Dakota men and the Pictographic Style Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Dakota men and the Pictographic Style - Essay Example Dakota men had painted in what is called the pictographic style for centuries, usually to record tribal histories and personal exploits. The arrangement of these points was usually according to one of a few traditional designs, one of the most popular being the Tahokmu or spider-web design. The Museum’s collection of over 6000 objects consists of paintings, drawings, prints, photographs, textiles, sculptures, and Native American artifacts and art. The objects are a cultural reflection of the work of local, national, and international artists. The emphasis however, is on the work of artists from South Dakota and the surrounding region. Dakota men had painted in what is called the pictographic style for centuries, usually to record tribal histories and personal exploits. Howe learned that Dakota artists frequently contemplated the painting surface, often for days, until and arrangement of â€Å"aesthetic points† appeared, the intersections for all lines subsequently drawn or painted in making the picture. The arrangement of these points was usually according to one of a few traditional designs, one of the most popular being the Tahokmu or spider-web design. (South Dakota Art Museum. Oscar Howe. Oscar Howe Biography. South Dakota State University).

Mary Shelley & Frankenstein Essay Example for Free

Mary Shelley Frankenstein Essay How do the themes explored by Mary Shelley in Frankenstein relate to a modern audience? The beginning of civilisation brought the evidential classification of people as insiders and outsiders in any close society, due to the narrow stereotypical minds of the masses and often the simplistic facts of life. People are separated from the rest of the community as a result of perhaps their physical appearance or a difference in their personality. Stereotypical idols in todays society are greatly influential; we are quick to identify faults in others and use this excuse to ostracise them from the world and ourselves. Mary Shelley embodies this outsider through the monster that Frankenstein creates. He is isolated and rejected by everyone, so we are made to empathise with him; human beings have a natural instinct to do this, so the text is universalised. Ironically, at times the monster is more humane than those who consider themselves human, those who consider themselves insiders, opposed to the monster- an outsider. This novel opens on a personal note, Shelley uses the device of letters as a hook to draw in the reader; an invasion of privacy universalises the thoughts on paper, like reading someone elses diary. This makes it easier for us to empathise to Captain Walton and subsequently Victor Frankenstein, who is very similar in many aspects to him. These two strong male characters are romanticised by Shelley make them easier to relate to in a modern audience, because they far more believable with multi- faceted personalities. They are romantic anti- heroes; their ambition intrigues us and we are able to identify with them and their achievements. The letters are deliberately left without an exact date, so as to not only create a sense of mystery but to also ensure that the story isnt concreted to a specific era, as it relates more to society as a whole rather than a period of time. Shelley uses a high diction style of writing, which is littered with emotive adjectives to prevent it becoming stagnated and boring for the audience. The information is given to us little at a time to arouse our curiosity and make us read further into the book, where crescendos are commonly used after a more mundane part of the story, so the excitement peaks and falls throughout. An example of this is when the monster is first sighted in letter 4 where there is a dramatic climax before he disappears from view, leaving the audience in doubt of what will happen next. A prominent theme in Mary Shelleys Frankenstein is one of an idealistic world. Victor idealises his family, like a fairytale, too good to be true in reality, which it seems he wants to escape as he knows his family are far from perfect, and a good example of this is portrayed in the quote; There was a considerable difference between ages of my parents, but this circumstance seemed to unite them closer in the bonds of devoted affection. (Ch1, pg33, line7)

Texting A Use Of Communication English Language Essay

Texting A Use Of Communication English Language Essay Texting is one of the latest forms that people use to communicate. Much like other new technologies at the time, texting has developed its own manner lingo including abbreviations and graphics. It is much different from other forms of written communication; however, many are concerned about how texting affects overall affects the writing abilities of our youth. Does the abbreviated language somehow disrupt and discourage students from learning how to spell or when it is appropriate to use abbreviated speech and when it is not. Contrary to proper belief, Text messaging does not pose a serious threat to standard English spelling or literacy. Many of our fore fathers have advocated what texting has implemented. Benjamin Franklin was among the many brilliant minds of that century who advocated for a simplified spelling system (Hendrick 2008). Merriam Webster of Websters dictionary is responsible for removing the u from words like labor and color in an effort to make words more simplified and easier to spell. Many of these men including The Spelling Society still in existence today, wanted to see an English Language that was free from so many vowels and silent letters (Hendrick 2008). While these men may have been happy to see the various forms that texted words take on, changing the standard spelling of words overall require a great deal more effort than even some of our greatest minds could imagine. There have been many new technologies that have come along that may have appeared as a threat to the English language. When the telegraph was invented and used to transmit messages over long distances, there was never the fear that this type of abbreviated speech would somehow leak out into the public and destroy English as we know it (Sutherland 2008). Besides telegrams, there has been Morse Code, and CB radios. All of these technologies eventually fell by the wayside in favor of new and better ways to communicate. If the past is any indicator as to what we can expect in the future, than text messaging may also find its day on the chopping block. If text speech is here to stay, then it still poses no threat to the English language. As a matter of fact it is a segmented part of the English language. Much like a dialect, text speech has developed as a written form. As well noted, it differs greatly in structure, form and style from Standard English. When the writings of Zora Neale Hurston and many others showed the beauty and creativity of diverse English dialects, some were applauded while others were excited to see such richness and creativity. No one would argue that texting has a social or historical culture that is unique to a people, however, much like other dialects of the English language, there is still a standard enforced and reinforced by society overall. Text speech is very unstructured and has multiple variations for the same expressions. There has been various dictionaries and resource books that attempt to explain some standard abbreviations but there are very few absolutes. For example, According to Plester, Wood, and Bell (2008), when giving a group of middle school children a phrase to translate that included the word night into text speech, there were several variations. They included nite, niht, nyt, nte, and nigt (141). Other words have more common spelling such as L8 for late or the letter u for the word you. As a result of its non-standardized form, the only reliable method of written communications so that everyone understands still remains the standard. Another reason why texting does not pose a threat to the English language is its purpose. It is a spontaneously structured social interaction (Plester, Wood, and Bell 2008). Text spelling is derived from the need to communicate a message in a short amount of characters. This is due mainly to the fact that many cell phones only allow a certain amount of characters per message (Hendrick 2008). To avoid having to continue on to a part two, words are abbreviated and letters are left out and shortened as a means to fit it all in. By these measures, the misspellings that many people are afraid of occur intentionally as oppose to a lack of knowledge of the English language (Baron 2009). Some of the most common abbreviations such as LOL (laugh out loud), ILY ( I love you), OMG (oh my God), and BTW (by the way), and spellings may split over into formal writing in school. This is also a natural phenomenon as students find different ways to express their creativity (Barron 2009). As reported by Coulter (2008), majority of students know the difference between formal and informal writing. They are aware that in formal writing text abbreviations and emoticons are not appropriate. Educators must be prepared to accept text speech as an informal writing style, and should teach the students the difference the same way they teach the difference between appropriate uses for informal wiring such as for notes and email. The developments of these abbreviated words, of many different variations, each come from its phonological roots. In order make words, one has to have phonemic awareness in order to reconstruct the words into something meaningful and understood by others (Mangu-Ward 2010). According to Plester, Wood, and Bell (2008), texting requires a person to use metalinguistic awareness to slip between one register of language to another, as they deem it appropriate (p.143). It was a surprise to these researchers to find that children who use text messaging showed greater performance on verbal reasoning than children who did not. As a matter of fact, their research along with countless others has recorded no negative impact on children who use this as a method to communicate. According to a study done by Britains Coventry University children who use text abbreviations on their phones-lol, l8ter, and the like do better in reading and spelling in school (Mangu-Ward 2008 p. 14). Expanding a bit further, when researching various forms of computer mediated discourse, there has been no negative impact found at all on language skills (Hendrick 2008). There are reasons that can be used to explain why so many people are fearful that texting is destroying the English language. One reason is over exaggeration by the media (Hendrick 2008). Our system of media is famous for taking a subject that has very little research and attempting to sensationalize it to everyone. As reported previously, the fact that research shows that not only does texting not disrupt the education of youth but has also shown to increase test scores in other areas is very rarely reported by public media sources. That information does not make for a great story that impassioned individuals can throw their support behind. Although the research states clearly the benefits of texting, it is doubtful that there will be any impassioned parents or teachers throwing their support the other way. Another unintended benefit of texting is youths as well as adults are reading and writing much more frequently than they normally would. Youths get a chance to practice their reading and spelling everyday of their own choice (Mangu-Ward 2010). Although it is commonly known about the abbreviated versions and intentional misspelling of words, contrary to popular belief it does not occur nearly as much as one would expect. When Barron and Ling conducted a study of college students text messaging they found few more lexical shortenings; yet the grand total of clear abbreviations was only 47 out of 1,473 words, which is hardly overwhelming. The text message spelling myth has been dispelled by many respected professional researchers from various fields of study. Many educational systems are starting to see the light about this controversial form of communicating. Although texting is just one form of communication that has been targeted, other mediums of informal language that use abbreviated speech are used to help students. In one Seattle based high school, students in an American literature class must blog daily about strange and weird laws (Coulter 2008). Much like texting, the students are free to write as they feel with no penalty for grammar or spelling. Many students and teachers feel this is any appropriate way to not just explain, but show the students the difference between formal and informal writing, while letting them be as creative as they would like. This method of instruction encourages and contains the need of this type of expression. No matter how many text speech dictionaries are created, or how many new abbreviations become more common, there will always be a need for a standard form of communication and good writing skills (Coulture 2008). As communicative technology changes, so will the language used in these types of mediums. By understanding that texting is just another variation of the English language and not a full on frontal assault, people will be able to appreciate it for it true creative value and potential. Studies have clearly shown the benefits of texting on the youth in reference to spelling and literacy, so there should no longer be any fear about its harmfulness. Instead, the media should focus on finding solutions to the real issues of education, like resources, qualified teachers, and funding.

