We have heard that getting the right people on the bus is extremely important. What we may not realize is that keeping the wrong ones from coming aboard is equally vital if we are to maintain a thriving organization. We need to understand and realize that “inclusiveness”, applied indiscriminately, is the most damaging lie of […]
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 […]
Daniel Pink, author of “Drive” and other books, says that people have three basic wants. They are Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose. You might remember that a little better if you think that people like to be “AMPed”. I wonder what he might have said about gamification. As far as I can tell, gamification also fulfills […]
What’s Fun, but a fleeting, cheap emotion? I suppose this post could also be called “I CAN Get MORE Satisfaction”. Now, before you roll your eyes heavenward, do you think I am against having fun? No, not at all! I just think that having a great sense of satisfaction is a whole lot more fun […]
I truly am. For good reason. During those times when you had been made to feel good, maybe with goosebumps all over you, what was one positive growth outcome you experienced? Lasting growth experience, not a bout of I’ll-do-it-because-I-feel-so-amped kind of thing? Right. I didn’t think so either. Anything wrong with feeling good? Obviously not. […]
Reverence. Deep respect. Solemn, gloomy hallways. No fun. Wait a minute! Is there joy? Is there esteem for others? Esteem for self? Is there deep satisfaction? A bubbling up of enthusiasm from an ever-springing fountain? Would reverence be relevant to you? Irreverence. The opposite. Nothing is sacred. No limits. No boundaries. Free and easy. No […]
Mould in bread inspired this post. We opened a bag with two slices of bread left in it this morning and saw that the two slices of bread were mouldy. Since we’re not in the penicillin manufacturing business, we promptly discarded them as mouldy thoughts ran through my mind. The word “mould” is also used […]
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!
You’ve probably heard that “… people may not always remember what you say but people will always remember how you make them feel…” How pathetic! Are we really such a bunch of self-interested brats that we cannot give honour where honour is due? Do we really need such simple, basic training in the quality of […]
Read the title aloud. With punctuation and without. Notice the difference. Fairness is impudent. It dumbs down. It pulls others down to your level of decadence. It is the excuse of laziness. Justice is ennobling. It quickens people. It raises others to a higher level of consciousness. It is the hallmark of due diligence. Don’t […]
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 […]
Have you ever used a typewriter? Yes, that quaint-looking thing in the picture. I have, but I was never a trained typist. I have typed on stencils, made corrections using the correction fluid that I always thought was nail polish and used a cyclostyling machine with panache. One thing about a typewriter was that you’d […]
Al Bagocious shared an article from the WSJ titled “The Case for Lying to Yourself” on LinkedIn. The article says that in some cases it might be ok or even beneficial to lie to yourself, but that you should know where to draw the line between how much of lying to yourself might be beneficial […]
I am sharing Alan Weiss’ “Monday Morning Perspective” for this week in this post. You may download the pdf here. If you find Alan’s memos useful, as I do, you can subscribe via this link: http://summitconsulting.com/databack/index.php Have a great week ahead!
The Seattle Times published an article on 13 Apr 2013 titled “Myers-Briggs personality test embraced by employers, not all psychologists“. You can read the article here: http://bit.ly/15ibPXo I am not a certified MBTI administrator, meaning I cannot administer the tool nor interpret the results of the assessment. I am a qualified DISC trainer, but that’s beside […]
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 […]
What comes to your mind when you think about a great leader, perhaps one that you admire a lot? List down all the adjectives that come to mind. Is “love” one of them? Do you think I am asking a strange question? Why or why not? This is one of those times when you perhaps […]
Roots. Unseen. Unattractive. Not in the limelight. Highly essential if you want good plant growth and, ultimately, good fruit. For every leaf above ground, there are probably hundreds more roots and root hairs working tirelessly to absorb the nutrients so vital for overall plant growth and ultimately a great harvest. Do you want to have […]
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 […]
I commented on a comfortable article on Forbes and noticed that the whole comment doesn’t appear in LinkedIn and Facebook. So I thought I’d post it here. I’d encourage you to read the article, too, I think it’s a good one by Margie Warrell. Hi, Margie, great article! Agreed with what you say, and can I […]
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 […]
I saw some news online today that reminded me to get the message out – when the majority of the planet is in dire need of help, should we be wasting resources on our own selfish fancies? The news reported that a Dutch reality show was seeking volunteers for a one-way trip to Mars. If […]
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 […]
One of the talks I have delivered, and will be delivering this Saturday, 27 Apr 2013, centres around how to make the right decisions. We need to be thinking about things like this every so often, and determine if we are truly who we say we are. Some people call it congruence. Well, I had […]
A lot of people live much of life on the World Wide Web. Does that make them spiders? What would you call a 3D web? Imagine, if you will, a web in three dimensions. From your position at the centre of your web, you have strands of non-sticky silk, perhaps the toughest biological material on […]
Have you made out your will? That’s something we all need to do, regardless of how much or how little we think we have in terms of assets.What about making a W.I.L.L. as in “Walk In Lifelong Learning”? It is a pity that so many who seem to be so highly educated want to have […]
There was a boy who lived in a village several years ago. His father had died, and the family was very poor. One day, one of the other children at the village school stole the only notebook that he had. Feeling sad and angry, the boy was passing by a stall selling fruit on the […]
Derek Sivers says that leadership is overrated. Excuse me, Derek, I differ! There is no first follower if there is no first leader! Leadership is a package deal. Not only must a leader be bold enough to stand alone, if need be, but he must also be influential enough to inspire others to towards a […]
