Effective apologies: handy for reference for when it all goes wrong

Article containing a handy check list based on research from Negotiation and Conflict Management Research journal.

What's new in Excel 2016 for Windows - Excel

Lots of new toys here.  IFS looks especially useful.  What's new in Excel 2016 for Windows - Excel:



'via Blog this'

Useful article for brushing up on Excel sums and sumifs

The reminder about being able to use wildcards in sumifs became useful within a week of reading the article.  http://itsnotaboutthecell.com/2016/02/16/500-days-of-sumsumifs/

Using Excel to rank excluding duplicates

Purpose: when there is a field containing text values, with some blanks, rank the values but exclude duplicates and blanks.

Link to example spreadsheet

Passing off

Brushed up on Passing off  (thanks Wikipedia): "The law of passing off prevents one trader from misrepresenting goods or services as being the goods and services of another, and also prevents a trader from holding out his or her goods or services as having some association or connection with another when this is not true."

Using block chain for security

This link is to a UK government produced 5 minute briefing about block chain (as used by Bitcoin) with some ideas how this could be used for other secure applications.  Think medical records, land registry but also of course, financial accounts.  The impact apparently could be bigger than the Internet.  Definitely something to research further.

Book review: The Checklist Manifesto - how to get things right, Atul Gawande

Summary
An easy holiday read with a serious message: check lists work- they let you concentrate on the skilled work without forgetting the routine tasks.

Atul Gawande is a surgeon who was tasked by the Wold Health Organisation (WHO) to find a way to dramatically improve medical safety with a very small budget.  The Checklist Manifesto follows his story making and improving check lists with interesting case studies from aviation, construction and investment as well as medicine.

The result?
Trials in 8 hospitals (four in rich countries) showed a 47% reduction in deaths and 36% reduction in major complications.

Is this transferable?
It certainly is.  There are 2 types of lists: those where you think you have completed the tasks, you pause with your team and check before continuing, and those where you work down the list - read then do.  I have found check list invaluable from everything from month end procedures to what kit to take sailing.  My experience (and the conclusion of the book) is that even though you may know a subject inside out, the list is vital since in concentrating on fixing problems, we can often miss routine steps without the discipline of a check list.  Big extra bonus - the results of the trial also showed a strong improvement in team cohesion.

Worth the read?
Yes.  193 pages.