Business, economic development - the unofficial Chamber of Commerce

They flexed their muscles this year all the in name of the Olympic spirit, but it was hardly spirited at all.”

This year mountaineer Anthony Loeff is reporting the scales for the Mount Everest after reaching the top of Mont Blanc in France earlier this season.

The 75-year-old man from Nepal is now the oldest person to have reached the top of Chomolungma or Mount Everest. Bahadur Sherchan last attempt resulted in the rescue of Lincoln Hall, an Australian climber who was left by his team in the “death zone.”

He was reported in good health as he began making his descent. Now that Min Bahadur Sherchan has successfully scaled the tallest mountain in the world, he is once again ready to focus on his family. Andrew Brash and four climbing guides reached the 29,035-foot (8,850-meters) summit of the world’s highest mountain early Sunday, said Ramesh Chretri, an official with Nepal’s ministry of tourism. His first found him within 172 metres of the peak when his team stopped to help a fellow mountaineer who was left for dead. later, Andrew Brash, a University of Calgary alumni, returned to Chomolungma to finish what he had started.

Sherchan just 9 days away from his 77th birthday beat the age record set last year by 71-year-old Japanese teacher Katsusuke Yanagisawa.

Bahadur Sherchan returned this week from Nepal after successfully climbing to the summit of Mt Everest. “Mount Everest this year became a political pawn,” he said with some frustration.

Therefore, the decision to actualize a long-time personal goal left Min Bahadur Sherchan with some internal uncertainties, he cited the political actions of China and Nepal as providing the greatest adversity he faced on his journey. Further, he was all too aware of the potential dangers the mountain could bring. Certain parts of the climb are more dangerous than others and it is important for climbers to remain focused “The Chinese weren’t allowing anybody on the mountain. They ended up commandeering it for themselves, even though the mountain is shared by two countries. They basically coerced the Nepali government to not allow any climbers past camp two on the Nepali side. More than 3040 people have climbed to the summit since it was first conquered in 1953 by New Zealander Edmund Hillary, who died in January, and Nepal’s Tenzing Norgay.

Hall was frostbitten and severely disoriented due to altitude sickness. Andrew Brash returned a hero to Calgarians. As he planned for the climb, Sherchan told reporters he wanted to inspire fellow senior citizens. He also said many Nepalese have established records on Everest, so it was only fitting that the record for the oldest climber to reach the summit should also belong to a Nepali. With the Chinese preparing for the impending summer Olympic Games, Bahadur Sherchan noted that the government’s actions hardly reflected the Olympic spirit. The Chinese were flying their airplanes over the mountain and had Chinese officials in Kathmandu.

As GuruFocus updates the stock buys and sells of gurus, Wal-Mart (WMT), the discount retail giant, stands out as the stock with a high ValueRank (7 out of 10). Just recently, Clipper Fund’s James Gipson and T. Rowe Price Equity Income Fund’s Brian Rogers bought Wal-Mart.

Oakmark’s legendary fund manager Bill Nygren was the first guru that bought Wal-Mart. He bought at price of $53 a year ago. Bill Ruane, the Graham-and-Doddsville superinvestor recognized by Warren Buffett, bought about 700,000 shares Wal-Mart at similar price in the fourth quarter of 2004. As the stock price drifted down, he added another 380,000 shares, bringing his total holdings to 1.1 million shares. In the last quarter, James Gipson purchased 2.8 million shares of Wal-Mart for his famed Clipper Fund, and Brian Rogers bought 4 million shares of Wal-Mart for his $19 billion T. Rowe Price Equity Income Fund.

The price of Wal-Mart did not go up, not yet. If an investor buys Wal-Mart today, he pays a lower price than what Bill Nygren and Bill Ruane had paid. If he is patient enough and holds the stock until the price appreciates (finally), he will beat these best investors on this investment.

Is Wal-Mart a good buy? It is certainly a much better buy than it was 5 years ago, when the stock was priced at $70 and a price/earnings ratio of 55. During the last 5 years Wal-Mart’s earnings have doubled, but the stock has fallen to $49, giving it a P/E of 18.

This is what Bill Nygren has to say about Wal-Mart’s P/E ratio: “That’s the same earnings multiple as the market average, that only makes sense if you think Wal-Mart is an average company.” And he doesn’t. Wal-Mart is rapidly gaining market share in its grocery business, and profit margins for its Sam’s Club are improving. Bill Nygren also likes Wal-Mart’s share-repurchasing plan: “We expect to see an increase in share price on a decreasing share base,” he says. “And obviously, the company believes that the stock at this price is an attractive investment.”

