7 Habits of Highly Effective Brains

The United States Senate has engaged me to deliver a professional development workshop to the Senate staff later this month. This article is a brief overview of that planned presentation.

Recent research of the human brain has surprised the neuroscience community by revealing that our brains can change, and be improved, at any age in our life cycle. By developing simple habits, you can help ensure that your brain remains healthy and operating with improved efficiency for the rest of your life. People of any age can benefit from developing these 7 simple habits – listed in order of importance with the 7^th habit being the most valuable:

1. Have a Nutritious Diet. Eat a low glycemic diet with lots of nutrients. Omega-3 essential fatty acids have been shown to support brain health in countless studies. By the way, surprisingly blueberries are also an excellent food for your brain.
2. Focus Sequentially – Don’t Multitask. John Medina, author of Brain Rules, calculates that a person attempting to multitask takes up to 50% longer and makes up to 50% more mistakes that the person performing tasks sequentially!

Be Physically Active. You don’t need to be overly athletic for your brain to benefit. Studies show that 20 to 30 minutes of moderate exercise, like walking, three times a week is all you need to confer a wealth of benefits to your brain. In addition, such simple changes in lifestyle as taking the stairs at work, instead of the elevator, can help your brain stay healthy.

1. Participate Socially. People who are active socially tend to experience far less mental decline than people who are socially isolated. So look up an old friend, or get together with that aunt or uncle you haven’t spoken to in some time.

Sleep Well – And Long Enough. If you’ve been awake for 17 hours straight your performance is equivalent to having a blood alcohol-level of 0.05%! A sleep-deprived brain works harder, but accomplishes much less than a rested brain.

Challenge Yourself Mentally. When you learn new things, or even think new thoughts, your brain restructures itself. The more you exercise your brain, the better it performs. To really super charge your brain, take a class in a new language, or in computer programming, or practice learning a musical instrument.

1. Have a Positive Attitude – And Laugh Often. Attitude changes everything, including your brain. Research shows people who maintain a positive outlook on life are better equipped to cope with even serious brain disorders. Accept what you have, let go of anger and resentment, and move towards joy.

By making these 7 habits part of your daily routine, you’re taking steps to ensure that your brain stays healthy and efficient for a lifetime.

About the author: Jonathan Jordan, a member of the prestigious Society for Neuroscience, is an entrepreneur, Certified Business & Executive Coach and international speaker.  You can contact him through International Computer Negotiations, Inc at 407-740-0700 or via e-mail at Jonathan@MindfullyChange.com or via phone at (321) 214-5824. For more information visit www.MindfullyChange.com

How to Calm Your Brain During Any Storm

How to Calm Your Brain During Any Storm

There is a major storm in our economy currently. Understandably, this situation adds stress to negotiations. When you’re overly stressed the chemistry in your brain changes. Your problem solving abilities are reduced and your judgment is greatly diminished. In fact, it is a very similar state as being drunk! This is no state to be in when making important decisions during negotiations.

Here are some simple steps to take to begin to relax and reduce the effects of stress on your brain:

• Take at least 3 deep, slow, regular breaths – this will start to slow your heart rate, lower your blood pressure and restore cognitive clarity.
• As you breathe, let your shoulders relax and loosen your jaw – you may be surprised at how much tension you hold in your jaw.
• Focus your mind on the present moment – to help with this maybe focus your attention on your breath passing through your nostrils as you breathe, or pick a spot on the wall and focus your eyes gently on that spot. When focusing on the present moment you prevent yourself from regretting the past and fearing the future – both of which increase stress. (For a deeper understanding of this concept, read The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle.)
• When uncomfortable feelings arise, don’t try to ignore them but acknowledge and label them – recent research at UCLA proves this allows you to detach from negative emotions so they do not hijack your calmness.

Once you begin to relax your mental clarity will begin to be restored in your brain. Will this calm the outer storm in our economy? No. But it will calm the storm within you and make you less likely to do something irrational during negotiations that you will later regret.

