[piko!] con non poca fatica è riuscito ad elencare gli interventi pubblicati in questa sezione in ordine cronologico.

Sostanze, le cui monografie sono presenti nella F.U., da tenere in armadio chiuso a chiave (Art. 146 del T.U. delle Leggi Sanitarie 27 luglio 1934, n. 1265)

Acido nitrico Acido solforico Acido tricloroacetico Adrenalina Apomorfina cloridrato Argento nitrato Atropina solfato Belladonna Chinidina solfato Chinina cloridrato Cloralio idrato Colchicina Cresolo Digitossina Digossina Efedrina Emetina cloridrato Eparina Ergometrina maleato Ergotamina tartrato Fenolo Fisostigmina salicilato Fisostigmina solfato Gallamina trietiloduro Imipramina cloridrato Iodio (1) Iosciamina solfato Ipecacuana Isotretinoina Istamina Lidocaina Lindano Lobelina cloridrato Merbromina Mercurio dicloruro Mercurio ossido giallo Metilatropina Neostigmina metilsolfato Noradrenalina Noscapina Omatropina bromidrato Omatropina metilbromuro Ouabaina Pilocarpina Reserpina Scopolamina bromidrato Scopolamina solfato Sodio fluoruro (2) Suxametonio cloruro Tetracaina cloridrato Tiomersal Tubocurarina cloruro

Limitatamente alle sostanze organiche devono ritenersi inclusi nel presente elenco anche le basi libere dei sali elencati e viceversa, nonché altri sali delle stesse.

Note.
1) Le prescrizioni dell'art. 146 del T.U. delle Leggi Sanitarie si applicano alle sostanze e non ai medicinali che le contengono sia nel caso di preparati soggetti ad A.I.C. che di preparati magistrali ed officinali. Le prescrizioni dell'art. 146 del T.U. L .S devono essere osservate anche per tutte le sostanze tossiche o molto tossiche che sono o non sono iscritte in Farmacopea.
2) Per la vendita e somministrazione di sostanze incluse nella presente tabella o molto tossiche e delle loro preparazioni galeniche eseguite integralmente in farmacia, vanno rispettate le disposizioni di legge, anche per quanto riguarda le norme relative alla spedizione delle ricette (artt. 123, lettera c) e 147 del T.U. delle Leggi Sanitarie; artt. 39 e 40 del Regolamento per il Servizio Farmaceutico, R.D. 30 settembre 1938, n. 1706; art. 730 del Codice Penale).
3) Le sostanze, i loro sali e preparazioni ad azione stupefacente di cui alle tabelle II, sez A della Tabella n. 7 vanno tenuti in armadio chiuso a chiave, separati dalle sostanze incluse nella presente tabella, da quelle tossiche e molto tossiche.

(1) Le preparazioni "Iodio soluzione cutanea", "Iodio soluzione orale", "Iodio unguento", "Iodio e acido salicilico soluzione cutanea","Iodio e glicerolo soluzione" non sono soggette alle disposizioni di cui al punto 2) delle Note.
(2) La preparazione "Sodio fluoruro compresse", contenente fino a 2,2 mg di sodio fluoruro per compressa, non è soggetta alle disposizioni di cui al punto 2) delle Note.

per sbloccare un dispositivo android (in particolare quando richiede un non tanto chiaro account e password perché si sono effettuati troppi tentativi), si utilizza una procedura di "hard reset", che riporta il dispositivo alle impostazioni di fabbrica.

i dati presenti nella card micro-sd non verranno cancellati.
la rubrica, i messaggi, le impostazioni, le app installate invece si.
quindi fatelo solamente se il dispositivo è bloccato.
la procedura è semplice e vi permetterà di risparmiare quei 40€ che normalmente richiedono i centri di assistenza.

- installate adb (android debug bridge): eccone una versione windows ospitata da amolenuvolette.it, visto che android sdk è sempre intasato e quando la roba ti serve subito non la riesci a scaricare mai.

- scompattate il file che avete appena scaricato nella cartella che preferite (ad esempio, sul desktop).

- accendete il dispositivo e collegatelo al vostro computer tramite il cavetto usb in dotazione. affinchè venga riconosciuto, sono necessari gli appositi drivers: se non li avete già installati, cercate quelli adatti per il vostro modello ed installateli.

- una volta collegato via usb, qualora vi sia richiesto, impostate il dispositivo in modalità "kies" (l'altra opzione è "memoria di massa"). - tramite la riga di comando "cmd" di windows (la trovi in "start/esegui/"), digita il percorso della cartella dove hai scompattato "adb", e scrivi il comando:
c:/percorso_di_adb/adb reboot recovery
se non sai scrivere il percorso, utilizza la funzione "sfoglia", cerca la cartella, clicca due volte su "adb.exe", e lo vedrai comparire sulla riga di comando. cancella il ".exe" e assicurati che dopo la "/" ci sia scritto il benedetto "adb reboot recovery".

- a questo punto il telefono si riavvierà, entrando in modalità "recovery". negli esotici menù sul telefono scegli "wipe data", conferma e riavvia. così facendo avrai resettato il sistema operativo android alle sue impostazioni di fabbrica.

per far funzionare il sistema, non è necessario il root del telefono. mi sembra ovvio invece che il vostro smartphone debba avere un accesso ad internet funzionante: il piano tariffario dipende dall'operatore. lo scrivo perché... non si sa mai.

installate sul vostro cellulare samsung galaxy i-5800 il programma "easy tether" che trovate nel marketplace android. ne esiste una versione gratuita, "easy tether lite", la cui unica limitazione è di non permettere l'accesso a siti con protocolli sicuri https:// (come... facebook!).

non collegate il telefono via usb.
installate prima sul vostro pc i files contenuti in questo archivio: sono il client easy tether per windows (una icona nella barra delle applicazioni che, appena collegato il telefonino, vi permetterà di connettervi) ed i driver per windows del telefono samsung (qualora il vostro computer non riconoscesse il telefono).

in android, andate su "impostazioni", "info sul telefono", "impostazioni usb" e selezionate la modalità "memoria di massa".
poi di nuovo su "impostazioni", "applicazioni", "sviluppo" ed attivate il "debug usb".
aprite la app "easy tether lite" oppure "easy tether pro" (se l'avete acquistata, viene circa 7€) sul vostro smartphone e abilitate il "tethering via usb".
ora collegate il telefono via usb al vostro computer.
cliccando sull'icona di "easy tether" nella barra delle applicazioni di windows, troverete una connessione "android": selezionatela. se vi dice che la questione già funziona, siete fortunati!

se non funziona, digitate sulla tastiera del vostro telefono il codice " *#7284# " per aprire "phone util", che vi permetterà di impostare la modalità di scambio di uart ed usb: impostate la porta uart su "modem", e quella usb su "pda". qualora siano già impostate su questi valori, scegliete i valori sbagliati e poi reimpostateli su quelli corretti.

a questo punto vedrete apparire il simbolo della porta usb sulla barra in alto del telefono, il vostro computer riconoscerà lo smartphone ed il gioco è fatto.
aprite il browser e scaricate la posta!

TEN THINGS THAT I HAVE LEARNED

YOU CAN ONLY WORK FOR PEOPLE THAT YOU LIKE.
This is a curious rule and it took me a long time to learn because in fact at the beginning of my practice I felt the opposite. Professionalism required that you didn’t particularly like the people that you worked for or at least maintained an arms length relationship to them, which meant that I never had lunch with a client or saw them socially. Then some years ago I realised that the opposite was true. I discovered that all the work I had done that was meaningful and significant came out of an affectionate relationship with a client. And I am not talking about professionalism; I am talking about affection. I am talking about a client and you sharing some common ground. That in fact your view of life is someway congruent with the client, otherwise it is a bitter and hopeless struggle.

IF YOU HAVE A CHOICE NEVER HAVE A JOB.
One night I was sitting in my car outside Columbia University where my wife Shirley was studying Anthropology. While I was waiting I was listening to the radio and heard an interviewer ask ‘Now that you have reached 75 have you any advice for our audience about how to prepare for your old age?’ An irritated voice said ‘Why is everyone asking me about old age these days?’ I recognised the voice as John Cage. I am sure that many of you know who he was – the composer and philosopher who influenced people like Jasper Johns and Merce Cunningham as well as the music world in general. I knew him slightly and admired his contribution to our times. ‘You know, I do know how to prepare for old age’ he said. ‘Never have a job, because if you have a job someday someone will take it away from you and then you will be unprepared for your old age. For me, it has always been the same every since the age of 12. I wake up in the morning and I try to figure out how am I going to put bread on the table today? It is the same at 75, I wake up every morning and I think how am I going to put bread on the table today? I am exceedingly well prepared for my old age’ he said.

SOME PEOPLE ARE TOXIC AVOID THEM.
This is a subtext of number one. There was in the sixties a man named Fritz Perls who was a gestalt therapist. Gestalt therapy derives from art history, it proposes you must understand the ‘whole’ before you can understand the details. What you have to look at is the entire culture, the entire family and community and so on. Perls proposed that in all relationships people could be either toxic or nourishing towards one another. It is not necessarily true that the same person will be toxic or nourishing in every relationship, but the combination of any two people in a relationship produces toxic or nourishing consequences. And the important thing that I can tell you is that there is a test to determine whether someone is toxic or nourishing in your relationship with them. Here is the test: You have spent some time with this person, either you have a drink or go for dinner or you go to a ball game. It doesn’t matter very much but at the end of that time you observe whether you are more energised or less energised. Whether you are tired or whether you are exhilarated. If you are more tired then you have been poisoned. If you have more energy you have been nourished. The test is almost infallible and I suggest that you use it for the rest of your life.

PROFESSIONALISM IS NOT ENOUGH or THE GOOD IS THE ENEMY OF THE GREAT.
Early in my career I wanted to be professional, that was my complete aspiration in my early life because professionals seemed to know everything – not to mention they got paid for it. Later I discovered after working for a while that professionalism itself was a limitation. After all, what professionalism means in most cases is diminishing risks. So if you want to get your car fixed you go to a mechanic who knows how to deal with transmission problems in the same way each time. I suppose if you needed brain surgery you wouldn’t want the doctor to fool around and invent a new way of connecting your nerve endings. Please do it in the way that has worked in the past.
Unfortunately in our field, in the so-called creative – I hate that word because it is misused so often. I also hate the fact that it is used as a noun. Can you imagine calling someone a creative? Anyhow, when you are doing something in a recurring way to diminish risk or doing it in the same way as you have done it before, it is clear why professionalism is not enough. After all, what is required in our field, more than anything else, is the continuous transgression. Professionalism does not allow for that because transgression has to encompass the possibility of failure and if you are professional your instinct is not to fail, it is to repeat success. So professionalism as a lifetime aspiration is a limited goal.

LESS IS NOT NECESSARILY MORE.
Being a child of modernism I have heard this mantra all my life. Less is more. One morning upon awakening I realised that it was total nonsense, it is an absurd proposition and also fairly meaningless. But it sounds great because it contains within it a paradox that is resistant to understanding. But it simply does not obtain when you think about the visual of the history of the world. If you look at a Persian rug, you cannot say that less is more because you realise that every part of that rug, every change of colour, every shift in form is absolutely essential for its aesthetic success. You cannot prove to me that a solid blue rug is in any way superior. That also goes for the work of Gaudi, Persian miniatures, art nouveau and everything else. However, I have an alternative to the proposition that I believe is more appropriate. ‘Just enough is more.’

STYLE IS NOT TO BE TRUSTED.
I think this idea first occurred to me when I was looking at a marvellous etching of a bull by Picasso. It was an illustration for a story by Balzac called The Hidden Masterpiece. I am sure that you all know it. It is a bull that is expressed in 12 different styles going from very naturalistic version of a bull to an absolutely reductive single line abstraction and everything else along the way. What is clear just from looking at this single print is that style is irrelevant. In every one of these cases, from extreme abstraction to acute naturalism they are extraordinary regardless of the style. It’s absurd to be loyal to a style. It does not deserve your loyalty. I must say that for old design professionals it is a problem because the field is driven by economic consideration more than anything else. Style change is usually linked to economic factors, as all of you know who have read Marx. Also fatigue occurs when people see too much of the same thing too often. So every ten years or so there is a stylistic shift and things are made to look different. Typefaces go in and out of style and the visual system shifts a little bit. If you are around for a long time as a designer, you have an essential problem of what to do. I mean, after all, you have developed a vocabulary, a form that is your own. It is one of the ways that you distinguish yourself from your peers, and establish your identity in the field. How you maintain your own belief system and preferences becomes a real balancing act. The question of whether you pursue change or whether you maintain your own distinct form becomes difficult. We have all seen the work of illustrious practitioners that suddenly look old-fashioned or, more precisely, belonging to another moment in time. And there are sad stories such as the one about Cassandre, arguably the greatest graphic designer of the twentieth century, who couldn’t make a living at the end of his life and committed suicide.
But the point is that anybody who is in this for the long haul has to decide how to respond to change in the zeitgeist. What is it that people now expect that they formerly didn’t want? And how to respond to that desire in a way that doesn’t change your sense of integrity and purpose.

HOW YOU LIVE CHANGES YOUR BRAIN.
The brain is the most responsive organ of the body. Actually it is the organ that is most susceptible to change and regeneration of all the organs in the body. I have a friend named Gerald Edelman who was a great scholar of brain studies and he says that the analogy of the brain to a computer is pathetic. The brain is actually more like an overgrown garden that is constantly growing and throwing off seeds, regenerating and so on. And he believes that the brain is susceptible, in a way that we are not fully conscious of, to almost every experience of our life and every encounter we have. I was fascinated by a story in a newspaper a few years ago about the search for perfect pitch. A group of scientists decided that they were going to find out why certain people have perfect pitch. You know certain people hear a note precisely and are able to replicate it at exactly the right pitch. Some people have relevant pitch; perfect pitch is rare even among musicians. The scientists discovered – I don’t know how – that among people with perfect pitch the brain was different. Certain lobes of the brain had undergone some change or deformation that was always present with those who had perfect pitch. This was interesting enough in itself. But then they discovered something even more fascinating. If you took a bunch of kids and taught them to play the violin at the age of 4 or 5 after a couple of years some of them developed perfect pitch, and in all of those cases their brain structure had changed. Well what could that mean for the rest of us? We tend to believe that the mind affects the body and the body affects the mind, although we do not generally believe that everything we do affects the brain. I am convinced that if someone was to yell at me from across the street my brain could be affected and my life might changed. That is why your mother always said, ‘Don’t hang out with those bad kids.’ Mama was right. Thought changes our life and our behaviour. I also believe that drawing works in the same way. I am a great advocate of drawing, not in order to become an illustrator, but because I believe drawing changes the brain in the same way as the search to create the right note changes the brain of a violinist. Drawing also makes you attentive. It makes you pay attention to what you are looking at, which is not so easy.

DOUBT IS BETTER THAN CERTAINTY.
Everyone always talks about confidence in believing what you do. I remember once going to a class in yoga where the teacher said that, spirituality speaking, if you believed that you had achieved enlightenment you have merely arrived at your limitation. I think that is also true in a practical sense. Deeply held beliefs of any kind prevent you from being open to experience, which is why I find all firmly held ideological positions questionable. It makes me nervous when someone believes too deeply or too much. I think that being sceptical and questioning all deeply held beliefs is essential. Of course we must know the difference between scepticism and cynicism because cynicism is as much a restriction of one’s openness to the world as passionate belief is. They are sort of twins. And then in a very real way, solving any problem is more important than being right. There is a significant sense of self-righteousness in both the art and design world. Perhaps it begins at school. Art school often begins with the Ayn Rand model of the single personality resisting the ideas of the surrounding culture. The theory of the avant garde is that as an individual you can transform the world, which is true up to a point. One of the signs of a damaged ego is absolute certainty.
Schools encourage the idea of not compromising and defending your work at all costs. Well, the issue at work is usually all about the nature of compromise. You just have to know what to compromise. Blind pursuit of your own ends which excludes the possibility that others may be right does not allow for the fact that in design we are always dealing with a triad – the client, the audience and you.
Ideally, making everyone win through acts of accommodation is desirable. But self-righteousness is often the enemy. Self-righteousness and narcissism generally come out of some sort of childhood trauma, which we do not have to go into. It is a consistently difficult thing in human affairs. Some years ago I read a most remarkable thing about love, that also applies to the nature of co-existing with others. It was a quotation from Iris Murdoch in her obituary. It read ‘ Love is the extremely difficult realisation that something other than oneself is real.’ Isn’t that fantastic! The best insight on the subject of love that one can imagine.

ON AGING.
Last year someone gave me a charming book by Roger Rosenblatt called ‘Ageing Gracefully’ I got it on my birthday. I did not appreciate the title at the time but it contains a series of rules for ageing gracefully. The first rule is the best. Rule number one is that ‘it doesn’t matter.’ ‘It doesn’t matter that what you think. Follow this rule and it will add decades to your life. It does not matter if you are late or early, if you are here or there, if you said it or didn’t say it, if you are clever or if you were stupid. If you were having a bad hair day or a no hair day or if your boss looks at you cockeyed or your boyfriend or girlfriend looks at you cockeyed, if you are cockeyed. If you don’t get that promotion or prize or house or if you do – it doesn’t matter.’ Wisdom at last. Then I heard a marvellous joke that seemed related to rule number 10. A butcher was opening his market one morning and as he did a rabbit popped his head through the door. The butcher was surprised when the rabbit inquired ‘Got any cabbage?’ The butcher said ‘This is a meat market – we sell meat, not vegetables.’ The rabbit hopped off. The next day the butcher is opening the shop and sure enough the rabbit pops his head round and says ‘You got any cabbage?’ The butcher now irritated says ‘Listen you little rodent I told you yesterday we sell meat, we do not sell vegetables and the next time you come here I am going to grab you by the throat and nail those floppy ears to the floor.’ The rabbit disappeared hastily and nothing happened for a week. Then one morning the rabbit popped his head around the corner and said ‘Got any nails?’ The butcher said ‘No.’ The rabbit said ‘Ok. Got any cabbage?’

TELL THE TRUTH.
The rabbit joke is relevant because it occurred to me that looking for a cabbage in a butcher’s shop might be like looking for ethics in the design field. It may not be the most obvious place to find either. It’s interesting to observe that in the new AIGA’s code of ethics there is a significant amount of useful information about appropriate behaviour towards clients and other designers, but not a word about a designer’s relationship to the public. We expect a butcher to sell us eatable meat and that he doesn’t misrepresent his wares. I remember reading that during the Stalin years in Russia that everything labelled veal was actually chicken. I can’t imagine what everything labelled chicken was. We can accept certain kinds of misrepresentation, such as fudging about the amount of fat in his hamburger but once a butcher knowingly sells us spoiled meat we go elsewhere. As a designer, do we have less responsibility to our public than a butcher? Everyone interested in licensing our field might note that the reason licensing has been invented is to protect the public not designers or clients. ‘Do no harm’ is an admonition to doctors concerning their relationship to their patients, not to their fellow practitioners or the drug companies. If we were licensed, telling the truth might become more central to what we do.

 

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Dieci cose che ho imparato

1) Lavora solo con persone che ti piacciono
Questa è una regola strana e mi ci è voluto del tempo per impararla. All’inizio della mia carriera pensavo che fosse vero il contrario. Il professionismo significava che le persone per cui lavoravi non dovevano esserti particolarmente simpatiche o almeno che dovevi tenerti a debita distanza. Per me significava che non avrei mai pranzato con loro né li avrei visti in altre occasioni sociali. Qualche anno fa ho capito che era vero esattamente l’opposto. Ho scoperto che tutto il lavoro che ho fatto e che ha un qualche significato era il risultato di una relazione positiva, affettiva, con il cliente. Non sto parlando di professionalità, ma di affetto. Sto parlando di un cliente con cui si condivide qualcosa. La tua visione della vita deve essere in qualche modo coerente con quella del cliente. Altrimenti è una battaglia acida e senza speranze.

2) Se puoi scegliere, scegli di non avere un’occupazione
Una notte ero seduto nella mia macchina fuori dalla Columbia University, dove mia moglie Shirley studiava antropologia. Mentre aspettavo ascoltavo la radio e sentii un intervistatore chiedere: “Ora che hai 75 anni, hai dei consigli da dare agli ascoltatori che si preparano a entrare nella vecchia?” Una voce irritata rispose: “Perché di questi tempi tutti mi fanno domande sulla vecchiaia?”. Riconobbi la voce, era quella di John Cage. Sono sicuro che molti di voi sanno chi fosse – il compositore e filosofo che influenzò persone come Jasper Johns e Merce Cunningham e il mondo della musica in generale. “Io so come prepararmi alla vecchiaia”. “Non trovarti mai un’occupazione. Perché se ti trovi un’occupazione un giorno qualcuno ti porterà via il tuo lavoro e tu sarai impreparato alla vecchiaia. Per me, è sempre stato così da quando avevo 12 anni. Mi sveglio al mattino e mi chiedo cosa dovrò fare per guadagnarmi da vivere quel giorno. Lo faccio ancora oggi che ho 75 anni. Mi alzo e mi chiedo cosa fare per guadagnarmi da vivere. Quindi, sono molto preparato per la vecchiaia”.

3) Certe persone sono tossiche. Evitale
Questo è un sottotesto del punto uno. Negli anni 60 c’era un uomo, Fritz Perls, terapista della Gestalt, una terapia che affonda le sue origini nella storia dell’arte. Suggerisce che tu debba capire il “tutto” prima di capire i dettagli. Devi guardare all’intera cultura, l’intera famiglia, l’intera comunità ecc ecc. L’idea di Perls era che in tutte le relazioni, le persone potevano essere o tossiche oppure potevano nutrirsi a vicenda. Non necessariamente la stessa persona sarà tossica o positiva in ognuna delle sue relazioni, ma qualsiasi relazione tra due persone si traduce o in una relazione tossica o “nutriente”. La cosa importante è che c’è un test per determinare se la persona con cui avete una relazione, in quella relazione è tossica o positiva. Eccolo: dovete passare un po’ di tempo con questa persona, andare a bere qualcosa o a cena o a una partita di calcio. Non importa, ma alla fine dovete chiedervi se vi sentiti più o meno energizzati. Se siete più stanchi, siete stati avvelenati. Se avete più energia, siete stati nutriti. Il test è praticamente infallibile e vi suggerisco di usarlo per il resto della vostra vita.

4) La professionalità non è abbastanza e il buono è nemico dell’ottimo
All’inizio della mia carriera ambivo a essere un professionista, era la mia unica aspirazione, i professionisti sembravano sapere ogni cosa e venivano anche pagati per questo. Dopo aver lavorato per un po’ scoprii che la professionalità poteva essere un limite. Dopo tutto, ciò che la professionalità davvero significa è “riduzione dei rischi”. Se vuoi farti riparare la macchina, vai da un meccanico che sa come risolvere un problema di trasmissione e che dimostra la stessa capacità ogni volta che vai da lui. Se hai un tumore al cervello probabilmente eviterai il chirurgo che dice di voler sperimentare sui tuoi neuroni un nuovo modo di connettere le cellule. Per favore, fatelo nel modo che si è dimostrato finora valido. Purtroppo nel nostro campo, che chiamiamo creativo (una parola che odio perché troppo spesso viene usata a sproposito), non funziona esattamente così. Se fai qualcosa in modo ripetitivo, per diminuire i rischi o lo fai addirittura nello stesso modo, è chiaro che non funziona. Nel nostro campo la professionalità non è sufficiente. Ciò che più ci viene chiesto è di trasgredire continuamente. La professionalità non permette questo perché la trasgressione ha in sé il rischio del fallimento, e l’istinto naturale di un professionista è di non fallire, di ripetere i successi che ha ottenuto in passato. Quindi aspirare al professionismo per tutta la vita è un obiettivo limitato.

5) Meno non è necessariamente più
Poiché sono un figlio del modernismo ho sentito il mantra “less is more” per tutta la mia vita. Un giorno mi sono svegliato e ho capito che non aveva alcun senso, è una sentenza assurda e forse senza significato. Ma suona fantastica, perché contiene un paradosso di cui non si riesce a venire a capo. Ma se guardi alla storia dell’arte non ha senso. Se guardi a un tappeto persiano non puoi dire less is more, perché capisci che ogni parte di quel tappeto, ogni cambio di colore, ogni sfumatura nella forma, è essenziale per il successo estetico di quell’oggetto. Non potrai mai dimostrare che un tappeto blu in tinta unita è più bello. Lo stesso vale per le opere di Gaudi, per le miniature persiane, per l’art nouveau e per ogni altra cosa. Però posso proporre un alternativa al mantra, che mi sembra più appropriato: “Appena sufficiente è di più”.

6) Non bisogna fidarsi dello stile
Credo che questa idea mi sia venuta per la prima volta guardando una meravigliosa incisione di un toro fatta da Picasso. Era fatta per illustrare una storia di Balzac chiamata Il capolavoro nascosto. Sono sicuro che tutti conoscete quel toro. E’ un toro che viene descritto in 12 diversi stili, da una versione molto naturalistica del toro fino a un’astrazione assolutamente riduttiva fatta con una singola linea. Tra i due estremi ci sono dieci versioni. Ciò che è evidente guardando queste opere è che lo stile è irrilevante. Tutte le versioni del toro, da quella di più estrema astrazione a quella dipiù acuto naturalismo, sono straordinariamente slegate dallo stile. E’ assurdo essere fedeli a uno stile. Uno stile non merita fedeltà. Devo dire che per vecchi professionisti questo è un problema, perché oggi la nostra professione è spinta da considerazioni economiche più che da qualsiasi altra considerazione. I cambiamenti di stile in genere sono legati a fattori economici, come sa chi tra voi ha letto Marx. E poi compare sempre una certa stanchezza nelle persone quando vedono la stessa cosa per troppo tempo. Quindi ogni dieci anni circa c’è un cambiamento di stile e le cose vengono fatte in modo da sembrare diverse. I caratteri passano di moda o diventano di moda. Se sono molti anni che lavori come grafico, hai il problema di come comportarti. In fondo, ognuno di noi sviluppa un suo vocabolario, una forma che è solo sua. E’ un modo per distinguerti dai tuoi pari e per crearti un’identità nel settore. Come mantenerti fedele ai tuoi canoni e a ciò che ti piace fare diventa un atto di equilibrismo. La scelta tra scegliere il cambiamento o mantenere la tua forma distintiva diventa difficile. Abbiamo tutti visto il lavoro di illustri professionisti passare d’un tratto di moda. Anche se più precisamente, non passa di moda, non invecchia, ma sembra a un tratto appartenere a un altro momento storico. Ci sono storie tristi come quella di Cassandre, sicuramente uno dei più grandi grafici del ventesimo secolo. Verso la fine della sua carriera nessuno gli commissionava più lavoro e si suicidò.. Il punto è che chiunque sia e voglia restare in questo campo per molto tempo deve decidere come rispondere allo zeitgeist. Cosa si aspettano ora le persone, che prima non volevano? E come rispondere a questo desiderio in un modo che non cambi il tuo senso di integrità, coerenza, scopo.

7) Il tuo modo di vivere cambia il tuo cervello
Il cervello è l’organo più reattivo del nostro intero organismo. E’ inoltre l’organo che più è sensibile ai cambiamenti e alla rigenerazione di tutti gli organi del nostro corpo. Un mio amico, Gerald Edelman, è stato un grande professore di anatomia del cervello e dice che fare un’analogia tra il cervello umano e i computer è semplicemente patetico. Il cervello è piuttosto simile a un giardino fin troppo rigoglioso, che continua a crescere, che continua a ricevere sementi e a farli germogliare, rigenerandosi in continuazione. Edelman crede che il cervello sia suscettibile, in modi di cui non siamo pienamente coscienti, rispetto a qualsiasi esperienza facciamo e a qualsiasi incontro facciamo. Qualche anno fa rimasi colpito da un articolo in un giornale che parlava dell’intonazione perfetta. Un gruppo di scienziati aveva deciso di capire perché certe persone sono perfettamente intonate. Alcune persone sono in grado di ascoltare una nota e di riprodurla con la stessa esatta intonazione. Alcuni hanno una buona intonazione, ma l’intonazione perfetta è molto rara anche tra i musicisti professionisti. Gli scienziati scoprirono – non so come fecero ma lo fecero – che il cervello delle persone che hanno un’intonazione perfetta è diverso. Certi lobi del cervello presentavano un particolare tipo di deformazione, comune a tutte le persone perfettamente intonate. Questo di per sé era una cosa affascinante. Ma poi scoprirono qualcosa di ancora più affascinante. Se prendi un gruppo di bambini di 4 o 5 anni e gli insegni a suonare il violino, dopo qualche anno alcuni di loro sviluppano l’intonazione perfetta e se osservi il loro cervello, i lobi sono cambiati. Cosa significa questo per tutti noi? Tendiamo a credere che la mente influenzi il corpo e che il corpo influenzi la mente, ma non crediamo che tutto quello che facciamo abbia una conseguenza sul cervello. Sono convinto che se un uomo inveisse contro di me dall’altro lato della strada il mio cervello potrebbe subirne un qualche effetto e la mia vita potrebbe essere diversa. Ecco perché le mamme ci suggeriscono di evitare le cattive compagnie. Hanno ragione. Il pensiero cambia la nostra vita e il nostro comportamento. Penso che il disegno funzioni nello stesso modo. Sono un grande sostenitore del disegno, non perché penso che tutti debbano diventare illustratori, ma perché credo che il disegno cambi il cervello esattamente nel modo in cui la ricerca della nota perfetta cambia il cervello di un violinista. Il disegno inoltre ti rende più attento. Ti costringe a fare attenzione a ciò che stai guardando, che non è una cosa facile.

8) Il dubbio è meglio della certezza
Si parla sempre dell’importanza di essere sicuri, convinti, di ciò che si fa. Mi ricordo che una volta, durante una lezione di yoga, un maestro yogi ci disse che, spiritualmente parlando, se pensi si aver raggiunto l’illuminazione, in realtà sei semplicemente arrivato a vedere il tuo limite. Credo che lo stesso valga anche nella realtà non spirituale. Convinzioni profondamente radicate, di qualsiasi tipo siano, ti impediscono di essere aperto a nuove esperienze, ed è questa la ragione per la quale diffido grandemente di tutte le posizioni ideologiche. Credo che essere scettici e mettere in dubbio qualsiasi profonda convinzione sia essenziale. Certo, dobbiamo conoscere la differenza tra scetticismo e cinismo perché anche il cinismo è una limitazione della propria apertura mentale verso il mondo, proprio come una convinzione troppo radicata. Scetticismo e cinismo sono una sorta di gemelli. E da un punto di vista pratico, risolvere i problemi è molto più importante che avere ragione. C’è un diffuso senso di essere nel giusto nel mondo dell’arte e del design. Forse inizia a scuola. Spesso gli istituti d’arte o le scuole di design iniziano con il modello di Ayn Rand, secondo cui una personalità singola può contrastare le idee della cultura che lo circonda. E’ una teoria vera fino a un certo punto. Secondo la teoria dell’avanguardia un individuo può cambiare il mondo, ma è vero fino a un certo punto. Uno dei segnali da cui capire che un ego è stato danneggiato è la certezza assoluta. Le scuole incoraggiano l’idea di non scendere a compromessi e difendere il tuo lavoro a ogni costo. Ma in realtà quando si lavora scendere a compromessi è la cosa più importante. Devi sapere come scendere a compromessi. Perseguire ciecamente i tuoi obiettivi, le tue idee, esclude la possibilità che gli altri abbiano una qualche ragione e questo mette in discussione il modello in cui noi grafici sempre ci muoviamo, che è di fatto una triade: il cliente, l’audience e tu.
Idealmente, cercare di soddisfare tutti con successivi passi e compromessi è desiderabile. Ma l’alta considerazione di sé è spesso un nemico. L’alta considerazione di sé e il narcisismo in genere nascono da un trauma infantile, e questi sono argomenti che non voglio trattare. Perché sono temi che ricorrono di continuo nella vita delle persone. Alcuni anni fa lessi una considerazione sulla natura dell’amore, che si applica anche alla natura della coesistenza tra esseri umani più in generale. Era una citazione di Iris Murdoch, usata per scrivere il suo necrologio. “Amare significa raggiungere la difficilissima consapevolezza che qualcosa oltre a noi stessi è reale”. Non è fantastico? Sono le parole più profonde che io abbia mai sentito sull’amore.

