YOu get productivity by organizing yourself, and also organizing and keeping track you assign to others. I am sure many of us send emails to our colleagues and friends asking or following up something, and sometimes we don’t always get a reply or closure.

With several e-mail addresses and using different e-mail clients ( outlook, outlook express, email through cell phones), it is hard to flag it properly as well.

I recently did an experiment wherein I got a free email address which I did not inform anybody. When I needed to send an email to request, or needed (more…)

For the last 15 or so years, I have read numerous business books, many of them acclaimed and bestsellers.  And for the last 15 years that I have been managing, I have tried to apply many of these principles to life and business.

If there is one thing that I have learned, it is that some of what they write works, and some don't. It is really important to distinguish that at the end, even the best and most logical recommendations only works in some culture, in some industries, or in some specific circumstance with specific people.  It would be pitiful to see a manager trying vainly to apply whatever he read into his business -- it won't work.  The business of management is far more complex than just merely applying a few rules and dogma in a business book - no matter how well written.

One of the particularly strong recommendations in many human resource books is about empowerment.  In fact, it is always a celebrated example how one store empowered their employees to do whatever is needed to make the customer happy -- including accepting a returned merchandise and replacing it even if the merchandise was not even bought in the store.  Another example is about hotel employees who go out of their length to service the customer, even giving free upgrades and meals.  In fact, there was one company who celebrated that they have no rulebook or policies, only that its employees use "common sense and judgment."  The only problem is that common sense is just not so common at all.

I am more inclined to think that in many industries, as well particularly in Asian cultures, people are more happy to work under an environment where things are more defined.  I like better the business advice that, "As a manager, don't manage your people.  Manage the system that in turn will manage your people. "

In fact, one of the things I keep challenging is actually the rulebook when we were in the plane.  I was in the last row of the seat, which was reclined.  When it was time to land, everybody was asked to straighten up their seats.  I can understand why everybody had to do it, but logically I didn't think I had to.  I figure that the reason you straighten up your seat is that so anybody at the back will have a better way to exit just in case something goes wrong with the landing, but being in the last row, I felt it did not apply to me.

Ditto with the opening of all windows upon take off and landing.  I believe the reason to do that was so that a plane would be more visible when it lands at night, but then why do we also have to open all the blinds when landing even on the middle of the day?

But then selective application on rules would be too complex for the thousands of flight attendants and millions of passengers.  If you start applying exceptions, then you have to explain why, and people would complain why person A is allowed, and person B not allowed.  So the expedient and fair process is to apply the rule to all  -- everybody straightens the seat.  Everybody pulls up their trays.  Everybody don't use the cell phone upon entering the plane.  Everybody pull up the blinds when told to do so.  Everybody puts on the seat belts when instructed to.  No discretion, no arguments.

Many times, rules in the company are similarly argued.  We don't know why they are there, and some of them clearly have lost the reason to be there.  But then just like in the airplane, people gain comfort in the presence, rather than absence of rules, and rules do make things much more clear.  Rules like laws, are not perfect, and we should not try to spend too much time to make it so.   At the end, it depends on how it is executed, and implemented, and I guess that will continue to be a challenge, and a reason why great managers or even great parents continue to be a treasure! 

Go Deep to Jump High  ( on life)

 

I took this picture a few months ago at the Hong Kong Ocean Park.

It is a great show where dolphins jumped to heights of almost 20 feet up.

After the show, I chanced upon the pool, and noticed that it was very deep, then it struck me ...

The dolphins have to go deep in order to jump high.  Without depth, there is no height...

Do you see parallelisms in the principles of life?

 

One of the things that is preventing us from becoming better and happier is envy, which is one of the deadly sins.

We need to free our reins from never ending comparison with others.  When a person from a developing country looks at a person from a developed country, he cannot understand why that person could be unhappy since from his standards, the person already has everything he does not have, and which he considered to be necessities for having a good life.

However, more often than not, we are unhappy and under pressure, not because we don't have enough, but we yearn to have more, because the neighbor has more.

This is underscored by a quote by a famous executive in the IT industry who is believed to have said, "It is not enough that we succeed.  Our competitors have also to fail. "

This was also believed to have been true even in communist countries.  This was supposedly an anecdote that Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev told US Secretary of State James Baker III about the difficulty Russia has in its psychological transition to capitalism, after so many years of communism...

