I read on Channel News Asia this morning that prices for TELCO services are tumbling, and that it’s good for consumers, but is that all there is to competition? Well, of course not. Competition is what happens when you have scarce resources which have alternative uses. This means whoever purports to provide those services is […]
Google yielded 1.2 million results when I typed “talent shortage” just before writing this post. The IT sector is currently complaining about a “shortage of tech talent” which, even if available, is seen to be “expensive.” Really? What are all our ICT graduates doing, then? When I actually started reading a few posts and articles […]
Confused? Really? There used to be a television series called “Lost in Space” which first aired in the mid-1960s. One of the characters was the “B-9, Class M-3 General Utility Non-Theorizing Environmental Control Robot” usually known only as “Robot.” The Robot is memorable for two phrases: “Danger, Will Robinson!” and “Does not compute!” It is […]
Get the picture? Yes! So what? Make a movie! A picture paints a thousand words, so they say. If that’s the case, would it be true to say that a movie shows a thousand pictures? With audio thrown in, perhaps? It’s been said that if we change our words, we will change our world. Well, […]
Speakers Love Speaking? I get bored when I listen to many other people speaking as well. Few speakers can actually capture my attention these days. Why do I get bored listening to myself speaking? Does the same thing happen to you? Do you get bored listening to yourself? Wait a minute, aren’t speakers supposed to love […]
I have decided to go with manual signups and manual maintenance of payment and membership records until I find a good system which I can trust to do that for me. As such, memberships are still available for a dollar a day, billed monthly. Contact me if you would like to join me and start […]
What comes to your mind when “viral” is thrown across your path? Do you see wildly popular content shared by millions of people across the web? Do you wish that you could create similar content? Are you anticipating millions coming your way, so that you can retire to a life of ease? Or do you […]
Boundaries are essential. In fact, life would be impossible without clear boundaries. Yet, boundaries are also invitations for close coordination, leading to mutually beneficial exchanges. How do you see boundaries?
Feeling blase? Feeling, as some put on their social media statuses, “meh”? Your mouth has a lot to do with that! Switch from “Blah-say” to “Bon-say”!
We are all encouraged to tell stories. Which is a good thing, for not many are adept at the telling, and it is a skill that comes in very useful indeed. Stories are a very good way of enhancing the messages we continuously radiate. There is, however, the flip side. And the flip side is […]
“Four legs goood…..two legs baaaad…..four legs goood…two legs baaad!!!” go the sheep in George Orwell’s Animal Farm. People behave in many ways just like sheep. Feel insulted already? Think about it! Sound bites, short attention spans, focusing on what others have and lacking in self-control. Some guru declares that we need to be more assertive, […]
Yes, I wrote that. Pretty uncharacteristic of me, but I wrote that. Do you want to be rich? Why? What does being rich mean to you? Not having to work another day in your life? Being able to do all the things you’ve been wanting to do, but haven’t had the resources? What does “work” […]
Slow death by Political Correctness (PC) is to me a painful death to die. I always wonder why we can’t get to the point, why we can’t call a spade a spade. I don’t object to using euphemisms, if the context, intent and situation call for their use. So, what’s the difference? Political Correctness seeks […]
Have you ever been encouraged to “fire your Boss”? Have you thought about “firing your Boss” yourself? I wrote a little bit about this in “Wish You Could Fire Your Boss? Why? So You Can Take Over?” a while back, and I’d like to expand on this a little more. Think of all the reasons […]
Everybody wants to rule the world. Everybody wants to be an author for the same reason. The word “author” refers to someone who has authority vested in him or her by virtue of the fact that he or she is an expert on the subject, has at least some degree of experience in it, has […]
“Say what you mean and mean what you say” seems to have lost its meaning for at least some people these days. Whatever proceeds forth out of your mouth is no longer valued as what will be done, what has been agreed upon. Saying “You have my word on that” no longer holds water for many […]
Never Fail? Do you fear failure? Do you know people who say things like “I never fail, I only learn”? Well, I respect where they’re coming from, and I also know that language controls communications and controls our thoughts. It is not only a tad hypocritical to say that we never fail, it actually causes […]