About the author: Jonathan Jordan, a member of the prestigious Society for Neuroscience, is an entrepreneur, Certified Business & Executive Coach, international speaker and ocassionally speaks at ICN conferences.  You can contact him via e-mail at Jonathan@MindfullyChange.com.

End of the Quarter? Squash Them!

Learn how to counter this ploy at the IT Procurement Summit (InterContinental Hotel) in Chicago on September 20-21.  You can register here.  Very funny video, take a look:

Technology Acquisition Professionals to Convene in Chicago

(Orlando, FL – 07/28/10) CAUCUS, The Association of Technology Acquisition Professionals, announced it is holding its 2010 IT Procurement Summit (ITPS) in Chicago on September 20-21.  This is the 15^th year Caucus will hold this significant industry event.  “Our members have been working hard to organize this event,” said Sarepta Ridgeway of CenterPoint Energy and Conference Chair.  Professionals, both members and nonmembers, will attend to learn the very latest best practices for putting together cloud computing and SaaS deals, software license agreements, telecom transactions and service level agreements.  Risk management , supplier relationship management and CTPE / CTPS Certification classes with exam  will be among the other subjects or areas to participate in.

The annual summit provides acquisition professionals with the latest information on all facets of the acquisition process.  “Networking opportunities abound, many of the interactions initiated at the conference develop into long-term business relationships,” said association founder Joe Auer. “If you do any type of technology acquisition, this is where you need to be on September 20-21.  The presenters are the very people that do these types of deals…everyday!”

Attendees come from a variety of disciplines including procurement, finance, legal, IT and contract management and represent organizations of all sizes from all sectors of the economy, including large global corporations;  small and medium sized businesses; not-for-profits, government agencies, states and municipalities.

The 2010 ITPS will be at the InterContinental Hotel on Michigan in Chicago and the early-bird has a deadline of August 12^th.

Caucus – Established in 1994, Caucus is the only association serving the specialized needs of technology acquisition professionals. Members come from a variety of disciplines including procurement, finance, legal, information technology and contract management.  Membership gives them an invaluable edge – the Caucus Advantage. Caucus also provides certification in this field as a CTPE or CTPS.

Contacts:

ICN
407-740-0700
Ja4@dobettdeals.com
http://caucusnet.com

Make Sure Consultants Will Keep Your Secrets

By Joe Auer

Confidentiality and secrecy agreements between customers and outside consultants are very important. The nature of consultants’ work means that they will probably have access to confidential information such as business and marketing plans, costs, profits and proprietary processes. So it’s paramount to guard against having your confidential information disclosed to other outside parties, especially your competitors. Managing consultant confidentiality is a process that mustn’t be overlooked.

You must exercise strong due diligence to initiate a workable consultant confidentiality program. First, identify the types of confidential information the consultants may have access to in the course of completing their engagements. Armed with this information, you can identify the potential risks that must be addressed. Obviously, the higher the potential risk, the greater the protection needed.

Many times, the risk issue isn’t even considered. Worse yet, the risk has sometimes been dismissed with a statement like, “We know these people, and we can trust them.” Even if you do know the consultant you’re considering working with, there’s no reason to abandon caution. The most trusted consultant can make an unintentional mistake and expose your information, particularly if there has been no reinforcement of confidentiality requirements.

If the due-diligence phase finds a potential risk, the next move should be to immediately enter into a confidentiality and nondisclosure agreement (NDA). This is a logical, precautionary step, and it’s difficult to imagine a reason for a company not to take it. The NDA is a straightforward document describing the terms under which the customer and the consultant will and won’t disclose certain information.

The NDA also provides a definition of confidential information (such as a certain process that gives customers a competitive advantage), each party’s obligations regarding the information and a remedy if your consultant fails to live up to the agreement, either by design or by accident. Many times, it’s best if the NDA is negotiated and put into effect well before the actual consultant agreement is in place, since precontract discussions may involve confidential customer information.

When the actual consulting agreement is drafted, include a confidentiality provision that references and incorporates the NDA. The NDA can be very precise in nature, defining types of information, a certain project, a particular time period or specific remedies. The contract confidentiality provision should be wider in scope and should remain in force beyond the contract or engagement expiration – perhaps a year or more.

