Four Reasons for Communication Meltdown

Communication Meltdown: The point of no return in our exchanges with others when neither party is listening to the other because frustration and anger have taken over.

Everyone has experienced that frustrating moment of communication meltdown at one point or another. Whether it's the first big argument with your romantic partner, a disagreement with your colleague at work, or a misread (or maybe not misread) Facebook post, we all have experienced conflict because words were taken out of context or were said without reflection on the repercussions of them once they came out of our mouths. The tricky thing about communication is that there are often two conversations going on at that same time...the literal words that come out of our mouths AND the interpreted message that people get from those words. Communication is a learned skill, meaning that our childhood experiences, cultural background, and individual life experiences are the foundation for our communication styles and patterns. Given our diverse backgrounds, there could be several "languages" being spoken in one conversation all at the same time. No wonder we are so "hit and miss" in how we convey and interpret meaning in our exchanges with others! In my coaching and training work, I find that, although there are tons of reasons why we end up in communication meltdown, the most common reasons include...

1. Assuming that people know what you mean...I hear this so often, especially in regard to romantic relationships. The griping goes, "We've been together for 10 years, he should know what I meant by that..." (READ: Even though we are two complete individuals, he should be in tune with ALL of my feelings and emotions and be able to READ MY MIND). It sounds ridiculous when you put it like that, right? However, we engage with people at this level all the time.

Talk Tip 1: Don't assume that people are mind readers. Even if you've been together for (fill in) years. Remember communication is a LEARNED skill that's loaded with our past experiences and emotional baggage, and the way you learned is not necessarily the way the other person has. Say exactly what you mean, and ask for the other person to shoot it back to you (preferably in their own words) to check for understanding. There's nothing worse than finding out that all the time you've been arguing with someone, you both have been arguing about two different things because no one checked for understanding.

2. Responding based off the mistakes of others...Eric Roberson, one of my favorite songwriters, wrote a song called "Previous Cats," and the first part of the chorus goes, "I'm not to blame for the pain that was caused by previous cats. You gotta see me for me." Now, he's talking to his girlfriend in the song, but we can relate to these lyrics on various levels...being overly suspicious about co-workers in your new job because of the hot mess of a job you just left...responding to your child based on YOUR actions as a child or the actions of an older sibling...not frequenting a restaurant with many chains because of poor service at one location (OK, that's me)...we could go on and on with this.

Talk Tip 2: Deal with individuals based on your experience with them, not on the past mistakes of others or previous painful experiences. Yes, we can use similar past experiences as a gauge for how to respond to something happening now (that's wise). However, we also have to engage with people based on their own merits. The former way of interacting with others encourages us to build emotional walls, which surely won't help in strengthening our communication or relationships with others.

3. Failing to listen...thinking about what you are going to say while the other person is talking is NOT listening...it's just waiting to speak! Operating in this manner is extremely obvious, disrespectful, and it sends a message to the other person that what they have to say is not important or that you don't care. It doesn't encourage the other person to work towards coming to some type of understanding with you.

Talk Tip 3: We must be fully present as we take in the words of the person speaking to us. At the core, every human being wants acknowledgement... to know that someone sees you, hears you, and finds value in what you bring to the table. By being an active listener, you acknowledge the speaker, express your attentiveness with your noon-verbal cues (i.e. eye contact, facial expressions, head nodding, etc.) and take some responsibility for making sure you understand the message they are trying to give you.

4. Speaking without thinking...this is a big one in our instant-gratification-loving culture. It is the ugly twin of "failing to listen" because we become overly focused on what we want to say, than how what we want to say is connected to what the other person has just told us. Tackling this monster is critical to building understanding.

Talk Tip 4: Take a minute to process the message you have just received before responding. The goal is to respond, not just to react. It's perfectly fine (and wise as well!) to ask someone to repeat themselves for your understanding or to ask for a minute to think about something (especially if it's a heated argument...It's hard to take words back after you've said them!). We sometimes think that we have to be speaking at all times because silence is awkward, but awkward moments can be stomached if they will lead to understanding!

