Simplify

Simplify. That has been the focus for the past few months for the company.

The website is being re-hauled and simplified. The process is undertaking some modifications as well.

The Marketing Division has been phased out and has been merged with the Consulting Division.

Services under the Consulting Division has been narrowed down to Project Management, Business Consulting (accounting, bookkeeping and payroll services) and IT Management.

The Training division will also focus on Computer training, Time Management, Effective Communication and Team building / Teamwork Seminars.

Don't hesitate to contact us at Big Projects, Inc. We might just be the answer to your organizational needs.

Listen

An article in one of the local free newspapers this week spoke about the rising of foreign trained doctors in the current health care system. It goes on further discussing the implications of language and accents with regards to doctor-patient communication. I agree with the article on every regards. However, this post will discuss the other side of the story.

Living in NYC have exponentially increased my cultural experience; from my usual contact with Asian cultures of Japan, China, Thailand, Philippines and Vietnam to a deeper understanding of Brazil, Argentina and of Europe. In all of these, I have learned to listen with an open mind. From political / cultural views, to religious beliefs, movies and my ever so favorite topic, food.

Whenever people converse, emotion plays an important part on both the speaker and the listener. Language aside, people tend to listen only to what they want to hear. If they feel that they are not hearing what they want to hear, they block you out. When they don't agree with your point of view, they block you out. When they don't feel like you are smart enough to talk to them, they block you out. This is not the art of listening at all.

When you listen, you listen with an open and quiet mind. You may not agree with what is being said, but you can definitely be courteous enough to listen. Who knows, you just might learn something.

110%

100% at work means showing up everyday. This may be good, however, it creates a flat line.

One of my indications whether an individual gives 110% is based on his or her documents and reports. If one uses the default Times New Roman, size 12 and flushed left settings on all their documents with little or erroneous spacing, a big neon sign lights up and says individual did not
even bother. Don't get me started with indents and misspellings.

When I started writing reports, letters and various documents, I had to learn all the proper ways with the old reliable Underwood Typewriter with its black and red ink! If people didn't even try to use the built in templates that Microsoft Word provides, what other help could we give them?

When I was in college, before I could even start to write an outline for a report or for my thesis, I had to outline first all my document styles. Title in Arial, bold, size 16, flushed to the left, subheading in Arial, bold-italics, size 14, flushed to the left and so on. Not only did it give me a consistent report, but writing it was a lot easier.

When you type your next letter to your boss, at least format the inside address to be in bold.

That's the 10% that matters.

Blogging Via Email

As this website is for news and updates about the company's undertakings. I will also use this space to give tips and ideas on how to make life easier and simplier.

People write blogs because: 1. They have all the time in the world, 2. people need to say things out loud (or in this case write out loud) and 3. it becomes an outlet to make a difference. As much as I want to make a difference in the world, I can only do as much as time permits. If you are into blogging and would like to venture into it, I have found two things that could make things easier, email-to-blog and Picasa.

The first one is fairly easy, you set up an email address that your blog server accepts and it gets published into your blog instantly. The second one involves a program that you can download at http://www.google.com called Picasa. Picasa is not only a great image / picture management program, but is a great tool to publish a picture into your blog.

My own personal blog (http://jonathanlouie.blogspot.com) where I share pictures and thoughts to my family all over the world is primarily updated using Picasa.

To those blogger out there, good luck and happy writing.

First Blog

Big Projects have evolved in many ways for the past year. With its one year of existece, the organization has grown to be very mature and very pliable.

As the organization ventures into formidable challenges, Big Projects will only be strengthend with years to come.

Watch out as Big Projects, Inc. will become a name-sake in training, consulting and marketing.