Many governments around the world are acting to protect jobs, to varying degrees of success, that I can see. Protecting jobs is laudable and necessary, especially in times like these, during a pandemic. When you think about it, it’s actually throwing the spotlight on something many governments, corporations and companies have been trying to do, […]
I’ve had quite enough of being told to “Go down to their level.” Stop this nonsense. The only reason you go down to “their” level is to raise them up to yours. And the only reason you raise them up to your level is to raise them higher than yourself. One of my favourite quotes […]
SOS – Supply Of Supplication Supplicants the world over beam their SOS signals every day. They ask for love, appreciation, fulfillment, excitement, purpose, gratification and so forth. This is besides the need for air, water and food so they can go on living. Increasingly, wants disguised as needs are also broadcast as SOS. We call this […]
Inanities How often have you read a report about once-great entities now gone to the dogs? Have you noticed how often those entities are described as being “Victims of their own success”? What does that mean? I don’t know, do you? How do companies become “Victims of their own success”? After all, if your success […]
Of Babies and Bathwater “Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater” is a very useful adage to keep in mind. I wrote some time ago about “Silos? Or Synapses?” In that post I emphasized that we ought to think in terms of synapses rather than silos. Lately, I’ve been seeing many posts about abolishing silos […]
Many years ago, we used to sing a silly campfire song which went something like: Says a thousand-legged worm As he gives a little squirm Have you seen a little leg of mine? If it can’t be found I shall have to hop around On my nine hundred and ninety-nine! Hop around, hop around Have […]
And Master of Some. Forget about the other second part of the phrase which says “and master of none.” Master of None? Says who? Now, of course, given the span of human life, it would not be easy for anyone to become a Jack of ALL trades, but isn’t mastering a few trades reasonable? Does mastering […]
“Look before you leap.” “Think before you act.” “Logic makes people think, emotion makes them act.” Yes, we’ve heard all these before. Some of us might even be living by them. Level-headedness is more the exception than the norm. “Go with the flow” is often taken to the extreme and becomes nothing more than impetuousness. […]
Some people call for specialization. Our companies, our businesses, aren’t specialized, aren’t differentiated, enough, they say. Yet others call for greater diversification. We need to expand our repertoire in order to traverse the bumpy terrain of the business world effectively. Which is right, you might ask, and of course it is both. Businesses do not make […]
A comrade of mine recalled an incident when he was training cadets. It happened to be an offensive operations exercise, and the cadets had fared very badly. During the main debrief, which was of course after all the After-Action-Reviews (AARs), “Hotwashes”, or what I personally have come to disdain as “Hogwashes” and so forth. When the […]
Everybody thinks they’re lucky and everyone wants to be lucky. Fortune does favour the bold. The bold are prepared. That’s why they’re bold.
It’s not what you know, or what you think you know. It’s whether you know the whys and how to apply what you know.
There are many advantages you stand to gain when you hire veterans. Treat them well and you will gain even more!
