Newsletter 1 - 15th December 2002

Mind Tools Newsletter 1 - 15th December 2002 This is the newsletter for www.mindtools.com. You have received this because you have subscribed to our opt-in newsletter. Mind Tools is published by James Manktelow of the Mind Tools Corporation. To contact us, please email quality@mindtools.com.

We have launched this newsletter to keep you updated on what’s new at Mind Tools and to give you exclusive previews of new developments.

This issue announces the launch of the first of two important new mind tools that help with stakeholder management. Stakeholder management is one of the most important skills you can have – it is often fundamental to succeeding in what you do, particularly at a more senior level. More on this later.

You may have noticed or participated in the survey we’ve been running recently – thank you for taking part if you did! We received more than 500 responses, giving us important information on what you want from the Mind Tools site. This will help us focus our future development so that we can give you the information you
want.

Participants in our survey had the chance to win one of three $100 Amazon.com gift certificates. We are pleased to announce that we have just conducted the draw – congratulations to Peter Ivancsits! Peter should receive his certificate very soon. We are waiting for the other two winners to get back to us to let us know
their names and surface mail addresses. Thank you to everyone else who responded!

We have also been experimenting with a new Mind Tools Community. Although we were not satisfied with the quality of our first forum provider, we are currently testing a second forum hosting site – we will let you know when we launch the new Mind Tools Community.

We are also experimenting with this newsletter – this is the first we have produced. Please bear with us as we work our way through the production process for the first time!

In the rest of this issue, we:

• Introduce you to Stakeholder Analysis – the first of two important new mind tools
• Update you on some of the results of the Mind Tools survey
• Look at the Journey System – one of the most important ‘old favorites’ on the Mind Tools site.

We are always on the lookout for important new Mind Tools that we have not posted to the site so far - if you are aware of one that you think we should cover, please let me know at James_Manktelow@hotmail.com.

In the meantime, enjoy using Mind Tools!

2. New on Mind Tools:

Stakeholder Management – Winning support for your projects

As you become more successful, your activities and your projects affect more and more people. Some of these people have power and influence over your projects and your career. How you manage them often determines whether they becomes advocates and supporters of your projects or whether they become critics who may seek to undermine you and sabotage your efforts.

Stakeholder Management is the whole process of understanding who your stakeholders are, learning what motivates them, and communicating with them to win their support.

Stakeholder Analysis is the first step of stakeholder management.

It is a practical and useful tool for identifying, prioritizing and understanding the people that you need to support your projects, so that you can persuade them to give you the support you need.

We have uploaded the new Stakeholder Analysis article to http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newPPM_07.htm - this will be exclusively available to newsletter readers for the next two weeks, after which we will make it available through the main Mind Tools site.

3. The Mind Tools Survey – And What We’re Doing About It:

Thank you for your responses to our questionnaire – we received over 500 answers to the survey, which has given us an excellent insight into what you want from the Mind Tools site.

One of the key questions was what subject areas you wanted to see covered – this gave us the important information below on the popularity of different subjects:
- Time Management Skills – 58.8%
- Memory Techniques – 51.7%
- Communications Skills – 51.9%
- Stress Management Techniques – 51.4%
- Study Skills - 49.0%
- Decision Making techniques - 48.3%

Other skills ranged in popularity from 16.0% to 44.0%.

We will therefore be developing some major new content around Memory Techniques, Communications Skills and Stress Management. This will take us a few months to prepare – please bear with us while we do this.

Thank you again to everyone who responded!

4. The Best of Mind Tools:

This section exists to let you know about some of our favorite techniques currently available on the Mind Tools site.

This issue looks at the Journey System – this is an easy, important and practical technique for remembering long lists of information.

You use it by using your imagination to link the items you want to remember to landmarks on a route you know well. Using the technique, you can reliably remember very long, structured lists – this is particularly useful for professional or academic exams.

For more information on how to use the Journey System, please visit http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTIM_05.htm.

I hope you have enjoyed this newsletter - Season’s Greetings, and best wishes for a great New Year!

James

James Manktelow

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