Socio and Economic Factors in Global Business Essay -- GCSE Business M

Socio and Economic Factors in Global Business When a company decides to take their business international, there are many different sociological and economic factors that they need to take into account. There are differences in management styles, international laws and treaties that regulate international business, as well as cultural customs that come into play. Each of these are significant and needs to be taken into account in order to minimize potential problems. Many times, lack of knowledge can create serious problems. Although there are a myriad of socio- and economic factors, this paper will focus on three key ones: 1) political barriers; 2) labor practices; and 3) cultural barriers. Additionally, real world examples will be offered on how some businesses have successfully overcome these barriers. Political Barriers For purposes of this discussion, political barriers refer to the geo-political situation of a country, as well legal barriers such as tariffs, taxes, etc. Countries set up barriers to foreign entities conducting business within their borders (especially imports and exports) for several reasons. Duties and taxes can create some government revenue. If there is a high tariff then there will be less exporting, therefore more of that product in the country, thus making the price of that product in the country lower since there will be a greater supply. So trade barriers can be helpful to a country. On the contrary, trade barriers can have a negative effect on a country as well. Consumers will have to pay a higher price on imports, and for similar products produced in the country the price will rise due to consumers buying the imported products. In order to regulate the barriers on international trade, there have been organizations formed. GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade), W TO (World Trade Organization) and NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) are just a few examples (Czinkota, 1999). Other considerations in overcoming political barriers are the governments themselves. Conducting business in Cuba is virtually impossible for American companies probably until the fall of the Castro regime. Domestic and international pressure on human rights, governments considered to be corrupt or "illegal" may also hamper an organization’s ability to do business in certain regions of the globe. Although these factors... ...zed crime, etc (Fortune Small Business, 2000). Conclusion This discussion has highlighted but a few socio- and economic factors that must be considered when deciding to conduct business in a foreign country. As one can demise, the risks are there, but the potential for profit is very alluring. With prior proper planning, the risks can be limited. However, it will serve businesses well to incorporate economic factors into their overall global business strategies. References Czinkota, M., Ronkeinen, I., Moffett, M. (1999) International Business. Fort Worth: The Dryden Press DSN Retailing Today (2001, June 5). Open trade in billion-man market creates empire of opportunity. Economist (1997, June 21). 99% perspiration. Vol. 43, Issue 8022. Fortune Small Business (2000, April). East meets Mex. Hofstede, G. (1984). Culture’s Consequences. Beverly Hills, Ca: Sage Publications. Orange County Business Journal (2001, April 23). OC companies do business in China over tea, gestures. Winter, D. (May 2000). Facing globalization. Ward’s Auto World. Vol. 36, Issue 5. (www.doc.gov) (www.opic.gov) (www.usatrade.gov)

Code of Sexual Ethics Essay

The value of a code of sexual ethics is one that is extremely important to hold close to ones mind and soul. Human sexuality is a broad topic in society and everyone has different views on what is important to them as individuals. My view of human sexuality has been shaped with many influences. Growing up, my Mother always taught me to be comfortable with my sexuality, and I watched my older siblings show the same confidence that my Mother was teaching me. She taught me to respect others and myself equally, no matter what label of sexuality that they hold. Basically; â€Å"Treat others how you want to be treated†. I hope to teach my children in the same effective way that my Mother taught my siblings and I. I feel as though having this code of sexual ethics will act as a backbone to the teachings of human sexuality for my children and the next generation. I plan for them to follow this code faithfully, as I will continue to do so throughout the remaining course of my life. CODE To my Children; I have put together a code of sexual ethics that will help instruct and guide you in the right direction throughout the course of your lives. â€Å"Part of discovering yourself sexually usually involves developing your personal set of morals and values as they relate to sexual issues†(Hock, 6). This code of sexual ethics should not be viewed soley as disciplinary, the purpose is to provide guidance throughout the course of your lives. The first principle that is essential to your sexual health and well-being is to always use protection. This is important because Be faithful to your partner Wait until you are ready, do not let anyone pressure you/don’t take advantage Make sure it’s the right person to share the experience with â€Å"Most people agree that parents are the most appropriate source of [sexual] knowledge† (Hock, 15). THE PAST My parents have taught me to always be respectful to women. I would never force myself on any woman. They taught me to practice respect with all people, and not to judge others based on their sexuality, even if they may be different from me. I was also taught to never hold back my feelings, and to follow my heart. Yes, in some situations throughout my life, this has lead to heart break. However, in others, it has brought me to experiencing the most amazing feeling in the world; love. I have been known to wear my heart on my sleeve, however, this put forth both benefits and harms on my feelings throughout my life. Sex on the other hand, has always been a bit more personal. My parents did not exclusively teach me about sex. They taught me about love and relationships in general. Although, the topic of sex did arise, it was never the main focus of their teachings. My mother and I have a very comfortable relationship, we are usually able to talk about anything. She has taught me almost everything I need to know about how to make relationships work; along with the respectful ways to treat the woman I love. We did not start having these discussions until I was in high school. I wish that we would have talked about sexual values and behaviors while I was in middle school because that is when I started seriously liking girls. It all started at a pretty young age. I was always able to speak through my heart, even though I tend to be extremely shy. When it comes to feelings of my heart, I need to let it out. My mom and my peers have always been helpful to me in developing my awareness and understanding about my sexuality. I have never struggled with my sexuality personally, however, I have always cared greatly about the way I look. Some people call me â€Å"metro sexual†. This all started when I was very young. Because I wore nice clothes, and did my hair everyday, some people would mistake me for homosexual. This did not bother me though because I have always been comfortable with my sexuality because I know that I am not homosexual. I just like to look good, which in turn helps me feel good about myself. On the other hand, I think that the media may have played an unhelpful part in raising awareness and understanding about sexuality. Although some programs out there do a great job of explaining these concepts, most of the ones that I was exposed to, did not. Communication about sexuality is definitely welcomed when talking with my mother. However, it is almost fully unwelcomed when talking with my father. We just never talked about that sort of stuff. With my Dad and I, it has always been all about sports. Although, I am comfortable talking about my sexuality in general with all of my family members, I am not be comfortable going into detail on my sexual experiences. I think this is the case because my sexual experiences are a private, intimate matter. My family has no business in knowing about it unless something negative comes out of it, which it never has. THE PRESENT AND CONCLUSION The process of writing my code of sexual ethics was interesting. It allowed me to really look back on my past actions and reflect upon what I did wrong and what I did right. It is also interesting to think that I may be sharing this code with my children in the future. That fact in itself shaped the way I wrote my code of ethics because I really had to think about what I would approve of as a parent and how I would want my child to behave sexually. It was a hard process, but I learned a lot about myself along the way. I think that writing a code of sexual ethics was definitely useful and helpful in clarifying my sexual philosophy. This is because of the major thought process that was required to put into the creation of the code. I had to dig deep into my families, and my own beliefs and values when addressing sexual behavior, which in turn clarified some hazy thoughts in my mind as well. I currently live by most of the principles I wrote in my code of ethics. My parents raised me well and taught me to respect myself and others, and to also take responsibility for your actions. If there are any of the guidelines of my code that I did not live by in the past, than I will change my ways to live by them now. I can comfortably communicate with friends and intimate partners depending on the content of the subject. I have learned a great amount of information throughout this course. This information has shaped the way I formed my code of sexual ethics. We learned how to respect ourselves and love ourselves before anyone else and that was the basis of my code of sexual ethics. I think my code is pretty solid. I do not think it will need much revision in the future. However, it may need some additions. It may need additions because over the course of time my idea of ethics may change, as I grow older. When I am married the code may be a bit different for me, however I would want to teach my children this exact code of sexual ethics.

