Moving Notice

I have moved to http://whatidiscover.wordpress.com

Fremantle Photos

Date: 26 & 30 Apr 2010
Place: Fremantle, WA, Australia
Experience: a town with beautifull historic buildings

Dunsborough Photos

Date: 28 - 29 Apr 2010
Place: Around Dunsborough, WA, Australia
Experience: land cruising along the coast, cafes, parks, lighthouse, sunrise, sunset, discussing about life, walking

Perth Photos

Date: 23 - 30 Apr 2010
Place: Perth, WA, Australia
Experience: seeing friends that I have not meet for a long time

Longevity

9 behaviours to a longer, healthier life:
1. Move ( find ways to move mindlessly, make moving unavoidable )
2. Plan de Vida ( know your purpose in life )
3. Down Shift ( work less, slow down, rest, take vacation )
4. 80% Rule ( stop eating when you're 80% full )
5. Plant-Power ( more veggies, less protein and processed foods )
6. Red Wine ( consistency and moderation )
7. Belong ( create a healthy social network )
8. Beliefs ( spiritual or religious participation )
9. Your Tribe ( make family a priority )

Source:
Power9
Dan Buettner

Holding firmly to truth

I learned a new word today.

Satyagraha is a three-step instrument of change, not a mere act of protest.

The first step is to object to an unjust law or policy and petition for its removal. Absent an acceptable response, the second step is to break the law. The third step is to undergo the consequences, be they arrest, violence, abuse or privation.

Satyagraha means "holding firmly to the truth" in Hindi and by following the process, remaining focused and calm within one's belief.

Source:
Blessed Unrest
Paul Hawken
Page 78 - 79
ISBN: 9780670038527

7 lessons from Mozilla

7 lessons from Mozilla

1. Superior products matter.
2. Push ( most ) decisions-making to the edges.
3. Communication will happen in every possible way ( so make sure it's reusable ).
4. Make it easy for your community to do the important things.
5. Surprise is overrated.
6. Communities are not markets: members are citizens.
7. The key is the art of figuring out whether and how to apply each of these ideas.

Source:
Lessons from Mozilla
John Lilly
WordCamp San Francisco 2009

I understand lesson 5 as don't surprise. Open communications beyond the inner circle. Let everyone who wants to know what Mozilla is doing knows what they are doing.

Curiosity Management

How can we be learned people? The answer lies in using our curiosity. When we come across things that we feel curious about, what do we do? We find answers for them. A-ha! This is the way to being learned people.

Curiosity Management Process

1. Be curious.
2. Create opportunities for us to be curious.
3. Record what makes us curious.
4. Ask questions.
5. Find learning resources.
6. Ask learning resources questions.
7. Record what learning resources help us to answer the questions.

As we answer more curiosities, we learn more. As we learn more, we become learned people.

TED is spreading...

While I was reading the top 7 places to watch great minds in action blog post, I discovered a pattern. The idea of TED conference is spreading...

The host location has spread across America and the World.

From Long Beach, California, US to Camden, Maine, US to Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

TED to PopTech to ideaCity.

TED was originally hosted at Monterey, California, US.

The presentation subject matters have spread beyond technology, entertainment and design to innovation to experience design.

TED to Business Innovation Factory to GEL.

TED has spread into many subject matters.

There seems to be a growing guild of conference organizers who bring together interesting speakers, curious listeners and knowledge sharing infrastructure. May we have more TED like conferences to watch.

This lead me to asking are there any other TED like conferences? I found 4.

DLD, Munich, Germany

Le Web, Paris, France

Lift, Geneva, Switzerland

Picnic, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Principles of conversation

Principles of conversation

1. We acknowledge one another as equals.
2. We try to stay curious about each other.
3. We recognize that we need each other's help to become better listeners.
4. We slow down so we have time to think and reflect.
5. We remember that conversation is the natural way humans think together.
6. We expect it to be messy at times.

Source:

Turning to one another
expanded second edition

Margaret Wheatley

Page 33

ISBN: 9781576757642

10 leadership skills for the future

I blogged about the idea of the 10 super powers of the amplified individuals a year ago. It is about the collaboration skills we need in the future. The idea has been remix into the 10 leadership skills for the future by Bob Johansen.

10 leadership skills for the future

1. Maker Instinct

Ability to turn one’s natural impulse to build into a skill for making the future and connecting with others in the making. The maker instinct is basic to leadership in the future.

2. Clarity

Ability to see through messes and contradictions to a future that others cannot yet see. Leaders are very clear about what they are making, but very flexible about how they get it made.