Yes indeed. In the commodities market, that is. Not as in trading in commodities, but in treating too many things and too many people as if they were commodities. When we do so, the one thing that always comes to mind is price. Commoditization pushes price down by increasing consumption, maximizing efficiency, and large-scale production. […]
Mankind has been searching for the elixir of youth for a long, long time. Anti ageing, the quest for youthfulness, indeed, the search for eternal life, is something innate in all of us. Even those who talk about an eternal blackness, of no consciousness, actually seek an unimaginably joyous eternity but sink into blackness because […]
That’s right – Lack of Self Esteem. Which is of course directly linked to lack of self-efficacy, which is related to subscribing to the wrong set of beliefs. Beliefs like taking “Don’t work hard, work smart” to the extreme. Like “Don’t worry, you are unique – just like everyone else.” And like “The customer is […]
Someone shared a post on “16 Ways to Put More Enthusiasm in Your Work and Life” by John Wood, and I was struck by how true the Law of Entropy is. The little drawing below came to mind, how different character qualities all support one another. In fact, we need all facets of our character to […]
In our journey towards excellence and being all that we are designed to be and to do, we often encounter turbulence, storms, heavy seas and other forms of adverse environmental conditions that seem bent on stopping us in our tracks. They take the form of naysayers, people who never remember anything good you’ve done and […]
There has been a spate of increases in grants, as in funding, as in monetary, being given by the Singapore Government in recent years. Of course, they are meant to encourage Singapore companies to become more productive, more entrepreneurial, more organized, get more research work going, and a host of other things besides. The amounts […]
Yes, I’ve been referring to the organismic company for a while now. And yes, I’ve been coming across posts and articles talking about how to make “Industrial Age” companies more organic, how to have better Job Descriptions, how to have more flexible Organization Charts and how to better tap on the vast Knowledge Bank that […]
At this writing, the question of whether the Scots go their own bonny way has yet to be decided. Ironically, as I took in more news on the subject, the song “When a child is born”, popularized by Johnny Mathis, sprang to my mind. What happens when you think of a child being born? Do […]
On 17 Sep 2014, Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Tharman Shanmugaratnam spoke about the need to adopt “meritocracy through life” at the official opening of the Lifelong Learning Institute, which aims to raise competencies in citizens, among other things. I was flicking through the news when this caught my eye. It caused me […]
Pacers. More people use them than perhaps we think. And I’m not only referring to pacers of the cardiac sort, but anyone, thing, or system that nudges us along, maintains a viable tempo and generally keeps us on track. Pacers are regulators. They help us get to a certain optimal norm, at least for a […]
But of course! Please stand in front of me. Now, bend forwards at the waist until your body forms a right angle with the trunk of your body horizontal and your derriere facing me. Ready? Prepare for the first kick. Say “Thank you!” Prepare for second kick. Say “Thank you!” Repeat process until inertia and […]
Recently, a few friends of mine had some sort of discussion about the Kra Canal and its implications for Singapore. A not-so-recent article on the subject was shared, which I thought still quite relevant and can be found here. I found that pretty interesting because I’d written a little something about it in a previous […]
Do you feel as if everything is happening all at once, that the sky is falling on you and you can’t find the energy to do anything? Well, try this. First of all, tell yourself, “Stop it!” No, you are not overwhelmed, you just need to regain focus. Once you feel a little bit more […]
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 […]
Positive inspirational quotes mean well. You just need to know the meanings undergirding them, and be familiar with the environment in which they were formed. They are good to have in front of your face when you’re dirty, cold, wet, tired, hungry and miserable. They’re nice to remember when you’re reeling with a bloody nose from […]
I suppose you are familiar with terms like “Unleash your true potential”, “Awaken the Giant Within”, by Anthony Robbins, and many other similar ones. Have you ever stopped to think about who leashed you in the first place? The illustration of the mighty elephant being held to one spot by a frail stake in the ground […]
The concept of “There is no second chance in life” appears to be quite deeply rooted in society. It is manifested in various ways. One of them was that if you as a young student went to one of Singapore’s Institutes Of Technical Education (ITE) then you’re done for. “It’s the end!” as some people […]
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 […]
To be given a mandate is to be authorized to make decisions and take action in line with the intent of the authority giving the mandate. The nature of the mandate is very important. It needs to be clear, unambiguous and guided by universal principles. It needs to empower the one to whom it is […]