Laura E. Knights has been training youth and adults in the areas of job skill and life skill acquisition and strategy, and developing and managing programs to empower people for the last 12 years. She is a speaker, trainer, and consultant for groups, businesses, and community organizations. Additionally, she works as a life coach to help individuals move beyond negative, limiting belief systems to overcome barriers and walk in their full potential. Learn more about her; sign up for her monthly inspirational newsletter, Empowered Living!; and register for her dynamic workshops at http://www.lauraeknights.com/.

How Training Management System Helps in Delivering Effective Training

Within corporate training, peer-to-peer interaction plays a significant role. Experts believe that satisfying collaborative experience between learners helps in producing potential results. Besides being a helpful business strategy, such a collaborative training program develops a spirit of community among the members, helping in delivering profitable results to the organization's productivity. Developing a sense of community is integral to the success of a corporate training session. Integration with effective training registration software, you can create efficient group formats in a learning environment that helps in conducting successful training programs.

It's true that individual behavior is likely to be influenced by the group he is directly working with. Thus, when a group is working together to reach a common goal, individual members are more focused on playing their own part to perfection. To achieve this purpose, frequent interaction is fundamental. With a Training Management System in place, educators and training co-ordinators can easily achieve the same.

Through the usage oftraining registration software, it's fairly easy to encourage learners to interact via using group discussions, IMs, blogs, conferences, wikis, and so on. Experts believe, a steady peer-to-peer interaction helps developing a sense of "us", which in the long run helps to achieve productive results in terms of profitability.

With a training management system, you can make study materials available to a number of students, even when they are geographically dispersed. Thus, learners residing in various locations can participate in training programs simultaneously. Students can even download study materials as and when required from the servers. Thus, it makes education and training more effective and engaging.

A training or class registration software allows educators to evaluate the group and individual progress on a regular basis. With it a wide range of automated tools, such as online assessment, automatic marking, and training co-ordinators can conduct a valuable training sessions. What's more! A training management system helps organizers to track if employees are able to complete their course requirements efficiently. In case they fail to understand any specific topic or subjects, educators can easily track and can deliver training in future.

A training registration system allows educators as well as students to think outside the box. With this software system, endless opportunities have opened up in the field of education and employee training. A software system like this helps in creating a virtual learning environment through web conferencing and instant messaging. Organizations are incorporating class management system in their training programs that develop cutting-edge technology solution to make training sessions successful.

Jonathan is a professional trainer. He employs latest technology for online class registration and online training registration that results in more attendance and ROI.

The Diamond Jubilee and the British Economy

There is no doubt that the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elisabeth II was a massive hit with the vast majority of the public but playing devil's advocate, can the outlay be justified in the current financial state of the British economy? Yes, there was an undoubted feel-good factor and this was evidenced by the look on the faces of the crowds and the interviews that took place. I am sure that many countries will have been impressed by the organisation, the numbers that turned out and the pomp and ceremony this country is renowned for with many tourists arriving to share this experience.

The majority of people in this country are suffering great hardship during this prolonged recession and are having to cut back on everyday items by either buying cheaper products or going without some essentials altogether. Many older people worryingly are switching their heating off at a time when they need to keep warm to survive the cold spells that are continuing. This is being done just to manage their bills in order to keep up with the payments for fuel which has been allowed to increase well beyond the inflation rate.

Is it therefore immoral that this country has diverted and paid so much for these celebrations when this resource could have been used to help those on the poverty line or even to pay off some of the enormous debt which has led to the austerity measures applied by the current government in order to pay for the largesse of the previous administration? I understand the Queen was deeply touched by the outpouring of shared celebration and good wishes towards her but by that token, are we not all in this situation together? It seems that funds for the royal purse increase each year even though they are amongst the richest people in the world. Even a small amount of their wealth diverted to the exchequer would help and show their willingness to share the pain of the nation as well as the Diamond Jubilee.

As stated earlier there was a clear feel good factor experienced by many during the whole weekend of the Diamond Jubilee celebrations but will this not be short lived, and from now will reality of our financial plight once again take a grip. What did the extra day's holiday do for the British economy? As it is also half term for schools in many parts of the country, there is evidence that many people are taking the whole week as a holiday, creating the impression that the United Kingdom is closed for business whilst the rest of Europe cashes in on our supposed intransigence at a time when we need to be the most diligent and competitive.

