Countries

Welcome to Africabiz Online Synopsis RSS Feed edition. Previous issue available at this link

Click here for the beginning of the article

SUCCESSFUL TEAM BUILDING TECHNIQUES

By: Trevor Marshall

In business, it does not matter whether you work in a typical office a shop or a factory. You are built up of a group individuals with specific goals towards producing the goods that the company sells. This is what defines a team. From the most mundane task like answering a phone call, to the most complicated job like designing products, every individual making up the team plays an important role. As a whole, every employee is working towards a common goal which is to earn profit for the company and for themselves. This is what team building is all about. It is the process of enabling a group of people to reach that common goal. That is why it is a good practice for companies to come up with regular team building activities to enhance the oneness of the group and to build a feeling of solidarity and pride of work. A company is made up of different departments which sometimes causes conflicts of interests and individual differences. Team building aims to eliminate these issues.

1. What Is The Main Goal Of The Company?

- You all know that you need the job to make a living and earn profits for the company. Still, not everyone is clear about what the company's core all about

- Your main focus for team building should be a review of the employee's orientation, the company's goal and objectives

- If you produce goods, what is the product really all about? What message do you want to impart to people as a company?

- If you deal with services, what is your main goal and what service do you actually provide?

- By reviewing these goals, a team member would have a fresh outlook about the company, making them strive harder to reach that common goal

2. What Factors Caused Poor Team Performance In The Past?

Look into your company's successes and failures. Determine which area is in need of improvement and look for ways to do so. By looking into the strengths and weaknesses that each member exhibits, you would know which areas to improve on. Also, this would give you an idea of how to optimize the team's strengths to reach that common goal and contribute to the company's success.

3. How Can You Improve The Way Team Members Interact?

Even siblings of the same genes make up different personalities. As a team, you are made up of individuals from different cultures, and would have various ideas on how to improve the way your company operates. There is bound to be friction of some kind since your team is made up of different individuals. Team building aims to avoid this and bridge the gap by coming up with activities which bond the group. Thinking of fun activities to break the ice and personalize the interaction between members is a great way to start.

4. How Can You Improve The Team's Ability To Solve Problems?

Every company is faced with challenges every now and then. One way to forge team solidarity is to look into past problems and see how they were solved. Ask each team member how they would have handled that particular problem. This would let a leader know which team member has good problem solving, analytical and critical thinking skills. The team members may be asked to share ideas and decide together which solution would suit the problem best. This is another way to build team solidarity.

4. How Can You Forge The Support And Trust Level Between Team Members?

A team leader should have people and management skills. However, it is still important for the leader to earn the trust of his team members. Supporting each other is a vital quality that a team should have. Even a simple problem like an employee who disobeys out of sheer contrariness should be looked into. What is causing this team member to contradict his superior? What can be done to improve his attitude? By team building, you can some up with ways to build trust and increase the support level between colleagues.

5. How Can You Apply The Team Building Activities In The Day-To-Day Operation Of The Company?

In the end, after all the activities that the team has performed together, there should be a sharing of experiences and thoughts on what each member has learned about their peers and about the company's goal. These should make them aware of how they can further contribute to the company's success in the future. All in all, team building activities enhance team solidarity. It is good to remember that the whole organization is team working towards the company's main goal. After a set of fun and team building activities which inspire team spirit, each member would have a clear idea of how to improve their attitude towards their peers, their superiors, and especially towards their work.

