The Clever Apprentice

If you just purchased a home elliptical or recently joined a health club you may be wondering how to get started on the elliptical. The good news is it’s not very hard. Next to a stationary bike, learning how to use an elliptical trainer is very intuitive and straightforward.

Actually, the more difficult part of getting started on the elliptical is knowing how often to train on it and for how long. As with beginning any exercise or diet program, be sure to consult with your physician and get clearance before starting. The best advice when just starting out is to take things slowly to allow both your body and your mind to adapt to the new demands you will be placing on them.

A good target is to train on the elliptical 4 times a week for between 30 to 45 minutes. If your schedule doesn’t permit this frequency, then do what you can. Three times a week for 20 minutes will produce great results if done consistently over a period of time. Just make sure you do something and get yourself moving!

The other thing you want to pay attention to is your clothing and footwear. The great news is that these items don’t need to be fancy or expensive. Just be sure to wear loose fitting clothing that will absorb perspiration. Select shoes that offer good shock absorption and provide a little extra room in the toe box. This precaution may help prevent your feet from getting numb while using the elliptical.

The actual form and motion you use on the elliptical is very easy to master. Just remember to maintain an upright posture and don’t hunch over. If using the upper body handles, don’t grip them too tightly as this will cause your forearms to tense up. Then it’s just a matter of taking full, easy flowing strides.

Most ellipticals come equipped with a large variety of preset programs with the ability to store user profiles. These are really neat features, but my advice is to just stick with the plain old manual setting. The important thing is to determine your target heart rate and keep within it during the core of your training session. As you progress in your training program then feel free to explore the preset workout programs and begin experimenting with advance training techniques such as high intensity interval training (HIIT).

Once your elliptical workout is complete use the period immediately after you finish to stretch out your muscles for a few minutes. This is very relaxing and will make you feel great afterwards. Just be sure to stretch after your workout and never stretch out a cold muscle!

Getting started on an elliptical is really not difficult at all. Take your time; keep your expectations reasonable, and most importantly, stick with it. That’s the only way you’ll see the results that will make you proud!

Rich Rojas writes unbiased Elliptical Trainer Reviews and articles on health and fitness. Get a Free 4-Day Minicourse: Getting Started With Elliptical Training when you subscribe to the EllipticalHome.com Fitness Newsletter.

Windsor Castle is one of the largest occupied castles around at this moment in time and the eldest in nonstop inhabitation (about nine hundred years). It is 1 of Queen Elizabeth’s 3 authorised homes, & is over and over again said to be the Queens most treasured home. The Royal flag soars above the Round Tower of Windsor Castle whilst Queen Elizabeth is in residence - at alternative occasions, the Union Jack flag flies as normal. Whilst on holiday in England why not visit Windsor Castle one of Queen Elizabeth?s Royal residences.

Samuel Pepys mentioned Windsor Castle to be “the single most loving castle in the world.” That was stated in sixteen sixty six & the comparable can be said today.

Windsor Castle Thrilling History:

The opening of Windsor can be found lying in the early seventh century Saxon hamlet of Windlesora, where the modern day dwellings of Old Windsor can be located. The town of Windsor is more commonly identified as “New Windsor” - the actual phrase “new” being taken in a strictly loose sense!

Windsor Castle at the outset was put together by the famed William the Conqueror, on account of his attack of England in ten-sixty-six. The original construction was put together from timber with mud defences. Palace held an obvious strategic location on a steep hill above the River Thames, & was a division of a set of fortresses in the region London, with the Tower of London, one whole days march away, at its core.

The Castle was then later remade in stone, & rose in importance during the centuries. Henry the 2nd built the Round Tower & the original stone outer wall. After the English Civil War, the structure’s prime role became that of a royal residence. The Castle has remained essentially unbothered ever since the beginning of the 19th century, apart from the refurbishment job right after the tragic fire in 1992.

Hook up two of everybody’s primary interests and you’ve got is a vogue termed a sportsbook gambling website. Seriously, what could be more imaginative. If you fancy a mix of sports aficionados cheering any given chosen club, and constantly stakes are bound to be announced alongside the turmoil. Aiming to get a bit of the action, bystanders will commonly endeavor to estimate who will prevail in the coming race. All this eventually develops into a nice and friendly race called sportsbook gambling website.

Are you up to the challenge? Try your hand at sport book online sports betting here!