9) Sull’invecchiare
L’anno scorso mi hanno regalato un saggio di Roger Rosenblatt, Invecchiare con grazia. Sul momento il titolo non mi piacque per niente, ma devo ammettere che il libro contiene una serie di regole per invecchiare con grazia. La prima regola è anche la migliore: La regola numero uno è “Non importa”. “Segui questa regola e ti allungherai la vita di dieci anni. Non importa se sei in ritardo o in anticipo, se sei qui o lì, se l’hai detto oppure no, se sei stato intelligente o stupido. Se un giorno ti svegli con dei capelli inguardabili e non importa se il tuo capo ti guarda come se fossi un marziano, non importa se lo fa la tua fidanzata o il tuo fidanzato o se tu ti guardi come se fossi un marziano. Se ricevi una promozione, un premio, se compri una casa o non lo fai. Non importa”. Finalmente un po’ di buon senso. Poi ho sentito una barzelletta che sembra legata alla regola numero 10, che vi dirò tra poco. Un macellaio apre la sua bottega e si trova davanti un coniglio. “hai del cavolo” chiede il coniglio a un esterrefatto macellaio. “Questa è una macelleria, vendiamo carne, non verdura”. Il coniglio saltella via. Il giorno dopo il macellaio apre la bottega e subito fa capolino il coniglio. “Hai del cavolo?”. Il macellaio si arrabbia e dice: “Senti piccolo roditore deficiente ti ho detto ieri che vendo carne, non verdura. La prossima volta che viene nel mio negozio di prendo per la gola e inchiodo le tue flaccide orecchie al pavimento”. Il coniglio sparisce in tutta fretta e per una settimana non lo si vede più. Poi torna e che idee al macellaio: “Hai dei chiodi?” Il macellaio dice “No”. Allora il coniglio chiede “Bene. Hai del cavolo?”.

10) Dite la verità
La barzelletta del coniglio è importante perché mi sono reso conto che cercare del cavolo in una macelleria è un po’ come cercare un’etica nel campo del design. Né un luogo né l’altro sono adatti a trovare ciò che si vuole. E’ interessante notare che nel nuovo codice etico dell’Aiga ci sono molte informazioni su quello che viene definito un comportamento appropriato verso i clienti e gli altri grafici, ma non c’è una sola parola sulla relazione con il pubblico. Diamo per scontato che un macellaio ci venda della carne commestibile e che non spacci la sua merce per ciò che non è. Ho letto da qualche parte che negli anni di Stalin in Russia ciò che era etichettato come manzo era in realtà pollo. Non voglio immaginare cosa fosse ciò che era etichettato come pollo. Accettiamo tranquillamente alcune bugie, come la quantità di grasso realmente contenuta in un hamburger, ma se un macellaio anche solo una volta ci vende della carne avariata, andiamo da un altro. Chi stesse pensando a creare un albo professionale per il nostro settore dovrebbe ricordare che l’idea di albo nasce per proteggere il pubblico, non i grafici o i clienti. “Non fate del male” è un monito che vale per i dottori nel rapporto con i loro pazienti , non con i loro colleghi medici o con le ditte farmaceutiche. Se avessimo un albo, forse dire la verità tornerebbe al centro della nostra attività.

Anidride (ita: alabastro) (eng. anhydrite):
Alabaster, C 251, C 252, C 253, C 254, C 255, C 256.



Anortosite (eng. anorthosite):
Black Eyes, Blue Eyes, Emerald Pearl, G 1407 A, G 1407 B, Inari White, Irina Blue, Labrador Antico, Labradorite Bianca, Lilac Pearl, Marina Pearl, Mona Lisa, Nero Angola, Spektrolith, Volga Blue.



Aplite (eng. aplite):
Purple Rain G 047.



Ardesia (eng. slate):
A. P. Green, Akbar Multi, American Gold, Ardosia de Canelas, Ardosia de Valongo, Ardosia do Marao, Ardosia Multicor, Ardosia Verde, Ashok Gold, Autumn, Autumn Black, Black Porphyry, Black Slate, Black Slate Brazil, Burlington, Chocolate Slate, Galaxy Green Slate, Green Limestone, Green Slate, Grey Slate, Indan Autumn, Indian Black Slate, Jak, Kotah, Lilac Slate, Mau, Multicolour Slate, Nag Green, Ocean Green, Ostrich Grey, P 015, Peacock Slate, Pearl Slate, Pistacho, Plum Slate, Red Porphyry, Rustic Slate, S 1120, S 1304, S 1308 B, S 1308 C - A, S 1601, S 1602, S 1605, S 1805 C - A, S 1805 C - B, Sanjaini, Senorita, Senty Green, Silvershine, Southern White, Terra Red, Theuma, Tony Brown, Verde Vittoria, Zeera Green Slate.

Si ritiene che l'ardesia fu utilizzata in principio circa duemiladuecento anni fa nella zona del Tigullio (ovvero nell'area compresa tra il comune di Lavagna e la Valle Fontanabuona), già bacino del paleo-oceano ligure-piemontese. Non a caso dal nome del popolo che abitava la zona - i Tigullii - viene fatto derivare il termine di lingua latina tegula, tegola.
Il suo impiego come materiale di copertura di tetti risale a tempi antichissimi ed ha avuto il suo apogeo nell'epoca medioevale e poi in quella del Rinascimento. A Chiavari, presso Lavagna, è stata rinvenuta una necropoli composta da tombe a "cassetta" interamente realizzate con questo materiale risalente al VIII - VII secolo a.C.



Arenaria (ita: arenaria di Val Gardena, Pietra Serena, Pietraforte) (eng. sandstone):
A - Red, Abtswinder Sandstein Grün, Abtswinder Schilfsandstein, Agra Red, Agra White, Alhambra, Amherst, Bansi Pink, Beestone, Beige Sandstone, Bentheim, Berner Sandstein Blau, Berner Sandstein yellow, Bollinger Sandstein Hell, Bozanov, Brenna, Buch, Burgpreppach, Canterxx Crema, Canterxx Roja, Canterxx Verde, Carniglia, Casteller Sandstein Kugelspiel, Colombino, Cotta Sandstone, Dholpur White, Dietenhan, Donnybrook, Ebenheid, Ebenheid Grau, Finkenbach, Gemünda, Gnodstadt, Golden Sandstone, Gritstone, Grüntenstein, Heilbronn, Heilgersdorf, Helidon, Heuchelberg, Hopfau, Ibbenbürener Sandstein, Jaipur Rainbow, Kashmir Sandstone, Kyllburg, Lemunda, Liscannor, Maulbronner, Miltenberg, Mint Multicolor, Mint Sandstone, Modak Sandstone, Mölten, Mönchssondheimer, Mount White, Mucharz, Mühlbach, Neidenbach, Neubrunn, Obernkirchner Sandstein, Olsbrückener Sandstein, Ostermundigen, Peach White, Peak Moor, Picture Sandstone, Piedra de Branosera, Pietra Dorata, Pietra Serena, Postaer Sandstein, Quintanar, Radkov, Raja Red, Rakowice, Roettbach, Rooterberg, Ruhrsandstein, Sander Green, Schleerith, Schoenbrunn, Schweinsthal, Seebergen, Smilow, Somersby, Spackel, Syburg Grau, Syburg yellow, Szczytna, Taj Rose, Teak, Tesin, Timberstone, Trebgast, Udelfangen, Ummendorfer Sandstein, Wallace, Warthau Sandstone, Weiler, Worzeldorfer Sandstein, Wrexen, Wüstenzell, Zerkowice, Züschen.



Basalto (ita: ballast ferroviario, basolato, opus lastricatum, pavè, sanpietrino) (eng. basalt):
G684, Indian Basalt, Negro NAP, Negro NAR, Premium Black, Shanxi Black G 3072_2, Super Black, Swedish Standard Black, Yläsavon Musta.



Calcare (ita: Pietra d'Istria, Pietra rosa della Lessinia o Pietra di Prun, Carparo della Puglia, Pietra Leccese o Salentinu Leccisu, Selce, Aurisina Granitello, pietra mazzara, pietra carpara, pietra tenera bianca) (eng. limestone):
Aachener Blaustein, Adair, Aguacate, Albamiel, Albara Black, Algonquin Limestone, Alpinina, Alpinina Atlantida, Alpinina Rosada, Amabel, Amarelo de Negrais, Amarillo Coral, Amarillo Parador, Amelas, Amelas Fossil, Ança, Ancaster Blue Beige, Ancaster Rose, Anröchter, Anstrude, Arabescato Orobico Grigio, Arabescato Orobico Grigio Rosa, Arabescato Orobico Rosso, Arena, Aurisina, Azul Cascais, Azul Valverde, Badal, Bajistan Pink, Banco de Baixo, Banco do Fundo, Bateig Azul, Bateig Blanca, Bateig Llano, Beauvillon, Beige of Missolongi, Beige-banded of Karnezeika, Beymelek, Bianco Perlino, Bichos, Bidasar Beauty, Bilecik Pembesi, Black of Cresta, Black Rose, Black Zebra, Blanco Perlino, Bonifacio, Botcino, Botticino, Botticino Classico, Botticino Fiorito, Botticino Semi Classico, Botticino Sicilia, Brauvilliers, Breccia Aurora, Breccia Damascata, Breccia Oniciata, Breccia Paradiso, Breccia Pernice, Breccia Sarda, Brecha de Santo Antonio, Brecha Perola, Brecha Portugesa, Brecha Tavira Vermelha, Breche Nouvelle, Brown Red of Fanari, Brownish of Chios, Burdale, Burdur Kahverengi, Burma Teak, Bursa Beige Dark, Bursa Beige Light, Buxy, Cadeby, Caesar Brown, Cafe Cream, Caliza Alba, Caliza Zarci, Caliza Zarci Rosa, Capuccino, Champion Pink, Champlain Black Marble, Chanteuil Blanc, Chanteuil Bleu, Chassagne Beige, Chassagne Gris, Chauvigny, Chiampo Perlato, Chinese Bluestone, Chocolate, Comblanchien, Cream Jade, Cream Pearl, Crema Altea, Crema Beida, Crema Borneo, Crema Cela, Crema Cenia, Crema Europa, Crema Imperiale, Crema Loja, Crema Luna, Crema Marbella, Crema Marfil, Crema Nova, Crema Nova Spain, Crystal Bianco, Damasta Black, Dark Pink Crystal, Didyma, Didyma Brown, Dionysos Vratza, Dorado Tepexi, Dove, Ege Bordo, Elazig Cherry, Emgoni, Emperador Claro, Emperador Oscuro, Encarnado Chainette, Epirus Beige, Eramo, Eretria, Erinstone ®, Euville, Fénike, Filetto Rosso Ionico, Filetto Rosso Trani, Finike White, Finike White Fossil, Fior di Pesco Carnico, Fior Resco M 072, Florenza, Galala, Galala Beige, Galit, Giallo Atlantide, Giallo Cleopatra, Giallo Siena, Golden Black M 067, Gölpazari Bej, Grand Melange of Erfoud, Grey Cloud, Grey of Aliveri, Grigio Carnico, Grigio Rosato, Gris Marron, Gris Motrico, Imisa Black, Imperial Wood Dark, Imperial Wood Light, Indiana Limestone, Indus Gold, Ionannina Beige, Iran M 201, Iran M 202, Iran M 203, Iran M 204, Iran M 205, Iran M 206, Iran M 207, Iran M 208, Iran M 210, Iran M 212, Iran M 213, Iran M 214, Iran M 215, Iran M 218, Iran M 219, Iran M 220, Iran M 221, Iran M 222, Iran M 224, Iran M 225, Iran M 226, Iran M 227, Iran M 228, Iran M 229, Iran M 230, Iran M 232, Iran M 233, Iran M 234, Iran M 235, Iran M 236, Italian Rose, Ivory Borneo, Jaisalmer Yellow, Jaumont, Jerusalem Stone, Julie Rose, Jura Beige, Jura Beige banded, Jura Brown, Jura Grey Blue, Karnezeika, Kind Gold, Kirthir, Krensheim, Languedoc, Lasbella Rabbit, Lesno Brdo Roza, Lesno Brdo Sivi, Levadia Beige, Levadia Black, Lido, Ligourio, Lime Black, Lime Green, Lime Pink, Lioz Abancado, Lioz de Pero Pinheiro, Lioz Montemor, M 063, M 3301 p, M 3301 w, M 4296 a, M 5232, M 5326, M-Green, M-Grey, Marron Emperador, Mezza Perla, Mezza Perla Classico, Michelangelo, Mikene Beige-Red, Montmoyen, Moroccan Fossile Black, Mosa, Mossobe, Moundros, Negro Marquina, Negro Monterrey, Nero Portoro, Niwal Amarillo, Niwala Gold, Niwala Peach, Nocciolato Chiaro, Nocciolato Scuro, Noir St. Laurent, Nowshera, Oasis Azul, Oasis beige, Oasis Toro, Oberdorla, Olho de Sapo, Oro Viejo, Orquidea Sierra, Patara, Pelo Red, Penuela, Perlatino, Perlato Europa, Perlato Sicilia, Perlato Svevo, Persichino de Prun, Petit Granit, Pink Liberty, Pink of Arta - Rozalino, Porfirico Ramello Bruno, Porfirico Ramello Rosso, Port Laurent, Portasanta, Portland Beige, Portland Blue, Rasotica, Ravieres St. Nicolas, Regular Pink, Relvinha, Roche de Charmot, Roche de Valanges, Rojo Alicante, Rojo Coralito, Rojo Daniel, Rosa Atlantide, Rosa Buixcarro, Rosa Coral Mexico, Rosa Perlino, Rosa Tea, Rosa Zarci, Rosalia, Rosso Asiago, Rosso Borako, Rosso Borneo, Rosso Bukale, Rosso Collemandina, Rosso Erika, Rosso Levanto, Rosso Magnaboschi, Rosso Milas, Rosso Reale, Rosso Sicilia, Rouge de France, Rouge Royal, Rubane, Rustic M-Green, Sahara Gold, Saint Flourian, Salome, Salome Light, Samaha, Sandy Beige, Santo Tomás Lila Claro, Santo Tomás Lila Oscuro, Sarrancolin, Savonnieres, Semi Rijo, Semi Rinho, Serpeggiante KF, Serpeggiante MS, Silvabella, Silver Green, Silvya, Sinai Pearl, Solnhofen Stone, Spider Light, Spuma di Mare, St. Florient Rose, Subasil Beige, Sugar Beige, Tandur Blue Natural, Tandur Yellow, Taurus Black, Taurus Cherry, Taurus Dove Feather, Taurus Grey, Tennesse Cedar, Tennessee Fleuri, Tepeaca Gris, Tepeaca Rose, Tiger Beige, Trani Chiaro, Trani Cocciolato, Trani Fiorito, Travera, Tuscan Green, Tyndall, Uxmal Naranja, Uxmal Rojo, Valderice Rosa, Verde Alaki, Vidraco Ataija Creme, Vidraco da Pedra Furada, Vidraco de Moleanos Azul, Vidraco de Moleanos Creme, Vilhonneur, Violett Leopard M 074, Vratza Beige, Vratza Grey, Vytina Black, Xisto de Barrancos, Zar Waryaz, ZY 33 Golden Yello, ZY 36.



Charnockite (eng. charnockite):
Labrador Gold, Labrador Premium, Olive Green, Ubatuba, Urmiah Green, Verde Mare, Verde Olivo, Verde Pavao, Verde Veneziano.



Conglomerato (ita: ciottoli, ghiaia, breccia, puddinga) (eng. conglomerates):
Aquarius Red, Aves, Black Mosaic, Fawaqir, Golden Mosaic, Green Breccia MLB, Green Breccia MNA, Iran G 163, Iran G 165, Iran G 169, Iran G 170, Laksefjord, Marinace Green, Palladio, Verde Arena, Verde Calama, Verde Dorado, Verde Esperanza, Verde Salvador, Verde Santiago, Verde Valdivia, Vert de Salvan.



Cordierite (ita: iolite) (eng. cordierite):
Barracuda, Madre Perla, Noche Buena, Violet Blue.



Cornubianite (ita: pietra a corno) (eng. hornfels):
Alcántara Black Granite.



Diabase (ita: simil gabbro) (eng. diabase):
Korpi Black.



Diorite (ita: serizzo, tonalite, corsite, porfirite, plumasite, Diorite di Vico Canavese) (eng. diorite):
Anemone Black, Fürstenstein, Gris Zarza, Hohwald, Korpilahden Musta, Negro Ochavo, Negro Ochavo Especial, Rocky Blue.

Roccia estremamente dura, molto difficile da lavorare e da scolpire. Antiche civilizzazioni come gli antichi Egizi usavano sfere di diorite per lavorare il granito. Storicamente utilizzata come base per l'intarsio di iscrizioni: famoso è il Codice di Hammurabi, realizzato su di una colonna in diorite nera alta 2,13 metri. In natura è grezza, presenta una superficie tendenzialmente opaca, ma tende a diventare sempre più lucida man mano che la si consuma con il calpestio, come è avvenuto nella Cattedrale di San Paolo a Londra.



Gabbro (eng. gabbro):
Academia Black, Atlantic Black, Austral Black, Belfast Black, Bertanie Black, Blazing Black, Charcoal Black, Cold Spring Black, G 1307, Gabbro, Grandee Lio, Imperial Black, Iran G 162, Iran G 178, Konstantinovsky, Kurun Musta, Midnight Black, Nero Assoluto, Nero Black, Nero Impala, Oulainen Black, Pasko Black, Preto Aracruz, Preto Piracaia, Preto São
Benedito, Preto São Gabriel, Rustenburg Grey, Star Galaxy, Uruguayan Labrador.



Gneiss (eng. gneiss):
American Black, Andeer, Cream Violet, Edelweiss, Fior de Cactus, G 4418, Gallix, Ghibli, Ice Grey, Imperial White, Juparaná California, Juparana Champanhe, Juparana Delicato, Juparaná Delikatus, Juparana Dourado, Juparana Mel, Kashmere White, Madanapally White, Meruoca Classico, Montana Green, Muskoka Pink, New Verde Spluga, Novo Branco Romano, Ouincinetto, Passion Fruit, Pergola, Pietra di Luserna, Rheinquarzit, Rosa Blanca, Rosa Iris, Samambaia, Samantha Blue, Santa Cecilia, Shi Gu Luh, Spring Rose, Srikakulam Blue, Topazio Imperiale, Verde Crema, Vermelho Ceara, Vermelho Real, Versace, Vesanto Red, Viola Ametista, Vizaq Blue.



Granito (ita: Bianco Montorfano, Granito rosa di Baveno, Ghiandone Pianta della Val Masino) (eng. granite):
Abboud, Adelaide Gold, African Lilac, African Red, Agate, Alberga, Albero, Amarelo Capri, Amarelo Colonial, Amarelo de Figueira, Amarelo de S. Martinho, Amarelo Icarai, Amarelo Ornamental, Amarelo Paraiso dark, Amarelo Paraiso Light, Amarelo Persa, Amarelo Real, Amarelo Vicenza, Amarillo Extremadura, Améndoa Capixaba, Anemone, Apricot, Archipelago Red, Arctic Brown, Arctic Red, Arctic White, Argentine Balmoral, Argentine Mahogany, Ariah Park Beige, Asa Branca, Ash Rose, Astra, Ataraksia, Atibaia, Atlantic Green, Autumn Basque, Autumn Brown, Azul de Apalhao, Azul Extremadura, Azul Noche, Azul Platino, Azul Tango, Azul Transmontano, Azulalia, Bala Flower, Balaban Green, Balmoral Green, Balmoral Red, Baltic Brown, Baltic Green, Baltic Green, Baltic Mahogany, Barre Grey, Bayerwald Rosa, Beaver Brown, Bege Amendoa, Bege Saara, Belmont Rose, Betchouan, Bethel White, Bianco Dolomiti, Bianco Grigio G 3503, Bianco Monte Carlo, Bianco Sardo, Bir Askar Brown, Bjärlöv, Blanco Acapulco, Blanco Aurora Spain, Blanco Berrocal, Blanco Caceres, Blanco Castilla, Blanco Cristal, Blanco Extremadura, Blanco Perla, Blanco Rafaela, Blauenthal, Blue Coffee, Blue Fantasy, Bohus, Bordeaux, Bouvacote, Branco Ariz, Branco Caravela, Branco Coral, Branco Cristal, Branco Dalmata, Branco de Alcains, Branco de Cardoso, Branco do Porto, Branco Vimieiro, Bright Red, Brown Qussair, Brown Skif, BZZ, Calca, Caledonia, California Brown, Camelia Pink, Canadian Spring Green, Capao Bonito, Caramel Pink, Cardinal Grey, Cardinal Red, Carioca Gold, Carmen Red, Carpasi, Castor Blue, Cats Eye, Celtic Red, Cesar White, Chariot Vanilla, Charme Yellow, Chelmsford Gray, Chestnut Brown, Chinese Green G 5157, Cibaca, Cinza Andorinha, Cinza Castelo, Cinza Friburgo, Cinza Prata, Cinzento de Antas, Cinzento de Cinfas, Cinzento Evora, Cinzento Santa Eulalia, Clair du Tarn, Conquistador Beige, Conquistador Gris, Copper Silk, Coraille, Cordoba Grey, Crema Cabrera, Creme Bahia, Crepuscolo, Cristal Amarelo, Cristal Azul, Crystal Azul, Crystal Brown, Crystal Flower G 3755, Crystal Gold, Crystal Yellow G 6522, CSPI, Daisy, Dakar, Dakota Mahogany, Dakota Red Lake, Dark Rideau Red, Deep Sea, Deer Isle®, Delicatus Hiperion, Desert Black, Desert Bloom, Desert Blue, Desert Gold G 682, Desert Rose Australia, Desert Rose South Africa, DG 05, Diamond Brown, Dmytrit, Dzhil Tau Pink, Dzhil Tau yellow, Eagle Red, Ecogreen, Eging, Eitzing, Emerald Green, Esko Brown, FHQ, Five Water Lily G 3742, Flossenbürg, Flossenbürg yellow grau, Flower of the Ukraine, Forest G 022, Forte Rosa, Fortune Red, Fox Brown, G 1008, G 1303, G 3073 China Red, G 3567, G 3583, G 3700, G 3709, G 3761, G 5150, G 5151, G 638, G 654, G HNH, G425, G603, G623, G634, G635, G655, G657, G663, G680, G682, Galaxy Green G 1306, Gazel Valley Yellow, Gertelbach, Ghadeer, Giallo Antico Plus, Giallo Fiorito, Giallo Fiorito Ouro Minas, Giallo Giselle, Giallo Parthenon, Giallo San Giacomo, Giallo Special, Giallo Saint Helena, Giallo Veneziano, Goa Red, Gold Vie, Golden Leaf, Golden Paglia, Golden Vinhal, Gotic Red, Grey Blue, Grey Dahab, Grey Pearl, Grey Ukraine, Grigio Malaga, Grigio Sardo, Grigio Sardo Champagne, Gris Alba, Gris Mondariz, Gris Morrazo, Gris Perla, Gris Plata, Gris Quintana, Gris Quintana Rosado, Gris Toledo, Grissal, Guandona, Guazubira, Guilin Red G4572, Harcourt, Herrnholz, Honey, Iddefjord, Inada, Indian Sunset, IranG153, IranG157, IranG159, IranG180, IranG181, IranG185, IranG189, IranG190, IranG193, IranG194, IranG195, IranG196, Iridian, Isidora, Itaquarapoca, Izerbelsky, Jade Green, Jane, Järppilä Rosa, Jet Mist®, Jhansi Red, Juparaná Gold, Juparaná Yellow Sun, Kajaani Grey, Kaman Rose, Kapustinsky, Karelia Beige, Karelia Red, Karelian Green, Karmin, Kashina Gora, Kashmir Paulista, Kaxigal, Kershaw®, Kimberley Storm, Kitledge Blue, Kitledge Gray, Kiurtinsky, Knaupsholz, Kösseine, Kostyantynivsky, KSW01, Kulla, Kuru Grey, Kuru Red Brown, Lacdu Bonnet, Laguna Golden, Lake Superior Green, Lappia Blue Rose, Lappia Salmon, Laurentian Green, Laurentian Pink, Leopard, Liberec, Light Rideau Red, Lilas Light, Lio Rose, Long Hei, Maaninka Pink, Macarena Gold, Madras Red, Mansurovsky, Marygold, Maslovsky, Mei Hua, Meissen, Metten, Missouri Red, Mittweida, Monforte, Mongolian White, Monola Brown, Monsun, Moskat, Moss, Mountain Green, Najran Emerald, Najran Red, Napoleon Red, Nelson Red, Nero Skif, New Balmoral, New Caledonia, New Imperial Red, New Mahogany, New Mudgee Red, New Sera Grey, Nordic Green, Oconee, Ocre, Ocre Itabira, Olive Green, Onida Orange, Ouro Brasil, Pastel Pink, Peafowl Green G3791, Pearl Pink G617, Pedra Vellade Cangas, Pedrassalgadas, Pekkala Pink, Peninsula Red G3787, Peppermint, Perla Bianco G015, Perla Rosada, Pine Green, Pink Art, Piranshar, Platinum White, Polar Mahogany, Polichrome, Porkkala, Post Green G5128, Prata Ornamental, Preto Ceara, Preto Evora, Quimbra, Radiant Red, Rainbow, Rakh Green, Raniwara Yellow, Raumünzach Grau, Real Grey, Red Breccia, Red Dragon, Red Vie, Redditt Brown, Rinchnach, Riverina, Robrato, Rockville Beige, Rockville White, Rojo Altamira, Rojo Oriental, Rosa Achira, Rosa Arzova, Rosa Aswan, Rosa Baveno, Rosa Capri, Rosa Coral, Rosa Dante, Rosa de Arronches, Rosa El Nasr, Rosa El Shayeb, Rosa Faro, Rosa Gala, Rosa Hurghada, Rosa Kula G3767, Rosa Lugo, Rosa Minho, Rosa Moncao, Rosa Porrino, Rosa Santa Eulalia, Rosa Sarda Limbara, Rosa Sardo Beta, Rosa Sardo Ghiandone, Rosavel, Rose dela Clarte, Rose del Salto, Rose Pink, Rose Renca, Rosselin White G3540, Rosso Carpazi, Rosso GeneralG3752, Rosso Loon G3754, Rosso Pantheon, Rosso Toledo, Rotenberg, Royal Auburn, Royal Gold, Royal Mahogany, Royal Red, Ruby Red, Ruby Red, Sabre Brown, Salmon, Salmon Pink, Salome White G3533, Saltand Pepper, San Fedelino, San Felipe, San Roman, Santa Cecilia, Saolin Hong, Saphire Brown, Saudi Pink, Sausalito, Schwarzachtal, Seaweed Green, Sera Grey, Shan Xua Hong, Shi Gu Hei, Sierra Chica, Sierra White, Silbergruen, Silver Platina, Solar White, Solarium, Sophiyvsky, Star Ukraine, Stoney Creek, Strzegom, Sunrise Gold, Sunset Beige, Sunset Red, Sydney Blue, Syuskyu Yansaari, Tan Brown, Tansky, Tao Ha Hong, Texas Pearl, Texas Pink, Texas Red, Tezal, Thanstein, Tiger Black, Tiger Yellow G887, Tis Grey, Tranas, Tropic Brownisa. Tropical Flowerplus, Tropical Sun, Tuman, Tyn Shan Blue G6501, Ukrainian Autumn, Vanga, Verde Assoluto G4101, Verde Austral, Verde Bitterfontein, Verde Crystal G061, Verde Diamond G5142b, Verde Fantastico, Verde Fountain G4101b, Verdegala, Verde India, Verde Lavras, Verde Meruoca, Verde Panoramico, Verde Real, Verde Star, Verde Ventura, Vermelho Baroco, Vermelho Biritiba, Vermelho Bragança, Vermelho Brasilia,Vermelho Coral, Vermillion, Viamao, Waldstein, White Granada, White Halayeb, White Panther, White Safaga, White San Marco, Withered, Wolfstein, Yellow Mantena, Yellow Sun, Zeta Brown, Zhu Yue Quin, Zufurt.



Granodiorite (eng. granodiorite):
Aalfang, Arctic Green, Ayvalik, Chariot Brown, Iran G 175, Kronreuth, Lanhelin, Marrom Bahia, Nero Aswan, Neuhaus, Storen Granitt, Tolga White, Viitasaari Pink, Viitasaari Red, Viitasaari Yellow, Vozrozdeniye, Westlausitzer Granodiorit.



Granulite (eng. granulite):
African Ivory, Bianco Regina, Bianco Rubelita, Branco Ipanema, Branco Polar, Dallas White, Indigo, Rio Branco, Samba White, Samoa, Samoa Light, Shiva Kashi, Verde Eucalipto, Verniz Tropical, White Galaxy, White Palmas.



Lamprófiro (eng. lamprophyre):
Lo Wai Ting Green, Sora.



Marmo (ita: Marmo bianco della Versilia, Breccia cenerina, Marmo Lunense, Bardiglio, Caldia, Pietra di Apricena (biancone, bronzetto, vermiglio, silvabella, serpeggiante, fascionato, filettato, filetto rosso, ondagata, perlato, fiorito Adriatico), Marmo Pentelico, Marmo di Botticino, Marmo arabescato, Marmo di Candoglia, Marmo di Carrara, Marmo di Chiampo (perla, mandorlato, paglierino, rosa, tavernelle bianco perlato), Marmo di Lasa, Marmo occhiadino (marmo di Dò), Marmo di Vezza, Pietra di Trani, Perlato di Sicilia (Botticino di Sicilia), Perlato Royal Coreno, Portoro, Rosso Levanto, Rosso di Verona, Rosso di Asiago, Bianco di Asiago, Rosa Perlino, Marmo verde di Taormina) (eng. marble):
Abayuba, Absolute Grey, Afyon Altini, Afyon Seker Koju, Aghia Marina Semi White, Aksehir Siyahi, Alabama White, Alabastro Beni Suef, Aloides Semi White, Altintas, Amarillo Cobdar, Amazonia Brown, Anais, Arabescato Arni, Arabescato Arni Classico, Arabescato Cervaiole, Arabescato Collettino, Arabescato Corchia, Arabescato Corchia Classico, Arabescato Faniello, Arabescato Garfagnana, Arabescato La Mossa, Arabescato S. E A., Arabescato Tombaccio, Arabescato Vagli, Argento, Ash coloured of Aghios-Kyrillos, Ash-White of Paros, Azul Acqua Marina, Azul Cielo, Azul Guerra, Baoxing White, Bardiglietto, Bardiglio Cappella, Bardiglio Costa, Bardiglio Imperiale, Bheslana Black, Bianco Arni, Bianco Carrara C, Bianco Carrara CD, Bianco Carrara Brouille, Bianco Carrara D, Bianco Carrara Statuario, Bianco Carrara Venato, Bianco Carrara Venato Gioia, Bianco Hu Zhou M 078, Bianco Rosa, Bianco Royal, Bianco Sivec, Bianco Spino, Bianco Venato, Bianco Venato Gioia, Blanco Alejandra, Blanco Aurora Mexico, Blanco Macael, Blanco Nafin, Blu Argento, Blu Venato d´Italia, Blue Sky, Bordo Grizo, Branco de Ficalho, Branco el Rei, Branco Eztremoz, Branco Lagoa, Branco Maroteia, Branco Pardais, Breccia Stazzema, Butter Scotch Onyx M 073, Calacatta Arni, Calacatta Campocecina, Calacatta Carrara, Calacatta Crema, Calacatta Vagli, Calacatta Vagli Extra, Calacatta Vagli Rosato, Calacatta Zebrino, Calacatto Oro, Camboriú, Carmen Pink, Carmen White, Castione Scuro, Chalkero Kavalas Semi White, Chillagoe Blue, Chillagoe Grey, Chinese White Pearl, Chocolate Brasil, Cipollino, Cipollino Versilia, Connemara, Corchia Venato, Covelano Vena Oro, Covelano Vena Oro Argento, Cream Jade, Cream Wombeyan Dark, Cream Wombeyan Light, Creamy White, Crema do Mouro, Crema Triana, Crema Vigaria, Creme el Rei, Creme Lagoa, Creme Pardais, Cremo Delicato, Cremo Tirreno, Crystal Pink, Crystal White, Crystal White Viet Nam, D. Pink, Danba White, Danby Imperial, Danby Meriposa, Danby Montclair, Danby Royal, Demirci Oniks, Dionissos Semi White, Dionysos, Doxaro Semi White, Dramas, Elafochori Kavalas Semi White, Eldorados, Estremoz Creme, Eztremos Rosa, Fantastico Arni, Golden Kristal, Golden Spider, Green Cloud, Grey of Tranovaltos, Grey Wombeyan Dark, Grey Wombeyan Light, Gris N, Gris Siboney, Gül Balikesir, Imathia Green, Impact Grey, Indian Lilac, Ipoh Natural, Iran M 208, Iran M 211, Iran M 216, Iran M 217, Iran M 223, Iran M 231, Isparta Beige, Karacabey Siyahi, Kozani White, Krastal, Kristal Pink, Kütahya Antep Fistigi, Lady Pink, Lady White, Lapponia Green, Lasa, Lasa Bianco Vena d'Oro, M 3252, M 6101, Marmore Branco Extra, Marmore Branco Pinta Verde, Midnight Sun, Milas Lilac, Milas New York, Montepuez, Morvat White, Moskovsky, Mugla White, Namaqua, Naxos, Negro Alejandra, Nestos White, Nikisiani Ash, Nikisiani White, Norwegian Rose, Nuvolato Apuano, Onix Pina, Onyx Light Green, Onyx Medium, Onyx White, Opal Pearl, Oriental Classical, Palissandro, Panonas, Pavonazzetto, Pavonazzo, Pele de Tigre, Persian Onix, Pink of Lafkos, Plain Pink, Platanotopos, Portin Vuolukivi, Pteleos Pink, Pushtulimsky, Rosa Aurora Mexico, Rosa Aurora, Rosa Bellissimo, Rosa Borba, Rosa Brasil, Rosa Corallo, Rosa Cordoba, Rosa da Maroteira, Rosa Egeo, Rosa el Rei, Rosa Lagoa, Rosa Pardais, Rosa Portugal, Rosa Salmon, Rosso Marfilia M 063 P, Royal Cream, Ruivinha, Saga Green, Santa Elenea Levadia Pink, Sayanski Grey, Sayansky, Sayansky Pink, Sedef Mermer, Semi White Crystallina of Mani, Semi White Crystallina of Naxos, Semi White of Nestos, Semi White of Stenopos, Silver White, Snow White Marble of Thassos, Sölker Kristallmarmor, Spring Green, Statuario Venato, Styra Green, Sunny Grey, Süpren, Tennessee Dark Rose, Tennessee Light Rose, Thassos, Thassos Crystallina Semi White, Thassos Red Lines, Thassos Waterfall, Trambiserra, Tranovaltos Semi White, Tranovaltos White, Trigaxes Claro, Trigaxes Escuro, Trilogy Pink, Trilogy White, Tundra, Uliano Venato, Usak Beyaz, Usak Yesil, Vathilakos Semi White, Venato Fantastico, Verde Acceglio, Verde Giada, Verde Gressoney, Verde Issorie, Verde Jaspe, Verde Light M 071, Verde Lotus M 071, Verde Lukas, Verde Malachite, Verde Panama, Verde Patricia, Verde San Denis, Verde Serpa, Verde Viana, Verde Viana Cristal, Verde Xiropotamos, Verzino, Vize Pembe, Volakas, White Fantasy, White of Dionissos Pentelikon, White of Limenas Thassos, White of Pighes, White of Veneto, Yule.

