Monday, December 24, 2007
Starbuck Experience: Dr Joseph Micheal
How can we translate Starbuck experience into internal customer service experience? A big question mark.
Saturday, December 22, 2007
Learning 2.0
The world is changing so fast. Read the book of "The World Is Flat" by Thomas Freedman, you will know how fast the world has chnaged and come to be. To be in the forefront, you learn a learning 2.0 to pick up new information and new ways of doing things. No longer confine by books, we can nbow rely on the advanced internet technology to locate information such AS Wiki, Digital Magazine, Online Learning, Webinar, Blog, Yahoo Groups, Mailing News, Newsletter, Half Life, Skype and many other new tools.
Are you ready for the new learning world?
Madonna: Frozen - You only see what you want to see
You only see what your eyes want to see
How can life be what you want it to be
Youre frozen
When your hearts not open
Youre so consumed with how much you get
You waste your time with hate and regret
Youre broken
When your hearts not open
This is one of my favorite songs. I used this song in Education Exhibition in 1998, Komag. We display the lyrics at the entrance. Use the theme " You only see what you want to see". I worked 36 hours to non-stop to complete the power point production of Komag Education Exhibition. It was one of my fond memories!
Matrix: Free Your MInd
I truly like the trilogy of Matrix. It brings out the message of "Free Your Mind" and "Live for greater purpose" so well. Some critics say the trilogy links to Christianity as there are many symbolic resemblance of the stories to Gospel.
I like some of the quotes:
"What is "real"? How do you define "real"?"
"I'm trying to free your mind, Neo. But I can only show you the door. You're the one that has to walk through it."
"What you know you can't explain, but you feel it. You've felt it your entire life, that there's something wrong with the world. You don't know what it is, but it's there, like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad."
"There is a difference between knowing the path and walking the path."
Matrix Revolution:
"Why Mr. Anderson, why?" Smith hurls verbal barbs at a flagging Neo. "Why keep persisting?" Gathering his strength and catching his breath, Neo replies, "Because I choose to." Morpheus says of Neo, "I know as long as there is a single breath left in his body, he will not give up ... and neither will we."
Acknowledgement Habit
We hardly appreciate the work of others. In the busyness of our daily work, we tend to forget the good qualities of others. Sometimes we are quick to judge and slow to praise. The 30 day plan brings out the good things of others. In Level Four of Maslow Hierarchy, it is paramount important for us to bring the best out of others.
It is my plan to start within the HRD Department before I introduce to the other department. I shall pick one of my section head. My section heads pick of their people. Executives pick one of their colleagues. If the result shows positive results, I shall bring it to TL Soo, PC and HR for experiments.
Sunday, October 7, 2007
Sunday, July 22, 2007
The Founder of Asset Based Thinking
Kathryn Cramer
Kathryn D. Cramer, Ph.D., is a practicing psychologist, sought-after corporate consultant and speaker, and author of four books on personal effectiveness and professional development. She founded and directed The Stress Center at St. Louis University from 1979–1989. She founded and became Managing Partner of The Cramer Institute, an internationally recognized coaching and consulting firm, in 1990. She lives in St. Louis, Missouri.
Monday, July 9, 2007
Sunday, July 8, 2007
Brand Gap
Live Earth
The official song of "Live Earth" by Madonna "Hey You".
Skype for online real time messaging
Wiki for create, install, edit and store information through journal style
Blogger for department announcement and sharing
Flickr for event photo sharing
Slideshare for shairng of power point or adobe document
Mecanbe for sharing of goal setting and progress
Technorati for Blog search
Sunday, May 27, 2007
Starbuck Culture
I love the ambiance of Starbuck. It provides me a nirvana for thinking, surfing, chatting and reading. Once I step in Starbuck, my mind shift to out of box thinking. With Notebook in hands (IBM or Acer), I would surf to explore in particular to http://www.stumbleupon.com. The site push different websites to the screen each time I press my stumbleupon toolbar icon.
Reading is another activities in Starbuck. The magazines are trendy and up-to-date. In Subang Jaya, Starbuck offers five laptops for clients. The vast space of sofa setting is what I love it most!
" Starbucks itself is an American repackaging of Italian coffee culture. The chain was originally indistinguishable from any other coffee shop. But in 1983 Starbucks chairman Howard Schultz (then head of marketing) took a business trip to Milan and was blown away by the grace and style -- not to mention the coffee -- of the city's 1,500 espresso bars.
Schultz eventually differentiated Starbucks from other American coffeehouses by modeling it on his Italian experience, with certain modifications to suit American tastes. These include chairs for loitering, jazz overhead instead of opera, and an Italian-sounding nonsense language (such as "frappuccino" and "tazo tea") that one ex-Starbucks exec freely admits was concocted in a boardroom. This just adds another stage in the international epic of coffee drinking: Starbucks customers, whether in Zurich or Beirut, are drinking an American version of an Italian evolution of a beverage invented by Arabs brewed from a bean discovered by Africans."
Tempest in a CoffeepotStarbucks invades the world.
Monday, May 21, 2007
Your Action Plan in Global Warming
REDUCE YOUR IMPACT AT HOME
Most emissions from homes are from the fossil fuels burned to generate electricity and heat. By using energy more efficiently at home, you can reduce your emissions and lower your energy bills by more than 30%.