Granted that it can sound uncontrollable, but, instead, sports betting is, in reality, just an amusement and to relate with your buddies. Here, you’ll be able to bet a a negligible budget of greenbacks and still enjoy an extravagant time. Read on several guidelines to get you started sports betting.

If you want to bet, you will probably want to call on a sportsbook gambling website, that’s to say a place which receives sportsbook gambling website. In the U.S., you’ll find four states where to do sports betting legitimately, but if legality is no concern, you may do it everywhere as long as you pin down a bookie *and* happen to be legally an adult. Covered sports activities you’ll be able to wager on are pro including college league football & basketball, professional hockey, professional hockey, including betting on both horse and dog racing. You’ll be able to wager on the entire result of a game, on what round a given party will be vanquished, and even whether a coin toss in a game will come down heads or tails.

The sportsbook provider lean on stats make it easier for you decide which club you judge will prevail. There is the spread, or point advantage allocated to a losing party that is assumed to be beaten by a specified number points. This is the bookie firm’s procedure of enabling evenhanded lays for a Sportsbook. To give an example, a person will have the option of placing bets on a contestant that is assumed to be beaten and and still win that bet as long as the party actually loses by a specified number of points.

One can opt for so many different manners of bets- straight, teaser stakes, and so on, the straight bets being the most prevalent in sports betting.

Why don’t you have a bash at it, and chill out at one fell swoop. Simply make sure that you won’t get gripped and waste your complete retirement income on a boutade. Because else you’re likely to catch yourself grieving for it for the rest of your life.

Although significant website traffic to your site can seem to be an uphill battle, once again the pen is the clear winner. Other than free search engine traffic, publishing articles remains as one of the few truly effective ways to get targeted traffic to your site.

If you haven’t already tried your hand at writing an article, it may seem like a pretty daunting task, especially if you don’t think you have the necessary skills. Anyone can write and submit an effective article and it’s easier than you may think.

There is a certain art to writing an article, however, but it doesn’t really require any special skills. You don’t need a degree to write an article and you don’t need to be a programmer to submit your articles to ezines, blogs or any other article distributor to have your article published.

The art of writing an article is in the plan.

If you expect to achieve any amount of success in anything you do, you need to have a well thought out plan and writing an article for publication is no exception. Fortunately, after you have developed your plan, the hard part will be done.

Here are some of the basic elements you should include in your plan to write an effective article:

The first step is to decide what you want to write about but, more importantly, decide what it is you know about your topic that the majority of your readers don’t already know. If you think you don’t know enough about your topic to write an article, do some research.

Albert Einstein once said that he didn’t clutter his mind with information he didn’t need but he knew where to find it if he needed it. There’s a wealth of information available and with a little homework, you’ll have more than enough information for your article in no time.

The next step is to make a list of the main points of your topic. Pick one you want to expand and focus your article around that point. It’s easy to get carried away and to try to pack too much information into a single article. Save the other main points of your topic for other articles.

The next step is to establish the sub-points, if any, of the main point you would like to convey to your readers. How can you further explain the point of your article? For example, what do you feel is important for your readers to know and what pitfalls should they avoid? Point out vulnerabilities and solutions.

The next step is to determine what you want your readers to get out of your article. Simply offering information will read like a text book and won’t be very interesting. Challenge your readers to think about what you’re saying and how they can put it to use in a way they haven’t thought of before — peak their interest.

The next step to decide the ‘color’ of your article. By ‘color’ I mean the style you would like your article to have. For example, your article could be formal, informal, humorous, serious, casual, general, personal — you get the idea.

Now that we’ve gone over the steps to create an article, now let’s put them in order and fill in the blanks.

#1) Decide what the main topic of your article will be.

#2) Establish the sub-points, if any, of your main topic.

#3) Determine what you want your readers to get out of your article.

#4) Pick a ‘color’ for your article — the style you would like to use.

#5) Create a rough draft of your article.

#6) Edit your article. (have someone read your article and offer suggestions)

#7) Check your grammar and spelling.