In conclusion, the public are living with and already experiencing the deteriorating situation with the advance of the recession, this includes increasing unemployment, higher prices and constraints on salaries. Unfortunately, in this unbalanced society, the people that could make the biggest contribution are excused the most or exempt from the majority of the effects and are clearly not going to spontaneously offer tangible support. It is time the government created a level playing field. It is the small and medium size businesses that always contribute the most to recovery and it makes sense instead of penalising them, to help them expand and create opportunities for the unemployed. These are indigenous companies who are not going anywhere to seek out cheap labour after receiving government subsidies.

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They provide Variable Data Printing using Creo Darwin Software for 1 to 1 marketing strategies on products such as leaflets, booklets, brochures postcards etc. It is therefore possible to personalise every individual item with names, addresses, bar codes and even the graphics itself.

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Intentional Communities Can Be Earth Analogs of Deep Space Urban Hubs

Milagro ("Miracle" in Spanish) is a Tucson, Arizona community founded to isolate its members from the supposed dire effects of the year 2000 computer anomaly called the "Millennium Bug." The community consists of 28 homes and 50 residents, ages zero to 92, on 42 acres. Planning started in 1994 and construction wrapped up in 2002.

There are small gardens and what is billed on the web site as a "community orchard." Residents do most of the maintenance on a volunteer basis, including operation of the wastewater treatment system that reclaims black water for irrigation through a biological process involving reeds.

Members (who buy in by purchasing or leasing one of the existing 28 homes) hold meetings to develop policies, which they call "agreements," scrupulously avoiding the term "rules". The goal is always consensus. Voting is a last resort.

Although the community was started by older couples, younger people are joining as houses change hands. Some are attracted by the feeling of security provided by the social arrangements. The other attraction is the self-sufficiency ethic, which has become more pronounced as utility prices rise and reliability diminishes. During the winter of 2010, Southwest Gas supplies proved inadequate, and parts of the city were left without heat. People are mindful of California's summer brownouts and rolling blackouts, and also of the rising costs of power and the increasing demands on the system imposed by electric vehicles and unsteady renewable power sources.

Like Milagro, a space habitat or deep space urban hub, whether situated on the surface of another world or in space, would have a shared infrastructure and a finite life cycle, requiring maintenance, repair, and eventual replacement. Some of the requirements are the same: Shelter, electrical power, water and waste-water management, agricultural production, and transportation are similar in space and on Earth in broad concept. Many of the needed technologies are virtually identical. Solid waste management is one item which, so far, has not been worked out to anyone's satisfaction, even on Earth.

To give an idea of what space colony requirements might be, we can cite the results of continuing work that began with Gerard K. O'Neill (The High Frontier), T.A. Heppenheimer (Colonies in Space), and others in the 1970s. A Bernal sphere, for example, would be a little over a half-mile in diameter with a number of smaller rings stacked on each end of its spin axis. Agricultural and industrial facilities are located in the rings, along with the zero-gravity axis spaceport. Rotation about the axis provides a kind of artificial gravity on the inside of the sphere. (One's weight falls away as one climbs the inside walls from the "equator" toward the zero-gravity axis.) Illumination is by toroidal periscope using external mirrors to collect sunlight. The mirrors also regulate the length of the day. The built environment on the inside houses a population of 10,000 in a terraced community. It is protected from radiation by the lunar regolith and water used to create an earth-like setting. (The materials come from the moon and/or asteroids, not from Earth, which means that space mining is a necessary first step, but that is another subject.)

Space habitat design cannot overlook the potentially lethal consequences of enclosure. The individual's right to leave must be preserved. I believe this is best done by dividing the urban hub into cells, small communities like Milagro, separated by open space. Each community should be as self-sustaining as possible.

Optimum community size might depend on technology, the objective being a minimum sustainable unit size of a few individuals. The strategy at Milagro was to pool the funds of a dozen or so financially capable couples to build the community, and then sell units. The problem has been that some of the buyers have not understood the community's objectives, thinking they bought into a subdivision, where they could demand to be served according to their needs, and they were prepared to be as needy as possible.

