To win the contest, I need you to vote for me. So if you consider me a friend, or you find this blog useful, or you simple need something from me (wink, wink), please vote for us before 2010, June 14th (the Monday after the elections here – hope you are not bored of voting by then).

Here’s how to do it:

• If you don’t already have one: make a YouTube account: www.youtube.com. Wait for the confirmation email, then activate your account.
• Log in and surf to the PMI Agile Group: www.youtube.com/group/pmiagile. Make yourself a member of this group. Wait a few moments and refresh with F5. Don’t continue until you see you’re a member of this group.
• Click on the video Agile @ SD Worx and watch it (if you’re into agile, it’s fun and you’ll probably learn something)
• Click “I love it” and refresh. If you did not see the counter increase, vote again.

Thanks!

je krijgt meer dan 2 GB gratis webruimte die zich in de achtergrond synchroniseert met de computers waarop je werkt.

De voordelen zijn niet moeilijk te raden maar wel vérstrekkend:

• Je hoeft geen mails meer naar jezelf te sturen om een bestand op meerdere computers te hebben. Bovendien werk je altijd met de juiste versie
• Je kan heel gemakkelijk folders delen met anderen. Handig als je in groep aan iets werkt.
• Je kan ook individuele bestanden delen.
• Er is een foto-modus: gewoon wat foto’s naar de map kopiëren en de link doorsturen.
• Je hebt als het ware een gratis backup, want alle bestanden worden gesynchroniseerd op meerdere computers.
• Zolang je netwerktoegang hebt, heb je geen USB-sticks meer nodig.
• Stel: je bent op reis. Dan kan je bv in een internetcafé foto’s opladen en je geheugenkaart vrijmaken. Of bestanden raadplegen die je in je dropbox hebt gestopt.
• Best van al: dropbox gedraagt zich als een gewone map op je computer. Je moet dus niet inloggen en dergelijke om van de service gebruik te maken, dat gebeurt allemaal in de achtergrond.
• Je kan ook kiezen om Dropbox niet op je computer te zetten, maar om enkel van de webdienst gebruik te maken.
• Je moet geen persoonlijke informatie prijsgeven. Gewoon een username en paswoord volstaan.

Dropbox is snel, functioneel, gratis en rechttoe-rechtaan. Zoals ik het graag heb.

→ Intekenen kan op https://www.dropbox.com

• If your sample size is too big, the research cost may be too high for the value of the results one reaches.
• If your sample size is too small, you won’t even be able to reach valid conclusions

Either way, you loose money and effort. Having a sensible sample size is of crucial importance in most research and surveys.

Until now, calculations of sample sizes were a matter of “sound sense”, or dubious formulas not well understood by researchers. Though the literature is relatively old and specialised software packages allow to perform sample sizes calculations quite well, it appears that most researchers still don’t use this material. Either because they are unaware of it, or because they don’t understand it and don’t want to invest a lot of time in this apparently simple subject. 

Sample Size Calculator - type of analysis

Sample size calculator is meant to help:

• It offers quick, but sound estimates for sample sizes in a variety of situations
• It works like a wizard, offering the researcher only options he should care about.
• It allows to choose corrections for different situations
• It has an easy and flexible reporting functionality
• It comes with an understandable content-rich help file (the text you are reading right now).

Sample Size Calculation

Apart from corrections, there are three main factors that influence sample size:

• Variability: the amount of difference within the population. If the population is very homogeneous with respect to the characteristic you want to investigate, you don’t need a big sample size to establish a reasonable estimate of the characteristic. In statistical terms, this factor is measured by the standard deviation of the population characteristic (or a good estimate thereof).
• Confidence: the amount of risk you are willing to take to reach false conclusions. This factor comes in two tastes. The first is to reach the conclusion that your research hypothesis is true, while in fact it is false. The second is the risk you take to say that the research hypothesis is false, while in fact it is true. These factors are statistically translated as alpha and beta. The smaller you want the risk to be, the higher a sample size you need.
• Tolerance: How big a difference actually makes a difference for you? Suppose you have two mean values for a certain population characteristic: 10.2 and 10.23. Does this make sense, translated to your real world? Will you act differently for both groups? The smaller the difference you’re interested in, the more samples you will need.