Food in Schools

Food in Schools Free Online Research Papers I believe that schools should allow some fast food companies into schools because I believe every student should have a choice between cafeteria foods and fast foods. As a consumer of cafeteria foods every day, I personally get sick of the foods they serve at school which is the same every day. I think if fast food companies came in and threw in all of their different foods they can offer then a lot more kids would be buying lunch at school instead of bringing it with them to school and bring more revenue to the school. I believe the only way fast food companies should be able to come into schools and serve food is if they made all the foods as healthy as possible so students would still be eating fast foods but a healthy school appropriate fast food. I think a way that some fast food companies could come into school is by giving the school they enter a piece of their profits into the school and that way the school would not have to pay for any food products or food employees it would all be done by the fast food company which in turn would benefit the school even more than just giving the school profits of the money they make in selling the food to the students. Although school lunches may be a bit cheaper than a fast food restaurants food but the satisfaction of being able to eat something else than disgusting cafeteria food is worth the extra cost. Every student wants something else other than the same cafeteria food each and every day of the year and a fast food restaurant in school gives them that advantage of having the right to choose what they want not what they are encourage to have. Research Papers on Food in SchoolsStandardized TestingGenetic EngineeringMarketing of Lifeboy Soap A Unilever ProductLifes What IfsTrailblazing by Eric AndersonThe Hockey GameHip-Hop is ArtAssess the importance of Nationalism 1815-1850 EuropeThe Effects of Illegal ImmigrationPersonal Experience with Teen Pregnancy