Going to Wal-Mart for its “Everyday Low Prices”? Check if its stock is also low priced!

Source: http://www.gurufocus.com/

Dr. Charlie Tian, Director of Research of http://gurufocus.com, the website that tracks the stock picks of Warren Buffett, George Soros and other guru investors like Bill Nygren, Mason Hawkins, Ken Fisher, David Dreman, Martin Whitman, James Gipson, Robert Rodriguez, Ronald Muhlenkamp, Wallace Weitz, William, Ruane, Edward Lampert, Edward Owens, Richard Aster, Jr, Robert Olstein, John Keeley, Brian Rogers and Tweedy, Browne.

For every three American adults, one is estimated to have high blood pressure. Around 65 million Americans over the age of 20 have high blood pressure. Scary statistics? You bet. Especially if you consider the fact that, if left uncontrolled, high blood pressure can result in leading causes of death like heart failure, stroke, aneurysm, heart attack, and kidney failure.

Here are the tips to lowering blood pressure naturally:

1. Go easy on the saltshaker.

People consume around two teaspoons of salt a day, an amount that must be lessened for those with high blood pressure. Since a large portion of the sodium you take in is from processed foods, watch out for these. In addition, try using spices, lemon, and salt-free seasoning blends for seasoning what you cook.

2. Improve your diet.

One of the important points in lowering your blood pressure naturally is improving your diet and eating healthier. By limiting the sweets and red meat you take in, and incorporating more fruits, vegetables, low-fat dairy products, and whole grains (the basics of the famed Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension - or DASH - diet), you’re definitely on your way to lower blood pressure.

3. Exercise.

Regular physical activity lowers blood pressure naturally and improves blood cholesterol levels. Exercise is important since it will help you maintain a healthy weight; being overweight raises your chances of developing high blood pressure. You will probably notice a decrease in your blood pressure within the first nine or ten weeks of regular exercise (around half an hour at least four or five days a week of physical activities like jogging, cycling, swimming, brisk walking and so on).

4. Decaf, please.

Stay away from caffeine, even if you may find it difficult to function in the morning without your cup of coffee. Caffeine does bad things to your blood pressure by increasing the effects of stress and getting your heart to start pumping like there’s no tomorrow. To help lower your blood pressure naturally, get decaf instead.

5. Relax.

Close your eyes. Breathe in. Breathe out. Meditation, yoga, and other relaxation techniques can also help to bring your blood pressure down. You can learn these activities from videos or by taking classes.

6 to 5 blackjack is the same as any other game of blackjack, that is to say that games of 6 to 5 blackjack have the same rule variations as ordinary blackjack, except that when you play 6 to 5 blackjack the payout for a natural blackjack is 6 to 5 instead of the usual 3 to 2.

To some people this might seem like a better deal. The numbers 6 and 5 are bigger than 3 and 2, so that means you get more money if you win right? Wrong! With 6 to 5 payout odds you get £6 for every £5 you bet. So if you bet £10 with the original 3 to 2 payout you’d win £15, but with the 6 to 5 payout you only win £12. This policy will put a serious dent in the player’s bankroll over many hands of play. In standard blackjack a good player would expect to lose an average of £2.60 per 100 hands assuming he bets an average £10 per hand. The reduced payout on 6 to 5 blackjack means the same player would expect to lose more than £14 over the same 100 hands.

Effectively 6 to 5 blackjack seriously reduces the chances of a player having a lucky run and winning a profit. In fact a player would have to be extremely lucky just to break even. Many blackjack enthusiasts have spoken out against 6 to 5 blackjack saying that natural blackjacks have to payout at 3 to 2 otherwise the player doesn’t have a fair shot at winning.

They also warn that if 6 to 5 blackjack becomes standard in casinos then people will lose interest in blackjack and possibly table games in casinos altogether. They say that a 6 to 5 payout on blackjack makes the game inherently unfair, and as customers begin to realise that the casinos are ripping them off they will leave in droves.

There wasn’t an immediate backlash against 6 to 5 blackjack because, it is alleged, most casual players don’t understand just how much this change affects their chances of winning. When they realise that they’re losing money five times faster than at standard games of blackjack they will start to leave.

