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In our previous blog, Bad Leaders Can Change Their Spots, we described a group of 71 leaders who were able to elevate their leadership effectiveness from the 23rd percentile to the 56th percentile — that is, from being poor leaders to good ones. While many readers were impressed that it could happen, many more were curious (and even doubtful) about how it could happen. Admittedly, not every leader can do this. But all 71 of these individuals (who represented three-quarters of the entire group of poor leaders in this study) did accomplish this seemingly Herculean shift. How?

Using 360-degree feedback data over a 12- to 18-month period, we were able to track what, exactly, the leaders who’d made the most significant progress were doing. We found that practically all of them (more than 80%) significantly improved their ability to executive nine particular leadership skills.

1. They improved their communication effectiveness. This was the most common skill that these people improved. Communication skills are highly malleable. For many of these leaders, improvement here was less about learning new skills than about using the skills they already had more often and with more people. (When we talk to groups of leaders and ask, “Who here communicates too much?” we see very few hands rise.) We have also found that when struggling leaders spend time improving presentation skills, the effort can produce an immediately payoff.
2. They made an effort to share their knowledge and expertise more widely. Poor leaders tend to be stingy with information and know-how. By sharing their knowledge more frequently and teaching people what they know how to do they can simultaneously impress and develop their direct reports.
3. They began to encourage others to do more and to be better. Some leaders believe that if they minimize challenges to their team and expect less of their people, subordinates will see them as better leaders. This is wrong! Fewer challenges is the opposite of what a work group or organization needs. When leaders challenge their direct reports to do more and be better they thought they could be, the leaders are actually perceived to be better themselves.
4. They developed a broader perspective. It’s easy for leaders to become preoccupied with work demands and internal politics and become oblivious to what’s happening in the outside world. Getting leaders to stop and look at the bigger picture can help them see potential problems sooner and focus more on strategic and less on tactical issues. This leads to constructive change and innovation.
5. They recognized that they were role models and needed to set a good example. It frequently happens that leaders unintentionally (or unknowingly) ask others to do things they don’t do themselves. This never works. Many of our 71 leaders were surprised to discover that they were perceived as hypocritical. They learned to walk their talk (or at least to “stumble the mumble”).
6. They began to champion their team’s new ideas. Many of our 71 leaders were also surprised to learn that their teams considered them to be the “Abominable NO man (or woman).” When they shifted from discouraging new proposals to encouraging and supporting innovative ideas and thinking, positive changes occurred.
7. They learned to recognize when change was needed. More generally, our successful leaders were those who learned to willingly support and embrace change, and encourage others to do so, as well. How? Essentially, by becoming more proactive — that is, by doing a better job of spotting new trends, opportunities, and potential problems early.
8. They improved their ability to inspire and motivate others. Practically all of the actions we’ve already mentioned create a more inspirational environment. In addition, there were two notable things these leaders did to inspire others. First, they did a better job keeping people focused on the highest priority goals and objectives. Second, they made a special effort to stay in touch with the concerns and problems of their teams. When a leader is the last to know that an employee is having difficulties, others interpret that as a lack of concern. Providing support and assistance to an employee in difficult circumstances not only helps that employee, but also reassures others they can expect to receive the same treatment.
9. They began to encourage cooperation rather than competition. Many leaders come out of school believing that work is a zero-sum game that creates winners and losers, and so they compete, in an effort to get ahead. Battles are costly and consume a great deal of resources. In the long run, internal competition causes every participant to lose. When leaders look for ways to encourage cooperation and generate common goals, they become more successful.

As you review this list of what our bad leaders did to improve, we believe you’ll agree that what we are describing are common virtues that had not been practiced commonly enough. Our data show that taking these steps are especially effective in increasing the success of leaders who’ve been formerly regarded as poor, but they can improve all leaders. To us, that means that everyone — bad leaders, average leaders, and even good leaders — can change their spots. So, what’s holding you back?

With all the talk of public performances of “The Star Spangled Banner” lately, one would expect Alicia Keys to be a little nervous about performing the song–and an updated version of it, at that–at the Super Bowl.

“I’m really excited about it, I can’t even lie,” Keys said last week. “I have to rehearse it totally, as if it’s a brand-new song, because it is actually a brand new song in the style that I’ll deliver it. I’m actually rehearsing it like a maniac.”

Keys wowed the audience with a somewhat slowed-down version of the Anthem on piano; the rendition was highlighted with photos and video footage of soldiers serving time overseas, which got massive applause. And while the crowd appreciated the performance, Twitter seemed torn.

@aliciakeys Don’t worry about what people say!! You did an awesome job on the National Anthem…I loved the slow, smooth version!!!

— Jeremy Lawrence (@georgiaboy27) February 4, 2013

I didn’t think it was possible for a performance of the National Anthem to be longer than ours for basketball. Alicia Keys proved me wrong.

