Ganulize: verb [gran-yuh-lize] (new word, Webster's 2009) Granulized, Granulization

1. The act of composing an item into of small grains or particles
2. To constitute in the nature of granules; to make grainy
3. To define showing a granulated structure

Popular/Business context:

To describe the fine details, to drill down, to get to the nitty gritty. (Netlingo 2006)

RE business and project management :

To define a task using a highly detailed structure,
To provide a highly structured context of project completion
To document a refined process of detailed accountability
To make a promise with a very high level of detail and clarity
To collaboratively manage detailed team responsibilities

Popular usage examples:

“This project is lacking clarity, we need to sit down as a team and granulize each stage”

“I need to granulize my actions today before I can agree to your request”

“My life gets out of balance when I don’t granulize my health and well being activities”

“Tom is a respected member of the community because of his ability to granulize big projects”

History:

Granulize is a derivative of the recent popular web and business usage of the word granular and/or granularity (Netlingo 2002).

The literal meaning of the word Granular in the computing world is: "The degree of modularity of a system. More granularity implies more flexibility in customizing a system, because there are more, smaller increments (granules) from which to choose." Softpedia 2007

Originally a specific scientific term, the broader context of the word began in the 1970’s in molecular science and spread to other disciplines, i.e.: granular physics

See: What does the word “granular” mean to you?
See Amazon book list:

Earliest Known Citation of the popular usage: “with 30 to 40 objects you can't get very granular," Computer Reseller News, February 14, 1994

Negative usage: excessively granular, too much detail

[Origin: 1785–95; granule + -ar1]

Related forms:

gran·u·lar, adjective
gran·u·lar·i·ty, noun
gran·u·lar·ly, adverb

Why I love Business Transformed

Here are 8 reasons why Business Transformed is a very unique business book:

1 Business Transformed is VISUAL: This book is made up of photos, illustration and big colored text that tell the story visually. Tom Peters defined the “Visual Business Book.” Business Transformed takes this approachable graphic style to a new level.

2 Business Transformed is QUESTIONS: When it comes to the art of creating leaders, telling people what to do stunts growth. Powerful questions are the on-ramp to high-performance management. Business Transformed is the definitive book of business questions.

3 Business Transformed is FAST: Now that we are fully into the age of attention deficit disorder, do busy people actually read? Most of us don’t have enough time to read. You read Business Transformed like a magazine. You glance at a page and get it. You skim a section, see if you are interested and go deeper.

4 Business Transformed is Leadership 2.0: The accelerating rate of change in technology, globalization and new business models outpaces traditional management thinking. What will the new emerging model of leadership look like? While, no one has the answer, Business Transformed has the question. 17 questions for creating to Leadership 2.0.

5 Business Transformed is SIMPLE: Amazon’s text stats program rates Business Transformed in the top 2% of all business books for simplicity and readability. We live in the world of information overload. Ideas only make a difference if they stick. Think of how great advertising works, a simple message that instantly that sticks in your head.

6 Business Transformed is FRESH: It seems like business books today fall into 2 categories. One: Recycled Tips. For example, “a good manager delegates, here are 10 tips.” No one seems to ask why most managers are petrified of delegation. Two: The newest BLANKism. The hot one-word idea that if fully implemented will change everything. Business Transformed is 17 radically FRESH questions that together form a bulletproof model for personal, team and business transformation.

7 Business Transformed is FUNNY: Laughter is the key to accelerated learning and growth. Nothing will halt forward movement faster than someone who takes them selves too seriously. The playful style of Business Transformed gives people permission to relax and get comfortable in this new domain of breakthrough leadership.

8 Business Transformed is DEEP: Most people can get Business Transformed in a little over an hour. Getting it is not the point. The point is to ask the questions and see what happens. To practice the questions and begin to create breakthrough results in your day-to-day conversations. To master the conversation and transform your work, team and organization.

Why do Canadians pay 40% more for books? Local author challenges Canadian publishers to match US pricing.

Sept 13, Vancouver, today as the Canadian dollar reached a 30-year high, Paul Gossen, local author of Business Transformed and a small group of publishers challenged the Canadian publishing industry to match Canadian and US prices on books.

At this small media event, the group unveiled a new cover for the leadership book Business Transformed with matching US and Canadian prices and called on other Canadian authors and publishers to do the same.

“The reality is that Canadian book pricing has very little to do with exchange rates. Pricing for most books in Canada is set by the US publishers based on a default formula of multiplying the US price by 38% regardless of the exchange rate,” stated Paul Gossen.