The Complete 16-Step Marketing Project Management Process

The Complete 16-Step Marketing Project Management Process What if you could help your marketing team do more  in less time? Its a simple question that leaves  a lot to dream about: Youd be  awesome. Like riding a unicorn over a rainbow kind of awesome. Your team  and company would love you because youd finally get everyone organized, on the same page, and focused on super meaningful work. Youd lead a  happier, more fulfilled  career  while nailing every deadline and exceeding every goal. Ah, the good life. But, there are some challenges to overcome first. For starters, project management can feel overwhelming. There are a lot of moving parts that need to be accounted for, especially when managing multiple projects and team members. Fortunately, youre about to learn the secrets behind strategic marketing project management that will help you: Work even faster and collaborate better than ever  by managing your projects with an efficient process  from the get-go. Focus 100% of your resources  on the  right projects instead of weve always done it that way tasks that dont add measurable growth to your bottom line. Boost your productivity  while getting organized and taking control of your entire process. You can be a successful marketing project manager. The Complete 16-Step #Marketing Project Management Process That Will Get You Organizedbut first: Start Managing Marketing Projects With These Free Word And Excel Templates When you read this post, youll discover a need for project documentation. Download this free kit to grab your: Marketing project management template Word document to help you implement every step of this post for a real project youre working through. Sprint backlog Excel spreadsheet to manage the entire scope and timeline of your project. Go ahead and fill out these documents as you  read through this post to make the most efficient use of your valuable time! ... Then Upgrade to the Kanban Project Dashboard in Managing marketing teams is a multi-faceted. There are so many moving parts and dozens of tasks for each project and campaign. So... keeping everyone and everything on track and hitting all your deadlines can be, well, tough. That's why I'm inviting you to check out the Kanban Project Dashboard available in your favorite marketing project management platform. When you manage your  marketing team with , you'll: Get a pulse on every project. Using the kanban-style view, you can quickly see the status of every project your team is working on. Pinpoint bottlenecks in your workflow. Are team members getting stuck in particular areas on projects? Identify roadblocks quickly and keep tasks on track. Holistically manage projects from start to finish. Give your entire team full visibility across every project and manage everything in one place. Get and get organized! Schedule a demo today. What Is Marketing Project Management (For The Sake Of This Post)? The traditional project management method is split into phases: Initiate:  What is the scope of what you'll create? Plan:  How will you create your content  and with what resources? Execute:  Create your content. Monitor and control:  Identify and remove any  roadblocks that are preventing you from executing. Close:  Get approval, publish, and review. That is the approach  traditional project managers learn about as they get started. However, there's a way to layer in another proven project management method to help you move through the phases  even faster.  It's called agile product  management. Ever wonder what agile marketing was? Now I know.This process is how developers typically approach creating software (like your beloved  project management platform). Agile product  management helps developers complete lots of work in  short bursts  of time by providing intense focus and removing obstacles that might  cause them to miss deadlines. So, for the sake of this post, you're going to combine traditional project management and agile product  management together to create marketing projects more efficiently than ever before. Here's your definition: Marketing project management is the efficient process that helps you organize, create, and publish your content as fast as possible. The beautiful thing is that you can use this process for planning any type of content- and you should. Let's get into the details: Initiate Your Marketing Project By Defining  The Purpose Step 1: Choose The Highest Priority Project From  Your  Marketing Project Backlog Part of the agile project management process involves creating and maintaining a product backlog. For your  purposes, that's a fancy definition for a prioritized list of marketing projects. Project management starts by strategically choosing  to complete the highest priority project on your list. Since that's the case, we wrote an entire post to help you create your own marketing project backlog: Recommended Reading: The 1-Day Marketing Planning Process To Organize Your Next 6 Months What you're reading right now assumes that you've chosen one project  and that it's your highest priority for 10x growth. Step 2: Explain  The Project Background With A Creative Brief You may  already have detailed notes  from your marketing project backlog to help you implement your biggest priority project. If not, there are a handful of things to get straight before you get too much deeper: Who will this project benefit the most? Pinpoint  a subset within your audience. What do you need to create?  Define the end deliverable. Why will this project  benefit the audience you've specified? Write your value proposition  that answers your audience's  question, "What's in it for me?" What kind of resources might you need to  complete the project? Estimate the time and tools involved. What does done look like? Help your team know  what you'll accept as a successful final product. The background will serve as the foundation for all of the remaining steps in your project management process. As you write your creative brief  to answer these questions, you'll immediately be able to spot areas of potential challenges that you can work to resolve now- before your team starts executing the project. For example, if you need a developer's help to create a landing page or don't have a budget to complete the work, now is the time  to solve the roadblock before slowing up your entire team as they take on the project. Recommended Reading: How to Build a Concise Creative Brief Step 3: Define Your Project's Requirements To Fulfill The Business' Needs Requirements are the standards your content needs to meet before you publish. Every marketing project may  need different requirements, yet some examples to help you brainstorm your project's requirements should include: Automation: Is this a way to automate  a part of this project to prevent manual work during execution or afterward? Anything to cut out  unnecessary, tedious manual work a robot could do will immediately boost your productivity. Elimination: Can this project eliminate something else you're doing as a new and improved replacement? Removing work from your future to-do list will help you find time to execute  even more projects from your backlog a whole lot faster. Maintenance: How can you make this project as successful as possible now with the least amount of daily, weekly, or monthly maintenance? Think 10x  growth now that continues to provide long-term results without having to touch it. All of those may sound similar. But let that advice soak in a bit more as you look at your project idea and break down what you want it to do to benefit your team and business. If you can create requirements based on those three fundamentals, you will save you and your team time during and after  project execution. And when you don't have time to spare, that matters a lot. When you don't have time to spare, solid #ProjectManagement matters a lot.Another way to look at this  is by defining a set of  requirements your content must meet before you publish. For example, we've analyzed data to help us define standards of performance for our content. These standards literally help us predict how successful the content we execute will be based on four requirements: Topic: Is the topic similar to your other top-performing content? Is  the angle something your audience deeply cares about? Keyword:  Does the  main keyword have high search volume and low competition? Is there an opportunity to include latent semantic indexing to  help even more of your audience naturally find this content through search engines? Research: How can you  include deep research in this content to publish something the internet has never seen before? How can you  use research to factually back up your claims? Comprehensiveness: How can you tell  the most complete story on your topic on the internet? You could  apply this standard of performance to your project, or you may find your most successful content has different traits that make it awesome. The point is to really  define what the project will look like before you start working. In project management terminology,  a set of requirements is called a specification. So, if you follow this  guide, you will have two specifications (time-saving specification and content specification) with multiple requirements under each. If you think of more requirements, you can plan even more specifications for your projects. These two specifications are just a  minimum viable starting point to produce successful content. Define your content's standard of performance and demand it during execution.Step 4: Write  Your Stories To Focus  The Project On An Audience-Valued  Outcome Stories are how you'll  put yourself into your audience's shoes  to focus on how the project will benefit their lives instead of just creating a deliverable. Unlike traditional story-telling, these stories help define requirements of satisfaction. It's like asking yourself, "How will my audience benefit from this project?" Here's the template of how to think about stories: As an {audience type}, I want to {do something} so that {I get this value}. For example, let's say the  project you want to take on is a new e-book about content strategy that you'll publish on the Amazon store to reach a new audience. One story for your project may look like this: As a marketer, I want to learn how to  implement a better content strategy so that I can get more organized. One project  will likely have multiple stories to help you and your team understand your audience's needs. To continue the e-book example, a second story could help you write a specific chapter in the book: As a marketer, I want to learn which types of content our team should create so that we can maximize lead generation from every campaign. Since the e-book project example also requires  you and your team to create additional content, you could also use stories to define your audience's needs for a deliverable  like the  landing page where you'll promote the e-book: As a marketer, I want to  be reassured that this e-book is worth my valuable time so that  I can really reap the benefits it promises after I download the e-book. Later, when you plan, you'll break down the stories into manageable tasks you can assign to individuals on your team. Plan The Details Of Your Projects As Sprints Step 5: Break Your Stories Into  Manageable Tasks Your Marketing Team Members  Will Execute Stories are something a team  works on together, while  you assign tasks to your team members. Tasks are important because they break down a large project- which may seem difficult to even know where to start- into manageable pieces. And tasks help you divvy up the work among your team to use your resources as efficiently as possible. Let's look at an  example story again for your e-book landing page: As a marketer, I want to  be reassured that this e-book is worth my valuable time so that  I can really reap the benefits it promises after I download the e-book. To  build  a landing page that fulfills this story, you'll simply list the tasks  you need to complete in chronological order: Research landing page designs that convert. Write the landing page outline based on the  research. Write the text. Design  the wireframe. Design the landing page. Develop the landing page. Review the landing page. Publish the landing page. Promote the landing page. You get the idea- the point is to break down a story into the step-by-step process you need to complete to check this story off your sprint backlog. Smaller tasks make it easier to estimate how much time it will take to complete the story (and subsequently, the project as a whole). Step 6: Thrash Your Project Into An MVP (Minimal Viable Project) It's time to take a critical look into your stories. You want to find  where you might have frivolous uses of resources that could be used better for creating  a minimum viable project rather than an extremely polished deliverable. The real question here is this: What  stories or tasks could you cut to create a great project with the least amount of effort? You probably want your project to be the most perfect thing  in your niche, so this question might seem counterintuitive at first. However, the idea behind a minimum viable project  is to eliminate risk by helping you: Create and publish quickly Measure your success Learn to improve You can steal the idea of an MVP by cutting excess stories and tasks that  don't negatively impact your specifications.  This will save your team valuable time during execution while helping you complete your project faster. Remove excess work from your to-do list before you start your projects.Step 7: Estimate The Level Of Effort For Every Story It's one thing to give your team  a deadline to complete a project and another to know that the deadline is realistically achievable. By understanding how much time each task takes to complete (and subsequently rolling that estimation into the story), you'll be able to further understand what stories or tasks you'd like to cut from your project to complete it quicker while also being able to set practical due dates. To do this, you need to know two things first: Who will be accountable for completing each task. These are the team members who'll work together to complete the stories. The level of effort for each task. In other words, how much time will it take the person  you'll assign the task to complete it? For each task,  write down who on your team you think is best suited to complete it the fastest. Then visit with each team member  to ask how much time they'd estimate for every one of  their tasks. Step 8: Plan The Scope Of Your Project As A Sprint Backlog Scope helps you define how much work you'll complete in a certain amount of time. It's the big picture of the project. Your marketing project may  have many specifications and stories, so you may need to break the scope  into phases, which agile marketers call  sprints.  Sprints often occur in two-week bursts in which you prioritize a specific number of stories to be completed. Since you estimated the level of effort for each story- and understand how much time each individual needs to contribute- you can realistically plan your sprints and subsequently know your deadline when the project  will be 100% complete. A great way to  show your entire project scope  to your team is with a project schedule- aka sprint backlog. Step 9: Demand  That You Ship On Time You know that your project will fulfill the specifications and stories.  You also know your deadline is realistically achievable. So make sure you publish on time by preventing project thrashing- otherwise known as scope creep and last-minute changes- before you begin executing. Seth Godin has the best advice I've ever seen on this topic. Read  Linch Pin  to get the full scoop- and  for your marketing project management, start here: Set the date when you'll publish. This is when  you'll launch your project no matter what. Involve others in your initiation and planning process and write everyone's ideas down. This is important for your big wigs because, as Seth says, "This is their big chance." Show what you plan to do.  