La Grecia antica era ricca di cave di marmo, con varietà pregiate di marmi bianchi: pentelico, tasio, nassio, pario. Il Duomo di Milano è interamente realizzato in marmo di Candoglia. Le sculture di Michelangelo Buonarroti sono in marco di Carrara.



Metatexite (eng. metatexite):
Lake Placid Blue.



Migmatite (eng. migmatite):
African Juparaná, African Tropicale, Agua Santa, Amadeus, Amarelo São Francisco, Ambatomanga, Antique Green, Arctic Pink, Aurora, Barents Red, Cameleon Skin, Cobra, Creme Bordeaux, Desert Green, Dragon, Endless mountain, Fantasy Pink, Flame Creek, Flamenco, Funil, Giallita Dark, Giallita Light, Golden Crystal China, Golden Rock, Gran Violet, Halmstad, Himalayan Blue, Indian Juparaná, Iran G 154, Iran G 158, Iran G 167, Iran G 173, Iran G 174, Iran G 182, Iran G 184, Iran G 186, Itagreen, Ivory Chiffon, Ivory Pink, Jacaranda, Juparaná Avindra, Juparaná Colombo, Juparana Colombo, Juparaná Fantastico, Juparaná Itaoca, Kerala Green, Kinawa, Lapidus, Lieto Red, Lillet, Mäntsälä, Maracana, Multicolor Grey, Multicolor Red, Ocean Blue, Ocean Fantasy, Paradiso, Paradiso Bash, Paradiso Classico, Pavone, Pink Fantasy, Preto Imperial, Preto Nevada, Pukki Aurora, Raw Silk, Saint Paul Green, Saint Tropez, Samba Pink, Sandy Pink, Shangri - La, Star Beach, Summer Light, Supare Ivory, Tabaco Wave, Tiger Red, Tiger Rose, Tiger Skin, Tropical Bahia, Tropical Guarani, Tropical Tiffany, Verde Candeias, Verde Maritaca, Verde São Francisco, Verde Savana, Verde Velasquez, Vermelho Veneziano, Veronica, Vyara.



Monzonite (ita: roccia dei Monti Monzoni) (eng. monzonite):
Arctic Black, Balma, Baveno Verde.



Norite (ita: simil gabbro) (eng. norite):
Anemone Light.



Oficalce (eng. ophicalcite):
Kolmarden, Verde Aver, Verde Decalio M 6102, Verde Decalio B M 6102, Verde Tinos.



Ortogneiss (eng. orthogneiss):
Camelia White, Cinza Corumba, Colibri, Desert Flame, G 889, Juparaná Classico, Juparaná Victoria, Juparaná Wave, Kalguvara, Kasinge, Leikanger, Lila Gerais, Orissa, Pantaleao, Royal Pink, Salisbury Pink, Stainz, Sucurú, Summer Light red, Tiger White.



Paragneiss (ita: Beola, Serizzo) (eng. paragneiss):
Barents Blue, Beola Bianca, Beola Ghiandonata, Beola Grigia, Brocade, Calanca, Iragna, Iran G 188, Juparaná Mantena, Maggia, Onsernone, Serizzo Antigorio chiaro, Serizzo Antigorio scuro, Serizzo Formazza, Serizzo Ghiandone, Serizzo Scuro Valmasino, Silver Cloud, Soglio, Valser, Verde Argento, Verde Marina, Viscount White.



Pegmatite (eng. pegmatite):
Azul Aran, Casa Blanca, Ivory Gold, Juparaná Sol, White Beach.



Pietra lavica (eng. lava):
Lavastone.



Porfido (ita: pavimentazione a bolognini) (eng.porphyry):
Iran G 1294.

I Romani chiamavano "lapis porphyrites" una particolare varietà proveniente dall'Egitto, utilizzato dai sovrani egiziani ed apprezzato per il suo acceso colore rosso, associato alla dignità imperiale. Nella basilica di Santa Sofia a Costantinopoli la posizione destinata all'imperatore è segnalata da un disco rosso di porfido. In porfido sono i sarcofaghi dalla madre di Costantino I (sant'Elena) e di Federico II, posto nella cattedrale di Palermo.



Quarzite (eng. quartzite):
Alvdal, Amarelo do Macaubas, Ambra Dorata, Arco Baleno, Arktinen Arkoosi, Arktinen, Aventuriini, Arktinen Vaalea, Azul do Macaubas, Azul do Mar, Azul Imperial, Black Mica, Blue Luise, Boquira, Burlwood, Caribbean Blue, Carolina Quartzite, Chocolate Brown, Himachal White, Masi Quartzite, Niagara, Nilsiän Kvartsiitti, Offerdal, Paljakan Kvartsiitti, Pihtiputaan Kiilleliuske, Quarzite Bianca, Quarzite Perola, Rosa Corallo Brazil, Rosa Diamante, Rosa Quartzite, San Giacomo, Sao Tomé, Silver Green Finland, Super White, Verde Bamboo, Verde Pantanal, Verde Spluga, Victoria Blue, Wild West Green, Yellow Bamboo.



Riolite (eng. rhyolite):
Porfido viola della Valcamonica.



Serpentinite (ita: verde di Prato, Ranocchiaia, verde di Varallo, verde di Susa, verde di Polcevera) (eng. serpentinite):
Lipasvaaran Vihreä, Munyati Green, Rajasthan Green, Rosso d'Italia, San-Tai Empress Green, Tauerngrün, Verde Alpi, Verde Alpi Scuro, Verde Larissa, Verde Quetzal, Verde Serrano, Verde Tikal, Vermont Verde Antique.

In Toscana è stato usato per creare la tipica bicromia del romanico pistoiese, pratese, fiorentino: incrostazioni in marmo verde di Prato si trovano per esempio nell'esterno del Battistero di Firenze, della Chiesa di S. Miniato a Monte, del Duomo di Prato.



Sienite (eng. Syenite):
Alliance Brown, Bignan Jaune, Bruno 25, Cafe Imperial, Coco Brown, Darwin Brown, Iran G 155, Iran G 172, Iran G 177, Kirklareli, Kosmin, Labrador Blue Pearl, Lappia Blue, Marron Guaiba, Nebizhsky, Rose de Senones, Santa Fe Brown, Tunas Sea Green, Verde Tunas.

Presenti nei Colli Euganei, sul monte Amiata, nei Monti Cimini e nei Campi Flegrei.



Spessartite (ita: granato) (eng. spessartite):
Schneeflocke, Sluknov Lipova, Sluknov Rozany, Spremberger.



Steatite (ita: pietra saponaria, gesso di Briançon, pietra ollare (eng. soapstone):
Kivia Blue, Tulikivi.



Tonalite (ita: roccia del Passo del Tonale):
Gebharts, Tonalite.



Trachite (ita: trachite dei Colli Euganei) (eng. trachyte):
Selters, Weidenhahn.



Travertino (ita: lapis tiburtinus, Travertino Etrusco scuro, Travertino Classico in falda, Travertino Colosseo) (eng. Travertino):
Arideas, Azarshar Yellow, Bad Langensalza, Bege Bahia Classico, Cannstatt, Chateau Landon, Creme Travertin, Crocodile, Curiaca Blanco, Multi Beige, Paredon, Scabas, Silver Travertino, T 101, T 102, T 103, T 104, T 105, T 106, T 107, T 108, T 109, T 110, T 111, T 112, T 113, T 114, Tepexi Fiorito, Travertin Romano Classico, Travertin Tepexi, Travertine of Skra, Travertino Ampuria, Travertino Iberico, Travertino Noce, Travertino Olivo, Travertino Oro, Travertino Real, Travertino Rojo, Travertino Romano, Travertino Tabac, Travertino Toscano, Walnut Travertine.

Il colore del travertino dipende dagli ossidi incorporati: La colorazione naturale varia dal bianco latte al noce, con sfumature dal giallo al rosso. È frequente incontrarvi impronte fossili di animali e piante.
Famoso il colonnato in travertino di piazza San Pietro in Roma del 1500, progettato e realizzato da Gian Lorenzo Bernini.



Tufo (ita: Pietra Leccese) (eng. tuff): Ettringer, Gemlik, Peperino Soriano, Peperino grigio, Tufo Giallo napoletano, Tufo Verde di Ischia, Tufo Vesuviano di Ercolano, Tufo Sorrentino, Tufo di Teano-Roccamonfina, Tufo grigio di Nocera, Tufo stratificato di La Storta, Tufo varicolore di Sacrofano, Tufo grigio di Castelnuovo, Tufo giallo della via Tiberina, Tufo grigio chiaro di Riano, Tufo Etrusco di Civita Castellana, Tufo rosso di Gallese.

this is a sensational finding, that no-one in the world knows! :)
i searched for this bug crawling very deep, but in the entire internet everyone has the problem and no-one grasps the right answer.

when saving a .pdf file from a .psd file in adobe photoshop, check your text layers!

if they contain faux photoshop generated text properties (like faux bold, faux italic and in particular faux underline) probably you will get raster text in your .pdf file, instead of vector text (ok, i know: it's postscript).
this means: instead of getting the kind of text you can easily select, highlight, copy and paste where you need, photoshop outputs a .pdf displaying text that can't be selected (you know, when mouse cursor does not change when hovering etc...). this is actually a bitmap image, technically speaking a raster version of the text.

that's it: five hours of time wasted in wondering wtf*! went wrong, in copying and pasting in notepad to delete text formatting, in reading about compatibility issues from cs2, cs3, cs5... and i was missing a single faux-underlined letter.

 

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ps: very few people notice and understand this problem when generating a .pdf binder. locked or raster text renders unuseful the entire concept of writing an e-book, as users and search engines cannot scan its content.
this fact rules out how much we care about our work here at amolenuvolette.it: thank you in advance if you will share your appreciation.

Lazy load is a JQuery plugin that delays loading of images in long web pages. Images outside of viewport (visible part of web page) wont be loaded before user scrolls to them (this is opposite of image preloading!).

The effect is nice: a fade-in from a gray block the same size of the image that is being loaded.
But many times i wondered how to change that colour. A brief look to the code reveals that usually there is a .gif placeholder (a 1pixel x 1 pixel image that contains a solid color) used in a code like this (the code refers to a Wordpress plugin):

function jquery_lazy_load_ready() {
  $placeholdergif = plugins_url('images/grey.gif', __FILE__);
  echo <<<EOF
<script type="text/javascript">
jQuery(document).ready(function($){
  if (navigator.platform == "iPad") return;
  jQuery("img").not(".cycle img").lazyload({
    effect:"fadeIn",
    placeholder: "$placeholdergif"
  });
});

So simply edit that damn image in Photoshop and set your favourite color... et voilà.

What are problems?

We use the word problem to describe a wide range of situations of different importance, from the irritation of discovering that the car battery is flat, to the life threatening failure of an aircraft engine in mid-air.

Problems can be defined broadly as situations in which we experience uncertainty or difficulty in achieving what we want to achieve, eg.

    * Stopping smoking is a problem when you decide you want to stop but cannot.
    * A computer malfunction is a problem if it prevents you completing work on time.
    * An excessive workload is a problem when it interferes with your ability to work effectively.
    * Poor communication is a problem when it reduces the efficiency of an organisation.

Problems arise when an obstacle prevents us reaching an objective, eg. when a breakdown in a company's manufacturing plant (the obstacle) prevents it fulfilling orders (the objective).

Objective = something we have decided we need to achieve.
Obstacle = anything that prevents us achieving an objective.
Oobjective + Obstacle = Problem

We encounter a large variety of problems during the course of our work, with objectives and obstacles of different types and importance. Defining these accurately is essential to finding an effective solution.

Problems can be divided broadly into two groups:

- those where the current situation is not what was expected (known as closed or maintenance problems)

- those where we want to change our current situation in some way but there is an obstacle preventing us doing so (known as open-ended or achievement problems).

Closed problems occur when something has happened that should not have happened, or something we expected to happen has not happened, ie there is a deviation from the normal or expected state of affairs. For example, it could be the unexpected resignation of a key member of staff, or the failure of the principal speaker to arrive at a conference. The cause (or obstacle) may be known or unknown, but something needs to be done about it.

---

Problems and the door to solutions

Open-ended problems occur when we want to achieve a specific objective but there are certain obstacles blocking our progress. They can be subdivided into three groups:

    * where we are unable to reach our current objective, eg failing to meet a sales target
    * where our current objective could be exceeded, eg improved efficiency
    * where a., new objective could be achieved through problem solving, eg creating a new product or service.

Solving a problem involves finding ways to overcome any obstacles and to achieve our objective.

Although each problem is unique in terms of the information involved, and requires a unique blend of thought processes to find a solution, all successful problem solving follows a basic pattern.

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The stages of problem solving

The problem solving process can be divided in different ways and the stages have been given various labels. This has been done to make it easier to understand but how it is divided and the labels that are used are not important. To be a successful problem solver you need to understand what the stages involve and follow them methodically whenever you encounter a problem.

To be a successful problem solver you must go through these stages:

    * recognising and defining the problem
    * finding possible solutions
    * choosing the best solution
    * implementing the solution.

These stages are examined in detail in later articles, but here is a summary of what is involved at each stage.

1. Recognising and defining the problem

Obviously, before any action can be taken to solve a problem, you need to recognise that a problem exists. A surprising number of problems go unnoticed or are only recognised when the situation becomes serious. Opportuni­ties are also missed. There are specific techniques you can use to help you recognise problems and opportunities.

Once you have recognised a problem you need to give it a label, a definition. This serves to focus your search for relevant information, from which you can write an accurate description or definition of the problem.

The process of definition differs for closed and open­ended problems. With closed problems you need to define all the circumstances surrounding the deviation from the norm. Sometimes this will provide strong clues as to the cause of the problem.

Defining open-ended problems involves identifying and defining your objectives and any obstacles which could prevent you reaching them. The problem definition provides the basis for finding solutions.

2. Finding possible solutions

Closed problems generally have one or a limited number of possible solutions, while open-ended problems usually can be solved in a large number of ways. The most effective solution to an open-ended problem is found by selecting the best from a wide range of possibilities. Finding solutions involves analysing the problem to ensure that you fully understand it and then constructing courses of action which will achieve your objective.

Analysing the problem involves identifying and collecting the relevant information and representing it in a meaningful way. Analysing closed problems helps you to identify all the possible causes and confirm the real cause, or obstacle, before looking for a solution. With open-ended problems you are looking for information which will help to suggest a range of possible ways to solve the problem. Analysis also helps you to decide what the ideal solution would be, which helps to guide your search for solutions.      

Constructing courses of action to solve the problem involves discovering what actions will deal with any obstacles and achieve your objective. Workable solutions are developed by combining and modifying ideas and a range of creative techniques are available to help in this process. The more ideas you have to work with, the better your chances of finding an effective solution.

3. Choosing the best solution

This is the stage at which you evaluate the possible solutions and select that which will be most effective in solving the problem. It's a process of. decision making based on a comparison of the potential outcome of alternative solutions. This involves

    * identifying all the features of an ideal solution, including the constraints it has to meet
    * eliminating solutions which do not meet the constraints
    * evaluating the remaining solutions against the outcome required
    * assessing the risks associated with the 'best' solution
    * making the decision to implement this solution

A problem is only solved when a solution has been implemented. In some situations, before this can take place, you need to gain acceptance of the solution by other people, or get their authority to implement it. This may involve various strategies of persuasion.

4. Implementing the solution

This involves three separate stages:

    * planning and preparing to implement the solution
    * taking the appropriate action and monitoring its effects
    * reviewing the ultimate success of the action

Implementing your solution is the culmination of all your efforts and requires very careful planning. The plan describes the sequence of actions required to achieve the objective, the timescale and the resources required at each stage. Ways of minimising the risks involved and preventing mistakes have to be devised and built into the plan. Details of what must be done if things go wrong are also included.

Once the plan has been put into effect, the situation has to be monitored to ensure that things are running smoothly. Any problems or potential problems have to be dealt with quickly. When the action is completed it's necessary to measure its success, both to estimate its usefulness for solving future problems of this type and to ensure that the problem has been solved. If not, further action may be required.

These stages provide a very flexible framework which can be adapted to suit all problems. With closed problems, for example, where there is likely to be only one or a few solutions, the emphasis will be on defining and analysing the problem to indicate possible causes. Open-ended problems, on the other hand, require more work at the idea generation stage to develop a large range of possible solutions.

At any stage in solving a problem it may be necessary to go back and adapt work done at an earlier stage. A variety of techniques and strategies are available to help you at each stage and these are described in later articles.

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The skills of problem solving

Problem solving requires two distinct types of mental skill, analytical and creative.

Analytical or logical thinking includes skills such as ordering, comparing, contrasting, evaluating and selecting. It provides a logical framework for problem solving and helps to select the best alternative from those available by narrowing down the range of possibilities (a convergent process). Analytical thinking often predominates in solving closed problems, where the many possible causes have to be identified and analysed to find the real cause.

Creative thinking is a divergent process, using the imagination to create a large range of ideas for solutions. It requires us to look beyond the obvious, creating ideas which may, at first, seem unrealistic or have no logical connection with the problem. There is a large element of creative thinking in solving open problems.

The creative thinking skills can be divided into several key elements:

    * fluency - producing many ideas
    * flexibility - producing a broad range of ideas
    * originality - producing uncommon ideas
    * elaboration - developing ideas.

Effective problem solving requires a controlled mixture of analytical and creative thinking.

Research has shown that, in general terms, each side or hemisphere of the brain is specialised to serve one of these groups of skills. The degree of specialisation of each hemisphere varies from person to person, but it has given rise to the terms right-brain thinking and left-brain thinking. Left-brain thinking is more logical and analytical, and is predominantly verbal. Right-brain thinking is more holistic and is concerned with feelings and impressionistic relationships.

To be a good problem solver you need to be able to switch from one group of skills to the other and back again, although this is not always easy. Traditional education gives far greater encouragement to the development and use of left-brain thinking. This is reinforced in the way we are required to work, where emphasis is placed on rational, logical analysis of data in drawing conclusions.

Some other terms which are often used in discussions of creativity include:

- Intuition - the ability to draw conclusions based on impressions and feelings rather than hard facts. It is a characteristic of right-brain thinking and some people rely on it more than others.

- Incubation - the period between stopping conscious work on a problem and the time when we become aware of a solution or part solution. People struggling with problems often suddenly become aware of a solution after a period of incubation, during which the mind is occupied by other things.

- Invention - the creation of new, meaningful ideas or concepts.

- Innovation - putting new ideas or concepts to a practical use, as in the development of a new product or service.

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Why people fail to solve problems effectively

Solving problems is. a complex process and each of us is better at the skills required at some stages than others.

The following is a list of some of the reasons why people fail to find effective solutions include
Abacus and problems    

    * not being methodical
    * lack of commitment to solving the problem
    * misinterpreting the problem
    * lack of. knowledge of the techniques and processes involved in problelI1 solving
    * inability to use the techniques effectively
    * using a method inappropriate to the particular problem
    * insufficient or inaccurate information
    * inability to combine analytical and creative thinking
    * failure to ensure effective implementation.

Remember

    * A problem exists when an obstacle prevents you reaching an objective.
    * Problem solving can be divided .into stages, which you. must follow methodically. if you want to be sure of finding an effective solution.
    * Solving problems effectively requires a con­trolled mixture of analytical and creative thinking skills.

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Barriers to finding the best solution

Some of the reasons we do not find the most effective solutions to our problems have been mentioned already. This article looks at a range of factors known as 'blocks' which can hinder your problem solving. It will help you to learn to recognise and overcome them.

What are problem solving blocks?

A block is anything which prevents us finding an effective solution to a problem. We all experience them, but of different types and intensities. The blocks have been grouped in various ways by different authors according to their cause, eg.

    * perceptual
    * emotional
    * intellectual
    * expressive
    * environmental
    * cultural

It's important that you are able to recognise when blocks are hindering your problem solving so that you can take action to overcome them.

What causes these blocks?

The labels applied to these blocks give some clues to their origins.

Perceptual blocks arise from the way we have learnt to recognise information from the world around us. We develop habits of 'seeing' the world, which sometimes can get in the way of finding the best solution to a problem, eg seeing only the most obvious solution.

Emotional blocks arise when our emotional needs conflict with the situation, eg when we do not propose a radical. solution to a problem because we feel it might sound ridiculous and make us look foolish.

Intellectual blocks are caused by us not being able to assimilate information in the ways required to solve a problem, eg not knowing how to evaluate ideas to select the most effective solution.

Expressive blocks arise when we are unable to commu­nicate in the way required to produce an effective solution, eg not being able to express our ideas effectively to those who have to implement the solution.            .

Environmental blocks are caused by. external obstacles in the social or physical environment, which prevent us from solving a problem effectively, eg distractions from the task.

Cultural blocks result from our conditioning to accept what is expected or 'normal' in a given situation, eg when the work ethic says that we must be serious-minded, but finding an effective solution requires some playful fantasy.

All of the blocks, except those caused by the physical environment, arise through learning or lack of it, either our own or that of people who influence us.

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Failure and problems

We can overcome most of our own blocks permanently by re-learning, and overcome other people's blocks which hinder us by learning ways to sidestep them.

The following is an explanation of some of the main blocks that exist under each category heading.

A. Perceptual blocks

Perceptual blocks exist when we are unable to clearly perceive a problem or the information needed to solve it effectively .They include:

- Seeing only what you expect to see
To recognise situations we look for patterns of key features which we have learnt by experience represent a particular situation~ If the key features 'fit' we assume the situations are the same. This often obscures the "true nature of a problem, either because we exclude relevant information (because it isn't a key feature or didn't occur in the past), or include information simply because we assume it is there.

- Stereotyping
In recognising situations we automatically apply labels (like door, machine, laziness) which can prevent us seeing all the features of. the situation. Often we don't look beyond the obvious. For example, if someone isn't working as hard as we would like and we apply the label 'lazy' to that person, we might overlook the possibility that boredom with monotonous work is the problem, and not laziness.

- Not recognising problems
A surprising number of problems go unnoticed or are recognised only when the effects have become severe and emergency action is required.

- Not seeing the problem in perspective
This is related to some of the previous blocks, and results from:

    * taking too narrow a view of the situation, so that we recognise only part of the problem or the information required to solve it
    * failing to recognise how different parts of the problem are related
    * seeing only superficial aspects of the problem, so that the solution is inadequate
    * failing to see the problem from the point of view of other people who are involved.

- Mistaking cause and effect
Many problems are recognised by their effects or the absence of expected results. If cause and effect are confused then we are unlikely to find an effective solution. For example, if goods do not arrive and we assume that the supplier is late in despatching them when in fact our ordering department has failed to send out the order, then our search for solutions will be misdirected. In this situation the late despatch of the goods is an effect of the problem and not a cause.

B. Emotional blocks

Emotional blocks exist when we perceive a threat to our emotional needs. These needs differ in type and strength from person to person but include needs for achievement, recognition, order, belonging and self-esteem. The emotional blocks include:

- Fear of making mistakes or looking foolish
This is the most significant emotional block because it affects most of us and is difficult to overcome. As a result of traditional schooling, the expected reaction when we make a mistake or suggest radically different ideas is laughter and ridicule. No one likes being laughed at and as a result we learn to fear making mistakes and to avoid suggesting ideas which are different.

This block becomes more severe in the presence of collea­gues of a different rank to our own. With .those who are more senior we imagine that we will be thought inexperienced or immature. With those more junior we want to protect our image as being knowledgeable and experienced.

- Impatience
Being impatient to solve a problem may be due either to a desire to succeed quickly or to end the discomfort or loss caused by the problem. This has two major consequences. We tend to grab the first solution which comes along, without adequate analysis of the problem, and we evaluate ideas. too fast, almost instinctively rejecting unusual ideas. Either way, our solution is unlikely to be the most effective available.

- Avoiding anxiety
This is another common block. Some of- us are more susceptible to anxiety and also find it more unpleasant than others. Many factors can cause anxiety, including high risk, disorder and ambiguity, long-term stress, and fear for our security. The effects on problem solving include avoiding risks, indecision in situations which are not 'black and white', excessive reliance on others' judgement, and avoiding challenging the status quo.            .

- Fear of taking risks
This leads to the avoidance of situations where the outcome is uncertain or could be unpleasant. A major cause is our desire for security. The consequences include setting objectives within easy reach, so that there is no risk of failure, and accepting known solutions in preference to the unusual because their value is certain. A liking for taking risks and over-confidence in being able to avoid unpleasant , consequences are more dangerous blocks.

- Need for order
This is related to avoiding anxiety. It can lead to an inability to cope with the frustration of situations which are not clear cut or where ambiguities exist.

- Lack of challenge
This may arise when the problem is routine or the benefits/losses are not significant to us. The result is that either we don't tackle the problem or we take the easiest, quickest route to solution.

C. Intellectual blocks

Intellectual blocks exist when we don't have the necessary thinking skills to find a successful solution, or are unable to use them effectively. They include:

- Lack of knowledge or skill in the problem solving process
This is one of the most common blocks. It includes: inadequate skills in analytical and creative thinking; an inflexible strategy, using one approach for every type of problem; the inability to use the various problem solving techniques. They can all lead to ineffective solutions.

- Lack of creative thinking
This is always caused by an inability to use the skills rather than their absence, resulting from the dominance of analytical thinking in our day-to-day lives and a lack of practice.

- Inflexible thinking
This is a difficulty in switching from one type of thinking skill to another, such as from analysis to idea generation or from verbal to visual thinking.

- Not being methodical
This is perhaps the most common block. A step-by-step approach is essential to solving problems effectively.

- Lack of knowledge or skill in using the 'Language' of the problem
If a problem involves a language that we cannot understand or cannot use, such as specialist jargon or statistical analysis, we will not be able to tackle the problem effectively. Similarly, we may use an inappropriate language, such as trying to find an error in accounts by describing the situation verbally rather than analysing it mathematically.

- Using inadequate information
This happens when we do not make sufficient effort to collect the relevant information, or do not understand what information is relevant, where to find it, or how it relates to the problem. Similarly, using inaccurate information can lead us to the wrong conclusions.

D. Expressive blocks

Expressive blocks exist when we do not have the knowledge or skills necessary to communicate or record ideas in the ways required. They are caused by an inability to 'use 'languages' effectively, such as words, drawings, mathe­matics, scientific symbols, and so on. They include:

- Using the wrong language
Some problems are more effectively solved or communicated using one language rather than another. For example, we are unlikely to get very far if we record data only verbally when the problem requires quantitative analysis. Similarly, people may find it hard to grasp our meaning if we try to explain our feelings about a situation using mathematics instead of words.

- Unfamiliarity with a particular application of a language
The most obvious example is the difficulty many people have making a speech, even though they can write their ideas effectively on paper.

- Inadequate explanations
These can result from a real lack of information about what you are trying to convey, or from assuming that your audience already has some of the information when, they don't.

- A passive management style
A situation where we are reluctant to or find it difficult to exert influence may prevent us communicating our ideas effectively. This is particularly important when people need to be convinced of the validity of ideas.

- A dominant management style
This is when we exert oppressive control, either deliberately or unconsciously, and can make those we are communicat­ing with automatically reluctant to accept what we say or hostile to our ideas.

E. Environmental blocks

Environmental blocks, which exist when the social or physical environment hinders our problem solving, include:

- Management style
The way in which we are managed can influence both our attitude to problem solving and the freedom we have to .create and implement ideas. For example, if our ideas are dismissed constantly with comments such as 'No, it wouldn't work because ...', or 'No, we've tried it before and it didn't work', we soon give up trying.

- Distractions
Due to excessive noise and interruptions, these affect some people more than others, but in general they have a detrimental effect on problem solving.

- Physical discomfort
This can create a distraction as well as resulting in stress. or lethargy depending on the circumstances. For example, poorly designed chairs may create a distraction by giving us backache which, in turn, can make us irritable and less interested in any type of work.

- Lack of support
This comes in many forms. For example, we may need specialist information, advice, skills or other resources, or authority to take action. A more pervasive aspect of this block is a lack of encouragement and the necessary organisational structure to support and exploit people's ideas.

- Stress
Stress due to pressure of work and deadlines, affects people differently. For those who are susceptible to stress it can be a powerful block, hindering creative thinking in particular.

- Lack of communication
This has a number of effects, including inability to get the information you require and a lack of encouragement.

- Monotonous work
This can dull enthusiasm for solving problems and put us onto 'automatic pilot', making us blind to problems when they occur.

- Expectations of others
These can influence both our general perf9rmance in problem solving and the objectives we set ourselves. For example, if our peers and superiors are happy with a regular solution to a problem we may feel that it's a waste of time looking for anew; more effective solution. On the other hand, if we are expected to find an innovative solution we are likely to make a greater effort.

F. Cultural blocks

Cultural blocks exist when our problem solving is hindrance by accepting that some things are good or right and are done, while others are bad or wrong and are not done, So that we become bound by custom. They include:

- Unquestioning acceptance of the status quo
There is a tendency to conform to established ideas an methods of working and not to question them or express ideas which depart from them. If something is not normal done we tend to look for the reasons why it can't be done or why it wouldn't work, rather that looking for 'the reasons why it should be done or why it could work.

- Dislike of change
The attitude that tradition is preferable to change can arise, from the need for security. If a situation is acceptable as it is, any change, which must involve some uncertainty, is felt to be threatening by some people. However, as we become more and more accustomed to change this block is becoming less common, but there must be reasons for change. Change for change's sake can be dangerous.

- Fantasy and humour are not productive
There is still a widespread belief that fantasy and humour have no place in the serious business of problem solving. Subjective reports from innovators suggest otherwise. Fantasy and humour are connected by one common feature - the unlikely combination of ideas (think about it' next time you hear a good joke - the punch line is always unexpected). Innovative solutions to problems arise in the same way - by making a link between apparently unrelated ideas.

- Feelings, intuition and subjective judgements are unreliable
There is a strong bias towards reason, logic and quantitative judgements because they can be measured and commu­nicated in accurate terms. Feelings, intuition and subjective judgements, which cannot be measured or communicated as effectively, are seen as unrealiable and are mistrusted.

Even in mathematics, one of the most logical of sciences, intuition is often reported as playing a key role in, problem solving. A good problem solver needs to be able to use both objective, logical methods and subjective, intuitive methods in the search for solutions.

- Over-emphasis on competition or cooperation
A strongly competitive environment (for recognition, promotion, and so on) can make people unwilling to listen to the ideas of those with whom they are competing. Similarly, in a strongly cooperative environment we may avoid expressing new ideas because we don't want to stand out from the crowd.

- Taboos
Some actions and ideas are excluded from problem solving because they are regarded as distasteful, or are harmful, or contravene accepted moral codes. For example, in a test of creativity a group of students were given a problem to solve using calculus. They had to follow certain rules and the objective was to see who produced the largest number of different routes to the correct solution. A few students produced a lot more than the others because they chose to break the rules they were told to follow.

Although eventually we may not decide to break a taboo, there is no harm in breaking them in thought. This can often lead to new perspectives on a problem.

The labels given to all of these blocks only serve to help explain them. There is considerable overlap between some of the blocks and this can make it hard to recognise them if you look for labels. The most effective way to recognise blocks is to examine your thinking when you are solving problems and be aware constantly for factors which are hindering your progress.