The other problem is that many casinos, especially casinos in Las Vegas, have been hyping 6 to 5 blackjack as if it were better for the players. It has been seen advertised as a “whopping 6 to 5 payout” as if 6 to 5 was better than 3 to 2. Certainly the numbers are bigger but that’s all that is! It is often found that casinos will advertise the game as ’single deck blackjack’, which at 3 to 2 payout rates is good for the player (especially the card counters), but the 6 to 5 payout is in tiny writing. As players wise up to these tactics it is said that their confidence in casinos will drop and that could be very damaging for the whole industry.

If it hasn’t been made clear already, steer well clear of any game of blackjack offering only 6 to 5 payouts on natural blackjacks. You’ll lose money faster than if you’d cut holes in your pockets! And losing money quickly in a game that you’ve not much chance at winning is no fun at all.

To read more casino and gambling articles check out http://www.casinolagoon.co.uk, a casino gambling blog with articles on how to play and win at all the major casino games including blackjack, poker, craps and roulette.

Where to find it, What to do with it

Bubble wrap is a great way to securely send your items to make sure they arrive at their destination intakt. But when you go into an office supply store it can be quite expensive.

Here in Canada, bags of packing popcorn can be around $8-10.00! So where can we all find this FREE bubble wrap??

I used to own retail stores and at the end of every night we would put out our garbage for the mall to pick it up. We often would find bubble wrap and popcorn just tossed into the garbage. No need to let it go to waist.

So, here is what you do…..

Find a retailer that gets in alot of breakables; then get to know the store owner or manager. Ask them if you can help them out and take all that popcorn and bubble wrap off their hands.

They will be happy to have it picked up as they just don’t need it. And while you are at it, ask if you can have some of the smaller boxes that their merchandise arives in.

These boxes can take up a lot of room as well. The store owner may be happy to have it taken away along with the bubble wrap.

Get all the FREE popcorn & bubble wrap you need! Take it a step further and sell it on eBay.

Why not? Everyone needs bubble wrap.

Just sort the bubble wrap and packing peanuts. The ones that look brand new go into the sell on ebay pile. Use the rest for your own packaging.

Next time you’re in the mall, start taking note on which stores have a lot of glassware, dishes, porcelain or glass gift items and anything else that needs to be shipped in bubble wrap.

Talk to the owner and see if they are interested in letting you pick it up. Don’t limit yourself to just the mall though. There are many small stores in strip malls and downtown areas as well. You can find sources of free bubble wrap in many places. And then make room for it all. Have Fun!

Vera Raposo has been making a living with online auctions since 1997. With thousands of completed auctions under her belt, Vera is now sharing some of her best auction strategies in a free 90-minute interview at www.auctionstrategists.com/special

If we examine closely at the company 118 118 you yourself might notice simply how exceedingly well 118118 have completed and what 118118.com have accomplished within such a short period of time. 118118 is not the first directory enquiries company that is accessible, the recent competition is growing. Within 2002 the U.K telephone number enquiries markets opened up to competitors by phasing away from 192 and renewing it with a choice of different 6 digit telephone numbers which are 118118. A number of recent directory enquiries firms have seized the opportunity to win a slice of a potentially profitable sector, paying vast amounts of pounds on a marketing slot which is going to come no where close to being as victorious as the company 118118.

The www.118118.com telephone number is the greatest directory enquiries service in the Great Britain. Every week the 118118 team link up millions of its service callers through to people, locations and firms they require, as a result of this 118.com is at present the most often called number of the UK Telephone numbers can be found using the online directory enquiries service from www.118.com, they also offer information on train times.

Reports presently show that the UK’s telephone number Enquiries industry is the most large of the EU. www.118118.com sell a wide range of functions including the basic that is the phone telephone number service and then other added offerings such as cinema schedules and places, train times and train and tube locations.

The 118118 telephone number continues to be the only UK 118 business to sell a complete free telephone telephone number service aimed at callers from across each and every one of the major landline networks. From the 18th March 2008, 118.com service offering are pleased to state its service offering adjustments. currently 0800118FREE this offering is free from BT and major landline networks. Costs from mobile networks may vary. 118811 is now 40 p per minute and the company 118118 is 69 pence per call, 25 pence per minute, which is a hefty improvement considering it used to be over 1 great British pound.