#8) Create a title for your article. (keep it simple and catchy)

#9) Create a ‘teaser’ for your article. (a ‘teaser’ is a short, 2 or 3 sentence description of the contents of your article)

#10) Create a ‘bio’. (a ‘bio’ is a short, 2 or 3 sentence description of who your are and your qualifications. Remember to put a link to your website in your ‘bio’)

#11) List 4 or 5 of the keywords that relate to your article. (some article distributors require them)

#12) Submit your article to article distributors. (that’s a topic for another article)

The hardest part of writing articles is actually writing and submitting your first one. The more articles you write, the easier and more enjoyable it gets.

So, go ahead — start writing and submitting articles and watch your website traffic skyrocket!

For more website traffic ideas visit http://www.starttheprofits.com.

Mike Burke is the author of numerous articles and has an affection for website marketing. Learn how to drive tons of targeted traffic to your site without spending a dime on advertising.
Visit us at http://www.starttheprofits.com.

What’s the difference between enthusiasm and gasoline? Maybe, there’s not much difference between the two. They both provide the power to drive us forward.

The internal combustion engine of our automobile runs on gasoline. Gasoline vapor enters the cylinder and the spark plug ignites the fumes unleashing the power that can propel our vehicles over one hundred miles an hour.

Enthusiasm in the workplace, properly ignited, can propel your business into success. Motivated employees work harder. They’ll even come with ideas to improve the product or service. Motivated and enthusiastic employees are the best kind of employees to have.

Enthusiasm is rare, however. Most employees want to do a good job, but they feel under appreciated. Generally, bad management is blamed for unmotivated workers, but often, good management can still provide unenthusiastic workers. So, what’s the secret?

If your own employees aren’t acting motivated or aren’t acting enthusiastic, then it’s time to get your own “act” in gear. You can fire up your workforce in three acts:
Act enthusiastic. Act grateful. Act happy.

Psychologists tell us that the best way to change our feelings about what we’re doing is to change the way we think of our feelings. The brain tells the body how to feel and the body acts accordingly. We can direct our own feelings and our outlook on life. Writing in Out of Work? Get Into Business!, I wrote about expectations and how they can change the outcome of future events.

“If you are working on a proposal for a client, imagine that client as ecstatic about your proposal. What does the client like about it? Why does he or she like it? How will you handle your successful presentation? Visualize all of the positive aspects of your presentation. Then work on your successful proposal.”

We should see events as being successful. We then act accordingly as we work towards that success. If we tell ourselves that we are going to be successful, we begin to believe it. We can see it. We can feel it. We can plan for it. Those expectations drive us forward with enthusiastic zeal. It’s the same with our employees. We need to see them as successful and they need to see that managers see them as successful. Successful workers are motivated and enthusiastic about their jobs.

“Drive your horse with oats, not with a whip.”

— Jewish proverb

Here are six ways we can fire up unmotivated and under enthusiastic workers:

THE TIME IS NOW

When you see someone doing a good job, the time to tell them about it is right then. Don’t wait for tomorrow or next week. Who knows? You might forget about it. If you tell someone they are doing a good job, they won’t forget about it.

LET YOUR FEELINGS SHOW

Don’t be an old stone face. Everyone has feelings. Show yours. If your workers are doing a great job, then shouldn’t you be excited? Shouldn’t you be proud? Let those emotions show on your face. Share your enthusiastic feelings. Your feelings will boost moral and encourage the same feeling among your workers.

GIVE A PAT ON THE BACK

An old friend and I were talking about our days as Jaycees. We both had boxes of trophies and plaques in our basements from over twenty years ago. The tangible evidence of achievement was stored away, but the feelings of being appreciated had stayed with us. Awards and accolades should always be given out in front of people. Everyone shares the appreciation that way. They applaud, they cheer, they laugh. . . and they in turn congratulate the recipient afterwards. Awards and accolades keep on giving. Recognition comes in a variety of guises. A pat on the back, a kind word, a certificate to hang on the wall, or a trophy to put on the mantel — all build enthusiasm.

HERE’S THE BALL

Nothing builds enthusiasm like trust. When you give someone a task to accomplish it shows that you believe in them. If you believe in them, can they believe any less? You don’t even have to make encouraging statements. The task alone speaks volumes.

PULL OUT ALL THE STOPS

Think of new ways to show trust and enthusiasm. Send a postcard. Tell others about the great job being done by someone in your department. Drop names and achievements at meetings, in newsletters, in general conversation. Find ways to spread the word and encourage motivation, enthusiasm and appreciation for a job well done.

