How to Manage Your EMR Project

Last summer, Ocala, a city in central Florida, was struck by two of the four hurricanes which barrelled through in that year. Long power outages and significant structural damage caused many practices to close; some of the coastal practices couldn't even conduct surgeries for several weeks following the hurricanes. Our original time line placed our electronic medical records (EMR) system launch date at late summer of 2005. Unfortunately, the effect of the hurricanes forced us to push the date back two months. This delay then coincided with some other big events at the practice, the construction of another satellite office and the addition of a new associate.

Routine Matters

In my years as a competitive fencer and as a jujitsu instructor, I've noticed a common phenomenon: right after someone executes a really slick move, be that a piece of complicated bladework that lands a touch, or a really clean throw, their first reaction is to identify everything wrong with the maneuver. This often becomes such an ingrained habit that they don't even realize they are doing it. As anyone who has ever been criticized knows, it doesn't typically feel good; that's true even when it's self-criticism. By building up an expectation that every move will be inadequate and subject to criticism, the athlete creates a routine that serves to put them in a "failure" mindset.

Daily Time Compression

There is nothing quite like that warm feeling you get at the end of the day when you look back and wonder where the time went. There is nothing quite like realizing that an entire day has gone by and nothing got done. Unfortunately, this happens far too often, especially when the day holds meetings. Meetings have a bad reputation for consuming a great deal of time while producing little of substance. That reputation is well deserved. Despite this, meetings remain extremely popular in many companies. Unfortunately, in addition to potentially wasting a great deal of time, meetings often tend to leave people drained and unable to focus.

The Aardvark Principle

In any business, information can be thought of as the organizational equivalent of nerve impulses. Information about the state of the company, the state of the economy, the marketplace, how different parts of the company are functioning, and so forth, is critical to effective decision making. If any aspect of information flow is interrupted, it is like losing sensation in a part of your body: unable to feel, you may suffer serious injury without realizing it; if the nerves are unable to innervate muscles, those muscles will atrophy and not perform when called upon. By the same token, a business failing to receive crucial information about the state of the market can suffer financial disaster when products don't sell or when innovation and productivity are crippled.

Throwing Sand in the Gears

The phrase, "a well-oiled machine, " is often used to describe a piece of complex equipment, or a team of people, that performs smoothly, excellently, and with little apparent effort. Should, however, that well-oiled machine get some sand in the gears, its performance starts to degrade. At first, it may just run a little slower, or perhaps it will make some noise. Often, the degradation in performance will initially be imperceptible. Inside that machine, though, the sand is grinding away at the gears. There's a little bit more friction, a little bit more heat being generated and trapped inside.

Crowd-Funded, Crowd-Managed Businesses - The New Way to Start and Manage a Business?

You know you can start a business alone or with a few friends. However, to start a business with a crowd? Is it possible? Is it rewarding? With the advent of the internet and web 2.0 technologies, large group of people can connect with each other and leverage on large scale collaboration to achieve collective goals. Crowdsourcing and crowdfunding are popular terms that are coined in accordance to this phenomenon. The power of the crowds has successfully shaped Wikipedia the free online encyclopedia, innoCentive which crowdsources research and development for biomedical and pharmaceutical companies, Amazon Mechanical Turk which enables employers to distribute minute tasks to thousands of registered workers, MyFootballClub which facilitate members to vote on the composition of a soccer team and various other collaborative projects springing across the internet.

Front Line Managers Must Get More Involved With Customers to Bring About a Recovery

Every time the economy turns downwards, business begin to give more focus on the well-heeled group, whose disposable income is least affected and is able to maintain their regular purchases. These "top-customers" will invariably be pampered with gifts and special services. Rather than be grateful many of such customers will become more demanding and difficult to handle, knowing that they are in hot demand. This exacerbates the service problems during an already tough period when both clients and employees are likely to have low morale. Customer service improvement programs often focused on interpersonal communication techniques to enable customer service frontline staff better manage customer complaints and do successful service recoveries.

The Key to Managing a Team Successfully

My experience in being a manager is not extensive but it is enough to have realized that there are several factors that play a huge part in being successful. I spent two years as an accounting supervisor for a large rental car company. During this time I managed a team of nine people. I also spent the previous three years being managed/supervised. I learned that being consistent and successful with the following factors is essential to being a good manager. Not only that but it will make your job easier and more effective and will also enable your employees to succeed in their careers. Being honest with your team members may seem obvious but when you are in a situation that may be uncomfortable for yourself or for them it can be difficult.

Extracting Company Profits to Invest in Property - Using Your Pension

This month's wealth article explores how profitable business owners can benefit, due to concessions in the finance act of 2004. Once your business is on track and delivering profits, the most important consideration is how to maximise you and your family's future income for you from these profits. This article looks at a topic that has grabbed much media attention recently - using your profits to invest in a company pension, which uses property as the investment vehicle. A Pension Mortgage is one of the most tax efficient methods of repaying a loan on an investment property. There are 4 principle type of pension that a person can take out.

Evaluating Leadership Qualities - 10 Things Effective Leaders Do to Motivate Employees

You have a manager who thinks she (or he) is a great leader. In fact this manager has been pressuring you for a higher performance rating in the area of "leadership qualities." So far, you have resisted. This manager does a good job of coordinating, controlling, and directing assignments. But she (or he) falls really short when it comes to motivating, developing, and encouraging employees. Bottom line, this manager is great at getting the job done; but is not so great at creating a positive work environment, demonstrating concern for employees' personal interests, or highlighting positive achievements.