Finally, you should require that each consultant employee assigned to your account sign a personal “secrecy agreement.” This provides an additional layer of protection and serves to make sure consultants are very aware that they will be receiving confidential information and are personally bound to protect it.

Some consulting firms balk at having their consultants sign secrecy agreements, saying there’s no need to create separate contracts between each consultant and client. Try hard to win this one, but if you can’t, a reasonable compromise is to make sure that the consulting firm agrees that each consultant assigned to your account has previously signed a secrecy agreement with the firm or will sign one before starting work on your account. And don’t forget to review the content of the firm’s secrecy agreement to make sure it meets all your needs. Most important, have the consulting firm contractually accept full responsibility for its employees’ acts and omissions.

As a final safeguard, it is important to have “orientation briefings” for all of the consultant’s people who are new to your account, to emphasize the seriousness of these issues.

Many large organizations already do NDAs, but they fall into the “pesky paperwork that’s a mere formality” category and don’t get highlighted as being a big deal. In my 35 years in this business, I’ve seen a number of confidentiality breaches that have been very big deals.

Recovering after breaches occur never seems to work as well as preventing them from happening in the first place.

JOE AUER is president of International Computer Negotiations, Inc. (www.dobetterdeals.com), a Winter Park, Fla., consultancy that educates Professionals on IT Procurement, Sourcing, and Vendor Management. ICN sponsors CAUCUS: The Association of Technology Procurement Professionals. Contact him at joea@dobetterdeals.com.

What Makes a Good Negotiator?

8 Attributes for Better Deal-Making

While your role in the acquisition process may not cast you into the final negotiation scenes, these traits will serve you well at any stage of the bargaining process. The following eight characteristics highlight some common attributes of the successful negotiator.

1. Clear thinker. Can you think fast and hold your own during the rapid give and take of a complex negotiation? There are few easy answers in high tech acquisitions. Some errors are unavoidable, regardless of how well prepared one may be. The ability to keep a clear head and think quickly will not only smooth over trouble spots, but keep the overall process moving forward productively. With a strong negotiation strategy as a base, the clear thinker is able to advance the process, regardless of surprises.

2. Good communicator. Can you express yourself with ease? During negotiations, how you convey knowledge is just as important as what you know. The ability to communicate effectively is essential. This ease of expression should not be confused with glibness. Rather, it results from a knowledge of the deal being negotiated and the ability to present a clear, concise and cogent narration.

3. Analytical. Do you have the ability to analyze possibilities and alternatives? Skillful negotiators can analyze others’ statements and identify those that favor their position, those that oppose it and those that favor another solution. Another aspect of analysis is the ability to recognize the truly important issues and ideas and focus on them.

4. Impersonal. Can you keep the company’s objective at the forefront of negotiations?  It is often difficult to stay composed, cool and calm when tempers flare in the heat of a difficult negotiation. An effective negotiator approaches the bargaining table with the company’s objective as his or her banner, putting personal inclinations and agendas aside.

5. Patient. Are you a composed, attentive listener? Often, the ability to let others talk and explain their position pays off by getting issues resolved without argument.

6. Objective. Can you consider another’s ideas objectively? Can you put yourself on the other side of the table to better evaluate the opposing position? If you can give serious, detached attention to an opposing point of view, you are in a better position to understand—and thus counter, if appropriate—a “sticky” negotiation point.

7. Tactful. Can you handle difficult people with tact, self-restraint and poise? It helps to have a well-developed understanding of human nature and a generous attitude toward others. It’s a cliché, but the truth of its message has been proven time and again: You can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.

8. Sense of humor. Can you concede in good humor? It is unrealistic to assume you can win every point in a negotiation. The ability to keep a sense of humor even when conceding pays dividends in good will that may help resolve other acquisition issues. Further, negotiations can get intense, and there may well be several opportunities to become upset, worried or anxious. A sense of humor can help you—and others—maintain perspective and stay on track.

A ‘Top-Down’ Look In Challenging Times

By Joe Auer

As the daily media drumbeat of “economic downturn” picks up volume, we’ll no doubt be challenged to optimize IT costs and value as we move into possibly tough financial times. So doing better deals and managing vendors better will become much more important for IT organizations this year.