Article Source: http://articles-4-free.com

MORE ON TEAMBUILDING

1- 104 Activities That Build: Self-Esteem, Teamwork, Communication, Anger Management, Self-Discovery, Coping Skills by Alanna Jones (Paperback - Mar 1, 1998) 3- Team-Building Activities for Every Group by Alanna Jones (Paperback - Jan 10, 2000) 5- Quick Teambuilding Activities for Busy Managers: 50 Exercises That Get Results in Just 15 Minutes by Brian Cole Miller (Paperback - Nov 2003)

2- The Big Book of Humorous Training Games (Big Book of Business Games Series) by Doni Tamblyn and Sharyn Weiss (Paperback - Jun 27, 2000) 4- The Big Book of Team Building Games: Trust-Building Activities, Team Spirit Exercises, and Other Fun Things to Do by John W. Newstrom and Edward E. Scannell (Paperback - Dec 1, 1997) 6- 101 Teambuilding Activities: Ideas Every Coach Can Use to EnhanceTeamwork, Communication and Trust by Greg Dale and Scott Conant (Paperback - Sep 2004)

"CONTRIBUTOR'S GUIDELINES" are available here. We invite you to contribute to AFRICABIZ ONLINE MONTHLY ISSUE - with articles related to "How Africa Could Bridge The Developing Gap".

Your feedback / objection / contribution is welcome. Visit WorldWide BizCenter, and choose General Information (as topic) to create a thread for discussion. On the top of the WorldWide BizCenter page, there is a HELP link to assist you making an efficient use of the discussion board. This link also is useful

Many thanks for subscribing to Africabiz. See you here on Oct 15, 2007.

  Dr. B.M. Quenum
Click for email address

Business Opportunities

SUGAR-CANE & PRODUCTS - PART VIII: - A NETWORK OF MEDIUM-SCALE OPERATION TO MANUFACTURING BROWN SUGAR

This series' first issue outlined the importance of sugar-cane as Economic Catalyst to developing. The current delivery deals briefly with the economics about a labor intensive medium-scale operation - to produce brown sugar from sugarcane juice - as an alternative to capital intensive facilities.

As shown on figure available here, South Africa has the biggest consumption level in Africa (32kg of sugar per annum). Less developed countries like Malawi representing the "normal" consumption level in sub-Saharan African countries with about 13kg.

Let us consider a sub-Saharan african country with a population level of 7,000,000 people, and considering Malawi head consumption,the yearly average sugar consumption would be in the range of 91,000 metric tons.

That production could be achieved with "huge" capital intensive concerns or through a network of medium scale operations,

Capital intensive producing units could be sized up to producing 9,000 metric tons of refined sugar per annum. And to cater for 91,000 metric tons as above outlined, 10 capital intensive producing units would be needed.

To cater for the same amount of brown sugar, 778 medium-scale producing units as described in previous issue would be needed.

Table below compares both scenarios with regards (1) Total Investment; (2) Jobs's creation:

Comparison Between a Network of Medium-scale And Capital Intensive Producing Facilities
Items	778 Medium-scale Facilities	10 Capital Intensive Facilities
Investment level	US$50,570,000	US$60,000,000
Direct-jobs created	7780	500

One sees that investment level is quite equal for both scenarios. The network of medium-scale operations, however, would create 16 times more direct jobs and assist in establishing 778 entrepreneurs /industrialists in rural areas.

Next delivery (Oct 15, 2007) will highlight the importance of the industry (if established with medium-scale operators) as a catalyst to developing a sub-Saharan African country

For more on the matter click here

MORE ON SUGAR CANE & PRODUCTS

1- Sugar Cane Industry, The (Cambridge Studies in Historical Geography) by J.H. Galloway (Paperback Sep 23, 2005) 2- The House Surrounded by Sugar by Leanna Williams (Paperback - Mar 8, 2006) 3- From Cane to Sugar (Start to Finish) by Jill Braithwaite (Hardcover - Aug 2004) 4- Cane Sugar Handbook: A Manual for Cane Sugar Manufacturers and Their Chemists by James C. P. Chen and Chung Chi Chou (Hardcover - Nov 8, 1993) 5- Sugar Cane by Alex Morgan (Paperback - Aug 28, 2002) 6- The Sugar cane factory: A catechism of cane sugar manufacture for the use of beginners by Frederic I Scard (Unknown Binding - 1913)

