Mike Donoghue is a member of a multinational information technology corporation where he collaborates on the communications guidelines and customer relationship strategies affecting the interactions with internal and external clients. He has analyzed, defined, designed and overseen processes for various engagements including product usability and customer satisfaction, best practice enterprise standardization, relationship/branding structures, and distribution effectiveness and direction. He has also established corporate library solutions to provide frameworks for sales, marketing, training, and support divisions.
As part of the development of the Manifesto for Enterprise Agility, PMI spoke with a range of executive leaders to gather insights on what enterprise agility looks like in practice. Here, Terence Mauri shares how to rethink operating models.
Join us on 4 June as we come together with project professionals, sustainability leaders, and volunteer voices from around the world for a special World Environment Day event focused on the future of project leadership.
“Done” is one of the most powerful words in agile. It brings closure. It marks progress. It gives us the satisfaction of checking a box and moving on. But what happens when “done” becomes hollow, and the value is nowhere in sight?
Disruptive to children and adults alike in our academic, business and private lives, cell phones are going through another evolution that grudgingly makes them more deserving or our respect. Long debated by school administrators (and less publicly by managers) as being unnecessary distractions, many people are rethinking the use of the phone and trying to ferret out ways in which to make it a tool for education instead of an impediment.
To exploit the possibilities of the device and the added directions it has taken since its inception as a simple instrument for communications, there are a number of features most of them can bring to the individual:
Camera: It is doubtful that you need to document your boss sleeping in a meeting, but what about taking pictures or videos of live situations and problems? This serves the needs of many who are working on issues deep in the bowels of a facility or remote and isolated locations.
Browser: Models differ to help accommodate those of us that are “digitally challenged” (that is, have unresponsive and/or thick fingers), but Internet access on the go is a valuable commodity. Again, great for in the field or hard to get to places (so long as you have a signal).
E-mail/Texting/Composition: Another way to read and send messages and create documents without the weight and bulk of a laptop. It may not be ideal for long-term use, but it sure makes those incessant long waits in life less unproductive, not to mention less boring.
Audio Visual: While it can provide entertainment, phones also give the ability to listen and watch a number of materials--what we do with that option is up to the individual. Pick up a podcast lecture you can listen to while you are commuting, watch an instructional video prior to going to a job site--the only limitations seem to be with respect to content.
Calculator: Gone are the days of the hip-hugging or pocket protector models. Why bother when your phone has most of the basic number-crunching functions you need? You may even be able to download apps that help address specific mathematical concerns.
Then there are more ambitious applications…
It’s Not Just For Calling Anymore
Cell phones are no longer simply phones any more. They are assistants, miniature computers and a variety of other devices that keep changing to accommodate business and personal needs as well as marketing opportunities. They also come in a variety of flavors (PDA, iPhone, Smartphone, etc.). Physically, brands and models may share some basics functions, but there is also competition to find the next breakthrough component and explore another technological avenue.
For those devices that have the ability to incorporate additional applications into their makeup, there is a virtual bonanza out there for users to choose from. Phone applications are less costly and thereby more widely available than those designed for computers. Being smaller and with a greater audience for implementation makes them more affordable, but it also allows for specialized bundling. Much like incremental service packages that customers customize in order to get precisely what they want, phone features and downloads allow people to obtain only those products that best suit their needs.
While it is possible to incorporate many online teaching, learning and training materials into cell phone use, the inherent limitations in most phones makes it difficult to maintain certain standards as well as promote it as a strong tool for this kind of use. Conferencing and seminar providers often give those who access materials via cell phone the ability to have similar functions as you would find in a typical desktop computer (that is, audio, video, interactive whiteboards, desktop sharing, document upload, etc.), but the quality of these functions is dependent upon the unique nature of each handheld device and the instructional designers that create the content. Screen size and resolution, keyboard and/or pointer functions, transfer rate, signal strength--all are important considerations.
Mobile learning looks like one of the next directions the technology will take. Devices already incorporate many of the features identified with traditional distance learning classes, but it will take something more to include the needs of different professions, industries and individuals in order to provide successful support.
Distance Not Distant
For those of us that face the economic challenges of having an appropriate desktop, laptop or other computing device for our business operations, the evolution of the cell phone provides an attractive alternative. For a widely distributed and/or international workforce that may not have reliable sources of electricity or connectivity, cell phone features also offer a degree of adaptability coupled with their portability.
Globally, these aspects are of particular interest to people that face a number of these challenges. A number of initiatives are currently underway around the world that prove the concept works and even more are planned as worldwide connectivity and equipment use becomes readily included in our everyday society.
ADVERTISEMENTS
"The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up."
