Spain Effectively Insolvent

ZeroHedge has quoted Charles Diebel (Lloyds Head of Market Strategy) as saying that Spain is "effectively insolvent".Any source

Eliminate Silos, Increase Results

Welcome to this week’s Discuss HR, the HR blog written for and by members of Human Resources UK.

Firstly a bit of group news, today we have the final networking event of May.  After a lot of hard work by a number of group members, we will be hosting the Newcastle event tonight, so well done Antoinette and everyone else.  If you would like to attend you can find the details here http://bit.ly/HKjYZl

One thing I am particularly good at is finding extremely tenuous links! Our Newcastle event is satellite of our country-wide events, you could even call it a silo... And today our regular writer Una Doyle looks at how you can remove organisational silos and improve performance... I did say it was a tenuous link!!

Finally, I hope you all have a very enjoyable Jubilee weekend. (Ed Scrivener)

Eliminate Silos, Increase Results

Too literal?!

Something that I’m always focused on in one way or another is alignment within organisations, or in many cases, the lack thereof.

I believe that this is the underlying cause for so many complaints from managers and employees. Think about what you may hear around the water cooler such as to how various teams are preventing them from doing their work, that senior management don’t get what really needs to happen and that cross-functional teams are anything but functional!

Think of an iceberg and how much of it is beneath the water. A hairline crack barely visible on the surface is probably a gaping chasm below the water line. All it takes is a little pressure for it to break apart.

Apply this to a leadership team and you’ll understand how even subtle misalignment or gaps at the top could cause chaos among the rest of the organisation.

“By failing to eliminate even those small gaps, they are leaving employees below them to fight bloody, unwinnable battles with their peers in other departments.”

Patrick Lencioni, The Advantage

When there is enough clarity and alignment at the top on the key issues and that is communicated well to the whole organisation then it makes all the difference in the world.

So what are the key things that require such clarity and alignment?

• The number one organisational priority over the next 3-12 months
• The key activities required to achieve that one priority
• The ‘business as usual’ objectives (which mustn’t clash with the top priority in terms of direction)
• Who is responsible for what

Gaining alignment on the top three is something that I think a lot of organisations think they do, yet don’t to the extent that it eliminates or at least massively reduces silos and negative politics.

Something that really helps in this process is when people throughout the organisation understand that it’s only by helping others to be more effective, can they themselves get into flow. You see in addition to the leadership team being aligned on these four points above, there also needs to be alignment between the talent in the organisation, responsibilities and accountabilities and the company’s objectives.

When this happens too, then you eliminate wasted time and other resources and get to leverage the value offered at individual, team, departmental and organisational levels effectively. This itself leads to further alignment between the systems and processes, people and the organisational objectives.

Not only does all this result in incredible (yet sustainable) increases in turnover and profit, it leads to a workforce that is more motivated and engaged. Why wouldn’t they be? They get to use their strengths to work on priorities and objectives that they and their peers are clear on and are all working towards.

So the next time you see something not functioning in or between teams, or hear somebody moaning ask yourself, what is not in alignment here? What can I and/or they do to help this? How can I add more value to the organisation in my HR capacity by helping to increase the alignment in my team and the teams that I work with?

About the author

Una Doyle is an accredited Talent Dynamics Performance Consultant and an award-winning speaker, coach and consultant. Una has worked with organisations such as Argos, Asda, Yorkshire Forward, Kodak and local authorities from a one-to-one basis, to groups as large as 2,000.   She is passionate about helping to create intrapreneur teams; getting the right people, in the right place, doing the right things with ownership and commercial acumen. Una has learned how to apply many of the world’s top-thinkers’ ideas in a way that is simple, profound, gets massive bottom-line results and a more empowered, motivated and engaged workforce.

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*****

Discuss HR is the blog for Human Resources UK, the leading LinkedIn group for those involved with HR in the UK.  Next week’s Discuss HR will be published on Thursday 7th June and will be written by HR recruitment specialist Ed Scrivener. 