The way you need to interpret these three factors depends on the type of research you want to perform. The next section handles the subject of the analysis type.

Type of analysis

Sample size calculator offers you two main dimensions of analysis, each with 2 values:

Means versus proportions: a single characteristic versus the difference between two characteristics

This amounts to four different kinds of analysis used in research:

• Estimating a single mean
• Concluding there is a difference between two means (or not)
• Estimating a single proportion
• Concluding there is a difference between two proportions (or not)

The example found below this page describes a real world example of the type of research you selected, to help you relating to your real world.

General values

Alpha

Sample Size Calculator - Values and settings

Suppose your research hypothesis is that people in London earn more money than people in Dublin. You take a sample of each population, and average the income.

The result is that Londoners earn £2 more than Dubliners, but the difference is too small to be significant. So your conclusion is that Londoners do not earn more money than Dubliners.

In fact, your conclusions may be incorrect due to bad luck. Especially with high variance in the population and a small sample size, you take the risk of researching non-representative samples.

Alpha is defined as “the probability that you conclude your research hypothesis (Londoners earn more than Dubliners) is false while in fact it is true”.

Population size

If the population size is small compared to the sample size, a correction for finite populations applies.

You don’t need to asses the size of your population very precisely unless the sample size is indeed large compared to the population size (say, 20% or higher). If your population is large, it doesn’t matter how big precisely.

Response %

In survey research, the respons rate is usually far from 100%. A percentage between 30 and 70 is considered normal.

Tolerance

Tolerance needs to be interpreted differently for the estimating a single characteristic versus concluding about differences between two characteristics:

Single characteristic: in what interval (2 x tolerance) do you want the estimation to be? The narrower you want this interval, the more samples you will need. For example, it requires less samples to conclude some mean lies in the interval [2-10] than you need to conclude the mean lies in the interval [5.1-5.3].
Difference between characteristics: How big a difference really makes a difference for you? Suppose two proportions from two different groups are 0.85 and 0.87. Would you treat them as two groups? Does this 0.02 difference make sense, real-world wise?
The units of the tolerance value are the same as the population characteristics value. Suppose you measure a proportion: in that case, the tolerance value would not be allowed to exceed the proportion value you expect.

Also note that the actual interval around the estimator is twice the tolerance value. For example, a tolerance value 0.5 on an estimated mean of 1 means that you conclude the true value of the mean lies in the interval [0.5-1.5]. The interval length is 1 or 2 x 0.5.

Values appropriate to means

Mean

The estimation of the mean is not used in these calculations. It only helps to interpret the numeric results in the report generated by SSC.

Standard deviation

It is important that you asses the amount of variability in the population as precisely as possible. The statistical definition of a sample standard deviation, the number you input here, is: the square root of the sum over all sample elements of squared differences between the sample element and the mean, divided by sample size minus one.

If you don’t know the variability, you can use these sources:

• Conduct a small preliminary research to asses the variability
• Use your previous research, even if not fully relevant.
• Use the literature. Other studies about the same subject often mention variances or standard deviations.
• Use standard scales for which you can guess the variance well.
• Be sure to recalculate your sample size after you have done the actual research, to asses if your original guess was reliable enough.

Values appropriate to proportions

Proportion

The proportion is used mainly for yes/no questions. For example: a business analyst wants to know how many people in a certain population are willing to invest in a new investment plan. He can use the simple yes/no question and apply the sample size calculations for proportions.

If you’re unsure about the proportion of yes-sayers, leave it at 0.5. This is the most conservative estimate.

If you suspect proportions are extreme (below .2 or above .8), use the correction for extreme proportions to avoid underestimation of your sample size.

