Highlights from our Business Continuity Lunch & Learn
Presented by Accent Computer Solutions, Hamilton Brewart Insurance,
and ContingenZ Corporation

I made the trip solo, which is interesting in itself. When you fly solo for a long distance, you are pretty busy with all that must be done to complete the trip safely— fuel management, speed calculations, check points, communications with air traffic control, oh yes . . . I almost forgot . . . Fly the Plane!

During some of the quiet time, I was scanning the landscape below looking for a suitable place to land if something were to go wrong.

When I got back, it occurred to me and to our management team that “Where Are We Going To Land?” is absolutely applicable in our day-to-day business lives as well.

By actively planning, managing, and monitoring the vital factors of our businesses and our lives, we can decide where we are going to land when our economic world turns around.

Marty

As a first time dog owner, he failed. He would call, “Ginger” but Ginger wouldn’t respond. She continued wandering and sniffing bushes, as dogs are wont to do, and only return when she wanted to, which was neither soon nor quick enough to suit him. And when she did come back, he was furious. He would grab her collar, shake her and yell, “BAD dog! You come when I call!” But she gradually became even less inclined to respond and he grew more frustrated, until one day he left the dog on a friend’s farm where she could run free.

Enter dog number two—Dusty. By now our friend, the misguided dog-lover, had matured such that he remained calm even when Dusty ignored his commands. He just waited until Dusty did respond, then he lavished praise and affection upon her. He would hug her and pat her and say, “GOOD dog, Dusty!” Thus Dusty quickly learned that being obedient was a pleasant experience, and she became an exceptionally obedient dog, which made her master a happy dog-owner.

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reprinted with permission from the HP Small Business Center

How often do you see it? An IT project team starts out collaborating well, showing great thought leadership and proactive management, only to end up in firefighting mode three months later, constantly laying blame on others and treating contradictory points of view as direct assaults. The team starts complaining and falling apart.

Is it poor project management? Dig deeper and you’ll find the ugly side of too much stress.

More employees are in a constant state of primitive fight or flight response today than ever before. Corporate problems are more complex, cycles of information and change are faster, there are fewer managers yet more to be managed, and day-to-day pressures are greater. Factor in the popular view that stress is a badge of honor–the more pressure you face the more important you must be–and instead of experiencing the occasional stress that motivates, you end up with constant stress that kicks people into survival mode and negatively impacts their work.

Stress is the pressure your body and mind feel when responding to demands and perceived threats. When you’re under stress, you use less of the front part of your brain responsible for advanced thinking, and more of the back part that handles primitive thought processes such as the fight-or-flight response. Any organization that can keep its employees relaxed, focused and using their full mental capacity is therefore going to operate more effectively–and ultimately be more competitive–than one whose employees are highly stressed and locked into a pattern of reacting, avoiding or competing with each other.

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Quote of the Month

WINSTON CHURCHILL:

The pessimist sees difficulty
in every opportunity.
The optimist sees the
opportunity in every difficulty
 

Accent would like to welcome and introduce:

Isaac Davis
Help Desk Engineer

Isaac has experience working in the financial, non-profit and legal sectors as a Desktop Support Engineer.  He has his MCSE 2000 and 2004, MCSA 200- and 2003, MCDST, Network+ and A+.  He is currently working on his CCNA and we're glad to have him at Team Accent.