Excellence is really an everyday thing, just like being a champion is an everyday thing. I used to say “Don’t sweat the small stuff. Sweat the small stuff.” Now, in the interests of those who don’t appreciate verbal nuance, I say “Don’t sweat the small stuff. Do the small stuff”. Of course, what the phrases […]
Communities of Practice? A community of practice (CoP) is a group of people who share a craft and/or a profession. The concept was first proposed by cognitive anthropologist Jean Lave and educational theorist Etienne Wenger in their 1991 book Situated Learning (Lave & Wenger 1991). Just because there’s a community doing it doesn’t mean it’s […]
If we eat, work, stretch and exercise proportionately, growth takes place. If we sit on the couch, drink beer and eat potato chips whilst watching TV and playing all sorts of fun and amusing games, growth occurs as well, just that I am not sure whether you would welcome such growth. We grow muscle, become […]
Your organizational culture can be described as how you habitually run things around the place. If your culture is one of excellence, it will be reflected in the spirit in which work is executed and the manner in which people treat each other. If there is any level of toxicity, that will be reflected in […]
There was a Puma ad that said basically the same thing some time ago. What do I mean when I refer to “half measures”? Our society is prone to taking action, regardless of whether the action actually makes sense or otherwise. Regardless of what the reasons for the actions might be, besides the cop-out one […]
People love fireworks. Stunning, beautiful displays of harmless power. Well, harmless if fired as intended. We also like sparks. New beginnings. Picturesque showers falling from new buildings under construction. Cute little babies, kittens, puppies, tiger cubs. We love the playfulness and wonderful, latent promises of future potential. Just a spark fires the imagination. Now, wouldn’t […]
Somebody remarked the other day that he had ordered a meal at a McDonald’s Drive-Through. When he reached the payment and collection counter, he noticed that he had been given a Senior Citizen’s discount. Nobody had asked to verify if he was, indeed, a Senior Citizen and qualified for the discount. Puzzled, he wondered how […]
Sure. Like, how can you be prepared for things you don’t even know will happen yet? How can you be prepared for eventualities that you still have no clue about? Exactly. If you have read the original “Scouting for Boys” by Robert Baden-Powell, you would probably be able to answer that question. Since all of us […]
A daughter ran away from home and went to live with her boyfriend. After a few days, she called home. Her mother answered and she announced, “Mom, we’re engaged!” Her jaded mother replied, “In what?” That would be our response as well if someone announces that they’re busy at work or business. Busy-ness is normal. […]
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 […]
Have you ever made any decisions that you regretted later? Of course, I have, too! Do you then fall into the rut of not making any decisions for fear that the decisions you make might also turn out for the worse? Happens to all of us, too, doesn’t it? Intuitively, we know that indecisiveness is […]
I like using this line when asked for a writeup about myself: “Contrary to popular belief, he does not drive a yellow school bus and is not a walking encyclopaedia.” I DID drive an old yellow Volkswagen minibus at one stage, and people would say in jest that it was a yellow school bus, which […]
Yes, they do. They start off unplanned. Nobody sets out to build empires, they just happen. The better emperors remain longer than others simply because they know about human nature. They know that humans all have a will to dominate, one way or another, and so they play with this and other characteristics to “destabilize […]
In this day and age of Lean, Six Sigma and a general frowning upon anything seen as superfluous, redundancies are remarkably reprehensible and classified in the same category as refuse. How dare I even bring the matter up, the Efficiency Experts would exclaim! Haven’t I gotten it into my thick skull that that’s how our […]
Pruning. Painful. Cutting away. So that new abundance may grow. Pruning is essential in so many spheres of life, not just in agricultural practice. One may prune branches, roots, remove excess foliage, even take away some initial fruit, in order that more fruitfulness may come to pass. Pruning must be conducted circumspectly, not too much […]
There are many analogies we could use in life. One is that of using thermals to soar above the madding morass of the unnatural state of things we call common. Another is a sense of hard work, labouring, being determined, pushing endurance to the limits, until breakthrough is achieved. There is a danger of overusing […]
We live in an age of instants. Instant coffee, instant milk, instant music, instant weight loss, instant gratification. “It’s now or never!”, “Last chance to win great bargains!”, “If not now, when?” are phrases we are bombarded with constantly every day. Our culture predisposes us to act first, ask questions later. We are constantly encouraged, […]
You know, the “In” crowd. Insecure. Insincere. Intolerant. Inhospitable. Indecent. Inhuman. Incontinent. Inebriated. Inappropriate. That’s what you will become when you seek to become “special” by joining, or by trying to join, an “exclusive” or “elite” group. I am not saying that we do not pursue excellence. That ought to be a lifelong affair! I […]
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