Nicole is a smart ten year old. She, like all smart ten year olds, is full of questions, some embarrassing, some mundane. But to her they are just things she needs help with. Things she doesn’t understand. Things she knows her mum, Anita knows the answer to.

“Mum. What’s death meditation?” she shouted from her bedroom.

“Where did you hear that love?” Anita called back from her study.

“I heard two men talking about it on TV”. “The red headed man said a man called Steve Jobs said every morning he looks in the mirror and asks himself,

“If today were the last day of my life would I want to do what I am about to do today? And whenever the answer has been No for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something”

“Oh!” said a relieved Anita as she saved the presentation she was working on and headed off towards Nicole’s bedroom. “It’s a way of looking at your life and only doing what’s important. People think that if they know when they are going to die then they would do different things”.

“Well. If I’m going to die tonight I don’t want to think all I did was go to school today. I want to spend my time playing with my toys” replied a sharp Nicole.

“Ah. That’s not quite what it means. It doesn’t mean you stop doing things you don’t like doing. It means you must look at the reasons you do things as well as the activities themselves”.

“Look, I know you don’t like school very much and if you listen to what the red headed man said, you shouldn’t go. But another way of understanding what the red headed man is saying is to look underneath the words. He is also saying what do you feel? Are you doing things that you wish you weren’t every day. Things that you know deep down you shouldn’t be doing. Are you learning new things that will be of benefit to you and the world? Or are you just doing the same things everyday out of habit.”

“Oh I get it. If I go to Miss Smiths English class and look out of the window and just say what I know she wants me to say just to keep her happy then I might as well not be there”.

“Yes. In other words a robot, like your toy, could be programmed to do that”.

“If that’s what you do. Then the red headed man is saying you need to change your attitude otherwise what’s the point of being alive”.

“So if I don’t want to do what I do in Miss Smith’s class. I can change the way I behave and ask Miss Smith questions when I don’t understand”.

“Exactly”.

“It’s like when you play with your toys. I call you and call you for lunch but you don’t hear me. You’re in a world of your own. You’re totally involved in the game you are playing. That is what the man means”.

“But mum. He said. Death meditation. What’s that?”

“Ah that’s doing what Mr. Jobs does, saying to yourself every morning before you go to school. If I was to die tonight would I be happy with what I am about to do? What would be the best thing to do with the time I have left?”

“Now it may not be playing with your toys. It may be that it would be better if you said sorry to Dominic for stamping on his lunch when he dropped it on the floor. It may be better to do your best at everything you do rather than just turn up. It may be you try harder at the things you find difficult rather than just give in”.

“It may be that you spend time with Jane rather than ignore her because she doesn’t like the toys and pop songs you like”.

“You see some people of the world believe that the way you get out of bed and what you say to yourself first in the morning affects the way the day will be. So, if you get out of bed in a bad mood and say to yourself that school is terrible and English sucks then that is the experience you will get. But if you make an effort to start the day by being happy and seeing the good things then things happen differently”.

“So, Mum, if I think of Mr. Thomas as a nice man who is trying to help me rather than a horrible teacher who just tells me off all the time. It will be better.
“Yes. You will learn more”.

“Mum!”

“If you died right now would you be pleased with what you have done today?”

“No. If I look back on my day there are some things I would like to change.”

“What do you wish you’d done?”

“Most of it’s about my attitude. The way I spoke to people. I wish I hadn’t been so aggressive, so arrogant with people. I wish I had listened more to Josey when she was talking to me”

“That’s enough. It’s time for bed now.”

“Awe Mum!”

“If you were going to die in a few hours would you be doing this?”

“Yes because it’s for your benefit. You can sit and think about what we said before you go to sleep rather than just ask more questions”.

“That’s what death meditation is about. As well as thinking about doing your best in life. Meditation is also about reflecting on what you have done and thinking about the answers people have given you to the questions you asked.”

“It’s called reflecting on life”.

See you in the morning.

Graham and Julie
http://www.desktop-meditation.com

If you want to improve and enhance the quality of your life go to:
http://www.desktop-meditation.com It’s free.

I have been thinking for days this question: What if all the “We want the “Legal and Illegal” Mexican Migrant Workers who are, among many things, brutalizing our schools with that demonic language of theirs” got their way and all the illegals were deported overnight?