Give them the opportunity to thrash your plan before you start executing. Changes now are alright, but once your team starts executing, this  thrashing  will dramatically impact your deadline. Give them  an opportunity for one final review. Seth says, "Make sure everyone understands that this is the very last chance they have to make the project better." Revise the project blueprint into a final, comprehensive outline. Show your plan to the  big wigs and ask, "If I deliver what you approved, on budget and on time, will you ship it?" Only start executing once you get your yes. No maybes. Then deliver what you promised, thrash-free. This  simple process should prevent scope creep, last-minute modifications, and other nitpicking  with small details because you've nailed the big picture. Execute Your  Marketing Project With A Clear Content Creation Process Step 10: Assign Tasks For Your Upcoming Sprint To Your Team It's finally time for your team to start creating content for your project! You just need to assign them the tasks to complete. The best way to begin is by choosing a marketing project management tool that will help you: Manage your entire team  and easily assign them their specific tasks to complete. Assign specific deadlines for tasks to be completed on specific calendar dates. Automatically notify your team  that  you've assigned them a task to complete. Automatically remind your team as a due date for a task approaches. If you're planning a recurring project- like blog posts or social media campaigns- it's also helpful  to find a tool that helps you create your ideal workflow and save it to reuse on similar projects. Well, it just so happens that is a  marketing project management tool designed to help you collaborate with all of those things. ;) Agile product managers refer to this kind of functionality as a task board. Whether you use to  efficiently manage your process or not,  you're looking for a system to help you: See  which tasks are completed, which should be  in progress, and which are coming up. Understand which tasks are overdue that may cause you to miss your deadlines. Step 11: Communicate With A Tool That Keeps Collaboration In One Place While emails serve nicely as notifications and reminders to help your team get into the system where you manage your projects, they're not so great for managing project communication. That's where it's nice to manage your team communication around the project in the collaboration tool where you manage everything else. There are a few qualifications to make this work for your project: Avoid email to manage your project communication. Email forwards and strings  can miss some replies to sender only, which can cause team members to miss critical information on your projects. Agree as a team  to communicate consistently with the same tools for your specific purpose. This will help you maintain  one version of the truth for all project communication to help the team collaborate more efficiently. Keep your comments, notes, and progress reports in  the same tool where you manage your task board or workflow. This is especially important if you manage multiple projects at once. You can rock that advice with  nearly any  project management tool, but there's one designed to help marketers like you manage their projects better.  It's *ah hem* . Monitor And Control Your Project To Meet Your Deadlines Monitoring and controlling happens at the same time as your team executes the project. Step 12: Hold Daily Scrum Meetings To  Monitor Your Progress Scrum is a daily meeting everyone working in a current sprint attends. These informal touch points are most effective with small teams who are collaborating on completing a story together. You'll lead the touch point  with a simple itinerary with everyone sharing: What they did yesterday to make progress on your sprint. What they're going to do today for your sprint. Any roadblocks that may prevent them from executing. This helps your team stay accountable while giving them the chance to ask for help as needed. As the project manager, it's your job to proactively prevent those roadblocks from happening if you can. Otherwise, it's now your job to react and  remove the obstacles from your team's ability to execute. At each daily scrum, end the touch point by asking, "Who has roadblocks that are already or might prevent you  from executing?" Sometimes, this is when someone will speak up, even after they've already shared their progress reports. Step 13: Manage Your Burn Chart To Estimate How Much Work Is Left In Your Project Your project burn chart is a  graph that  compares your completed work to how many sprints are remaining in the project's scope. Another way to visualize  this is to analyze your percentage of tasks completed. Your marketing calendar shows a handy percentage completion rate for your project: This practice- combined with reviewing which tasks should have been completed in the past but have not been checked off your task board- will help you  keep team members accountable for completing their work and will keep your project on tack to hit your deadline. Agile product management processes often suggest that you  spell out  the definition of done for your project to help the entire team understand when the project is complete. The percentage completion rate is an excellent way to explain this to your team: A  story  is done when you  complete 100% of your tasks. A sprint is done when  you complete 100% of the tasks for the stories that make up the sprint. And a project is done when you complete 100% of the tasks for all of the stories within the sprints that make up the project. Step 14: Fail Fast To  Get Back On Track ASAP Even the best project managers hit snags that  take their team's focus away from the tasks and stories that will fulfill their project's specifications. Those are moments when you, as a project manager, need to step in immediately to get your project back on track. You can do that by identifying whom on your team  needs a guiding hand, and  asking them four simple questions: What happened? Why did this happen? How can we make sure this doesn't happen again? How can we get this project back on track? These questions help your team member identify the issue and the method to solve the problem now and in the future.  You just helped them self-correct! Step 15: Host Sprint Reviews To Celebrate Your Accomplishments Toward Project  Close-Out While you took Seth Godin's advice on getting approval to ship your project on time no matter what, your stakeholders probably want to see the progress you're making as the project continues. That's  exactly what sprint reviews are for. Schedule a half hour touch point at the end of every sprint to review  the stories  you've completed. Gather feedback from those who need to know what's going on. Just remember that you're employing Eric Ries' theory on the minimum viable project. That means you should document what your big wigs are saying, but that will not impact your upcoming sprints  or modify your deadlines because they've already signed off for approval. Later, you can plan the notes you take in this meeting as a post-project sprint to button up the outstanding items after you publish if necessary. However, these modifications aren't in scope for your project now, so you should not change your direction. Make this review fun for everyone- it's a celebration of accumulated hard work with 100% of your tasks done for an entire sprint! Close Your Marketing Project And Move On To The Next Step 16: Host A Retro To Learn From Your Success Your project is done when 100% of the tasks within the  stories that make up your sprints are complete.  Ship it now! There's just one thing left to do... and that's to learn how to improve your  marketing project management process before you initiate your next project. Traditional project management often calls for a post implementation review. It's a meeting where you invite your team to ask them three simple questions: What went well? What went wrong? What could we improve for the next project? Agile product management follows a similar approach, calling their post-project touch point a retrospective. The goal is the same- - but the questions you ask in the meeting vary slightly: What should we start doing? What should we stop doing? What should we continue doing? Combine those two sets of questions together for a 30-minute meeting, and you'll leave with dozens of lessons learned that will help you improve your marketing project management process next time. How Do You Manage Your Marketing Projects? Whether you use as robust of a marketing project management process as this or not, I know you've found at least a few helpful takeaways from this post. If you're ready to manage the execution and monitoring phases better than ever, try ! It's your marketing project management software designed to  get you organized. The Complete 16-Step Marketing Project Management Process What if you could help your marketing team do more  in less time? Its a simple question that leaves  a lot to dream about: Youd be  awesome. Like riding a unicorn over a rainbow kind of awesome. Your team  and company would love you because youd finally get everyone organized, on the same page, and focused on super meaningful work. Youd lead a  happier, more fulfilled  career  while nailing every deadline and exceeding every goal. Ah, the good life. But, there are some challenges to overcome first. For starters, project management can feel overwhelming. There are a lot of moving parts that need to be accounted for, especially when managing multiple projects and team members. Fortunately, youre about to learn the secrets behind strategic marketing project management that will help you: Work even faster and collaborate better than ever  by managing your projects with an efficient process  from the get-go. Focus 100% of your resources  on the  right projects instead of weve always done it that way tasks that dont add measurable growth to your bottom line. Boost your productivity  while getting organized and taking control of your entire process. You can be a successful marketing project manager. The Complete 16-Step #Marketing Project Management Process That Will Get You Organizedbut first: Start Managing Marketing Projects With These Free Word And Excel Templates When you read this post, youll discover a need for project documentation. Download this free kit to grab your: Marketing project management template Word document to help you implement every step of this post for a real project youre working through. Sprint backlog Excel spreadsheet to manage the entire scope and timeline of your project. Go ahead and fill out these documents as you  read through this post to make the most efficient use of your valuable time! ... Then Upgrade to the Kanban Project Dashboard in Managing marketing teams is a multi-faceted. There are so many moving parts and dozens of tasks for each project and campaign. So... keeping everyone and everything on track and hitting all your deadlines can be, well, tough. That's why I'm inviting you to check out the Kanban Project Dashboard available in your favorite marketing project management platform. When you manage your  marketing team with , you'll: Get a pulse on every project. Using the kanban-style view, you can quickly see the status of every project your team is working on. Pinpoint bottlenecks in your workflow. Are team members getting stuck in particular areas on projects? Identify roadblocks quickly and keep tasks on track. Holistically manage projects from start to finish. Give your entire team full visibility across every project and manage everything in one place. Get and get organized! Schedule a demo today. What Is Marketing Project Management (For The Sake Of This Post)? The traditional project management method is split into phases: Initiate:  What is the scope of what you'll create? Plan:  How will you create your content  and with what resources? Execute:  Create your content. Monitor and control:  Identify and remove any  roadblocks that are preventing you from executing. Close:  Get approval, publish, and review. That is the approach  traditional project managers learn about as they get started. However, there's a way to layer in another proven project management method to help you move through the phases  even faster.  It's called agile product  management. Ever wonder what agile marketing was? Now I know.This process is how developers typically approach creating software (like your beloved  project management platform). Agile product  management helps developers complete lots of work in  short bursts  of time by providing intense focus and removing obstacles that might  cause them to miss deadlines. So, for the sake of this post, you're going to combine traditional project management and agile product  management together to create marketing projects more efficiently than ever before. Here's your definition: Marketing project management is the efficient process that helps you organize, create, and publish your content as fast as possible. The beautiful thing is that you can use this process for planning any type of content- and you should. Let's get into the details: Initiate Your Marketing Project By Defining  The Purpose Step 1: Choose The Highest Priority Project From  Your  Marketing Project Backlog Part of the agile project management process involves creating and maintaining a product backlog. For your  purposes, that's a fancy definition for a prioritized list of marketing projects. Project management starts by strategically choosing  to complete the highest priority project on your list. Since that's the case, we wrote an entire post to help you create your own marketing project backlog: Recommended Reading: The 1-Day Marketing Planning Process To Organize Your Next 6 Months What you're reading right now assumes that you've chosen one project  and that it's your highest priority for 10x growth. Step 2: Explain  The Project Background With A Creative Brief You may  already have detailed notes  from your marketing project backlog to help you implement your biggest priority project. If not, there are a handful of things to get straight before you get too much deeper: Who will this project benefit the most? Pinpoint  a subset within your audience. What do you need to create?  Define the end deliverable. Why will this project  benefit the audience you've specified? Write your value proposition  that answers your audience's  question, "What's in it for me?" What kind of resources might you need to  complete the project? Estimate the time and tools involved. What does done look like? Help your team know  what you'll accept as a successful final product. The background will serve as the foundation for all of the remaining steps in your project management process. As you write your creative brief  to answer these questions, you'll immediately be able to spot areas of potential challenges that you can work to resolve now- before your team starts executing the project. For example, if you need a developer's help to create a landing page or don't have a budget to complete the work, now is the time  to solve the roadblock before slowing up your entire team as they take on the project. Recommended Reading: How to Build a Concise Creative Brief Step 3: Define Your Project's Requirements To Fulfill The Business' Needs Requirements are the standards your content needs to meet before you publish. Every marketing project may  need different requirements, yet some examples to help you brainstorm your project's requirements should include: Automation: Is this a way to automate  a part of this project to prevent manual work during execution or afterward? Anything to cut out  unnecessary, tedious manual work a robot could do will immediately boost your productivity. Elimination: Can this project eliminate something else you're doing as a new and improved replacement? Removing work from your future to-do list will help you find time to execute  even more projects from your backlog a whole lot faster. Maintenance: How can you make this project as successful as possible now with the least amount of daily, weekly, or monthly maintenance? Think 10x  growth now that continues to provide long-term results without having to touch it. All of those may sound similar. But let that advice soak in a bit more as you look at your project idea and break down what you want it to do to benefit your team and business. If you can create requirements based on those three fundamentals, you will save you and your team time during and after  project execution. And when you don't have time to spare, that matters a lot. When you don't have time to spare, solid #ProjectManagement matters a lot.Another way to look at this  is by defining a set of  requirements your content must meet before you publish. For example, we've analyzed data to help us define standards of performance for our content. These standards literally help us predict how successful the content we execute will be based on four requirements: Topic: Is the topic similar to your other top-performing content? Is  the angle something your audience deeply cares about? Keyword:  Does the  main