" A Russian peasant finds a lamp by the side of the road, and rubs it. Out pops a genie.  The genie tells the peasant he will grant him any wish.

The peasant tells the genie, "you know, I have only three cows, but my neighbor Igor has ten cows."

"Would you like twenty cows?" , the genie asked.

"No, " says the peasant." I want you to kill seven of Igor's cows".

I am not saying we should not benchmark ourselves, our abilities, and our performance with others.  That is healthy competition, and spurs you to do better.  But do we need also to compare also the size of our diamonds?

I was on Paul Allen's website when one of his post made me think.  Yes, what if one of the best gauge of business and life success is:

- how many people do you have on your address book?  And how many would return your call?

One of life's luxuries I hope I can be able to afford in the future, currently only knowingly practiced by the world's richest man, is the Think Week.

Twice a year, for one week, Bill Gates goes into a secluded site for his bi-annual think week.  This is the time, which he purportedly spends 18 hour days just reading and thinking about the latest technologies, and what he feels Microsoft should ponder in the future.

Nobody is allowed to be there, not employees, not family, not anybody except a person who discreetly brings him a simple meal twice a day.  During this time, he would pour on hundreds of white papers, submitted by people from Microsoft and others, on what are the technologies that matter, and where Microsoft should go.

I think this is a great great idea.  Sometimes, we need complete silence to think deep, and listen to ourselves, and put in full concentration on things.  Or maybe it is a good idea not even to wait that long. I know some people who give themselves a few minutes a day to go deep and momentarily forget what are the business issue at hand, and do the crossword puzzle.  It is also said that Bill Gates ocassionally gives himself a few minutes of distraction to solve an online bridge problem.

It is said that Bill Gates famous paper on the Internet Tidal Wave in 1995, or the initiatives to go online video game, to do secure computing, or the tablet PC all came from this think week.

Now if he can afford that, why can't we?  If he is so busy that he has to manage the world's largest software company, with over 60,000 employees and can give himself a week, why can't I? 

 

Vivek Paul, who as CEO built Wipro into one of the outsourcing's heavy hitters, and ramped up its business from $150 million in 1999 to $1.4 billion in 2004 has left the company.

He traced his great performance to an encounter with an elephant more than a dozen years ago, which helped him crystallized his philosophy in life.

Paul was curious why an elephant tied to a small stake in the ground did not yank it up and be on its way. The animal's handler explained that baby elephants tied to similar stakes learn they can't break free. As elephants grow older and stronger, they don't test the stake again--thereby remaining trapped by what should be an obsolete restraint.

"I said, 'By gosh! That's probably relevant to people as well,'" Paul said.

Source:  Vivek Paul's Elephant Trick

 

I am one of probably thousands of parents who are enjoying the latest Harry Potter book, The Half Blood Prince with their children.  We took turns reading, and discussing various aspects of the book.  The story continues to spin its magic.

 I particularly liked great quotes which came out of J.K. Rowling's masterful pen.  First is the quote of Albus Dumbledore - ' naturally, I make mistakes, like the next man.  IN fact, being, forgive me - rather clever than most men, my mistakes tend to be corresponding huger.'  This is an insight.  The more intelligent and deep a person is, the less mistakes he will make, but some of his mistakes can actually also be more bizarre and stupid than dumb people can ever make.  To paraphrase Benjamin Franklin, which is also one of my favorite quotes expressing the same thing, ' the most exquisite folly is made of wisdom spun too fine."

The other gem was discussed by the teacher during apparition class.  This is what he announced.

The other day, I received a comment that I looked younger than my years.  Ok, so that was flattery, but it did made me looked into the mirror twice.  But let us assume for once that it is true, and that set off a lot of wishful thinking and thoughts....

 

  I have had a backbreaking schedule since as long as I can remember.  For the last 20 years, I reckon I have worked 75 hour weeks on average. I don't take a lot of break and can hardly remember more than 2 or 3 days when I was totally disengaged from the business.  I eat too much for my own good, and I exercise too little.  I read too much ( that makes me a couch potato too!) and I spend too much time in front of the computer. 