Leadershipinc Press, the publisher of Business Transformed had cover of the book reprinted to match the US price and added a humorous cartoon asking why Canadians pay 40% more for books.
“It is unfair to the Canadian consumer that US buyers purchase the same books for so much less. This forces Canadians to purchase books over the border, further damaging the Canadian publishing industry,” stated Michael Rosenberg, author and president of Author's Choice, an independent Canadian book distributor.
The debate over Canadian book pricing has intensified in the last two years as the Canadian dollar has approached parity with the US dollar. Over that same period there has been almost no change in the price difference for Canadian consumers.

“If just 10% of the Canadian publishing industry accepted our challenge and matched Canadian and US pricing it would push the US publishing giants to lower Canadian prices, revitalizing bookstores, authors, Canadian publishers and literacy rates across Canada,” stated Paul Gossen.

Business Transformed is available in bookstores across Canada including Chapters Indigo and Amazon.ca with the new price of $19.50 Canadian or $19.50 US.


-30-

Paul Gossen, The Breakthrough Coach, is the author of the management breakthrough book Business Transformed. He is considered an expert in new business thinking and has conducted hundreds of breakthrough programs for business leaders and organizations including the RCMP, AMEX Canada, Golder Associates and the City of Mississauga.

Media Contact:
Paul Gossen, Email Media@Leadershipinc.ca, Phone 604 872-4300.
Michael Rosenberg, Author's Choice, 905 846 5455, www.authorschoice.कै

Breakthrough Coach Offers 9 Step Program for Accelerated Fall Results

Sept 5, Paul Gossen, The Breakthrough Coach and author of Business Transformed launches the 9-Step Fall Breakthrough Program, a simple guide to getting back up to speed after the summer, for everyone including students returning to school, busy information workers and seasoned executives.

9-Step Fall Breakthrough Program:

1) Take Stock. Take a moment and take stock of yourself. What did you accomplish this summer? What did you achieve in terms of rest, relaxation, rejuvenation, adventure or some other personal milestone? Take a moment and complete your summer.

2) Ask Yourself “What do I want?” This question is always the foundation to accelerated energy and results. What do I want to achieve this fall? If I had a key breakthrough result, what would that be? Play with this question until you get something that inspires you.

3) Ask Yourself “Why is this important to me?” Knowing why a project is important to you is the great energy multiplier. Ask yourself “Would this give me more passion or excitement?” If the answer is yes, you know you are on the right track.

I have been developing my system for over 20 years. Working with Paul Gossen gave me the key pieces to take my system to a whole new level. Dave Chalk, Television Personality and Founder of ChalkTV

4) Make Pictures. Olympic athletes consistently demonstrate that making a picture of what you want dramatically improves your performance. It is easy and only takes a moment to stand in the future and see yourself having achieved your result. For real energy, look at yourself from the eyes of someone important to you. How do they feel seeing you achieve this breakthrough result?

5) Design Your Fall Breakthrough Program. Time to get specific. How could you measure your results? Map out the key dates, deadlines, milestones and specific measurements. This is a great place to work with another person. It is much easy to brainstorm with 2 people. Get it all written down and finally give it a code name: “Project ______ ”. This will make it easier to stay on track.

6) Declare Your Intentions. Nothing guarantees action as effectively as a public declaration. The threat of embarrassment will almost always override procrastination. Throw your hat over the fence and declare your Fall Breakthrough Program to the top 10 people in your life and work.

7) Make Promises. Most often we think that external forces motivate us. I need coffee, an emergency or a big deadline to get up to speed. Working with high-performance executives, I see time and time again that promises are the key building blocks of motivation. Make promises. Turn your tasks into promises. Start sentences with “ I promise to…” and see what happens to your ability to produce results.

30-Days of working with Paul Gossen turned my junior team leaders into
executive material. Steve Lyon, VP, American Express

8) Schedule Your Actions Forget to-do lists. Think in time blocks. When you block out time in your calendar, you create a visual relationship with time. This forces you to confront the reality of your available time and requires real discipline.

9) Have Fun. The key to accelerated results is a relaxed playful game. Blame, shame and guilt or one more thing that you “should do” are not effectives ways to motivate yourself. You will know your Fall Breakthrough Program is working if you can laugh at yourself when you fall of the wagon.

The 9-Step Fall Breakthrough Program is part of 2-day Breakthrough Series, which begins in Toronto Sept 18, Vancouver Oct 17, New York Nov 15 and San Francisco Nov 27, 2007। Contact: http://www.BusinessTransformed.com

-30-

Paul Gossen, The Breakthrough Coach, has conducted hundreds of breakthrough program for business leaders worldwide. He is the author of the management breakthrough book Business Transformed. He has conducted large-scale corporate programs for the RCMP, American Express, Golder Associates, the City of Mississauga and dozens of other Fortune 500 companies.