keyword have high search volume and low competition? Is there an opportunity to include latent semantic indexing to  help even more of your audience naturally find this content through search engines? Research: How can you  include deep research in this content to publish something the internet has never seen before? How can you  use research to factually back up your claims? Comprehensiveness: How can you tell  the most complete story on your topic on the internet? You could  apply this standard of performance to your project, or you may find your most successful content has different traits that make it awesome. The point is to really  define what the project will look like before you start working. In project management terminology,  a set of requirements is called a specification. So, if you follow this  guide, you will have two specifications (time-saving specification and content specification) with multiple requirements under each. If you think of more requirements, you can plan even more specifications for your projects. These two specifications are just a  minimum viable starting point to produce successful content. Define your content's standard of performance and demand it during execution.Step 4: Write  Your Stories To Focus  The Project On An Audience-Valued  Outcome Stories are how you'll  put yourself into your audience's shoes  to focus on how the project will benefit their lives instead of just creating a deliverable. Unlike traditional story-telling, these stories help define requirements of satisfaction. It's like asking yourself, "How will my audience benefit from this project?" Here's the template of how to think about stories: As an {audience type}, I want to {do something} so that {I get this value}. For example, let's say the  project you want to take on is a new e-book about content strategy that you'll publish on the Amazon store to reach a new audience. One story for your project may look like this: As a marketer, I want to learn how to  implement a better content strategy so that I can get more organized. One project  will likely have multiple stories to help you and your team understand your audience's needs. To continue the e-book example, a second story could help you write a specific chapter in the book: As a marketer, I want to learn which types of content our team should create so that we can maximize lead generation from every campaign. Since the e-book project example also requires  you and your team to create additional content, you could also use stories to define your audience's needs for a deliverable  like the  landing page where you'll promote the e-book: As a marketer, I want to  be reassured that this e-book is worth my valuable time so that  I can really reap the benefits it promises after I download the e-book. Later, when you plan, you'll break down the stories into manageable tasks you can assign to individuals on your team. Plan The Details Of Your Projects As Sprints Step 5: Break Your Stories Into  Manageable Tasks Your Marketing Team Members  Will Execute Stories are something a team  works on together, while  you assign tasks to your team members. Tasks are important because they break down a large project- which may seem difficult to even know where to start- into manageable pieces. And tasks help you divvy up the work among your team to use your resources as efficiently as possible. Let's look at an  example story again for your e-book landing page: As a marketer, I want to  be reassured that this e-book is worth my valuable time so that  I can really reap the benefits it promises after I download the e-book. To  build  a landing page that fulfills this story, you'll simply list the tasks  you need to complete in chronological order: Research landing page designs that convert. Write the landing page outline based on the  research. Write the text. Design  the wireframe. Design the landing page. Develop the landing page. Review the landing page. Publish the landing page. Promote the landing page. You get the idea- the point is to break down a story into the step-by-step process you need to complete to check this story off your sprint backlog. Smaller tasks make it easier to estimate how much time it will take to complete the story (and subsequently, the project as a whole). Step 6: Thrash Your Project Into An MVP (Minimal Viable Project) It's time to take a critical look into your stories. You want to find  where you might have frivolous uses of resources that could be used better for creating  a minimum viable project rather than an extremely polished deliverable. The real question here is this: What  stories or tasks could you cut to create a great project with the least amount of effort? You probably want your project to be the most perfect thing  in your niche, so this question might seem counterintuitive at first. However, the idea behind a minimum viable project  is to eliminate risk by helping you: Create and publish quickly Measure your success Learn to improve You can steal the idea of an MVP by cutting excess stories and tasks that  don't negatively impact your specifications.  This will save your team valuable time during execution while helping you complete your project faster. Remove excess work from your to-do list before you start your projects.Step 7: Estimate The Level Of Effort For Every Story It's one thing to give your team  a deadline to complete a project and another to know that the deadline is realistically achievable. By understanding how much time each task takes to complete (and subsequently rolling that estimation into the story), you'll be able to further understand what stories or tasks you'd like to cut from your project to complete it quicker while also being able to set practical due dates. To do this, you need to know two things first: Who will be accountable for completing each task. These are the team members who'll work together to complete the stories. The level of effort for each task. In other words, how much time will it take the person  you'll assign the task to complete it? For each task,  write down who on your team you think is best suited to complete it the fastest. Then visit with each team member  to ask how much time they'd estimate for every one of  their tasks. Step 8: Plan The Scope Of Your Project As A Sprint Backlog Scope helps you define how much work you'll complete in a certain amount of time. It's the big picture of the project. Your marketing project may  have many specifications and stories, so you may need to break the scope  into phases, which agile marketers call  sprints.  Sprints often occur in two-week bursts in which you prioritize a specific number of stories to be completed. Since you estimated the level of effort for each story- and understand how much time each individual needs to contribute- you can realistically plan your sprints and subsequently know your deadline when the project  will be 100% complete. A great way to  show your entire project scope  to your team is with a project schedule- aka sprint backlog. Step 9: Demand  That You Ship On Time You know that your project will fulfill the specifications and stories.  You also know your deadline is realistically achievable. So make sure you publish on time by preventing project thrashing- otherwise known as scope creep and last-minute changes- before you begin executing. Seth Godin has the best advice I've ever seen on this topic. Read  Linch Pin  to get the full scoop- and  for your marketing project management, start here: Set the date when you'll publish. This is when  you'll launch your project no matter what. Involve others in your initiation and planning process and write everyone's ideas down. This is important for your big wigs because, as Seth says, "This is their big chance." Show what you plan to do.  Give them the opportunity to thrash your plan before you start executing. Changes now are alright, but once your team starts executing, this  thrashing  will dramatically impact your deadline. Give them  an opportunity for one final review. Seth says, "Make sure everyone understands that this is the very last chance they have to make the project better." Revise the project blueprint into a final, comprehensive outline. Show your plan to the  big wigs and ask, "If I deliver what you approved, on budget and on time, will you ship it?" Only start executing once you get your yes. No maybes. Then deliver what you promised, thrash-free. This  simple process should prevent scope creep, last-minute modifications, and other nitpicking  with small details because you've nailed the big picture. Execute Your  Marketing Project With A Clear Content Creation Process Step 10: Assign Tasks For Your Upcoming Sprint To Your Team It's finally time for your team to start creating content for your project! You just need to assign them the tasks to complete. The best way to begin is by choosing a marketing project management tool that will help you: Manage your entire team  and easily assign them their specific tasks to complete. Assign specific deadlines for tasks to be completed on specific calendar dates. Automatically notify your team  that  you've assigned them a task to complete. Automatically remind your team as a due date for a task approaches. If you're planning a recurring project- like blog posts or social media campaigns- it's also helpful  to find a tool that helps you create your ideal workflow and save it to reuse on similar projects. Well, it just so happens that is a  marketing project management tool designed to help you collaborate with all of those things. ;) Agile product managers refer to this kind of functionality as a task board. Whether you use to  efficiently manage your process or not,  you're looking for a system to help you: See  which tasks are completed, which should be  in progress, and which are coming up. Understand which tasks are overdue that may cause you to miss your deadlines. Step 11: Communicate With A Tool That Keeps Collaboration In One Place While emails serve nicely as notifications and reminders to help your team get into the system where you manage your projects, they're not so great for managing project communication. That's where it's nice to manage your team communication around the project in the collaboration tool where you manage everything else. There are a few qualifications to make this work for your project: Avoid email to manage your project communication. Email forwards and strings  can miss some replies to sender only, which can cause team members to miss critical information on your projects. Agree as a team  to communicate consistently with the same tools for your specific purpose. This will help you maintain  one version of the truth for all project communication to help the team collaborate more efficiently. Keep your comments, notes, and progress reports in  the same tool where you manage your task board or workflow. This is especially important if you manage multiple projects at once. You can rock that advice with  nearly any  project management tool, but there's one designed to help marketers like you manage their projects better.  It's *ah hem* . Monitor And Control Your Project To Meet Your Deadlines Monitoring and controlling happens at the same time as your team executes the project. Step 12: Hold Daily Scrum Meetings To  Monitor Your Progress Scrum is a daily meeting everyone working in a current sprint attends. These informal touch points are most effective with small teams who are collaborating on completing a story together. You'll lead the touch point  with a simple itinerary with everyone sharing: What they did yesterday to make progress on your sprint. What they're going to do today for your sprint. Any roadblocks that may prevent them from executing. This helps your team stay accountable while giving them the chance to ask for help as needed. As the project manager, it's your job to proactively prevent those roadblocks from happening if you can. Otherwise, it's now your job to react and  remove the obstacles from your team's ability to execute. At each daily scrum, end the touch point by asking, "Who has roadblocks that are already or might prevent you  from executing?" Sometimes, this is when someone will speak up, even after they've already shared their progress reports. Step 13: Manage Your Burn Chart To Estimate How Much Work Is Left In Your Project Your project burn chart is a  graph that  compares your completed work to how many sprints are remaining in the project's scope. Another way to visualize  this is to analyze your percentage of tasks completed. Your marketing calendar shows a handy percentage completion rate for your project: This practice- combined with reviewing which tasks should have been completed in the past but have not been checked off your task board- will help you  keep team members accountable for completing their work and will keep your project on tack to hit your deadline. Agile product management processes often suggest that you  spell out  the definition of done for your project to help the entire team understand when the project is complete. The percentage completion rate is an excellent way to explain this to your team: A  story  is done when you  complete 100% of your tasks. A sprint is done when  you complete 100% of the tasks for the stories that make up the sprint. And a project is done when you complete 100% of the tasks for all of the stories within the sprints that make up the project. Step 14: Fail Fast To  Get Back On Track ASAP Even the best project managers hit snags that  take their team's focus away from the tasks and stories that will fulfill their project's specifications. Those are moments when you, as a project manager, need to step in immediately to get your project back on track. You can do that by identifying whom on your team  needs a guiding hand, and  asking them four simple questions: What happened? Why did this happen? How can we make sure this doesn't happen again? How can we get this project back on track? These questions help your team member identify the issue and the method to solve the problem now and in the future.  You just helped them self-correct! Step 15: Host Sprint Reviews To Celebrate Your Accomplishments Toward Project  Close-Out While you took Seth Godin's advice on getting approval to ship your project on time no matter what, your stakeholders probably want to see the progress you're making as the project continues. That's  exactly what sprint reviews are for. Schedule a half hour touch point at the end of every sprint to review  the stories  you've completed. Gather feedback from those who need to know what's going on. Just remember that you're employing Eric Ries' theory on the minimum viable project. That means you should document what your big wigs are saying, but that will not impact your upcoming sprints  or modify your deadlines because they've already signed off for approval. Later, you can plan the notes you take in this meeting as a post-project sprint to button up the outstanding items after you publish if necessary. However, these modifications aren't in scope for your project now, so you should not change your direction. Make this review fun for everyone- it's a celebration of accumulated hard work with 100% of your tasks done for an entire sprint! Close Your Marketing Project And Move On To The Next Step 16: Host A Retro To Learn From Your Success Your project is done when 100% of the tasks within the  stories that make up your sprints are complete.  Ship it now! There's just one thing left to do... and that's to learn how to improve your  marketing project management process before you initiate your next project. Traditional project management often calls for a post implementation review. It's a meeting where you invite your team to ask them three simple questions: What went well? What went wrong? What could we improve for the next project? Agile product management follows a similar approach, calling their post-project touch point a retrospective. The goal is the same- - but the questions you ask in the meeting vary slightly: What should we start doing? What should we stop doing? What should we continue doing? Combine those two sets of questions together for a 30-minute meeting, and you'll leave with dozens of lessons learned that will help you improve your marketing project management process next time. How Do You Manage Your Marketing Projects? Whether you use as robust of a marketing project management process as this or not, I know you've found at least a few helpful takeaways from this post. If you're ready to manage the execution and monitoring phases better than ever, try ! It's your marketing project management software designed to  get you organized.

