Get Comfortable with Collaboration

We praise collaboration for improving problem solving, increasing creativity, and spurring innovation. Done correctly, it does yield all these benefits. But it can also be scary. Here are three facts you have to accept, and embrace, about collaboration before it can work:

You won’t know the answer.
There’s no point in collaborating on a complex problem if you know how to solve it. Be comfortable with ambiguity and accept that you aren’t necessarily the expert.

Roles will be unclear.
Responsibilities are often fluid. Be ready for the role you play to change with each phase of the work.

You will fight.
If you avoid conflict, nothing will happen. Knowing how to debate tradeoffs between options means knowing how to productively argue.

 

Get Your Colleagues’ Attention

To capture any audience’s attention, you must frame your message properly. Whether you’re making a presentation, composing an email, or talking with your boss, here’s how to convey your idea:

Start with what you want.
Busy colleagues don’t want to wait for the punch line. Provide the most important information up front.

Explain the complication.
Give the specific reason for your message. What prompted you to deliver it?

Connect to the big picture.
Explain why your audience should care. Point out what is relevant to them and how it links to their goals.

End with a call to action.
Once you’ve set the context, reiterate what you need.

 

Put Yourself in Your Customers’ Shoes

If your company is looking to innovate, don’t waste time analyzing market research reports and delving into customer data. What customers say they will do is not necessarily what they end up doing. Instead, put yourself in your customers’ shoes. Observe them using products and watch for frustrations they may not even notice. Don’t delegate these explorations to the market research consultants. Do it yourself. Make sure senior people in your organization – those who have the strategic understanding to recognize opportunity and the authority to act on it—get out and observe customers too.

 

Stop Your Career Anxiety

If you’re unhappy in your job, you are not alone. Plenty of people—many with stable, high-paying, interesting jobs—feel lost in their careers. If you experience this anxiety, try these three things:

Forget money.
Money matters but not at the cost of doing something you love. If you are unhappy in a job, a six-figure salary won’t change that.

Try new things.
Challenge yourself. Ask your boss for a chance to lead a new business. Speak at an industry conference. Take on a special project in another part of the company.

Get to know yourself.
Spend time thinking about your passions. Don’t settle on the first thing; consider many options.

 

BTCL, Teletalk investigated over illegal VoIP

A committee of the Bangladesh government has found anomalies in international call management at two state-owned telecommunications firms. Bangladesh Telecommunications Company (BTCL) and Teletalk were investigated to find their involvement in illegal VoIP services. The report said that BTCL did not have analysers installed to collect call data, which leaves room for revenue dodging and other irregularities, The Daily Star writes. BTCL has no billing platform for its interconnection exchange and cannot measure the actual call duration of calls, nor are they properly connected to the analyser of the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission. BTCL has three exchanges for international call termination but one of its exchanges often reboots, resulting in traffic data loss. The company has no maintenance agreement with its vendors so when it faces technical problems it cannot solve them, the report reads. At mobile operator Teletalk, the committee found evidence of abnormally long calls of 17 to 23 hours from five numbers. Some incoming international calls also raised questions. The committee also accused the companies of not properly cooperating with the investigation and said some data from the exchanges had been deleted. The committee made 13 recommendations to improve the situation.

Source: Telecompaper

 

Dutch Upper Chamber to vote on Telecom Act in March

The Dutch Upper Chamber of Parliament will discuss the Telecommunications Act on 6 March, after completing its written statements on 21 February. It is likely the Act will be adopted without a vote, ending the the parliamentary debate that began in the Lower Chamber on 8 November, 2010. The law passed the Lower Chamber on 22 June with a number of amendments, including one on net neutrality, another on cookies and another on the resale of analogue cable TV.

 

3 Tips for Surviving in an Unhappy Workplace

Even if you recognize that you are unhappy in your job, it still may be tough — or even impossible in these economic times — to move on to a new position. Staying put may be your only option, but it doesn’t have to make you miserable. Here are three things you can do make the most of an imperfect situation:

Acknowledge your feelings.
Be honest with yourself about what is making you unhappy. If you can’t move on now, don’t try to convince yourself that you’re happy. Accept the situation and know you’ll have to deal with it for the near future.

Be proactive.
If leaving your job isn’t an option now, start preparing for the time when it will be. Learn a new skill or take on a tough project.

Accentuate the positive.
It’s easy to focus only on the negative. Find good things about your job — a fun colleague, an interesting project — and let those provide you with the energy you need to hang in.

 

Save the Meeting That’s Going Nowhere

We’ve all been stuck in long meetings that bounce aimlessly from one topic to the next. Instead of rolling your eyes, take control. Be brave enough to propose a solution:

Play dumb.
Ask someone in the room—preferably the strongest communicator—to help you understand what problem you’re trying to solve and what needs to happen to resolve it.

Identify the decision-maker.
Sometimes meetings stall because no one knows who is responsible for the decision. Ask who that is and inquire whether he’s ready to decide.

Get the right people in the room.
Are there absentees who need to be there? Suggest rescheduling for a time when all the stakeholders can be present.

 

Grant & Graham Projects represented Motto VoIP at the Petit 25 Year event.

14-10-2011

Grant & Graham Projects represented Motto VoIP at the Petit 25 Year event.

For our client we promoted their products and represented them at the event.

 

 

Grant & Graham Projects was at the Total Telecom World Event in London.

07-11-2011

Grant & Graham Projects was at the Total Telecom World Event in London.