Restauranteur and author Bob Farrell knows that cheering employees on in an enthusiastic way, builds their enthusiasm. In his book Give ‘em the Pickle Bob writes about using appreciation to help build enthusiasm and motivation.

” . . . being a cheerleader involves more than leading in cheers. Whenever I eat in one of our own restaurants I always try to go back to the kitchen and thank everyone for providing me with such a wonderful meal. I walk around the entire restaurant personally thanking every employee. I never eat in one of our places with my family as though I had been elected king of the hill. The people who work in our restaurants aren’t subservient to me. I know I couldn’t succeed without them, but they could without me. And I never want them to forget how much I appreciate them.”

As you start encouraging others in a quest to build enthusiasm, you’ll also notice a change in yourself. You will become more enthusiastic and more motivated. Your clients, co-workers, and even your family will notice the difference. Life is fun. Business is exciting. Work is something to be motivated about. Filled with enthusiasm your business engine should be hitting on all cylinders.

Author Don Doman: Don is a published author of books for small business, corporate video producer, and owner of Ideas and Training (http://www.ideasandtraining.com), which provides business training products. Don also owns and Human Resources Radio (http://www.humanresourcesradio.com), which provides business training programs and previews 24-hours a day.

How many times do you feel that you don’t have what you want in your life? You find that it is in lack, and you feel its scarcity in your presence? You become conscious of it, and as you become conscious of it, you are radiating a vibration of scarcity. The Law of Attraction can be defined as “that which is unto itself, is drawn.” Therefore if you are vibrating scarcity out, you will continue to feel the scarcity in your life and not move toward having what you want, and feeling abundance.

Imagine going for a ride on your bike, and noticing all the lovely house. Inside you feel that you they are wonderful and you’d never be able to afford those houses. You feel a belief of lack and scarcity. This belief of lack will draw that experience back to you. It’s the Law of Attraction.

Scarcity consciousness may sound like this:

- I have no money

- There is not enough to go around

- I can’t afford xyz….

- Money is the root of all evil

- Life sucks

- I don’t have control I am not worthy of (money, relationships, health etc)

- It’s all about luck

If you didn’t have a belief in lack, you’d be feeling the opposite and feeling what you do have is great. The Law of Attraction returns it back into your experience and I like to call this the opposite: “Prosperity Consciousness.”

When you consciously choose to focus on the prosperity in your life, you begin to see much more happy and joyous moments being present in your life. You begin to live your life as unlimited. Prosperity consciousness goes something like this:

- Knowing and feeling you have more enough and all that you desire right now

- Knowing and feeling there is more enough for everyone

- Taking complete responsibility for what you have created in your life

- Feeling that change is a good thing

- Being flexible and open to the changes that life brings you

- Seeing abundance everywhere

- Wanting to share and give freely

- Experiencing peace

If you are focused on and thinking about abundance and prosperity and feeling good, then you will attract more of that. On the other side, if you are carrying around thoughts, beliefs, feelings that are focusing on lack and scarcity, then you will create just that as well.

Many times I talk with people who say, “I am focusing on what I am want and what I desire to create in my life - and NOT on scarcity. But, I still am NOT creating what I want in my life.” If you want something and are not getting it, then you are not aligned with it. You are not aligned with it because there is something that is blocking you, and blocking your access to create that “desire”. The number one thing that blocks your vibrational alignment with what you want in your life is your belief in scarcity and lack.

Here is an example - You may say, I want to make a million pounds, but internally think, feel, believe, and therefore project that you are not really worthy or smart enough to make a million pounds. With mixed attitudes, wants and beliefs you most likely are going to end up where you are at right now. You also may have had the experience of having very mixed and vague results due to much needed clarity.

Your wants and desires must match what you believe to be true - and if they don’t you need to start the work to make this happen. You owe it to yourself! You must learn to pay attention to your larger belief system and know when it is not serving you - and when it is not in alignment with what you want to create for your life.

How to Deal with Scarcity Consciousness

1. Learn to follow your inner guidance and trust yourself.

2. Choose to come from a place of prosperity and abundance.

3. Consciously reframe your thinking.

4. Take total responsibility for your wins & your negative experience.

5. Practice extreme self care - prosperity practices for your self worth.

6. Always, without fail, work with the Law of Attraction - ask yourself, “Do I want to create more of this thinking? Do I want to create more of this belief in my life? Do I want to create more of this result? If not - make the shift and focus on what you do want. I want prosperity. I am prosperity. I am abundance. I am joy. I am grateful for….

