Positive Language Works

Positive language works!
The next time you meet a friend in the corridor, stop him and say, "Psst... don't look behind," and see his reaction. Nine out of ten of your 'victims' will jerk their heads to look behind! The same thing happens when you put up a sign saying 'Wet Paint. Do not touch'. You had better put up a container of paint remover nearby; quite a few of those who read the message are going to touch! So why do we behave in this way? NLP professionals, and even those who have casually read NLP literature, will smile and nod wisely; they know why: The human mind reacts to positive words, even if they are contained within negative messages.
In other words, when we tell someone not to do something, they tend to do it. This is especially true with children. When we tell them not to touch something, they will touch it at the first opportunity when we are not looking. My two-year-old son gave himself a mild shock when he put his hand into a VCR player slot. He was inspired by his cautious mother who had reminded him a few times not to put his hand into the slot.
This reaction to negative messages is not new knowledge. As early as 1965, my 'Principles of Education' lecturer in Teachers' Training College (Now Institute of Education) told my class that children do not react to 'don'ts'. If you tell them 'Don't forget to do your homework', they forget; if you tell them 'don't make noise' the noise level will increase and so on. Their minds automatically reinterpret 'don'ts' into 'dos'. The classic example is when someone says 'Don't panic' and everyone panics! I do not know of any logical explanation for this. It looks like the human mind just works this way. The remedy: reorganise the message in positive terms. Tell children 'Remember to do your homework' or 'Please keep quiet' and in a situation when people may panic say 'Keep calm', or to use modern terminology 'Stay cool'.
In the real world, lots of people are beginning to show that we understand this concept and bending the way we talk and write. It is heartening to note that LTA's messages on the expressways are no more 'Don't Speed' or 'Speed Kills'. Now they write 'Drive with care. Think of our loved ones'. Perhaps this is also why 7-Eleven changed their message from 'Always Close, Never Closed' to 'Always Near, Always Open'. Anti-Smoking campaigns are now more oriented towards healthy living instead of condemning the habit. By the way, I have yet to meet someone who had been frightened into stopping smoking after looking at the frightening pictures on cigarette packets. Strangely, the number of new people who light-up seems to be increasing every year! Here are some messages we could re-write in positive terms.
Instead of... Say...
Closed on Sunday Open Monday to Saturday
This gate (or car park) will be closed from 11PM to 5AM. This gate (or car park) will remain open from 5AM till 11PM.
In case of fire, do not use lifts. In case of fire, use the stairs.
No running on the stairs. Walk carefully on the stairs.
No children allowed. Only adults (above 21) allowed.
Implications for Business Communication
This tendency has useful implications on how we should talk, and write, to customers and clients. Besides that, business communication gurus advocate that a better impression is created when we speak in positive rather than in negative terms. Hence, we do not tell the customer 'We regret to inform you that the item is presently out of stock'. A better impression is created when we say 'Fresh stocks will be arriving in just three weeks'.
Here are some positive ways of speaking and writing business messages:
Instead of... Say...
We cannot send you the goods as you have not sent us the payment. We will send you the goods as soon as we receive payment.
You cannot take leave now because of Chinese New Year. I will gladly approve your leave if you apply after Chinese New Year.
The model you have asked for is no longer in production. The model you have asked for has now been replaced with a better model.
Sorry, I cannot meet you on Monday. I will be happy to meet you on Tuesday.
We cannot replace the item as it was not damaged by us (or worse: as it has been damaged by you). We will happily replace any item damaged by us or by the manufacturer.
Please do not be late for the meeting. Please be punctual for the meeting.
I am sorry; I cannot submit the report by Monday. Please give me another two days to complete the report.
Mr X's services have been terminated. (I have even seen 'Mr X has been terminated. Poor man!) Mr X has been released from his services to the company. (The Americans say 'We had to let him go'.)
Your application has not been successful. Thank you for your interest. The position has been filled. (Or: The contract has been awarded.) Thank you for your interest.
The shipment has been delayed because of bad weather. In spite of inclement weather, the shipment will arrive next week.
Notice how the positive messages take away the gloom of the negative messages and replace them with brighter, happier moods, though the message remains the same.
Actually, using positive language to describe negative or unpleasant news or situations seems to be part of good business language. Whoever heard of 'bus fare increase', 'retrenchment' or 'pay cut'? It is always 'bus fares have been adjusted'; the company has undergone re-organisation'; or 'pay as been revised'. In fact, using euphemisms has been part of the human psyche in every language. We do not say 'died' but 'passed away'; 'cemetery' but 'memory garden', or 'ill' but 'indisposed'. If these are not enough, new ones have been recently created, such as: 'visually challenged', 'hearing impaired' and so on.
Even for Self-Improvement
To top it all, self-improvement gurus swear that thinking, saying and writing positive language actually makes us become positive people and can lead us to success. Hence, all in all, it seems that making a special effort to think, speak and write messages in positive terms have great, positive implications for all of us. We have everything to gain.

