90% of our customers over-estimate their ability to use a management tool as robust as ManagePro or MProWeb are.? It's not intuitively obvious for most people how to move from their existing work-style of managing by to-do lists to a system based upon setting goals, working a plan and documenting results.? (With the United Nations in Rome, we had them all break their pencils as a way of underscoring the need to stop relying upon writing on their yellow pads as a way to manage information and people).

Most people, when faced with the challenge of:

• making the management change,

• bridging the gap,

• practicing what they just learned,

• figuring out how to work the program to reduce their workload,

• applying it to their current list of to-dos, the next meeting,

• establishing a new comfort zone, etc... (add your own list of 20 items)

put it off to a "better time".? That's right, they, I, you... begin a phase called "Postponement."

Postponement can range from avoidance to marginally using the tool in a very limited fashion (playing with it).?? Postponement never bridges the gap, but? it does keep you in your familiar work-style, something that we call your comfort zone.? A comfort zone is essentially a collection of habits you have developed that more or less work for you.? They get you by.

Here's the secret.

You can't reach new goals without changing old habits.

That's right.? If you want to reach a goal, you have to change a habit.? There's no way around it.? Better face up to it sooner than later.? The Solution to Postpone is..... not more discipline, its someone coming along side to prompt and assist you until the new behavior, not the old or postpone is the new comfort zone.

As long as we are talking about habits, let's go over a couple of conclusions that seem to commonly apply.

1. You need to practice the new habit at least 9 times before it begins being the new standard.. Sort of a behavioral set-point.? The key is you have to practice it for while before its yours.

2. Most of us do a lot better at breaking habits if we are supported by someone else or a group.? Good intentions just aren't that powerful!

We see that every day with the multiple thousands of you that we have the privilege of supporting.? And to that end, we are making available a special to our existing customer base during the 4th quarter of this year.

Here's the offer - the "9 series"

You can sign up for a series of nine, 30 minute, 1on1 habit setting, training sessions with one of PST's coaches during the fourth quarter of 2004 at 1/3 the normal price.?

That's right, the normal price for training is $120/hour.? We will discount it to $40/hour when you buy this series of 9 half hour sessions.? That's a $540 value, being offered this quarter for $180.? A $360 savings!

There are a couple of restrictions.? You must purchase and start the series during this quarter.? You must complete all of your training sessions within 90 days (it works best if train every week).

If you are serious about reaching new goals, serious about establishing new work habits, use our team to support you in creating the daily discipline and habits that will help you the rest of your career.?

Call Jona today at and get signed up for the 9 series today.

Top^

There's a new build of ManagePro coming out by the end of the month and a new version of MProWeb (3.0) due out the middle of November.? (We'll go over what's new in MProWeb in the next newsletter).?? This release of ManagePro has more than 50 changes and fixes, but you'll want to pay particular attention to the following three features, as they represent the basis for creating important new business solutions.?

1. We've added the Who button to the Assistant for all managers with direct reports. Formerly that was only available to the database owner. Now all managers can use the Assistant view to easily address the goals, to-dos and upcoming events for each of their direct reports.? Once the dbo (database owner) has given you access to your direct reports, you'll find each of them listed under the drop down Who button display.? Click their initials to view and work with their Assistant view.? Setting priorities and focus for each of your direct reports has never been this easy.

2.? We've added the ability to auto add most filter settings, such that when users are working in a filtered view, (e.g. they are working in a view that display all priority 1 records), adding a goal doesn't make it seem to disappear.? In the past if you added a record from within a filtered view it would often "disappear" from the view because it didn't match the currently filtered settings. Anyway we've found a way to make the code check to see if you are in a filtered view and to add those criteria to the record; bottom line - less frustration with users feeling like they entered a record and it got lost!

3.? The Who field now tracks both the people assigned to the task, and the one or more people who are "Lead" on that goal, action step or task.? People are identified as the "Lead" person by adding an asterisk to their initials in the Who field.? The ability to filter based on "Lead" person status in both the Assistant view and the goal planner views adds a whole new level of focus.? Now, even if you are included in the Who field on 500 records, you can view just the 15 where you are the lead person in any of the goal planners or the Assistant.? Notice in the example below, that JA is the lead person on two tasks, both of which have others assigned, but JA is the only person functioning in the lead role on those two tasks.

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Make sure you are looking for the announcement to upgrade!?

If for some reason you don't see that announcement by no later than the first week of November, contact us to get the link to upgrade your program.