A poster from the movie The Graduate follows a general formulaic pattern in its presentation Essays

A poster from the movie The Graduate follows a general formulaic pattern in its presentation Essays A poster from the movie The Graduate follows a general formulaic pattern in its presentation Essay A poster from the movie The Graduate follows a general formulaic pattern in its presentation Essay Essay Topic: General In an argument, there are many types of tools used to evoke the audience to conviction and then to action. As a society, the importance of communicating a thought or idea to an audience has motivated different methods of arguments that can be expressed in written words, speech or pictures. Movie posters are a great example of the type of propaganda or arguments that the media uses today in order to promote a particular movie. A poster from the movie The Graduate follows a general formulaic pattern in its presentation, namely by presenting the facts of the movie, toying with the emotions of the on-looker, and challenging the values of society as a whole. The general argument of a movie poster is to convey the facts of the movie through the characters in the picture. This can be done by showing what they are doing or simply stating the title it is the posters statement and proof. In The Graduate poster, the main character is Dustin Hoffman, who plays the leading role as Ben Braddock. The only other character is a womans bare leg save the sheer pantyhose, which she is either putting on or taking off. This picture immediately grabs the audiences attention and presents the argument that this movie is about the experiences of one man, Braddock, and that the general theme of the movie has a sexual connotation. The title seems to at first confuse the on-looker because of its incongruity with the picture. It entices the audience to ask questions. Is the character graduating to a higher level of sexuality? Is he a recent graduate of school or the task he was motivated to complete? In the end, the audience leaves with the knowledge of who is involved in the movie and what it is possibly going to be about. Another benefit a movie poster has for an argument is its emotional appeal and response. The Graduate manages to do this in a shocking way. In the book, everythings an argument, the author says, If writers can use words to rouse readers to specific feelings, they might also move them to sympathize with ideas associated with those feelings, and even to act on them (Lunsford, 50). This view can be the same when considering pictures or paintings. The most famous scene from The Graduate is with Braddock (Hoffman) standing in a room, dressed, with his hands buried in his pockets and staring at a womans sexy leg. The expressions on his face and in his posture are uncertainty, vulnerability, and insecurity, which make the audience wonder who and what type of woman has this effect on him. All of these emotions are given to the on-looker and thus gives a sense of curiosity not only to see what his reaction in this scene will be, but most importantly, who is the leg? As a result, these feeling s can certainly lead to conviction and then action. Movie posters can also use the method of a value argument in the artwork. The Graduate accomplishes this simply from the time period that it was released. In 1967 the values of society were changing rapidly, and the ideas of conflict and controversy were an everyday occurrence. A bare leg exudes a level of confidence and control the woman has over Ben (Hoffman), giving the idea and values of sexual independence and freedom which was especially prevalent at this time. However, on the other end of the spectrum, the poster not only highlights the values of sexual freedom but also uncloaks the disgust, by some, of sexual promiscuity and immorality. Consequently, while this poster invigorates some, it offends others. The ability to understand different types and methods of arguments can be expressed and explained through cultural works of art, like movie posters. Additionally, using arguments of fact, emotion, and value can serve as a foundation for conviction and action both favorable and unfavorable to its cause.

Responsibilities of Management in International Business within Essay

Responsibilities of Management in International Business within Lockheed Martin - Essay Example In the process, despite a well-published code of ethics, Lockheed Martin's history is not exactly a good example of managerial experience. Domain of business. Lockheed Martin is an arms manufacturer said to be one of the world's largest and most influential corporations. Three of its many focus areas are weapons systems, social services, and homeland security. (Polaris Institute, n.d.). Having profiled the corporation "to provide information to activists and citizens concerned with the power Lockheed Martin wields over their lives and the lives of others" Polaris Institute (n.d.) says Lockheed Martin is one of the most politically connected corporations in the world. With its focus on high technology, it was able to get involved with the US Postal Service, the Department of Defense, the Social Security Administration, and the Transportation and Security Administration among others, it said. Sales. In 2003, Lockheed Martin was said to report sales of $31.8 billion, some $3.2 billion of which came from its information and technology (IT) services division. Of that amount, 40 percent came from defense services, 37 percent from IT and 23 percent from NASA. As reported by Arthur Johnson, Lockheed Martin's senior vice president of corporate strategic development, IT sales make about a quarter of Lockheed Martin's revenue, most of which comes from the federal government(Gerin 2004). All in all, seventy eight percent of this business was with the United States Government and 18% of the corporation's sales are from their international customers (Polaris Institute, n.d.) Last year, sales for the first six months rose to 17.8 billion dollars from 17.1 billion dollars, despite a drop in deliveries of F-16 fighter jets. For 2005, this biggest U.S. Defense contractor and top seller of secure computer systems saw net profit jump 41 per cent to 830 million dollars in the first six months (Bauer 2005). Also strong on missile defences, Lockheed Martin's integrated electronic combat systems and military space programmes projects 2005 sales of up to 38 billion dollars (Ibid.). III. Business Ethics Lockheed Martin that specializes in a host of products and services for the federal government has dramatically raised its ethics and business conduct program since the mega-corporation merger in 1995. With 65 "ethics officers" around the United States, it requires its 130,000 employees to devote at least an hour a year to consider the ethical issues of the business, at a cost of millions of dollars per year (Terris 2005). History of lawsuits. Lockheed Martin is said to have a long list of lawsuits and controversies, one of where the company paid $38 million to settle claims for their alleged failure in providing complete and accurate cost in bidding for a large foreign military sales contract (Polaris institute, n.d). Following a series of bribery, overcharging, and corruption scandals in the 1970s and 1980s, it formed its ethics program (Terris 2005). When interviewed in Ethically Speaking: News from The International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life at Brandeis University, Terris who wrote a case study on Lockheed Martin Corporation. was said to comment: "If U.S. corporations are spending millions of dolla

Motel Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Motel - Essay Example In the report, there is a summary of the issues that cropped up in the scoping process, some of which need to be addressed in the full AEE. Some of the relevant issues for consideration include environmental impacts such as pollution, legal considerations and accessibility. In case of any queries, kindly contact the person undersigned. Sincerely, _____________ Department Manager, Engineering Section. Development of the waterfront hotel in Dunedin: Scoping Report Introduction Purpose and need The scoping process is necessary for identification of various issues such as land, conflicts the environment, ecological issues, cultural issues, health issues and social issues. In order to have a viable scoping report, it was essential that various public meetings were held. The scoping process is more so important in that it identifies all the relevant issues. Such issues stem from the introduction of information or some changes in circumstances. Addressing of the environmental impacts is als o essential due to various concerns that may arise. It can also be relevant to address that might need realignment due to new information. Planning area The proposed project is the building of a 27 storey, five star hotels on an unused section of industrial land. This land is located near Dunedin at 41 Wharf St. This report will be a documentation of the scoping process for the development of the hotel. The scoping report will include the process and an overview of issues realized in the scoping process. Scoping process and limitations Being the first stage in any planning process, scoping largely involves public input in the identification of issues, provision of the requisite resources and any other information, and development of criteria for the planning process. This process is required for the development of an EIS for determination of the scope of issues related to the proposed feat lime the building of the hotel. With such, issues relevant for the management of the area are identified, including those that call for more considerations. This process requires a lot of public input. There were some limitations, however, that came up in the scoping process for the building of the waterfont hotel. Public involvement was limited by the time scheduled for scoping. In order to have a fully representative report, it was essential that the process was accorded more time, for more involvement of the public. Discussion of issues Environmental impacts Among the key considerations the constructors must make include the effects of the facility on the environment. The environment is a primary factor that every construction project must make. Pollution may result either from the construction process or from the completed structure. The constructor must thus consider such with the view of minimizing the effects of pollution. The site for the construction of the twenty seven-story hotel is an unused park. This implies that the park that overlooks a water body is idle thu s open for development. However, people live in the area around the park in both private and public formal settlement structures. The height of the perceived structure demands a deeper foundation. The presence of a water body just within the land may imply that it is a wetland a feature that may affect depth of the foundation thus the height of the hotel by extrapolation. The architecture must consider