Values appropriate to differences

Beta

Beta is the risk you take to miss an existing difference between two populations. Suppose Londoners indeed earn more than Dubliners (for example, the real difference between their average incomes is £150 per year) but due to a small sample size and high variance within each group, you find that there is no significant difference.

In that case, you would miss the real difference and draw an erroneous conclusion.

Statisticians call this the “power” of your test (power = 1 – beta): the higher you want the power to detect existing differences, the higher sample size you need.

Corrections

SSC has these corrections, which you can turn on or off:

• Extreme proportions
• Small sample sizes
• Small population
• Non-response
• One-tailed test

Sample Size Calculator - corrections

Extreme proportions

If the proportion you expect is either very high (above .8) either very low (below .2) then you need a correction factor for extreme proportions to get a better estimate of the sample size needed for single proportion estimates.

You can safely leave this option checked. SSC will use it only when necessary.

Small sample sizes

As argued by Kupper and Hafner (1989), estimating a single value suffers from underestimation of the sample size needed if the sample size itself is small. SSC uses an approximation of the Kupper/Hafner findings to correct for small sample sizes.

You can leave this option checked. If sample size becomes bigger, the correction decreases.

Small population

Most statistical tests used are developed with the assumption that the population is sampled with replacement. In practice, this is never the case: you never research the same individual twice in the same sample.

With large populations, the probability that you would investigate the same subject twice in the same sample becomes neglectible. However, if the population is quite small, it is likely you would have the same element more than once, if you’d use replacement.

Therefore, this correction factor applies. You can safely leave this option checked, unless you want to know what the underestimated effect of a small population is. 

Non-response

If not all sample elements will deliver measurements, you need to have a proportionately higher sample size to get the actual data volume you need.

Check this option only if response is below 100%.

One-tailed test

SSC defaults to a two-tailed test for its calculations. If you happen to know the direction of the effect beforehand, you can check this option to conduct one-tailed tests. 

For example, if you had reasons beforehand to believe Londoners earn more than Dubliners, you could check this option and reach a smaller sample size. On the other hand, if you do not know that Dubliners earn less, you would leave the option unchecked.

Download

Sample Size Calculator is on Dropbox. If you don’t have a (free) account already, make one here. Then download Sample Size Calculator here for free: sscsetup (zipped file – unzip and install). No nags, no false promises, just freeware.

Disclaimer

Since Sample Size Calculator and its accompanying texts are distributed as freeware, the author cannot be held responsible for any use or misuse of any outcome of SSC, the information it delivers, or any other result of its functioning.

Knopenlabo is een eenvoudige tool waarmee je in een oogwenk berekent hoe sterk een touw ongeveer is.Verschillende factoren beïnvloeden namelijk de maximale en de veilige belasting (VB) van het touw:

• de touwsoort: kunstmatige touwsoorten zijn meestal veel sterker dan natuurlijke.
• het aantal kardelen (afzonderlijke strengen waaruit het touw bestaat): een driekardeels touw is meestal sterker dan vier- of vijfkardeels touw.
• de diameter: hoe groter, des te steviger.
• of het touw nat is of niet. Nat touw van natuurlijke oorsprong is veel zwakker dan droog touw.
• de kwaliteit: deze gaat achteruit bij het gebruik (sleet).
• en, niet te vergeten, de knopen in het touw. Een touw is het zwakst vlak achter de knoop. Sommige knopen behouden de breeksterkte van het touw vrij goed (90-100%). Andere verzwakken het touw in grote mate (40-60%).

KnopenLabo verwerkt al deze factoren tot een schatting van de breeksterkte van het touw. Het resultaat zijn twee getallen:

• De VB of Veilige Belasting: dit getal geeft het aantal kilogram aan waarmee je het touw kan belasten op een veilige manier.
• De maximale breeksterkte: deze geeft aan op welk punt een touw van dit soort het waarschijnlijk zal begeven.