It's Not Just an Afterthought

Interface Analysis is one of the significant parts for your analysis efforts and the elicitation of your requirements. This process involves interfaces between the solution components and the solution itself. It is a technique that defines how the component parts of a solution and the solution interact with each other and with the world outside.
This is an important business analysis technique that helps in the better and successful running of your business. This is a knowledge that you attain at the time of your business analyst training and the better you implement them to your business the better will be its prospect. These trainings help you build your confidence and find positive solutions that will in a great way impact your business. The business analyst training also gives you knowledge on the ways of reading and using the business documents that are necessary for the successful running of any business.
There are various types of interfaces that you come across while conducting of your business like the user interfaces, interfaces from the external applications and to them as well and also the interfaces to the hardware devices and from them. The early and quick identification of these interfaces can address to the interoperability of new solutions. The interoperability issues might impact the delivery date of the planned solution because of the additional work. Proper business training helps you deal with these factors while conducting a business in an easier way. The identification of the interface requires collaboration with the other projects and systems that interfaces with the new solutions and impacts the implementation and the integration when the development of the life cycle comes to its end.
A business analyst online with special skills developed form business training can also take care of these factors for your business. They review your current documents till date for any kind of interface requirements. They also visualize the interfaces both to and also from any external devices parties or applications. A business analyst online can also identify the interfaces that are needed by the system or the stakeholder that is interacting with your system. For every identified interface they describe the type, purpose or any details based upon their type. They also specify the requirements of the interface and describe the inputs and the outputs, the validation rules that are associated with it and any other events that trigger interactions.
Interface analysis is a special technique that is used by many business analysts for the purpose of improving the prospects of any business. This technique is very useful and a great success on different kinds of projects, especially the IT projects where the interfaces can really impact on the success of the project. The business analysts have a major role to play in the successful running of a business. Hence a proper communications needs to be kept all throughout the various levels of the organization they deal with. They are main bridge that fills the gap between a business and the development of its solutions.

The Employees At Your Organization Hate Their Job

Disengagement and complacency has become the 21st Century disease eating away at organization's performance in the 21st Century. From sales teams to manufacturing and operations, disengagement is spreading like a summer wildfire on the West Coast. A recent Kelley Service's reports that less than half (44 percent) of the global workforce feels valued by their employer and two-thirds (66 percent) intend to look for a new job with another organization in the next year. The survey also concludes that those who are content with their current position are seeking greater engagement and meaning from their positions and cite the ability to 'excel or develop' (74 percent of respondents) as the key to providing a sense of meaning in their work.
Dan Pink has been writing and speaking about this for months. A recent bestselling book by Dan, titled "Drive" goes into how and why we got this way. Not to quibble with Dan Pink, my thoughts about how we got this way is weak leadership. For instance upon approaching companies to survey and offer a solution to this disengagement, complacency and motivation dilemma one hears the following excuses: "I need to get consensus from my team before starting an initiative like this." "We tried something like this before and it did not work. (Not a lot of Edison's out there today) Get together with the committee and present your ideas.
All of these stalls to making a leadership decision are being touted in order to justify being risk averse. Let me elaborate. Yesterday I went to the Space and Rocket museum in Huntsville Alabama. What would have occurred if we took these same risk aversion approaches in the 1960"s? Would we as a nation today strap five 18, 416 pound disposable rocket engines with 1,500,000 of thrust each to a test stand in order to make sure they would work? This despite the fact numerous failures occurred as they tested individual engines on these same test stands. Great leaders did this to determine if we as a nation could meet our mission on schedule. I am starting to think we as a nation and as organizations are going backwards due to leaders that are risk averse.
Back in 1960 we had a mission and a vision that every one believed in. Apply this concept to our organizations today. Do workers and leaders share their personal visions, missions and emotions at their organizations today? For instance I am always told there is too much to do and not enough time to get it all done. When I endeavor to discuss a proven way to use peoples exiting software married with a proven process to fix this the leaders of companies are too busy to pursue the fix.
If you want to have a fully engaged workforce you must inculcate more "Causal Motivation." "Casual Motivation" defined by Target Training International occurs when an environment is created that causes people to WANT to work and be the best they can. The simple axiom is people do things for their reasons not yours. Strong leaders are determined to find out what are the values that motivate each of their team members to come to work every day to excel and develop beyond their potential.