Media Contact: Email Media@Leadershipinc.ca Phone 604 872-4300.

Business Coaching Book Gives Managers Powerful Questions that Drive Breakthrough Results

July 16 2007, Today Paul Gossen, The Breakthrough Coach, released Business Transformed, a guide to powerful questions that hundreds of executives and business leaders have already used to accelerate team results and drive business transformation.

“The questions really work, especially the accountability questions,” stated Carol Johnston, a team leader with American Express.

Business Transformed is a new breed of business book. Funny, light and easy to read, it has a refreshing visual style that allows overloaded managers and executives to “get it” instantly. Business Transformed is loaded with simple tools and questions that managers can use to get results immediately.

“I read the first half of the book over the weekend and put the questions to use right away. In our first meeting, we laid the groundwork for a powerful new management plan.” States Gord Murray, a regional manager with Golder Associates.

In developing the book, Paul Gossen and his coaching team conducted a comprehensive search for the everyday questions executives, managers and team leaders use to build relationship, create accountability and drive breakthrough results.

They examined the unproductive habits that block business transformation, including email addiction, constant interruption and unrealistic expectations. They worked with hundreds of CEOs, executives and managers and conducted thousands of breakthrough conversations to refine the 17 QuestionsTM that will transform any business.

“Look at any highly successful business leader, great manager, blue chip sales person, accomplished engineer or acclaimed scientist. You will find a master in the art of asking breakthrough questions. Look into any innovative product, scientific breakthrough or surge in business performance. Dig deeply and you will find it all began with a breakthrough conversation,” stated Paul Gossen, author and accomplished executive coach.

-30-

Business Transformed Inc. has conducted large-scale corporate programs for the RCMP, American Express, Golder Associates and the City of Mississauga and has conducted in-house programs for dozens of other Fortune 500 companies. Additional information is available from http://www.businesstransformed.com. Paul Gossen, The Breakthrough Coach, is the founder of Business Transformed Inc., an executive coach, public speaker and author of the management breakthrough book Business Transformed.

Media Contact: Email media@leadershipinc.ca Phone 604 872-4300

What is the nature of a great question?

We immediately notice when someone asks us a great question. The ideas flash, we become curious and we start to think on a new level. The question takes us on a search and the search leads us into new territory. We all have this ability to ask great questions and transform our business, work and life.

Why don’t most questions do this? It could be a closed question with a yes/no answer. The person asking the question may have an agenda or judgment about us. The question might lead us into the past, where we are asked to explain, justify or rationalize our choices. In business, such questions can stop all forward movement for a team.

What is the difference between asking and telling? Telling people what to do is part of business. Systems and procedures need to be communicated. However, you cannot tell someone how to be a great manager or business leader. Telling someone how to do leadership can lead to confusion or overcompensation. Giving advice often comes from the belief that a person does not have what is needed to figure out a solution on their own. This is not the message we want to give to future leaders.

Becoming a great manager or business leader is not a linear process. Telling people what to do won’t build great managers or lead to organizational transformation. How can we avoid the defensive, problem-oriented atmosphere that telling people what to do can lead to?

What is the structure of great open-ended questions? How do great open-ended questions stimulate the flow of ideas? How do great open-ended questions engage us to begin pondering and start a process of inquiry? What is the difference between open and closed questions?

A closed question can only be answered with a yes or a no. This leads to a dead-end conversation. By their nature closed questions tend to inhibit higher-level thinking and deeper reflection. In business, closed questions will reduce independent thinking, creativity and innovation.

Open-ended questions, on the other hand, stimulate inquisitiveness, resourcefulness and deep thinking. We find our own answers when we look into our own life and work. We create confidence and bring personal meaning to our lives. Great questions guide us toward our deepest purpose and strongest future. They open the door to inner learning. Most importantly, open-ended questions offer people an opportunity to move past fear and any limiting ideas they might have about themselves. This allows people to come up with their own integral insights and solutions. Open-ended questions build great managers and business leaders.

How can open-ended questions transform business? How can mastering the art of open-ended questions transform an entire organization? In business, asking a great question is like turning on a tap. The power of open-ended questions is that they lead to more open-ended questions. For example, we conducted the Art & Science of Coaching for Canada Post, an organization with 80,000 people. We could measure, through feedback, the powerful ripple effect as the questioning skillset moved out into the organization.