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Overcoming the Blocks to Problem Solving

Perceptual blocks are relatively easy to overcome, simply by using the step-by-step approach, eg

    * having systems to warn of the occurrence of problems
    * defining and analysing problems adequately
    * collecting all the relevant information
    * questioning whether you have used inaccurate information or made assumptions about what is and isn't relevant
    * asking for other people's points of view
    * using models to. represent the relationships between different aspects of the problem.

Emotional blocks can be difficult to overcome because they require a change in attitude, which may take some time to learn. The following methods help to achieve this change:

· accept that if you are looking for new, better ways of doing something, some mistakes are almost inevitable

· remember that many great thinkers have been , ridiculed for what turned out to be great inventions eg the heavier-than-air flying machine

    * if you still' fear looking foolish, try to develop your ideas into a practical form before you show them to anyone, or develop a logical argument to prove that they will work
    * following a strictly methodical approach will automatically curb impatience
    * to avoid anxiety tackle problems in small, easily manageable steps; if necessary, put the problem aside and come back to it later
    * if you don't want to take risks, identify the worst possible consequences, and how likely they are to occur, and then try to find ways of preventing them

To overcome the intellectual blocks described in this chapter you need to:

    * learn to be methodical
    * practice using different types of 'language' to tackle problems
    * practice using the various analytical and creative techniques.

Expressive blocks

    * Overcoming these blocks involves learning to
    * identify which 'language' is most likely to help you solve a particular problem
    * use languages in different ways, eg diagrams to represent problems normally described verbally
    * ensure that when you explain ideas you have all the relevant information, it is accurate, and that you convey it all clearly
    * develop a style of working with others which is not too forceful (so that people are more willing to listen to you) and not too passive (so that you learn how to influence people); showing enthusiasm for your ideas can help by infecting others with enthusiasm.

Environmental blocks

    * if there is a climate of criticism, develop the strengths of your ideas and ways to overcome their weaknesses before you propose thebeing careful how you describe it to others also help to avoid premature criticism
    * conduct your problem solving in an environment which suits you, ie comfortable and free of distractions likely to hinder you; this may make setting aside some time when you can move away from your normal working environment
    * if you feel people may not provide the help need, try to identify the benefits to then solving the problem before you ask for their help
    * if pressure of work hinders you, set aside s time when you are free from other wor tackle the problem
    * if your work is monotonous, introduce ~ variety by looking for different ways of , the job; alternatively, look for varied tasks that could be delegated to you.            '

Cultural blocks

The following methods can be used to help overcome various cultural blocks:

    * critically question existing ideas and me looking for areas for improvement
    * identify constraints and question their validity
    * if you dislike change, do some 'wishful thinking’ to see what benefits change would bring; ask yourself what would be the consequences of taking a new approach.
    * if you think fantasy and humour have no place in problem solving, practice using your day dreams to develop your ideas; next time someone cracks a joke about a situation, think about what new perspectives it creates
    * if you think intuition is unreliable, think back over recent problems you have solved; did that first 'hunch' turn out to be dose to your final solution?
    * if you are in a very competitive environment, be careful how you explain your ideas to people competing with you; emphasise the likely benefits to them
    * if there is a strong climate of cooperation, ask members of your group for their ideas and comments; share the problem with them.

If you fail to solve a problem effectively, look back over your thoughts and actions to see if a block hindered you. If it did, next time you can prepare to avoid it. By being constantly aware of the blocks that can occur and using the techniques described above to overcome them when they hinder your problem solving, you will find that gradually fewer and fewer blocks occur.

Remember

    * There is a range of factors known as blocks which can prevent you finding the most effective solutions to our problems.
    * You can recognise blocks by their specific effects on your thinking and problem solving.
    * When you recognise that a block exists you can overcome it by using the appropriate technique. 

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A good climate for problem solving

The success of a company can depend to a large extent on the ability of its staff to solve problems'effectively, both in their day-to-day work and through innovation. This applies not only to senior management, but at all levels in an organisation.

It's not enough simply to teach effective problem solving techniques. The working environment has a very powerful influence on the individual's ability to solve problems effectively and it needs to be supportive and stimulating.

To be truly effective in your work and to contribute to the success of your organisation, you need to be aware of the influence of the working environment on problem solving. This enables you to

    * recognise and overcome negative influences on your own problem solving, and
    * help to create an environment which will support others in their problem solving.

The influence of our working environment is subtle and diverse. In addition to the physical environment, the processes and procedures we are required to follow in our work and the attitudes and values of those around us can help or hinder our problem solving; This happens in many ways, for example

    * at work we tend to adopt the, general attitude towards problem solving
    * we will only tackle problems which come to us through accepted channels
    * we will be more motivated to solve problems in innovative ways if there is greater 'reward' than for producing a regular solution
    * we will not take risks with new ideas if failure brings severe criticism.

The elements which compose the working environment can be divided broadly into three interdependent groups:

    * the company's policies and procedures
    * the style of management
    * the physical environment.

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 Company policies and procedures effect on problem solving

Possessing good problem solving skills does not make people automatically use them to the benefit of the organisation. They need encouragement, support and guidance in applying them to the organisation's problems. This can be achieved through:

- Commitment to Innovation
Resistance to change has fallen dramatically over the past decade but many organisations are still reluctant to promote change actively as part of their business strategy. This is particularly true where it takes the organisation into new markets or requires high investment in new manufacturing plannor additional management services.

A commitment to innovation is essential to success in a competitive business world. All staff should be made aware of this commitment, which should be part of the organisation's policy, underpinning its business strategy and reflected throughout its operation. It should produce in individuals an expectation of high achievement through problem solving. This commitment can be reflected and supported in the following ways.

- Systems and procedures
As organisations grow they' develop more complex management structures which create hierarchies of responsi­bility and authority. Although this is important to the efficient management of the operation it can create barriers to people using their problem solving skills. There are several steps that can be taken to avoid these barriers while maintaining efficient management:

    * reduce the constraints imposed on individuals by making rules and normal procedures and practices more flexible
    * avoid anything which may frustrate an indi­vidual's attempts to apply their enthusiasm for problem solving
    * give individuals responsibility for their work and the way they complete it, so that there is less double checking and they have the freedom to develop more effective ways of working
    * provide systems which allow people to/see their ideas through from conception to execution
    * ensure that procedures for interdepartmental communication allow individuals access (when warranted) to the information and resources of departments other than their own
    * give authority to every member of staff to suggest solutions to other people's problems.

- Reward
This is essential in promoting originality and innovation. Research has shown that many people who leave a company to develop their business ideas (entrepreneurs) do so because their attempts to do it within the company have been frustrated and not because their financial reward is insufficient. Their main incentive is achievement rather than money.

Although reward for good ideas can be given through promotion or as a bonus through suggestion schemes, it has proved more effective to create a new career structure for these individuals. This provides them with the resources and freedom to develop their ideas, together with prestige and salary increases.

- Good communications
This ensures that all staff are aware of the information above. In addition it ensures that

    * all staff know the company's business objec­tives, such as expansion, new markets, and so on, so that they can apply their problem solving skills in contributing to its future success
    * individual successes are well known, so that others are inspired and encouraged
    * all levels of management know the importance of encouraging their staff to apply their skills to solving the organisation's problems and exploit­ing opportunities.

Company suggestion schemes can also encourage good problem solving, provided they are managed properly. The most effective system is where all staff are informed of specific problems which the company faces in reaching its business objectives, and are notified of the results of evaluation of the ideas that have been submitted. Quality circles are another way of encouraging staff tt contribute to the success of their organisation through problem solving.

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Style of management effect on problem solving

The major things a manager can do I stimulate and support good problem solving are:

- Delegate responsibility
People who have responsibility for and control over the work feel a greater commitment to ensuring that they work efficiently. Staff should be given the freedom to mal decisions and to tackle problems without constantly having to get agreement from their manager. Some managers feel that this lessens their control over staff and their work. In fact, because people are more committed to their work, their is less need for control.
Different faces of the boss    

- Delegate problems
Involving members of staff in solving a problem has sever benefits:

    * it provides experience from which they can learn
    * it helps to make' them feel that they a contributing to the goals of the organisation
    * the manager gains other points of view problems
    * people who are involved in finding a solution to a problem feel more committed to implementing it.

- Ensure good communications
Make sure that everyone knows about and has easy access to information about the company's business objectives, its markets and its current problems.

- Set high standards of achievement
This not only provides a stimulating challenge for staff to use problem solving to improve their efficiency, but it also creates an environment where individuals feel that only the best is acceptable, so they begin to set their own high standards. In setting standards it's vital that individuals know exactly what minimum standard they are expected to achieve in particular tasks.

- Avoid undue criticism of people's ideas
We all know from experience that criticism of our ideas can be dispiriting, particularly if the ideas are new or unusual and the critical person is in a position of authority.

We often tend to look for flaws in other people's ideas rather than the good points. This may be because it proposes unsettling change, but more often it's for personal or political reasons, such as jealousy or anger about ideas from juniors or those. we are competing with, perhaps from another department.

Undue criticisism of ideas has two effects. People soon learn not to waste their time suggesting ideas when they know they will get a rebuff and, more insidiously, they become over-cautious in their thinking, concentrating on the flaws in an idea before it is even developed.
   
- Morale and management
You should listen carefully to people so ideas and not reject them without careful consideration. Even if they appear impractical at first, perhaps theyi could be adapted and improved. When ideas do turn out to be completely impractical, explain to the person concerned why it would not work.

- Remove constraints
If there are standard rules and procedures in the organisation which hinder problem solving don't enforce them unless absolutely necessary.                   .

- Encourage risk-taking in situations where the consequences of failure can be tolerated
To find original, innovative solutions to problems people need the freedom to experiment and this is inherently risky. Remember, ideas are not actions so even the most outlandish ideas can be tolerated without harm. Risk-taking can be actively encouraged, by suggesting to people that they look for unusual solutions to a situation, or passively, by ensuring that you do not harshly criticise ideas which are obviously impractical.

- Encourage expression
This is achieved by using a variety of tactics, eg.

    * make a deliberate effort to ask people for their ideas on problems that arise
    * listen attentively when people come to you with ideas
    * avoid undue criticism of. impractical ideas.

- Give recognition for good ideas
We all need reward for our efforts and it's important that people know there will be greater reward for innovative solutions to problems than for regular solutions. As well as recognition and appreciation another type of reward is for people to see their ideas implemented.

- Provide 'time out' for problem solving
While some people find being under pressure of work or a deadline a stimulus to problem solving, others find it a hindrance and need to feel relaxed. People should be given the opportunity to spend time free from the pressures of other work to tackle important problems.

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Physical environment effect on problem solving

We all know from experience that our surroundings can have an important influence on the way we feel, think and work. This is particularly true of solving problems, in terms of both' the process itself and the' general attitude to productivity.

The type of physical environment we favour for problem solving is a very personal matter, according to what factors create in us the right state of mind for a particular task. For example, the bathroom is often reported as a site of inspiration, probably because it's a time when we are relaxed and distracted from concentration on a problem.
The enviroment    

Most people require a different state of mind when they need to think creatively compared with doing analytical work. Analytical thinking requires concentration on the details of a problem, while creative thinking usually requires a more relaxed, free-ranging attitude.

Environmental stimuli can affect the ease with which we can use various mental skills. There is a biological mechanism through which physical stimulation automa­tically increases concentration up to a certain point, but beyond which it reduces our ability to concentrate. We each have a different optimum of environmental stimulation for both creative and analytical thinking.

We need to learn, through experience, what conditions suit us best and try to recreate those conditions each time we have a problem to tackle. This does not mean, for example, dashing to the bathroom every time we get stuck with a problem and need inspiration. We simply need to recreate the state of mind which we find most effective for solving problems.

In general terms, the following factors should be considered as important in the working environment:

- Physical comfort
This is essential and should include a comfortable, even temperature; good lighting to avoid eyestrain; ergonomically designed furniture and office systems; low levels of noise; and minimum 'through traffic'.

- Well planned space
Creating a 'light and airy' environment, rather than one which makes people feel enclosed and restricted, has a beneficial effect on people's state of mind. This includes avoiding overcrowding, providing natural light wherever possible and adequate storage and filing facilities to reduce clutter and give the appearance of order.
   
- Good office resources
Lack of resources can cause unnecessary frustrations, so the easy availability of photocopiers, typing facilities, efficient means of communication and other necessary resources is important.

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Does your organisation encourage and support problem solving? 15 telling questions to ask!

      Ask yourself the questions. Does your organisation do these things?
      Ask some questions    
         1. Are all staff are made aware that it is the organisation's policy to promote and support originality and innovation?
         2. Can people can follow their ideas through from conception to execution?
         3. Does the organisation successfuly operates schemes to promote problem solving activities eg a suggestion scheme, quality circles?
         4. Is there is good communication between ranks?
         5. Are people are given a large amount of responsibility for their work?
         6. Is reasonable risk-taking is encouraged?
         7. Are people are more concerned with new ideas than with defending their turf?
         8. Are good ideas are rewarded, either by recognition, promotion or financially?
         9. Are there are no barriers to commu­nication between departmental functions?
        10. Are there are no barriers to using resour­ces from other departments?
        11. Are mistakes are tolerated in the cause of innovation?
        12. Does the organisation makes a high invest­ment in providing good facilities and pleasant surroundings?
        13. Is specific training for problem solving is available to staff?
        14. Are resources are set aside specifically for people to develop new ideas?
        15. Are you doing the right thing?

      Remember

          * Effective problem solving requires a stimulating  and supportive environment.
          * Aspects of the organisation's policies and procedures, the style of management and the physical environment can help or hinder problem solving.
          * Whatever your role, you can help to create an environment which encourages and supports effective problem solving.

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So what's the problem?

Before you start trying to solve a problem you need to be sure that a problem exists, discover precisely what it is, and decide whether it is important enough to warrant time and effort in solving it. This next two articles are aimed at helping you:

    * ensure that you recognise problems efficiently
    * define problems effectively
    * decide if action is necessary and when.

Some problems arise suddenly, without warning, and are painfully obvious by their effects. Others develop more slowly, perhaps over many days, weeks or months, and have a more subtle influence. On some occasions, what you think is a problem may turn out not to be a problem at all. It's important to be able to recognise problems efficiently.

All objectives and obstacles go through phases to some extent, and a problem arises when a current objective coincides with an effective obstacle. The growth and decay of objectives and obstacles varies tremendously. For example, industrial unrest which leads to strike action may have been growing for many months or years. Similarly, annual sales targets are achieved gradually over twelve months and may undergo seasonal and monthly variations.

If you can monitor the growth and decay of objectives and potential obstacles you will be in a position to take action to prevent a problem occurring, or at least be prepared to tackle it immediately when it arises.

You should never be in the position of facing a problem which could have been foreseen or, worse still, not recoginsing that a problem exists. Recognising problems efficiently involves being aware of the areas in which they may arise and establishing specific methods of detection. The following methods will help you to detect problems early:

You can detect any shortfall in agreed standards or targets by monitoring performance. This means first ensuring that all staff know precisely what standards of work and behaviour they are required to maintain, and setting up systems to measure the standards achieved.
   
Observe staff: by doing this you can detect changes in behaviour which may reflect an underlying problem. Make sure you are aware of any concerns staff may have in their work or their relationships with others, both inside and outside work.

If you regularly review and compare past performance and behaviour with the current situation you can detect gradual deterioration.

There are many methods of measuring performance, from simple subjective judgements made about an individual' behaviour, to sophisticated point of sale computer monitoring systems used by multiple retailers.

Whatever method you use it's important that you don't jump to conclusionsabout the data they provide. Until you investigate the situation you can't be sure that a problem exists or you may assume the cause incorrectly.

To help you recognise opportunities,you can supplement the list above by looking at your major areas of responsibility and asking yourself questions such as:

    * Could we exceed the current targets and objectives?
    * Could I utilise the resources within my control more efficiently?
    * Are there new objectives that could be set?

You can ask the same questions of colleagues, other departments and the organisation as a whole, looking for opportunities in terms of both performance (such as output, efficiency and profitability) and the personal. needs of staff (such as safety, comfort and job satisfaction).

When you have recognised that a problem exists, you should decide who has responsibility for the situation,ie who 'owns' it. If a problem is not your direct responsibility you will need to inform the owner. You may be asked to deal with it anyway, but the owner may have the information or resources needed to find an effective solution, or you may need approval later to implement your solution. You could also be asked to solve a problem for someone else, or to contribute to its solution. However you become involved in solving a problem, you must ensure that it is defined effectively.

When you first become aware of a problem it is often as a hazy notion that things are not as they should be, or that they could be improved. To deal with the situation effectively you need to describe or define it as something which you can act upon. These definitions vary in complexity but their primary function is to point you in the right direction for further work on the problem. They help you to

    * identify a tangible target to be achieved
    * reduce complex problems to a series of smaller problems
    * focus on the important aspects of a problem
    * assess its importance and allocate appropriate resources to solve it
    * explain the problem to others who may be involved or can help in its solution
    * locate clues to possible strategies and solutions
    * decide the type of information you require
    * define criteria for measuring the potential effectiveness of various solutions.

To define a problem effectively you need to gather information about the situation. The method which detected the problem will provide enough information to enable you to make a preliminary definition.

Closed and open-ended problems are usually defined in different ways. With closed problems, where finding a solution first involves finding the cause, the emphasis is on identifying and specifying the possible causes. Open-ended problems, where there are many possible solutions, require a definition which broadens the search for solutions. Defining closed problems is an analytical, convergent process. Defining open-ended problems is a more creative, divergent process.

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Defining problems – closed and open ended problems

Defining closed problems

Defining closed problems involves identifying and recording all aspects of the deviation from the norm, from which you can begin to deduce the possible causes. A preliminary definition of a closed problem might be, for example, 'quality control has detected a 15% increase in rejects of component A during the past week' . This type of definition is of little help in locating the cause of such a problem, but it's a starting point for making a detailed description of the situation.
Finding solutions to problems    

A technique widely used for defining closed problems is the Kepner- Tregoe approach, which helps to systematically analyse and define all aspects of the problem situation. Developed by Drs Kepner and Tregoe, it was used by Kepner to help find the cause of the explosion on board the Apollo space capsule in 1968, which killed three American astronauts. The cause of the accident was eventually isolated in the explosive mixture of gases used. Although this may seem an obvious place to look, bearing in mind that the lives of other astronauts could have been at risk subsequently, it was essential that every possibility of other causes or contributing factors was ruled out.

The Kepner- Tregoe approach consists of answering a series of questions about the situation, such as:

    * What is the problem?
    * What isn't the problem?
    * What is distinctive about it?
    * Where is the problem?
    * Where isn't the problem?
    * Who/what does the problem involve?
    * Who/what doesn't the problem involve?
    * When did or when does the problem occur?
    * When didn't or when doesn't it occur?

The answers help to build a detailed definition of the problem.
   
Closed and open ended problems

Without being able to investigate the situation you can only guess at answers to some of the questions, but this demonstrates how the method is used to clarify problems and to suggest possible causes

The questions can be modified to adapt to different situations and a detailed analysis using this method would include additional questions such as

    * What is the same when the problem occurs?
    * What is different when the problem occurs?
    * What is the extent of the problem?
    * Is the problem getting bigger?
    * Is the problem getting smaller?
    * What is distinctive about its change in size?

In combination, the answers to these questions build up a detailed picture of the problem which often suggests possible causes. However, when you use the Kepner-Tregoe method it's important not to jump to conclusions about the likely causes. You must complete the analysis because you locate the true cause of the problem later by testing each possibility to see if it fits all the circumstances. However, you should note any possible causes which occur to you at this stage.

When applying this method to your own problems you will need to investigate the situation carefully in order answer the questions accurately, and all the information which supports your answers should be documented so that it can be verified later. Questions may be asked repeatedly, as your understanding of the problem grows, so that you can define it more precisely.

Although the Kepner-Tregoe method is time consuming and not easy to use at first, it is worth persevering with because it ensures that you define closed problems carefully and thoroughly.

Defining open-ended problems

An open-ended problem is defined in terms of goals. Write the objectives as a statement of what you want to achieve by solving the problem. The definition needs to be precise, to give aid and direction to your search for solutions, but at the same time identify all the possible goals which would contribute your overall objective. In order to define an open ended problem try the following methods.

First to explore all the possible goals and then to define precisely those which you want achieve.

Defining the problem in terms of a 'How to ... ? statements eg 'How to finance expansion?', focuses attention on the problem area and provides a basis for suggesting alternative goals and routes to a solution.

1. Write down a preliminary definition of an open ended problem that you have faced or are facing currently. Phrase it in terms 'How to ... ?'.

2. Take as much time as you want and complete the following statements.

- There is usually more than one way of looking at a problem.
- You can define this one as ...

- But the main point of the problem is ...

-What I would really like to do is ...

- If I could break all the rules and laws of reality I would try to solve it by...

- The problem put in any other way could be likened to ,..

- Another, even stranger way of looking at it might be ...

Now look at your original definition: do any of your redefinitions help you to see the problem in a different and perhaps more effective way?
If you 'tested' many different open-ended problems you would find that usually they do not have a single' correct' definition. For example, 'How to increase sales?' could be restated as "How to... make our product more saleable? increase sales outlets? improve our market share? make our marketing more effective? make our sales team more effective?"

Trying to find a single all-encompassing definition severely limits the scope of possible solutions. Sometimes what appears to be a single problem is in fact a collection of several smaller, related problems.
Inaccurate or misleading definitions can result in ineffective solutions.
An effective definition accurately represents' the key features of the problem in a way which gives direction to your work in solving it,and problem situations have to be investigated thoroughly before they can be defined effectively.
The more precise the definition, the greater your chances of finding an effective solution.

Use this checklist to review how thoroughly you have defined a problem.

    * Can this objective be divided into several sub-goals?
    * Is this objective the ultimate goal in solving the problem?
    * Is achieving this objective simply a route to achieving another objective?
    * Are there other related objectives?
    * Can this obstacle be sub-divided?
    * Does this obstacle really prevent me reaching this objective?
    * Are there other related obstacles?
    * Does this obstacle prevent me reaching other objectives?
    * Does this definition take account of the needs of others who are involved or who may be affected?

Open-ended problems are related to a need or desire to improve upon the current situation and there is an inevitable risk that you may fail to benefit, or even change the situation for the worse.  As a safeguard against this happening you should' make a detailed comparison of the benefits of the current situation with those you will achieve by reaching your objectives. This will enable you to look for solutions which retain the good features of the current situation. You should be prepared to forfeit these only when they are clearly outweighed by the benefits of achieving your objectives. This type of analysis will also help you to measure the potential gain and estimate the practical limit of your resources in finding a solution.

Many of the techniques described for defining open­ended problems can be applied to defining closed problems once their cause (the obstacle) has been identified.

Defining problems effectively often requires painstaking work.You can't afford to make assumptions or dive straight into looking for a solution. Sometimes the process of defining a problem reveals that it doesn't require any action, perhaps because it will disappear and not recur, or because the actual loss or potential gain is relatively insignificant. On other occasions you may need to decide when it would be best to act.

Is action necessary, and when?

The effects of some problems are not significant enough to merit time and effort in solving them. Even when they do, because many objectives and obstacles go through phases of growth and decay, tackling a problem immediately may not be the best course of action. For example, if rain is preventing you painting your house you wait until it stops raining rather than trying to erect a huge canopy over the house. When you have a problem there are a number of options open to you, depending on the nature of the situation:

    * Do nothing: when the problem will solve itself; when its effects are insignificant; when the cost of solving it is greater than the potential gain.
    * Monitor the situation: when it is not urgent; when the problem is diminishing; when you are unsure of the cause; when you need time to plan what to do; when the obstacle is getting smaller; when the objective is developing or declining and finding a solution is likely to be difficult.
    * Deal with the effects: when the cause will subside; when the cost of removing the cause is too great; when an obstacle is too intractable.
    * Try to solve it immediately: when the problem is growing; when it is having serious effects; when the obstacle is getting larger; when the objective is developing or declining and finding a solution is likely to be relatively easy; when a deadline has been imposed.

When you have decided to act upon a problem, the search for solutions involves finding ways to close the gap between your current situation and one where you will have achieved your objective. At any stage it may be necessary to redefine the problem, or you may decide that, due to new information you have acquired, ordue to a change in circumstances, the problem does not require further action.

Remember

    * To recognise problems efficiently you need to establish and maintain specific methods of detection.
    * To deal with problems effectively you need first to define it as something you can act upon.
    * It' s not always appropriate to try to solve a problem immediately
    * If you face several problems at once you may need to decide which one to tackle first.

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Finding possible solutions

Finding a solution to a problem involves constructing a course of action that will transform your current situation into one where your objective has been achieved. Some problems require no further analysis once they have been defined effectively. If the definition confirms that it's a common or routine problem, such as the failure - of a component in a manufacturing plant or a situation requiring disciplinary action, it can be solved by implementing the appropriate standard solution.

Less common and more complex problems require further analysis. Even though the definition may have given you clues to some possible solutions, you should explore all the possibilities. There is considerable overlap between the stages involved but the process of finding solutions can be represented as a cycle.
Finding solutions to problems    

If you have, not already done so, at this stage you must decide who else should be involved in solving the problem and in what way. This may be people involved with or affected by the problemf with experience of, or an interest in, this type of situation; the relevant knowledge, or with good problem solving skills.

The five stages of this problem solving process are:

   1. Identifying the relevant information
   2. Collecting and recording the information
   3. Prepresenting the information
   4. Deciding criteria of effectiveness
   5. Constructing courses of action

- Identifying the relevant information
The purpose of this stage is to give structure to your search for information and ideas relevant to the problem. You need to decide what information you require, where you can find it, and how you can gather it most effectively. With open-ended problems this information will help you to deal with obstacles and find ways to achieve your objectives. For closed problems you need information which will help you to clarify the problem, identify the cause, and suggest possible solutions
   
If you have defined the problem adequately you will already have some of the information required, based on who and what is involved. Your objectives, any obstacles, and your description of the current and desired situations will help you to identify the type of information you require and possible sources. In the case of closed problems you would look first at your answers to the questions in the Kepner-Tregoe analysis and any possible causes which they suggest.

Two other useful sources of information are past experience of similar problems and people involved with or affected by the problem who may have relevant information. It's vital to distinguish between facts, ideas, needs, opinions and prejudices, although you must not ignore any information relevant to the problem. If several people express the same need, for example, collectively it may represent an important fador in finding an effective solution.

Your information must be relevant to the problem, accurate and preferably quantified. Ultimately, you need to answer the following questions:

    * What type of information is required, eg financial, strategic, technical, policy, behavioural?
    * What specific information is required, eg dates, times, amounts, names, actions?
    * Why is this information required, eg to clarify the situation, to identify resources for solving the problem?     
    * What are the sources of this information, eg yourself, colleagues, eye-witnesses, records, specialists, other departments, books, researchers? ,
    * What form will it take, eg numerical, statistical, verbal?
    * How accurate or reliable are the sources, eg are they biased; is the information in the form of opinions?
    * How can this information be obtained, eg memos, reports, meetings, informal discussions, observation, listening, testing?

As you answer these questions you should draw up a list of the specific information you require, where you can find it, and how you can gather it most effectively.

It's often difficult to recall from memory all the important factors relating to a particular problem. You can use many of the creative techniques described in the next few articles to help you identify relevant information and the possible causes of closed problems.

- Collecting and recording the information
Information should be gathered and recorded systematically, starting with that which is going to take the longest time to collect, eg advice from an outside expert. The information should be recorded as it is gathered and not left to the memory. Any information you have not gathered yourself should be verified eg finding out the original source of the information and how it was collected. It's particularly important to verify quantified data.

Apart from any errors you may make in the collection and analysis of information, numerical and statistical data can be manipulated by others to serve their own interests. You must ensure that the way information is presented to you reflects the true situation and that any conclusions offered about its relevance are accurate and logical.

- Representing the information
Information relevant to the problem now needs to be organised into a meaningful pattern. With complex problems it's impossible to hold all the information in your mind and to think about it dearly. Even with simple problems it's invaluable to have a tangible representation or model of the problem which gives structure to the information. Various types of model are described in later articles. These help to

    * reveal relationships between different aspects of the problem
    * highlight gaps in your information and under­ standing
    * stimulate your search for solutions
    * communicate understanding to other people
    * predict the likely consequences of actions you think may solve the problem.

At this stage you should have a detailed understanding of the problem. If you are dealing with a closed problem you should have a list of possible causes, together with all the information supporting or refuting each cause.

To identify the real cause of the problem you test each possible cause against the effects noted in your analysis. By a process of elimination the real cause is identified as the one which has precisely the same effects as those which have occurred. If none of them fits precisely it means that either your definition is inadequate or you need to look for other causes.

- Defining criteria of effectiveness
Before looking for solutions to a problem it is important to decide what will constitute an effective solution. This involves compiling a detailed list of the characteristics of what you want to achieve and of the factors which must be taken into account in achieving that objective, ie an 'ideal' solution. These criteria of effectiveness give direction to your search for solutions, telling you whether you are on the right track, and will help you later to measure the relative effectiveness of your solutions.

Some of the information you need, though generally not all of it may be stated in the problem definition. You need to consider a complex mixture of factors. An 'effective' solution must

    * provide an acceptable level of benefits in terms of the objective
    * deal effectively with obstacles/causes
    * meet constraints on time, space, manpower and materials
    * be cost effective and affordable
    * be acceptable to
          o those affected by the problem and the solution (eg staff, customers, clients, suppliers)
          o those who have to agree to the solution
          o those who will provide the necessary resources
          o those who have to implement the solution
    * involve an acceptable level of risk.

Some of these factors, such as the risks involved, can only be defined accurately when you have found a specific course of action, although your knowledge of the background to the problem situation should give. you some guidance. Other factors, such as cost constraints, can be defined broadly before you look for solutions, even though later you may futd a solution offering benefits which warrant changing the constraints.

At this stage of problem solving these criteria only serve as a guide in finding solutions which fit the circumstances and are likely to succeed. You must not allow them to inhibit your search for solutions.

- Constructing courses of action to solve the problem
Finding possible solutions now involves constructing courses of action which meet your criteria of effectiveness as closely as possible. Ineyitably, different approaches to solving a problem will provide different mixes of advantages and disadvantages.

Although your ideas must eventually meet your criteria of effectiveness, these can inhibit idea generation. The best approach is to create as many ideas as possible for achieving each of the changes required and only test them against these criteria once you have explored all the possibilities.

There are basically five sources of ideas for solving a problem and you should use as many of them as possible:

    * past experience of similar situations
    * logical deduction from the facts
    * other people
    * published sources
    * creative idea generation techniques

As you search for solutions, answering the. following questions will help you to explore all the possibilities:

    * Do I really need to achieve this objective?
    *  Could I substitute a different objective?
    * Could I achieve this objective in a different way?
    * Would there be any advantage in delaying trying to achieve this objective?
    * Would someone else be more effective in achieving this objective?
    * Is this really an obstacle?
    * Would someone else be more effective in dealing with this obstacle?
    * Can I deal with the causes of this obstacle?
    * Can I side-step this obstacle?
    * Can I use this obstacle to my advantage?

Each action that you propose will be intended to achieve a particular effect. In doing so it may also have side-effects which can be desirable or undesirable.If possible you should build into your solution ways to minimise undesirable side-effects and to take advantage of the desirable ones

As you build up different plans of action you can use an appropriate model to represent how each action contributes to achieving your overall objective. Models also help you to predict the effects of various actions and to see how they interact. It's important that the actions form a coherent strategy for tackling the problem. When several actions have to run consecutively, for example, you need to ensure that together they will meet any time constraints which exist.

Once you have constructed a range of possible solutions you need to consider what could influence their effectivenessego

    * What could go wrong? (eg does the person you are relying upon to negotiate the contract have enough experience?)
    * Are there related factors over which I have no control? (eg government legislation, organizational policy changes)
    * Could this objective change? (eg are new, higher targets likely to be set before this solution\is implemented?)
    * Could this obstacle become more intractable? (eg with the imminent reorganisation of the department could this person become even more uncooperative?)
    * Could relevant new obstacles arise? (eg a change in market needs, a competitor using the same solution)
    * Might this action create a new opportunity which could be exploited at the same time? (eg could we market some of the information on this new database and offset some of our costs?)

Answers to these questions will help you to modify your solutions to minimize the chances of them failing and to optimise their benefits. When you have a number of solutions which you feel could achieve your objective effectively you have to evaluate them.

Remember

    * All information relevant to the problem must be identified, collected and recorded in a mean­ingful way.
    * Identifying what constitutes an effective solu­tion helps to guide yow search for solutions.
    * Finding solutions involves constructing courses of action which will transform the current situation into one where your objective is achieved.

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The Road to a Solution – Using models to represent a problem

When we face an important problem our eagerness to solve it often leads us to accept the first solution that comes to mind, so that we can implement it without delay. Very often this will not be the most effective solution available. The best approach, particularly with open-ended problems, is to create a range of possible solutions from which we can subsequently select the best.

