember to respond to your classmates’ posts to stimulate further discussion. Ten Golden Rules of High Performance Organizational Dynamics The future of every organization is built around continuous development and improvement as most people are already aware however there are some who forget that one of the most valuable assets in a company are the people that are involved in every day operations. This includes every person no matter what position they might hold within the company whether its the president or service personnel. Each individual brings forward unique skill sets and abilities that can impact the development and direction of a company. Their individual development and well being are important considerations in any change in organizational dynamics. Many people still believe that businesses operate in an employers market though I would tend to disagree with that assessment, but not in the view that most people might have on the state of hiring even in tight markets. I tend to side with individuals like Laura Butler, Vice President of Talent Acquisition for TeleTech. While it is true that it has been more difficult than ever before for unemployed individuals employers are also scrambling to find qualified personnel and even after finding those candidates hanging on to qualified personnel is a difficult task. If you are an employee you are concerned with your individual perspective and effects change have on your personal stability, which is an important consideration in future change initiatives as companies work to maintain a competitive edge in shrinking markets. In order to ensure that a company can sustain itself now and in the future it must be prepared to invest in its workforce. That includes continuing education and employee retention as well as a big picture view of future operations. I personally like to pull a page from Googles philosophy on operation and continued  development as listed below. 1. Hire by Committee Make sure your new recruits talk to their future colleagues I believe that this is an important part of continued organizational development. Ensuring that new hires and existing members of your team and workforce can work well together will ensure that the projects they work on can be performed efficiently and quickly. It is important to remember that the moral and performance of your workforce hinges on the way in which team members communicate and interact. This includes 2. Cater to their every need Make sure it is, not hard, for them to perform Making sure that your employees have the tools and resources they need to perform jobs also ensures that they meet your expectations. If you fail to manage resources effectively operations can quickly grind to a halt and your employees morale will quickly slip as they fail to meet not only your expectations of performance but their own. Building an environment that fosters individual growth can bring forward a variety of unexpected opportunities in the continued growth of an organization and a workforce. 3. Pack them in put people to work close to one another This is certainly a debatable concept but the general idea is that having individuals within reach of each other ensures more effective communication. While it is true that electronic communication systems like email and instant messaging systems can help to unify a large and expansive workforce there is no real substitute for person to person interactions. Electronic messaging systems do not accurately convey the emotional context nor the associated body language the accompanies it. These components of communication can provide an individual with important insights into the true direction and meaning of the information being presented. 4. Make coordination easy use technology to keep people talking together This ties back into packing people together, large organizations need to effectively communicate important information among themselves. This includes email communication, shared calendaring systems, CRM, ERP and highly functional intranet systems that are both internally and externally accessible. Having on-demand access to this information on the go allows your workforce to be  better prepared for change and unexpected shifts in project development. 5. Eat your own dog food make use of company products This is another important one, make sure that the products you sell and produce are also available and in use by your workforce. This is an effective method of quality control, no one wants to purchase or use products of poor quality and your workforce is the same. If you make your products easily accessible to them they will ensure that the products they purchase and actively use or of a quality that meets or exceeds their own expectations. 6. Encourage creativity allow freedom to come up with new ideas Environments that stifle innovation and creativity often lose their ability to maintain a competitive edge in todays rapidly changing business environment. Organizations that allow their employees to provide feedback on processes and bring forward new ideas often achieve higher performance standards, higher workforce productivity, and again often find new and unexpected opportunities emerge for the company. Creativity extends into many areas of development including product development, process modification, and more. 7. Strive for consensus remember many are better than the few Strive to move forward as a group rather than individually, ensuring that everyone from the bottom up is on the same page with what we want to achieve is important. Making changes on your own without the input or approval of those who would implement those changes often result in failure. Almost 80% of all change initiatives fail because the people who were meant to implement those changes did not understand, support, or see a reason to implement the change. 8. Dont be evil live tolerance and respect This is one of the tougher aspects of normal operation, this extends into ethical behavior as well as how your business interacts with the community it is in. Its important to remember that a business is much like living and breathing person and the impact it can have on local as well as regional communities can reach quite far. How your company represents itself also reflects how your workforce represents itself, no one really wants to be part of something no one likes even if there are great incentives. 9. Data  drive decisions do analysis and stay on track This comes back to using electronic systems effectively, while in most cases I tend to focus more in qualitative information it is important to track performance quantitatively so that changes in performance can be reported effectively. There are many easy to use systems that will allow you to follow workforce readiness, project performance, financial performance and a range of other pieces of information that can contribute to making informed decisions both in the present as well as for the future. Whether its decision trees, spreadsheets, or custom DBM systems they all have a role to play into the development of a feature rich intranet and ERP system. 10. Communicate effectively hold many stay-in-touch meetings One of the most important things you can do in attempting to implement change or in managing continued development is to ensure that everyone is heard, whether its lowest man on the totem pole or the president of the company. Meetings both physical and virtual allow individuals to provide feedback on the assessments you make as well as provide direction for future developments. There many different ways to communicate today, far more than there were in history, including teleconferencing, video chat, email, instant messaging, social media, and more.

