Think Out of The Box - Think Out of Routine

"Imagination is more important than knowledge. For while knowledge defines all we currently know and understand, imagination points to all we might yet discover and create" - Albert Einstein

Lateral thinking requires you to think outside your comfort zone to push your creative spirit to the max. Unlike analytically thinking, creative thinking can't just be turned on and off, but there are ways to encourage it.

There are several ways of defining lateral thinking, ranging from the technical to the illustrative.

1. "You cannot dig a hole in a different place by digging the same hole deeper"

This means that however hard you keep on trying in the same direction may not be as useful as changing direction. Effort in the same direction will not necessarily succeed.

2. "Lateral Thinking is for changing concepts and perceptions"

With logic you start out with certain ingredients just as in playing chess you start out with given pieces. But what are those pieces? In most real life situations the pieces are not given, we just assume they are there. We assume certain perceptions, certain concepts and certain boundaries. Lateral thinking is concerned not with playing with the existing pieces but with seeking to change those very pieces. Lateral thinking is concerned with the perception part of thinking. This is where we organize the external world into the pieces we can then 'process'.

3. Self-Organizing Patterns

"The brain as a self-organizing information system forms asymmetric patterns. In such systems there is a mathematical need for moving across patterns. The tools and processes of lateral thinking are designed to achieve such 'lateral' movement. The tools are based on an understanding of self-organizing information systems."

This is a technical definition which depends on an understanding of self-organizing information systems.

4. Change is the Technique

"In any self-organizing system there is a need to escape from a local optimum in order to move towards a more global optimum. The techniques of lateral thinking, such as provocation, are designed to help that change."

This is another technical definition. It is important because it also defines the mathematical need for creativity.

As Edwin Land quotes in his writing "An essential aspect of creativity is not being afraid to fail"

Cheers!

Turn service nightmares into beautiful experiences

The service management is rapidly evolving itself into an altogether new way through which the customers and their problems are being received and handled by service teams within large, medium and small enterprises.

The traditional way of looking at the service management has moved on with injecting correct combination of creative technology and simplicity.

Established organizations are continuing to innovate and improve their service process by introducing new techniques and methodologies with clear intent to go closer to their customers and end-users in a friendly way. 

Tracking and controlling the customer exits with dissatisfaction has become a biggest pain area today. Mantra today is keep the service process as simple as possible to the user groups and customers.

With so much of call center crowd and customer servicing agencies, there is a huge increase in unsolicited calls, ever increasing spam mails - leading to users tend to have a strong breathless feeling about these touch points constantly trying to reach them 24/7 throughout the year. Customers feel that without a smallest drop in your service quality and with minimal communication, their problem should be identified and solved.

At any day, quality of any product sold is increased to many fold only by the after sales service provided by the brand owner or their representative.

With the maturity coming into the process of servicing an end-user or a customer or anyone coming across you, Service Management is slowly becoming an Engineering on its own. We are already in the era, where customized service experience are being defined based on the essence of the product group.

Customer Service Engineering - the new phenomenon to reckon with in coming years. 

Let us turn this nightmare into a nice experience. Put yourself into one of your customer's shoes; try and practice to expect what you need from your own product and/or service; feel the difference; record the gaps; critically rate; improve. This is a vicious cycle - today I am a user of some product; tomorrow I create new product; may be a day-after I myself turn into a Product. The service engineering has all three components linked to each other - the product - the creator - the creator by a nicely created communication between them through a language unspoken - beautiful experience.

To do the least, as a end-user or consumer or a service user - let us remember to share feedback and comments about any product/service in a most shortest route and with best possible intent. 

Visual/image courtesy www.readytomanage.com

www.manageService24x7.com

I'm too crazy, but don't fear

I'm too crazy. But don't fear.

I don't want to be too sane, because too much sanity leads to insanity.

I let a little craziness exist in me. That gives zest to life, that makes life juicy.
Let a little irrationality always be there. That makes me capable of playing, being playful; that helps me to relax.

A sane person is utterly hung up in the head, he cannot get down from there. He lives upstairs. Live all over the place, this is your house! Upstairs, good, the ground floor, perfectly good -- and the basement is beautiful too. Live all over the place, this is your house. And don't wait for next time, I would like to tell this old woman, because the next time never comes.

Not that I will not be born again; Then I will start all over again. I will be born again, but then I will forget.

A small story about an old women. This old woman has been here before. She must have been here millions of times before. And I can say to you that each time, near about the age of eighty-five, she would have decided the same way: "Next time I'm going to do it differently." But next time you don't remember -- that's the problem. You lose all memory of the past life. Then again you start from ABC and the same thing happens.

So I would not say to you to wait for the next time. Take hold of this moment! This is the only time there is, there is no other time. Even if you are eighty-five you can start living. And what is there to lose when you are eighty-five? If you go barefoot on the beach in the spring, if you collect daisies -- even if you die in that, nothing is wrong. To die barefoot on the beach is the right way to die. To die collecting daisies is the right way to die. Whether you are eighty-five or fifteen doesn't matter. Take hold of this moment.