Voorbeeld van het gebruik van knopenlabo

Het programma KnopenLabo heeft een eenvoudige interface. Je kan voor elk touw de eigenschappen en de knopen aangeven, en op “bereken” drukken om te weten hoe groot de VB en de maximale breeksterkte is.

Waar downloaden?

KnopenLabo is freeware. Je kan het programma knopenlabo hier downloaden.De auteur is niet aansprakelijk voor gebruik of misbruik van deze software. Gebruik de aangegeven getallen altijd op eigen risico.

Als je naar deze pagina wil linken, gebruik dan volgende code:

<A HREF=http://www.aboriginemundi.com>Knopen-labo: gratis software om de breeksterkte van een geknoopt touw te berekenen</A>

Woordenlijst

As a coach, your role is probably a “chicken” role (remember? Pigs and chickens can attend, but only pigs can talk?) So you have to be silent, but that does not mean you’re not active. In fact, this is your best opportunity to listen actively. That is, to try to understand the true meaning of what is being discussed so that you can coach the scrum master and the team so that they become even more effective and efficiënt.

Team Interaction Picture

One little tool I have found useful when coaching a team is something I call the Team Interaction Picture (TIP). It’s easy to draw, yet you can learn a lot from it.

Here’s an example. (it’s fictitious but representative of the actual TIPs I make when observing a daily standup meeting–and every single element is based on real TIPs).

The Team Interaction Picture: an agile coaching instrument

Rainy day

It’s 2009 November 23d (a gray Monday morning) and the team has gathered around the task board in the corner of the landscape office. The place is not ideal: somewhat too small, and there is a pole and a chair which hinder access to the board and invite team members to sit down/hang around. Luckily, the team has discussed this before and nobody will use the chair.

TIP technique: draw the task board as a narrow rectangle, the team members as circles (indicate their name and if needed, their role). For absent team members, draw a striped line outside the team. Also draw any other large objects (like the pole and the chair) present.

Usually, the meeting starts at 9h30 but now they’re six minutes late because Sandy is not there yet (you know she has to bring her daughter to school).

Sandy arrives

Finally, Sandy arrives. She has had a phone call from Nancy, who is ill and won’t return before Wednesday. Sandy joins the team (they’ve already gathered around the board!) and starts with giving an update on the impediment list.

TIP technique: write date and hour of start next to the TIP diagram. Indicate the order of events with numbers and indicate the end of the standup meeting under the event list. Use the same number to indicate in what order each attendee takes the word.

Eight constructive minutes

When Sandy tells the team an old and important impediment will be solved today, Dave interrupts and says that he hopes this will be the case, since he remembers Sandy promised this the week before, and the week before that… Then there is a short discussion between Sandy and Dave, which they conclude not to continue here.

TIP technique: when person A adresses person B, draw an arrow from A to B. If B responds, draw the arrowhead next to person A. For each next discussion between A and B, draw a small perpendicular line on the arrow from A to B.

The meeting continues in a constructive way and after eight minutes, everyone is up-to-date and knows what to do for today.

Coaching the scrum master

After the meeting, I’ll have a brief word with Sandy. I ask her opinion and we compare. Here’s how I use the TIP:

• General conclusion: a constructive meeting that respected the 15 minutes timebox (even if it started late, no problem here because even then the meeting ended before 9h45).
• Is it possible to remove the chair so that there is more space and better access to the board? Maybe, but Sandy will talk about the idea in tomorrows standup.
• Starting with the update on the impediment list (especially if there is good news) is a good practice. It helps to prove to the team that the scrum master is there to help them, not to command&control.
• Team dynamics are determined for a large part by the interaction of Dave and Sandy. Sarah occasionally tries to interrupt, but Sandy does not answer.
• Jeff, a junior team member, never takes the word unless he gets the talking stick. Even then he does not really talk, he just indicates on the task board what user story he will work on and that’s it.

