Period Pains - Why We Must Fight Against Stereotypes And Negative Perceptions

At best, periods are seen as a monthly inconvenience for most women. It's true that menstruation is often accompanied by painful cramps or mood swings, yet this entirely natural, healthy process suffers from unnaturally negative associations in modern society. These squeamish, almost superstitious attitudes seem to be cultivated by the so-called feminine hygiene industry which claims to serve women during their periods.
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<br>Tampon companies have a vested interest in maintaining long held cultural perceptions of menstruation as dirty or something requiring protection. This means they can keep selling disposable sanitary products (note the word sanitary which implies the need to take precautions against dirt, infection or disease, as if menstrual blood was some kind of bio-hazard !) Tampons and pads are always bleached white which adds to the sterile image. Blood is even bizarrely replaced by a blue liquid during TV commercials. And of course, the big hook with commercial pads and tampons is that they have to be bought each month, then thrown away after a single use, increasing profits while perpetuating the notion that menstrual blood is something that must be sanitized and disposed of untouched.
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<br>The other subtle yet powerful message is that your period is embarrassing and shameful . Adverts often use words like 'discreet' or claim that no-one will ever know you have your period. Sometimes tampon boxes and wrappers have neutral designs in order to disguise their contents. While women usually have no trouble discussing menstruation amongst their close female friends - most would never mention it to an acquaintance, and would be horrified if a tampon box or pad happened to spill out of their handbag in public. This programming starts early when a girl first menstruates in her early teens. Formal sex education in schools is often accompanied by free samples and commercial pamphlets with the same vaguely negative messages. Teenagers tend to be self conscious about the changes in their body during puberty, so it is easy to add menstruation to the long list of things for girls to be anxious or ashamed about - and unfortunately this shame often persists unquestioned into adulthood.
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<br>If you want to start rejecting these attitudes and the industry which fuels them, there are several alternatives to commercial pads and tampons. Tampons made from non-bleached cotton are available for those with allergies, eczema or prone to irritation caused by bleaches in tampons. Another option is to use washable cloth pads, which is actually what women have always used historically anyway. Some women use reusable menstrual cups such as the Diva Cup, Mooncup or The Keeper. They are soft cups usually made from medical grade silicone that sit inside the vagina and collects the blood. They are then emptied, washed and reinserted. Sea sponges are also used as tampon alternatives as they are very absorbent and sit inside the vagina. The difference with sea sponges is that they are entirely natural and, like the menstrual cup they can be rinsed and re-inserted.
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<br>Some of these alternative menstrual products mean you need to become more comfortable with your vagina and more familiar with its processes and unique rhythms. The fact is - menstruation is not dirty or unhygienic, or shameful or weird. It's a wonderful sign that your body is working - something you'll never hear on a tampon ad.
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<br>About the Author: Lydia Clark is a writer with a particular interest in female health and wellbeing. You can read more about the <a href="http://www.mooncuponline.com/" rel="nofollow">Mooncup</a> Menstrual Cup by clicking the link.
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Time Keeps on Ticking - What's a Day of New Product Delay Costing You?

<p>Companies that try to improve return on new product investment by managing project expenses are pulling the wrong lever. I'm not saying cost isn't important. But once staffed, project cost is largely driven by the length of time the project team takes to finish. Managing project completion dates is a much stronger lever for controlling the cost side of the equation. As an added benefit, that lever creates tremendous impact on the revenue side. </p><p>Let me share a jaw dropping discussion that I had with a mid-size business last week. We were discussing their innovation bottleneck which was getting projects through development on time. One project was more than six months late, so I asked if they knew what the extra development time was costing them. </p><p>"Well the project costs could easily end up double what we anticipated," the COO told me. "But that's not my biggest concern." He then explained that a competitor had recently released a new feature and had taken almost 20% market share. They needed the project just to catch up in the marketplace. Even if they could only regain half of the loss, every day of delay was costing them nearly $50,000 in lost sales: quite a hit for a mid-sized company. </p><p><b>Delivering the project late was not only impacting the project costs but the revenues too. </b>When he shared this information, his project leader was stunned. If only she had known! She would have prioritized differently. She would have put lower priority projects on the back burner. She wouldn't have allowed new product perfection to get in the way of good enough. </p><p><b>So, is there anything you can do to help your teams deliver projects in less time? </b>Here are a few strategies that can have a big impact: 
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<li><b>Limit multi-tasking</b> - I say this every time, but only because it's so harmful to productivity. People stretched across too many projects are less productive, but even worse the quality of work suffers and waiting delays use up the project buffer unnecessarily.</li>
<li><b>Conduct comprehensive project planning - </b>Have your team evaluate potential obstacles and develop plans that includes early verification of technical, manufacturing, and commercial feasibility. This planning requires full participation from supply chain all the way to marketing.</li>
<li><b>Inform project teams</b> - Everyone on or supporting the team should know how much each day of delay affects the company in both higher costs and lost revenue. Align incentives correctly and peer pressure will make the team much less likely to accept unnecessary delays.</li>
<li><b>Freeze product requirements before design starts - </b>Nothing delays a project like adding new features and design requirements during development. One consumer products company had a project, originally estimated to take a year, which was passing the three-year mark. I found that well-meaning executives were continuing to suggest changes well into the design stage, which the project manager felt compelled to include. Innovators need to treat project schedules like train schedules. Railroads don't call the train back to add new passengers; they put them on the next train.</li>
<li><b>Employ critical chain project planning techniques </b>- Ask how quickly someone can complete a task if everything goes perfectly and they might say 1 week. Ask how long it would take to complete the same task with a very high degree of certainty (95% or more), and they will normally double their original estimate. The difference between the two is the task safety buffer. If a student knows that they have two weeks to finish a task that takes one day, many only start the day before the assignment is due. Because of this "student syndrome", individual tasks rarely finish in any less than the time allotted. Since this consumes the safety buffer at each step, any unforeseen problems result in project delays.  Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM) attacks this problem by estimating each task length at both a high degree of certainty and at the shortest possible time (50% certainty). The project plan uses the shortest time as the planned task time and adds a shared safety buffer that replaces the task buffers. The difference is that the project buffer only needs to be half the size of the task buffers since tasks start as soon as possible and sharing reduces the overall variance. By definition, CCPM accepts that half of the tasks will take longer than planned. So the buffer still gets used, but on its intended purpose of unexpected delays and problems: not on unnecessary waiting and procrastination. As a result, companies implementing CCPM usually reduce project completion time and cost estimates by 25% or more and achieve on-time completion rates of 98% or better. </li>
</ol></p><p><b>The More Impact Bottom Line - </b>Project delays are a major drain on new product return on investment, and they have the added impact of driving up costs while also delaying new product revenues. If getting new products through development is holding your company back, these five strategies can help eliminate the constraints that are preventing you from delivering more impact.</p><p>Mike Dalton's Guided Innovation Group helps companies that are struggling to get more impact from their new product innovation investment. Clients using the Guided Innovation System for continuous innovation improvement see more growth impact from their new products in less time.</p><p>If this article has interested you, you can download our free report on continuous innovation improvement at <a target="_new" href="http://www.guidedinnovation.com/5steps" rel="nofollow">http://www.guidedinnovation.com/5steps</a>.</p><p>Copyright 2009. Guided Innovation Group, LLC and Michael A. Dalton.</p>