Researching Tourism and Hospitality Operations Essay

Researching Tourism and Hospitality Operations - Essay Example In 2007, Isadore Sharp sought an exit from this long-term investment, selling the multi-national Four Seasons properties to Kingdom Holding, owned by Al-Waleed bin Talal from Saudi Arabia and Cascade Investments, controlled by the software and technology guru Bill Gates. Upon taking this business private, Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts were able to internalise international expansion efforts, redevelop the business model, and restructure financial governance of the business without undo pressures from international investors in the stock market. However, this acquisition of Four Seasons in 2007 came at a time just prior to the global recession occurring between 2008 and 2010, which radically changed the predictability and revenue growth opportunities for this luxury hospitality business. The business’ long-term profitability has been impacted by a series of government-imposed austerity packages in European nations, reforms in the banking sector in Asian and North American cou ntries, and changes to consumer sentiment about luxury travel and tourism and its correlation to their personal finance availability. Hence, the economic and social conditions in the luxury tourism sector suddenly changed, creating a new set of pressures on Four Seasons to sustain its existing business model whilst still considering redevelopment of its long-standing brand to better service the contemporary consumer in the post-20th Century tourism sector. This report examines the macro- and micro-level factors impacting many dimensions of the Four Seasons value chain, its strategic focus for long-term sustainable growth, and marketing in a very saturated and dynamically competitive international hospitality sector. The report further examines the marketing prowess of Four Seasons, the business’ current and long-term operational strategies, and the characteristics of consumer behaviour that impact Four Seasons’ service ideology, and cost structures impacting profitabil ity with this business. 2.0 Macro and Micro Analysis of the Industry To better understand the performance and productivity of the current Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts business model, it is necessary to examine the macro- and micro-level factors that impact sustainability of competitive advantage influenced by industry conditions. 2.1 PESTLE Analysis POLITICAL The influence of political factors for Four Seasons is disparate, due to the dynamics of being a multi-national business with presence in North America, Asia, Europe and Australia. In Asia, the hospitality sector has significant difficulties sustaining hospitality-centric operations without the direct support of government. For instance, in India, the government imposes substantial taxation on luxury hotels, which raises the costs of operations and increases prices along local supply chain networks. It is even difficult to establish strategic alliances or joint ventures with major tourism airline carriers in many Asian count ries where Four Seasons operates, thus impacting co-branding strategy opportunities and the ability to create periodic promotional incentives to entice more consumer interest in bookings due to the government influence and government-imposed costs. However, in some countries, such as Canada (Four Seasons is headquartered in Ontario, Canada) and Europe, governments provide incentives for consumers to engage in shopping with guarantees that they can reclaim the

This I Believe Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 6

This I Believe - Essay Example These individuals are prone to maltreatment or swindling, eventually turning their psyche and body imbalanced. Thus, I believe that in order for these self-loathing and self-pitying people to get back on their feet and regain what they have lost, it is vital that they first must regain their self-respect, so they could have a better outlook for the rest of their lives. One of the most common examples of people that seem to sacrifice too much of their selves for the sake of others are the shy and servile employees that are always put behind others due to lack of assertion skills. These persons let just about anyone tell what to do, what to wear, what to eat, how to work, and so on, along with getting unfair and inhumane treatment from others without complaints. In using colloquial terms, these are people without backbones. They are deemed to have lost a great deal of self-respect because of letting others freely violate their human rights, for the sake of gaining a false sense of acceptance. At the same time, they also violating their own rights because they letting others do as such, and their low self-worth do not help these people get out of the situation. As long as they do not see that they are worthy of being treated fair and equally with peers, they would remain as such, further allowing self-deprecation to prevail, and removing their rightf ul place in the community (Hill 6). If these people wants to affirm their rights, it would take a longer recovery time because aside from making others see their worth, these people must also adjust their belief systems regarding fulfilling their needs above others. Doing such would gain their self-dignity and self-worth back, turning these people into persons with better attitudes towards life, and make their selves feel better in the process. Before self-pitying people could expect to get better treatment in society, they must also learn how to treat themselves with

Hewitt v Debus Case Note Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Hewitt v Debus Case Note - Essay Example The vendor issued a notice of termination, and the solicitors for Debus alleged misrepresentation. Hewitt sold the property to another buyer, Mr. Darren Gillham, with their agreement being â€Å"subject to and conditional upon† termination of the agreement with Debus. Debus treated Hewitt termination as repudiation and she terminated the agreement herself. Debus did not seek a similar remedy, however she emphasized that her termination of the contract was valid and claimed substantial refund of the money she had paid. She demanded that Hewitt return the money she had paid. A trial judge decided that the purchaser was right because in accordance to the law, a purchaser cannot have both the land and purchase price. The vendor demanded leave to appeal. The application was heard on full submission so that, in case she was granted the leave to appeal, the appeal would be decided without a further hearing. The central matter in this appeal was whether the deed provided that time was important in the performance of Hewitt obligations to pay the amounts required by Clauses 1(c) and (d) and whether the contract between the two parties was validly terminated by the vendor’s notice of termination. Facts The vendor is entitled to terminate for a failure by the purchaser to comply with any term of the agreement irrespective of whether it is an essential term The vendor has a right to terminate where the purchaser fails to pay deposit on time or dishonours cheque for the deposit. Issue The main issue in this case was whether time was important in the performance of Hewitt obligations to pay the amounts required under their agreement and whether the vendor’s notice of termination validly terminated the contract. Holding The seller has a right to terminate for a breach of any term of the agreement irrespective of whether it is an essential term. Analysis Time was not of essence for the payments of the amounts referred in the agreement because the contract was closely similar to a contract for sale of land. A condition of time in land sale contract in equity is not important unless there are special circumstances and the contract has to clearly state that time is essential and has to be implicit from the nature of the contract in the surrounding circumstances. The agreement between the Hewitt and Debus did not have any special circumstances, which implicitly made time for performance important. Because there was no stipulation of time, the vendor was not entitled to terminate the contract because of a delay in the purchaser performing her obligation to pay the instalments. If the period were an essential obligation under the agreement, Hewitt would have been entitled to terminate the contract because of Debus having not considerably performed the necessary obligations. Debus failure to perform within the reasonable period constituted a breach of contract, however Hewitt was not entitled to terminate the contract because Debus substant ially performed part of her obligations. The judges cited section 13 of the Conveyance Act to determine whether a time stipulation was essential in equity. From the act, the judges construed that in case the vendor did not regard time to be essential in

Choose an issue impacting your High School, Community, Country, or the Essay

Choose an issue impacting your High School, Community, Country, or the World and why it is important to you - Essay Example to balance the act by â€Å"affirmative action programs to help blacks, women and other minorities to get better jobs and education," although no clear-cut public opinion is available on â€Å"racial preferences.† Although people have made real progress in eliminating racial discrimination from all walks of life yet we can see that employment opportunities are limited for blacks, housing problems are more severe for belonging to another nation and race. African-Americans of the same qualifications are offered 25 percent less salary than their white counterparts while holding the same high school certificates. Similarly, Latino men earn 37 cents less in a dollar than their white co-workers. Women are also a victim of racial discrimination; they earn just 76.2 percent of what men earn. Discrimination among women employees happens at work places, as African American, Native American and Latino women are offered less than white and Asian American women. Discrimination is happening at national level in all opportunities, which are offered to whites more than to blacks. Other than employment and housing, education is also affected. People commit hate crimes and racial profiling is going without interruption. It is very pathetic that in the time of grief when communities were struck by natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina, the African Americans were made to suffer more than white community people. The road to race based discrimination does not come to an end there. This pervasive color based discrimination was also noticed in relocation of Katrina victims. As per the tests made by the National Fair Housing Alliance, bias treatment was made in the matter of relocation, favoring white people to blacks. Discrimination is also made in rental transactions, as in about 6 out of 10 rental contracts occupants were not favored because of their color. It has been noticed by the Urban Institute in a study that African Americans and Hispanics are not preferred by mortgage lending