What are the key skills of a great 21st century manager? The key low-level skills are always operational: process, procedures and information about the business. What are the key high-level skills of a great manager? This book outlines the formula for asking open-ended questions, building relationships, having breakthrough conversations and creating structures of accountability. Building strong relationships is essential. Trust is the equity of teams. Having breakthrough conversations allows teams to create a shared vision for what they want. Designing effective structures of accountability allows teams to stay focused and make realistic promises. These are the key skills of a great 21st century manager.

What does it take to create great managers? Reading this book is the beginning. Asking the questions is the next step. Supporting managers and business leaders to build confidence and momentum in their coaching conversations is the third step. In our management coach training programs, accredited by the International Coach Federation, the first challenge is to immerse managers in the coaching conversation. The second challenge is to build momentum through practice and focus. The aim is to develop a simple bridge to get those coaching conversations into the workplace. This book perfectly illustrates that bridge. It provides a roadmap of everyday questions that naturally lead into powerful breakthrough conversations.

BusinessTransformed is your beginner’s guide to transformational conversations. It playfully encourages managers to move beyond ‘stall and stop’ habits that inhibit organizational transformation. It shows managers how to easily move beyond old habits and learn the essential elements of breakthrough conversations. It outlines a with quick brush strokes how people can move through breakthrough management conversations with power and certainty. It offers a powerful framework of open-ended questions. This book is also an attitude. It is the DNA of a new generation of managers and business leaders.

What will it take to create a truly competitive corporation? Having completed many Fortune 500 coach training programs for managers, I see on a daily basis the challenge that leaders face in bringing a corporation’s management culture to the next level. The BusinessTransformed approach and domain of breakthrough management and leadership coaching is developing rapidly. It offers organizations an ability to “leapfrog” forward with a rapid transformational shift. This book is alchemy. The 17 Questions are the formula for turning lead into gold.

How can we quickly and powerfully alter the management culture of an entire corporation? It is easy to think that the culture of a corporation is static and unchangeable. In reality, the culture of a corporation is always changing and invariably mirrored by the quality of the questions managers are asking. Ask a great question and the spill-over of ideas it creates will spread like wildfire throughout the organization. To build a great company ask a great question.

Marilyn Atkinson Ph.D., President

Erickson Coaching International http://www.erickson.edu

21% of executives admit to emhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifail addiction; new Business Transformed program ends email addiction

For Immediate Release: June 7, 2006

21% of executives admit to email addiction; new Business Transformed program ends email addiction

June 7, 2007, Paul Gossen, The Breakthrough Coach, announces Business Transformed, a workshop, book and coaching program to end email addiction. A free ebook, End Email Addiction, is available for download at End Email Addiction

Just say no, to email addiction. In a recent Symantec survey, 21% of executives admitted to being email dependent - compulsively checking their e-mail and panicking when they can't. Email addicts suffer a 10-point drop in IQ, more than twice the drop recorded by marijuana users concluded a clinical trial of over a thousand participants by HP and the University of London. They found email addicts developed an inability to distinguish between trivial and important messages. 20% consistently jeopardized important relationships by "checking their messages" in the middle of a conversation. Moreover word “Crackberry” can now be found in the Canadian Oxford Dictionary.

Like many Canadians, Wendy Alexander, a Director at the City of Mississauga was spending 3 to 4 hours a day dealing with email. “Email was getting in the way of my Family and my job.” Since taking the program, she now spends less than 45 minutes a day on email. “I have more control of my day and a healthier relationship with email.”

BusinessTransformed assists people to confront their chaotic and reactive email work habits and design their own proactive system and relationship with email. The program is an interactive inquiry in which Executives, managers and information workers tell the truth about their bad email habits and look at strategies to regain control of their email. In this workshop, book and coaching program, people design their personal email plan, manage realistic expectations with co-workers and build a healthier relationship with technology. The participants leave the program with an action plan to take back control of their email.

“Email overload is a hot button management issue right now,” says Paul Gossen, Director of BusinessTransformed and program founder, public speaker and author of the book BusinessTransformed. “Unless individuals tell the truth about their email habits and work as a team to make agreements on how to use email, email addiction will continue to increase.

-30-

BusinessTransformed Inc. has conducted large-scale corporate programs for the RCMP, American Express and the City of Mississauga and has conducted in-house programs for dozens of other Fortune 500 companies. Additional information is available from http://www.businesstransformed.com. Paul Gossen, The Breakthrough Coach, is the founder of Business Transformed Inc., an executive coach, public speaker and author of the management breakthrough book Business Transformed.

Media Contact: media@leadershipinc.ca Phone 604 872-4300