© Kavit Haria, The Musicians’ Coach

Kavit Haria is The Musicians’ Coach. Kavit is the director of
InnerRhythm, a company that prides on providing success solutions for
musicians worldwide. Kavit sends out a musician development newsletter to
over 2000 musicians in 16 countries every fortnight to help them achieve
their desired results. Sign up now and experience the huge benefits from
www.innerrhythm.org

Managers are often confronted with high employee attrition. For most managers the easiest solution when a valuable employee resigns his job is to offer more benefits in terms of money and perquisites. But rarely does it work. Exit interviews often point out low moral due to infrequent appreciation and recognition of the contribution of the employee leading to de-motivation and disenchantment with the job.

Improving employee motivation and morale is the easiest method of improving organizational productivity and cut down employee turnovers. Replacing good employee could be expensive in terms of recruitment costs and time.

Research has conclusively established that the major reason for attrition in an organization is not money. It is more a matter of lack of recognition and rewards. You may be able to reduce attrition considerably if managers are trained to recognize and reward good performance. In fact every opportunity must be used to appreciate the work of the employees. Easier said than done, it takes a dedication and commitment towards the employees.

Here is a list of the ways one can motivate employees

Find every opportunity to appreciate good work

Recognize contributions in public forums and employee get together or meetings

Offer opportunities to learn, improve skills and knowledge through training

Create scope for sharing success through with others through narrating best practices adopted

Token gifts and invitation to a Dinner with family

Offer opportunities for rest and relaxation on attaining goals and good performances

Feature in house journals. If house journals are not available make sure to write out a appreciation and put on notice boards and circulate to all members of the organization

It only takes imagination to create a list as long as you want. Plan and create the list for frequent use.

Employee motivation is a complex subject and generally a neglected area. Whatever recognition and rewards are conferred are very mechanical and lacks warmth and spontaneity.

It is easier to theorize than practice employee motivation programs. It would not be a bad idea to train your managers extensively on this area. The rewards for the organization could be less employee turnovers, high levels of motivation, increased productivity, commitment and team work.

R.G. Srinivasan is a managerial professional, Writer and Author. He writes a regular blog on management thoughts with interesting articles, resources, personal experiences and links useful for any manager at http://management-thoughts.blogspot.com

The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a satellite-based navigation system made up of a network of about 18-24 satellites placed into orbit. GPS was originally intended for military applications, but in the late 1970s, the government made a system available for civilian use. GPS works in any weather conditions, anywhere in the world, 24/7. There are no cost for the use.

How it works

GPS satellites circle the earth twice a day in the same orbit and transmit signal information to down to mother earth. GPS take this information and use triangulation to calculate the user’s exact location. The GPS receiver compares the time a signal was transmitted by a satellite with the time it was received. The time difference tells the GPS receiver how far away from the satellite it is. Now, with this distance measurements from a few more satellites, the receiver can determine the user’s position and display it on the unit’s electronic map.

A GPS receiver must be locked on to the signal of at least three satellites to calculate a 2d position (latitude and longitude) and track movement. With four or more satellites in view, the receiver can determine the user’s 3D position (latitude, longitude and also altitude). Once the user’s position has been determined, the GPS unit can calculate other information, such as speed, track, trip distance, distance to destination, sunrise and sunset time and a lot more.

How accurate is GPS?

Today’s GPS receivers are extremely accurate, thanks to parallel multi-channel design. Garmin’s 12 parallel channel receivers are quick to lock onto satellites when first turned on and they maintain strong locks, even in dense foliage or urban settings with tall houses. Certain atmospheric factors and other sources of error can affect the accuracy of GPS receivers. Garmin® GPS receivers are accurate to 15 meters on average.
Newer Garmin GPS receivers with WAAS (Wide Area Augmentation System) capability can improve the accuracy to less than three meters on average. No additional equipment or fees are required to take advantage of WAAS. Users can also get even better accuracy with Differential GPS (DGPS), which corrects GPS signals to within an average of three to five meters. The U.S. Coast Guard operates the most common DGPS correction service. This system consists of a network of towers that receive GPS signals and transmit a corrected signal by beacon transmitters. In order to get the corrected signal, users must have a differential beacon receiver and beacon antenna in addition to their GPS.