— Julie Cheney (@julieecheney) February 4, 2013

BREAKING: (7:14am MST) Alicia Keys now finished singing her rendition of the national anthem

— GR Hutson (@jess_reign_bass) February 4, 2013

WOW! @aliciakeys put her heart in that performance of the National anthem! (WATCH) bit.ly/UQjhlI

— Global Grind (@GlobalGrind) February 4, 2013

By the way, did y’all catch @aliciakeys?! National Anthem was amazing. She really nailed it! #inspired

— Coco Jones (@TheRealCocoJ) February 4, 2013

Hard to believe I was 8 years old when Alicia Keys started that national anthem

— Jeffrey Hadz (@Hadzilla) February 3, 2013

Obviously, most of the complaints have to do with the length of the song, but that probably has more to do with the fact that the Super Bowl was agonizingly close to starting, and fans didn’t want to sit through too many more performances (Keys’ set came after Jennifer Hudson and the Sandy Hook Elementary chorus taking on a sweet and heart-breaking rendition of “America The Beautiful”). Check out the performance below.

L.A. Noire, Rockstar’s detective work simulation game, might not have set the world on fire, but it did impress critics and fans with its ambition. Instead of animating characters to match the dialogue, Rockstar used a special motion capture technique and real actors to produce more life-like reactions and facial expressions for its characters.

Since this “Motionscan” technology records an actor’s face and dialogue in real-time, that means even the actors’ mistakes have been preserved for posterity. The Australian company behind the technique is named Depth Analysis, and it has posted a gag reel for the game to its home page.

Though the reel contains the types of mistakes commonly seen in movie or TV gag reels, the fact that the animated characters aren’t quite life-like enough to be considered outside of the uncanny valley makes their very human reactions all the more interesting. Also, seeing a videogame character sneeze convincingly is bizarre.

Oracle has entered into an agreement to acquire Acme Packet, a session delivery network solutions company, for $29.25 per share in cash in a deal worth $2.1 billion.

Oracle President Mark Hurd had this to say about the deal: “The proposed acquisition of Acme Packet is another important piece in Oracle’s overall strategy to deliver integrated best-in-class products that address critical customer requirements in key industries. The addition of Acme Packet to Oracle’s leading communications portfolio will enable service providers and enterprises to deliver innovative solutions that will change the way we interact, conduct commerce, deliver healthcare, secure our homes, and much more.”

Acme Packet CEO Andy Ory said, “Acme Packet brings deep domain expertise and proven, mission-critical solutions to enable all- IP networks. Together with Oracle, we expect to provide customers with purpose-built, innovative solutions to accelerate the deployment of all-IP networks and help deliver a superior experience across services, devices and networks.”

“The communications industry is undergoing a dramatic shift as users become more connected and dependent on mobile applications and devices. Service providers and enterprises need a comprehensive communications solution that will enable them to more effectively engage with their customers,” said Bhaskar Gorti, SVP and GM, Oracle Communications. “This combination will enable secure and reliable delivery of real-time interactive communications through the most comprehensive, best-in-class communications portfolio in the industry.”

The deal is expected to close in the first half of the year, subject to Acme Packet shareholder approval. The company’s board has unanimously approved it.

Here’s a letter Ory sent to Acme Packet’s customers and partners:

On February 4, 2013, we announced that we have signed an agreement to be acquired by Oracle. The proposed transaction is subject to stockholder approval, certain regulatory approvals, and customary closing conditions and is expected to close in the first half of 2013. Until the deal closes, each company will continue to operate independently, and will operate its business as usual.

Today is a significant milestone for Acme Packet. We are excited to join forces with Oracle because we believe that together we can rapidly accelerate the transformation to all-IP communications networks across the globe. The combination of our session border control and other solutions with Oracle’s powerful Communications portfolio will enable service providers to uniquely differentiate and monetize next-generation services, and help enterprises benefit from more effective user engagement and improved employee productivity. This combination will also provide our partners with an expanded portfolio of world-class solutions to help them create even greater value for their customers.

Oracle plans to make Acme Packet a core offering in its Oracle Communications portfolio to enable customers to more rapidly innovate while simplifying their IT and network infrastructures. This means our customers can expect to continue to receive the expertise, vision and passion that they have come to expect from us today — and our efforts will be supported by the global reach, investment and infrastructure of Oracle.

Acme Packet’s management team and employees are expected to join Oracle’s Communications Global Business Unit, and continue their focus on building the industry’s best session delivery solutions. We expect that joining Oracle will provide significant benefits for both our customer and partner communities.

Thank you for your continued support and for being part of the Acme Packet community.

Best regards,

Andy Ory
CEO, Acme Packet

Objet and Stratasys merged late last year to become one of the largest 3D printer companies the world has ever known. The merger allows the company to enter 2013 with a selection of 3D printers that will appeal to everyone from the desktop designer to the professional manufacturer.

The latest ad from Stratasys shows all the different 3D printers it offers from both its own and Objet’s hardware. The company is categorizing its 3D printers into three distinct product lines that gives designers at every level exactly what they need to bring their ideas to life:

Stratasys’ Idea Series of compact, affordable 3D printers gives designers and engineers the power to discover their design potential through a high quality 3D printed model that can be invented and reinvented at the push of a button.

Stratasys’ Design Series of advanced 3D printing systems can effortlessly simulate the true performance and aesthetic realism of virtually any intended product.

