Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

A final blog entry for 2008 to wish you all a very merry Christams. I was looking for an interesting quote or phrase to reflect on this season - and thought of the new years' eve party from "When Harry met Sally" - so have a fantastic 2009...

"I love that you get cold when it's 71 degrees out. I love that it takes you an hour and a half to order a sandwich. I love that you get a little crinkle above your nose when you're looking at me like I'm nuts. I love that after I spend the day with you, I can still smell your perfume on my clothes. And I love that you are the last person I want to talk to before I go to sleep at night. And it's not because I'm lonely, and it's not because it's New Year's Eve. I came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible."

2009 will be the International Year for the following:

International Reconciliation Year: The General Assembly, recognizing that reconciliation processes are particularly necessary and urgent in countries of the world which had suffered or were suffering, situations of conflict that had affected and divided societies in their various facets, on 20th November 2006 proclaimed "2009 the International Year of Reconciliation" (A/61/L.22).

International Year of Natural Fibres (IYNF) 2009: To raise awareness of natural fibres, to promote efficiency and sustainability of the natural fibres, and to foster an effective international partnership among the various natural fibres industries

The International Year of Astronomy 2009 (IYA2009): This is a global effort initiated by the International Astronomical Union and UNESCO to help the citizens of the world rediscover their place in the Universe through the day- and night-time sky, and thereby engage a personal sense of wonder and discovery.

And it will be the Chinese year of the Ox in 2009.

Activity and Resource Based Work Planning

Having worked with a number of large and small organisations over the years I have come to understand that there are only three (3) primary resources available to any & all organisations - no matter what their size, sector in which they work, funds available to them, number of employees, etc. These three resources are:

Time: the people available and their knowledge,skills and attributes
Things: the physical, logistical, technological resources that are available to us
Money: the financial resources that give us flexibility to buy additional time (e.g. recruitment, over-time, training) or things (additional tangible resources) should we need them

Drawing on this understanding I have developed, and successfully used a work planning tool that looks to make the optimum use of these three resources when prioritised against organisational objectives (i.e. work plans, business plans & strategic plans):

The planning tool looks to address the key questions that any organisation should look to monitor as it goes about it normal working period (be that daily, weekly, monthly, etc.):
- What are we (as a team)working towards?
- What am I (as a team member) working towards (contributing)?
- Are we on track? Do we need to change anything?
- Are we doing the right things?
- Are we making best use of what we have (time, money & things)?
- Do we have all that we need?
= And is it all working together?