Important or Urgent or both or not?

Job interviews in some sectors feature what are known as 'In box' or 'In tray' exercises/simulations. Employers use these test simulations to determine how well potential employees can handle daily tasks. Assessors can test a wide range of skills that one might use (or should use) to cope with workloads and job tasks. Can you analyze facts, prioritize tasks, and respond appropriately--under pressure--to information you have on hand?

Ultimately, you will be tested on how you cope with real work situations.

Knowing whether information is important and/or urgent is key to any 'in box' or 'in tray' exercise.

Listen to the following video to better understand how these exercises are used by employers/recruiting agencies. IN TRAY EXERCISE

Asynchronous communication and asymmetric information

Although no form of communication between humans can ever be fully synchronous, certain avenues of message delivery and of message reception are more effective than others in ensuring that meanings are conveyed as they are intended by the sender.

In economic theory, asymmetric information is understood to impact the choices that individuals make. We make decisions based on information we receive or already have. A sender of information, via email, telephone, text, film, radio, television, news, social media outlets, static advertising, meetings, or casual conversation, can intentionally and/or unintentionally, omit information that would otherwise change the outcome of another person's response or subsequent action.

Texting via IM, What'sApp, or mobile phone can come close to being considered synchronous communication if the communication is happening in 'real time.'  To what degree, however, is 'real time' synchronous or not? What kind of communication between people is the MOST synchronous?

Your Brazilian Resume

Here is a blog offering some advice on writing your resume for the Brazilian market.
Feel free to share other sites for resume writing from other countries.

Apple Watch Changing Marcom Trends

The folks at Next Level Marketing Communications have posited that Apple Watches may actually change the way you market services. They cite SEO analyst, Dan Cristo, who has suggested that the price of Apple Watch will catalyze the following:

1. Apps – Marketers will need to figure out how to not only market their iPhone and Android apps, but how to get users to download their smartwatch apps as well.
2. Payments – Retailers that have not yet upgraded their payment systems to accept NFC payments will want to get ready for a surge of young customers eager ditch their credit cards in favor of arm-waving checkouts.
3. Social Media – Apple’s target consumers for the Apple Watch are also the biggest consumers of social media content on the planet.
4. Geofencing/iBeacons – Marketers who live on the cutting edge will be pleased to learn Apple Watch app developers have the ability to create invisible geofences that sense when an Apple Watch user is in close proximity.
5. Healthy Lifestyles – Almost any company can get behind the social cause of healthy living.

What do you think!?

Workplace Communication through Workplace Behavior

Forbes

How we act in the workplace reflects one's capacity for time management, prioritizing tasks, efficiency, and self-awareness and self-care. All of these serve to make one a more effective manager or leader or business partner/colleague. Blogger Grant Assad pointed to a support video on Fast Company that dealt with Presentation Skills. Another Fast Company video addresses one's ability to use free time well. I think I break most of the "rules." Any of you physical fitness types want to take on a customer? 

Writing letters to "outer space"!

Business communication takes many forms. Consider writing a letter and sending it off the planet!
Here is a copy of an e-mail sent today by White House Director of Science and Technology Policy, Dr. John Holden:

Photo: NASA

Hi, everyone --

In January, President Obama wished NASA astronaut Scott Kelly good luck as Commander Kelly prepared to leave the Earth in March on the first one-year mission on the International Space Station (ISS).

Now, it's your turn: Commander Kelly is nearing the halfway point of this historic mission. Kelly and his one-year crewmate, Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko, will spend 342 total days in space. Send your well-wishes here -- and we'll work with NASA to deliver the message.

Here's why this is such a big deal:

Most expeditions on the ISS last four to six months. By embarking on a longer journey, Kelly and Kornienko are providing researchers an unprecedented opportunity to better understand how the human body reacts and adapts to long-duration spaceflight.

Scott's identical twin, retired NASA astronaut Mark Kelly, is also participating in a series of comparative studies here on Earth. This knowledge is critical as NASA looks toward human journeys deeper into the solar system -- including to and from Mars-that could last 500 days or longer. Researchers may also be able to apply this knowledge to help humans who stay here on Earth, from helping patients recover from long periods of bed rest to improving monitoring for people whose bodies are unable to fight infections.

Send your best wishes to Scott and Mikhail for their next six months in space, and join us in supporting this journey 250 miles above the Earth to inspire and benefit those who remain on it!

We'll be in touch with updates --

John

Dr. John P. Holdren
Director, Office of Science and Technology Policy
The White House
@whitehouseostp

Social Media in Action

We all hear about social media and its uses in business, but do you know some of the concrete commercial uses of these tools? Check out this BLOG by Savannah Collins that describes 10 top brands using a few social media tools to their advantage. (image from SMI)