What if the Feds could find a way and did it and all the Mexicans, and believe me when I say they want all the Mexicans out of Dodge, were gone? What if this happened when you got up tomorrow morning?

I am sure that there would a cacophonous jubilee as not seen before in human history. I think there would be a lot of men (and who knows maybe some women) dressed in cowboy costumes, six-shooters strapped to each hip, and of course confederate flags the size of Long Island flapping in wind.

When all the celebration got over with just what do you think would happen?

Let me ask you a few questions:

1. The Minuteman and their supporters blame the rising cost of health care on the alleged fact that illegals get free medicine and care.

Do you believe for one stinking moment that the cardiologist, the neurologists, the oncologists, and every other “ologist” you can think of would suddenly lower their $150.00 office call fees overnight because of the disappearance of the illegals?

Do you think that you would be able to walk into your Family Practice Doctor’s office and only have to pay less than $15.00 for an office call like you can in Mexico?

Do you think you would suddenly be able to get your pap smear, gynecological exam, and mammogram for less than $99.00 like you can here in Mexico?

Do you think the cost of a hospital stay would overnight drop from a million dollars per second to a few bucks a night?

Is this what you people are actually thinking?

2. The Minuteman and their supports accuse illegals of:

“…corrupting our political and social institutions, favoring political and social radicalism, agitating for more transfer programs, and so on.”

Do you people really believe that fruit pickers and hotel maids who live in constant fear of detection of their illegal status are going to raise that kind of hell and risk getting their illegal status revealed? And do you really expect the world to believe that they have the intellectual sophisticationMOSTLY ILLITERATE, ILLEGAL MEXICAN/INDIANSto voice such concepts as “political and social radicalism, agitating for more transfer programs…”?

3. The Minuteman and their minions believe that illegals “refuse to conform and Americanize.”

Exactly to what “standard of Americanization” do these Minuteman mean? The American-Irish, the African-American, the American-German, the “what ever I want to be at the moment culture”?

4. Are you really going to start paying $21.00 for a head of lettuce instead of what you are paying now? Or, perhaps, $6.00 for “An” apple? Just where will farmers, hotel owners, and merchants suddenly get the money to pay for sky-high wages, benefits, that organized American Union workers will demand to pick your fruit and make your beds? This is presuming, of course, that your college educated kid, right out of the University, wants to do those jobs as the Minuteman folks claim.

(Please read the following written by Jacob G. Hornberger and reprinted by the kind permission of Bart Frazier Program Director The Future of Freedom Foundation.)

America’s National Culture on the Border by Jacob G. Hornberger, June 2000

People who rail that America’s “national culture” is threatened by immigrants never explain which national culture they are referring to.

I recently visited my hometown of Laredo, Texas, which is located on our nation’s Southern border. In grocery stores and department stores half the signs are in Spanish and store employees greet people in Spanish. There are a few pizza parlors and even a Chinese restaurant, but they can’t compare to the many restaurants selling enchiladas, menudo, chalupas, and tacos. Laredo, which today has a population of 155,000, was founded in 1755 by a Spanish officer named Don Tomas Sanchez de Barrera y Gallardo, who named the town Villa de San Agustin de Laredo, after a town in Spain. Today, San Augustin Plaza is located a short distance from Laredo’s two downtown international bridges, which connect the city to Nuevo Laredo, Mexico (population 300,000). One of the major downtown streets in Laredo is named Hidalgo Street, after Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, the father of Mexican independence. Another is Iturbide Street, named after Emperor Agustin Iturbide, the first ruler of independent Mexico. During my recent visit to Laredo, I noticed that the streets in a brand new residential subdivision had been named after coastal cities in Mexico, such as Puerto Vallarta.

After Texas won its independence from Mexico in 1836, Laredo refused to recognize Texas rule and for a time served as capital of the Republic of the Rio Grande, which consisted of a coalition of three northern Mexican states and southwest Texas, which were themselves revolting against Mexican rule, unsuccessfully. As part of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo at the end of the Mexican War in 1848, the war by which the United States acquired the northern half of Mexico, Laredo officially became part of the United States. (At the same time, Nuevo Laredo, on the other side of the Rio Grande, was founded by Mexican citizens who wanted to remain in Mexico rather than live in the United States.)