The GPS satellite system

The 18-24 satellites that make up the GPS space segment are orbiting the earth about 12,000 miles above us. They are constantly moving, making two complete orbits in less than 24 hours. These satellites are travelling at speeds of roughly 7,500 miles an hour.

GPS satellites are powered by solar energy only. They have backup batteries onboard to keep them running in the event of a solar eclipse, when there’s no solar power. Small rocket boosters on each satellite keep them flying in the correct path.
Here are some other interesting facts about the GPS satellites (also called NAVSTAR, the official U.S. Department of Defense name for GPS):

• The first GPS satellite was launched in early 1978.

• A full constellation of 24 satellites was achieved in late 1994.

• Each satellite is built to last about 10-15 years. Replacements are constantly being built and launched into orbit.

• A GPS satellite weighs approximately 1,500 pounds and is about 16 feet across with the solar panels extended.

• Transmitter power is only 50 watts or less.

What’s the signal?

GPS satellites transmit two low power radio signals, designated L1 and L2. Civilian GPS uses the L1 frequency of 1575.42 MHz in the UHF band. The signals travel by line of sight, meaning they will pass through clouds, glass and plastic but will not go through most solid objects such as buildings and mountains.

A GPS signal contains three different bits of information a pseudorandom code, ephemeris data and almanac data. The pseudorandom code is simply an I.D. code that identifies which satellite is transmitting information. You can view this number on your Garmin GPS unit’s satellite page, as it identifies which satellites it’s receiving.

Almanac data, which is constantly transmitted by each satellite, contains important information about the status of the satellite (healthy or unhealthy), current date and time. This part of the signal is essential for a good position view.

Sources of GPS signal errors

Factors that can degrade the GPS signal and thus affect accuracy include the following:

• Ionosphere and troposphere delays The satellite signal slows as it passes through the atmosphere. The GPS system uses a built-in model that calculates an average amount of delay to partially correct for this type of error.

• Signal multipath This occurs when the GPS signal is reflected off objects such as tall buildings or large rock surfaces before it reaches the receiver. This increases the travel time of the signal, thereby causing errors.

• Receiver clock errors A receiver’s built-in clock is not as accurate as the atomic clocks onboard the GPS satellites. Therefore, it may have very slight timing errors.

• Orbital errors Also known as ephemeris errors, these are inaccuracies of the satellite’s reported location.

• Number of satellites visible The more satellites a GPS receiver can “see,” the better the accuracy. Buildings, terrain, electronic interference, or sometimes even dense foliage can block signal reception, causing position errors or possibly no position reading at all.

• Satellite geometry/shading This refers to the relative position of the satellites at any given time. Ideal satellite geometry exists when the satellites are located at wide angles relative to each other. Poor geometry results when the satellites are located in a line or in a tight grouping.

• Degradation of the satellite signal Selective Availability (SA) is an intentional degradation of the signal once imposed by the U.S. Department of Defense. SA was intended to prevent military adversaries from using the highly accurate GPS signals. The government turned off SA in May 2000, which significantly improved the accuracy of civilian GPS receivers.

16 years as an officer in the Norwegian army. See my pages: http://www.gps-info.org/ and http://www.lincoln-navigator.org/

Collaboration and business are difficult, if not impossible, to separate. What makes effective collaboration possible without overloading hard drives and confusing your document versions? The answer is groupware.

Groupware is software that is available to assist businesses in tracking document versions that are created, edited, reedited, and finalized by various participants in various committees. These committees include upper management and even clients, and losing or confusing their input could prove catastrophic for your business.

I think the importance of good groupware is well-known, but if you search “groupware” in Google, you will find over 4 million entries, and you need to somehow be able to search for the right groupware software that will fit your business needs.

These 3 tips will help you to sift through the millions of groupware software suites currently available to businesses. Consider it your groupware essentials shopping list. Try searching through Google for these, and you will quickly knock out millions of software suites as mere distractions. Even more important is that you will find the right groupware for your business.

Groupware which includes Digital Thread Technology

When collaborating on documents with any groupware, your business will save drafts on email, on hard drives, on the desktop, on removable media, and on servers. Digital Thread technology is able to track each version, wherever it is stored, by imbedding minute tags into a file’s metadata. The technology searches the files metadata (DNA) for the tag and threads it together, in order, with the other versions.