Traditionally, most IT organizations view their technology deals from the bottom up. That is, they tend to have a project-oriented perspective rather than a big picture-oriented overview. While there’s nothing wrong with this approach – especially if it’s coupled with a disciplined procurement process – you may miss opportunities to leverage major negotiating power.

Of course, focusing on a specific deal is important and can add value to the organization. But if you pay attention to only one deal at a time in uncertain economic times, huge cost and risk issues may go unaddressed. It’s the age-old “not seeing the forest for the trees” thing.

If you have to cut costs significantly, you should look at IT spending from the top down, identifying each major spending area. An excellent way to do this is to look at your annual IT budget. The major budget categories – hardware, personnel, software, communications, services and the like – provide a high-level indication of where the big money is going.

Armed with this information, you may be able to find opportunities to cut significant costs and risks and maximize your vendor’s attention. Remember, technology vendors are also under financial pressure and need all the business they can get. They may be willing to cut you a break in order to keep your business.

An analysis of each spending category should include adding up what you spend globally with each of your largest suppliers. You may be shocked at how much bargaining power you have but aren’t using.

Then, review the existing contractual relationships with those suppliers since you may have contractual restrictions such as cancellation fees that have to be included in your analysis. When you’re done, you’ll find opportunities to consolidate spending, leverage your negotiating power, reduce costs and improve contract protections.

After the spending categories have been identified and totaled, they should be prioritized. There are many approaches to prioritization. A simple method involves rating each category according to four criteria: cost, complexity, risk and business need. You can weight each criteria using a 10-point scale to generate a numerical score that can be used to prioritize the opportunities. A 1 would be the lowest rating and a 10 the highest. A category with very high cost, complexity, risk and business need would rate four 10s for a total score of 40.

Let’s look at each factor:

• Cost is obvious. Areas of significant spending should receive more attention than the nickel-and-dime stuff.

• Complexity is important because spending areas involving sophisticated, new or unproven technology, or complex business processes should receive scrutiny.

• Risk goes hand-in-hand with complexity because the higher the complexity, generally the greater the potential risk. But risk should be evaluated separately. A category with a low complexity rating could carry a high potential risk. In any event, and in every deal, have your suppliers at least be contractually accountable for nonperformance through clear warranties and sufficient remedies. That’s a great start.

• Business need establishes a relative value of importance of the category’s overall contribution to the business – and the bottom line.

With the categories having been identified, totaled, analyzed and prioritized, the real work can begin. Start with the categories that score the closest to 40 (highest priorities) and work your way down as far as time and reasonableness allow. Focusing on the highest priorities will ensure that your efforts are directed at achieving maximum benefit.

Developing the discipline to objectively scrutinize major spending categories and vendors creates opportunities that would otherwise go unnoticed.

A tough-times strategy to leverage purchasing power, reduce costs and maximize vendor performance goes a long way to answering an economic wake-up call.

 JOE AUER is president of International Computer Negotiations, Inc. (www.dobetterdeals.com), a Winter Park, Fla., consultancy that educates Professionals on IT Procurement, Sourcing, and Vendor Management. ICN sponsors CAUCUS: The Association of Technology Procurement Professionals. Contact him at joea@dobetterdeals.com.

The Procurement Assessment

Note:  This article originally appeared in a 2002  issue of ICN’s Tools & Tactics and has been updated for presentation here.

You’ve trained and coached your staff, coached key executives and IT project managers, made presentations, developed form agreements, created a deal repository . . .  But, are those involved in evaluating, buying and paying for technology acquisitions actually following your processes?  Have you changed your organization’s culture, making sure that the new procedures are “stick-ing”?  How much success are you having in negotiating those deals?

There is no doubt that best-in-class technology procurement organizations have processes and tools in place, and their personnel are both trained in the methodologies and use the tools and re-sources available.  Their results demonstrate cost savings, vendor management, resource and fi-nancial control and short and long-term risk avoidance. 