The long-established culture in Laredo has been one in which people informally converse with each other in either English or Spanish (or Tex-Mex, a peculiar blend of languages in which the conversants slip back and forth between English and Spanish, sometimes even within the same sentence). The local Spanish television channel and the Tejano (mixture of English and Spanish) radio stations seem to be at least as popular as the English-language ones. Generally people are indifferent to the particular language being spoken, and everyone is accepting of those who speak only English, sometimes even marrying them (as my mother did).

But even the English-only crowd speaks a little Spanish when they visit what was once Mexico. After all, when was the last time you heard anyone say that he personally saw St. Anthony and, after traveling through the Pass, visited St. Francis, and ended up visiting the Angels (San Antonio, El Paso, San Francisco, and Los Angeles)?

Oh, did I mention that for more than 100 years, Laredo has had the largest bash in the country celebrating George Washington’s birthday? Sixteen fun-filled days every February, including a grand parade with George and Martha Washington and their court in colonial garb on floats, the Society of Martha Washington Pageant and Ball, the Princess Pocahontas Pageant and Ball, Noche Mexicana, Caballeros Cocktail Party, Streets of Laredo Jamboozee (including such musical groups as “Tommy and the Tomcats” and “Javier Molina & El Dorado,”), fireworks, street parties, and a fantastic Jalapeno Festival (including, of course, a jalapeno spitting contest).

If those who are dedicated to preserving America’s “national culture” are referring to the culture in Laredo (which really is located inside the United States), they’ll find plenty of support among the citizenry of this great American city located on the banks of the Rio Grande.
Mr. Hornberger is founder and president of The Future of Freedom Foundation (http://www.fff.org/) in Fairfax, Va.

I am compelled to ask once again, “exactly to what standard of Americanization do these Minuteman mean?”

Doug Bower is a freelance writer, Syndicated Columnist, and book author. His most recent writing credits include The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Houston Chronicle, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and Transitions Abroad. He is a columnist with Cricketsoda.com and more than 21 additional online magazines. He is also a writer with EzineArticles.com with a readership of almost 6,000. He lives with his wife in Guanajuato, Mexico. His newest books, Mexican Living: Blogging it from a Third World Country and The Plain Truth about Living in Mexico can be seen: CLICK HERE–http://www.lulu.com/mexicanliving

What is a calorie? A calorie is considered in scientific terms one unit of energy. This energy is used to walk, talk, breath, sleep, stretch or run. All activities burn calories. The human body exerts its energy by using calories it receives from food. Thus when we speak of calories we associate the term with dieting and weight loss.

In general terms, foods contain calories. We may see them described in other terms such as a carbohydrate, a fat and a protein. These terms are measured in units called grams. So the basic building block of each gram is a defined number of calories.

1 gram of carbohydrates contain four (4) calories
h
1 gram of protein contains four (4) calories
1 gram of fat contains nine (9) calories

While you eat, food is broken down inside of your stomach and metabolized into your blood stream. It is either used and burned up efficiently through activity or stored in our cells and fat cells are created. A total of 3,500 stored calories equal one (1) pound of body fat. Tus, in order to lose that one-pound of fat, we have to burn up 3,500 calories per exercise to remove it. It sounds a little easier than it looks on paper.

Your body will need to a certain amount of calories in order to maintain itself properly. The act of breathing, walking, running, sleeping and talking all burn a certain amount of calories. This rate is called the Basal Metabolism Rate or (BMR) as it is known. It is calculated differently for both men and women. When your body is at rest it does not burn as many calories as when it is exercising

Physical activities such as jogging, walking, and skiing also help burn calories. The more physical exercise you get, the more calories you will burn. Thus you are keeping your body in shape by eating right and working off the excess calories through exercise. Thus, exercise in general helps to keep your metabolism rate higher and continues to burn fat long after the exercising is done. It will also help your body burn excess fat efficiently at rest.

You may still be wondering how many calories do an average person need a day to keep going? The US Food and Drug Administration has applied a standard measurement of 2000 calories per day. This measurement applies to both male and female respectively

If you are looking to start losing some of those extra pounds, remember each pound is 3,500 calories that you must burn in order to lose one pound of fat. You will want to first consult a physician as with starting any new diet or exercise program.

Phil Rather, a noted researcher and writer, contributed this article for
Successful Weight Loss.

