Monday, May 23, 2011

Principles of Change Management

You will be familiar with word “Change Management” if you are working within a large corporation or organization. Change management has been around for a while but this term has become very common among organizations and corporations that like to initiate changes to processes including both tasks and organizational culture. A change management is a set of processes that are employed to make sure that changes have been implemented in ordered, controlled and systematic way.
Change management is a basic skill in which business leaders and executives need to be competent. Only few work environments are known that can continue working without changes otherwise every business needs change due to technological awareness in world and high competition in market. Change management has been developed over a period of time. Business leaders use different models for making changes in their businesses. ADKAR model is one of most commonly known and followed change management models. This model defines five basic stages that must be kept in mind to make successful changes in an organization. These stages include:
Awareness: Leaders must know what changes are needed and why.
Desire: All concerned members of organization must have motivation and desire to make changes in processes.
Knowledge: Organization must know what changes can be made and how?
Ability: An organization willing to change must have abilities and competencies to plan and implement changes.
Reinforcement: All concerned people must be reinforced to sustain any changes and adopt new behaviors.
Change management is only possible if some specific principles of change management are being followed. Here is information about basic principles of change management that must be in knowledge of all managers and leaders:
  • · Different people will react differently on proposed changes
  • · Everyone has fundamental needs that should be considered in change management
  • · Change may result in loss therefore business leaders should be courageous to accept changes
  • · Expectations need to be managed realistically
  • · Courage to deal with fears

You need to know how these principles will be applied in change management.
  • · You can deal with different behaviors of concerned people by proper communication beforehand. Be open and honest about providing facts. Avoid being overoptimistic. Meet their openness needs but in way that they may not set unrealistic expectations.
  • · Make a communication strategy for large groups of people that ensure necessary information is efficiently and comprehensively disseminated to all people. Tell the story of change to everyone at same time. You can also arrange individual meetings to make strategies to deal with changes. This will help leaders in dealing with individual behaviors towards change.
  • · Give people a choice to make among proposed changes and be very honest about consequences.
  • · Give people time to express their reviews and support their decision making.
  • Identify chances of losses. Define ways to replace the losses. This will help to overcome fears.
  • · Give individual opportunity to all involved people to express their concerns and satisfy them with potential facts.

Follow each principle while introducing any change in your organization to get optimum results from change. Try to develop change oriented attitude in your team.

Promissory Note Template

A promissory note is also known as simply “note”. It is meant to provide specific details about the amount of original loan kwon as principal, repayment schedule and interest rate to be applied on original loan. A promissory note is basically a written promise signed by involved parties promising to pay a loan under specific terms and conditions.

Main contents of a promissory note will include:

· Names of involved parties

· Amount of obligation/principal amount

· Terms of repayment

· Interest rate

· Acceleration clause (optional), this clause will make the entire amount of the note due if a payment is not paid

It is important for business people to know about a promissory note considering state laws. There are different legal terms associated with promissory note. These legal terms include:

Promisor: Person making promise to pay a certain amount of money under certain conditions.

Promisee: Promisee is a person who will receive the payment. In context of a promissory note, promisee is a person who is entitled to receive certain amount of money on due date by promisor with interest.

Obligor: He is another person who binds himself to another contract or legal agreement. This term is alternatively used for promisor.

Obligee: This is another word used for promisee.

Consideration: Consideration is a legal term that means something in return for entering in contract. Consideration is one of the 9 essentials of a valid contract.

A person getting involved in a contract of promissory note needs to avoid certain pitfalls including:

Security for the Loan

A promissory note is basically an unsecured form of debt or obligation. This statement means that if promisor declares bankruptcy, debt against this loan will be paid after all secured loans are paid out of promisor’s property. If the loan under promissory note is too large then it is necessary for the promisee to get security for loan for instance a lien or mortgage against loan. If you are ready to lend money under unsecured promissory note then you should not lend more than what you are ready to lose. Consult a lawyer to confirm that your promissory note is bulletproof if you are going to lend large amount to determine possible ways for making your loan secured.

