Snakes and Ladders - Times Online - WBLG

Top tech toys

Bored executives used to watch balls swing but now office sorts are getting their kicks from sticks -  that's stick people in boxes. Cube World (below right) has been named the top tech toy for working folks by Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth.

This list of top tech toys for Christmas 2007 was developed by three Tuck MBA students -  Adam Bulakowski, Shilpa Karnik and Kate Reiling under the direction of Professor M. Eric Johnson, director of the school's Center for Digital Strategies. Johnson is a toy industry expert who has consulted with and written case studies on Mattel and Hasbro.

The full list of top tech toys for big kids and their offspring are:

Cube World (Radica Games) "This toy isn't for everyone. In fact, it didn't make our list last year. But after a year on our desks, and the addition of another pair, we could see how these cubes could provide some workplace fun." Recommended for working adults.

Tooth Tunes (Tiger Electronics) "Brush with a little force and music streams out of the bristles, vibrating your teeth, and turning your mouth into a music chamber." Recommended for everyone over age 7.

Tamagotchi Connection (Bandai) "An update on the ultimate virtual pet. Not only do you get to raise a Tamagotchi, you can now interact with others who have Tamagotchis." Recommended for 8 to 14 year olds.

Cosmic Catch (Hasbro) "A great way to encourage kids to get outside and play." Recommended for 7 to 11 year olds and their unfit parents.

EyeClops (JAKKS Pacific) "Fun for the exploring (or gross out) types." Recommended for 6 to 11 year olds and anyone considering a career change into lab work. 

Hot Wheels Maniacs (Mattel) "This $30 toy won't make your kids any smarter, but it will make them laugh." Recommended for 5 to 9 year olds.

Rescue Pets (MGA Entertainment) "This toy pet grants access to an online world through a secret access code around the pet's neck." Recommended for 3 to 7 year olds.

Easy Link (Fisher-Price) "Interfaces with a parent’s computer to provide controlled online play and learning." Recommended for 3 to 6 years and office luddites.

GBaby Magnetic Play System (Geomag) "The delightfully attractive blocks are the right colors and size to catch an infant’s fancy." Recommended for children aged 9 to 24 months old

Have the business boffs have got it right. Will we really all want these for Christmas?

Gospel according to Lukes...

...Martin Lukes, that is, of the FT. Please tell me that "care-frontational" (as opposed to confrontational) is a delicious invention of Lukes' alter ego Lucy Kellaway. It is 50p in the swear box for any of these as well..."buy-in", "this storied company", "facilitate", "roapdmap", "talent alignment", "skillsets", "cognizant", and, of course, "going forward."

Read the piece in full, here. And do not be afraid to laugh.

Beam me to the office

This is Cisco TelePresence - one guy is on stage in India, the other is in San Jose California, 8000+ miles away. Yet they both appear to be on the same stage. The interaction between them wasn't recorded either. It's way cooler and greener than air travel.

Just think of the possibilities: no more having to get up close and personal with fellow commuters, clients, colleagues or the boss, you can act it all out from the comfort of your own home or bar. Although hang on a minute, who'd buy the next round? Beam me up Scotty.

Top 14 spurious productivity surveys

Last week I wrote about workplace productivity, and claimed barely a week passes without someone somewhere publishing an outlandish, pr-inspired survey supposedly exposing a way in which workers waste time. Eager to maximise my own productivity, and eager to minimise the workplace productivity of timesonline readers, I kept a record of the weirdest ones as I did my research, and am now delighted to present a list of the top 14 most ridiculous productivity surveys, as presented in the press, in reverse order of spuriousness. Somehow “14” seems an apt number for an arena that routinely sees the production of bizarrely precise estimates.

Career advice: is it ever a good idea?

I'm not much of a fan of advice. Mostly this is because, when people offer it to me, it's likely to involve me doing something I don't enjoy or stopping something that I do (swapping to decaf coffee falls neatly into both categories; I had a headache for a week and I forgot how to spell). However, in the great tradition of aged relatives across the world, I'm not going to let my dislike of receiving advice stop me from giving it. Or, to be more accurate, passing on advice from other people. That's journalism for you.

Alpha monkeys trump dead fish

Competitive chaps impress their colleagues with firm handshakes because a good grip asserts their social dominance: hardly breaking news. More interesting is the suggestion, published in BusinessWeek, that only 35 per cent of the manly grasp's strength is determined by the shaker's environment; 65 per cent of it is genetically determined, according to research by psychologist Gordon Gallup. He attributes this to our distant ancestors: monkeys with powerful hands swung easily through the trees, thus impressing lady monkeys with their genetic excellence, while their weaker-palmed pals were more likely to drop to earth.

(Note: the article says that there's no correlation between the strength of a woman's handshake and her behavioural competitiveness, although it does suggest good health.)

Weird or What? Economics, Catholicism and Management

At the risk of killing interest in this post before anyone reads to the end of this paragraph, may I recommend a new book that contemplates not one, but two, sure-fire conversation-nobblers - religion and economics? It is by a chap called Edward Hadas, a stockbroker turned journalist who works for the online financial comment site breakingviews.com. OK, so it is all a trifle weird - as is the prospect I have of attending its launch party in a Catholic church. But the book is intriguing.

As a taster, consider these two observations. Economics, Hadas emphasises, is often considered to be a thing...some sort of inanimate science akin to physics or tectonics. But economics does not, and cannot exist, separate from humanity. Laws of physics and tectonics would exist irrespective of whether the world is populated with people. Not so economics: or trade, or inflation, or money. Without people all these concepts would disappear faster than you could say "endogenous growth theory."

Buzzwords and bingo - no. 3

Communitainment.

A word created from community, communication and entertainment.

According to the report The User Revolution, by analysts PiperJaffray, "Over the next 10 years more than half of internet usage will be communitainment."

What are they talking about? Websites such as MySpace, YouTube and Facebook.

Faffing around on the internet has never sounded so complicated.

How to be happy

Most people want to be happy. But what makes us happy?

A paper by Stefan Wills, a programme director at Ashridge Business School, offers a simple explanation in the school's journal 360 degrees.

Wills argues that to be an effective business leader you need to be happy: "If leaders who radiate happiness can achieve better relationships with their followers, who in turn create happier customers, it is worthwhile for leaders to reflect on their own degree of personal happiness."

In short no-one wants to work for a grumpy git.

Buzzwords and bingo - no.2

It's been a high scoring morning on the bingo front. Here are two terms I heard this morning that can be added to the Snakes and Ladders glossary.

C-level suite: yes, I know it is an American term - but do I have to hear it in Wapping, London, UK? In case you're wondering, it's a term where the C stands for Chief as in CEO, CIO, CTO, CFO etc. What we call the board or boardroom. Ironically - it was in the boardroom where this term was uttered.

Schedually-challenged: I'm not going to be able to make our meeting. Usage - "Seeing as we are all schedually-challenged this afternoon, can we rearrange our lunch."