I had a rather refreshing conversation with a younger person this morning. It was refreshing because he was giving off good vibes about his developing and sustaining good relationships with his clients as well as his suppliers. He was able to provide details about how he went about doing so, and how he visualized growth […]
We hear of it all the time these days. Email, from being a handy communications channel, is now seen by many as a dreaded, insidious intruder. I’m not one of those many, as you can tell. Stop it! When are you going to grow up? Calling email a menace, labelling it as passe, is akin […]
Refers to the pursuit of being The Hub of All Spheres. It’s good to aspire to be a hub, a centre of excellence, quality, research, resources, craftsmanship, production and so on. The real question is “Why?” Why do you wish to be a Medical Hub? A Conventions Hub? A Life Sciences Hub? Is it because […]
I always find it so amusing when people wring their hands in anguish at the prospect of an impending change at the workplace. Change is seen as something distasteful, something to be feared, for it upsets the sacred calm waters of the status quo. For when those calm waters get stirred, who knows what may […]
The online etymology dictionary says that “enthusiasm” comes from the Greek enthousiasmos, or “divine inspiration”. Just as “encourage” has the meaning of “to put courage into”, so “enthusiasm” has the connotation of “to put God into”. Enthusiasm in certainly infectious, as anyone who has been around another person caught up in something he or she happens to be enthusiastic […]
That includes the female version of hunk, too, whatever they’re called. Are you good at having your say? Or do you fear saying what you really want to say for whatever reason? Do you speak well in public, or do you suffer from that fear of public speaking known as “glossophobia“? Would you like to […]
I am always amazed at the capacity people have for taking one aspect of what someone is saying and treating it as the entire message. I see this so often on social media that I actually dread participating in certain discussions! We have been told so often to speak up and make ourselves heard that […]
We have all, I suppose, heard of “constructive conflict”. Do you think it exists? When was the last time you had some “constructive conflict”? Did you feel as though you were in conflict with others? It has been said that when you have more than one person in an organization, disagreements are inevitable. Therefore, the […]
I’m sure you’ve heard many gurus telling you not to work IN the business and to start to work ON the business. Bless them, they’re telling you to do the right thing. Trouble is, they’re not telling it to you in the proper way. We need to do BOTH. When an artist is working on a canvas, he steps back […]
Download the pdf. Hi, I’m Elijah Lim. Mirror, mirror, on the wall…who’s the best assessment of them all? Now, you will realize that there are many psychometric tools, there are many leadership assessments, personality tests, team assessments, you name it. Love them or hate them, one thing’s for certain – they’re here to stay, they’ve […]
Download the pdf. Hi, this is Elijah Lim, and to borrow from what Tweety the yellow bird said, “I tot I taw a puddy tat!” Now, we’re quite familiar with that expression and what does that mean? Well, I’d like to discuss today something about what we see, how we interpret stuff, and what we […]
Download the pdf. This is not a word-for-word transcript, but the essence is the same. I came across a LinkedIn article called “Key Reasons Delegating Is SO Difficult and What To Do About It” on 07 Oct 2013. I’d written something about “Deliberate delegation” before, and this post caught my eye. It seems that the […]
Semper moronis. No, you won’t find that in the Latin dictionary, I made it up. “Always moronic.” I was at a Roundtable for Customer Service yesterday. One of the observations shared was that people seem to trust their social media to the nth degree, going by the numbers. It seems that people are more likely […]
Do you have issues with strategy implementation? In simple terms, how often do your plans actually translate into fruitful and profitable action? Have you found the execution of your plans to be smooth, or have they been nightmarish quagmires of frantic attempts to get the plan moving? Have your business units been able to cooperate […]
Ever had someone talking AT you? You know what I mean – someone going on and on and on, and you’re either not wanting to listen, the topic is irrelevant to you, or it’s someone higher up the ladder telling you things you’d rather not hear. How did you feel about that? How would you […]
References: Battlefield Detectives – Massacre at Waterloo Gartner On Big Data: Everyone’s Doing It, No One Knows Why Why the CMO Will Soon Have a Better Pulse on the Business than the CFO Previous posts on Big Data and related Generals are, well, generalists, in a sense of the word. Able to zoom out in […]