It may be better to organize space communities (or their analogs on Earth) by less collective principles, in part to avoid what the environmentalist Garett Hardin called "the tragedy of the commons," but mostly to give first priority to individual rights. One such approach might be to set up the community as a corporation, which could, in principle, be owned by its residents, who buy stock. The corporation leases space to smaller entities, industrial, commercial, and residential.

The corporation makes its profits by building, maintaining, and leasing the necessarily common systems: the habitat structure, environmental control and life support, fire suppression, solid waste management, and main electrical power for industrial and commercial use. The villages have the option to recycle water for direct potable reuse, generate electricity for local use, grow food locally, and provide their own security and auxiliary environmental controls, or they can purchase these services from commercial sources. The urban hub corporation has no obligations in these matters. Of course, one can also organize a colony, on Earth or in space, using collectivist principles and see what happens. The point is, it's an experiment.

Like the American colonies of four hundred years ago, intentional communities can make credible test facilities for alternative social and philosophical arrangements. They can also test the emerging technologies of self-sufficiency (distributed power, solar energy, and reuse of wastewater, for example), acting as analogs of space habitats. As opposed to reliance on centralized resources, they represent an active approach to the future.

You can visit Milagro online at http://www.milagrocohousing.org. You can also visit in real space. Tours are by arrangement.

Laurence B. Winn is an aviator, adventurer, author, and aerospace engineer with a lifetime of experience in evaluating the best technology adventure destinations to visit. His web site, http://www.alienlandscapes.biz/, provides free guidance on how to thrive in a shrinking, often hostile, world.

The Cute Little Robin In Your Backyard

The American Robin is such a common site in our lives it is easy to not pay them any attention. But they do bare taking a second glance. The North American Robin is a migratory songbird. It is named after the European Robin, because of their reddish orange breast, although they are not closely related. It is also the state bird for Michigan, Connecticut, and Wisconsin.

The main difference between male and female Robins are that females are paler in color than the males. These birds average from 8-11 inches in height and wingspan from 12-16 inches.

Robins can have 1-3 successful broods a year, although 2 broods a year is most common. Each clutch produces 3-5 eggs, eggs are about an inch in length. Their eggs are a robins egg blue of course, just like the crayon named after them! They are said to be the prettiest of all bird eggs. They are unmarked and a sky blue or blue-green color. Although out of all the nests, only 40 percent of the eggs produce successful hatchlings on average. Then out of those young birds, typically only 25 percent survive till November. And from those birds, only about half will survive to the next year. You would think with the high mortality rate Robin's would be about extinct. But their population is said to be stable, if anything, on the rise. The oldest recorded American Robin was 13 years, 11 months. Although on average the entire populations turns over every 6 years.

American Robins are one of the earliest birds to lay their eggs in the spring. Beginning to breed shortly upon arriving to their summer range. The female Robin chooses the nest location, typically on the lower half of a tree, and sometimes in gutters, outdoor light fixtures, in eves, etc. In the prairies, they commonly build their nests in thickets or on the ground. After choosing the nest site, she will begin building her nest from the inside out. She will press dead grass and twigs using the wrist of one of her wings to create a cup shape. They also use materials such as paper, roots, moss, feathers, string, etc. When the cup is formed, the female Robin will then reinforce the nest with mud and worm castings (organic materials derived from plant and animals matter) to create a stable and sturdy nest. She will then cushion the nest with grass and other soft materials. Once complete the nests average 6-8 inches in diameter and 3-6 inches high. The incubation period for the eggs range from 12-14 days. Hatchlings are mostly naked and helpless at birth. The young Robins only stay in the nest for about 15 days. Then the mother will start over and begin another clutch (brood). During summer females stay in their nests, while males gather in roosts. As young Robins grow and become more independent they will go and join the males in the roosts. Adult females go to roosts only after they have finished nesting. Robin roosts can be huge, sometimes consisting of hundreds of thousands of birds during winter.