Especially the last two topics might be sensitive, since they can indicate there’s an underlying problem. It’s dangerous to draw conclusions from one eight-minute meeting, so I would compare my TIP with the TIPs of two or three other meetings.

But in any case, I have a good graphical representation of what happened during this standup meeting. The team might even be able to use my TIPs during the evaluation meeting so that they can see how they interact.

For readers who use this TIP: please share your experiences by replying to this post. Thanks!

The factsoak learning model

Factsoak uses a unique model of learning to assist the learning process of all facts, including:

• Foreign languages
• Special terms
• Abbreviation lists
• Historical dates
• and all other facts

Two modes

Factsoak supports two learning modes. The most effective learning takes place when you alter between these modes in five to ten minute intervals:

• Training mode: Factsoak will present you a fact, wait, and present the explanation. The frequency of presentation depends on the difficulty of a fact. You can adapt the speed of presentation and the direction (from fact to explanation, from explanation to fact, or both).
• Test mode: Factsoak will present you with a fact and ask the explanation and repeat this process a number of times. After the test, you get a result and a list of errors. For questions you were able to answer, the difficulty of the fact will decrease. If you did not solve the question, its difficulty will increase

By alternating between training and test mode, you will be presented with those facts that are most difficult to master. Factsoak will also express your mastery of the facts as a percentage. When mastery is 100%, you’ve reached your learning goal.

Download factsoak for free

Factsoak is high-quality freeware. You can download the setup program for free and use it without charges or registration of any kind.

Download: fssetup.

Afterwards, double click the exe file and follow the setup instructions. You can remove FactSoak by choosing the uninstall option from the menu.

Should you happen to publish electronic media (CD ROM, website), you can include the unaltered program with your content. Webmasters are encouraged exchange links. Please mail the author for more information.

How to use factsoak?

Factsoak has a very simple and intuitive interface to avoid distraction from the learning process.

Functionalities:

• New file, open and save file with facts
• Export file to excel New fact, edit fact and delete fact.
• Sort fact by name, ID, group, or difficulty
• Adapt training speed
• Adapt training direction
• Run training
• Adapt test direction
• Adapt number of questions
• Run test and generate report

Send in your fact files!

Fact files available

• Tolkien orkish: if you want to be able to translate the inscription on the Ring, you’ll need this word list.
• Bordeaux Classification: the full Bordeaux grand cru classé list (Médoc 1855 classification)
• dutch: a few Dutch words
• computer acronyms: words that are often used in virtual communication, like FYI, IAC, IANALA, SOB and the like.
• toki pona: toki pona, the simple language of the good. Full word list of all 123 words this beautiful language consists of.

After downloading a fact file, unzip it and open it from the File menu in FactSoak.

If you want to contribute a fact file of your own, please contact the author.

The goal of the Triastorm technique is to find novel ideas, to solve problems. It relies on the scientific study of problem solving, but Triastorm defines a pragmatic and simple process practictioners can use for business or everyday life, in group or individually.

In the future, software will be made available to support the triastorm technique.

The Triastorm breaks down the problem solving process into four processes:

• Generate ideas: the problem solver starts with five or more ideas. It is important that these are as diverse as possible. They may be partially adequate or totally defunct. During later cycles of this process, the problem solver will combine solutions to fill up the solution space.
• Elicit dimensions: This process helps in exploring the solution space, thereby guiding the problem solver in his search for adequate solutions.
• Rank dimensions: Establishing the relative weights of the dimensions found during elicit dimensions is useful to explore the solution space efficiently. Efficient exploration can be done by visualising the two or three most important dimensions, then indicating the part of the solution space most likely to yield good solutions.
• Position ideas: This process places the ideas in the solution space, thereby discovering gaps and thus potential for new ideas. It also helps in discovering which parts of the solution space are unlikely to generate adequate ideas.

At the end of each cycle, the problem solver chooses the process used in the next cycle, until the problem is solved or time runs out, in which case the best ideas may be used as input for a new Triastorm session.