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Le déjeuner de Pflimlin pour contrer le Chef de l’État devrait lui rester sur l’estomac.

Selon nos informations, le déjeuner que relate en page 38, l’Express de cette semaine, semble-t-il organisé à l’initiative de Rémy Pflimlin nommé à la tête de France Télévisions par Nicolas Sarkozy à l’été 2010 avec son homologue de Radio France Jean-Luc Hees n’est pas du goût de tous…et c’est peu dire.

Qu’écrit l’Express :

«  Fragilisé Rémi Pflimlin qui dispose de peu de soutiens à l’Élysée ou à Matignon et guère plus au ministère [de la Culture et de la communication] dirigé par Aurélie Filipetti, devra-t-il rendre son tablier sitôt adopté (à l'automne) la nouvelle loi sur la désignation des PDG de l'audiovisuel public ? C'est probable.

Déjeunant avec son homologue de Radio France Jean-Luc Hees, le PDG de France Télévisions s'est interrogé sur le caractère constitutionnel d'une telle abrogation de son mandat avant l'échéance. »

Aller déclarer dans une interview au quotidien « Le Monde », veille du premier tour de l’élection présidentielle  je ne changerai rien si François Hollande devient Président de la Républiqueet que "Quel que soit le résultat de l’élection présidentielle, je continuerai avec le soutien et la confiance de l’État, à moderniser France Télévisions"....et tenter ensuite de contrecarrer la volonté du Président de la Républiquenouvellement élu avec une analyse de constitutionnalistes,  il faut oser !!!

Organiser un déjeuner avec celui qui a été désigné dans les mêmes conditions, essayer à l'occasion de l’entraîner dans la même barque voire de le gagner à sa cause à savoir ridiculiser le Président de la République en lui opposant l’inconstitutionnalité de sa décision, c’est du jamais vu.

Au fait qui a payé la facture ? Ne nous dites pas que c’est le contribuable !!!!!

Rémy Pflimlin devrait garder longtemps cette rencontre gastronomique, à présent connue, sur l’estomac. Il est probable qu’il n’attende pas que son hôte lui rende la pareille et encore moins le dessert pour remettre sa démission au Chef de l’État.

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Daily Briefing, 5/31/2012

Good morning everyone!  Here is today's Daily Briefing.

Allentown and the Lehigh Valley's economy is recovering faster than the rest of the country's, according to Federal Reserve economist Paul Flora.  Mayor Callahan says that fire response times have actually improved since the closing of the Dewberry Fire Station.  Don Cunningham spoke at his first press conference yesterday since being appointed the new President of the Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corporation (LVEDC).  He will resign as County Executive on July 8 and start at LVEDC the following day.  Only 2,300 property owners have filed formal appeals of their reassessments, a lower than expected number.

In state-wide news, Pennsylvania House and Senate leaders appear to be close to a budget deal and are looking to send the Governor a budget by next week.

In national news, President Obama called Mitt Romney yesterday to congratulate him on formally winning enough delegates to secure the Republican nomination.  A new report shows that foreclosures were 26% of all home sales in the first quarter of 2012, which is an increase on the same quarter last year (22%) and the previous quarter (25%).

And that's it for now!  Have a great day, and we'll see you later.
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Google World Wonders: il mondo a portata di clic

Pronti ad aprire una finestra digitale sul mondo? Da oggi sarà possibile grazie a World Wonders, il nuovo progetto del Google Cultural Institute, in collaborazione con l'UNESCO, il World Monument Found, Getty Images e CyArk.

Attraverso World Wonders è possibile esplorare e visitare virtualmente ben 132 siti in 18 diversi Paesi: dai megaliti di Stonehenge agli antichi templi di Kyoto, dalla Reggia di Versailles al memoriale della pace di Hiroshima, passando per le bellezze naturali dello Yosemite National Park e di moltissimi altri luoghi di interesse mondiale. Come? grazie a Street View, il celebre servizio di mappatura fotografica a 360° di Google Maps, che in questi anni ha raccolto le immagini di tutti i luoghi presenti su World Wonders.