Robin's enemies are cats, large snakes, and hawks and are vulnerable to pesticide poisoning since they eat mainly on lawns. Their diet consists mainly on fruit in the autumn and winter. They have been know to become intoxicated when they feed exclusively on Honeysuckle berries. Often Robins will earth earthworms, insects and snails, in the morning, and fruit later in the day. They eat very large quantities of fruit, including hawthorn, sumac fruits, Chokecherries, dogwood, and juniper berries. As fruit and insects consist of most of their diet, Robins have to migrate in winter when food becomes scarce.

Robins, these common little birds are so typical it is easy to pay them no attention at all. But It is fun to get to know the birds in your backyard. Birdwatching is can be fascinating, and is said to be one of America's favorite past times.

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Department of Energy Cites Bechtel National, Inc. for Worker Safety and Health Violations

Department of Energy Cites Bechtel National, Inc. for Worker Safety and Health Violations | Department of Energy Skip to main content Energy.gov Find information about your town or city. Search form Search Energy.gov Public ServicesTax Credits, Rebates & SavingsHomesVehiclesBuilding DesignManufacturingNational Security & SafetyEnergy EconomyFunding OpportunitiesState & Local GovernmentScience & InnovationScience & TechnologyScience EducationInnovationEnergy SourcesEnergy UsageEnergy EfficiencyMissionNews & BlogMaps & DataAbout UsFor Staff & ContractorsOfficesAll OfficesProgram OfficesStaff OfficesLabs & Technology CentersField SitesPower Marketing AdministrationOther Agencies You are hereHome Department of Energy Cites Bechtel National, Inc. for Worker Safety and Health Violations May 31, 2012 - 2:28pm Addthis News Media Contact(202) 586-4940

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Department of Energy has issued a Preliminary Notice of Violation (PNOV) to Bechtel National, Incorporated (BNI) for two material handling incidents that occurred on July 16, 2010, and March 16, 2011, at the Hanford Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) Project.  The PNOV cites three violations of the Department’s worker safety and health regulations.  The Department has proposed a $150,000 civil penalty.

In the first material handling incident on July 16, 2010, a millwright sustained a severe foot injury.  The second incident, on March 16, 2011, involved improper rigging of equipment needed to lift and move a panel of formwork that weighed over 5,000 pounds. 

The PNOV cites two Severity Level I violations and one Severity Level II violation of 10 C.F.R. Part 851, Worker Safety and Health Program, which governs worker safety and health within DOE.  A Severity Level I violation is one that could result in the death or serious injury of a worker.  A Severity Level II violation is one that is less serious but could threaten worker health and safety.  The violations in the PNOV were in the areas of hazard identification, hazard prevention and abatement, procedural compliance, and employee training and information. 

Since these two incidents, BNI has modified its work planning practices, employee and supervisor safety training, and management oversight of field activities in order to better perform its work activities in the dynamically changing construction environment at WTP.  The Energy Department granted partial mitigation of the proposed civil penalty based on these corrective actions.

The Bob Stump National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2003 authorizes the Department to take enforcement actions when contractors violate worker safety and health requirements.  The Department’s Enforcement Program encourages contractors to identify and correct worker safety and health deficiencies at an early stage, before they lead to more serious events.

Additional details on this and other enforcement actions are available on the Office of Enforcement and Oversight website at www.hss.doe.gov/enforce.

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Security in Mobile Application Development

Today's world is marked by the popularity of mobile application development. Development of these applications has widened the scope of Mobile Phones which were earlier used to make only voice calls. The popularity of Smartphones particularly, iPhones, led to the development of new applications like Internet Browsing, E-Mail, and Games etc. With rapid growth and development of Smartphones and PDAs, mobile technology has entered a golden period. The growth and development of wireless industry resulted in an increase in the requirement of advanced applications. The latest technologies used today are Dot Net, C++ and J2EE and many companies are providing secured applications for different platforms like - the iPhone, BREW, Symbian, J2ME etc.

Mobile companies also faced with the challenge of meeting the growing expectations for innovative and secured mobile applications. The ever changing mobile technology together with growing expectations of customers put an extra pressure on the developers. To stay ahead of the competitors, many companies are trying to create more innovative and portable applications. This has resulted in a trend of outsourcing the mobile application development to the companies that specialize in developing applications for wireless devices.