These examples highlight two very common difficulties in finding the best solution to a problem:

1. Not seeing all the relationships between different parts of the problem.The human mind can focus on only a small amount of information at one time, so that we often find it difficult to hold a complete and detailed mental picture of a problem in our minds. Without this we may overlook important relationships.

It's vital to know how all the parts of a problem are interrelated, otherwise we can waste time and perhaps not find the most effective solution. For example, our solution may aggravate the problem because we  overlooked a particular relationship, or there may be a better solution involving two aspects we didn't relate.

2. Not seeing beyond the most obvious solution.The way we associate ideas and concepts in our minds, forming patterns which are reinforced by experience, often makes it hard to see common situations in a new light. Relationships between information which are new or seem 'unlikely', and ideas which appear irrelevant, may be either consciously excluded or not triggered from memory because of their weak associations with the situation.

To find creative solutions to our problems we need to escape habitual ways of looking at situations.
Models give shape and structure to information, making it easier to remember, think about and build on our ideas. They can highlight gaps in our information, help to predict the consequences of our actions and stimulate ideas. Models are also invaluable for communicating problems and ideas for their solution to other people.

In most situations you will find it helpful to use a model to represent the parts of a problem in an appropriate pattern. There are many different types, composed variously of words, graphics, mathematical formulae, symbols, and so on, as well as physical models.

There are various standard models which can be used to represent problems which have common elements linked by the same relationships. These can be applied to any problem which fits the model. Chemical equations and algebraic formulae are examples. So are business games, which represent details of a variety of business situations and predict the consequences of our actions according to how aspects of those situations interact in the real world.

Another example is communication, where the common elements are the originator,. the sender, the message, the medium, and the receiver. Effective communication relies on an efficient flow of information from one end to the other.

This model can be used to analyse a situation and identify exactly what is happening at each stage which may be preventing effective communication.

In addition to standard models, there is a wide range of options for representing problems:

- Words as models
Words are the simplest and one of the most popular and flexible ways of representing a problem, either alone or in combination with pictorial or graphical elements.
   
- Mindmap and problem solving
The easiest way to create a word model is to list the main features of a problem, perhaps including associated ideas that come to mind. This can be updated and expanded as you think of additional relevant information. Word models can be manipulated easily, reordering the words in sequence or classifying them into groups, to highlight the relationships arid differences between the information.

Abbreviated notes can be used effectively in the same way although prose, which is often used to describe a problem, is less effective. The more structure that exists in each descriptive unit, the less easy it is to add to and manipulate the information to reveal new relationships.

Words are easy to record and act as potent stimuli to the imagination. They are the most common way of commu­nicating problems to other people. However, there are some drawbacks. The choice of a particular word or phrase to describe an idea can obscure its relationship with other relevant information. For example, if you use the word box to describe a 'container' you want to redesign it could narrow your thinking about different shapes and materials.

Also it is often difficult to give structure to the information contained in word models. Therefore it's a good idea not to use them alone, but perhaps as a preliminary' to creating other types of model.

- Drawings and diagrams
Drawing is an ideal way of beginning to create some kind of structure with your ideas. Unlike words alone, lines can represent relationships more easily and give concrete form to a problem.

In making a drawing to represent a problem you are not trying to create a work of art. It should be spontaneous, like doodling, allowing your thoughts to evolve in a visual way. Drawings can suggest new relationships between ideas, new ways of structuring a problem and new routes to a solution.

A more structured form of drawing is to create a diagram.

- Mind maps
This is a visual method of structuring ideas which can take on almost any form. The main idea or concept is written at the centre of a page and then any related ideas that spring to mind are added as branches off this central point. As each one triggers more ideas they are added as connecting lines, branching outwards in all directions.

Ideas are written in block capitals along a line as it is added, so that each one acts as a clear trigger to the recall of associated ideas. The method capitalises on the brain's power of association, subsequent branches becoming more and more remote from the central idea.

The process should be spontaneous. You must not consciously think about where to place branches, whether to exclude an idea, or try to think of ways of extending a particular branch if nothing springs to mind. The aim is to record everything you can recall which may have the remotest relationship with the central idea.

- Chain diagrams
These are created in a more logical way than mind maps and show clearly how the main elements of a problem are related. For example, it could show the stages in the manufacture of a product or the supply of a service, with the labour, time or cost improvement at each stage.

Chain diagrams can be very complicated, with feedback loops and so on, showing the different kinds of relationships between information. The direction of 'flow' of the process can be represented by arrows and numbers can be added to quantify what is happening at each stage.

These diagrams can also be used to show the alternative choices that can be made in the system and the influence of chance events. This forms what is sometimes called a tree diagram. When numbers are added to show the value of alternative choices and the probability of chance events a decision tree is created, which can be used to evaluate alternative courses of action.

- Force field diagrams
These are analytical tools for representing the dynamics of situations and suggesting ways of influencing the forces and pressures which create and maintain them.  Creating a force field diagram involves identifying and representing graphically the equilibrium between two opposing sets of forces. The driving forces are those which would push the equilibrium in. the direction needed to achieve the objective. The opposing or restraining forces are those which act against the desired change - the obstacles to achieving the objective.

To push the equilibrium in the direction needed to achieve the objective you need to find ways of overcoming or neutralising the restraining or opposing forces, and/or strengthening the driving forces. Force field analysis can be divided into simple stages:

    * Describe the current situation.
    * Describe the objective or desired outcome.
    * Describe the least desired outcome (a worsening of the problem).
    * Draw the basic diagram.
    * Identify the driving forces (those acting to push equilibrium towards-the objective).
    * Identify the opposing or restrainjng forces.
    * Add these to the diagram.             '.
    * Identify neutral forces (these are not active now but could become driving or opposing forces' when action is taken or the equilibrium is disturbed).
    * Describe individual forces in detail and rate their relative importance/strength.
    * Rate the ease of changing each force.
    * Select the forces to be changed.                    .
    * Look for ways of influencing these forces in the ways required.

This technique is useful particularly where human factors are important, such as in behavioural problems and changes to working practices or systems.

- Mathematical models
Problems which involve quantitative information need to be represented in mathematical terms, even if it is only to record the data. Mathematical models can represent the relationships between elements of a problem and provide a means of manipulating the information, eg a + b = c. In some situations they may be essential in finding an effective solution, eg in deciding what stress would be put on a newly designed turbine, before you can select an appropriate material for its manufacture.

 Constructing simple mathematical models. is within everyone's ability, but some highly complex models are available now to the non-mathematician through personal computers. These can help to solve a large range of problems by analysing a situation and forecasting how various actions, changes or forces will affect it, eg financial modeling.

Representing problems and their possible solutions in quantitative terms is also a powerful way to persuade people, particularly those who think in an analytical way and favour 'hard facts' .

Using an appropriate model to represent a problem will often suggest some ideas for a solution. However, there are more powerful techniques for generating ideas.

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The Road to a Solution – Generating Ideas

The major difficulty in generating new ideas to help solve problems is" escaping the" habitual ways in. which we associate information. This 'logic of experience' hinders us in combining information in unusual ways, with the result that we don't explore all the possible routes to a solution,

There are many different techniques which help to generate new ideas, some using mental strategies and others relying on mechanical methods. The emphasis in using them is on the quantity of ideas produced rather than the quality. This gives a large number of ideas to use in devising solutions.

An important element in using nearly all of these techniques is to suspend judgement, which means avoiding any type of evaluation. Evaluating ideas puts a brake on the imagination and inhibits the mind in making unusual and potentially useful connections. Sometimes Ws easy to come up with unusual or radical ideas, for example when we know we are only 'playing'. However, as soon as we face a serious task we exclude these ideas, either consciously or unconsciously, simply because they are not commonly associated, with a practical solution.

During idea generation you should try to think in a playful way by deliberately suspending judgement. A useful warm-up is to do a fluency exercise to get you in the right frame of mind.

- Fluency exercises
Fluency is the ability to produce a large number of ideas in a short time. There are many simple, playful exercises for the imagination which can help to improve fluency. Although this improvement is not always permanent, these exercises are very useful' as a warm-up for other, more productive, idea-generation techniques. In group problem solving they serve the additional purpose of overcoming individuals' reticence to voice unusual ideas.

Fluency exercises are typically simple and require you to write down as many ideas as possible in a short time, usually a minute or two. One example is to select a common object and list as many possible uses for it as you can think of in and write down all the consequences you can think of, eg what would happen if you woke up one morning and all electrical appliances had ceased to function?

Your flexibility of thinking is also revealed in these exercises. The more wide-ranging your responses, the more flexible your thinking. Listing uses for newspapers, for example, you may include more common uses such as conveying news and wrapping objects, but overlook the less obvious ones such as pulping to produce bricks for burning or rolling up tightly to use as a weapon.

Fluency and flexibility usually increase with practice, so when you have a couple of minutes to relax it can be productive fun to do one of these exercises.

- Free association
This technique consists of allowing the mind to wander without deliberate direction. You name the first thing that comes to mind in response to a trigger word, symbol, idea or picture, then use that as a trigger, and so on, quickly repeating the process to produce a stream of associations. The important thing is to avoid justifying the connection between successive ideas. This encourages spontaneity and the emergence of ideas seemingly unrelated to the trigger word.

Free association delves deep into the memory, helping you to discover remote relationships similar to those uncovered ,using mind maps. To be productive, the ideas need to be recorded, either in writing or on audio tape. This can interfere with the free flow of ideas and therefore requires practice.

- Discussion
A very simple way of getting additional ideas is to discuss (the problem with other people. They will often have a different perspective on the problem and its implications, and different values and ideals. Even if they can't contribute significant ideas directly, what they say may trigger new lines of thought for you. Discussing your problem with other people is a very valuable supplement to other idea generation techniques.

- Daydreaming
Daydreaming is frowned upon and actively discouraged as a serious thinking skill, being labeled as fanciful, indulgent and unproductive. In fact it's one of the basic thinking tools of all good problem solvers. It has several important qualities:

    * the label' daydreaming' helps you to think in terms of time out for playful, uninhibited thinking
    * it can be fitted into spare moments
    * it involves only thoughts not actions, so there is no risk
    * it's private, so you are not open to ridicule by others
    * it often involves feelings and emotions which add a valuable dimension to your thinking
    * ideas can be manipulated quickly and potential obstacles foreseen
    * it helps to develop plans which prepare you to look out for information and opportunities to help you achieve objectives.

Productive daydreaming has to be directed towards a particular goal and is often called wishful thinking. There is no crime in wishing for the apparently impossible. Inventors do it all the time. If you set your sights high you can use daydreaming to help you build plans for achieving your goals.

- Visualising
This involves thinking about a problem in visual terms. It can be useful in solving many types of problem, particularly those involving shapes and patterns. For example, if you had to devise a formula for measuring the amount of carpet required to cover a spiral staircase you would probably picture the staircase in your mind automatically. In other situations the choice may not be so obvious, but visualising is a very powerful,. and flexible way of thinking about problems and it can be developed with practice.

- Incubation
When you get stuck with a problem after working on it for some time it's often productive to take a break from it. Once we have absorbed all the relevant information and stop work on a problem to do something else, it appears that the mind continues to manipulate the information unconsciously looking for relevant relationships and patterns. Often a new idea or even a solution will come to mind after this period of incubation.

The phrase 'sleep on it' has arisen because sleep is an enforced period of incubation. There are many reports of people awaking with new insights to a problem they have been working on. For example, Kekule is said to have discovered the ring structure of benzene after dreaming of a snake biting its tail. When time allows, putting aside a problem for a while can help in giving you a new perspective, if not a solution.

- Check lists
These are lists of thought provoking questions. They can serve two basic purposes: to prompt the search for specific information and to stimulate ideas. Idea generation check lists work by asking what the result would be if you manipulated information in a particular way.  

Check lists can be used on ideas or objects and have been developed to serve various purposes. One well known example, the 'Check List for New Ideas' developed by Alex Osborn (in Applied Imagination, Charles Scribner & Sons, New York 1957), consists of a series of stimulating questions under the headings

- Put to other uses?
- Adapt? .
- Modify?
- Magnify?
- Minify?
- Substitute?
- Rearrange?
- Reverse?
- Combine?

Questions under the heading 'Rearrange', for example, are: Interchange' components? Other patterns? Other layout? Other sequence? Transpose cause and effect? Change pace? Change schedule?

The ideal check list is one that you have designed to use in a particular situation. One simple check list 'which is easy to remember and can be used as a basis for writing your own list of questions, is known by the acronym SCAMPER:

Substitute? Combine? Adapt? Modify? Put to other uses? Eliminate? Reverse?

Check lists are very flexible and, if used Wisely, can be very useful when you get stuck with a problem.      

- Bug lists
This term is used by James L. Adams in his book Conceptual Blockbusting (W.W. Norton, New York and London 1979), to refer to a list of things which cause you, or others, irritation or . dissatisfaction. It's purpose is to stimulate the search for opportunities.

This method can be applied usefully in organisations by soliciting the opinions of staff in terms of factors such as: What things take you more time than you think are necessary? Why? What situations cause you frustration? Why? What things do you have to do which you think are unnecessary? Why? Answers to questions such as these reveal opportuni­ties for improving job satisfaction of staff as well as for' improving efficiency.

- Analogy
One of the dangers in problem solving is choosing a solution to a current problem because it has worked on a similar (analogous) problem in the past. However, analogies can provide a model which gives greater insight into a problem.

An example of how analogy can lead to innovation is the float technique of glass production. While Alastair Pilkington was washing dishes he noticed the grease floating on the water. When the float technique was perfected it consisted of molten glass floating on a bed of molten tin. Similarly, while at a wine harvest celebration the German printer Johannes Gutenberg is said to have seen the analogy between the wine­ press and the concept of printing.

The natural world abounds with analogies which are particularly useful in areas such as engineering and design. You can search for analogies relevant to particular problems or you may come across one by chance while you are working on a problem.

- Excursions
This term is used to refer to techniques for distancing yourself from a problem to create a fresh perspective. It involves finding metaphors - words or phrases not directly applicable to the problem - which help to suggest solutions. These may have no practical value but they can be made to 'force-fit' the problem, ie forcing them to have some relevance. Here are two examples of excursions:

1. Take an idea from the problem definition and look for examples of it in a totally different environment. For example, if you were looking for ways to reduce the antagonism between members of a team and looked at the world of astronomy:        

    * Gravity pulls planets together - a grave situation might pull the team together.
    * The sun 'brightens' the earth - what might brighten team members?
    * A dying star disappears in an explosion – would an 'explosion' clear the air between team members?

2. Look around the room and let your gaze fall on some object. Then try to relate this to your problem. For example, you've presented a report containing inaccurate information given to you by your deputy and it has lost you an important sale. Your gaze falls on a stapler:

    * 'pin' the blame on your deputy
    * 'join' forces with your deputy or 'stick' your neck out to win back the sale.

This technique is not easy to use but it can bring totally new perspectives to a problem.

- Paradoxes
The paradox, also known as a 'book title', is a two-word phrase, usually an adjective and noun, which captures the essence of a problem as a stimulating contradiction. For example, you. have a single opportunity to meet two long-standing, valuable clients but at the same time and in different locations. Both meetings are vitally important in their own way. Useful paradoxes might be

    * attentive neglect - you will have to neglect one client but want to appear attentive
    * disloyal allegiance - you want to avoid appearing disloyal to the client you don't meet
    * singular double - you are only one person but need to be two.

Paradoxes, like excursions, help to create new perspectives and suggest new routes to a solution.

Paradoxes, like excursions, help to create new perspectives and suggest new routes to a solution.

- Forced relationships
This simple technique combines unrelated objects or ideas to see what new, practical combinations result. There are many products on the market which are the result of such a combination, eg the portable digital which includes a stopwatch and calculator; televisions with a newspaper-type information service, like Oracle and Blackberry; the Swiss Army knife; the combined washing machine and tumble dryer; birthday cards which play a musical tune.

- Attribute listing
This is an analytical technique used to identify ways in which a product, service or system could be improved.It consists of three stages:

    * the physical attributes or characteristics of each component of the item are described      
    * the functions of each component are described.
    * every component is examined in turn to see if changing its physical attributes would bring about an improvement in its function.

A simple example would be the screwdriver, which has numerous improved variations, including a filament for current detection, multiple screw-in shafts, magnetic blades and ratchet mechanisms.

Attribute listing can also be used to search for alternative areas in which a product or service could be used, by looking for applications for individual attributes. The attributes of optical fibres, for instance, have made them useful in fields as diverse as telecommunications, medicine and exhibition lighting. .

Another use of attribute listing is in value analysis.This involves looking at the cost of each component of the item in relation to the function it performs. Components which are disproportionately costly in relation to their function can be either eliminated or ways found to reduce their cost. The aim is to increase the ratio of value against cost.

A fourth application is in analysing systems to find areas of potential improvement.For example, listing the attributes of data processing functions within an organisation may reveal two areas which require the same or a similar resource but which are currently served by separate systems. Serving both needs by one. resource may result in cost savings. Another example is where the attributes of a waste product are used to search for ways in which it might be used as a raw material for another product or a new product, possibly using some parts of the existing production system.

- Morphological analysis
This term refers to a variety of techniques which are similar to forced relationships and attribute listing. They can be applied to ideas, problems, objects or systems, which are broken down into their individual components so that every possible combination can be searched for something new and practical.       .

Although there are several variations, a simple method involves the following stages: the parameters of the situation are listed; each one is subdivided into its smallest parts; these are represented in a matrix; then all possible combinations are examined.

The main use of morphological analysis is in the develop­ment of new products, services and systems eg analysing the components of current successful products to find new combinations of attractive features. It has been particularly successful in the area of new technologies. Although it's time-consuming it forces a thorough search of all the possible combinations which would not be possible unaided.

Deciding which type of model and idea generation technique it is best to use is often determined by the type of problem you are tackling and what you are trying to achieve. In situations where you have a choice of several methods, practice will tell you which ones work best for you.

Although some of the techniques may appear cum­bersome and time-consuming, with practice you will find that they become less mechanical as the styles of thinking they encourage become incorporated into your natural problem solving style.

Remember

    * The human mind cannot hold a complete picture of a complex problem, so it's often difficult to see all the relationships involved.
    * Creating a model of a problem -helps to clarify the relationships between its different parts.
    * We develop habitual ways of looking at situations which prevents us seeing beyond the obvious.

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Solving Problems using a group - advantages and disadvantages

During our study and work life we will often be expected to work as a part of a group.  Group work often leaves many feeling frustrated.  I have at many times heard the complaint "It would have been quicker if I had just done it myself".  So when should we use a group to address a particular problem and what are the major advantages and disadvantages of using groups to solve a problem..

A large amount of problem solving takes place in group settings. Meetings and informal discussions are often used to air different ideas and points of view to help solve problems for which the participants have either shared responsibility or a contribution to make.

However, most of the time we do not take full advantage of these situations.

Used at the right time and in the right way, group problem solving can be the most effective way of solving some problems.
Although there are very definite advantages to solving certain problems as a group, others can be solved more effectively by an individual. It's important to know whenand when not to work in a group.
Use this checklist to decide when to use group problem solving:

    * Can the problem be defined in many different ways?
    * Is information from many different sources required?
    * Is it a very specialised problem, where the expert' might be biased or not see the wider implications?
    * Does the problem have implications for many people?
    * Are there likely to be many possible solutions?
    * Is it a complex problem with many different aspects?
    * Will a solution need to be agreed by others before it can be implemented?

The more questions you answer 'yes', the more appropriate it is to use group problem solving. However, the deciding question is always: 'Are suitable and relevant people available to work together in solving this problem'.
   
When people are working together it's inevitable that they will be influenced by each other. This can have a significant effect on the efficiency of group problem solving.

Advantages and disadvantages of using a group to solve a problem:

The disadvantages of group problem solving can include:

- Competition
Most people working in a group unconsciously perceive the situation as competitive. This generates behaviour which is destructive and drains the creative energy of the group. For example, we often perceive disagreement with our ideas as a put-down. The natural reaction is to regain our self-esteem, often by trying to sabotage the ideas of those who disagreed with us. Instead of looking for ways to improve on their ideas we choose to destroy them.

Eager to express our own ideas, we may totally ignore what others are suggesting. Power-seekers may use ploys such as highlighting flaws in others' arguments, barbed questions and displays of expertise to show their supremacy. These types of behaviour create an atmosphere which is incompatible with effective problem solving.

- Conformity
There is a strong tendency for individuals in a group to want to conform to the consensus. This can be for a variety of reasons, including the need to feel liked, valued or respected, and tends to make people censor their ideas accordingly. The comparative status of the individuals present also has an important influence. Senior members often want to maintain their image of being knowledgeable, while junior members want to avoid appearing the inexperienced 'upstart'. Because agreement on ideas can be gained quickly in a group setting, groups tend to select and approve solutions quickly, without exploring all the possibilities.

- Lack of objective direction
Most traditional meetings and group discussions convened to solve problems are ineffectively directed. Sometimes there is no effective leader to give direction to the discussion, with the result that it wanders aimlessly. Even when there is strong leadership, the group leader or chairman often exerts undue pressure on the direction and content of the discussion. In addition, the ideas aired during a meeting are not usually recorded, apart from the minutes and individual note-taking, with the result that many ideas are forgotten and cannot act as a constant stimulus to the discussion.

- Time constraints
Group problem solving is a relatively slow process compared with working alone. It requires individuals to come together at an agreed time, usually for about one hour, and this can cause organisational problems as well as impatience amongst participants to 'get it over with' as quickly as possible.

The advantages of group problem solving can include:

- Greater output
Simply because of the number of people involved, each with differing experience, knowledge, points of view and values, a larger number and variety of ideas for solving a problem can be produced.   

- Cross fertilisation
The exchange of ideas can act as a stimulus to the imagination, encouraging individuals to explore ideas they would not otherwise consider.

- Reduced bias
The shared responsibility of a group in arriving at decisions can. encourage individuals to explore seemingly unrealistic ideas and to challenge accepted ways of doing things. Individual biases and prejudices can be challenged by the ,group, forcing the individual to recognise them. Group pressure can also encourage individuals to accept that change is needed.

- Increased risk taking
Shared responsibility makes individuals more willing to take risks. The discussion of different points of view also helps the group to be more realistic in assessing the risks associated with particular courses of action.

- Higher commitment
When goals are agreed it gives a common purpose to the group, within which individuals can gain a feeling of self-determination and recognition through their contri­bution. Individuals who have contributed to finding a solution feel a greater commitment to its successful implementation.

- Improved communication
When people who are affected by a problem or who will be involved in implementation are involved in finding a solution, they will know how and why that particular solution was chosen. Also, people with knowledge relevant to the problem can communicate that knowledge directly if they participate in solving the problem.

- Better solutions
Groups of individuals can bring a broad range of ideas, knowledge and skills to bear on a problem. This creates a stimulating interaction of diverse ideas which results in a wider range and better quality of solutions.

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The ‘unlucky’ list to bad decision making – Who should you involve in the decision making process

When you have more than one possible solution to a problem, each involving a different course of action with different advantages and disadvantages, you need to evaluate these to decide which will be the most effective in achieving your objective. Even when you have only one solution you still need to decide whether it is acceptable and make the decision to implement it. Thus you need to:

    * understand clearly what evaluating the options involves
    * learn appropriate evaluation techniques.

Deciding which of your solutions will provide the most acceptable means of achieving your objective is a complex process of decision making. Your ultimate choice is often a compromise between conflicting needs and between the benefits and disadvantages of each solution.

The following is a list of the 13 most common reasons for making bad decisions:

   1. not having sufficient alternatives from which to choose from
   2. not considering all the alternatives
   3. lack of time
   4. lack of information
   5. not being methodical
   6. inaccurate forecasting of the effects of specific actions
   7. inaccurate forecasting of external influences
   8. hazy objectives
   9. ignorance of evaluation techniques
  10. uncritical acceptance of others' judgments
  11. poor work at an earlier stage of problem solving
  12. uncritical acceptance of subjective needs and feelings
  13. an impulsive response.

It is important to remember that a good decision is one based on a methodical evaluation of all the options against the exact requirements of the objective, taking into account any obstacles, the constraints of the situation and the risks involved.

There are many situations where a manager can choose a solution and issue instructions for it to be implemented without involving anyone else in the decision-making process. Sometimes you may wish to consult others out of regard for the personally or because it is politic.  At other times it may be essential to involve others, eg

    * when you have a formal obligation to consult others
    * when you require additional information
    * when expert skills are required to evaluate the options
    * when you need the. commitment of others for the solution to be implemented successfully.

- Formal obligation
Sometimes you are obliged to consult others because of the nature of the decision, eg when it involves actions beyond your authority.

- Information
To be able to evaluate solutions effectively you often need additional information, eg about what would be a. satisfactory solution, what value should be placed on the different results. that your various solutions would achieve, or what resources are available to implement a solution.

- Skills
Sometimes evaluating solutions will require expert skills in a particular discipline eg predicting the consequences of new tax legislation, the analysis of a particular market, or forecasting the reaction of staff to a new working practice.

- Commitment
When a problem or. its solution involves other people, individually or as a group, it's often necessary to gain their commitment to the solution. This may be essential in certain situations,' such as when it requires them. . to use their initiative and skills to make it work, or when it is common practice (eg decisions affecting union members). You may need the commitment of:

    * those involved with the problem and solution
    * those who have to agree to the solution
    * those who will provide the necessary resources
    * those who have to implement the solution.

One way of gaining commitment is to involve people in the decision making process. Answering the following questions will help you to decide which of the people you have identified in the groups above need to be involved:

    * Why do I need their commitment to the solution?
    * Can I gain their commitment without involving them in decision making? (eg offer them persuasive benefits, use my authority)
    * Do those I need to involve have a common view of the purpose of this decision? (If not, there could be conflicting interests at work and it may be better to look for another way of encouraging their commitment.)

You can involve other people either individually or collectively. When you seek help, advice and opinions on a one-to-one basis you usually retain overall responsibility for making the, decision. In a group you can either retain the option to veto the group's decision or take part as an equal member and agree to accept the collective decision. Group decision making has the advantage that responsibility is shared and individual subjective bias and prejudice is reduced.

Most of us have a natural reluctance to change our mind once we have made a decision, even when we realise that it's not the best decision under the circumstances. When you change your mind it can feel sometimes like admitting to a fault in making the wrong decision in the first place, or that your authority is being undermined. Usually we can think of many reasons for not changing our mind and many 'rational' ways to justify our initial choice. It's much easier to make the right decision first time than to change your mind later.

In general, therefore, decisions should be based on a logical and objective evaluation of all the options, even though the subjective opinions of all those involved need to be considered.

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Evaluating the solutions

The evaluation process can be divided into six stages:

    * defining the 'ideal' solution
    * eliminating unviable solutions, ie those which do not meet the constraints
    * evaluating the remaining solutions against the results required
    * assessing the risks associated with the 'best' solution and, if acceptable
    * making the decision.

- Defining the ideal solution
The criteria of effectiveness which you defined to guide your search for solutions are inadequate to make an effective evaluation. Each solution may differ slightly or radically in the way and the extent to which it achieves your various goals. To be able to evaluate these effectively you need to construct a model of the ideal solution against which to measure them: basically you need to identify and compare their relative values. This information must be recorded and presented in a meaningful way to aid comparison. It can also be used to persuade other people to accept the decision and help to communicate the solution to those involved in its implementation.

The following questions must be answered:

    * What are the results required?
    * What are the benefits desired?
    * Any there obstacles or causes that need addressing?
    * If the solution will be acceptable to the relevant stakeholders?
    * What are the constraints that exist?
    * What resources are available?
    * What is the minimum acceptable result?
    * What are the maximum level of disadvantages that are acceptable?
    * Are there any other factors that must be considered?

Decisions are not always made by choosing the optimum mix of all the criteria of effectiveness.
Instead the following strategies may be used in certain situations:

Satisficing - refers to the selection of any solution which achieves a minimum set of requirements. It could be used when there is insufficient time for a detailed evaluation of all the options or insufficient information for a full evaluation.

Maximising - refers to giving preference to one particular evaluation criterion eg employ the individual with the best telephone manner. This could be used when one criterion has a particular significance and when there is insufficient time or information for a full evaluation.

Minimising - refers to giving preference to solutions with minimal disadvantage on a particular criterion eg buy the make of popular car which shows minimum depreciation

You can use the following questions to evaluate your solutions:

    * Is it an accurate reflection of what would be ideal under the circumstances?
    * Does it take account of the needs of all the people involved?
    * Are there any conflicting or inconsistent results required?
    * Are the relative values you have given the criteria free from bias or other distortions?
    * Do they conform to departmental and organisational policies?

You are now ready to begin evaluating your solutions. The method described below is intended to reduce the amount of time required for evaluation by first eliminating solutions which do not meet the constraints.

- Eliminating unviable solutions
At this stage you examine each solution in turn and reject those which do not meet all the constraints you have.

- Evaluating the remaining solutions
Each of the remaining solutions is now examined to see how well it provides the results required.

- Assessing the Risks
Although the solution you have chosen offers the best balance of benefits versus disadvantages, you need to examine the possible risks associated with this solution to ensure that they are acceptable and to identify areas where risks could be minimised.

- Making the decision
When you make a decision. you commit yourself to a particular course of action and take responsibility for its consequences. If you do not make this commitment you have not made a decision, so you can't proceed any further and you will not solve the problem.

Remember

    * The 'best' solution is often a compromise between conflicting needs and between the advantages and disadvantages of the various options.
    * Solutions which don't meet the constraints of the situation must be rejected.
    * The best of the remaining options is generally the one which fits the ideal solution most closely, although you may use a different selection strategy.
    * Before you accept a solution you must decide if  any associated risks are acceptable.

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Getting your solution accepted – Reasons for opposition and how to plan your presentation

Once you have decided on a solution to a particular problem you may need to obtain other people's cooperation, approval or authorityin order to implement it successfully. With routine problems, where there is common understanding of what is involved, this is often straightforward and simply involves notifying the relevant people of your decision and how it will affect them. However, with complex and uncommon problems, and where major change or extensive use of resources is required, you should plan how to present your solution effectively.  It is important though that you:

    * understand the reasons why people may oppose and possibly reject your solution
    * prepare a presentation which optimises the chances of your solution being accepted
    * deliver your presentation effectively.

It can be frustrating to have to consult other people before you can implement a solution. In some situations this irrita­tion is justified, such as when your manager has demanded consultation before you reorganise your workload, even though it doesn't affect other people. On other occasions it is in your own interests to consult others. Unless you get the agreement of those who have the authority to sanction your proposed actions you may be prevented from implementing the solution, and without the commitment of those involved in the implementation it may not be entirely successful.

There are many reasons why people may oppose a solution presented to them. Not all of these are related directly to the ideas and actions concerned. They include:

A poor solution - Any solution which does not deal with the problem effectively, or is impractical, or does not take into consideration all the relevant factors, should be opposed. If the solution does not fit the problem, or has unacceptable side-effects, you should not be proposing it.

Nature of the problem - When a problem is having serious consequences for the people listening to your proposal they will scrutinise it more closely than if the problem is having only minor effects. Similarly, if the people involved have a good knowledge of the problem or aspects of the solution it also will receive close scrutiny. Under these circumstances, any aspects of your solution which do not conform to the ideas or expectations of these people may be opposed simply because of differences of opinion

Lack of interest - It can create opposition when people feel that you are wasting their time by involving them. Lack of knowledge of the problem area can also create opposition if you do not give people sufficient information to be able to understand your reasons for choosing that particular solution.

Individual needs and expectations - These can colour people's perceptions of, and reactions to, your proposed solution. For example, an individual who has a strong need to feel independent may oppose any solution which increases collective responsibility or encourages group working. Expectations of the outcome of solving aparticular problem can also create opposition. For example, a person with a grievance against the current method of grad­ing because it places emphasis on qualifications rather than performance is likely to oppose any new grading system which does not increase the emphasis on performance.
   
Resistance to change - Some organisations and some managers are strongly resistant to change. In these situations a solution which involves considerable change in the status quo may meet strong opposition, even when it is good and presented well. Some organisations also do not have the structure or resources to accommodate major change and therefore senior management are likely to veto such solutions.

Mistrust of the solution - Many people have an in-built suspicion of solutions which Ire highly innovative, or yield high rewards by a simple method which seems 'too good to be true'.

Poor presentation - You can create opposition by not presenting your solution effectively, eg if you do not identify the benefits sufficiently to outweigh the disadvantages, not showing that you have considered side-effects and risks, giving inadequate informa­tionon or not communicating it effectively so that people either misunderstand or are unable to evaluate the solution.

Poor timing - However sound the basic idea, an ill-timed solution can meet  with opposition, eg proposing a solution which requires permanent additional manpower shortly after redundancies in another department; or suggesting a more centralised management structure when the current policy is to promote greater autonomy of company divisions.

Unsolicited ideas - If you have taken it upon yourself to solve a particular problem or exploit an opportunity and have not mentioned this to the people involved or affected, your solution will come as a complete surprise and could be received in a number of ways. They may be interested without having any intention of adopting your ideas; they may feel that you are interfering and perhaps even criticising them for the way they do things currently; or they may refuse to listen to your ideas. All of these responses are legitimate under the circumstances.