Ma la visita non si limiterà ad un'esplorazione fotografica, il sito include infatti altre fonti informative al di là delle immagini, come  decine di video e modelli 3D e centinaia di documenti ufficiali forniti dall'UNESCO per descrivere nel dettaglio la storia e le bellezze di ciascun luogo.
Tra i protagonisti di questo progetto non poteva mancare il nostro paese con i bellissimi centri storici di San Gimignano, Siena, Urbino, Pisa, Firenze e molti altri, l'area archeologica di Pompei, la Reggia di Caserta, i Trulli di Alberobello, Ville, Templi e siti naturali ammirati in tutto il mondo.

World Wonders non è solo una finestra sul mondo, è anche una risorsa educativa, che offre a studenti, studiosi e a tutti gli interessati la possibilità di conoscere nel dettaglio alcuni dei luoghi più celebri della Terra. Nella sezione “didattica” del sito sono infatti disponibili una serie di guide e documenti di approfondimento a disposizione dei docenti delle scuole primarie e secondarie, divisi per argomenti storici e aree geografiche. Come cambia il modo di studiare attraverso la tecnologia...
Siamo all'inizio di un progetto che ci auguriamo possa crescere nel tempo, con ulteriori luoghi di interesse mondiale e documenti che ci permetteranno di conoscerli più da vicino.


Ora non vi resta che addentrarvi di persona e farci sapere cosa ne pensate: www.google.it/worldwonders

Scritto da: Alessio Cimmino, Corporate Communications & Public Affairs Manager

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Bank of America hired 31 Small Business Bankers in the Bay Area

Bank of America said Wednesday that it added 31 small business bankers in the Bay Area, plus another 15 in the San Jose area, as part of its efforts to add more than 70 small business bankers in Northern California.

The bank is hiring about 1,000 small business bankers nationwide in an initiative that began about a year ago.

The effort is paying off. BofA says small business lending rose 20 percent nationally last year, and expects to surpass that gain "significantly" this year, says Emily Shanks, BofA's small business banking executive region executive for the West, based in Concord.

Last year's 20 percent increase represented $6.4 billion in new credit to small businesses nationally, Shanks said.

The Bay Area is a key market for the bank and its small business lending.

"Northern California remains a hotbed for entrepreneurship and is cultivating some of the most inspired leaders in the small business segment," Shanks said.

Separately, BofA (NYSE: BAC) debuted a small business survey this month that's expected to be conducted twice a year.

The survey found that Bay Area small business owners say their greatest concerns center on health care costs, credit availability and a recovery in consumer spending.

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Ahir 30 de maig en imatges

Ahir es va repetir l'espectacle, matí assolellat i tarda amb ruixats que varen baixar per la vall del Querol i que a les cinc de la tarda afectaven a Puigcerdà. Un cop passats, va sortir el sol, abans de la posta. 


Per avui, repetició de la jugada, despres d'un matí assolellat i tempertures lleugerament altes, a la tarda, creixement de tempestes i ruixats dispersos.
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Dades meteorològiques d’avui a Puigcerdà, a les 8 del matí 

 Temperatura actual: 8'9ºC 

Màxima d’ahir: 25'9ºC 

Mínima d’avui: 8'7ºC 

Pressió atmosfèrica: 1023 hp 

Humitat ambient: 86% 

Humitat mínima d'ahir: 23% a les 15.53 h.

 Pluja en 24 h: 5'3 mm

 Estat del cel: 2/8 de cel tapat 

Visibilitat: bona

Cop de vent màxim: Mestral de 10'1 km/h

Avui matí amb quatre pinzellades de núvols alts.

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