It is worth remembering that the work environment is primarily an unconventional setting for adults. At home we may have responsibilities for bringing up children, paying mortgages, doing DIY and being good neighbours. These are all self-regulating activities and most people manage to do these without too much stress. The workplace however often requires us to leave our adult instincts at the door and adopt a ‘role-play’ approach in order to fit in with the prevailing culture. Such a setting can encourage competition which in itself can encourage the individuals within it to raise their game and perform better than they may do alone. On the other hand, this competitive ’system’ can lead to behaviours that seem to conflict with adult best practice. When disagreements arise, the consequences can often be ugly and lead to ongoing stress and low morale amongst those involved. Below we shall look at how such a situation may arise and how a facilitated discussion might help.

Let us take an example - Joe is in charge of business development for an IT consulting firm. He has successfully negotiated a key contract to develop some software for a hedge fund company. The negotiations were difficult, considering that a competitor was also bidding for the same project. Joe is very pleased to have won the deal. A team is assembled to design and deliver the system. It is estimated to take six months and cost £200,000. There are financial penalties involved for late delivery. The project seemingly starts well but as it progresses, Kevin, the Project Manager is getting stressed and key deadlines are being overshot. Five months later, it is clear that the project is way behind schedule and the company looks likely to incur penalties. Whilst Joe had consulted with his analysts before pricing the deal, he had ignored some of their concerns about a particularly complex module of the work. The analysts couldn’t quantify how potentially complex it might be until they started the work. In the end Joe decided to ‘wing it’ by taking the most optimistic scenario, i.e. that the module would be easy to develop.

A meeting has been called by the CEO of the consulting firm to find out what has been going wrong. Joe is blaming the analysts and the project manager for not being efficient in their work. Kevin, the Project Manager is furious that Joe is questioning his ability and his integrity. He tells the CEO that Joe has set the team up for failure by incorrectly pricing the deal in order to get his commission. The CEO meanwhile is furious at the prospect of his resources being wasted and of having to pay considerable financial penalties. Clearly we have a situation of conflict. Joe is stressed because he feels that Kevin has got him into trouble with the CEO and that his team has let him down by not delivering the project on time. Kevin is stressed because he feels Joe was being dishonest in his negotiations and is trying to use him as a scapegoat.

Is this an unsolvable stalemate? Perhaps and perhaps not? It depends on how the individuals handle it from this point forward. In an ideal situation, a good facilitator, (in-house or external), would convene a meeting between Kevin and Joe. Open communication is key at this point and it is important to look at the positive intentions behind each person’s behaviour. Kevin would be asked what his positive intentions were in not communicating earlier that the project was off-track. He might say that he didn’t want to cause any concern or that he didn’t want anyone to think that he was a failure. As for Joe, he might say that he ignored the analysts concerns when pricing the deal because he was desperate to prove that he was able to win good business for the company. He was also determined to ‘beat’ his opposite number at the competitor firm, whom he had worked with before and disliked intensely. A deeper analysis would probably reveal more positive intentions for each party. The key thing about this conversation is that even though Kevin and Joe are at loggerheads, it is clear that neither of them had any intention to offend or undermine the other. Their intentions were pure given the ’system’ that they are operating in.

The discussion could then look at the values or ‘drivers’ of each employee. If Joe were asked what was important about winning the deal he might list the following: Money, Pride, Recognition, Job Security and Success. These are the ‘drivers’ behind his intentions. Kevin on the other hand might say that it was important to him not to flag the problem earlier because he strongly values: Harmony, Determination, Pride and Teamwork. Both parties are ‘driven’ by different things (although the both value ‘Pride’). Since Kevin values Harmony, he didn’t want to cause a fuss by indicating that there might be a problem. Since Joe is driven by Money, he may do whatever it legally takes to secure it. In this type of dialogue the facilitator would encourage both parties to see how the methods they have used to meet their values might have caused collateral damage to other people. They could then explore new ways of meeting their values that may be better for the other party and the company in general.

The type of facilitated discussion outlined above is entirely realistic, even when there is animosity or conflict. It broadens the participant’s awareness of how other people have good intentions and admirable values irrespective of the outcomes of their actions. The participants can also come away with a better understanding of how they themselves think and operate. Building this type of awareness is an excellent way to foster understanding and future cooperation amongst employees.

Noel is an experienced coach with a solid corporate background that enables him to closely empathise with the issues facing his Executive Coaching London clients. Find out more at http://www.inspiring-potential.com