They are selflessness, skill….. read on to know all about it.

Computer take numerous tasks off our hands-such as tasks of calculation, processing, storage, and transmission, and technology undoubtedly increases our capabilities, acknowledges Atul Gawande in The Checklist Manifesto: How to get things right (www.henryholt.com). “But there is much that technology cannot do: deal with the unpredictable, manage uncertainty, construct a soaring building,

perform a lifesaving operation,” he adds.

          In many ways, technology has complicated these matters, by adding yet another element of complexity to the system we depend on and giving us entirely new kinds of failure to contend with, feels Gawande.

He rues that a key characteristic of modern life is our dependence on systems-on assemblages of people or technologies or both, and that among our most profound difficulties is the making of these assemblages work “In medicine, for instance, if I want my patients to receive the best care possible, not only must I do a good job but a whole collection of diverse components have to somehow mesh together effectively.”

The author, a general and endocrine surgeon at the Brigham and Womens Hospital in Boston, Sees meaning in the analogy of car for healthcare. For, “In both cases, having great components is not enough.”

Anyone who understand systems will know immediately that optimizing parts is not a good route to system excellence, reads an insightful quote of Donald Berwick, President of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement in Boston, cited in the book.

A famous thought experiment that Berwick speaks of is the idea of trying to build the worlds greatest car by assembling the worlds greatest car parts. “ we connect the engine of Ferrari, the brakes of a Porsche, the suspension of a BMW, the body of a Volvo. What we get of course, is nothing close to a great car: we get a pile of very expensive junk.”

The trick therefore, is to study our routine failures-be they in teaching, law government programmers, or finance-look for patterns of our recurrent mistakes, and then devise potential solutions, rather than trying harder and harder to catch problems and clean up after them, argues Gawande.

An interesting discussion in the book is about professionalism. Studying the definitions of the word, stated or just understood, in learner occupations, the author finds three common elements.

First is an expectation of selflessness, that we who accept, responsibility for others whether as doctors, lawyers, teachers, public authorities, soldiers, or pilots-will place the needs and concerns of those who depend on us above our own, he  begins.

Next is the expectation of skill, that the professional will aim for excellence in his or her knowledge and expertise: and third is an expectation of trustworthiness, that the professionals will be responsible in their personal behaviour towards their clients.

Digging deeper, Gawande discovers that aviators add a fourth expectation, discipline: discipline in following prudent procedure and in functioning with others. “This is a concept almost entirely outside the lexicon of most professionals, including my own. In medicine, we hold up autonomy as a professional lodestar, a principle that stands in direct opposition to discipline.”

In a world in which success now requires large enterprises, teams of clinicians, high risk technologies, and knowledge that out strips any one persons abilities, individual autonomy hardly seems the ideal we should aim for, the author urges. “What is needed isnt just that people working together are nice to each other. It is discipline.”

Discipline is hard –harder than trust worthiness and skill and perhaps even than selflessness, he concedes, “ We are by nature flawed and inconstant creatures. We cant even keep from snacking between meals. We are not built for discipline. we are built for novelty and excitement, not for for  careful attention to detail. Discipline is something we have to work for.”

Imperative addition to your reading list.

 Five tips on ORM

It is perhaps time to move beyond Gen-X and Gen-Y Enter the Gen –I(Generation Internet), the independent-thinking globally-connected folks. Gen-Is openness to adapt to  change and willingness to experiment with brands has made them a hot target for every smart marketer, notes Honey, I Shrunk the World: The essential global digital media handbook(www.igniteee.com). “:Since these eager new customers dont just want information about their favourite product-they actively want to engage with the brands-marketers are now thinking of creative ways to attract and keep their audiences.”

Users of the Internet and mobile phone are an imaginative bunch of people constantly investing and changing things around, the authors describe. “Almost every day, they add a new term or phrase to the great online dictionary. In fact, words we grew up with today  have a startling new digi-meaning .” Examples mentioned in the book include: Tweet (a bird call in the pre-2000 AD days and now text –based posts on Twitter.com) buzz (the sound made by an excited honeybee in the yester era, but now an alert used on Yahoo messenger to make people respond to messages): wall (not another name for Rahul Dravid any more, but a Facebook application that allows you to leave messages for your friends):and scrap (a fight in ancient times, but now the message you leave for your friend in Orkut).

The world that the authors foresee is a small, small one, in which small screen communication is the next big thing, with widget-like applications becoming more common in B2C strategies. For example, Nikes customizable widget Nike+ utilizes the syncing power of iPod to record personal workout data. “Nike+ connects runners around the world, thus making the monitoring of goals and challenges easier.”

Another observation in the trends chapter is that location sensing powered by GPS as well as Wi-Fi and triangulation, has opened up new possibilities for mobile social net working presence applications.

  Rich Internet applications (apps) will soon change the way the web looks, the authors aver.” With sophisticated effects and transitions, these apps will keep more users engaged, for longer. Developers have already started focusing on providing a flawless user experience, thus igniting the start of an exciting new era of amazing  interfaces.”

Of critical significance will be ORM or online reputation management, the practice of consistent research and analysis of ones personal or professional or business or industry reputation, as represented by content across all types of online media, the book reminds. “ORM empowers you to gain in sights on what the consumer feels about your product or service and thus helps you formulate measures to improve customer satisfaction.”

Five tips on ORM as the authors outline, are:

Monitor and analyse the content (monitor every platform, be it a search engine, blog ,social network, consumer forum, micro-blog, or video).

Interact with: your customers (answer their queries, solve their problems, take their feedback).

Be polite: and not defensive( understand that the customers who has written the negative comment has personally experienced a problem).

Be honest: and transparent (consumers believe other consumers more than they be lieve the company and they would have done their background research ).

Take action: (because only talking is not enough).

The Internet is the only medium that empowers brands to have a direct dialogue with consumers, and turn them into brand ambassadors, the authors declare. “Digital media through communities, helps one listen to customers dialogues, participate in their conversations, alleviate their fears and misconceptions, and engage them in longer, more profitable relationships.”

Tailpiece

“After the Minister remotely cut the ribbon of our new plant, using wireless scissors, we screened a video that cleverly used animated models of the machines”

“At the virtual press Conference?”