The list of applications which can be outsourced are: wireless internet security, video and image sharing, gaming, integrated billing solutions, location based services and content management. Companies are engaged in developing applications using leading-edge technologies and tools for providing consistent quality levels and unfailing levels. Developing secured mobile applications involve a range of innovative and dynamic approaches, which can be possible with the help of latest mobile gadgets. In developing applications for mobile devices, the biggest concern is the security on wireless devices. The security in mobile applications is developed with a target of securing phones from various threats like - viruses, malware, OS exploits etc.

There are two types of mobile security risks. One is the category of malicious functionality which can be defined as a list of unwanted mobile code behaviors. Second is the vulnerabilities which are the errors in design that expose the data to interception by attackers. To solve this issue, the developers have implemented a systematic approach to ensure security in mobile applications. There are many resources available on the internet that features case studies, code examples and best practices, to provide security in the mobile applications. One can find a lot of information on how to protect against vulnerabilities in the latest Smartphone and PDA platforms. Below are some steps that can be followed by the developers, to ensure security in mobile applications -

Maximizing isolation by designing authenticated applications.Lockdown internal and external/removable storage.Working with sandboxing and signing and encrypt sensitive user information.Safeguards against viruses, worms, malware and buffer overflow exploits are also involved in the security of wireless devices.Using the Google Android emulator, debugger and third-party security tools for debugging.Configuring the Apple iPhone interfaces to prevent overflow and SQL injection attacks.Employing private and public key cryptography on Windows Mobile devices.Enforcing fine-grained security policies using the BlackBerry Enterprise ServerPlugging holes in Java Mobile Edition, SymbianOS and WebOS applications.Testing for XSS, CSRF, HTTP redirects and Phishing attacks on WAP/Mobile HTML applications.Identifying and eliminating threats from Bluetooth, SMS and GPS services.

With the help of the above guidelines, one can provide security to the mobile and wireless devices. Today's world is very dynamic and competitive and developers need just more than theoretical knowledge to get themselves ready for IT industry.

Mobile application development process at Endeavour concentrates on enabling unthinkable innovative processes in mobile environments. The available data is looked at being mobilized as this approach enables the enterprise to change the way their employees work. As a thorough mobility company, Endeavour never retrieves from thinking as creatively as possible to arrive at a process that is crafted to perfection and is streamlined for that desired functioning of the mobile solution that has been developed.

Being Happy - What Makes You Feel Happy And Fulfilled At Work?

"Apa gunanya kaya harter, popular dan berkuasa, kalau tidak bahagia" (What's the use of being rich, popular and powerful, if it doesn't give you happiness?)

The original quote is in Bahasa Indonesia and I recently read this on a trip to the beautiful island of Bali. Although most of us might have heard similar statements in the past, I always find it worthwhile to take a moment from time to time to think about it again.

For me it automatically brings up the question about what should make us happy instead? And once we found that out for ourselves, how do we manage to get up and follow our own path rather than aiming for what everybody else thinks is important?

In our modern society it's too often somebody else's goals we are trying to achieve. Our parents, spouses, managers and the media regularly let us know what is expected of us. And sometimes we even like it because it's convenient and it keeps us from having to think about a plan ourselves. But this is dangerous because sooner or later we might get to a pint where we suddenly start questioning and wonder if there shouldn't be more to life - to many of us this happens around the age of 40 or so where most of our life seems already well settled and we believe to be on a certain track that we cannot leave or change anymore. Often the lack of self-awareness keeps people from discovering what they truly want to do and how they want to live in the first place.

What are you passionate about? What are your core values and motivators?

Sure, we need a certain level of financial stability to live a "normal" life but think about it: If you did something you are really good at and passionate about, wouldn't it be likely for the money to follow more or less automatically after some time? Okay, this might not be true for all passions and all situations, but even if you only started to apply a bit more of your strengths and passions in your current work environment, it might already lead to a significantly higher level of satisfaction, success and feeling of being connected to your job.

So, why don't you start today and find out what really drives and motivates you? What is it that can make you happy in the long run? Then move on and create your own agenda and stick to it as much as you can until you find an even better path.

Gunnar Jaschik is a successful Trainer, Speaker and Life- and Career Coach in Singapore who specializes in helping managers, expats and other professionals to create more happiness and fulfillment at work.