What's your cat's name? A team-building exercise

by Patricia Fripp, CSP, CPAE

Games are an ancient and fun way to get people interacting, even in stressful situations. At one of my seminars, an attendee, Susan Peters of BorgWarner PTC Shared Services, shared this technique that she and her colleagues had found very valuable.

"After one of the sessions," said Susan, "we spoke briefly about our company's struggles while we are combining five divisions under one 'happy roof' with a shared services department acting as the building cheerleaders. In addition to the day-to-day payroll, our jobs are HR, IT, and finance, getting everyone to work together as a team.

"As a team-building exercise within the Shared Services area, we were all instructed to send three interesting facts about ourselves to the meeting organizer, Laurie Schamber, Manager of Organizational Learning. Her staff then took these facts and made up bingo cards, no two alike. When we got to the meeting, we were each handed a card and given twenty minutes to quiz the others in the room, trying to match the people to their squares on their card.

"What ensued was actually quite funny. A conference room with 26 people, most of whom had never worked together before, and everyone was scurrying around, asking: 'Do you speak Croatian?' -- 'Did you meet your husband on the internet?' -- "Are your cats named Boom-Boom and Bam-Bam?' Prizes were awarded for the first four people who got 'Bingo!' There were questions about family, pets, years married, hobbies, how many years the person had worked for the Company, where they grew up and went to school. The exercise also offered insights into which people were willing to disclose personal information and which were going to be 'strictly business.'

"We later did this with a group of over 100. For this exercise, Human Resources provided basic biographical information, rather than polling participants. The questions were less exotic, but still intriguing: 'Who went to school in North Dakota?' '"Who once worked as a cab driver?' 'Who has twins?'

"While this exercise wasn't a magical key to getting everyone working as a team, we each learned more about the people we will be working with. That was the organizer's intention."

Organizer Laurie Schamber says this game of People Bingo has been around for some time. "I can't tell you who originated it, but what I can tell you is that it works!"

Patricia Fripp is a keynote speaker, author and speech coach. Sign up for her FREE ezine http://www.fripp.com/speaking_newsletter.html - PFripp@fripp.com

Spotting the leaders

by Patricia Fripp, CSP, CPAE

This is a story my Fripp Associate David Palmer, Ph.D. told at our recent speaking skills class. Hope it makes you think and act like a leader.

It was 1952. The Korean War had been going for three years...and the North Koreans were short of resources, especially soldiers.

Both sides continued to take POW's, but it took money to build high-security prison camps . . . and a lot of soldiers to guard them.

After studying the problem for a number of months, the North Koreans discovered an innovative solution . . . that worked. New POW's were put in a large, open camp and watched carefully for three days. Then 2% of the prisoners were cut from the group and transferred to small, high-security prison camps. The rest were transferred to large, low-security camps, thereby saving money and especially soldiers.

Who were the 2%? The leaders, most likely to try to escape.

Were they just the officers? No, officers and enlisted men.

And how could they tell, just by watching? Behavior.

And what drove that behavior? Knowledge, values & passion.

Leaders don't simply accept their fate, they want to do more, learn more, and be more!

Sound intelligent, powerful, polished, articulate, and confident

by Patricia Fripp, CSP, CPAE

Do you want to sound intelligent, powerful, polished, articulate and confident? Of course you do! Voice coach Carol Fleming, Ph.D. gave me some great insights based on her years of study and working with thousands of clients.

TO SOUND MORE INTELLIGENT:
Speak just a bit slower to allow yourself to select your most appropriate vocabulary and to give the impression of thoughtfulness.

TO SOUND MORE POWERFUL:
Use short, simple declarative sentences. You say what you mean and you mean what you say. Cut out any useless connectors, adjectives and adverbs, especially superlatives.

TO SOUND MORE POLISHED:
Never answer a question with a blunt 'yes' or 'no.' Append a short phrase of clarification. For example, "No, I did not see it." "Yes, I know Mary."

TO SOUND MORE ARTICULATE:
Make a special effort to pronounce the final sound in a word and use its energy to carry over to the following word. Pay special attention to final 't' and 'ng.'

TO SOUND MORE CONFIDENT:
Carry your body up. Hold your head as if you had a crown on it. Don't let your arms and legs have side to side motion when you move. Keep your elbows and knees close to the midline of your body.

Patricia Fripp is a keynote speaker, author and speech coach. Sign up for her FREE ezine http://www.fripp.com/speaking_newsletter.html - PFripp@fripp.com

[From Google Reader] Yahoo! Pipes master feed update

This item was sent to you by awalludin.ramlee@gmail.com from Google Reader.

Yahoo! Pipes master feed update Two weeks ago I published a tutorial on how to aggregate all the feeds you generate at different places all over the web into one master feed. As an example, I merged my Lifehacker posts, del.icio.us bookmarks and Flickr photos, and bemoaned the fact that there is no easy way to edit each headline title to include the source.