The Benefits of Play Time for Children Essay -- Cognitive, Social, Psy

The best way for parents to teach their child is to play with them. Because indoor and outdoor play is a child's opportunity to explore his new world, it is very important for his growth. In order to help their children develop cognitive, social, and psychological skills, parents should actively participate in their child's playtime. The first step for parents to take is to give the child enough room to play. Enough play space will give way to paths, ramps, bridges, hills, etc (Strickland par. 3). Because the child will have extra room to move, his body will engage in actions, which is important for him to learn how his mind cooperates with his body. Provide tools like plastic shovels, sand buckets, or blocks of wood to encourage him to build anything he wants. Such things as sand, water, blocks, and boxes for construction are moveable. Since they are moveable, they are also changeable; he can calculate in his head what needs to go where (Strickland par. 1). The balancing, lifting, and carrying will help develop his cognitive skills because he will be using his mind to complete his project just the way he imagines it (Strickland par. 2). The movements and strategies that are accompanied by outdoor projects will enhance his motor coordination, and hone his timing skills (Muller par. 38). Dr. Katheleen Al fano, director research at Fisher Price, states that â€Å"a great deal of research has been conducted recently into the link between play and movement, and intellectual development† (Muller par. 37). Of course, the parents' role in this activity is to monitor their child's play, but to not hover or intervene. The parents may feel urged to correct the child's method of construction, but it is vital for the child to ... ...k. There is no time commitment, and the child savors the play-time just the same (Bush par. 4). There are many things to do outside to help define the child's character: read outside (Bush par. 8), gaze at the sky (Bush par. 9), listen to animal sounds (Bush par. 10), look at the many bugs, and much more. When a child sees an eccentric insect, his reaction will portray his character and personality. It also helps him explore his feelings (Bush par. 7). Allowing aggressive play and scheduling time to see the world together are ways that parents can actively participate in their child's play-time. The famous author Dr. Seuss thinks that â€Å"adults are obsolete children.† Still, parents must put adulthood aside sometimes and actively participate in their child's play-time in order to help the child develop cognitive, social, and psychological skills.

Cabaret Film Anaylsis Essay

I directed Cabaret in 1971 and my main aim was to explore the nature of humans and how they behave in certain circumstances. Set in Berlin, 1931, the movie follows the lives of Sally Bowles and Brian Roberts through the struggles of living in Nazi Germany. Through the use of film techniques such as camera shot and angles, musical numbers, and repeated symbols, the viewer perceives how what contributes to the decisions people make, and how this affects their lives. The use of camera shots and angles featured heavily throughout Cabaret. I use the low angle close up frequently to establish a feeling of power or dominance. The first musical number I wanted to be viewed from the audience’s point of view, looking up at the cabaret performers to show the performer’s dominance and create a tense, excited and somewhat sinister atmosphere. It was also used to show that Brian is new to Berlin, a stranger. I showed this by making the audience continually look down on him from many perspectives. The close up shot is also frequently used. This shot is dramatic and fills the screen with a single subject, and when focusing on a person’s face, it is used to show emotion. This shot I used mostly with Sally. After she had her child aborted, the audience looked down at her. This combined with the fact she was wearing minimal makeup, it made her look almost child-like, showing she needed protection and emphasised the fact that she was very vulnerable. Camera focus is used to make the audience pay attention to certain details and I wanted to make the MC come to the forefront of the audience’s mind as he foreshadows misfortune or the coming of bad times. The title sequence starts with a blurry image which slowly comes into focus, and we see the face of the MC, indicating what I have just explained before. I often used close ups, or extreme close ups on the hands of the characters. These shots are used to draw the audience’s attention to a particular detail as well as distort reality. In this movie, I used hands to symbolise the different personalities of each character at different times. In the case of Fritz, I focus on his sleeve cuffs, which are frayed and show his poverty, whilst with Sally, I focused more on her fingernails and the colour changes that happen at different times of the movie, to show she is changing or she projects a different persona for different people, which made Sally appear fake. For example, when she went to meet her father, she removed her nail polish, which for the cabaret and most other times in the movie is vivid green, showing that she was intimidated by him. Musical numbers in the movie are very important to understanding the context. I placed these numbers strategically after certain scenes, to infer or foreshadow different events. The opening number gives you an idea of what you will be up for. It juxtaposes the cabaret with the outside world, and what was going on in Berlin at the time. During the MC’s performance, he says â€Å"Leave your troubles outside, life is disappointing. Forget it! In here, life is beautiful†. I then panned to the audience, and you can see most of them are wearing suits, and the ladies are immaculately dressed, these sorts of people would be beginning to feel the effects of the Nazi Party. The next musical number is Money, Money, Money. This is performed by the MC and Sally directly after she meets Maximillion. If the audience hadn’t already guessed, they are now given a very obvious clue as to why Sally becomes besotted with Max. I even an extreme close up on Sally’s face when she sings the line â€Å"money, money, money, money, money, money, money† to show the audience that this is all she wants from Maximillion. The last musical number, If You Could See Her, occurs directly after the conversation between Brian and Fritz, where Fritz finally admits to being a Jew, but he can’t inform Natalia, as she will reject him. Even though if he did tell her, they would be able to get married, but admitting to having a Jewish background in Nazi Germany probably wouldn’t be easy. Throughout the number, the MC is singing to a gorilla, so there is quite a contrast between both of the ‘lovers’, and if this wasn’t enough to let the audience realise this song is related to Natalia and Fritz’s relationship, the last line the MC sings â€Å"if you could see her through my eyes, she wouldn’t look Jewish at all† makes direct reference. I then cut to the scene where Fritz finally reveals his ancestry, so the connection becomes quite clear. During all of the numbers, I have described, you can see that the MC is present. He also appears at certain times during the movie before or after problematic events. The MC is a symbol for fear, also a symbol for the troubled times in the movie. I brought him in to warn the audience of the events to come, and his appearance, exaggerated personality and overdone makeup, project a sinister vibe which I believe the audience picks up on and foreshadows what is to come. Directing this film was a magnificent pleasure, and I believe my beliefs and values about Germany during the war period was brought out through the characters. I also believe I portrayed the fact that people seek the escape life’s difficulties with entertainment through the musical numbers and camera techniques used in Cabaret. Using these techniques, I also was able to explore the nature of humans and how they behave in certain circumstances and portray this through my characters.