Stratasys’ Production Series allows manufacturers and engineers to think beyond the confines of the production line floor and respond instantly to new manufacturing directions, production floor innovations and customization requirements.

The above 3D printers are only what Stratasys currently offers. The company will undoubtedly be unveiling some impressive new 3D printers at various trade shows throughout the year. That alone makes 2013 super exciting for the 3D printer enthusiast.

“Oprah Hit With Lawsuit”. It’s not a headline you expect to see, especially when it’s followed by the words “sex discrimination”. But that’s exactly what’s happening to the iconic talk show host, who has a very disgruntled former employee on her hands.

According to TMZ, Carolyn Hommel–who was senior director of scheduling and acquisitions at OWN–has filed a lawsuit against Winfrey after she says she lost her job after taking time off to have her baby. Hommel was hired in 2010 and says her job performance was always exemplary, that she was even on the right track to move up to vice president; however, one month after her baby was born, she says, she learned that her duties had been taken over by a temporary employee and she was told she would have to reapply for the vice president job. When she did, she was promptly passed over.

Hommel also claims her immediate supervisor, Michael Garner, wrote a performance review that wasn’t exactly glowing and “made Hommel’s job duties and responsibilities appear less ‘senior’ and therefore not a candidate for the new vice president position.”

The suit seeks unspecified damages on the grounds of sex and pregnancy discrimination and “failure to prevent discrimination, retaliation and willful failure to pay wages upon discharge or termination” .

Google is showing a doodle on its home page in Sri Lanka, honoring Sri Lanka Independence Day:

On February 4th each year, the island country commemorates its independence from Britain, which became official on this day in 1948. Citizens celebrate the holiday with flags, parades, etc.

This isn’t the only doodle Google is running today. On its Canadian home page, the company is honoring the last day of the Canadian penny, as it is withdrawn from circulation.

Last week, Google honored Jackie Robinson with a doodle here in the United States.

NASA this weekend revealed that an asteroid named 2012 DA14 will come very close to Earth on February 15. The object will swing within 27,700 kilometers (17,200 miles) of the Earth’s surface – close enough to pass within the geosynchronous satellites that orbit the planet, and only around one-thirteenth the distance from the Earth to the moon.

NASA researchers stated that, according to their observations, there is no chance the asteroid will collide with the Earth. It will cruise by at around 7.8 kilometers per second (17,400 miles per hour). The flyby will set a record for a close approach of an object of such size. Astronomers estimate that such an event occurs an average of every 40 years. A collision with an object the size of 2012 DA14 is expected an average of every 1,200 years.

According to observations of the asteroid’s brightness, object itself is not large. It is estimated to be only 45 meters (150 feet) across. When it passes closest to Earth on February 15, it will appear only as a point of light. Though it will be too faint to see with the naked eye, it should be visible with binoculars or a small telescope. Though the best viewing can be seen in Indonesia, Eastern Europe, Asia, and Australia will get a good view during the object’s closest approach.

2012 DA14 has only been known of for one year. In February 2012 astronomers at the La Sagra Sky Survey discovered the asteroid, which had just made a distant passage of Earth. The object’s orbital period (or, “year”) is 368 days, which very close to the Earth’s orbital period of 365 days. This year’s near-miss of Earth will alter the asteroid’s orbital period, shortening it to around 317 days.

(Image courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Today is the last day of the Canadian penny, as the coin is withdrawn from circulation. Google is honoring the coin with a doodle on its Canadian home page. In the doodle, the first of the Os in the word “Google” is replaced with a Canadian penny, and it spins around every few seconds to show you what it looks (looked) like on both sides.

Last March, the Canadian government announced that it would withdraw the penny from circulation, and now the time has come. Canada’s CBC Radio has a piece asking if Canadians will miss the coin. Andrew Nichols writes:

There was a time when a penny was not something people would cast aside or ignore. You could buy a loaf of bread with it …and back around the time it was first minted in Canada in 1876 it was not uncommon that a-day’s-work for an unskilled labourer would bring in just one-hundred pennies.

Nowadays a loaf of bread can easily cost two-hundred pennies and more. Over the last few years several studies have recommended pulling the Canadian penny …something other countries such as Australia, New Zealand, Finland to name just a few have already done. And since it cost the Canadian Mint 1.6 cents to make one cent …that’s $11-million dollars per year …many knew the penny’s days were numbered.

CTV News reports that in the right hands, the penny still holds value. Some are trying to preserve the coins through jewelry and accessories. On top of that, there will always be coin collectors who will no doubt gladly keep at least a few on hand.

Canadian retailers are reportedly not obligated to discontinue using the penny, so there should still be plenty of pennies used in transactions for the time being.

Bobbi-Kristina, the famous daughter of Bobby Brown and Whitney Houston, has publicly announced that she does not support her grandmother Cissy Houston’s new tell-all book about her mother and says she won’t read it.

The book, “Remembering Whitney: My Story Of Love, Loss, And The Night The Music Stopped” was mentioned in an interview Cissy sat down for with Oprah recently on “Next Chapter” and reportedly delves into not only Whitney’s early life, but how Cissy felt about her marriage to Brown and when the drug use began. Bobbi-Kristina announced on Twitter that she wants nothing to do with it.