Happily, Pipes-lovin' reader Michele was able to do just that. Using the Regex module, she was able to add the blog name, "Flickr photo" and " del.icio.us" to the beginning of each title, so you can easily see where each item's coming from. Here's my new and improved Gina around the web pipe. Feel free to clone and edit your own using it as a starting point. Thanks, Michele! Splicing your feeds with Yahoo! Pipes [Michele Campeotto] ... Source: http://lifehacker.com/software/yahoo/yahoo-pipes-master-feed-update-240520.php

Fwd: Belajar Agama Islam di UIA & UM

received this from a friend, ajimie

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Azmi Ahmad <azmi@ziyanc.net>
Date: Feb 28, 2007 10:00 AM
Subject: Belajar Agama Islam di UIA & UM
To: my@fren.net

Assalamualaikum wrmt, 

 

Jemputlah sebarkan kepada saudara-mara dan sahabat-handai. InsyaAllah mendapat kebaikan bersama:

 

http://www.iiu.edu.my/celpad/kursustilawah/  & http://www.umcced.edu.my/CERTIFICATE.htm

 

1. Kursus Membaca Al-Quran (UIA)
(permohonan untuk sessi April 2007 dibuka sekarang)

• Kursus: Bermula daripada Asas Al-Quran (untuk mereka yang tidak tahu atau tidak lancar membaca Al-Quran). Peserta mesti berumur 18 tahun ke atas (tidak segan orang dewasa nak belajar sebab tiada anak-anak kecil).
• Guru: Pensyarah Universiti Islam Antarabangsa (UIA).
• Hari (*): Satu kali seminggu (Isnin, Selasa, Rabu atau Khamis).
• Masa (*): 8.00 hingga 10.00 malam.
• Tempat (*): Kampus UIA di Petaling Jaya.
• Bayaran: RM 300 saja untuk 1 semester (20 minggu).

 
 2. Sijil Pengajian Usuluddin (Akademi Islam, UM)
(permohonan untuk sessi Mei 2007 dibuka sekarang)

• Kursus: Ilmu Asas Agama. Modul pelajaran termasuk Asas Akidah, Pengajian Tafsir dan Hadis, Sirah Rasulullah, Pemikiran dan Akhlak Islam, Asas Dakwah, Seni Islam, Tasauf, Perbandingan Agama, Adab Ikhtilaf (perbezaan pendapat) dan Falsafah Islam.
• Guru: Pensyarah Akademi Pengajian Islam, Universiti Malaya.
• Hari (*): Sabtu. 
• Masa (*): 3.00 hingga 5.00 petang.  
• Tempat (*): Akademi Pengajian Islam, UM, KL.
• Bayaran: RM 250 saja setiap semester (16 minggu).

3. Sijil Pengajian Syariah (Akademi Islam, UM)
(permohonan untuk sessi April 2007 dibuka sekarang)

• Kursus: Pendedahan kepada pelbagai konsep, pengertian, penyelesaian, kaedah-kaedah, dan berbagai aspek yang terdapat di dalam Syariah meliputi sesuatu isu dari sudut perkembangan sejarah dan yang relevan masa kini.  
• Guru: Pensyarah Akademi Pengajian Islam, Universiti Malaya.
• Hari (*): Sabtu.
• Masa (*): 3.00 hingga 5.00 petang.
• Tempat (*): Akademi Pengajian Islam, UM, KL.
• Bayaran: RM 250 saja setiap semester (16 minggu).

4. Sijil Perancangan Kewangan Islam (Akademi Islam, UM)
(permohonan untuk sessi April 2007 dibuka sekarang)

• Kursus: Termasuk meberi garis panduan lengkap secara praktik bagaimana mengurus keperluan kewangan selaras dengan perundangan Islam dalam mengharungi kehidupan bagi mencapai matlamat utama kebahagian di dunia dan kesejahteraan di akhirat.
• Guru: Pensyarah Akademi Pengajian Islam, Universiti Malaya.
• Hari (*): Sabtu.
• Masa (*): 3.00 hingga 5.00 petang.
• Tempat (*): Akademi Pengajian Islam, Universiti Malaya.
• Bayaran: RM 250 saja setiap semester (16 minggu).

Nota (*) - Sila rujuk lamanweb di atas untuk Hari, Masa dan Tempat yang lain.
 

 

 

-------------------------------------- 
wassalam,

azmi ahmad

http://ajimie.blogspot.com/   

 

 

Top Web Tools for College Students

http://www.nextstudent.com/NextPath/nextPath-Online/Top-Web-Tools-for-College-Students.asp

The author at the site wrote this

Top Web Tools for College Students

I have been in college almost three years now and have been using many different Web tools that saved me time, helped me learn more and, most importantly, did not cost a penny. Here are 10 tools that I recommend for every college student:

1) Book Finder: Over a year you can end up spending thousands of dollars on books. I am one of those poor students who struggles for money, so the less I pay for books, the better. Book Finder is a neat site/tool that allows you to compare prices on more than 125 million books for sale from 4,000 sellers. So there's no need to go to Amazon, Half.com and all the other book sites when Book Finder can search them for you.

go the the link for more

Good day and take care

All the e-complains in Malaysia

Today is a saturday. What if I try to make a compilation of e-complains that are out there on the net for The Malaysian Civil Service.
You can also join me to add your finds.

http://www.wildlife.gov.my/e_aduan/aduan.htm

This first one is called e-Aduan (e-Complaint)
owned by Jabatan Perlindungan Hidupan Liar dan Taman Negara (PERHILITAN)
(Department of Wildlife and National Park) in Malaysia

http://e-aduan.kpdnhep.gov.my/

The next one is owned by Kementerian Perdagangan Dalam Negeri dan Hal Ehwal Pengguna (Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs). it comes in both English and Malay language.

http://cakna.terengganu.gov.my/login.php

The third is a public complain system for the state of Terengganu.



The Trengganu system is simple yet effective.
It is simply devided into Category, State Constituency, Mukim, and Village plus the description of the complain form.

I have to continue some other time.