3. Dilemma Flipping

Ability to turn dilemmas - which, unlike problems, cannot be solved - into advantages and opportunities.

4. Immersive Learning Ability

Ability to dive into different-for-you physical and online worlds, to learn from them in a first-person way.

5. Bio-Empathy

Ability to see things from nature’s point of view; to understand, respect, and learn from nature’s patterns. Nature has its own clarity,

if only we humans can understand and engage with it.

6. Constructive Depolarizing

Ability to calm tense situations where differences dominate and communication has broken down - and bring people from divergent cultures toward constructive engagement.

7. Quiet Transparency

Ability to be open and authentic about what matters to you - without advertising yourself.

8. Rapid Prototyping

Ability to create quick early versions of new innovations, with the expectation that later success will require early failures.

9. Smart Mob Organizing

Ability to bring together, engage with, and nurture purposefull business or social-change networks through intelligent use of electronic and other media.

10. Commons Creating

Ability to stimulate, grow and nurture shared assets that can benefit other players - and allow competition at a higher level.

Source:

Leaders make the future
Bob Johansen

ISBN: 9781605090023

Be Learned

My most often used email signature is

Regards :-)

Be learned

whatidiscover

Stephanie asked does to be learned means one have learned everything and stopped? Is it possible to learn everything?

I replied be learned is my life's purpose. One cannot learn all but can learn more. Purpose is a direction not destination. I agree to her view in one of our conversations that one can never be the best because once one reach best, there is a higher level to go.

I have 2 questions to guide me if I have been more learned

1. What is the 1 new idea I discover this week? ( 1 new idea rule )
2. Am I more learned this moment than the moment before? ( The now rule )

TEDx Singapore

TEDx is a TED style event hosting support initiative by TED. Many groups and people have started their own TEDx group. Currently, there are 4 Singapore TEDx groups. They are

1. TEDx Asean
2. TEDx Green
3. TEDx MIT Club Singapore
4. TEDx Singapore

TEDx MIT Club Singapore hosted Singapore's first TEDx event on 12 Sep 2009. The event sounds interesting from Mahesh Kumar's blog post.

Rich son, poor son

I was watching the rich son, poor son video recommended by Sze Yong.

The story outline:

4 elder ladies having a get together meal in Malaysia.

They chat about how well the children are doing in their careers.

3 ladies' children will doing well. Their children will accountancy firm partner, lawyer and doctor. Earn well, hold company equity, bought new house... When the 4th lady was ask how is her son doing ( in career context ), she reply he is good, he is coming to take me out.

Her son came with his wife and children to drive her to a mountain resort for holiday.

The video ends with the message - love of the family is life's greatest blessing.

This leads me to thinking when one change one's measures for success, one's results change.

3 ways of explaining how to manage uncertainty

3 ways of explaining how to manage uncertainty

Margaret Wheatley's way

Start something and see who notices it.

It's only after we initiate something in a system that we see the threads that connect. Usually, someone we don't even know suddenly appears, either outraged or helpfull. We didn't know there was any connection between us but their response makes the connection clear. Now that they've identified themselves, we need to develop a relationship with them.

Whatever you initiate, expect unintended consequences.

Every effort to change a system creates these, because we can't see the interactions ahead of time. One very visible example of unintended consequences is what happens every time humans try to change the natural ecology of a place. Fertilizer is introduced to farm fields without noticing how rain water connects fields to oceans. Over time, we have got bountifull crops but fewer fish. I know one think tank that created a “Museum of Unintended Consequences”. They wanted to notice all the impacts of any societal change effort. When we are willing to look at unintended consequences, they teach a great deal about how a system operates.

Reflect often.

The system reveals itself to us all the time. The problem is we seldom stop to notice what just happened. Without such reflection, we go blindly on our way, ignore the learnings, creating more unintended consequences and failing to achieve anything usefull. It's amazing to me how much we do but how little time we spend reflecting on what we just did.

Seek out different interpretations.
Run ideas by many different people, to see things through their unique perceptions. Everyone in a complex system has, at minimum, a slightly different interpretation. The more interpretations we gather, the easier it becomes to gain a sense of the whole.

Look for insights to emerge out of messiness.
Puzzling and messy situations often lead us to simplistic and stupid behaviours. Either we grab onto an easy answer or decide to take actions that have no clear rational. But confusion can create the condition for intuitions and insights to appear, often when we least expect them. If they appear, they usually can be trusted. In fact, it's common for many people to arrive at the same conclusion at the same time. In the Quaker tradition, this is called “a gathered meeting”. It's far better than struggling for false consensus.