Cissy also talked to Oprah about her feelings towards Bobbi-Kristina and speculated on whether her granddaughter is headed down a similar path as her mother. She says Bobbi Kristina has been against a book about Whitney from the beginning.

Cissy Houston Discusses Her Granddaughter, Bobbi Kristina

Three months after Whitney Houston’s death, members of her family started shooting the reality series The Houstons: On Our Own. It was the first time the public saw a glimpse of the tension between Whitney’s daughter, Bobbi Kristina—also known as Krissy—and Whitney’s mother, Cissy Houston. Watch as Cissy tells Oprah why Bobbi Kristina didn’t want her to write a book about Whitney. Plus, Cissy addresses speculation that her granddaughter is on drugs.

ANYTHING concerning mygrandmothersBook•I& @nickdgordon OFCOURSE personally haveNOTHING2dowith• I ask youplsRESPECT tht•Haven’t read&won’t•

— Bobbi Kristina Brown (@REALbkBrown) February 1, 2013

“@poet_w: @realbkbrown @nickdgordon you already know everything so y would you be expected to read it?” My point exactly• #DIFFERENCEiS...

— Bobbi Kristina Brown (@REALbkBrown) February 1, 2013

I KNOW THE TRUTH . HER.... #Oblivious & #OUTOFLINEWRONG. But it's all good & nothing but love, MYMOTHER taught ME better than that. (: xO

— Bobbi Kristina Brown (@REALbkBrown) February 1, 2013

“@blkdiamond169: @realbkbrown why tho? Oprah sd the book was good&according to yr gmom its basicly her words&setting the lies st8?”WRONG...

— Bobbi Kristina Brown (@REALbkBrown) February 1, 2013

You won’t believe this. There’s a technological marvel that, instead of forcing you to communicate with others in writing, actually allows you to hear other people’s voices and words — you can even hear the tone and volume of their voices! And wonder of wonders, they can hear you! Across any distance! It’s incredible! Not many people use the device today, but it’s truly in a class by itself for productive communication.

Please pardon the sarcasm, but the way people shun the telephone these days is getting ridiculous.

You used to be able to just call people. You didn’t have to be on someone’s calendar to have a phone conversation. The telephone was an important and valuable domain of communication, both for casual, friendly chats and for professional exchanges of ideas and information. But no more. It’s considered annoying — lame, even — to pick up the phone and call someone without a prior appointment. It’s too friendly. Too intrusive. If you did, you’d be considered a professional misfit. So instead, you send an e-mail to set up an appointment for the phone call. About six or seven e-mails, actually. More words pass back and forth in the setting up of the call than are required for the communication for which the call itself is intended. And if each of you has an assistant, all this multiplies.

Much worse than the inefficiency of using e-mail to set up phone calls are the missed opportunities and unnecessary misunderstandings that come when we use e-mail instead of phone calls. That happens far more often than is prudent. We use e-mail to avoid conflict. We use it to avoid feeling uncomfortable. To overcome shyness, inferiority complexes, doubts, apprehensions, and all manner of other psychological and emotional problems. In business, we use it to overcome our fear of selling. To make sure we’re never caught off guard or put on the spot. Because it’s just too much trouble to get up and walk two cubes over to ask a question in person. And we have convinced ourselves that this is all more advanced, more expedient, more productive.

But to the degree to which e-mail allows us to avoid authentic communication or persuasive communication — and robs us of the ability to get better at either or both — there’s nothing efficient or productive about it. I won’t go on about how e-mail messages can be misinterpreted — we’ve all read way too many blog posts about that. But even those posts assume a context in which the telephone doesn’t exist. They preach about being more sensitive to the way we write the e-mails, using emoticons to make tone plain, or rereading messages before we send them to scan for anything that could be taken amiss. Those posts never advise us to just pick up the phone and call the person. Doing so would eliminate the possibility of misconstrued text for sure, but it’s never in the e-mail tips lists.

And as we strive relentlessly for efficiency, we leave no room for life — for the little things that balance out our day and put our business into a larger perspective of existence. There’s no room for other human beings who have color in their voices and nuanced thoughts that typography cannot convey.

It has been said that love is a function of communication. I believe that to be true. I believe, by extension, that human understanding is a function of communication. And the better human beings understand one another, the higher the level of functioning. The overuse of e-mail as an alternative to a call creates emotional distance. In advertising, it is said that the medium is the message. In this case, the medium is e-mail and the message is “I don’t actually want to talk to you.” There is an unintended lack of civility, humanity, and friendliness to it all.

A powerful side effect of this reduction in phone conversation is the near total elimination of the impromptu personal meeting. When I was a kid my grandfather would stop by our house unannounced for a cup of coffee. We’d have great conversations. That rarely happens in life anymore. It never happens in business. We’ve sucked all the spontaneity out of the workday, so we’re forced to buy foosball tables and study “play” to get people into a mood where they can have a spontaneous creative thought.