What Is the Density of Air at STP

What is the density of air at STP? In order to answer the question, you need to understand what density is and how STP is defined. Key Takeaways: Density of Air at STP The value for the density of air at STP (Standard Temperature and Pressure) depends on the definition of STP. The definition of the temperature and pressure isnt standard, so the value depends on who you consult.The  ISA or International Standard Atmosphere states the  density of air is  1.225 kg/m3 at  sea level and 15 degrees C.The IUPAC uses an air density of 1.2754 kg/m3 at 0 degrees C and 100 kPa for dry air.Density is affected not only by temperature and pressure but also by the amount of water vapor in the air. Thus, the standard values are only an approximation.The Ideal Gas Law may be used to calculate density. Once again, the result is only an approximation that is most accurate at low temperature and pressure values.   The density of air is the mass per unit volume of atmospheric gases. It is denoted by the Greek letter rho, Ï . The density of air, or how light it is, depends on the temperature and pressure of the air. Typically, the value given for the density of air is at STP (standard temperature and pressure). STP is one atmosphere of pressure at 0 degrees C. Since this would be a freezing temperature at sea level, dry air is less dense than the cited value most of the time. However, air typically contains a lot of water vapor, which would make it denser than the cited value. The Density of Air Values The density of dry air is 1.29 grams per liter (0.07967 pounds per cubic foot) at 32 degrees Fahrenheit (0 degrees Celsius) at average sea-level barometric pressure (29.92 inches of mercury or 760 millimeters). At sea level and at 15 degrees C, the density of air is 1.225 kg/m3. This is the value of the ISA (International Standard Atmosphere). In other units, this is  1225.0 g/m3, 0.0023769 slug/(cu ft), or 0.0765 lb/(cu ft).The IUPAC standard of temperature and pressure (0 degrees C and 100 kPa), uses a dry air density of 1.2754 kg/m3.At 20 degrees C and 101.325 kPa, the density of dry air is 1.2041 kg/m3.At 70 degrees F and 14.696 psi, the density of dry air is 0.074887 lbm/ft3. Affect of Altitude on Density The density of air decreases as you gain altitude. For example, the air is less dense in Denver than in Miami. The density of air decreases as you increase temperature, providing the volume of the gas is allowed to change. As an example, air would be expected to be less dense on a hot summer day versus a cold winter day, providing other factors remain the same. Another example of this would be a hot air balloon rising into a cooler atmosphere. STP Versus NTP While STP is standard temperature and pressure, not many measured processes occur when its freezing. For ordinary temperatures, another common value is NTP, which stands for normal temperature and pressure. NTP is defined as air at  20 degrees C (293.15 K, 68 degrees F) and 1 atm (101.325 kN/m2, 101.325 kPa) of pressure. The average density of air at NTP is  1.204 kg/m3  (0.075 pounds per cubic foot). Calculate the Density of Air If you need to calculate the density of dry air, you can apply the ideal gas law. This law expresses density as a function of temperature and pressure. Like all gas laws, it is an approximation where real gases are concerned but is very good at low (ordinary) pressures and temperatures. Increasing temperature and pressure adds error to the calculation. The equation is: Ï  p / RT where: Ï  is the air density in kg/m3p is the absolute pressure in PaT is the absolute temperature in KR is the specific gas constant for dry air in J/(kg ·K) or is 287.058 J/(kg ·K). Sources Kidder, Frank E. Kidder-Parker Architects and Builders Handbook, Data for Architects, Structural Engineers, Contractors and Draughtsmen. Harry Parker, Hardcover, Twelfth Printing of the 18th Edition edition, John Wiley Sons, 1949.Lewis Sr., Richard J. Hawleys Condensed Chemical Dictionary. 15th Edition, Wiley-Interscience, January 29, 2007.