The name of the Triastorm technique derives from two important aspects used:

• Triadic elicitation to explore the solution space
• Brainstorming to generate a wide range of ideas

Before you start a Triastorm session

To use the Triastorm technique with success, it is necessary to define the problem as precisely as possible. Don’t confuse your goal with the means to reach it: this way you constrain yourself and make novel solutions less probable.

For example, suppose you want to become famous. It is better to state as problem description “how to become famous” than “how to become famous by writing a book”. If your problem is that you want to write a book but don’t know how to begin, state “how to write a book” as your problem description.

Use GERP as your first cycle: first generate five or more ideas, then elicit one or two dimensions, then rank the dimensios, then position the ideas on the dimensions.

You need a few index cards, a piece of paper, and a pen. In case you have the Triastorm software, that and a computer is all you need.

Process 1: Generate ideas

When you first cycle through generate ideas, quickly write five or more ideas down—one per index card, and number them starting from 1. These ideas can be

• Solutions you already tried (but which failed)
• Ideas that seem fruitful but lack a few things to make them perfect
• Outright silly or bad ideas

It is more important to have a rich set of ideas than to search for the perfect idea in this stage. The ideas generated in this stage will largely serve to construct the solution space.

When you cycle through generate ideas in a later phase of the Triastorm session, combine existing ideas to generate new ones. Do keep looking out for totally new ideas, however.

Also, take a look at the visual solution space and try to fill in gaps. For example, in figure 2 the lower right quadrant is still empty. You can try to

• Contrast: find ideas that are the opposite of the empty quadrant (in this case, the opposite of idea 2)
• Combination: combine ideas from neighbouring quadrants (in this case, 4 or 6 combined with 1, 3 or 5).

When you have already gone throuhg elicit dimensions, consider to perform position ideas with the newly generated ideas now.

Process 2: Elicit dimensions

Knowing which dimensions structure the solution space is important because this will guide your search: you won’t lose time by summing up ideas that won’t work and don’t bring any new insights. 

Triastorm uses triadic elicitation: select three ideas in a random way (by turning the index cards and shuffling them). When you have just performed generate ideas, you are allowed to select one new idea instead of a random idea from the list.

Now select the one out of three which is different from the others and state the difference.

For example, suppose the three items selected are “write a paper”, “give a speech” and “convince a local newspaper to interview me”. You could then select the last one to be different from the others, because in that case, you don’t compose the text yourself. The dimension would then be expressed as “do it yourself” versus “get help from others”.

Some dimensions can be expressed as a single term (for example, “amount of work”), others are more conveniently described with two opposite terms. Both ways are fine.

From the moment you have two dimensions or more, select the two most important ones with rank dimensions and visualise them by drawing a quadrant like figure 2.

In each case, try to find new dimensions. Don’t get stuck on the ones you already found. If you can’t find a new dimension because of the three ideas you selected, skip this step.

Process 3: Rank dimensions

After you’ve gone through elicit dimensions, you can start rank dimensions. That way, you will concentrate on the most important dimensions when searching for solutions.

Ranking can be a simple matter of putting them in a list, the most important ones at the top. Important here means that the dimension is likely to make a difference between good and bad ideas.

Typically, you will keep two dimensions to focus on (which can change during the Triastorm session). Visualisation of two dimensions is easy, visualizing more is more difficult unless you use a computer program.

A second activity in this process is constraining the solution space by delimiting dimensions.

On the quadrant diagram, use color to indicate delimiters of dimensions so you can effectively visualize the part of the solution space most likely to yield useful ideas. If your idea list contains the current, nonworking solution, that part of the solution space is likely to be in the nondelimited zone.

Don’t delimit a dimension if that is not necessary: if the value of an idea on the dimension does not matter for its quality, leave the dimension unconstrained.

Example of delimiters on a dimension: if you discover that the solution has to be cheap to carry out, delimit the dimension “price” by coloring the “cheap” part of the solution space.