If you want to be innovative today, if you want to take a risk, if you want to exercise your courage, try calling someone with whom you have an issue to discuss. Do it without an appointment. Just call them up and have a conversation. And when your phone rings, pick it up. Open yourself up to the possibility a phone call offers. Discover this remarkable device called the telephone. It will give you a serious competitive advantage.

Kate Middleton has kept things pretty low-key since her pregnancy was announced, so she hasn’t been photographed too much out in public. Around the time news of a royal baby got around, she was hospitalized for severe, continuous morning sickness which was quickly overcome, but not before a prank gone awry aided in the suicide of a charge nurse working at the hospital she was admitted to. Perhaps the subsequent scandal–and backlash against the people responsible–are as much to blame for her retreat from the public eye as the pregnancy.

But it seems the Duchess is ready to be seen again as she was photographed in London last week, wearing a large shawl that covered quite a bit. And while the belly is barely there, she is noticeably pregnant, and that makes fans happy. Many have been eager for any news or pics of the mum-to-be.

I really want Kate’s baby bump to start showing

— Mimieux (@miriameloise) January 29, 2013

@1dfamlly ignore the stripper bs, directioners, and lets give Kate’s baby bump some attention c:

— Denise (@Emo_dino7398) February 2, 2013

Kate’s bump picture oh my gosh it makes me so excited for when the baby comes ❤

— Erin ♡ (@FabulousKate13) February 2, 2013

Image: Top Star Pictures

The Model B Raspberry Pi is hardly expensive, costing just $35 (plus local taxes and shipping/handling fees). But if that’s a little too much for you, or you don’t need fancy features like Ethernet, and 256MB of RAM sounds more than adequate, you can now get your hands on the Model A Raspberry Pi for a bargain $10 cheaper.

Available from Premier Farnell/Element 14 and RS Components, the Model A version of the popular credit card-sized ARM GNU/Linux computer will cost just $25. Although it’s currently only available in Europe, it will be rolling out to the rest of the world shortly. If you live in the US you can pre-order one, but there will be a slight delay before the order can be fulfilled.

The Model A might have half the RAM, just one USB port and no Ethernet, but that does mean it consumes less power than its sibling, making it ideal for projects powered by batteries or solar power.

Photo credit: The Raspberry Pi Foundation

There’s no shortage of racing titles out there in the world of console gaming. Names like Gran Turismo, GRID and Forza Motorsport obviously come to mind. However even with those stellar titles, companies like Slightly Mad Studios have decided there is still room for one more. PROJECT CARS is their newest entrant in this genre and by the looks of it, they’re going in with a take-no-prisoners attitude. According to the press release, PROJECT CARS lets gamers go behind the wheel of the fastest, most exhilarating cars of all time on the world’s most iconic tracks. Now I don’t know about you, but this is something that we’re definitely interested in. Check out the trailer after the jump.

Source: GameTrailers.com

On Monday, the United Kingdom arm of the global telecommunications company Vodafone revealed that, starting February 6, it will carry a Windows Phone 8 smartphone lineup. In merely two days, Vodafone UK customers will have access to five devices sporting Microsoft’s new mobile operating system.

The UK carrier covers the market from top to bottom, with the Nokia Lumia 920 and the HTC Windows Phone 8X taking the role of the flagship Windows Phone 8 smartphones. The former ships in black and yellow, while the latter comes in California Blue or black.

For the mid-range market, Vodafone UK offers the Lumia 820, in black and red, and the Windows Phone 8S in Atlantic Blue. Nokia’s low-end smartphone, the Lumia 620 is also available for purchase, in blue and white.

Vodafone UK has yet to announce pricing for any of the five Windows Phone 8 devices.

John Hofmeister, formerly president of Houston-based Shell Oil (the U.S. side of Royal Dutch Shell), has been an active voice for energy policy reform. Upon retiring from Shell in 2008, he founded Citizens for Affordable Energy (CAE), an educational nonprofit  advocating “sound U.S. energy security solutions for the nation, including a range of affordable energy supplies, efficiency improvements, essential infrastructure, sustainable environmental policies and public education on energy issues.”

Hofmeister identifies current energy policy as disjointed and broken, the result of “13 executive branch agencies govern[ing] energy and the environment … 26 congressional committees and subcommittees writing legislation on energy … [and] every federal district court hav[ing] authority to delay and ultimately prevent citizens from having the energy they need.”

“By 2020,” he warned in 2010, “there will be inadequate supplies of liquid fuels and electricity taking the nation toward inevitable gas lines, brown-outs, black-outs and extraordinary high prices.” This “energy abyss will stick around for up to a full decade with all of the national insecurity, economic decline, joblessness and social malaise that accompanies energy shortages in third-world countries.”

Hofmeister’s solution to avoid the 2020–2030 chasm is to rapidly produce much more energy from new infrastructure. His means is a new federal authority, a national energy board (NEB), to expedite government permits on public and private lands. His model is the Federal Reserve Board of Governors (est. 1913) under which independent appointees run the agency rather than elected officials.