Social Media E-Commerce

Today, I'd like to take a look at the role E-commerce is beginning to play in the realm of Facebook, Twitter and other social media websites. Social media sites have expanded rapidly over the last few years. For those who don't remember, Facebook started out as a place strictly for college level students to network. Now all-inclusive, Facebook is the world's most populated social gaming and media platform with 955 million users worldwide.
Twitter is second with over 500 million users worldwide, LinkedIn is third with just about 175 million, and Google+ trails all three with about 90 million. With such a massive user base to reach out to, an E-commerce presence is the next logical step, and as usual, Facebook is taking the lead. This article will focus on what Facebook has done to streamline the E-commerce aspect of social media.
"Like" Pages
It's safe to say most Facebook users are familiar with the "Like" button and similarly, the "Like" pages. These pages describe the interests and activities of the user, offer updates to certain products and promotions, as well as allow users to share their thoughts on those products.
The end goal of any merchants Facebook "Like" page is the get the most number of "Likes" and subsequently the most number of page views and purchases of your particular product. The problem lies with differentiating potential customers from current ones. If someone "likes" a page for a product, they may already own it, be saving their money for that product, or just think its neat but don't want or need it. As of right now, Facebook has no way to separate these users.
Social E-Commerce
According to Facebook's SEC Form Q-10, 1.6% of users spent over $1 billion on Virtual goods (accessories for virtual characters, tools in Farmville, etc) in the first six months of 2012. That is money spent on items never seen outside of the browser. If the market for non-tangible goods can be that lucrative, the market for actual goods Facebook users enjoy must be bigger.
Carol Rozwell, Vice President at the tech research firm Gartner had a call to action for merchants unsure of the potential for social media e-commerce. "It's crucial that organizations implement approaches to handling social media now. The effort involved in addressing social media commentary is not good cause to ignore relevant comments or solvable issues." According to Gartner, although more than 50% of organizations track social media only 23% actually collect and analyze data.
In June, Facebook made a move to simplify mobile e-commerce payments by decreasing the number of steps involved in checking out, from seven individual steps to two, and eliminating the need to type. The Facebook mobile app SkyBucks, is another innovation in E-commerce, it allows you to charge your virtual accessories to your phone bill directly.
More recently, the social media giant rolled out an offer for stores using Shopify. Since partnering, Facebook is now offering free $50 Facebook Ad credits. This is in addition to the credits from Google AdWords and Amazon Products that Shopify merchants already enjoy. The promotion is another step for Facebook in the E-commerce direction.
The "Want" Button
Above I identified a need Facebook had, the ability to discriminate between current and potential customers for their advertisers and business users. In early July, the Ecommerce Times had a story on Facebooks next big thing, the "want" button.
The button will allow users to create 'wish list' of products that they like or want, but do not currently have. Merchants will want to focus on who has marked their product as 'wanted' and who has not. The benefits of the "want" button go beyond sales. The button would allow for highly targeted marketing as well as a sharing of 'wish lists' between users. Ultimately the goal should be for the wish list to take its place among the social media landscape, along side a user's general info and status updates.
For the Consumer
To the average consumer and Facebook user, this should add to the ease of purchases that has increased recently. With the additional "want" info that the site will collect, you will be able to see what your friends and family want, add similar items to your personal wish list, and research potential gifts for you friends discretely. All of which add value to Facebook's ever-increasing platform.
For the Merchant
For merchants looking to expand on Facebook, the E-commerce addition will do wonders. The added marketing affects will help businesses increase name recognition and sales, while still connecting with the end user. It seems to me, that Facebook's E-commerce push will benefit all involved.