If multiple dimensions have delimiters set, the solution space becomes narrower and focused. This guides the problem solver to that part of the solution space that contains the best ideas.

Process 4: Position ideas

The fourth and last Triastorm process is position ideas on the dimensions you elicited. You can choose a scale that is convenient for you, though usually you don’t need more than five marks on each dimension (–, -, 0, +, ++).

The importance of this process is to indicate the gaps in the solution space: those parts that are delimited but still empty. It can also help to generate new ideas by indicating which ideas need to be combined or contrasted.

Use this tool when brainstorming individually. Use small pieces of paper to note ideas and dimensions and place them on this printed sheet.

When generating new ideas, be sure to position them regularly. Also, after each cycle of elicit dimensions, position the current ideas on the newly found dimensions.

Triastorm in practice: an example

The problem

As an example, we’ll tackle a well-known problem: “How to make business meetings start on time in our organisation?” You might find this exercise fun and useful to repeat. The outcome will differ because it is specific to your organisation.

First cycle: Generate ideas

• (1) Be angry at latecomers
• (2) Offer a drink at the beginning of the meeting
• (3) Discuss the most important things first
• (4) Send extra invitations before the meeting
• (5) Send an SMS to latecomers at the time of the meeting

Second cycle: Elicit dimensions

These three ideas were chosen randomly to extract the first dimension:

• (1) Be angry at latecomers
• (3) Discuss the most important things first
• (5) Send an SMS to latecomers at the time of the meeting

I chose to group 1 and 5 on the one hand, 3 on the other hand. 1 and 5 both confront the latecomers directly, while 3 does so indirectly. The dimension is called “directness”.

A second choice of three ideas resulted in

• (2) Offer a drink at the beginning of the meeting
• (4) Send extra invitations before the meeting
• (5) Send an SMS to latecomers at the time of the meeting

Here I group 4 and 5 on the one hand, 2 on the other. I’ll call the dimension “positive stimulation” (that’s exactly what 2 does).

Third cycle: Rank dimensions

At this time, I have a slight preference for the dimension “positive stimulation” over “directness” because of our corporate culture. However, I won’t delimit either dimension now.

Fourth cycle: Position ideas

Now that we have two dimensions and several ideas, we can represent them visually:

Fifth cycle: Generate ideas

We see that one of the four quadrants is empty. If we are looking for innovative ideas, we can search for ideas in this quadrant. It’s hallmark is high directness and high positive stimulation. What action can we take towards latecomers, but such that it is positive? For example, we could

• (6) take time to welcome latecomers extensively

While this might look like a bad solution, it actually isn’t. Still, if it was outright bad, we would include it in our list of ideas because it could help us discover dimensions of the solution space we didn’t think of.

Sixth cycle: Position ideas

We just put idea (6) in the empty quadrant and continue with the seventh cycle.

Seventh cycle: Elicit dimensions

Let’s keep our new idea (6) and randomly select two more from the list:

• (1) Be angry at latecomers
• (3) Discuss the most important things first
• (6) Take time to welcome latecomers extensively

It’s obvious we could group (1) and (6) versus (3) because (1) and (6) confront latecomers directly and (3) doesn’t, but that would not lead to a new dimension. Therefore it’s more fruitful to look for other similarities.

What if we combine (1) and (3)? Do they have something in common that (6) doesn’t, apart from the dimension “positive stimulation”? Let’s try to combine (3) and (6) then. Both can be part of the meeting agenda, while (1) can’t. So let’s call the dimension “agendability”. I interpret this dimension as: “can the idea be part of the meeting agenda and thus of the meeting notes”?

Eight cycle: Rank dimensions

For our corporate culture, I would rank the dimensions found so far as follows:

1. Positive stimulation
2. Agendability
3. Directness

Neither dimension needs to be delimited.

That means we’ll have to adapt the diagram in the next cycle.