Something-for-Everyone Politics

In search of broad public support, Hofmeister’s supply-side strategy mixes pro-development and all-of-the-above. Yet he still plays to the center. He is pro-fossil fuels but disparages “drill, baby, drill.” He questions the scale and reliability of wind and solar power but believes we need government-enabled energies. His energy plan can be boiled down to you-get-yours, we-get-ours. [i]

Hofmeister’s something for everyone—and thus special favor for politically-correct, economically-incorrect energies—will only exacerbate federal budget deficits and burden consumers. It is a recipe for continued politicization, not fundamental reform.

His (age-old) quest to centralize government for greater efficiency must confront history. In 1977, the Department of Energy was founded by President Carter to consolidate “most Federal energy activities under one umbrella” to create “the framework for a comprehensive and balanced national energy plan.” DOE’s mission creep and bad decision-making in the last 35 years have added to, not subtracted from, energy challenges. [ii]

Fundamentally, what is to stop a NEB from supporting an energy rationing scheme, say a carbon tax or CO₂ cap-and-trade program, to “save” the climate” or “level the playing field” for wind, solar, and other beggar energies? Hofmeister might oppose such programs, but a NEB is “independent” to do so. Anti-energy forces such as the “green lobby” and current Washington establishment will not surrender or retreat but likely become emboldened by centralized power in a national energy board.

Federal Reserve Model

Consider the policies of the Federal Reserve Bank itself. Milton Friedman, studying the Fed’s actions before and during the Great Depression, observed:

Mistakes, excusable or not, cannot be avoided in a system which disperses responsibility yet gives a few men great power, and which thereby makes important policy actions highly dependent on accidents of personality.[iii]

After reviewing recent Fed policy, Jeffrey Rogers Hummel called “central banking … the new central planning” via manipulation of the most important price in the whole economy, interest rates.[iv]

Hofmeister’s analogy of a NEB modeled on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors is peculiar. The Fed has a legal monopoly over its product (legal tender) and has presided over the very booms and busts it was created to prevent. The energy industry is privately owned, is competitive, and needs less, not more, politics to dampen its business cycle.[v]

Hydraulic Fracturing

Finally, consider today’s real energy revolution, much of which has occurred since Hofmeister’s 2010 speech. Hydraulic fracturing and directional drilling on private and state lands has opened up vast energy resources. Instead of having inadequate supplies of liquid fuels by 2020, the United States will surpass Saudi Arabia and Russia this year as the world’s largest producer of liquid fuels.

This turnaround in domestic liquid fuel production didn’t happen because of an enlightened board, but because of entrepreneurs. And, in fact, an NEB might have become a more effective battleground for anti-frac forces to stymie natural market incentives.

Still, Hofmeister’s concern about all of the red tape on federal lands is accurate. The frac revolution isn’t happening on federal land but on private and state land from red tape. Indeed, the federal government takes 307 days to process a permit to drill compared to 27 days in Colorado and 10 days in North Dakota. State governments understand that energy production and environmental production can co-exist.

Conclusion

“If there is any lesson in the history of ideas,” stated Thomas Sowell, “it is that good intentions tell you nothing about the actual consequences.” An NEB cannot insulate the market from government. And our age, it could fast-track statism in the name of stabilizing climate or balancing the budget. History, in fact, cautions against centralizing government power.[vi]

In place of simplistic, lowest-common-denominator thinking, John Hofmeister and Citizens for Affordable Energy should educate people about the need for depoliticizing energy. As the example of hydraulic fracturing demonstrates, the United States does not need a national energy board, a national energy plan, or an all-of-the-above energy policy.

A new message from Hofmeister, anchored on sound theory and energy reality, is needed to help replace anti-energy ideology with pro-energy, pro-market thinking outside and inside government.

Growing up in the 1970s, I often found myself in my father’s factory, which manufactured women’s clothing. Spending time in the factory was not only a way to be close to my dad, but also great entertainment in an era of only 5 TV channels and no cell phones or personal computers. (Later, my first job was sweeping the factory floors). The factory was like my personal playground — the stacks of pallets were mountains, the floor-to-ceiling dress racks a jungle gym, the colorful stacks of fabric a 50-layer cake. Enthralled by my surroundings, I would run around the factory floor and talk to the operators at each machine. They took pride in showing me what they did — they were paying it forward.

The technology employed in the seventies was a top-of-the-line sewing machine or a battery-powered forklift. There was little computerization, automation or even reporting compared to today’s manufacturing environment. Yet my dad needed to be able to see if production was on schedule or not. He also had to be able to quickly identify bottlenecks to determine if he needed to intervene in order to complete a run or meet a delivery deadline. Rather than sitting in an office, my father put a desk in the middle of his rectangular shaped factory floor. He built a small platform that raised his desk 3 feet above the floor. This enabled him to see the entire factory at one glace. It also allowed the employees to quickly locate the boss if they needed help. It made each employee and their respective work visible to each other. My father knew every job, task and process.