 

And I worry a lot?.. This bad habit has been with me ever since I was small.  I think too much, and I analyze too much, and I go into details and small things too much.

 

All this means that I should have aged quickly.

 

But maybe it is work that saved me.  Everyday, a lot of challenges awaits, and I am excited to get up in mornings to start tackling the issues and solving the challenges.  Problems hit me, but maybe because of too many things to do, I did not have too much time to think too much of bad misfortunes, or brood too much of things that is going to happen.  Busyness? before you know it, 3 days have passed, and the big problem that was supposed to overwhelmed you have now shrink in size.

 

We worry when we have times in our hands.  It feels our idle time like a vacuum.  The best way to reduce worry is to make sure we don't have time for it.

 

Rather overwork than overworry....  ?  What do you think?

 

I remember an incident where we were going out on an overnight trip to an island three months ago.  There were about 8 of us in a van.  We needed to drive more than a  hundred kilometers, then take a ferry to cross to an island where we would enjoy a nice beach.

The ferry only departs once every 45 minutes, and we were a little bit delayed.  So I had to drive a little bit faster and admittedly a bit more reckless to make time.We  arrived at the ferry pier with just minutes to spare.  The whole trip took about 2 hours, and we arrived trying to rush.  The whole episode of driving was strained, and got into the nerves of everybody as it was almost a rush.

The next day, it was time to come back.  After we disembarked on the ferry, there was no rush to drive home.  We decided to take our time and enjoy the trip and the scenery.  The whole trip back took 2 hours and 30 minutes, but it was a relaxed drive, with music, laughter and much talk.  It was a case of 2 hours and 30 minutes of enjoyment, versus 2 hours of reckless driving and stress.

It recalls that sometimes we try to rush to arrive at success too much that we end up not enjoying the trip.  Is the purpose to arrive, or is the purpose to enjoy the trip?  Isn't it too often that we missed the enjoyment of the trip because of our haste to arrive, only to arrive and feel that all the trip was not worth it, because in the mad rush, much enjoyment was lost?

Do we make a decision that we don't want to enjoy life until we have earned our million dollars?  And then after you have had your million dollars, make a decision that you won't be happy until you have 10 million?  And after so many years of chasing more, you decided you never enjoyed the trip, and moreover, not even the destination itself?

If you have a plan, and a roadmap, and consistently focus your trip to arrive, why not consciously decide to enjoy the trip?  Is the haste to arrive a few minutes early at the destination at the risk of not enjoying the trip worth it?  If you have laid your plans, would it have taken a lot away from your happiness if you arrive a few minutes, err a few years late such a big deal?  Would it have been such a big deal if you were CEO by 30 or 32?

Do you strain your way to success ( sacrificing some amount of family or throwing caution to the wind) , or do you enjoy the way?

Maybe sometimes we do strain too much.  I just want to close with a quote which I felt is the very thing i want to say - and this quote is from Jill Churchill, " The most important thing she'd learned over the years was that there was no way to be a perfect mother and a million ways to be a good one. "  Maybe we strive too hard to be where we cannot be, that we cease to enjoy just the pace where we would be most comfortable and happiest.

 

This briefing aims to help LGUs deliver real benefits to the community with innovative and creative software applications. Officials from local government units will learn how they can transform their municipality’s operations to effectively deliver the right services to the community, at the right time, with the appropriate resources.

This briefing aims to help business owners in Cebu make informed decisions regarding their companies’ technology purchases and strategies. The Technologies for SMEs seminar has been a success in Manila. In fact, the briefings have been held twice already, both attracting a large turnout.

The Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry is the foremost business organization in southern Philippines with over 700 member companies. It is branded as the engine of Cebu's business growth and the voice of Cebu Business.

The Cebu Business Month is a yearly series of conferences and other activities to communicate cebu's attributes and potential to fellow Filipinos and the rest of the world. This year's theme is INVEST CEBU, and is meant to promote investments in the ICT and Tourism sectors in Cebu and its growing suburbs and the growth of entrepreneurship.

This year, there are various sports, tourism, and 2nd ICT Summit.  The anchor event is the InTourPreneur, which consist of a trade exhibit, conference, and ICT Jobs/Livelihood fair.  It culminates in the Grand chamber Awards.