Interesting training I attended - Situational leadership

There was a training in our organization last weekend. (to be precise: June 5 and 6). We studied "Situational leadership".
I was very surprised that it is quite old technique (end of 60s) but I've never heard of it and some my ex-bosses pretended to be very skilled managers don't know at all (or manage people without using of this technique - they just use one style of management).
I can repeat: training was surprising and simple ideas from such style of leadership were shoking for me (I realised that I did a lot of mistakes in my previos experience and how this method could be applied on me from the side of my bosses to avoid miscommunications and problems).

One of the most important Project Management skills

Currently I think that the one of the most important Project Management skills is the Vision of the result.

So PM may not know how exactly things go and created, but it is vitally important for PM to know how complete things must look like. Sure the result have to be achievable (sometimes we can imagine such impossible things...)
And PM must be able to inspire his or her team to implement such Vision.

Well, the formula is quite simple "The Result = Vision + Possibility to Implement".

I'm sure these simple principles can be obtained from careful reading of books (and important SMART model), but as a rule information in books is digged in and sometimes it is not easy to get it correctly.

Trip to London

Recently I've been to the UK. To be precise, from February 14 till February 17
Here you can see my photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/lysunkin/London

I'll write about my opinion and trip details later... Nevertheless, the whole trip was just awesome and I love London very much!

What I like in my new workplace

I was slightly surprised with my new workplace. And it was not only my colleges (very open and helpful), but also the spirit of this company and environment.

Also I found very interesting things in conference rooms:
Do your whiteboards have memories? I guess - no (I have not seen such whiteboards in Russia, for example). You can draw something on board and then print it (just press a button and information from the whiteboard will be transferred on paper). When you print something off the whiteboard it stays in the memory and can be printed out again. But don't forget to wipe out all information from the whiteboard when meeting ends (at first it is not suitable for next meeting if attendants see your information, and also your information may contain some confidential things :) ).

And also I was impressed by universal printer-scanner-copier devices in office: they not only scan your documents, but also can send scanned materials by email. (Maybe I'm a caveman and my astonishment is silly, but such technical gadgets help me a lot).

So, in whole it is a very good place to work!

A few new pictures from Wellington

Here is a short collections of new Wellington pictures:
http://picasaweb.google.com/lysunkin/AFewPicturesFromWelly#

Some shortcuts for a better life in NZ

Someone (one of my friends maybe) told me that prices in NZ is much higher then for example in the USA.

Possibly that my friend did not know about possible shortcuts ("pricecuts") :)

So, I was walking down the streets of Wellington and found very interesting market on Willis/Vivian crossing. Such prices just amazed me: some goods (oranges, other fruits and vegetables) were 3 times cheaper then in supermarkets. For instance: a kilo of oranges had a price of $0.99 (it is about 57 American cents or 16 Russian rubles).

Later on Vivian street I saw "Dick Smith Electronics" where I found very attractive prices on electronic gadgets (for example: $99 for a Logitec cordless mouse + 2.1 speakers - such things have the same price in the USA and 2 times more expensive in Russia).

I think the cost if living is not high here, I'm sure, definitely.

P.S. Also it's usual to have lunch by $10 or even less (10 bucks will be a reasonable price for something for lunch in "Great India" or "JJ Murphy's"). So it's cheaper then if I take the same amount of food in Moscow or even in smaller Russian cities (like Saratov).

First look at New Zealand

I've put my photos from the "first look" on Wellington, New Zealand (I took a walk thought Wellington and made a few photos)

http://picasaweb.google.com/lysunkin/FirstLookAtWellingtonNewZealand#

I'm in New Zealand (my dream came true)

Hooray!

This Monday I came to New Zealand: Auckland first and Wellington then.
That was a long trip from Moscow (thru Tokyo) - I was more then 20 hours in flight (about 10 hours for a trip from Moscow to Tokyo, more then 10 hours for a trip from Tokyo to Auckland, and about 1 hour for a flight from Auckland to Wellington).

And finally: I'm here! I cannot express all my feelings: almost is fresh and bright here.
I did not expect that the air of New Zealand is so intoxicating for me (in a good meaning of this word :) ). I've seen a lot of pictures of NZ and thought that all these photos were transformed in Photoshop like application to look more attractive. All these pictures were very close to original. It's a so clear, bright land.

I'll make a few my own photos and then put them here (or put a few links to my photos).

Cheers!

Most influencing books

Here is a list of books which are influenced me a lot:

1. "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People" by Stephen R. Covey.
   
2. "How to get control of your time and your life" by Alan Lakein
   
3. "Eat That Frog!" by Brian Tracy
   
4. "Getting Things Done" by David Allen
   
5. "The Alchemist" by Paulo Coelho (sure, I know that this is a fiction novel, but I like it anyway)
   

I'm going to enumerate and shortly describe the list of books which I've read during this year

I'm going to enumerate and shortly describe the list of books which I've read during this year.
I'll do this ASAP (possibly even today).

I spent the whole year in improvement activity and optimization of my way of living and functioning - I even completely changed some of my habbits. All this happened bacause of books I've read.

As Russian writer Maxim Gorky said: "I am obliged to books for all the good in me" :)
So am I...