He set up a system that was the same for each station or job. Items that needed to be worked on were piled onto a cart just to the right of the operator; completed items were piled up just to the left. As fast as it took dad to lift his head, he could tell if the sewers were on schedule (were the piles on the right high or low?) or if a particular operator needed help (was the pile on the right of one operator always higher than the rest?). He knew when the pressers were about to be idle because not enough dresses had been completed (was the pile on the right low and about to run out?). He knew if the buttonhole operator needed more training on that new machine, or if the shipping truck was late. The visibility was critical to the productivity of the factory.

I decided not to become a dressmaker (big mistake given the success of Project Runway). Instead, I went to graduate school and joined a large corporation. Nonetheless, I see that the transparency of the factory floor needs to be applied to our modern knowledge work environment. That is a challenge. By definition, knowledge work goes on inside an employee’s head. This makes it difficult to supervise and to intervene if an employee needs help producing his output (deliverable/report/decision). If an employee is off track, he can consume a lot of organizational resources without the manager even being aware. Some organizations have responded to this inherent challenge by moving to an open office concept. There has been a lot written about open offices (and I won’t go into the topic here), but they don’t solve the problem: they make the employees visible — not the work. A productive working environment requires the inputs and outputs (right cart and left cart) to be visible.

That mans knowing what the input is. At an individual level, we often think of it as hours spent on a task or project. However, this is only one input, and often not the best one. How many analyses were required to complete that market segmentation report? How many times did the cross-functional team have to meet to reach a decision? What type of competitor analysis are you doing in order to evaluate that market? A system that makes all these inputs visible to management will enable better decisions. Equally, all too often, individual outputs are only visible to the contributors at the very end of the production with little to no time for others to reflect, intervene, teach, and challenge. Maybe it takes you six hours to write that report, but it only takes your colleague two. Unless that becomes visible to you, you’ll never know there’s a more efficient way to get it done. Making the work output visible to all workers involved allows them to contribute by providing insight, identifying short cuts, including innovations and adding suggestions from their diverse experiences and background.

At a collective level, knowledge work is often interconnected: one knowledge worker’s output is another knowledge worker’s input, so transparency benefits the process of knowledge work as a whole. To use the dress making analogy, “seeing” each component of the dress being assembled gives the manager (and all operators) the opportunity to intervene and ramp up any individual part of production. If knowledge workers and their managers can “see” the work, they are more likely to contribute additional value beyond the narrow task that they are assigned.

Some companies have organized their knowledge workers to achieve that visibility. At one insurance company, work was broken down into projects and each project was broken down to a plan with assigned resources. Once approved by the manager, the plan and resources were loaded into a workflow system which was then continuously updated. Plasma screens that displayed the workflow individually for every project and collectively for the whole department were placed in public areas. The manager could “see” which projects were ahead of schedule, in progress, or lagging behind and how much work was starting, underway or being completed each day. In fact, one manager saw that work actually stopped when a merger was announced and, as a result, increased his communication activity and presence with his team.

When work is not transparent, you lose a chance for employees to contribute the gifts they have to offer — their creativity, inspiration, and perspective. And that’s true whether you’re making dresses, or making information.

If your organization has managed to make invisible knowledge work visible, please let me know how you’ve succeeded in the comments.

What a difference a few months have made for Indian markets.

The rupee is 8 percent up from last summer’s record lows. Foreigners have ploughed $17 billion into Indian stocks and bonds since Sept 2012 and foreign ownership of Indian shares is at a record high 22.7 percent, Morgan Stanley reckons.  And all it has taken to change the mood has been the announcement of a few reforms (allowing foreign direct investment into retail, some fuel and rail price hikes and raising FDI limits in some sectors). A controversial double taxation law has been pushed back.  The government has sold some stakes in state-run companies (it offloaded 10 percent of Oil India last week, netting $585 million).  If the measures continue, the central bank may cut interest rates further.

Above all, there have been promises-a-plenty on fiscal consolidation.

The promises are not new. Only this time, investors appear to believe Finance Minister P. Chidambaram.

Chidambaram who was on a four-city roadshow to promote India to investors, pledged in a Reuters interview last week not to cross the “red line” of a 5.3 percent deficit for this year in the Feb 28 budget. Standard Chartered, one of the banks that organised Chidambaram’s roadshow, sent out a note entitled: “The finance minister means business”.

FM Chidambaram has gained market credibility on back of measures announced since Sept. 2012. ..if he follows through on these pledges….markets will have more reason to cheer.

So what can be expected if the budget does deliver the goods? Assuming global central banks continue to gush liquidity, the Indian stock rally might continue.  Indian stocks trade at 16 times forward earnings, slightly below their historical averages.  The rupee too should rise further. It has an implied yield of around 6 percent,  one of the highest in the world. And unlike many other emerging markets, India won’t be averse to some appreciation from current levels of around 53. 15 per dollar. According to Arvind Mayaram, head of economic affairs at India’s finance ministry:

Once you see fiscal consolidation start to happen, you will see the rupee strengthen further… the rupee at 52-53 (per dollar) is good. It will be still competitive but imports will become cheaper and inflation will moderate.