Be honest. Are you sufficiently at peace with yourself, are you “centered”, do you walk with your head held high, and does your stride say that you have a purpose in life? Or do you live waiting for someone to come up to you and tell you that you’re ok, that they believe in you, […]
I was meeting two people at SingPost (Singapore Post) building when I had a sensation of something under my right foot. Thinking that perhaps something had gotten under my right foot, I looked down. Lo and behold, but the sole of my right shoe had decided to detach itself somewhat from the rest of the […]
People like to say that life is like a marathon. We’re in for the long haul, so space yourself out, don’t get burned out! Others say that’s not true at all, that life is really a series of sprints. Rest at the right times, flat out when appropriate. What’s your view? I think life is […]
Those who have been in active service with the Forces will know this to be a low-level tactical formation. I guess some people have also thought it was a battlefield tactic! Such people contribute greatly to the horrors of war. Training our people and getting them thinking two levels up has always been a priority, […]
Are you familiar with the terms “pedagogy” and “andragogy“? “Pedagogy” is supposed to be education which is centered on the needs of the child, and “andragogy” is supposed to centered on the needs of, you guessed it, adults. You think so? I don’t! We have taken terms to the extreme. That is part of the […]
“If you see your brother standing by the road…. with a heavy load… from the seeds he’s sowed…” so the song goes. It goes on to exhort us to “try a little kindness…” Sounds good? Would it help your business to be perceived as kind and benevolent? An enterprise people can’t do without? Intuitively, we […]
The importance of networking, both online and in-person networking, has been highlighted in a few forums recently. If you’re still not sure why you ought to be networking seriously, you might like to take note of these two points: 1. Networking is NOT for selling your products or services, it is for developing RELATIONSHIPS with […]
Do you grow vegetables? We do, in the narrow corridor fronting our very urban apartment. We grow them in pots because there’s no space otherwise. We can’t grow very much, of course, but we grow the vegetables in order to get some hands-on experience. There are some things you can learn from growing your own […]
Are you an innovative person? Is your organization innovative? What, in any case, IS innovation? Well, I think most of us would agree that innovation is introducing change, organic or otherwise, that would help make things better, faster, smoother, more efficient, more effective, more user-friendly, more cost-effective, or a combination of the above. We hear […]
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 […]
Thomas Malm’s blog of 09 Feb 2013 mentioned silos and synapses, and immediately sparked off this post. When “silo” is thrown your way, what comes to your mind? Do you have negative feelings? Well, “silos” and structures resembling “silos” are actually pretty essential in many instances. If our esophagi (gullets) and tracheae (windpipes) didn’t function in […]
Motivate your staff? Or inspire them? Can it be both, at different times answering to different needs? We are told we can’t motivate anyone, we can only set conditions that appeal to what they prefer to be doing, and they’ll motivate themselves. Well, that’s good for a start, but I do think we need to […]
There are many discussions online that seem to serve very little purpose. They are dysfunctional discussions. They seem to have gone on like forever, and continue their meandering path with little or no fruitfulness as a result. Perhaps Sam Walter Foss’ “The Calf Path” says it all too well. People tend to imbibe other people’s […]
We’ve all heard the conventional wisdom that we need to be specialized in something, be very good at something that only we can do, or we won’t get much attention and we won’t get much market share. Well, I don’t know about you, but I’ve always been known to be highly unconventional. I am not […]
We would usually only ask if a lady were expecting if she happened to be a close relative, a close friend or perhaps a workplace colleague. Of course, all of us would be expecting a bundle of joy to be delivered and inquire as to the date and probably give lots of advice as to […]
Fear is actually a good thing. It keeps us alive. A healthy fear of consequences helps us to stay safe even as we explore and find ways to become more creative. There are two basic motivating drives in all human beings: Fear of Loss, and Desire for Gain. These two complement each other. It is […]
Something I read on Inc. this morning caught my attention. Margaret Heffernan was writing about her observations that the pipeline for female leaders is full to bursting point. She said that, during her interviews with women leaders, she asked the question “So what have you done to help other women?” Those who answered with confidence, […]
When discussing topics like “multi-tasking”, one of the things I raise is that we ought, not to “multi-task”, but to achieve proficiency in as many relevant competencies as possible, to the extent that those competencies, which may involve processes, become, as it were, “automatic”. I like to illustrate this by using the autonomic and sympathetic […]
“HR seems to place more obstacles than provide solutions”. “Finance is utterly inflexible. Can’t they see what we need?” “We need to deliver the goods NOW! Why does Logistics take so long?” “Silo mentality” is a common complaint that we don’t want to hear about every day. Of course, any business would like to break […]
I happened to come across an article entitled “The Evolution of Blind Acceptance“, and immediately the thought of corporate conscience came to mind. If you’re familiar with what I write about, you’ll know that one of my lines is “If your business does not give great value to ALL stakeholders, you have no business being […]
We are often exhorted to “Find what you love and do it”. Less often do we hear “Love what you do when you’re in it”, meaning learning to love your job, whatever it is! Some of you might know the story of the bird that failed to fly to warmer climes for the winter. Shivering […]
If you’re a parent, chances are that you think one of the measures of your success is how well your kids turned out. How about going a step further? What if the REAL measure of your success as a parent is actually how well your GRANDCHILDREN turn out? Are you scared now? Think about it! […]
You must be logged in to post a comment.