In the downturn, productivity is everything. Small business owners are turning to creative solutions for making conference-room time productive. Here are three examples from “Boring Meetings? Get Out the Water Guns”:

In business writing, you don’t receive extra credit for slathering your sentences with fancy phrases, the way you did in college. Do that in a memo, and you can expect eyes to glaze over. What you cut from your writing is often more important than what you add to it, says Jane Dominguez of The Write Business Advantage. Trim the clutter from business writing with her tips:

Some online tools allow you to say something to work colleagues anonymously, such as Anonymous Employee or TxtEmNow.com. The trouble with this sort of anonymity is that it doesn’t allow you to fully resolve a problem.

Without knowing it, you may be saying things that make you sound less leader-like. Here, courtesy of the editors at Reader’s Digest and Business Management Daily, are some tips that can help you come across better:

The three types of photos to avoid in employee publications, according to Mark Ragan, CEO of Ragan Communications: 1. The “grip-and-grin” photograph, or two people shaking hands and smiling at the camera. 2. The “man on phone at his desk.” 3. The “execution at dawn” shot, or a row of standing employees.

A new academic study finds that people who get along with their co-workers deal better with life’s stresses. The study, published in the American Journal of Public Health, also looked at the connection between work stress and depression.

Although many of the biggest changes in the new health care law won’t take effect until 2014, others kick in this year. These changes mostly affect insurers and the benefits they must offer. It’ll be up to you to understand (and explain) these changes to employees. Among the health insurance changes to expect in 2010:

A co-worker, Pam, argues with practically anything you say, she doesn’t hear what you’re trying to say, and she even lashes out sometimes. Working with a chronically defensive person is difficult, but there’s a secret to having better conversations:

If you're relying solely on your memory to evaluate employee performance, you're making appraisals far more difficult than necessary. That's why it's best to institute a simple recording system to document employee performance. The most useful, easy-to-implement way is to create and maintain a log for each person. Follow these six steps:

When should you use fewer or less? If you can count or list the items, such as “skills,” use fewer. If you’re describing something that’s a broad concept, such as “skill,” or if you’re referring to something that can’t be counted, use less.

The recession has led to more than just job cuts. It has also opened the door to more gossip around the water cooler. In a survey conducted last year by the SHRM, 54% of managers said they had seen an increase in gossip or rumors about downsizing or layoffs. Want to quash rumors? Kathi Elster, co-author of Working with You Is Killing Me, offers these guidelines:

A few things to consider when revising your e-mails: 1. Toss useless words. 2. Last things first. 3. Watch your format. 4. Use effective subject lines. 5. Set the right tone. 6. Always allow room to be corrected.

Have you ever looked at how a colleague is working and thought, “He’d get better results if he did it this way instead”? Should you offer a suggestion? You have a couple of options:

“Because,” “due to,” “since”—which one is the right one to use? Use "because" instead of wordier options, such as “owing to the fact that” or “on the grounds that.” You could also use it instead of the persnickety “due to.” Example: “It was canceled because of illness.” "Since" often means the same thing as “because.”

“Don’t think your boss is getting overwhelmed with praise,” says Quint Studer, CEO of Studer Group and author of Straight A Leadership: Alignment, Action, Accountability. “Bosses hear what’s wrong all the time. Very rarely do they hear what’s right.”

You know the saying: One bad apple can spoil the whole bunch. If you’re a manager, you may occasionally encounter a bad apple. So what does a leader do to stop “problem” employees from spreading their negative influence?

The magic of a thesaurus is that it can take your business writing from drab to unforgettable. Which thesaurus to use? Nothing beats the print version of Roget’s International Thesaurus. But for ease of use, try these bookmarkable online editions:

Taking minutes wasn’t getting any easier for Terri Michaels, even after years of practice. “I had become wordy, and the minutes were sometimes eight pages. Each new director or company wanted them done differently,” she says. Finally, she enrolled in a workshop, and things changed. Now she uses these 10 best practices:

How well do you understand the general guidelines for preparing presentations? Take this quiz. And visit these web sites to find ways to improve your presentations:

Managing the stream of email that gathers in your inbox every day can feel like an impossible task. Slim down your filing system into this “trusted trio” of action-based folders.

“I feel like I’m talking to a wall!” Judy told her co-worker over lunch. “Whether at home or work, I find myself repeating my requests as everyone is just too darn busy to stop what they’re doing and truly listen!” Do you often feel as if your words are falling on deaf ears? Learn to listen with L-O-V-E.

Making a “cold call” can shake the nerves of even a seasoned pro. Engaging with a person you’ve never met is even more challenging if you land in the individual’s voice mail. On his blog, Never Eat Alone author Keith Ferrazzi suggests “warm calling” instead. His four rules for making a warm connection in a 15-second voice mail message:

Loyalty in all aspects of our lives is at a steady decline. Twenty years ago, a person had on average three people he or she could confide in. Today that number is two. And two out of 10 people say they have no one to confide in. And it’s not enough to have loyal connections with friends. Here are three ways to build loyal connections at work:

Using transitions in your writing is like taking readers by the hand and guiding them exactly where you want them to go. Transitional words such as “however,” “meanwhile” or “likewise” create relationships between your sentences and paragraphs so that readers can understand why you’ve written sentences in a particular order.

Fortunately, most admins have strong partnerships with their managers or see ways to build that bond. But some admins are still struggling through their relationships with lousy bosses. Is the solution to quit? Not with unemployment rates above 10%. Here’s another option: Negotiate with your boss, the way the FBI negotiates during a hostage situation.