Month: October 2012

Knowledge for Lawyers

What irritates you in your knowledge work?  These are some of my bugbears.  Interestingly, although some of them may never be solved, some of them would at least be ameliorated by greater firm-wide awareness of what KM is and how it works in law firms.

  1. When people try to fix broken communication culture with IT …
  2. But also when people think that there is no value to databases and all databases are ‘graveyards’
  3. Those who think that, just because the value of knowledge strategies can be difficult to measure, they’ll not do any knowledge work at all …
  4. But also when people give up trying to measure results and demonstrate value because it is difficult
  5. Those that say that what they do is too bespoke to have any standard elements at all …
  6. But also those who think that all legal work could be done by computer programs
  7. And lastly…

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WASH by numbers: the latest on cost benchmarks, economic returns and handwashing

See on Scoop.it – Village water

One of the most quoted WASH statistics was recently “downgraded”. For every $1 invested in water and sanitation, not $8 but “only” $4 is returned in economic returns through increased productivity. This recalculation, says WHO, is mainly a result of higher investment cost estimates and the more complete inclusion of operation and maintenance (O&M) costs. Providing a better insight into O&M costs has been one of the achievements of the WASHCost project.

See on sanitationupdates.wordpress.com

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The inevitable mark in WASH governance

Time vs priority

Ensuring good practices in WASH governance can sometimes be challenging, especially if there isn’t a good strategy and guidance to ensure that services reach those people that need them. I recently conducted an action learning exercise in lomule, a village parish in Bombo town council. This was aimed at monitoring the promises made by the service providers, water user committees and the community during a citizen report card exercise that was conducted three month ago.

Just like most learning meetings, your expectations are on the big picture where people strike on the head and leave no stone unturned. The other question that probably strikes is where  should we focus our priorities?   The action learning meeting tasked people (service providers, water users and the committees)  to report on progress with regards to commitments made. These will  further trigger action on the priority areas which would invoke immediate response.

During the two day learning sessions, two things kept on springing up; repairing of a spring and buying more pipes for the borehole. I guess like many of the WASH projects its quite hard to tell where a priority should be put unless invoked by community voices. People asked for immediate repair of the spring at lomule south  which according to the water quality test report  contained a lot of Ecoli and other things but seemed cheaper to use. Other few members of the community felt it was necessary to start with the borehole since it was clean and had easy access. At the end of it all they agreed to start with the lomule spring.

The inevitable mark in all this is having proper WASH governance structures where community members are aware of their roles and responsibilities and community voices are of impact in WASH governance.

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Communicating more effectively today

Being able to communicate effectively is essential in every career. As recruiters will tell you, it’s a skill coveted by employers. However, the ability to communicate well goes beyond being able to express yourself. It’s more than giving a compelling presentation or writing a solid report. It’s part of the talent for developing interpersonal relationships.

Communication plays a part whether you’re trying to generate sales, participate successfully on a team, or simply get along with your office-mates. It’s particularly important when it comes to cultivating relationships with significant people like your boss.  The repercussions of poor communication can range from continual team conflicts to poor performance reviews.

One of the reasons we run into problems is because we like to communicate differently.  As you may already know our communication style depends a lot on our personality preferences which is explored using the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). Not surprisingly there’s a big difference between Extroverts and Introverts. Generally, Introverts prefer to communicate via email so they have time to digest the information they’ve received and gather their thoughts before responding to others. On the other hand, Extroverts who often “think out loud” would rather pick up the phone.

Somewhat surprisingly, communication styles are not that different between generations according to a survey conducted by CareerBuilder. The company surveyed two groups of managers and workers – one group aged 25 to 34 the other group aged 55 and over.  The majority of respondents from both groups said they preferred face-to-face communication, while a relatively small percentage said they preferred the phone. Although ranking a distant second to in-person conversations, respondents ranked digital communication, email or text, the next-best option. Unfortunately, the survey did not distinguish between a preference for text as opposed to email.

Of course, when it comes to communication there are gender differences as well. Men tend to focus more on what’s being said. Women frequently pay attention to more subtle messages like body language which is something to think about when you’re sitting in all those meetings. Be sure to listen to what’s being said and how people are saying it.

The bottom line is that when it comes to communicating effectively you need to think about the other person’s preferred style. If your favorite client always emails questions you might want to email your response even if you’d rather pick up the phone. If your boss generally sends texts you may want to adopt that as well. On the other hand, if your boss leaves you a voice mail you may not want to reply with a text.

One of the keys to successful communication is to use the other person’s preferred style. What if you’re not sure? It’s simple. Just ask.

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Make rain water harvesting a people’s movement for the world

I recently read an article in an Indian online news paper (The Hindu) which recommended rainwater harvesting to be rendered a people ‘s movement that i thought would work for the whole world in general. As you well know rain water harvesting has been practiced all over the world for the last 4,000 years. It improves the quantity and quality of ground water, raises the water level in wells and bore-wells, mitigates the effect of drought, and reduces soil erosion by controlling the surface runoff. It also decreases choking of ground water drains and flooding of roads and saves energy. As a result of continuous extraction, ground water levels all over the world especially in Africa. The world at large is facing a crisis of water and its ground water is under serious threat because of illegal and irrational extraction,”

The article suggested a strong advocacy for simplifying the procedures of providing policy support, financial assistance and technical guidance to the citizens and residents’ welfare associations to ensure that harvesting becomes a major initiative to improve the ground water levels in the city. it also cited a need for preparation of strategies and an action plan which is implementable.

With this i suggest that governments around the world should enforce rainwater harvesting

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