A Procurement Maturity Model (PMM)  might take this form:

How do we measure the maturity of your procurement organization?  The Procurement Assess-ment is the most comprehensive way for an organization to audit its current utilization of the methods, tools and resources you’ve put in place.  A Procurement Assessment will measure your progress toward achieving best practices and will help you establish annual goals for your or-ganization.

Look at the following four areas:

Level 1	Level 2	Level 3
Initial Efforts	Methodology Established	Integrated Method-ology, Standards
Common  language   established Cultural and management change initiatives	Integrated  methodology establishedCross-functional teams	Cultural and management supportPolicies established
Issues addressed organization	Focus on individual projects	Intangible benefits made apparent
Training Level 1	Tangible benefits   made apparent	Form Agreements
	Training Level 2	Deal repository
		Training Level 3

Level 4	Level 5
Comprehensive	Continuous Improvement
Integration of resources, tools, culture	Continuous learning, process improvements
Vendor policy     and management	Lessons learned, knowledge transfer
Qualitative and quantitative measurement of results	Strategic planning
	Mentorship

• Processes.  Robust processes based upon sound industry best practices provide the requi-site infrastructure to move a procurement organization forward. Processes provide consis-tency of approach and the organizational discipline that assure that best practices are syn-thesized within the organization.

• Resources. Appropriate, experienced, knowledgeable and professional resources must be available when required. An organization must commit to attracting top talent or out-source the IT procurement function to knowledgeable experts.

• Tools. Effective tools provide consistency of approach and also streamline the overall procurement process. Some of the more important tools include deal checklists, standard form contracts, templates for Requests for Proposals, Requests for Information, vendor evaluation matrices and so forth. These tools and others must be fully integrated into pro-curement processes.

• Organization. There must be organizational commitment that supports and nurtures the development and use of an IT procurement function.
Determine the effectiveness of your organization

The Procurement Assessment works as follows:

Develop the Survey Tool. The procurement management team develops a survey that will elicit responses from the organization on current practices and knowledge in the four categories:  proc-esses, resources, tools and organization. The survey asks a series of questions to ensure compli-ance with the required processes and procedures or to evaluate current practices as they relate to industry best practices. Although the internal procurement organization may perform this audit in some companies, having an outside party perform the audits gives the process a measure of inde-pendence, avoids “turf wars,” and may provide more focus for senior management.

Determine Survey Population.  The size of your organization will determine the number of par-ticipants.  Generally, a sample of ten to fifteen individuals from a variety of functional roles should be included.  A representative cross-section of people from the CIO office, procurement, vendor management, IT project managers who are involved in procurement activities, finance, end-user deal makers and legal should comprise the survey population.

Conduct Kick-off Meeting.  An initial meeting with the survey population to explain the proc-ess and answer questions is an important step in preparing them for their participation.

Conduct Interviews.  Using the customized Procurement Survey described above, interviews of the survey population are conducted.  Interviewing in-person on a one-on-one basis enables par-ticipants to be more candid in their responses. (Complete candor may be achieved when a third-party conducts the survey.) 

Summarize the results and prepare the findings.  Following completion of the interview phase of the survey, the obvious next step is to analyze the results and prepare a report that sum-marizes the current status of the company’s processes, resources, tools and organization. The outcome of the analysis should be a reliable indication of your company’s progress towards achieving a best-in-class technology procurement organization.  Based on the levels of the find-ings, the team can determine the maturity of the procurement process and create (or update) the plan to reach the next level. 

Conduct Executive Briefing.  The results of the Procurement Assessment, next action items, strategies and recommendations should be discussed in a briefing with appropriate personnel.  Because executive buy-in is critical to a successful implementation of best-practices procurement processes, the results should also be summarized and sent to the technology procurement stake-holders including the CIO, the procurement management, legal and key senior business manag-ers.

By performing a number of assessments over time, you can gain a sense of whether processes, tools and resources are being successfully integrated into your procurement organization and take appropriate corrective action if necessary.

Our experience has proven that most businesses can benefit – financially and functionally – when they evaluate the quality of their existing procurement programs.  By implementing the right procurement methodology, you can realize considerable savings with minimal impact on your core business.