Vatican Humor

After getting all of Pope Benedict's luggage loaded into the limo, (and he doesn't travel light), the driver notices the Pope is still standing on the curb.

'Excuse me, Your Holiness,' says the driver, 'Would you please take your seat so we can leave?'

'Well, to tell you the truth,' says the Pope, 'They never let me drive at the Vatican when I was a cardinal, and I'd really like to drive today.'

'I'm sorry, Your Holiness, but I cannot let you do that. I'd lose my job! What if something should happen?' protests the driver, wishing he'd never gone to work that morning.

'Who's going to tell?' says the Pope with a smile?

Reluctantly, the driver gets in the back as the Pope climbs in behind the wheel. The driver quickly regrets his decision when, after exiting the airport, the Pontiff floors it, accelerating the limo to 205 kph. (Remember, the Pope is German.)

'Please slow down, Your Holiness!' pleads the worried driver, but the Pope keeps the pedal to the metal until they hear sirens.

'Oh, dear God, I'm going to lose my license -- and my job!' moans the driver.

The Pope pulls over and rolls down the window as the cop approaches, but the cop takes one look at him, goes back to his motorcycle, and gets on the radio.

'I need to talk to the Chief,' he says to the dispatcher.

The Chief gets on the radio and the cop tells him that he's stopped a limo going 205 kph.

'So bust him,' says the Chief.

'I don't think we want to do that, he's really important,' said the cop.

The Chief exclaimed,' All the more reason!'

'No, I mean really important,' said the cop with a bit of persistence.

The Chief then asked, 'Who do you have there, the mayor?'

Cop: 'Bigger.'

Chief: 'A senator?'

Cop: 'Bigger.'

Chief: 'The Prime Minister?'

Cop: 'Bigger.'

Well,' said the Chief, 'Who is it?'

Cop: 'I think it's God!'

The Chief is even more puzzled and curious, 'What makes you think it's God?'

Cop: 'His chauffeur is the Pope!'

How to create a positive email culture in an Organization

Organizations can create a smarter email culture by asking everyone to do their part to save time with email. Email can be a pain to some people, as the more they are, the more time you have to spend reading them through. Some people prioritize, give immediate attention or simply skip emails, according to the priorities of the email.

It would be a lot different to send an email. There are a lot considerations to be thought off before pressing the send button on your email client. Things like, who are the recipients, was this information useful for the recipients or this would be just another junk?

Not everyone uses email the same way we do. Different people have different perspectives, priorities, experience, job scope, interest and so on when it comes to managing email; this would include reading email and responding back. We should all agree that too much email can be wasting your time, same goes to email that is too long or too many information in it, would a waste of time for you to compose as other people would just had a glance through without picking up the real points you intended to the recipients.

The following would be some tips of getting the positive email culture in your organization, probably it can start off with YOU :)

1. Possibly refrain from sending email - Keep it human. Go talk to the intended person, either face to face or via a phone call. 
2. Keep your Distribution List (DL) updated - You need to get updated if the recipients in your DL really needs your email or otherwise. This should be done at least after a few cycles of sending out the email
3. Send only to relevant stakeholders - Some people would just click reply to all or put everyone in the CC list just to get them notified on issues. This would definitely create unnecessary email chain going on and on. By not doing this, you're ensuring only relevant people gets the info and probably CC you manager just to get him notified, or possibly as he/she requested
4. Compose a short and clear structured email - Write a clear subject of the message so your recipient would have a clear picture of the subject you're talking about. It would later be easier accessible from the archive if they need to find it back. Possibly write one issue per email as having multiple issue per email would result a branched email to many possible subjects later would result possible delay and confusion. It's proven that email with specific content is getting responded/resolved faster
5. Try to summarize - When there's an email chain, and it's going to be redirected to some new recipients, try getting it summarized, so it will eat some of your time but save a lot of others. Prioritize top 'Action Items' so people would be on the same page. This is helpful, especially for mobile users.
6. Check your Inbox in a smarter manner - After some times, you would be able to predict what kind of email to be coming in to your inbox. You may skip and prioritize based on the sender or subject. If you're a mobile user, you should be doing this from time to time so it will save you time on your desktop later
7. Structure your mailbox - You may create rules or automatically copy all your mailbox to another local folder. Accessing your email locally is normally faster and save a lot of time. Probably create folder named tasks or something. Be smart
8. Be a role model - Set a good example for others to follow. Once you're comfortable you may give other constructive feedback to help others in your organization practicing these best principles.

My 2-monitor hackintosh setup

Picture that tells