ESPAS publishes survey on foresight in governments

ESPAS publishes survey on foresight in governments The European Union Institute for Security Studies (EUISS) has published initial findings from a survey of foresight activities across 22 countries including Australia, Brazil, China, Indonesia, Russia, Sweden and US. The authors highlight their findings in a short report that looks at how foresight programmes are structured, and how they are integrated with policy-making. After a brief, historical survey of contemporary foresight, the study explores how different countries approach foresight. They find that developing countries are more likely to produce “centralised planning documents linked to a vision…

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2014 Longitude Prize announced – please vote for the topic

2014 Longitude Prize announced - please vote for the topic UPDATE: The winning entry has been chosen: antibiotics. Sometimes major discoveries need a nudge. 300 years ago the ships of the royal navy had mastered latitude (North-South) navigation using sun, moon and sextants. Going East-West was the problem, especially after America was discovered. Failed longitude navigation has cost a lot of lives. To accelerate the discovery of a solution the government tendered the Longitude Prize in 1714. It led to…

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Report your projects newspaper style

Have you ever received a report that tells you everything and keeps you wondering what is really important for you? Everybody is information overloaded. Nobody likes to read everything to figure out what is important. Targeted information delivery is more important but also easier than ever. Rather than sending the same information, report, newsletter to everybody why don't you allow for some customization? Newspapers are a good example: there are many of them. You choose the one that suits your…

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Email productivity & etiquette tips

Working with different organizations I was exposed with many different email styles. Personal and corporate ones. After a while certain best practices became visible that guided me well to improve my constant struggle with information overload. Here is my summary of the most important ones. Edit forwards Issue Someone forwards you a long email and just adds his view on the top. You need to read the entire email first to understand it. How to resolve Summarize the previous discussion…

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Communication future & trends

Communication future & trends Internet technologies and the miniaturization of computers have fundamentally changed how we communicate. They shaped social values, changed behaviors and created new challenges ranging from spam, huge email volumes to big data and privacy. Communication is a great case study to understand how technology and social trends interact, support and counter each other. In the early 90ties email was new and business communication primarily relied on mail and phone. Listening, responding to and even forwarding voice…

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Use multiple acknowledgements for effective asynchronous messaging

Less reliable asynchronous communication media increasingly replace synchronous media. By tweaking your communication style you can minimize their disadvantages and master the world of Skype, Viber, Whatsapp and SMS. The advantages are clear: asynchronous media are less intrusive and save time. The recent advances in technology make them appear as reliable as synchronous media. However, we still need recognize that even the best run asynchronous channels still cannot guarantee when or even if a message reaches its recipient: The internet…

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A call for agile strategy development

A call for agile strategy development Globalization, fiercer competition and shorter innovation cycles challenge classic intermittent strategy development approaches. Agile methods turn strategy development into a continuous activity ensures alignment with changed situations, improves execution and reduces wasting resources in pursuit of obsolete objectives. Every year the executive offices are suddenly empty. It's "strategic planning off-site" time: Review last year’s plan, do a SWOT, define the objectives for next year, write a long strategic plan and hand it to those…

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