Unlawful Interest Rate

This term is commonly known as usury that means unlawfully higher interest charged on a loan under promissory note. You will have to face several consequences for entering into such illegal contract. Check your state laws for setting interest rates for a promissory note.

Late Fees

There are always certain limits on late fees that you can charge on a promissory note other than interest. Make sure to check local laws before you decide late fees for promissory note.

You may find specific promissory note forms for different states containing specific information like instructions, information about maximum limits for interest. You need to make sure that these forms and information are not out of date.

Meeting Minutes Template

Minute is a business document that is usually maintained during meetings. This document includes overview of meeting. Writing meeting minutes that will be useful in further business operations or next meeting requires a great deal of attention. Meeting minutes can serve as legal evidences in many cases therefore there is no flexibility to compromise with rules of writing meeting minutes. You need to be very careful in summarizing meeting discussions accurately. Once the meeting is over and you have made necessary editing in meeting minutes, create several copies of this document and distribute in relevant parties. Make sure to have some extra copies of meeting minutes save for future uses.

Old meeting minutes are sometime used as references in new meetings. New parties may need to view old meeting minutes to know about company’s rules and regulations. Meeting minutes will also be used as vouchers in facts finding work. Meeting minutes should be simple and easily understandable. You need to keep some important points in mind while taking meeting minutes. These important points are discussed below:

You should create meeting minutes in word document. You can make a sketch for meeting minutes that will serve as a minute template. Using this template in every meeting you will just need to replace items that will change keeping other elements same.

Your meeting minutes form should include organization name, nature of meeting, meeting location, meeting date, start and end time of meeting, attendees of meeting, facilitator and suitable space to record notes about different agenda topics. You can prepare minutes form beforehand according to meeting agenda. Suppose meeting agenda you are using to create minutes form includes 7 topics then you will make 7 sections with headings agenda topic 1, agenda topic 2 and so on. Every agenda topic section will include:

· Few lines for discussion

· Few lines for conclusion

· Action items

· Person responsible for each action and deadline

Having a well prepared meeting minute form, you will just need to record information during meeting without creating headings. Create meeting minutes immediately after meeting. This will help you to remember and clarify specific points that you could not record clearly during meeting. Proofread the minutes before submitting them.

Make a separate heading for notes for next meeting. Where and when it will be held and what will be agenda for next meeting.

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Name Card Template

Business name holds enormous importance because it defines what you are doing and what you capable of. A different and unique name can helps you develop brand loyalty while it can destroy your whole set up on contrary. So, choosing a business name require your 100% attention and vision. Similarly a business card that include your name and introduction also holds colossal significance. It is your first impression and therefore must be very effective. Every businessman wants to deliver positive and attractive first impression for long partnership and never ending goodwill.
Name Card Template is a assistance template that used to create unique and quality business cards. These templates can be used as separate source for your business name card. The use of this template depends on its user that how well he/she can use this template. You may use this template as given or may wish to make some changes in design and contents to make it a dream name card. In both cases, you will need to understand what your users want to see in your card.
Name Card Template further depends how business category and nature. The color scheme, design, contents fonds and layout all reflect all about your business nature and operations. Similarly dark color scheme and bold fonds reflects your decision making power. While light color scheme with formal fonds reflect a corporate company. So, name card template 's purpose is to provide you a helping hand but how you optimize help defines your capabilities.

Monday, May 9, 2011

Wedding Card Template

Now by going into dept, my intentions are clear to provide you more knowledge about popular word templates. So, I have decided Wedding Card Template as my first word template for today's discussion. Wedding card is mainly used in inviting guests for marriage ceremony. It is a traditional style to invite guests by sending them wedding cards. Very surprisingly, still in modern era, this practice is adopting with same passion. Its increasing demand has made it our first priority to review it. As per current usage of peoples around the world, the attractive and decent wedding card template gets more vote as compare to traditional style templates.

The other important aspect that makes wedding card template the most demanding template is its prompt use. For instance, if you choose to create your own wedding card, you will need to pass through different difficult steps like, designing, space issues, color combination etc. By simply downloading it from any of your favorite word templates site, you can use it in couple of minutes. Why you wish to create your own template when good quality templates are available for download?