problem-solving
Become a Corporate Mentalist when interviewing new Employees.
Submitted by Erik Vermeulen on Wed, 2010-04-21 13:26
Understanding people and their “natural” (or thrust) behaviour style can go a long way to helping HR professionals streamline the recruitment of new employees. Research shows that poor behavioural fit with existing team members can lead to conflict and a significant drop in team and individual performance. So it’s a good idea to be able to interview not only for ability and attitude, but also for behavioural fit.
The world needs creative Leaders. So why are they so rare?
Submitted by Erik Vermeulen on Wed, 2009-07-22 13:31
As you may know I try to keep an eye on the Harvard Business Review. Although many of their articles and books are theory-based, they seem to have recently adopted a much more practical approach. This week I came across this article about an address at a confernce by Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, the former President of India. The article was written by Navi Radjou who is the Executive Director of the Centre for India & Global Business at the Judge Business School at the University of Cambridge.
Bullet and ball
Submitted by Erik Vermeulen on Mon, 2009-03-30 10:27You're standing on the edge of an ocean with a high powered rifle and a ball. The ocean is smooth and there is no wind. Holding the rifle level with the ground six feet high, you fire a bullet out to sea. The very instant the bullet leaves the barrel you drop the ball from the same height as the rifle. Which will hit the water first, the bullet or the ball?
Answer: The ball will hit first. The curvature of the earth will cause the bullet to travel farther down, even though they both drop at the same rate of speed.
Polygons
Submitted by Erik Vermeulen on Mon, 2009-03-30 10:24A boy was told to identify a polygon. The teacher gave him 3 clues:
1. I have 4 equal sides.
2. All my angles add to 360 degrees
3. I'm not a square.
What am I?
Answer: A rhombus, because all the sides are the same length, all the angles add to 360 degrees and it isn't a square.
The farmer's dilemma
Submitted by Erik Vermeulen on Fri, 2009-03-27 15:10A farmer has a dog, a sack of grain and a live chicken, all of which he must take across a river. The boat will only carry him and one of the things at a time or it will sink. Without the farmer, the dog would kill the chicken, and the chicken would eat the grain. How does he get all three across safely to continue his journey?
Answer: He takes the chicken and comes back; then he takes the grain and comes back with the chicken; then he takes the dog and comes back; then he takes the chicken.
How to make money disappear - wierd maths
Submitted by Erik Vermeulen on Fri, 2009-03-27 14:58Three men eat at a restaurant. The bill comes to £25. They each pay £10. When the waiter brings the £5 change they take back £1 each and leave a £2 tip. So each man has paid £9, which totals £27. The waiter has the £2 tip, which makes £29, so where's the other £1 gone?
Answer: The figures will not add to £30 because they are not from the same equation. Equation 1: What's been paid is £25 for the meal - which is in the till, and £2 for the tip - in the waiter's pocket, leaving the men with £1 each, ie £3, which all adds up to £30. Equation 2: The men have each paid £9 for the meal and the tip together, ie £27, and they each have a £1 in their pocket, ie £3, which all adds up to £30.
Egg trick - Humpty Dumpty wished he knew this!!
Submitted by Erik Vermeulen on Fri, 2009-03-27 14:43How to balance an egg on its end with no visible means of support:
You need just a few grains of salt.
Make a tiny pile of salt on a flat surface and balance the egg on the pile. Then carefully blow away the excess salt, leaving just the few grains actually supporting the egg. (Obviously this needs preparing in advance - if pressed to repeat the trick, place the egg down hard enough to break the shell, which will also enable it to balance).