It is a waste of your time and could create antagonism if you try to force your ideas upon others. The only time it is worth presenting an unsolicited solution is when people have answered yes to a question like, 'I think I have found a way to ... , would you be interested in hearing more?'.

Interpersonal conflict - Your relationship with the people you are presenting your ideas to, and their perceptions of you, can have a profound effect on their reaction to your solution. These factors are very complex and often have been created over many years.

For example, a young, enthusiastic manager keen on applying the latest techniques may meet opposition from a more traditional, mature manager who resents the attempt to change things. Similarly, if, at some time in the distant past, you have criticised or rejected someone's ideas, when it is time to listen to your ideas they still may feel resentment and try to block them,

Getting a good solution accepted (you should never try to sell a bad solution) is a matter of persuasive communication and preparation is the key to success. This identifies the best way to communicate your solution.

Why may people oppose your solution?
To identify why your particular solution may be opposed you need to analyse two aspects of the situation:

    * the problem and its solution
    * the people involved and affected.

To present your solution persuasively you need to know how the people involved are likely to react to it, so that you an present it in such a way as to prevent opposition. The first step is to list the attributes of the problem and your solution which affect other people. The following questions will help you to explore some of the major factors:

    * Who does the problem affect?
    * What adverse effects are they experiencing?
    * Which of these adverse effects does the solution remove?
    * Does the solution call for major changes, and who will be affected most?
    * Does the solution have adverse side-effects, and for whom?
    * Is the solution unusual, and in what ways?
    * Does its implementation require exceptional cooperation or action by any individuals, and how?

Answering these questions will help you to identify aspects of the solution which are likely to be of most interest to your audience. Some areas of possible opposition may be apparent already, eg if your solution does not deal with all the adverse effects of the problem, those people who will still be affected may oppose your solution.

To complete your identification of potential areas of opposition you need to ask yourself, 'how are people likely to react to this solution?' This involves answering questions such as:

    * Do any aspects of the problem or its solution have special significance for them? (eg Does it reflect badly on their previous performance or judgement;
    * does it infringe on their area of operation or detract from their authority; does it compete with their needs for resources?)
    * In what way will they want the situation to change when the problem is solved, and does the solution achieve this?­
    * Will they gain or lose with this solution, how and by how much?
    * Will they want to achieve or gain something for themselves or others through this solution?
    * Do they hold particularly strong views on any aspect of the problem or its solution? (eg Do they have an axe to grind?)
    * Do they have stereotyped views? (eg Favouring the traditional approach.)

You are also one of the people involved, so you need to consider additional factors such as:

    * What is their personal opinion of me? (eg Do any of them have reason to resent or mistrust you?)
    * Are our views of the situation likely to coincide or differ, by how much, and in what ways?

By comparing your answers to all of these questions - about the problem, its solution and the people involved you will be able to identify all the major sources of opposition. Assuming that your solution is timely, sound and deals with the problem effectively, all of these possible causes of opposition can be avoided by the way you present your solution.

Your solution may be presented verbally, on a one-to-one basis or in a meeting, or with a written report, depending on the situation. If there is more than one other. person involved, and you have a choice, a meeting gives you the opportunity to get immediate feedback and respond persuasively to doubts and objections. However, most solutions which involve major changes or extensive use of resources are presented in reports. Whichever method you use, there are a number of tactics you can use to encourage acceptance and support of your solution.

Persuading people to accept your solution involves giving them reason to accept it rather than oppose it. This is achieved in a variety of ways:

From analysing the problem, your solution and your audience, you should have a good idea of the opposition that could arise. Prepare responses to questions and objections that are likely to be raised. It's important that you explain the disadvantages as well as the advantages of your solution. If you try to disguise them it will give someone the opportunity to highlight them and create the impression that either you are not being truthful or have not considered the situation thoroughly. If your proposed solution involves major changes you should introduce these carefully, helping the people affected to accept and adjust to them.

Don't try to suppress objections. If you don't give people the opportunity to explain their objections you can create the impression that you are trying to 'gloss over' flaws in your solution and you deny yourself the opportunity to overcome the objections. Never argue with, or try to 'put down' someone who raises an objection. Your earlier analysis should have prepared you to overcome most objections.

Ideally, the best way to gain acceptance and commitment is to involve the relevant people in finding and evaluating solutions to the problem. However, even if you have not done this, there are still ways of getting them involved, eg:

    * give them a role in the presentation, eg explaining how the solution affects their department
    * give them a role in the implementation, either directly or in monitoring its effects
    * allow them to contribute to your plan for implementation.

For people to accept and be fully committed to the successful implementation of your solution they must listen and fully understand the implications of the situation, particularly if they are involved in the implementation. The best way to ensure that they listen is to arouse their interest and one way f doing this is to tell them at the beginning of your presentation how they will benefit.

If you can show at the outset that the problem is important, either in its adverse effects or the benefits that could be gained, people are likely to be more interested in hearing how you intend to deal with the situation than if it was a relatively insignificant problem.

Appealing to the needs and desires of individuals is a powerful way of gaining their acceptance, provided your solution does fulfill what you are offering. You should explain how people will benefit by your solution compared with the current situation. There is a wide range of motivating factors you can use, including recognition, security, power, pride, self-respect and reward. A new management structure, for example, could be sold on its more equitable sharing of power, or greater efficiency leading to a reduced workload and larger bonuses.

Solutions which tie up resources over a long period of time are often rejected on this criterion alone. Acceptance is more likely if your solution uses resources over a limited period or in short bursts. The greater the resources required the more carefully you need to explain the reasons for using them ie. the benefits to be gained. You must show your solution to be cost-effective, ideally by giving hard facts about the return on investment.

The key to a successful presentation lies in the way you explain your solution. You must make it easy to understand, show that it has been well thought out and that it's the best solution available under the circumstances.

This can be infectious. If you don't show enthusiasm for your solution neither will others.

Be prepared to vary your plan to accommodate individual needs, particularly those of people who are required to take action or provide resources for implementing the solution.

One way of encouraging acceptance of a solution is to give way on certain points. This is particularly important where people expect negotiation or bargaining, such as issues concerning union members. To prepare yourself for this bargaining, identify the aspects of your proposal which are not essential to achieving your objective. You can trade these for others which are essential to the success of your solution.

If you have a choice, make your presentation at a time when your audience will be least distracted by thoughts of other things (eg not just before lunch or at the end of the day), and when they will have time to consider your proposition fully before major interruptions (eg not just before a weekend or holiday).

The final step is to combine all this information into an effective presentation.

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Getting your solution accepted – Making your presentation

The way you present your information is crucial to success, whether it's done verbally or in a report. In general you should aim to make your presentation clear, simple and to the point. To help explain your solution in a way that people will understand easily, follow these guidelines:

    * keep it short and simple - don't confuse them with too much data or a very complex argument - but make sure that you coverall the important factors
    * avoid ambiguities
    * prepare your presentation according to your audience's level of knowledge and understanding of the topics covered
    * avoid any words or terms people may not understand, eg jargon and technical terms.

With complex issues you should concentrate on the major advantages and disadvantages, leaving the others for discussion later, if necessary, or inclusion in an appendix to your report. You should state at the beginning of your presentation that this is what you intend to do. Most important of all, your presentation should be a logical progression from the facts of the current situation to how your proposed solution will deal with the problem effectively.
verbal presentation    

Verbal presentations

With verbal presentations the order in which you present your ideas is particularly important  If you reveal your solution at the outset, for example, people may foresee disadvantages and raise an objection before you have explained how you intend to handle the situation. This can lead to confusion and early on people may get the impression that the solution is impractical. First impressions are difficult to change.

The best way to avoid this type of situation is to follow these steps, checking that your audience agree at each stage before moving on:

    * state the overall objective in solving the problem
    * describe the constraints on the situation
    * briefly describe all the results. that you felt were required and their relative importance
    * briefly state all the options you considered without saying which you have chosen
    * describe the criteria of evaluation you have used and their relative importance
    * state which option you have chosen, explaining how it is the best solution available and the associated risks that you have identified
    * explain how the solution will be implemented
    * state how the results will be identified and measured.

   

women making a presentation

This strategy uses the same methodical approach that you used in constructing the solution, making it easier to explain clearly and to deal with objections step-by-step.

Many people get very anxious about making verbal presentations. Thorough preparation and rehearsal will help you to overcome this fear and to ensure that you convey your ideas effectively. Factors such as overt signs of nervousness and continual hesitation can convey uncertainty about your solution or that you are trying to hide something. Following these guidelines will help you to create the right impression: Use unobtrusive keyword notes if you cannot remember all you want to say

    * use unobtrusive keyword notes if you cannot remember all you want to say
    * use visual aids if they help to get your ideas across more effectively
    * speak confidently
    * project your energy and enthusiasm through your voice (lively, but not over-effusive), posture (upright and relaxed) and gestures (natural)
    * watch your audience for signs of how they are reacting to what you say (eg confused, impatient, inattentive) and respond accordingly
    * answer questions carefully and succinctly (your preparation should have uncovered most of the likely questions).

Making effective verbal presentations is a skill which requires practice. Rehearsal, preferably with an audience which can comment on your performance, will help you to perfect a specific presentation.

Written presentations

Reports can vary from a simple one-page outline to a large bound volume of 100 pages or more, but they should never contain unnecessary information. The features of a good report can be grouped under four headings.

Contents

A written report can be perused at will and digested at the reader's own pace. There is a temptation, therefore, not to worry about keeping the report short and simple. However, the easier you make it for people, the more likely they are to read and accept what you have to say. Interest will be sustained if you get to the point quickly.

Structure

The structure of a report should help people to understand your proposal. This means following the guidelines given for verbal presentations, presenting information in a logical, step-by-step fashion. With complex issues only the main points should be covered in the body of the report, with supporting evidence and the less significant information given in appendices. If the body of the report is more than about ten pages, it may be desirable to give an abstract at the' beginning covering the essential points, eg the problem, its effects, and the recommended solution.

Style

The writing style you use should make the contents easy to read and understand. All the factors relating to jargon and so on, mentioned for verbal presentations, also apply to reports. Sentences and paragraphs should be short and written in a conversational style unless the subject or application demands otherwise.

Layout

The layout of words on the page should give the appearance of being easy to follow and understand. Don't crowd pages, leave wide margins, give clear headings and emphasise important points.

Writing reports effectively is a skill that can be developed with practice. A good book on the subject will help you to use reports effectively.

What to do if your solution is rejected

It is not uncommon for ideas to be rejected, particularly when they involve major changes, are innovative, or require extensive use of resources. If your idea is rejected you have a number of options:

    * first. check that you presented your idea effectively; if not, it may be worth re-presenting, it if you have the opportunity
    * consider whether you can present the idea to someone else with the appropriate authority to sanction it, or who could bring pressure to bear on the decision makers, eg those who will benefit most from your solution     .
    * improve your solution to overcome the objec­tions and re-present it
    * look for another solution, bearing in mind the reasons your first solution was rejected.

Trying to get your solution accepted can be frustrating and difficult, particularly in situations where you are encroach­; on other people's territory or where there is no existing yardstick to measure the likely outcome. If it's an idea that you believe in, perseverance often pays off.

Remember

    * It may be necessary to obtain other people's approval and cooperation to implement your solution successfully.
    * Carefully planning how to present your solution will improve your chances of gaining acceptance and cooperation.
    * There are a variety of persuasive tactics you can use to influence your audience.





Implementing your solution

Implementation is the culmination of all your work in solving a problem and requires careful attention to detail. There are three basic stages involved:

    * planning and preparing to implement the solution
    * implementing and monitoring the action
    * reviewing and analysing the success of the  action.

Planning and preparation

Planning and preparation is the key to successful implementation. The more important the problem, or the more complex the actions required to solve it, the more thorough your planning and preparation needs to be to ensure success.
Implemeting solutions    

These questions highlight the main features of planning and preparation, which involve:

    * constructing a plan of action

1. the actions required

2. scheduling the actions

3. the resources required

4. measures to counter adverse consequences

5. management of the action

6. reviewing the plan

    * selecting, briefing and training those involved.

Constructing a plan of action

Basically, the plan of action describes what actions are required and how they will be implemented to ensure success. Unless the problem is simple or routine, you need to construct a detailed plan of action. This involves systematically identifying and recording the following elements:
   

Bright idea

1. The actions required

These must be identified fully and precisely, otherwise the results expected will not be achieved. The expected effects of these actions must also be identified, so that you will know when they have been carried out successfully. This part of the plan can be constructed as follows:

    * state your objective
    * list the individual goals in the order in which they must be achieved to reach that objective
    * identify what actions are required to achieve each goal, determine the sequence in which they need to be carried out, and record them
    * define, in measurable terms, what a successful outcome will be for each action and add the details to the plan.

The sequence you choose for the various actions and goals is determined by a number of factors. In some situations it may be necessary to complete one action or set of actions before another can begin, eg laying a foundation before building a wall. Actions also have to run consecutively when they each use the same resource to its available capacity. On other occasions actions can run concurrently, such as when each member of a team is assigned a specific piece of equipment to test and evaluate.

With all but the very simplest plans it's wise to use a diagram, to represent the sequence of actions and how they contribute to the overall objective. This helps to show how the actions interact and to reveal areas of possible conflict. Actions should be fitted together as closely as possible, to prevent wastage of resources, while allowing some margin for overrun. To do this you need to prepare a time schedule for the actions.

2. Scheduling the actions

To create a time schedule for the actions, first you identify the time required to complete each action. By representing this information on the diagram you can calculate at what stage, relative to the starting time, each action will commence and finish, and determine the total time required to achieve the objective. Simple plans can be represented by a chart which uses bars to show the sequence and duration of the actions.

More complex plans require a more flexible structure, like a chain diagram or flow chart. Diagrams help you to arrange the actions in a way which makes the best use of time and other resources. In drawing up a schedule. it's important not to be over-optimistic in the time you allow for each action. Additional time is required to accommodate delays and unforeseen obstacles, particularly with actions which must be completed on time or which are susceptible to delays.

3. The resources required

For each action the resources required have to be precisely defined along a number of parameters, including the type, amount and when they are required. Each resource is considered individually:      

Time is sometimes overlooked but it can be a key resource in some situations. These can be defined by answering some simple questions.

    * What time is available before the deadline for achieving each action/goal/the overall objective?
    *  Are these timings compatible?
    * Whose time is required?
    * Will this time be spent within normal working hours?

Manpower may come from within and outside the organisation and can be defined by answering these questions

    * How many people will be required?
    * What skills, qualities and knowledge will they need to carry out the actions required of them?
    * When and where will they be required?
    * Will they be available when and where required?
    * Will they be available for the length of time required?
    * What briefing and training will they need to be able to carry out their tasks effectively?

Money can be defined by answering the questions

    * How much will be needed?
    *  In what form? (eg cash, cheque, foreign currency)
    * How will it be acquired? (eg loan, grant, endowment)
    * What will be the source? (eg profits, merchant bank, local or central government)
    * How will it be used and is this compatible with the source? (eg if it's a development grant does the plan use it appropriately?)
    * When and where will it be required?
    * Will it be available when and where required?
    * Does it need to be repaid, and when?
    * Will it be recouped, how, and when? (eg through increased profits)
    * Will there be additional cost in using this money? (eg interest or handling charges)
    * Have the costs of all other resources been included?

Materials may fall into a number of categories, including consumables, raw materials, and equipment (for temporary or permanent use). The material reqirementsse can be defined by answering the questions

    * What type of materials will be required?
    * If capital equipment is required, how will it be financed? (eg lease, loan)
    * What are the specifications' of the materials required? (eg quality, size)
    * What wastage is likely to occur?
    * In what quantities are they required?
    * When and where will they be required?
    * Will they be available when and where required?
    * Will transport be required?
    * What handling (human and mechanical) will be required?
    * Will storage space be required, where, how much, for how long, and will it be available?

Space can be defined by answering these questions

    * What space will be required?
    * How much space will be required?
    * Where will the space be required?
    * Does it have to be of a particular type (eg covered, with amenities) or with particular dimensions?
    * How long will the space be required?

Information may form a part of the manpower resource (eg expert advice or skills) but it can also be a resource in its own right (eg renting a mailing list for a direct mail campaign). To define this resource you need to answer these questions

    * What specific information will be required?
    * Is this information available from within the organisation or does it have to be bought-in?
    * Where specifically is it available?
    * When and where will it be required?
    * Will it be available when and where required?
    * How long will it be required?

When you are calculating the resources required to implement a solution it's vital not to under-estimate. A shortage could disrupt implementation completely and possibly incur heavy penalties, eg having to pay a consultant for doing nothing while he's waiting for the installation of a piece of equipment. Sometimes you may have to adapt your plan of action to suit the availability of resources.

Once you have made a complete list of the resource requirements, draw up a schedule of resources,showing how and when they will be requested, from whom, and when and where they are to be delivered.

4. Measures to counter adverse consequences

These have to be included in the plan. Although you have considered the areas of risk and possible side-effects when constructing and evaluating your solution, and adapted it to try to minimise the adverse consequences, you need to identify everything that could go wrong during implementa­tion and devise countermeasures. This includes even minor problems such as a key person being sick.

The steps involved are similar to those used to evaluate and minimise the risks associated with the solution, only more detailed.

There are certain features of a plan of action which can make it more susceptible to something going wrong. To identify these and make provision in your plan to deal with them, you should examine your plan step-by-step and follow these stages:

    * identify everything that could go wrong; look for areas where, for example,

- timing is crucial (eg with delays, could a deadline be missed?)

- a slippage in timing could bring subsequent actions into conflict (eg so that they simultan­eously require the same resource)

- two or more activities coincide (eg will they interfere with each other?)

- there is no way of predicting what may happen (eg because of lack of knowledge or experience)

- there is heavy reliance on facilities or equipment (eg could they fail?)    ,

- there is heavy reliance on the cooperation and efforts of people (eg will they perform as required?)

- all available resources in a particular category are being used (eg could an unexpected event require their more urgent use elsewhere?)

- external factors could affect the actions required (eg withdrawal of labour in a national dispute) or the effectiveness of the results (eg a change in market needs)

    * analyse and evaluate the consequences, eg .

- what are the effects if this happens?

- how serious are they?

- what is their relative seriousness?

- what is the probability of them happening (low, medium or high)?

    * define how you could recognise trouble as early as possible, eg through the detection of unexpec­ted changes in predicted events
    * devise countermeasures where possible, either to prevent the cause of trouble or minimise its effects
    * incorporate the method of recognition and the appropriate countermeasure into your plan.

Adverse consequences which have the highest probability of occurring combined with the greatest seriousness should be tackled first and every effort made to ensure that provision is made in your plan to counter them effectively. Even if time is short and it requires extensive work, you can only afford to omit minor adverse consequences with a low probability of occurrence. Although problems may not arise during Implementation, if they do your plan must contain appropriate countermeasures which can be taken without jepardising the rest of the plan.

5. Management of the action

Unless the solution is very simple or routine you must specify how the implementation will be monitored and controlled. This enables the manpower to be appropriately led and managed, their progress to be measured at specific intervals, and appropriate action to be taken to correct any variance from the plan. The following steps help to identify how to manage the implementation:

    * identify actions which require on-the-job super­vision and monitoring (eg where individuals have no previous experience of the actions required of them)
    * identify the stages at which progress should be measured (eg upon completion of individual goals or major activities; at critical phases)
    * specify exactly what results are expected to have been achieved at these stages
    * specify how and by whom the actual results will be measured
    * ensure that appropriate measures to correct any variance between the expected and the actual results are specified in the plan.

The stages you identify for measuring progress are, in effect, deadlines for achieving specific results. These must be stated as a specific time or date in the overall time schedule. Unspecific or woolly deadlines make implementation difficult to manage and can lead to disaster. The frequency of measuring progress is dependent upon a number of factors:

    * what is practical (eg economical and not interfering significantly with progress)
    * the rate at which the situation is likely to change (eg major building works compared with delicate negotiations over a couple of days)
    * the seriousness of potential variances from the plan

Provision should also be made to monitor the solution once it has been implemented, so that any unforeseen adverse consequences arising in the long term can be detected. For example, has a change in the system created a bottleneck in processing work, or resulted in undue pressure on one individual or department?

6. Reviewing the plan

Finally, you need to check the plan to ensure that

    * the actions listed will achieve the various goals and the overall objective
    * your time schedule is workable and can accommodate unexpected delays
    *  your estimation of resources is accurate
    *  the plan for managing the action will enable it to be kept on course.

Drawing up a plan of action is the most crucial stage in ensuring efficient implementation and it must be accurate and thorough. This plan provides a blueprint for the remaining stages of implementation.

Selecting, briefing and training those involved

Your plan of action provides most of the information you require at this stage.

This situation is very similar to having to get your solution implemented successfully. You need to go through the following stages:

    * select indjviduals with the appropriate skills, qualities and knowledge required to carry out the various actions effectively
    * brief these people. so that they know and understand what they are required to do
    * give training, if necessary, to individuals who do not meet the exact requirements for carrying out their assigned tasks effectively.

Selection involves comparing the skills, qualities and knowledge required for specific tasks with those available amongst individual members of the workforce. By identify­ing the ideal attributes for carrying out each action effectively - both what is required and what is to be avoided - you can construct a model of the ideal candidate. Selection then consists of finding the best match to this ideal amongst members of the workforce.

Once you have selected appropriate individuals you need to draw up a list of what actions each is required to carry out, the results they will be expected to achieve, and what responsibilities they have for achieving these results.

Frequently there will be at least some aspects of your plan for which the individuals available are not ideally suited. If the discrepancy is large it may be necessary to buy in manpower with the appropriate attributes. However, frequently the shortfall can he overcome by careful briefing or specific training.

Briefing is often the final step before a plan is implemented. As in any other type of communication, it must be planned and executed carefully to ensure that it's effective. The following steps will help you to brief people effectively:

    * give individuals reasonable advance warning of what will be required of them
    * prepare your briefing carefully so that it is clear, comprehensive and can be understood easily by everyone
    * after the briefing, check that everyone has under­stood what they are required to do by asking them to repeat your instructions.

Your instructions should state clearly the responsibilities of each individual and the scope of their authority in carrying out their task. It's important to give a level of authority which enables individuals to use their initiative and not be bound rigidly to the plan. For example, if they foresee a problem arising they need the freedom to act immediately if necessary.

The way you communicate your message is very important. Some individuals may have a different view of the situation and different attitudes to your own, particularly if they have not been involved in finding and evaluating solutions.

Training can be expensive and time-consuming. If people with the appropriate skills are not readily available you need to compare the advantages and disadvantages of training them or buying-in the necessary skills, eg training may provide individuals with skills which are of value in other aspects of their work; hiring a consultant may create a valuable business contact.

Once people have been briefed on what they are required to do and other appropriate resources have been arranged, the plan of action can be implemented.

Implementing and monitoring the action - Once action has been initiated, it has to be supervised and monitored to ensure that the plan is followed accurately, implementing corrective action when necessary. The details of this stage are specified in the plan of action.

Supervising the action ensures that individuals carry out their tasks efficiently according to the plan.

Monitoring progress enables you to identify whether or not the results being achieved are meeting the planned requirements, and if not, why not. A decision can then be made on the action required to put the plan back on course. Reviewing the overall achievement once the plan has progressed significantly will indicate how well it is achieving the objective. If there are major discrepancies it suggests that the plan is inadequate and needs to be revised.

Taking corrective action may involve implementing the appropriate countermeasure laid down in the plan, or taking unplanned action to counter unforeseen problems. For example, if time. has been lost in completing one activity, other activities may have to be completed more quickly than planned in order to meet a deadline. Minor problems which are unlikely to recur may not require any action. Major faults in the plan may make it necessary to abandon implementa­tion if no appropriate corrective action is possible.

These three processes must be maintained until the plan is completed.

Reviewing and analysing the outcome - When the plan has been completed and the solution implemented it is important to measure and analyse its success. This tells you whether the solution has been effective in solving the problem and how useful it will be in solving similar problems in the future. There are three stages

    * measure the success of the solution by comparing the outcome of the action with the expected results
    * analyse any discrepancy to identify the reasons for it
    * take further action if necessary.

Remember

    * The more important the .problem, or the more complex the actions required to solve it, the more planning and preparation you need to do.
    *  Action must be monitored to ensure that it is being carried out effectively and having the desired effects; if not, corrective action must be taken.
    * Once the action is completed, the outcome must be measured to check that it has provided an effective solution; if not, further action may be required.





The Action Plan

The following Action Plan covers the main features of the problem solving process. You can use it as a guide in tackling the problems you encounter. Remember that these stages often mix and overlap. You may have noted additional points which are relevant to your particular situation.

Recognising and overcoming problem solving blocks

There is a large range of blocks which can hinder your problem solving. To avoid their effects you need to

    * be constantly aware of the factors which can hinder problem solving
    * learn specific techniques for overcoming different types of block
    * apply these techniques when you recognise that a block is hindering your problem solving.

Action Plan    

Involving others in solving the problem

Some problems are solved more effectively in a group. The more times you answer 'yes' to the following questions, the 'more appropriate it is to tackle the problem as a group:

    * Can the problem be defined in many different ways?
    * Is information from many different sources required?
    * Is it a very specialised problem?
    * Does the problem have implications. for many people?
    * Isthere likely to be many possible solutions?
    * Is it a complex problem with many different aspects?
    * Will a solution need to be agreed by others?

The deciding question will always be: Are suitable and relevant people available to work together in solving this problem?' There are a number of techniques designed specifically for solving problems as a group, including brainstorming and Synectics.

Recognising and defining the problem

This is a key stage in solving problems effectively. To recognise problems efficiently you need to

    * be aware of the areas in which problems may arise.
    * establish specific methods of detection

- monitor performance against agreed standards

- observe staff to detect behaviour which may reflect an underlying problem.

- listen to staff so that you are aware of their concerns

- regularly review and compare current and past performance and behaviour to detect gradual deterioration.
   

planning for success

To define problems effectively you need to distinguish between open-ended and closed problems and analyse them differently.

Closed problems:

    * identify and record all aspects of the deviation from the norm
    * analyse the information to identify- possible causes
    * identify the real cause
    * define in a similar way to open-ended problems. ­

Open-ended problems

    * identify all the possible objectives that you may want to achieve - in terms of 'How to ...?'
    * select the 'How to ...?' statements which most accurately represent your problem
    * for each one, list the characteristics of the current and desired situations.
    * add details of any obstacles which may prevent you achieving the desired situation

Deciding if and when to act

Not all problems are important enough to merit the resources required to solve them. Even when they do, it's sometimes better to wait rather than to act immediately. Answering the following questions will tell you if the problem requires action and whether it would be best to act now or wait.

    * Will the problem solve itself?
    * Are the effects significant enough to merit the resources that may be required to solve the problem?
    *  Is the problem diminishing? (wait)
    * Are the obstacles diminishing? (wait)
    * Will the cause subside? (wait)
    * Is the problem having serious effects? (act)
    *  Is the problem growing? (act)   
    * Are the obstacles growing? (act)
    * Is there a deadline? (act)

Finding possible solutions

Open-ended problems usually have many possible solu­tions while closed problems have one or a limited number of ways to overcome the cause. To find possible solutions you need to follow these stages, which form a cycle:

Identify the relevant information - Initially based on your problem definition:

    * What information is needed?
    * Why is it needed?
    * Where can it be obtained?
    * How reliable will it be?
    * How can it be obtained?

Collect and record the information

This is a systematic process, starting with the information which will take the longest time to collect. Checking the accuracy of the information is vital.

Represent the information.

Create a model of the problem. This helps to give it structure and helps in your search for solutions. At this stage it maybe necessary to look for other possible causes of closed problems.

Define criteria of effectiveness

This gives direction to your search for solutions and involves listing the characteristics of an 'ideal' solution:

    * What benefits are you seeking?
    * What obstacles/causes have to be dealt with?
    * What are the constraints on the situation?
    * What will be acceptable to those involved or affected?
    * What level of risk is acceptable?

Some of these factors can only be defined once you have found possible solutions.

Construct courses of action to solve the problem

This involves finding ways of achieving the criteria of effectiveness you have defined. There are five sources of ideas:

    * past experience. of similar situations
    * logical deduction from the facts
    * other people
    * published sources
    * creative idea generation techniques.

The possible solutions are modified and refined to take account of factors which could influence their effectiveness, eg

    * What could go wrong?
    * Are there. factors over which you have no control?
    * Could the objectives change?
    * Could the obstacles become more intractable?
    * Could. new obstacles arise?
    * Could this solution create an opportunity that can be exploited at the same time?

Evaluating your solutions

Deciding which of the possible solutions will be most effective in solving the problem is a systematic process which can be divided into stages:

Involve others

    * when you have a formal obligation to consult them
    * when you require additional information to help in the evaluation
    * when you require their expert skills when you need their commitment.

Define the ideal solution:

    * results required
    * benefits in terms of the objective
    * dealing effectively with obstacles/causes
    * acceptance of the solution by other people
    * constraints
    * limits of resources
    * minimum results acceptable
    * maximum disadvantages that can be tolerated.

The results required are given numerical values according to their relative importance. Where, the outcome is uncertain you need to calculate probabilities.

Eliminate unviable solutions,  - those which do not meet the constraints.

Evaluate the remaining solutions, -  estimate how well each one fits the ideal solution.

Assess the risks associated with this solution, -

    * Is the information used in the construction and evaluation of the solution accurate?
    * If not, could this put the success of the solution in jeopardy, and how? 
    * What could happen if the implementation does not go as planned?
    * What are the chances of these things happening?
    * What would be the effects?
    * How severe would they be?

If the risks are unacceptable and cannot be reduced sufficiently by adapting the solution it must be rejected. Continue this process until you find an acceptable solution.

Make the decision to implement the solution. Until you commit yourself to taking action you cannot proceed any further and the problem will remain unsolved.

Getting your solution accepted

To encourage people to accept your solution, and to gain their commitment to its successful implementation, first you need to draw up a plan for implementing the solution.

Identify areas of possible opposition by considering

    * how the solution could adversely affect the people involved
    * what they expect or need from the solution and what it will give them
    * their feelings about the nature of the problem and your solution
    * their relationship with, and perception of, you
    * what the solution requires of them.

Prepare a presentation which optimises the chances of your solution being accepted and supported, eg

    * incorporate measures to counter opposition
    * get people involved and interested
    * appeal to their self-interest
    * justify your proposed use of resources
    * explain your solution effectively
    * be prepared to make concessions.

Deliver your presentation effectively, whether in a meeting or a report, eg

    * choose the right moment
    *  make it clear and easy to understand
    * show your enthusiasm for the solution.

Persevere until you succeed, either by improving your presentation or your solution, presenting it to someone else, or by looking for a different solution.

Implementing your solution

To ensure that your solution is implemented successfully, and achieves the results you expect, you need to

Plan and prepare to implement the solution:

    * draw up a plan of action

- the actions required

- a schedule of actions

- the resources required (what and when)

- measures to counter adverse consequences

- management of the action

    * review the plan to ensure that it is adequate and accurate
    * select, brief and train those involved to ensure that they have the appropriate information, skills and qualities required to implement the action successfully.

Implement and monitor the action:

    * supervise the action
    * monitor its-implementation and effects
    * keep it on track by countering unexpected delays, faults and obstacles.

Review and analyse the success of the action:

    * compare the outcome of the action with the expected results
    * identify any discrepancies (positive or negative) and analyse them to identify the causes
    * take further action if necessary eg to correct a shortfall or to maintain current results.

HOW TO BECOME A BETTER PROBLEM SOLVER

    * have confidence in your ability to learn
    * practice being methodical and using the appropriate techniques
    * be patient with your progress
    * analyse your mistakes and learn from them
    * if your working environment is not conducive to effective problem solving, either try to change it or learn how to avoid its effects
    * don't be afraid to ask for help in the form of advice or training

KEY POINTS

Improving your problem solving skills requires

    * a methodical approach
    * continuous practice
    * perseverance
    * confidence in being able to succeed.