I am blessed to have the biggest strength in me - the forgetfulness - to forget bad and worst things! I thank god for giving me such a wonderful storage system up in my head that doesn't want to store all things that I never wanted to store.

I'm too crazy to see
myself; my world; my only life through my own eyes;
excited and enjoying my own fear of known and unknown
in this wonderful journey;
without knowing the day of exit.

I'm too crazy.

Photo Credit: www.ctovision.com, Concept Credit: www.oshoworld.com

It is Cordova way or No way

Apache Cordova is an open-source mobile development framework. It allows you to use standard web technologies such as HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript for cross-platform development, avoiding each mobile platforms' native development language. 

Applications execute within wrappers targeted to each platform, and rely on standards-compliant API bindings to access each device's sensors, data, and network status.

Cordova

Apache Cordova is a collection of code libraries and APIs that allow a mobile app developer to access native device function such as the camera or accelerometer from JavaScript. Combined with a UI framework such as Dojo or Sencha Touch, this allows a smartphone app to be developed with just HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

When using the Cordova APIs, an app can be built without any native code (Java, Objective-C, etc) from the app developer. Instead, web technologies are used, and they are hosted in the app itself.

Because these JavaScript APIs are consistent across multiple device platforms and built on web standards, you can port to other device platforms with minimal to no changes.

Apps using Cordova are still packaged as apps using the platform SDKs, and can be made available for installation from each device's app store.

Cordova provides a set of uniform JavaScript libraries that can be invoked, with device-specific native backing code for those JavaScript libraries.

Cordova is available for the following platforms: iOS, Android, Blackberry, Windows Phone, Palm WebOS, Bada, and Symbian.

This is yet another example for the KISS Principle.

Happy Cordova'ing guys. Apache rocks.

Things of Future - Internet of Things

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a computing concept that describes a future where everyday physical objects will be connected to the Internet and be able to identify themselves to other devices. The term is closely identified with RFID as the method of communication, although it also may include other sensor technologies, wireless technologies or QR codes or new met

The IoT is significant because an object that can represent itself digitally becomes something greater than the object by itself. No longer does the object relate just to you, but is now connected to surrounding objects and database data. When many objects act in unison, they are known as having "ambient intelligence."

The excitement on what's possible is only increasing everyday. The champion NFC and its brother technologies have taken computing to an all time new height.

Computing is for pleasure, computing is for emotion, computing is for better living.

Add intelligence to your life - inteliscan.in

Over the last decade, putting innovations into real use has been exciting me more than the actual innovations. The consistent belief and conviction on how a new idea can be used always surprised me to the maximum. Take a look at how distance communication leaped out with mobile technologies. Always amazed looking at commercializing and maximizing the use of GPS and GPRS technologies.

Then came the real surprise use of 3G and 4G spectrum and the communication and interaction making way out for more realistic and instant

Currently trending techniques are educating consumers to use communication to authenticate what they see, what they consume, using simple but effective communication tools. As a consumer, I do not need to bother where and who authenticates my subject, but they are all available around me through my Touch Screen and the Index Finger.

I mean, literally connecting the screen of my Smart Phone and my Index finger, I can authenticate, communicate, validate and verify what I need, I want any time.

Had an opportunity to evaluate use of traditional tractability techniques like bar codes, data readers and the complete gizmos.

I know you will be keen to know what is next. Have a look at our new product intelligent trace-ability tool for anything and everything. Visit inteliscan.in - Engage and Assure Instantly.

6 Top Concentration Killers

1. Multitasking

"Multitaskers might feel like they’re getting more done, but it almost always takes longer to multitask than to devote your attention to one thing at a time," says psychologist Lucy Jo Palladino, PhD, author of Find Your Focus Zone: An Effective New Plan to Defeat Distraction and Overload.

2. Boredom

Dull tasks can sap your ability to focus and make you more vulnerable to distractions.

"When you’re bored, almost anything else can be more attractive than what you’re doing," says Gordon Logan, PhD, a psychology professor at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn.

3. Mental Distractions

When you’re worrying about money, trying to remember if you took your vitamins, and replaying a conversation in your head that didn’t go as planned, it's hard to settle down and stay focused on a project you’re trying to complete.

4. Electronic Interruptions

"It’s easy to fall into aiding and abetting in your own distraction by checking your email all the time," Kegan says. "If you’re trying to concentrate, you can lose your train of thought every time you hear 'You’ve got mail'."

5. Fatigue

Many studies show that loss of sleep impairs attention, short-term memory, and other mental functions. "Your attention falls apart when you’re sleep deprived," Baime says. Sleep needs vary, but most adults do best with seven to nine hours of nightly sleep. Getting at least seven hours of sleep will go a long way toward improving your focus during the day.

6. Drug Side Effects and Other Medical Issues

If your concentration problems hamper your ability to function at work or at home, or if you’re also noticing a physical symptom like weight gain or insomnia, tell your doctor.

Read more about these issues and much more under this link