And what of India’s woeful infrastructure?  India’s pot-holed roads, power cuts and clogged-up ports will take years, if not decades, to fix. But the government does seem keen to deal with the problem. Mayaram, in London for a recent infrastructure roadshow, said in an interview that the government had fulfilled targets for  $500 billion infrastructure investments in the five years to 2012 and  half of this had come from the private sector. Another $1 trillion is planned by 2017, giving an annual  investment rate of around 38-40 percent of GDP, he said.

All that is good. But elections loom in 2014 and the ruling Congress is likely to pressure Chidambaram to be generous to voters.  UBS analyst Manik Narain says a lot of foreign cash has headed  to India recently on the promise of yield and the premise that the inflows will be welcome (unlike in many Asian and Latin American countries, where governments are increasingly fearful of hot money). But he says the peak could be close if reforms are not quickly deepened:

Given how much pressure the Congress is under, I find it surprising the market is trading with so much optimism.  The truth of the matter is that the reform steps India has taken are welcome but they are really only baby steps. A sliver of reform is making India look attractive.

 The ball, as Chidambaram has acknowledged, is firmly in the Indian government’s court.

 

Open-source password management tool KeePass 2.21 has been released. Version 2.21, also available as a standalone portable build, adds a number of new features, including a hex viewer mode, support for a user-defined group separator in the Generic CSV Importer and various tweaks, improvements and bug fixes.

KeePass is designed to act a single, central repository for a user’s sensitive data, from logons to credit card details. This information is encrypted with a single, master password, allowing the user to securely lock away their personal details when not required.

KeePass 2.21 makes it easier to import group trees into the program using its Generic CSV Importer tool by adding support for user-specified group separators. The internal data viewer has also added a hex viewer mode, which is automatically made the default view for unknown data types.

The tools support for storing special keycodes has been extended with the addition of {WIN}, {LWIN}, {RWIN}, {APPS} and {NUMPAD0} through to {NUMPAD9}. Also added is an option — enabled by default — to additionally show references when showing dereferenced data.

KeePass is also a little more robust — when another application window hangs, the auto-type association editing dialog doesn’t hang with it. Version 2.21 also warns the user when another app attempts to switch from the secure desktop to a different one — clicking OK returns to the secure desktop.

When opening the icon picker dialog, KeePass 2.21 ensures the currently selected icon is visible, plus adds OK and Cancel buttons to the dialog. The app also comes with improved importers for other programs including Password Safe and AnyPassword Pro, and prefers the .NET Framework 4.5 if it’s installed on the user’s computer.

Bugfixes include the UI updating correctly after multiple databases have been locked and the Save Changes dialog is cancelled, plus the ‘&’ character is now displayed correctly in various texts: dynamic menu texts, dialog banner texts, tooltips and more.

KeePass 2.21 and KeePass Portable 2.21 are both open-source free downloads for PCs running Windows 2000 or later.

Photo credit: marekuliasz/Shutterstock

When Windows Explorer doesn’t immediately provide all the information you need on a file or folder, a quick right-click > Properties will give you easy access to assorted other low-level details: attributes, date stamps, metadata and so on. But the standard Properties dialog has several limitations. It doesn’t show all the file attributes, for instance (Hidden and System are missing, others are a little hidden), while details such as file stamps are displayed, but can’t be edited.

If you’d like to take better control of your file and folder properties, then, you’ll need to get a little help from a third-party tool. And Attribute Changer‘s lengthy feature list suggests it could be a great place to start.

After an adware-free installation, right-clicking an object in Explorer and selecting “Change Attributes” will display the core program’s interface, a tabbed dialog with a lot of options. And the first you’ll see (unsurprisingly, given the program’s name) is a full list of file attributes — Read-only, System, Hidden, Compress, Archive and Index — which can all be tweaked with a click. (Altering the System attribute in particular can be dangerous, of course, so you do need to be careful here. If you don’t know why, then this isn’t the program for you).

You also get to see your file creation, last modified and last accessed times. You can manually adjust any of these, set them automatically to the current time, or even generate random date and timestamps between the range you specify. Attribute Changer can even set the EXIF datestamp of your photos to whatever you like.

And as you browse the various tabs, so even more options appear. At its simplest, you can use the program to standardize the case of your selected files and folders in various ways (both the name and extension can be in upper or lower case). But if you need rather more power then there are all kinds of configuration options available. So you can have the program include or exclude particular files from modification if they match the criteria you specify, for instance (file names, dates, times, attributes and more).

If you think this sounds very powerful, then you’re right. But some of the more advanced operations are a little more complicated than they need to be, thanks to a less than intuitive design. Documentation comes in the form of a separate PDF manual rather than a regular Help file, another inconvenience. And the program also seems to have a few bugs, or at least interactions which we didn’t understand. Because we really didn’t see why enabling the option to save program settings should have disabled our ability to change file stamps, for example.

Still, for all that, Attribute Changer’s basic options — tweaking attributes, changing the case of names, setting file datestamps to “right now” — proved quick and easy to use, and some of the program’s other abilities (applying random timestamps, say) are hard to do in any other way. If you need to take more control of your file properties, and are willing to take the time to master its quirks, then Attribute Changer could prove a very handy tool.

Photo credit: NinaMalyna/Shutterstock