Ninth cycle: Position ideas

Again we have a part of the solution space that is empty: the part that is “positive stimulation” but can be part of the agenda and the meeting notes. Time for a tenth cycle.

Tenth cycle: Generate ideas

In search for positive action that can be in the meeting notes, we come up with

• (7) make a short endorsment for each meeting participant that shows up on time.
• (8) record a “timeliness indicator” in the notes of each meeting, start with “good” no matter how late the meeting actually starts.

Both ideas seem to be worth of further investigation. I especially like (7) because it works on the need of every human being to hear something positive about himself. Now that I think of it, I’m going to try this.

Depending on your sport or fitness goal, you should train with different heart rates. When sporting, wear a heart rate monitor suited for your sport and stay in the right training zone:

• Zone 1: at this level, you will increase your fitness level without risking to get overtrained. You should start at this level when you are a beginner or when you did not take exercise during a long time. Even when training at this level, you will lose weight.
• Zone 2: this zone will take your cardiovascular fitness to a new height. The heart will become more efficient in pumping blood and the muscles will become better at taking oxygen from the blood stream.
• Zone 3: this zone is often called the “target heart frequency zone”. Training in this zone improves the cardiovascular fitness and the capacity of the body to consume energy and release waste products. Also the general muscle strength will increase.
• Zone 4: in this zone lies the anaerobic threshold, the level at which is becomes difficult for the body to consume enough oxygen and to release waste products. Muscles will fill with lactic acid when training too long in this zone. Most athletes can compete at about this level. Training at this level should be done only for short periods of time and with advice from a doctor.
• Zone 5: this zone is the maximum your body can do. It is useful if you are an athlete trying to increase speed. Stay away from this zone unless you are in optimal fitness and with medical advice.

Download freeware

Download the FitnessZoneCalculator for free to know your personal training zones. Freeware Heart Rate Training Zone Calculator download: zip file of 240kb.

Unzip the downloadable file and double click the exe file. Use at your own risk and consult a doctor when in doubt.

How to use the training zone calculator

Freeware training zones calculator

Determine your Rest Heart Rate (RHR): this is the lowest heart rate under normal circumstances. The best time to measure your RHR is before you get out of bed in the morning. Measure your heart rate for 30 seconds and multiply the result by 2.

Determine your Maximum Heart Rate (MHR): this is the highest heart rate your body can deliver. It should be done by a professional (sports doctor).

If you cannot consult a doctor, you can also estimate your MHR by providing the training zone calculator the following information:

• Age: generally, the higher your age, the lower the MHR.
• Sex: generally, males have a slightly higher MHR than females.
• Weight: the heavier, the lower the MHR.

Simply provide the Fitness Zone Calculator with the right data and it will calculate your personal estimated training zone levels (min and max heartbeat for each zone).

Hover over the zone labels to get a short description with each zone.

When following a training plan, do not forget to reestablish your resting heart rate from time to time. An increased RHR signals you are overtraining, a decreasing RHR tells you you are on the right track to become a fitter person. Success!

screenshot werewolf mod tool

Features:

• Manage roles: add your own roles, change existing roles, export the roles to html or excel, change the probability that a role will be present in a game, add message so you can have different email messages for different roles.
• Manage players: add people with their name, email adress and description. Export available.
• Werewolf rating: keep a rating of which players are the best. The higher the rating, the better.
• Manage sessions: invite players, randomly assign roles, keep player live status, end session, export session to excel or to html
• Pdf manual available
• No installation, just unzip and open the exe file.

Download the werewolf-modtool here (zipped). You can also download the cards to play the game offline (in Dutch).

In cases like these, Scotch Up! comes in handy. It looks like any other glue stick, but the glue is repositionable. So you can make a post-it note out of every piece of regular paper. No surprise: it’s a 3M product, the company that also invented post-its and lots of other useful office supplies.

Best thing is, it actually works. The paper becomes restickable; I’ve tried it and ten times of repositioning later, the paper stuck as well as the first time. Handy!