7- Sugar Cane Cultivation and Management by Henk, Bakker and H., Bakker (Hardcover - Jan 1, 1999) 8- Sugar Cane (Tropical Agriculturalist) by R. Fauconnier (Paperback - Feb 24, 1993) 9- Management Accounting for the Sugar Cane Industry (Sugar Sciences, Vol 8) by A. E. Fok Kam (Hardcover - Mar 1988) 10- The nature and properties of the sugar cane With practical directions for the improvement of its cultures, and the manufacture of its products) by George Richardson Porter (Unknown Binding - 1831) 11- Sugar-cane and Sugar Industry in Nigeria The Bitter Sweet Lessons by Abdul-latif D. Busari (Paperback - Nov 2005) 12- The 2007-2012 World Outlook for Sugar Cane Mill Products by Philip M. Parker (Paperback - Oct 13, 2006)

Click here to read more about the matter

Control Your Desktop

ARE YOU EXPERIENCING JERKY VIDEO / DVD PLAYBBACK - PART IV: LIMIT MEMORY LEAK / CONTROL PROCESSES THAT LOAD WHEN WINDOWS STARTS

The install of an application that operates in the background to free RAM and unload DLLs (when an application is shut down) is an asset to limit memory-leak on the system [12, 55].

There are several such applications available on the Net. Ad-Aware Plus from lavasoft is one of the most efficient as it not only manages RAM allocations but also handles the Cache system that is also an important factor to having smooth video and DVD playback sessions.

Knowing better your system, you can easily control RAM availability if you perform the sequence Ctrl+Alt+Del to load the Task Manager and spot processes that grabble a big chunk of available memory - and that are not really necessary for your particular computing sessions.

Clicking on the Processes's menu bar on the top of the interface, you can kill the "redundant" processes (with the End Process's button (XP- Service Pack 2) at the bottom of the interface. There is another Microsoft client called Microsoft Process Explorer that is more performing than the "classic" Task Manager that loads when you perform Ctrl+Alt+Del.

There are plenty of third parties software that controls and manages the loading of StartUp applications. The one called StartUp Control Panel is available here and is a very efficient freeware.

For more on the matter visit this link.

Freebie Of The Month

WHICH MEDIA PLAYER TO USE TO AVOID JERKY VIDEO/ DVD PLAYBACK?

A good Media Player should expose in perfect sequence all frames contained in a video or film and synchronize voice and pictures. Otherwise, one experiences jerky video playback or a lag between voice and picture known as lip's lag time.

Indeed, playing some video/ film on different Media Player, you would notice astonishing exposures's differences.

I used to play Bewitched (Special Edition - by Nicole Kidman, Will Ferrell, Shirley MacLaine, and Michael Caine - DVD - Oct 25, 2005) to tune up my system because the first 10 minutes period of the play is packed with actions / frames that show differently in several Media Players (InterVideo WinDVD8, DivX Media Player, Nero Show Time, Vlc from Videolan, Kantaris Media Player, GOM Player, UltraDVD Player)

For instance, when the witchwoman Nicole Kidman landed on the garden of the house she decided to lease she stopped at the entrance and "collapsed" her traveling witch-broom. And walked into the compound to put a spell on the house (making the renting-panel springing from nowhere.) Then she entered the house and came out with the lady in charge, enthusiastically stating that she will lease the house. Then the lady in charge asked for references, that Kindman said she did not have and suddenly "kicked" her left ear to trigger a spell that put on the renting-panel a new statement that no reference was needed.

Some of the Media Players may show all these frames above briefly described and some won't. It is very characteristic. For instance, when Kidman drove out in rear gear from the garage to go and meet her father at the superstore, her beetle-car's hood opens in some Media Player and do not open in others. And so on.

Hence, the necessity to have several Media Players installed (to be tested) to choose the one best suited for a particular video/ DVD playback session because for the time being no existing Media Player can claim to be be the ultimate player. Not to forget weird data file extensions that necessitate particular system configuration as here exposed

For more on the matter visit this link