So, when you are looking for the most recent version of your document, Digital Thread technology will find it, no matter where it is. In fact, those with whom you collaborate on some of these documents may not have Digital Thread technology, or even groupware. It doesn’t matter; Digital Thread will find it anyway.

Groupware which Includes Document Signature Software

Remember, you will create a document, and you will most likely send it by email to other members of your collaboration team, including your upline and clients. They will send their changes back to you. This process will be repeated several times. This editorial process, however, is not a clean cycle, and sometimes you will send a draft, and while waiting for a response you will remember something else you should have included and you send another draft. This too may happen multiple times.Now put yourself in your committee members’ shoes. They open their email box, save the documents to their desktop or to a folder in order to work on them, and then they realize, they don’t know which of your drafts is the latest version. They have no idea which draft to edit and send back to you. The pile of confusing documents on their desktop is no better than a confusing pile of loose sheets of paper on your desk. Both waste time and money, both take up needed space, and both create big problems.

The Document Signature is message at the bottom of each document that either you or your collaboration partners work on. The message includes vital information, such as what is the status of the latest draft of the document you are looking for and where you can find it.

Groupware which Displays Version History

It may still be a little difficult to piece together all of the various drafts of your document, and oftentimes it is helpful to have a visual of the editorial process which the document went through. A groupware which can display a draft history will make it even easier to understand where the documents have been, when they were saved, who worked on them, what changes were made, and how they were sent.

Groupware with Version History will create a family tree of the document if you want trace the document versions. This means you will know the who’s, what’s, when’s, where’s, and how’s of every budget report, sales presentation, market research results, and anything else your company collaborates on with groupware.

In reality, after weeks, months, or even years of collaborating on reports and contracts, finding the right draft, even with some groupware packages, can be like finding a needle in a haystack. Keeping track of all of them is almost an unthinkable task. Groupware is a software meant to provide document management services to businesses, but business cannot afford to get an incomplete suite. Happy hunting.

Joe Miller is specialist in online advertising. For more information on groupware, please visit NextPage.com.

Lean manufacturing offers many mental challenges for all levels in an organization. First of all believing there are wastes in the system is a challenge. People have a safe territory. They do not want to leave it. People are very comfortable in this territory, whether it is truly good or assumed to be good. Understanding the fact, there are wastes to be removed from the system offers a threat to the safety of this comfort zone. People therefore are not willing to come out of this, unless they see something they can’t resist. For an example people will not see their high work in progress as a waste unless they have a good reason to see it as. If one can see huge lead time savings and improved flexibility as the results of removing work in progress from the system, then they will have less resistance in looking work in progress as a waste. With all these resistance, lean manufacturing is spreading throughout the world in a rapid phase. This implies the fact that there are many, many organizations understand the advantages offered by lean manufacturing. This goes to show how strong lean manufacturing principle and concept is. It has a proven ability of removing the wastes from the system.

The second phase of lean manufacturing is understanding the root causes of the wastes. Ones you understand the fact that your system has wastes, then it is the time to remove them from the system. This is necessary for a successful lean manufacturing implementation. How to do this? First of all, we have to understand the sequence in which wastes to be removed. Priority should be in removing large wastes which have biggest impact on the system and so on. Once this is done, we will have to understand the root causes for this problem. We will have to map these root causes, and systematically remove them. We can use a lean manufacturing tool like Ishikawa diagram or a cause and effect diagram in doing this.

When we know the root causes, it is the time to remove these root causes from the system. Actually this can be described as the starting point of lean manufacturing implementation process. This process needs lot of skill, leadership and support. Talking to the emotions of the people is one of the important aspects of this phase. For an example, if you have found out that machine breakdown as the prime source of problem, then you will have to work with the inefficiencies of maintenance process. This will create pressure among the people in the maintenance department if they are not trained well to understand the lean manufacturing principle. These situations must be handled with great care.

At the end of the process of removing these root causes, it is very important to make sure that you have successfully removed the waste. Removing 90% will not do. Once you make sure that you have successfully removed the identified waste, and then you can repeat the same cycle for another problem. This will go on and on. Problems will be identified continuously and will be removed continuously.

I am Aza, a process engineer, consultant and the author of the e-book “Lean manufacturing basics” which is freely available on my site at http://www.leanmanufacturingconcepts.com

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