Good luck!

the value of time
the success of perseverance
the pleasure of working
the dignity of simplicity
the worth of character
the power of kindness
the influence of example
the obligation of duty
the wisdom of economy
the virtue of patience
the improvement of talent
the joy of originating.

often email clients can download your inbox but can't easily import your sent emails.
you have to download a monolithic file (containing all the stuff in the selected folder) from your webmail server and to import it into your email client.

right-click on your sent email folder in your webmail window, then select export : the file will generally be saved without any extension. rename it adding the .mbox extension (eg. yoursavedsentemailname.mbox ).

simply download and install the mozilla thunderbird's add-on mbox import , then select the sent email folder, right-click on its label and select import/export - import mbox file , select the file previously downloaded from your webmail.

wait a minute and the add-on creates a new subfolder, named yoursavedsentemailname.mbox (number of messages imported) with all yuor stuff inside, with attachments!

this is tested on @aruba webmails.
this works with minor adjustments in every other email client (microsoft outlook, apple mail, lotus notes).

nota in italiano: come importare la cartella posta inviata di aruba o di qualsiasi client webmail in posta inviata di mozilla thunderbird.

molti dizionari interpretano la parola "poke" come il gesto di bussare con la punta del dito per richiedere l'attenzione di una persona. parimenti è un modo per giocare, per cominciare una conversazione o anche annoiare gli altri.

corrispettivi a metà tra il mondo reale e quello digitale possono essere gli squilli al telefonino, tanto in voga negli adolescenti, per far capire ad un'altra persona un concetto del tipo "ti penso" o "vorrei che mi rispondessi in modo da sentirmi giustificato a cominciare una conversazione".

il poke è quindi la più semplice forma di interazione disponibile nella comunità facebook, a cui si può rispondere in maniera booleana: rimuovere il poke stesso o rispondere con un altro poke.
rimuovendo il poke si può ipotizzare che l'altro interpreti la risposta come un "non voglio avere nessun rapporto con te"; rispondere al poke lo autorizza invece a ripetere il ciclo (in alcuni casi fin troppe volte, come fosse uno scherzo, e non è esattamente la funzione per cui è stato creato).

l'idea è quella di permettere alla conversazione di avviarsi, relativamente al livello di familiarità della persona che invia il poke con quella che lo riceve.
in caso di tentativo di flirt il poke potrebbe esser letto come "sono timido ma voglio dirti lo stesso ciao, per farti vedere che esisto, e se anche un poco mi gradisci dammi una risposta, dimodochè possa capire se ti va almeno di comunicare con me".

possiamo quindi tradurre il poke di facebook:

- con la parola "ciao!", "esisto anch'io!", "chi sei?", "ci sei?" in una prima fase d'incontro;

- in "che fai?", "come va?", "sono qui, perchè non comunichiamo un pochino?" quando già si è stabilito un primo contatto con forme verbali compiute;

- in "ho ricevuto il tuo messaggio e ti risponderò", "hai ricevuto il mio messaggio? rispondimi!", "sono pronto, sto venendo all'appuntamento" oppure qualsiasi altro messaggio di utilità (e come tale andrebbe integrato meglio nel sistema di messaggistica di facebook) quando il rapporto tra i due utenti è già assodato nel mondo reale.

è ovvio il parallelismo con le comunicazioni mobile: quelli che abbiamo visto sono esattamente gli stessi significati di uno squilletto al telefonino.

ho visto tron legacy in 3d.

l'aspettativa era quella di un trip di effetti speciali ed architetture futuribili.
la speranza quella che disney tenesse in conto l'intelligenza del pubblico esperto / amante della fantascienza, che è pur sempre un target importante per un film del genere.

ovviamente mi sbagliavo ed anzi mi sono anche un pochino offeso.

seguono quindi, come mio solito, alcune considerazioni futili o meno, che avrebbero fatto si che un kolossal da 170 milioni di dollari diventasse un mito alla stregua di matrix (ovviamente escludendo gli ultimi 12 secondi, in cui neo decolla per aprire il sequel!) o anche piovono polpette, che restano coerenti con la storia e con se stessi, aprendo un finale significativo che lascia anche qualche interrogativo.

1) nel boot/cli del sistema operativo (non ricordo di preciso in quale scena) si legge chiaramente la parola ubuntu nella struttura delle directories: ma visto il budget, ci voleva tanto a sostituirlo con encom? oppure è pubblicità?

2) il product placement ducati sfonda lo schermo: logo in primo piano, moto esposta come un trofeo, figurino sul frigorifero... e se ne parla pure nella scena madre del film (sul ponte del treno)!

3) passi pure il fatto che si possa sparire grazie ad un laser (potevano trovare un aggeggio meno abusato), ma sia alla sparizione che al ritorno si poteva usare un breve effetto di decomposizione, qualcosa di scenografico... o che ne so, che rimanesse qualche oggetto, qualche segno di presenza della persona che era davanti al sistema, boh!

4) d'accordo l'intervento di quorra sempre all'ultimo secondo, però quando sale su per la montagna si poteva evitare la sgommata tipo rally nella curva a gomito. abbiamo capito che la tua macchina è meglio dei transformers. tipica americanata inutile che ti fa solo storcere il naso.

5) al primo dialogo vero, la baracca già sembra cedere: il tono del protagonista è monocorde (colpa del doppiatore, dell'adattamento, della sceneggiatura?), ma soprattutto lo spessore dei sentimenti del personaggio lascia a desiderare. dopo tutto quel tempo, potevano scomporsi un pochino di più a dare un tono umano alla questione. del resto sono gli unici due pezzi di carne in quella landa sconfinata, sono padre e figlio e si cercano da vent'anni.

6) nonostante l'iniezione di meditazione zen, il personaggio del padre generalizza troppo: la massima espressione della sua formazione scientifica è "forme di vita generative, biodigitali, you know?". altra tipica americanata di quando non sai cosa dire perchè ti aspetti che il pubblico sia composto da soli bambini che devono comprare i tuoi giocattoli. non si potevano dedicare 15 secondi ad una frase scientificamente plausibile? bastava spiegare, anche a favore del pubblico che non ha modo di immaginarsi come trasdurre segnali, che l'universo tron è la rappresentazione visiva di tutto quel che può accadere in un sistema operativo, con in più la possibilità che gli applicativi stessi vadano oltre le funzioni per cui soni stati programmati, evolvendosi autonomamente.

7) in un mondo così perfetto, la casa del padre spicca nella sua semplice bellezza tech-romantica. peccato che la porta bisellata c'entri davvero poco con l'architettura dell'edificio e soprattutto che scricchioli.

8) arrivati ad uno sprazzo del film finalmente con una recitazione seria (castor / zuse), la battaglia nel locale risulta dubbia: avrei visto volentieri più cagnara, in particolare quando il babbo disattiva la griglia, disorientando tutti. in un covo di rivoluzionari (escluso il padrone di casa...) entrano 10 soldati per fare a botte, e si muovono tutti con quella lentezza? se il regista avesse visto una rissa in uno stadio italiano, avrebbe capito cosa doveva far vedere.

9) sul treno ecco la scena madre. peccato per il tono complessivo di tutti gli attori che, non sapendo cosa dire e come dire, hanno sempre il tono maestoso e drammatico della frase: "no, perchè..." (alla cigoli!). bisognava renderli più umani, distinguerli dagli altri. paradossalmente ha più cuore quorra (cuore, o quore?), che è pur sempre un programma! è l'unica che sentiremo mai ridere e che vedremo cambiare espressione.

10) doppia scena madre sul ponte: lungo ed informe dialogo di sam, prima con il padre kevin e poi con quorra, che si scopre essere l'ultima degli iso. non va bene. sarebbe bastato alternarla con un pizzico di esplorazione di quel mondo e dei suoi meccanismi, con un dialogo dalla parte dei cattivi, con un pizzico di azione o pianificazione. subito dopo, la solita abusata distesa sconfinata di soldati tutti in ordine, che si muovono tutti insieme, fatti col copia/incolla.

11) nella scena dell'inseguimento aereo, il velivolo dei buoni viene colpito e comincia a far fumo. come, cosa? fumo vero nell'universo digitale di tron? bastava replicare lo stesso effetto del fuoco che abbiamo visto nel caminetto del babbo, e colorarlo sui toni del grigio. avrebbe dato gran stile visivo, insieme ad una scia deteriorata, che magari non assolveva più alla sua funzione.

12) è chiaro fin dall'inizio che rinzler sia tron riprogrammato. allora, visto che non parla mai, bastava fargli cambiare colore da rosso a blu durante il volo, ed evitare quell'unica sua frase, con la voce metallica, "proteggo - i - creativi". grazie, non siamo scemi. il colore lo cambia poi in acqua (aaagh! acqua?!?) dopo una specie di cortocircuito. e vuoi vedere chi torna nel prossimo episodio?

13) idem come 11) per l'acqua. rinzler cade in acqua. non c'è acqua nel mondo digitale, solo il suo corrispettivo digitale. che magari da lontano ha lo stesso effetto (quindi va benissimo il finale in cui esplode tutto, in una specie di reset), ma durante lo splash deve esser qualcos'altro, almeno come le disintegrazioni dei poveri malcapitati colpiti da un disco.

14) sam torna nel mondo reale così come nulla fosse, e trova alan che non si meraviglia di nulla.
salva il sistema operativo sul supporto che si mette al collo e se ne va con quorra.
nonostante quest'ultimo finale con l'alba sia bellissimo (almeno nell'espressione umana di quorra, ma non in sam che sempre più sembra antonio cassano col broncio), avrei fatto in questo modo:

- sam torna tutto scombussolato, salva tutto e spegne;

- trova alan meravigliato, curioso, ansioso di capire (anche se è strano che non sapesse di questo laboratorio del padre);

- parla con alan di fatti tecnici e gli fornisce le spiegazioni di cui aveva bisogno, gli parla della volontà di prendere in mano la encom, ed alan capisce che il possesso del disco di suo padre gli aveva trasferito tutte le sue conoscenze e consapevolezze, anche perchè parlano di cose che solo suo padre conosceva;

- se ne va in moto, sognante, triste ma eccitato, si riposa; celebra un simbolico funerale del padre, entra in encom. bastava una sequenza sola insomma!

- purtroppo quorra non è più, non è possibile che qualcuno esca di lì e si materializzi nel nostro mondo, anche se è possibile rimanere per noi a metà tra il nostro essere analogico ed un nostro ipotetico essere digitalizzato;

- sam scrive allora il più innovativo sistema operativo, ed indovinate chi è il seed che lo fa funzionare, ed evolvere da solo? quorra, appunto, della quale aveva salvato memoria (vedi: il disco) sul suo backup. del resto una iso è proprio questo: un programma che nasce spontaneamente e si evolve in un sistema operativo che gli offre terreno fertile, nè più nè meno come le forme di vita sono nate spontaneamente e si evolvono sul nostro pianeta.

- sam ed alan lasciano girare per la prima volta il nuovo os, lo donano al mondo intero che, nella meraviglia, gode appena acceso della rappresentazione, da lui fornita e stimolata, dell'alba realizzata da quorra, che è lì dentro, tramite per costruire su nuove basi e realizzare il sogno di kevin flynn.

realizzato questo finale, ditemi voi se il sequel non è aperto.

comunque: voto 6.

nella realtà tutti quelli che hanno la stessa apertura visiva e vedono il mondo nello stesso modo non hanno osservazioni diverse da comunicarsi. solo chi ha una apertura visiva differente vede il mondo in un altro modo e può dare al prossimo un'informazione tale da allargargli il suo campo visivo. mescolate quindi i disegni, cambiate i colori degli occhi, abituiamoci a guardare il mondo con gli occhi degli altri.

(bruno munari, guardiamoci negli occhi)

sarò il 25 - 26 - 27 giugno, dalle ore 17 alle ore 21, presso lo studio matarrese - di marco con una installazione audiovisiva.

via valeria procula, 12 - 03013 ferentino fr italy

antonio coppotelli per le arti visive
zerotremilacento con installazioni
antonio matarrese per l'architettura
marco infussi con videoarte

as i'm just back in italy, and as i have nothing else to do, i'll post some insights from my explorations in paris, france (2nd take, this time with my lovely domitilla).

 

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eat & drink because this is - first of all - important to have enogh energy to walk

for a delightful lunch on the rive gauche, le comptoir (9, carrefour de l'odéon, 6th arr.), run by claudine and yves  camdeborde, is unbeatable. this thirties-style bistro (complete with mirrored walls) seats just 20 inside and - in warmer months- another 16 on the sidewalk, and doesn't accept lunch reservations. but take this from a veteran: it's worth the hassle of waiting and not taking "non" for an answer. order the grilled tuna, which comes with the crispest vegetables, or opt for succulent souris de gigot (lamb knuckle) served with semolina. round out your meal with an indulgent cheese plate or double-sized pots de crème au chocolat.

ferdi (32, rue du mont-thabor, 1st arr.) serves "the best cheeseburger in paris." the tartare-worthy ground sirloin, cooked medium-rare and topped with a thick layer of cheddar and cheshire cheese, is available only at lunch, but don't worry if you don't make it till after sunset. in the evenings, the fashion-heavy crowd returns, its attention focused on ferdi's tapas-style small plates and potent mojitos and margaritas.

la coupe d'or (330, rue st.-honoré, 1st arr.), bang opposite colette, is the place to hang out, eat croque monsieurs made with poilâne bread, drink café, and watch droves of gazelle-like fashionistas. make them envious: order a scoop (or two) of the cult-status berthillon ice cream.

the packaging at fouquet (22, rue françois 1er, 8th arr.) - glass jars with dark brown-and-white labels - makes for an amazing presentation of this store's very expensive (and addictive) bonbons, caramels, and truffles.

patisserie sadaharu aoki (35, rue de vaugirard, 15th arr.) sells wonderful macarons and "buche de noel" christmas cakes.

to eat at pierre gagnaire (6, rue de balzac, 8th arr.) be ready to begin your fight for one of their hard to get reservations. gagnaire earned his three stars from the guide michelin (the highest possible rating) by creating inventive, often astonishing food, served in a parade of small plates. you may find yourself dining on foie gras paired with mussels and bean sprouts; or tiny rolls of veal stuffed with veal liver; or crayfish tempura in a sweet and sour sauce. it may all sound odd, but it tastes exquisite. a pricey meal, but well worth it.

and also: taverne henri iv (13, place pont neuf) , flo brasserie la coupole (102, bd du montparnasse).

 

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antiques & weird and all the kind of stuff i love

tombées du camion (17, Rue Joseph de Maistre Paris, 18th arr.; also in a stand in marche au puces) is an impressive shop: lots of "anciens et oubliés, nombreux bijoux, perles, et accessoires de mode, stocks exclusifs d’usines abandonnées, séries industrielles, fonds de merceries en abondance, jouets manufacturés du siècle dernier, matériel de laboratoire, petits objets de culte à profusion, stocks de fabricants et grossistes, souvenirs des enseignes d’autrefois, trésors artisanaux en quantité, accumulations en tout genre, gadgets historiques et traditionnels, archéologie de l’enfance..."!

antiquarian pierre passebon, the curator of galerie du passage (20-22, galerie véro-dodat, 1st arr.), has impeccable taste and stocks the best 20th-century french furniture, made by the likes of jean ­royère and emilio terry, as well as works by contemporary artists such as wendy artin.

galerie j. kugel (25, quai anatole-france, 7th arr.), in the palladian hôtel collot, is run by brothers nicolas and alexis kugel, whose clients include countless rothschilds, hubert de givenchy, and henry kravis. the mansion's four floors are full of superb antiques, among them mirrors from the throne room of the 18th-century saxon king augustus ii (the strong) and an eye-popping collection of renaissance jewelry.

for a truly one-of-a-kind gift, visit claude nature (32, blvd. st.-germain, 5th arr.), a taxidermist's treasure trove of pink flamingos, foxes, and deer's heads. the spare boutique's glass cabinets display exotic shells, framed butterflies, scarabs, and the deadliest of scorpions.

papier+ (9, rue du pont-louis-philippe, 4th arr.) and never leaves paris without stocking up on lavender diaries, simple blue note­cards, a stash of colored pencils, and photo albums.

look further about passage couverts below.

 

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art (seriously)

palais de tokyo (13, ave. du président-wilson, 16th arr.), across the seine from the tour eiffel, is a huge space with mile-high ceilings that exhibits the works of artists such as vanessa beecroft, jeff koons, and kara walker. other highlights include a bookshop and blackblock, the groovy boutique.

in the marais you can find galerie 213 (58, rue de charlot, 3rd arr.), which is devoted not to painting but to the art of some of france's leading photographers.

a real treasure is galerie yvon lambert (108, rue vieille-du-temple, 3rd arr.). its owners are hailed as the discoverers of minimalism and conceptual art.

a more traditional gallery is in st-germain-des-prés, with galerie adrien maeght (42, rue du bac, 7th arr.).

 

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prêt-à-porter and outlets to spend your whole-life's savings!

the stylish mona blonde picks only the crème de la crème of the latest collections for her eponymous store mona (17, rue bonaparte, 6th arr.). you'll find trousers by chloé's phoebe philo, skirts by lanvin's alber elbaz, suits by alexander mcqueen, and shoes by marc jacobs.

madame andré (34, rue du mont thabor, 1st arr.) sells the gilles dufour collection plus a mix of inexpensive items, such as perky underwear by i. c. pearl and colorful bangles from india, displayed in a candy-pink interior.

follow the lead of savvy parisians to l'habilleur (44, rue de poitou, 3rd arr.) for last season's designer clothes - both men's and women's - at exceptional prices.

calesta kidstore (23, rue debelleyme, 3rd arr.) is the colette for kids. this sparse concept store sells the trendiest european accessories and clothes, including t-shirts by london's no added sugar and hippie pieces by belgian designer pilar.

20 sur 20 (3, rue des lavandières st. opportune, 1st arr.) is every chic local's secret weapon. bakelite charm necklaces jingling with cherries, along with other costume jewelry dating from the forties to the sixties, can be had at serious bargain prices.

talmaris (61, ave. mozart, 16th arr.) is the destination of choice for dior's de castellane and ysl's stefano pilati for their engraved personal stationery. heavy stock is available in virtually every color of the rainbow. owner alain-paul ruzé also has an unbeatable selection of china, glassware, photograph frames, and children's toys.

sr store (64 rue de alésia, 14th arr.). that's sr as in sonia rykiel - deep discounts bring these pricey items out of the stratosphere and closer to earth.

cacharel boutique outlet (114, rue d'alésia, 14th arr.) with a voluminous selection of last season's offerings at  significant reductions.

stock jeans ober (111, bis rue alesia, 14th arr.): this closet-size store is stuffed with a wide range of body-hugging jeans and pants by the one and only french jeans label, ober. you'll pay half what you would pay at printemps.

another great street for bargain hunters is just around the corner from the bon marché department store: rue st-placide (6th arr.): here you'll find great discounts on women's apparel, children's clothes, and linens, as well as some of the less expensive chain stores.

mouton à cinq pattes (8 and 18, rue st-placide, 6th arr.): sift through the packed racks of designer markdowns and you just might find moschino slacks or a gaultier dress at a fabulous price. if you do, grab it fast - it might not be there tomorrow. these are some of the best designer discounts in town, but you really have to look. the store at no. 8 is women's apparel only; no. 18 serves both sexes, as does their other equally overstuffed store at 138 blvd. st-germain also in the 6th arr.

caroll stock (30 and 51, rue st-placide, 6th arr.), which is the outlet shop for the elegant caroll brand.

and don't forget rue de la chausée d'antin (9th arr.), which bisects the galeries lafayette department store. laden with small shops and good prices, this street excels at moderately priced shoe stores, such as la chausseria (39, rue de la chausée d'antin, 9th arr.).

 

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culture, special places, little hidden surprises

le musée du parfum
9, rue scribe, 1st arr.
rer: a station auber / metro station opéra (lines 3,7 and 8)

parc de belleville
20th arrondissement
metro: pyrenées

musée bourdelle
16/18, rue antoine bourdelle
metro: montparnasse / bienvenüe

musée carnavalet
c/o hôtel carnavalet
23, rue de sévigné
metro: saint-paul (line 1) / chemin vert (line 8)

buttes-chaumont park
main entrance at rue botzaris, 19th arr.
metro: buttes-chaumont / botzaris (line 7 bis)
nearby sights and attractions: pere lachaise cemetery, belleville neighborhood, canal saint-martin

jardin des plantes
place valhubert, 5th arr.
metro: gare d'austerlitz (line 5, 10)
rer: gare d'austerlitz (line c)
bus: line 24, 57, 61, 63, 67, 91
nearby sights and attractions: the latin quarter, mouffetard neighborhood

rock hair
7, boulevard beaumarchais
metro: bastille
if you need an indie aircut... :D

the promenade plantée
main entrance at avenue daumesnil, above the "viaduc des arts".
metro: bastille (line 1, 5, )

marché aux fleurs
place louis-lépine
on sundays, the area is transformed into the marché aux oiseaux, where you can admire rare birds from around the  world.

marché aux pouches
metro: porte de clignancourt
there are several markets and galleries so, be prepared to long walks.

bus no. 29
begins at gare st-lazare (métro: st-lazare), aboard no. 29, you pass the famous opera garnier (home of the phantom), proceeding into the marais district, passing by paris's most beautiful square, place des vosges. you end up at the bastille district, home of the new opera. what we like about this bus is that it takes you along the side streets of paris and not the major boulevards. it's a close encounter with back-street paris and a cheap way to see the city without commentary.

 

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passages couverts

here is just a sampling of the 20 glass-covered, shopping arcades that exist today. wander through them, browse, shop, stop for a coffee, or a snack in the bistros. thrill to the fact that you are shopping the way parisians have done for centuries and following in the footsteps of illustrious writers such as honoré de balzac, alfred de musset, gérard de nerval, and emile zola.

galerie vivienne (4, rue des petits champs or 6, rue vivienne or 5, rue de la banque; 2nd arr.; metro: bourse or pyramides): built in 1823, this is considered to be the most elegant passage with a beautiful mosaic floor, hanging lamps, symmetrical arches, and pretty potted trees. it's filled with high-fashion boutiques, antiques shops and old bookstores. (it converges with the galerie colbert.)

galerie colbert (6, rue des petits-champs or 6, rue vivienne; 2nd arr.; metro: bourse or pyramides): built in 1826 to rival the galerie vivienne, the passage was restored in the 1980s by the bibliothèque nationale (national library). it leads to a magnificent, glass-covered rotunda with a bronze statue by charles-françois leboeuf.

passage du grand-cerf (145, rue saint-denis or 10, rue dussoubs; 2nd arr,; metro: etienne marcel): built in 1835, this passage is stunningly stylish with wrought-iron work, wood-paneled shop fronts and shimmering-glass, skylight roof. it is lined with boutiques for fashion designers, artisans and decorators.

passage des panoramas (11, boulevard montmartre or 10, rue saint-marc; 9th arr.; metro: grands boulevards): built in 1799, this is the oldest covered passage in paris and the first public place lit by gaslight in 1817. it's still bustling with activity with stamp collectors, antique postcard boutiques, restaurants, new trendy shops and venerable establishments such as the théâtre des variétés opened in 1807. (it links to several other passages: galerie des variétés, galerie feydeau, galerie montmartre, and galerie saint marc. and, it's across from the passage jouffroy, which leads to the passage verdeau.)

passage jouffroy (10-12, boulevard montmartre or 9, rue de la grange-batelière; 9th arr.; metro: grands boulevards): built in 1847, passage jouffroy is full of shops selling collectible film posters, old books, postcards, vintage toys and interesting bric-a-brac. there's also a quirky wax museum, musée grévin.

passage verdeau (31bis, rue du faubourg-montmartre or 6, rue de la grange-batelière; 9th arr.; metro: le peletier): built in 1847 with neo-classical decor, the passage verdeau is only one block long and lined with old-fashioned shops selling vintage photos and prints, stamps, old books and postcards. this is my favourite one, and here is set 21, passage verdeaux, a short story that i have written a long time ago. (note: 21 is curiously a non-existent address in that passage, between cafè verdeaux - now closed, at number 23 - and a chocolate shop at 19.)

galerie véro-dodat (19, rue jean-jacques rousseau or 2, rue du bouloi; 1st arr.; metro: louvre rivoli): built in 1826 by two butchers, véro and dodat, this neo-classical style passage, with painted ceilings and copper pillars, has art  galleries and antique shops selling everything from fine stringed instruments to collectible toys and dolls.

 

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strolling and wasting time and losing the path to the nearest metro

there are many great paris walks, but you really need to pay attention along the way. strolling through the city's streets  lets you soak up the parisian ambiance like a native.

promenade plantée
12th arr.
metro: bastille
hopefully, when the highline in new york is done, it will look like this! this former train viaduct, built in 1859 to carry a commuter train line, has been transformed into a delightful pedestrian walkway. the path, about 3 miles long, is planted with all types of flora - rosebushes, climbing plants, lime and hazel trees - and, as you stroll along, you can see right into apartment windows, courtyards, and over the rooftops of paris. the elevated walkway connects with trails and bike paths that lead straight into the bois de vincennes. but, you don't have to go all the way to the end: at various points along the path, there are stairways leading down to avenue daumesnil, paralleling the promenade plantée.

viaduc des arts
12th arr.
metro: bastille
once you reach the sidewalk, you can head right into a shopping stroll because the beautiful vaulted spaces underneath the viaduct archways have been transformed into galleries, ateliers and shops. everything from designer furniture, to handmade jewelry, to tapestry and puppetry is showcased in this unique setting. some 50 different artisans, working in a variety of materials and styles, have made the viaduc des arts a lively shopping or browsing experience with craft demonstrations and special exhibitions. you can also have coffee or a bite to eat. if the consumerism gets too much for you, head back up to the promenade plantée.

la rue mouffetard
5th arr.
metro: censier-daubenton / maubert-mutualité
yes, i know, it's gotten very touristy, but it's still a great street with a lot of history and character and attention must be paid. rue mouffetard runs down the hill sainte-geneviève from rue thouin (near the panthéon) to the église saint-médard at the intersection of rue monge. it is said to be one of the oldest parisian thoroughfares, dating back to roman times. it is as picturesque as ever with many little restaurants, old-established merchants, famous taverns, butcher shops, and cheese vendors along with some new, trendy boutiques. the open-air market in the church square sells an assortment of fresh fruits and vegetables as well as charcuterie and cheeses. it's very lively on a sunday morning when you're out for your stroll.

canal saint-martin
10th arr.
metro: republique
strolling along the canal saint-martin, which runs from the place de la republique to the place de la bastille de stalingrad, is a very pleasant experience. the canal was constructed in the early 1800s to ease barge traffic on the seine and bring drinking water into paris. today, it's just a lovely place to hang out. on sundays, the quai de valmy and quai de jemmapes, streets paralleling the canal, lined with chestnut and plane trees, are open only to pedestrian and bike traffic. there's still some commercial barge traffic on the canal, but your best bet is a canal cruise with canauxrama or paris-canal.

port de plaisance de paris-arsenal
12th arr.
metro: bastille
once an old navy harbor, located on the former moat of the bastille, the port de l'arsenal is now a nice mooring for pleasure boats, yachts, and houseboats. the port connects the seine with the canal saint-martin that leads to the la villette canal basin (this is the route the canal cruises take). it's nice to stroll along the banks, admiring the boats and the sunday sailors.

the garden at the maison de balzac (47, rue raynouard): honoré de balzac labored away on his literary masterpieces and hid from creditors in this little house. although the rooms are small, the spot is divine with a beautiful expanse of lawn. there's no café here but, on a nice day, grab a book (perhaps balzac's le père goriot) and while away the hours in the garden. walking around this district is also a treat. in the movies, you can see the eiffel tower from every apartment; in this neighborhood, you really can.

the garden & tea house at the musée de la vie romantique (16, rue chaptal; métro: pigalle or st-georges) during the romantic period, numerous artistic types lived in the neighborhood. this cozy house belonged to painter ary scheffer, and the elites of the movement gathered here - artists ingres and delacroix; musicians chopin and liszt; writers turgenev and george sand, among others. today, the house is a shrine to author george sand (née aurore dudevant). the garden café is a shrine to relaxation and bliss.

the grounds at the manufacture nationale des gobelins (42, ave des gobelins): from outside, it doesn't look like much, but the property of the gobelins tapestry factory is probably my favorite spot in all of paris. it's a walled wonderland that's hard to believe still exists. since 1662, some of the most beautiful tapestries in the world have been woven on these magnificent grounds. back in the day, some 250 tapestry-makers lived with their families within the gobelins walls. in addition to wages, they each received a tiny plot of land for a "kitchen garden." the dyers and weavers no longer live-in but the property remains the same. by all means, take the tour; admire the old tapestries and watch today's weavers at work, but be sure to linger on the grounds.

the café at the maison de l'architecture (148, rue du faubourg saint-martin; métro: gare de l'est): walking along the canal saint-martin, which runs from the place de la republique to the place de la bastille de stalingrad in the 10th arrondissement, is really enjoyable. this being paris, cafés abound. but midway along the route, near the gare de l'est, it's worth veering off for a stop at le café a at the maison de l'architecture. the maison is a meeting place for cultural exchange between architects, visiting researchers and lecturers. it's open to the public for workshops, lectures, exhibitions and special events. but, the best part is the lovely garden café hidden away behind high stone walls; a little piece of parisian paradise.

place des vosges (at the end of rue des francs-bourgeois; métro: chemin vert or saint paul): said to be the oldest square in paris, it's a knockout. it's not exactly hidden, but people often hurry by on the way to the maison de victor hugo or just stop long enough to snap a photo. there are chic cafes under the beautiful arcades that surround the square, so people tend to sit there. i suggest you plop yourself down on a bench right in the middle and soak up the atmosphere -- children playing, pigeons cooing, older folks soaking up the sun, neighbors gossiping - which is a cross section of all paris. (at the southwest corner, near no. 5, an exit door will lead you into the lovely garden of the hotel de sully - an added pleasure.)

parc de belleville (rue des couronnes, enter at rue piat; métro: belleville or pyrénées): the belleville neighborhood is a melting pot of cultures - algerian, moroccan, chinese, orthodox jewish, senegalese - with shops and restaurants that showcase the wonderful diversity of the city. the park is at the top of a hill, accessible from a staircase, then up winding pathways past vine-covered pergolas. it's worth the climb for some spectacular views of paris - yes, you can see the eiffel tower and the tour monparnasse from here. have a seat, gaze out and dream with paris at your feet.

 

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clubs of various kinds for noctambules

les bains
7, rue du bourg-l'abbé, 3rd arr.
metro: etienne marcel;

batofar
11 quai francois-mauriac, 13th arr.

la fleche d’or
102 bis, rue de bagnolet

le galway
13, quai grands augustins

barrio latino
46, rue du faubourg st antoine

le caveau de la huchette
5, rue de la huchette

les  bains douches
7, rue du bourg l'abbè

 

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if you are with your girlfriend...

avoid areas around metro les halles, chatelet, gare du nord and stalingrad late at night.
in addition, avoid travelling to the northern paris suburbs of saint-denis, aubervilliers, saint-ouen, etc. after dark. 
visitors to the above-mentioned areas may also take precautions by keeping a low profile and by refraining from wearing highly visible jewelry or clothing that identify them as members of a religion or political movement.

 

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bonus: paris by arrondissement! useful!
obviously my list contains some hidden treasures and some simply non-tourist places in paris. but if it is your first time in this city, you can't forget to visit some of the main spots!

