We'll get you the technology, people and processes you need for your objectives

EfficiTrends seeks to be your personal and extremely knowledgeable concierge for your journey, whatever it might be.

"We'll get you the technology, people and processes you need for your objectives."  Everyone struggles with one or more parts of this equation.  Let's try to further understand the various parts of this and how I and people like me can help you with your project, whatever it might be.

A) "We'll ..."  (Who we are).  We are EfficiTrends.  We are a consulting group.  We help people and businesses become more effective at achieving their goals.  We are a small but growing team of free-thinking, creative, experienced professionals who can help people of many walks get things done.

B)  "We'll get you the ..." (Service delivery method).  Our service is fast, collaborative, and proactive.  We try to anticipate your needs before you have them.  We go into our networks, experience, and knowledge base to get you the stuff you need for your objectives.  We are very aggressive at identifying and acquiring the stuff you need to be successful.  We bring this valuable stuff to you, whatever it might be.

C) "We'll get you the technology ..."  Technology is a key, core part of the EfficiTrends business.  We live and breathe technology and believe that it can and will have a very positive affect on your lives, those of your customers, and staff.  We are advocates of technology but do not only run from that perspective.  Hence:

D)  "We'll get you the technology, people ..."  Sometimes technology isn't enough and we need to bring in people and subject matter experts to support the technology purchase decision or dialog.  Our people will help you become more comfortable with your situation, whatever it might be and get you through the change curve required.

E)  "We'll get you the technology, people, and processes ..."  Processes are all about value.  They're about sustainability.  Whether these processes are thought processes or business processes, we want you to have them because they are valuable and measurable.

F) "We'll get you the technology, people, and processes you ..."  (The customer).  Our customers are a huge part of our service offering.  They're everything, in fact!  Without you, we wouldn't be here and we do everything possible to keep you engaged and driving the dialog.

G)  "We'll get you the technology, people, and processes you need for your objectives."  Your objectives can be hard to nail down.  Sometimes they're completely obvious and transparent like "I need a car to pick me up at my house located at 4834 Elm Street in Seattle on June 5, 2012 at 8 AM PST."  But even then that could have some gaps in it.  What kind of car?  Where is the car going to?  How much gas is needed in the tank?  Do you have any special needs?  EfficiTrends is excellent at analysis of all kinds from data to requirements to business process.  We look deep into you and your business to understand the opportunities that are lying within and beneath.

EfficiTrends will get you the technology, people, and processes you need for your objectives.  What are your objectives and how can we help you today?

It can't be undone

Stack 'em too high and it all could topple but it sure is fun stacking
and each time we learn something new about our techniques.

In business and our personal relationships we frequently have to make tough calls and take risks.  We should be proud of the risks we take and prepare ourselves to deal with the consequences.  As we prepare to make a big decision or take a big risk, we have to think through the consequences and potential backlash of an action.  Thinking and behaving this way is *the* way in my opinion.  It's my goal to take risks and be prepared to deal with all that comes.  This makes life fun.  Dive in!

Scrabble, Boggle, Dictionaries, and Learning Tools

In this post I propose that advanced human intelligence and performance are enabled by real-time lookup tools (knowledge bases) such as dictionaries. Better information about processes (games) help expose information helpful to enhancing performance. Implementing systems and processes and games helps with success, adoption, and acceptance.

I spent a lot of time this weekend playing Boggle and Scrabble both on- and off-line. I recently came across an online dictionary that allows users to easily search for words that contain certain letters, start with XX, end with YY, etc. It's really useful for "cheating" in Scrabble. Check out http://www.morewords.com/. Not sure if morewords does it, but it would be great if they exposed their API so that other applications or users could plug in different dictionaries based on need. For example, right now their search results return words that aren't in the Official Scrabble Dictionary. Having the result set return the results of the dictionary with which you're playing --especially in the case of Scrabble-- is critical to this application's utility.

The best version of online Boggle that I've seen is at http://www.wordsplay.net/. The game "knows" all of the words that exist for the given board, the words that at least one player got, the words that you got, the words that only you got, etc. It's really interesting and fun to play, plus it's a great learning tool so you can "whoop" your friends when you play off-line. Learning the uncommon 4-letter words is key to mastery.

Scrabulous is in the news now for being sued by Hasbro due to infringement. Scrabulous is another great online game because of its flexibility in game modes. For example, you can play in real-time or asynchronously over email. Although the "game" (fundamental structure) remains the same, some of its dimensions can be configured.

These games are interesting and their connection to word search services like morewords.com could enable new gaming experiences in the future.

Games that capture and expose detailed comparative metrics that allow players to compare and compete on a variety of levels. Allowing people to look for their personal strengths and weaknesses as well as those of their competition gives new information and redefines competition. Instead of just winning and losing, users can now look at other facets that allow them to develop improvement strategies relevant to them. Exposing the model data and output of the good players to the lesser players promotes the lesser players' progression. In Scrabble, examples of "other metrics" (than total score) include 1) longest word(s) 2) highest word point value 3) most words created on single play 4) most points with fewest letters. There are a number of metrics embedded and inherited by the game that are not yet exposed to the users. This lack of information constrains growth.

To me, all of this is relevant to business in that tools can improve performance and by capturing good data about human performance and process, the lower performers are able to "come up" because good performance has been defined and modeled. Game theory is like process management in that numerous variants and metrics can be defined once the fundamental structure (game) is defined.