Data vs. Information: Analysis vs. Speculation

Posted on March 26, 2013 by AnyaWorkSmart

There are few people on the market today who don’t understand the importance of basing your decisions on solid data. Big Data and methods of its management and utilization are the talk of the town. Companies are building complex “client models” based on statistical analysis of client profiles; recruiters systematically analyze their pools of specialists in order to provide the best possible match for every position; and presentations during corporate meetings are full with tables and graphs.

However, does this make our decisions any better? Continue reading →

The “Do’s” and “Don’t’s” of Conflict Resolution

Posted on March 19, 2013 by AnyaWorkSmart

It sometimes amazes me how much energy, time and resources are being wasted on unnecessary conflicts. Projects are delayed because the stakeholders are not speaking to one another, e-mails are left unanswered because “how dare they?!”, critical information is withheld in a vain hope to reach some relative advantage, but in the end – everyone loses when company begins to lay-off people it cannot employ anymore. So today I’d like to talk about how we deal with conflicts and about the pitfalls that are awaiting us in this complex task. Continue reading →

Comparing the incomparable

Posted on February 4, 2013 by AnyaWorkSmart

We all have been taught at certain stage that you cannot compare apples to oranges. What was usually meant by that is that the world is divided into clear categories and those categories should not be mixed up. There are Developers and there are Managers, there are First world countries and there are Third world countries, there are “winners” and there are “losers”. By conveniently dividing the complex reality into more simple and digestible parts this thumb rule clearly makes our life easier, but nevertheless – is it true? Continue reading →

Life without biases Part 2: Where do they come from?

Posted on January 31, 2013 by AnyaWorkSmart

In the previous post about Biases we’ve talked about what they are and what influence do they have on our performance as Managers.

In order to better understand this influence, people who study the subject tend to divide Biases into types. The problem is that typology presented as Continue reading →

Disaster Management – something to learn from

Posted on January 21, 2013 by AnyaWorkSmart

Let’s admit it: the crisis is no longer at our doorstep, it’s already making havoc inside the house. It’s not a question of falling or not falling from a “fiscal cliff”, it’s a question of having just further cliffs before you instead of straight road.

This may well mean that ALL MANAGERS IN THE NEXT FEW YEARS ARE GONNA BECOME CRISIS MANAGERS. Continue reading →

Happenstance vs. Conscious decisions

Posted on January 10, 2013 by AnyaWorkSmart

Since my days at the Technion I have a habit of keeping in touch with research guys – for the least, they always have something new to say 🙂

One of them told me once about a study where he interviewed people about how they chose their profession. The results were very interesting – Continue reading →

Learning to be Rational – From Ask Anya mails

Posted on December 6, 2012 by AnyaWorkSmart

Following series of posts on How good are you in making decisions.

Question:

“There are so many components to our decisions that I doubt the change in a decision making process can be achieved so easily. How can we become rational if we don’t always know when we’re irrational?” Continue reading →

8 Myths on Project Manager vs. the “Real” Manager, Part 2

Posted on October 29, 2012 by AnyaWorkSmart

5. “Soft skills are for goofs such as the Project Manager because he doesn’t know how it all works”

It’s not smart to allow your level of technical knowledge to cloud the perception of human relationships. Continue reading →

How good are you in making decisions? Part 3 – Manager’s role in the process of making decision

Posted on October 18, 2012 by AnyaWorkSmart

Nothing speaks louder about particular Manager’s style than the way he conducts the decision making process. Some prefer to let others make decisions for them (thus trying to escape responsibility), while others demonstrate a completely opposite behavior by making all the decisions on their own.

But in all cases, Manager’s role in this process is crucial. Ideally, Continue reading →

How good are you in making decisions? Part 2 – Difference of making decision individually or in a group

Posted on October 15, 2012 by AnyaWorkSmart

As we saw previously, the decision making process is actually very structured and the quality of our decisions depends on how good we are in following every single step of this process. While each step has its own predicaments and complications, we have outlined the main tools and techniques to overcome those.