Sense from:

Finding our way

Margaret Wheatley

Page 207 - 208

ISBN: 9781576754054

David Snowden's way

In complicated situations, sense, analyze and respond. Create panels of experts. In chaotic situations, act, sense and respond. Look for what works instead of seeking right answers.

Sense from:

A leader's framework for decision making

David Snowden & Mary Boone

Harvard Business Review 2007 Nov

Adam Kahane's way

Cross the river by feeling for stones

Deng Xiao Ping

Sense from:

Adam Kahane's presentation at Canada@150 9 Jun 2008 ( Part 3 of 3 )

I will be glad to hear your way of explaining how to manage uncertainty.

Badvocates

Who are badvocates?

Badvocates are people who passionately criticize or detract from companies, brands, products and services.

Why should you pay attention to badvocates?

They tell the World about bad experiences. When bad experiences grows, when customers search your company's name, the top results are bad experiences.

How to manage badvocates?

1. Be prepared

Establish processes to minimize threats.

Monitor comments about your company.

Leverage search engine optimization.

Establish employee guidelines for social media.

Register email addresses and “gripe” domain names.

Trademark your company name.

2. Defend yourself

Hire reputation managers.

Respond rapidly.

Disclose communications with badvocates.

Make the facts available.

Address myths head-on.

Enlist your fans.

3. Embrace dissatisfaction

Invite transparent dialogue.

Ask badvocates to “step outside” - host face-to-face events with senior executives.

Ask for ideas.

Solve problems together.

Respond thoughtfully.

4. Apologize

Admit when you’re wrong, hard as it is.

Don’t email or comment on a negative blog posting, pick up the phone.

Establish an advisory council of badvocates.

5. Don't Ignore

6. Inoculate

Identify your advocates.

Recruit your advocates.

Reward your advocates.

Source:

The good book of badvocacy

Weber Shandwick

I have 3 comments on how to manage badvocates:

1. Don't ignore should be point 1.
2. When talking to badvocates by phone instead of email or comment on a negative blog posting, don't forget to post that you will be doing so. Let blog readers know why the conversation stop.
3. If I will to use 1 sentence to describe how I will manage badvocates if I were a company, it will be - be honest and kind.

Blogging is part of working

While I was watching Fred Wilson's talk at Google Talks, the thought of his blog has become part of how he works caught my attention.

How he work:

1. Before presentation, post slides on blog.
2. Blog readers give comments.
3. Review and incorporate comments into slides.
4. Thank readers.

This leads me to thinking one can shift from working alone or working with colleagues to working collectively with one's social networks. This proves that there is value in social networks for corporations.

Sense from:

Fred Wilson at Google Talks

1:55 - 3:50 mins

How do Alan Webber manage ideas

How do Alan Webber manage ideas?

1. Keep a stack of 3 x 5 cards.
2. Listen and observe.
3. When heard an idea that clicked with you, pull out a card and write it down.
4. Review the cards.
5. Catalog the cards into files.

Sense from:

The next big idea in management: 3 x 5 card

Alan Webber

8 characteristics of effective idea process

8 characteristics of effective idea process

1. Ideas are encouraged and welcomed.
2. Submitting ideas is simple.
3. Evaluation of ideas is quick and effective.
4. Feedback is timely, constructive and informative.
5. Implementation is rapid and smooth.
6. Ideas are reviewed for additional potential.
7. People are recognized and success is celebrated.
8. Idea system performance is measured, reviewed and improved.

Source:

Ideas are free

Alan Robinson & Dean Schroeder

Page 144 - 145

ISBN: 9781576752821

How to get ideas

How to get ideas

1. Just ask

Ask your people to come to their regular department meetings with one small idea that will make their work easier or improve the company in some way and that will not require permission from above or significant resources to implement. Have each person present his or her idea and ask the group to discuss it and build on it. If an idea is worthwhile, agree on who will implement it.

2. Offer lunch

Bring in pizza ( or whatever food is appropriate ) and collect and discuss your employees' ideas over an extended lunch. Hold the lunch off-site, if more appropriate. Such a lunch can become a regular activity.

3. When change occurs, ask for ideas

Whenever major change occurs or is anticipated, encourage your group to be on the lookout for the new problems and opportunities created by this change and to offer ideas to address them.

4. Look for that bigger problem or opportunity in a small idea

When an idea comes in that might have broader implications, explore them. Together with your people, identify the larger issues involved and decide what can be done to address them.

5. Work on reluctant participants

When a person is not offering any ideas, talk to him or her and find out why. Encourage and help this person until he or she feels comfortable and confident about giving in ideas.

Source:

Ideas are free

Alan Robinson & Dean Schroeder

Page 58

ISBN: 9781576752821