1st arrondissement: louvre
    * musée du louvre (louvre museum)
    * tuileries gardens
    * jeu de paume-national galleries
    * musée de l'orangerie
    * palais royal (former seat of royal power)
    * la comédie française (classic paris theater where french playwright molière once performed)
    * place vendôme
    * forum des halles (monstrous shopping center and district)
    * eglise saint-eustache
    * chatelet and the saint-jacques tower
    * sainte-chapelle
    * pont neuf bridge (oldest bridge in paris)

2nd arrondissement: bourse
    * the rue montorgueil neighborhood
    * grands boulevards neighborhood
    * le tour jean-sans-peur
    * paris stock exchange (bourse de paris)-- historic headquarters
    * opéra comique
    * bibliothèque nationale de france (french national library-- historic site)
    * passage des panoramas
    * le grand rex (historic movie theatre, club and concert hall)

3rd arrondissement: temple
    * the marais neighborhood (also part of the 4th arrondissement)
    * musée carnavalet (paris history museum and renaissance-era residence)
    * picasso museum
    * musée des arts et métiers
    * hotel de soubise (renaissance-era mansion) and the french national archives
    * musée de la poupée (paris doll museum)
    * centre culturel suedois (swedish cultural center)

4th arrondissement: "beaubourg", the marais and the ile st-louis
    * centre georges pompidou and the national museum of modern art
    * the "beaubourg" neighborhood
    * the marais neighborhood
    * st-gervais st-protais church
    * st-paul st-louis church
    * hotel de sens (medieval mansion)
    * place des vosges
    * hotel de ville (paris city hall)
    * old jewish district (rue des rosiers and le "pletzl")
    * place de la bastille (shared by 4th, 11th and 12th arrondissements
    * ile saint-louis neighborhood
    * notre dame cathedral
    * seine river booksellers
    * shoah memorial and museum

5th arrondissement: the latin quarter
    * the sorbonne
    * the panthéon
    * place saint-michel
    * musée and hotel de cluny (medieval museum and gardens)
    * jardin des plantes
    * la grande mosquée de paris (paris mosque, tearoom and hammam)
    * institut du monde arabe
    * rue mouffetard district
    * arènes de lutece (roman-era coliseum)
    * historic paris movie theaters

6th arrondissement: luxembourg and saint-germain-des-prés
    * luxembourg gardens
    * odéon theater
    * saint-sulpice church
    * saint-germain des prés neighborhood (and the historic abbey)
    * café les deux magots and café de flore (former haunts of artists and writers)
    * le procope (oldest café in paris)
    * hotel lutetia (famous historic hotel)

7th arrondissement: orsay, eiffel tower and invalides
    * eiffel tower and the champ de mars
    * musée d'orsay
    * french national assembly
    * hôtel matignon (seat of the prime minister)
    * école militaire
    * hôtel des invalides (not a hotel at all, but a former military complex, and resting place of napoleon i)
    * rodin museum
    * musée de quai branly (recently opened indigenous arts museum)
    * maillol museum
    * eugène delacroix museum
    * bon marché department store and gourmet market

8th arrondissement: champs-elysées and madeleine
    * arc de triomphe
    * avenue des champs-elysées (and surrounding district)
    * grand palais
    * petit palais
    * elysée palace (home to french president)
    * théâtre des champs-élysées
    * eglise de la madeleine
    * hôtel de crillon (one of world's oldest luxury hotels)
    * maxim's art nouveau "collection 1900" museum
    * musée jacquemart-andré
    * musée cernuschi (asian art museum)
    * parc monceau
    * pont alexandre iii (one of the city's most opulent bridges)

9th arrondissement: opera garnier and grands boulevards
    * opera garnier (historic paris opera)
    * galeries lafayette department store (also see paris holiday lights and window displays)
    * printemps department store
    * musée grevin (wax museum)
    * olympia theater and concert hall (historic performances by edith piaf and others)
    * les folies bergères cabaret
    * musée du parfum fragonard (perfume museum)
    * musée de la vie romantique
    * grands boulevards neighborhood

10th arrondissement: canal st-martin and goncourt
    * canal saint-martin neighborhood
    * place sainte-marthe
    * new morning (famous paris jazz club)
    * gare de l'est and gare du nord area

11th arrondissement: bastille and oberkampf
    * place de la bastille (shared with the 4th and 12th arrondissements)
    * cirque d'hiver
    * oberkampf neighborhood (vibrant nightlife scene)
    * edith piaf museum
    * maison des métallos (former metalworkers' house; currently an arts and culture center)
    * place de la république

12th arrondissement: bercy and gare de lyon
    * place de la bastille (shared with the 4th and 11th arrondissements)
    * opera bastille (opera national de paris)
    * faubourg saint-antoine district
    * promenade plantée (gardens and walkway built on the site of a defunct above-ground railway)
    * viaduc des arts
    * bois de vincennes (enormous park, often referred to as "paris's lungs"
    * picpus cemetery
    * palais omnisports de paris-bercy (stadium and concert hall)
    * parc de bercy
    * bercy village (a decidedly modern outdoor shopping "village", which was built using former wine warehouses)
    * gare de lyon (one of paris' busiest train stations, and the site of acclaimed restaurant le train bleu)

13th arrondissement: gobelins, la butte aux cailles and the national library
    * bibliothèque nationale (paris national library)
    * butte aux cailles neighborhood
    * chinatown (one of paris's largest, and major site for chinese new year celebrations in paris)
    * manufacture des gobelins (tapestries manufacturing museum)
    * gare d'austerlitz

14th arrondissement: montparnasse and denfert rochereau
    * montparnasse tower and neighborhood
    * montparnasse cemetery
    * paris catacombs museum"
    * fondation cartier pour l'art contemporain (cartier contemporary art foundation)
    * lenin museum
    * musée jean moulin (tribute to the french resistance hero)
    * rue daguerre (pedestrian market street)
    * parc montsouris
    * cité universitaire (university housing campus with buildings in various styles of architecture)

15th arrondissement: porte de versailles and aquaboulevard
    * porte de versailles exhibition center and the palais des sports
    * musée bourdelle
    * musée pasteur
    * aquaboulevard (europe's largest waterpark)

16th arrondissement: passy and trocadero
    * passy neighborhood
    * passy cemetery
    * palais de tokyo
    * musée marmottan monet
    * maison de balzac
    * fondation le corbusier
    * jardin d'acclimatation (amusement park for small children)
    * parc des princes (stadium and concert venue)
    * maison de radio france
    * musée baccarat
    * musée clemenceau
    * musée galliera

17th arrondissement: batignolles and place de clichy
    * batignolles neighborhood (former stomping grounds of artists including emile zola and edouard manet)
    * parc monceau
    * place de clichy

18th arrondissement: montmartre and pigalle
    * montmartre neighborhood
    * sacre-coeur basilica
    * montmartre cemetery
    * place des tertres
    * le moulin de la galette (real windmill, and the subject of a painting of the same name by renoir)
    * dali museum
    * le moulin rouge and the pigalle red light district
    * la chapelle: "little jaffna" (sri lankan district)
    * barbes and la goutte d'or neighborhoods (african and north african districts)

19th arrondissement: buttes-chaumont and la villette
    * buttes-chaumont park (a former limestone quarry that was transformed into a sprawling, romantic-style park)
    * canal de l'ourq
    * parc de la villette and la cité des sciences (science and industry museum)

20th arrondissement: belleville, père lachaise and bagnolet
    * père-lachaise cemetery
    * parc de belleville
    * belleville neighborhood
    * gambetta and bagnolet neighborhood (birthplace of edith piaf)
    * la flèche d'or (famous nightclub)

1) A slaveowner decides to place an advertisement for the return of a lost slave.

2) Apple decides to develop the first salable PC.

3) Henry Ford decides to start his own company.

4) Sears, Roebuck decides to go into retail sales.

5) Julius Reuter decides to use carrier pigeons to deliver information.

6) Swiss watch manufacturers decide to collaborate.

7) Bill Gates decides to license MS-DOS to IBM.

8) Reuben Mattus decides to market ice cream to supermarkets.

9) Thomas Watson decides to change his company's name to IBM.

10) Walt Disney decides to name his cartoon character Mickey.

11) Marvin Bower decides to keep the McKinsey name for his company.

12) Richard Sears decides to sell products through a catalog.

13) Coca-Cola decides to hold a competition for the design of its new bottle.

14) Konosuke Matsushita decides to institute product demonstrations.

15) Mattel decides to add the Ken doll to its line of Barbie toys.

16) Alfred P. Sloan of GM decides to segment the market for car models.

17) The Grateful Dead decide to allow fans to tape their concerts.

18) Philip Morris decides to reposition Marlboro as a man's cigarette.

19) Henry Heinz decides his company needs a slogan.

20) William Hoover decides to distribute his sweepers through a retail network.

21) Harley-Davidson executives decide to establish the Harley Owners Group.

22) Coca-Cola decides to sell to members of the armed forces for a nickel a bottle.   

23) Henry Luce decides to rank companies as the Fortune 500.

24) Akito Morita decides to develop the Walkman.

25) Hartford doctors decide to install telephones in their offices.

26) Honda decides to market small motorbikes in the United States.

27) Aaron Feuerstein decides to keep Malden Mills open after a major fire in its factory.

28) Levi-Strauss decides to extend credit to wholesalers after an earthquake and fire, and later decides to keep employees working during the Great Depression.

29) Baron de Coubertin decides to convene a conference to establish the Olympic Games.

30) American Express decides to continue cashing traveler's checks during the Great Depression.

31) Warren Buffett decides to invest in Berkshire Hathaway.

32) Coca-Cola decides to return to its original recipe.

33) Johnson & Johnson decides to pull Tylenol from store shelves.

34) Percy Barnevick decides to merge Asea and Brown Boveri.

35) The Incas decide to build a network of roads and administrative centers.

36) The ITT board decides to appoint Harold Geneen its CEO.

37) Pierre Du Pont of GM decides to adopt Alfred P. Sloan's reorganization plan for GM.

38) St. Bernard decides to reorganize the Cistercian monasteries.

39) Michael Dell decides to sell PCs directly to consumers and built to order.

40) Procter & Gamble decides to introduce brand management.

41) Jeff Bezos decides to sell books over the Internet.

42) Henry Dunant decides to go see Napoleon III.

43) Paul Garrett of GM decides to invite Peter Drucker to study the company.

44) Elvis Presley decides to join the army.

45) John Larson decides to ask Tom Peters to make a presentation to a client.

46) Napoleon decides to promote people based on merit.

47) Jack Welch of GE decides to institute Work-Out.

48) Thomas Watson Jr. decides to commit IBM to developing a new line of computers.

49) Wal-Mart decides to move into the grocery business.

50) Edward L. Bernays decides to stage a march to promote smoking for women.

51) Harvard Business School decides to launch the Harvard Business Review and to establish the HBS Fund.

52) Lou Gerstner decides not to split IBM.

53) Rupert Murdoch decides to build a printing plant that doesn't require union labor.

54) Luciano Benetton decides to invest in an advanced clothing factory.

55) Toyota decides to implement W. Edwards Deming's quality techniques.

56) Herb Kelleher of Southwest Airlines decides to cut the extras.

57) Leaders of Miletus in Ancient Greece decide to specialize in one industry.

58) Belgian business leaders decide to apply the principles of action learning.

59) Cities in Northern Germany decide to form an association to promote their commercial interests.

60) Edwin Land decides to take a walk and comes up with the idea for the Polaroid camera.

61) Ray Kroc decides to buy the rights to McDonald's restaurants and franchise them.

62) The ancient Chinese decide to institute a system of currency.

63) William Wrigley decides to offer free packs of chewing gum with his cans of baking powder.

64) Kemmons Wilson decides to build his own motel.

65) Gillette decides to position itself at the high-quality, premium-price end of the market.

66) Arthur Fry of 3M decides what Post-Its can be used for.

67) Henry Ford decides to pay his workers $5 a day.

68) 3M decides to allow its researchers to spend 15 percent of their time working on their own projects.

69) Hewlett-Packard decides to hire some of the excess technical talent after World War II.

70) Emperor Hadrian decides to provide all miners in the Roman Empire with bath houses.

71) GE decides to establish a center for executive development.

72) Ricardo Semler of Semco decides to fire 60 percent of his company's top management.

73) Jan Carlzon of SAS decides to send 35,000 managers to customer service training courses.

74) Reg Jones of GE decides to implement a management succession process.

75) President McKinley decides to allow Elihu Root to restructure the U.S. armed services.

Search Engines Strategies

The idea here is not to trick the search engines, but to leave them abundant clues as to what your webpage is about.

1. Write a Page Title. Write a descriptive title for each page of 5 to 8 words. Remove as many "filler" words from the title, such as "the," "and," etc. This page title will appear hyperlinked on the search engines when your page is found. Entice searchers to click on the title by making it a bit provocative. Place this at the top of the webpage between the tags, in this format: . It also shows on the blue bar at the top of your web browser.

Plan to use some descriptive keywords along with your business name on your home page. If you specialize in silver bullets and that's what people will be searching for, don't just use your company name "Acme Ammunition, Inc." use "Silver and Platinum Bullets - Acme Ammunition, Inc." The words people are most likely to search on should appear first in the title (called "keyword prominence"). Remember, this title is nearly your entire identity on the search engines. The more people see that interests them in the blue hyperlinked words on the search engine, the more likely they are to click on the link.

2. Write a Description and Keyword META Tag. The description should be a sentence or two describing the content of the webpage, using the main keywords and keyphrases on this page. If you include keywords that aren't used on the webpage, you could hurt yourself. Place the Description META Tag at the top of the webpage, between the tags, in this format: . Some search engines include this description below your hyperlinked title.

Your maximum number of characters should be about 255; just be aware that only the first 60 or so are visible on Google, though more may be indexed.

When I prepare a webpage, I write the article first, then write a description of the content in that article in a sentence or two, using each of the important keywords and keyphrases included in the article. This goes into the description META tag. Then for the keywords META tag, I strip out the common words, leaving just the meaty words and phrases. The keywords META tag is no longer used for ranking by Google, but it is currently used by Yahoo, so I'm leaving it in. Who knows when more search engines will consider it important again? Every webpage in your site should have a title, and META description tag.

3. Include Your Keywords in Header Tags H1, H2, H3. Search engines consider words that appear in the page headline and sub heads to be important to the page, so make sure your desired keywords and phrases appear in one or two header tags. Don't expect the search engine to parse your Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) to figure out which are the headlines - it won't. Instead, use keywords in the H1, H2, and H3 tags to provide clues to the search engine. (Note: Some designers no longer use the H1, H2 tags. That's a mistake. Make sure your designer defines these tags in the CSS rather than creating headline tags with other names.)

4. Make Sure Your Keywords Are in the First Paragraph of Your Body Text. Search engines expect that your first paragraph will contain the important keywords for the document - where most people write an introduction to the content of the page. You don't want to just artificially stuff keywords here, however. More is not better. Google might expect a keyword density in the entire body text area of maybe 1.5% to 2% for a word that should rank high, so don't overdo it. Other places you might consider including keywords would be in ALT tags and perhaps COMMENT tags, though few search engines give these much if any weight.

5. Use Keywords in Hyperlinks. Search engines are looking for clues to the focus of your page. When they see words hyperlinked in your body text, they consider these potentially important, so hyperlink your important keywords and keyphrases. To emphasize it even more, the webpage you are linking to could have a page name with the keyword or keyphrase another clue for the search engine.

6. Make Your Navigation System Search Engine Friendly. Some webmasters use frames, but frames can cause serious problems with search engines. Even if search engines can find your content pages, they could be missing the key navigation to help visitors get to the rest of your site. JavaScript and Flash navigation menus that appear when you hover are great for humans, but search engines don't read JavaScript and Flash. Supplement them with regular HTML links at the bottom of the page, ensuring that a chain of hyperlinks exists that take a search engine spider from your home page to every page in your site. A site map with links to all your pages can help, too. If your site isn't getting indexed fully, make sure you submit a Google Sitemap following directions on Google's site. Be aware that some content management systems and e-commerce catalogs produce dynamic, made-on-the-fly webpages. You can sometimes recognize them by question marks in the URLs followed by long strings of numbers or letters. Overworked search engines sometimes stop at the question mark and refuse to go farther. If you find the search engines aren't indexing your interior pages, you might consider URL rewriting, a site map, and targeted content pages (see below).

7. Develop Several Pages Focused on Particular Keywords. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) specialists no longer recommend using external doorway or gateway pages, since nearly duplicate webpages might get you penalized. Rather, develop several webpages on your site, each of which is focused on a different keyword or keyphrase. For example, instead of listing all your services on a single webpage, try developing a separate webpage for each. These pages will rank higher for their keywords since they contain targeted rather than general content. You can't fully optimize all the webpages in your site, but these focused-content webpages you'll want to spend lots of time tweaking to improve their rank.

8. Submit Your Webpage URL to Search Engines. Next, submit your homepage URL to the important Web search engines that robotically index the Web. Look for a link on the search engine for "Add Your URL." In the US, the most used search engines are: Google, Yahoo, MSN, AOL Search, and Ask.com. Some of these feed search content to the other main search engines and portal sites. For Europe and other areas you'll want to submit to regional search engines. It's a waste of money to pay someone to submit your site to hundreds of search engines. Avoid registering with FFA (Free For All pages) and other link farms. They don't work well, bring you lots of spam e-mails, and could cause you to be penalized by the search engines. We'll talk about submitting to directories under "Linking Strategies" below. If your page is already indexed by a search engine, don't re-submit it unless you've made significant changes; the search engine spider will come back and revisit it soon anyway.

9. Fine-tune with Search Engine Optimization. Now fine-tune your focused-content pages (described in point 7), and perhaps your home page, by making minor adjustments to help them rank high.

10. Promote Your Local Business on the Internet. These days many people search for local businesses on the Internet. To make sure they find you include on every page of your website the street address, zip code, phone number, and the five or 10 other local community place names your business serves. If you can, include place names in the title tag, too. When you seek links to your site (see below), a local business should get links from local businesses with place names in the communities you serve and complementary businesses in your industry nationwide.

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Linking Strategies

Links to your site from other sites bring additional traffic. But since Google and other major search engines consider the number of incoming links to your website ("link popularity") as an important factor in ranking, more links will help you rank higher in the search engines, too. Google has introduced a 10-point scale called PageRank (10 is the highest rank) to indicate the quantity and quality of incoming links. All links, however, are not created equal. Links from popular information hubs will help your site rank higher than those from low traffic sites.

11. Submit Your Site to Key Directories, since a link from a directory will help your ranking - and get you traffic. Be sure to list your site in the free Open Directory Project (www.dmoz.com), overseen by overworked volunteer human editors. This hierarchical directory provides content feeds to all the major search engines. Plus it provides a link to your site from an information hub that Google deems important. But don't be impatient and resubmit or you'll go to the end of the queue.

Yahoo! Directory is another important directory to be listed in, though their search results recently haven't been featuring their own directory as prominently. Real humans will read (and too often, pare down) your 200-character sentence, so be very careful and follow their instructions (http://docs.yahoo.com/info/suggest/). Hint: Use somewhat less than the maximum number of characters allowable, so you don't have wordy text that will tempt the Yahoo! editor to begin chopping. Business sites require a $299 annual recurring fee for Yahoo! Express to have your site considered for inclusion within seven business days (http://docs.yahoo.com/info/suggest/busexpress.html). Other directories to consider might be About.com and Business.com.

12. Submit Your Site to Industry Sites and Specialized Directories. You may find some directories focused on particular industries, such as education or finance. You probably belong to various trade associations that feature member sites. Ask for a link. Even if you have to pay something for a link, it may help boost your PageRank. Beware of directories that solicit you for "upgraded listings." Unless a directory is widely used in your field, your premium ad won't help - but the link itself will help boost your PageRank and hence your search engine ranking. Marginal directories come and go very quickly, making it hard to keep up. Don't try to be exhaustive here.

13. Request Reciprocal Links. Find complementary websites and request a reciprocal link to your site (especially to your free service, if you offer one). Develop an out-of-the way page where you put links to other sites - so you don't send people out the back door as fast as you bring them in the front door. Your best results will be from sites that get a similar amount of traffic to your site. High-traffic site webmasters are too busy to answer your requests for a link and don't have anything to gain. Look for smaller sites that may have linking pages.

Check out Ken Evoy's free SiteSell Value Exchange. It (1) registers your site as one that is willing to exchange links with other sites that have a similar theme/topic content and (2) searches for sites with similar topical content (http://sales.sitesell.com/value-exchange/). Additionally, two automated link building software programs stand out - Zeus and Arelis. These search for complementary sites, help you maintain a link directory, and manage reciprocal links. However, use these programs to identify the complementary sites, not to send impersonal automated e-mail spam to site owners. When you locate sites, send a personal e-mail to the administrative contact found in the Whois Directory (www.networksolutions.com/whois/). If e-mail doesn't get a response, try a phone call. One warning: Be sure to only link to complementary sites, no matter how often you are bombarded with requests to exchange links with a mortgage site that has nothing to do with yours. One way Google determines what your site is about is who you link to and who links to you. It's not just links, but quality links you seek.

14. Write Articles for Others to Use in their Newsletters. You can dramatically increase your visibility when you write articles in your area of expertise and distribute them to editors as free content for their e-mail newsletters or their websites. Just ask that a link to your website and a one-line description of what you offer be included with the article. This is an effective "viral" approach that can produce hundreds of links to your site over time.

15. Begin a Business Blog. Want links to your site? Begin a business blog on your website, hosted on your own domain. If you offer excellent content and regular industry comment, people are likely to link to it, increasing your site's PageRank. If you have a blog on a third-party blog site, occasionally find reasons to talk about and link to your own domain.

16. Issue News Releases. Find newsworthy events and send news releases to print and Web periodicals in your industry. The links to your site in online news databases may remain for years and have some clout with link popularity. However, opening or redesigning a website is seldom newsworthy these days. Placing your website URL in online copies of your press release may increase link popularity some. Issuing press releases is a traditional promotional strategy, but there are other traditional approaches that can help you as well.
Traditional Strategies

Just because "old media" strategies aren't on the Internet doesn't mean they aren't effective. A mixed media approach can be very effective.

17. Include Your URL on Stationery, Cards, and Literature. This is a no-brainer that is sometimes overlooked. Make sure that all reprints of cards, stationery, brochures, and literature contain your company's URL. And see that your printer gets the URL syntax correct. In print, I recommend leaving off the http:// part and including only the www.domain.com portion.

18. Promote using traditional media. Don't discontinue print advertising that you've found effective. But be sure to include your URL in any display or classified ads you purchase in trade journals, newspapers, yellow pages, etc. View your website as an information adjunct to the ad. Use a two-step approach: (1) capture readers' attention with the ad, (2) then refer them to a URL where they can obtain more information and perhaps place an order. Look carefully at small display or classified ads in the back of narrowly-targeted magazines or trade periodicals. Sometimes these ads are more targeted, more effective, and less expensive than online advertising. Consider other traditional media to drive people to your site, such as direct mail, classifieds, post cards, etc. TV can be used to promote websites, especially in a local market.

19. Develop a Free Service. It's boring to invite people, "Come to our site and learn about our business." It's quite another to say "Use the free kitchen remodeling calculator available exclusively on our site." Make no mistake, it's expensive in time and energy to develop free resources, but it is very rewarding in increased traffic to your site. Make sure that your free service is closely related to what you are selling so the visitors you attract will be good prospects for your business. Give visitors multiple opportunities and links to cross over to the sales part of your site.

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E-Mail Strategies

Don't neglect e-mail as an important way to bring people to your website. Just don't spam. That is, don't send bulk unsolicited e-mails without permission to people with whom you have no relationship.

20. Install a "Signature" in your E-Mail Program to help potential customers get in touch with you. Most e-mail programs allow you to designate a "signature" to appear at the end of each message you send. Limit it to 6 to 8 lines: Company name, address, phone number, URL, e-mail address, and a one-phrase description of your unique business offering. Look for examples on e-mail messages sent to you.

21. Publish an E-Mail Newsletter. While it's a big commitment in time, publishing a monthly e-mail newsletter ("ezine") is one of the very best ways to keep in touch with your prospects, generate trust, develop brand awareness, and build future business. It also helps you collect e-mail addresses from those who visit your site but aren't yet ready to make a purchase. Ask for an e-mail address and first name so you can personalize the newsletter.
If you're just getting started you can use a free advertising-supported newsletter from Yahoo! Groups (www.yahoogroups.com).

Example:
Object: Three free e-books
Body: Subscribe to our free e-mail newsletter — Web Marketing Today®, published to 108,000+ confirmed opt-in subscribers worldwide. Just to encourage you to take this step, I'm including three free e-books that you can download and read: The Web Marketing Checklist: 32 Ways to Promote Your Website, 12 Website Design Decisions Your Business Will Need to Make, and Making & Marketing E-Books, each worth $12 - just for subscribing. No catch.

Link to our RSS feed

Form:
First name

Last Name
E-mail
Country (2-letter abbreviation)
Preferred Format: Plain text / HTML

Disclaimer: We respect your privacy and never sell or rent our subscriber lists. Subscribing will not result in more spam! I guarantee it!

22. Send Offers to Your Visitors and Customers. Your own list of customers and site visitors who have given you permission to contact them will be your most productive list. Send offers, coupon specials, product updates, etc. Personalizing the subject line and the message may increase the results.

23. Rent targeted e-mail lists. We abhor "spam," bulk untargeted, unsolicited e-mail, and you'll pay a very stiff price in a ruined reputation and cancelled services if you yield to temptation here. But the direct marketing industry has developed targeted e-mail lists you can rent - lists consisting of people who have agreed to receive commercial e-mail messages. These lists cost $40 to $400 per thousand or 4¢ to 40¢ per name. Do a smaller test first to determine the quality of the list. Your best bet is to find an e-mail list broker to help you with this project - you'll save money and get experienced help for no additional cost.

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Miscellaneous Strategies

24. Promote Your Site in Online Forums and Blogs. The Internet offers thousands of very targeted e-mail based discussion lists, online forums, blogs, and Usenet news groups made up of people with very specialized interests. Use Google Groups to find appropriate sources (groups.google.com). Don't bother with news groups consisting of pure "spam." Instead, find groups where a serious dialog is taking place. Don't use aggressive marketing and overtly plug your product or service. Rather, add to the discussion in a helpful way and let the "signature" at the end of your e-mail message do your marketing for you. People will gradually get to know and trust you, visit your site, and do business with you.

25. Announce a Contest. People like getting something free. If you publicize a contest or drawing available on your site, you'll generate more traffic than normal. Make sure your sweepstakes rules are legal in all states and countries you are targeting. Prizes should be designed to attract individuals who fit a demographic profile describing your best customers.

26. Ask Visitors to Bookmark Your Site. It seems so simple, but make sure you ask visitors to bookmark your site or save it in their Favorites list.

27. Exchange Ads with Complementary Businesses. Banner exchange programs don't work well these days. But consider exchanging e-mail newsletter ads with complementary businesses to reach new audiences. Just be sure that your partners are careful where they get their mailing list or you could be in trouble with the CAN-SPAM Act.

28. Devise Viral Marketing Promotion Techniques. So-called viral marketing uses the communication networks (and preferably the resources) of your site visitors or customers to spread the word about your site exponentially. Word-of-mouth, PR, creating "buzz" and network marketing are offline models. #14 above, "Write Articles for Others to Use in their Newsletters," is a viral approach. The classic example is the free e-mail service, hotmail.com, that includes a tagline about their service at the end of every message sent out, so friends tell friends, who tell friends.

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Paid Advertising Strategies

None of the approaches described above is "free," since each takes time and energy. But if you want to grow your business more rapidly, there comes a point when you need to pay for increased traffic. Advertising is sold in one of three ways: (1) traditional CPM (cost per thousand views), (2) pay per click (PPC), and (3) pay per action, otherwise known as an affiliate program or lead generation program. Do some small tests first to determine response. Then calculate your return on investment (ROI) before spending large amounts. Here are some methods:

29. Buy a Text Ad in an E-Mail Newsletter. Some of the best buys are small text ads in e-mail newsletters targeted at audiences likely to be interested in your products or services. Many small publishers aren't sophisticated about advertising and offer attractive rates.Banner ads get such a low click-through rate (0.2%) these days that I don't recommend paying much for them. Banner ads typically cost about 50¢ to $1 per thousand page views.

30. Begin an Affiliate Program. Essentially, a retailer's affiliate program pays a commission to other sites whose links to the retailer result in an actual sale. The goal is to build a network of affiliates who have a financial stake in promoting your site. If you're a merchant you, need to (1) determine the commission you are willing to pay (consider it your advertising cost), (2) select a company to set up the technical details of your program, and (3) promote your program to get the right kind of affiliates who will link to your site. Consider affiliate management software.

31. Purchase Pay Per Click (PPC) ads with Yahoo Search Marketing (formerly Overture) and Google AdWords. The top ads appear as featured links to the right of "natural" search engine results for your keywords. Your ranking is determined by how much you've bid for a particular search word compared to other businesses. This can be a cost-effective way to get targeted traffic, since you only pay when someone actually clicks on the link. Pay Per Click advertising can be quite cost-effective when you learn how to use it. Yahoo Search Marketing even offers some free credit to get you started. You can learn about software to administer such programs in Report on PPC Bid Management Software (www.wilsonweb.com/ebooks/bidmgt.htm).

32. List Your Products with Shopping Comparison Bots and Auction Sites. Shopping bots compare your products and prices to others. Google's Froogle (www.froogle.com) is free, so be sure to list your products there. A Froogle listing also helps your product page's ranking on Google. Some work on a PPC basis: mySimon (www.mysimon.com), BizRate (www.bizrate.com), PriceGrabber (www.pricegrabber.com), and Shopping.com (www.shopping.com). Others expect a commission on the sale and sometimes a listing fee, especially sales systems that host the merchant. These include eBay (www.ebay.com), Yahoo! Shopping Auctions (http://auctions.shopping.yahoo.com), Amazon zShops, Marketplace, and Auctions (http://zshops.amazon.com), and Yahoo! Shopping (http://shopping.yahoo.com). You pay to acquire first-time customers, but hopefully you can sell to them a second, third, and fourth time, too.

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We certainly haven't exhausted ways to promote your site, but these will get you started. To effectively market your site, you need to spend some time adapting these strategies to your own market and capacity.

A brand name is a name (a Proper Noun in fact) in the mind of the consumer that conveys a single proposition about a particular product or service. The power in a brand name lies in its ability to positively influence purchasing behavior.

In an increasingly cluttered information society, a powerful brand image can act as a guidepost for the consumer in making a purchase decision.

“What is accelerating this trend is the decline of selling. As a profession and as a function, selling is slowly sinking like the Titanic. Today, most products and services are bought, not sold. And branding greatly facilitates this process. Branding “pre-sells” the product or service to the user. Branding is simply an efficient way to sell things.”

A successful branding program, therefore, should differentiate your product or service from all the similar products or services out there.

“A successful branding program is based on the concept of singularity. It creates in the mind of the prospect the perception that there is no product on the market quite like your product.
Can a successful brand appeal to everybody? No. The same concept of singularity makes certain that no one brand can possibly have a universal appeal.”

A major problem for companies is the temptation to extend a successful brand into other, sometimes only peripherally related, areas. (Two actual examples mentioned in the book are Harley-Davidson wine coolers and Heinz all-purpose cleaning vinegar.) Such brand extensions only serve to confuse the consumer and dilute the single message strength of the core brand.

Twenty-two ‘laws’ of branding are:

1. The law of expansion - The power of a brand is inversely proportional to its scope: “Marketers constantly run branding programs that are in conflict with how people want to perceive their brands. Customers want brands that are narrow in scope and are distinguishable by a single word, the shorter the better.”

2. The law of contraction - A brand becomes stronger when you narrow its focus

3. The law of publicity - The birth of a brand is achieved with publicity, not advertising - Ries and Ries maintain that advertising is best used to maintain a brand, but that it is very difficult and expensive to launch a new brand through advertising alone - they best way, they say, is to be first in a new product or service category, and reap the attendant publicity

4. The law of advertising - Once born, a brand needs advertising to stay healthy

5. The law of the word - A brand should strive to own a word in the mind of the consumer - “If you want to build a brand, you must focus your branding efforts on owning a word in the prospect’s mind. A word that nobody else owns.” Examples they give include: Mercedes = prestige; Volvo = safety; Kleenex = tissue; Xerox = copier; FedEx = overnight.

6. The law of credentials - The crucial ingredient in the success of any brand is its claim to authenticity and the best claim to authenticity is being the leading product or service in your category, because consumers assume that if it is a leading seller, it must be good: “Never forget leadership. No matter how small the market, don’t get duped into simply selling the benefits of the category. There are also the long-term benefits of leadership. Because once you get on top, it's hard to lose your spot. A widely publicized study of twenty-five leading brands in twenty-five different product categories in the year 1923 showed that twenty of the same twenty-five brands are still the leaders in their categories today. In seventy-five years, only five brands lost their leadership.”

7. The law of quality - Quality is important, but brands are not built by quality alone. In fact, as the authors point out, most people have no idea as to the “real” quality of a product or service. Is a Rolex really better at keeping time than a Timex? How do you know?

8. The law of the category - A leading brand should promote the product or service category, not the brand - This may seen counter-intuitive, but the authors argue here that the best way for the brand leader to build sales is to promote the category, not their specific brand. This is a more effective way to build up overall market awareness and interest, and the brand leader will naturally benefit to a greater degree than other competitors, by virtue of their larger market share. (And when the overall size of the market is built up, then the leader is in a good position to increase market share still further.)

9. The law of the name - In the long run, a brand is nothing more than a name

10. The law of extensions - The easiest way to destroy a brand is to put its name on everything

11. The law of fellowship - In order to build the category, a brand should welcome other brands - see rule #8

12. The law of the generic - One of the fastest routes to failure is giving a brand a generic name - Generic names (i.e. names that describe the product or service category, such as “Wine Coolerz”), do not strongly position the product or service within the category, and are thus liable to confuse potential customers.

13. The law of the company - Brands are brands. Companies are companies. There is a difference. "The issue of how to use a company name is at the same time both simple and complicated. Simple, because the laws are so clear-cut. Complicated, because most companies do not follow the simple laws of branding and end up with a system that defies logic and results in endless brand versus company debates. Brand names should almost
always take precedence over company names. Consumers buy brands, they don’t buy companies. So when a company name is used alone as a brand name (GE, Coca Cola, IBM, Xerox, Intel), customers see these names as brands.”

14. The law of subbrands - What branding builds, subbranding (i.e. brand extensions) can destroy. The name ‘Chevrolet’ used to stand for something. Now, what is it? A large, small, cheap, expensive car or truck.

15. The law of siblings - There is a time and a place to launch a second brand. “The key to a family approach is to make each sibling a unique individual brand with its own identity.
Resist the urge to give the brands a family look or identity. You want to make each brand a different and distinct as possible.”

16. The law of shape - A brand’s logotype should be designed to fit the eye. Both eyes. The ideal shape for a logotype or brand symbol is two and a quarter units wide and one unit high.

17. The law of color - A brand should use a color that is the opposite of its major competitor’s.

18. The law of borders - There are no barriers to global branding. A brand should know no borders.

19. The law of consistency - A brand is not built overnight. Success is measured in decades, not years.

20. The law of change - Brands can be changed, but only infrequently and very carefully.

21. The law of mortality - No brand will live forever. Euthanasia is often the best solution.

22. The law of singularity - The most important aspect of a brand is its single-mindedness.