Around the Watercooler

What is Business Process Management and What Does it Have to Do With Karate?

Wed, 29 Aug 2007 12:37:18 GMT

TAG Business Process Management (BPM) will be holding its inaugural event on September 13, 2007. Dave Dierker, Corporate Executive Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer of SunTrust Banks, will speak about his "Excellence in Execution" initiative. Through this initiative, SunTrust has committed to save $530MM in fiscal 2009 by improving the efficiency and productivity of its workforce.

Please join us on September 13, 2007 from 5:30pm to 8:00pm, at the Westin Atlanta Perimeter North. Register Here!

TAG Business Process Management's mission is to provide a leadership forum focused on influencing enterprises to build a process improvement culture to improve competitiveness. The society will:

Develop a sustainable community for leaders in process improvement
Provide educational and networking opportunites for leaders in process improvement
Provide visibility to enterprises that excel in process improvement

Please contact Kimberly Wood, kimberly@tagonline.org, with any questions regarding Business Process Management or this event.

A Shameless Plug for the TAGit Tournament

Tue, 14 Aug 2007 19:04:23 GMT

The TAGit Tournament is fast approaching and we are just 2 foursomes away from being sold out. This year, we have doubled the size of the tournament and have reserved both the north and south courses at the Cherokee Country Club. With an expected attendance of over 240 golfers, we anticipate this to be our biggest and best tournament yet.
If you would like any more information about the TAGit tournament or sponsorship opportunities, please contact me at (404)920-2023.

-Amanda

Social Media Buzz

Mon, 06 Aug 2007 15:10:57 GMT

Social media seems to be all the buzz lately - well, for me…it’s been here a while, but for many companies…it’s suddenly all the rage! Business folks and companies are leveraging this popular outlet as a way to get their message/name/ideas across to others. Whether it be podcasts, blogs, wikis, LinkedIn…or even MySpace…social media seems to be where it’s “at.”

So, I thought it appropriate to write my first TAG blog on the subject at-hand. I’m not entirely convinced that this is the wave of the future for business…but I also never thought I, myself, would be a MySpacer or Facebooker (but I am). Side note: As a twenty-something year old trying to stay in touch with college friends, I followed the trend a few years ago after I suddenly found myself asking, “What is all the hype about??” Now, of course, I’m totally addicted (but that’s another blog on a different day).

Even at the recent CRITA conference, social media was the “hot” topic of discussion. I engaged in conversations about the increasing number of organizations using YouTube, Digg, MySpace and so forth (it’s genius…free tools equal free marketing). As you might know, sites like MySpace are quickly becoming popular tools for many nonprofits, restaurants, clothing stores…and, of course, politicians. We discussed how social media websites are great for increasing your “popularity points” by using linkbacks (good strategy for SEO) as well as driving traffic to your site. Hmmm…food for thought.

So, as I continue to ponder where social media will take us in the next few years…let me know your thoughts! As the Membership Director for TAG, I’m always looking for ways to add benefits to your TAG Membership. Let me know how you think social media can help your professional growth, and specifically, what TAG can do!

Girls and Math

Mon, 06 Aug 2007 14:43:26 GMT

I have been thinking a lot about girls and math lately. My husband and I are expecting a daughter in a few weeks, and I have been reading A Field Guide to Boys and Girls by Susan Gilbert in preparation. It is very interesting – it goes through all of the stereotypes about the differences between boys and girls, talks about what has a scientific basis and what doesn’t, what society and teachers do to exacerbate the differences, and what parents can do to minimize the harmful ones. One examples of the harmful stereotypes is that boys are better than girls at math, and many girls simply decide that they are “bad at math” at an early age. This is particularly problematic, Gilbert explains, because math is a meal ticket:

High school students who aren’t well grounded in math can’t major in subjects like economics or the sciences in college… Simply put, high school students who don’t take more than the minimum requirements of math end up making less money that do students who go beyond the minimum.

As it turns out, there really isn’t any scientific background to the “boys are better at math” stereotype (with the exception of one particular type of word math problem, but there is an easy fix that involves getting girls to diagram the problem before attempting to solve it.) Rather, Gilbert believes it is a “math is hard” self-fulfilling prophecy – a reference to Mattel’s gaff in 1992 when it introduced a Teen Talk Barbie who made that proclamation. Danica McKeller, an actress/math wizard/author believes that the “math is hard” prophecy is compounded by the peer factor – being good at math is not considered cool, boys don’t like girls who are good at math – that sort of thing, and she takes on the issue in her book Math Doesn’t Suck. The Newsweek review sites examples within the book that are supposed to relate to young girls (“Say you have $50, and you want to buy a fabulous blue sundress that costs $62. Bummer! Not enough money. But wait, there’s a sale tag that says it is 1/5 off. Do you have enough money now?”)

It will be a while before our daughter has to worry about the costs of fabulous blue sundresses or boys and their perspectives on girls and math, thank goodness. But in the meantime, I plan on doing everything I can to give her a good head start and not bias her into thinking that math is going to be a difficult subject, and particularly a more difficult subject for her than the others, as Gilbert suggests parents unwittingly do with their daughters. And I will be certainly be checking to make sure she doesn't have any Barbies that tell her that, either!

Let's Talk

Thu, 19 Jul 2007 21:54:27 GMT

When I came on the job two years ago (with a background in dance and non-profit management) I knew I'd need to learn more about technology to serve our members. "How hard could it be?" I asked myself. I assumed tech people all spoke the same language, and that there couldn't possibly be that much I didn't know about technology-- I was wrong. There is a whole new world I didn't know existed!

Our members have been wonderful to get to know, and most are pretty excited to tell me all about their technologies, services, applications, etc. etc. I can usually follow along for a while, but every so often someone will start speaking in pure acronyms and/or very specific engineering terminology I'm suddenly lost. (These are the times you'll see me nodding, smiling, and saying something along the lines of "wow, that's really interesting.")

Some members I have gotten to know have told me that they, too, are guilty of the "nod-smile-polite comment" tactic. Phew. I'm not alone here.

So, if you're a techie please help us non-techies understand by speaking in layman's terms until you're sure we're following you. And for my fellow non-techies- don't be afraid to ask for some clarification! Speaking the same language helps everyone learn and grow.

Now for a quick (shameless) plug:

In August I'm hosting a 3-day communication skills program for engineers and IT professionals. Come.