If you are used to me by now, you will know that I don’t mean “Public Relations” in the first “PR.” So what do I mean? Personal Responsibility, of course! If you are a Public Relations honcho and depend on that to pay your bills, lower your hackles and read on! Of course, “PR Campaigns […]
The word “lebensraum” means “habitat” or “living space” in German and was one of the components of disastrous Nazi ideology. I picked the word up when reading J.F.C. Fuller’s “The Second World War: A Strategical and Tactical History” many years ago and it stuck fast in my mind. All of us require living space, and […]
During the course of work, I often hear remarks like “I think the energy is low”, or “I think they need an energizer.” While this is true in some cases, it is not always so. You know it yourself. Just because you’re sitting at a table sipping coffee doesn’t always mean you’re relaxing. If you’re […]
I came across a Quartz article about how some well-known business chiefs hold ruthlessly effective meetings. I’d encourage you to read the article, and I’d just like to highlight the main points here, and what my take on them is. Throw out the least necessary person in the room Apparently, that was how Steve Jobs […]
Baby Boomers. Gen X. Gen Y. Gen Z. Gen Gap. Gen Repeat Process. Gen ad infinitum. We really love labelling, stereotyping and generalizing, don’t we? Just because some “expert” said that “studies have shown that…”, means we pick up the paint roller and give all and sundry the broad-brush treatment. Does that happen to you? […]
Of course, you can guess my age looking at the title. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you can always stare at it in a lecherous manner, meaning go ogle it! If you understand chunking, you’ll know what I’m talking about! Did you have a great pen-pal? I never did, but I have […]
Update: The video clip is now embedded here. Heard that before? What do you think? Have a look at this powerpoint show! The image is clickable, too!
I just saw a friend’s post about a rather less-than-satisfactory dining experience. This is what she wrote. No names or locations mentioned in this post. “I feel compelled to write this review as this is the worst restaurant experience I ever had. When I made the reservation I was told that there is only a […]
Profanity seems to be more and more prevalent these days. That’s how I hear it, in any case. The age at which the use of crude or foul language is “acceptable” appears to me to be getting lower and lower. It used to be that girls who cuss were really wayward. Now it seems to […]
Intrapersonal Intelligence is listed as one of Howard Gardner’s “Multiple Intelligences”. With all the talk about “flatter” organizations, self-directed staff and learners, and connectedness amongst and across organizations, it is time to start looking at organizations as living organisms, if you haven’t started to yet! Some people already have, of course. For instance, there has […]
Do you look forward to meetings at your workplace, or do you dread them? This is regardless of whether you just attend them or you actually convene and chair them. For those who dread meetings at your workplace, why? If you say that they are a waste of time, how did they turn out to […]
I have Hazriq Idrus of “The Speaking Factory” to thank for this blog post. Last night we had the 85th APTS meeting at The Plaza, Beach Road. Hazriq was one of the speakers and he spoke on “STAGE-Play!: Creative & Theatrical Games for Trainers & Workshop Leaders”. The main thrust of the talk was in […]
Yes, “Who are you?”, not “How are you?”. We greet each other with “How are you?” so often that if we get the reply “Just terrible!”, we’d probably respond with “That’s great! Have a nice day!”. This is an example of an inanity, and it needs to be erased. We indulge in inanities so much […]
How essential is IT to your business? Pretty much, I take? Well, whether you run a small business or a large enterprise, IT is definitely part of your outfit in one way or another. I would just invite you to consider – is it a servant or has IT become your master? Do you make […]
Most of us know that we can bring a horse to water, but we can’t force the horse to drink. Ah…but we can salt the oats! What does that mean? Well, for those of us who aren’t used to horsing around, oats are what horses get fed. Besides the green, green grass you see in […]
On social media, and in email messages, I have noticed that many people tend to simply share what others have written. While this is good and certainly appreciated, I wonder if you would like to increase your own Visibility and Credibility while doing this good deed? Adding your own views and comments to something that […]
Did the Titanic hit the iceberg and sink because she was not aware that there were icebergs in the area she was in? Definitely not. Radio messages relayed by Morse code were being sent from ship to ship reporting icebergs in the very area that the Titanic was sailing in. Why the messages were largely […]
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