In addition, since agriculture is responsible for about a fifth of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, you can reduce your emissions simply by watching what you eat.
Here’s how:
Replace a regular incandescent light bulb with a compact fluorescent light bulb (cfl)
CFLs use 60% less energy than a regular bulb. This simple switch will save about 300 pounds of carbon dioxide a year. If every family in the U.S. made the switch, we’d reduce carbon dioxide by more than 90 billion pounds! You can purchase CFLs online from the Energy Federation.
Clean or replace filters on your furnace and air conditioner
Cleaning a dirty air filter can save 350 pounds of carbon dioxide a year.
Choose energy efficient appliances when making new purchases
Look for the Energy Star label on new appliances to choose the most efficient models. If each household in the U.S. replaced its existing appliances with the most efficient models available, we’d eliminate 175 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions every year!
Wrap your water heater in an insulation blanket
You’ll save 1,000 pounds of carbon dioxide a year with this simple action. You can save another 550 pounds per year by setting the thermostat no higher than 120 degrees Fahrenheit.
Use less hot water
It takes a lot of energy to heat water. You can use less hot water by installing a low flow showerhead (350 pounds of carbon dioxide saved per year) and washing your clothes in cold or warm water (500 pounds saved per year) instead of hot.
Use a clothesline instead of a dryer whenever possible
You can save 700 pounds of carbon dioxide when you air dry your clothes for 6 months out of the year.
Turn off electronic devices you’re not using
Simply turning off your television, DVD player, stereo, and computer when you’re not using them will save you thousands of pounds of carbon dioxide a year.
Unplug electronics from the wall when you’re not using them
Even when turned off, things like hairdryers, cell phone chargers and televisions use energy. In fact, the energy used to keep display clocks lit and memory chips working accounts for 5 percent of total domestic energy consumption and spews 18 million tons of carbon into the atmosphere every year!
The average meal in the United States travels 1,200 miles from the farm to your plate. Buying locally will save fuel and keep money in your community.
Buy fresh foods instead of frozen
Frozen food uses 10 times more energy to produce.
Seek out and support local farmers markets
They reduce the amount of energy required to grow and transport the food to you by one fifth. You can find a farmer’s market in your area at the USDA website.
Buy organic foods as much as possible
Organic soils capture and store carbon dioxide at much higher levels than soils from conventional farms. If we grew all of our corn and soybeans organically, we’d remove 580 billion pounds of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere!
Avoid heavily packaged products
You can save 1,200 pounds of carbon dioxide if you cut down your garbage by 10%.
Eat less meat
Methane is the second most significant greenhouse gas and cows are one of the greatest methane emitters. Their grassy diet and multiple stomachs cause them to produce methane, which they exhale with every breath.
Avoiding just 10 miles of driving every week would eliminate about 500 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions a year! Click here to find transit options in your area.
Start a carpool with your coworkers or classmates
Sharing a ride with someone just 2 days a week will reduce your carbon dioxide emissions by 1,590 pounds a year. eRideShare.com runs a free national service connecting commuters and travelers.
Keep your car tuned up
Regular maintenance helps improve fuel efficiency and reduces emissions. When just 1% of car owners properly maintain their cars, nearly a billion pounds of carbon dioxide are kept out of the atmosphere.
Check your tires weekly to make sure they’re properly inflated
Proper inflation can improve gas mileage by more than 3%. Since every gallon of gasoline saved keeps 20 pounds of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, every increase in fuel efficiency makes a difference!
The Theme Song of "An Inconvenient Truth"
I’ve been so still
Afraid of crumbling
Have I been careless?
Dismissing all the distant rumblings
Take me where I am supposed to be
To comprehend the things that I can’t see
Cause I need to move
I need to wake up
I need to change
I need to shake up
I need to speak out
Something’s got to break up
I’ve been asleep
And I need to wake up
Now
And as a child
I danced like it was 1999
My dreams were wild
The promise of this new world
Would be mine
Now I am throwing off the carelessness of youth
To listen to an inconvenient truth
That I need to move
I need to wake up
I need to change
I need to shake up
I need to speak out
Something’s got to break up
I’ve been asleep
And I need to wake up
Now
I am not an island
I am not alone
I am my intentions
Trapped here in this flesh and bone
Oh I need to move
I need to wake up
I need to change
I need to shake up
I need to speak out
Something’s got to break up
I’ve been asleep
And I need to wake up
Now
I want to change
I need to shake up
I need to speak out
Oh, Something’s got to break up
I’ve been asleep
And I need to wake up
Now
[I Need to Wake Up lyrics on http://www.metrolyrics.com]
http://youtube.com/watch?v=djP-c7d_Oeo
Japanese Version of the Song performed by Shinji Harada
http://youtube.com/watch?v=n1PRNMRm1nY
An Inconvenient Truth
I am watching "an inconvenient truth", a global warming movie. Deeply moved by Al Gore's determination to preach the gospel of "save our planet".
Global Warming Aids
Al Gore's suggestion on how to fight global warming
Sunday, May 20, 2007
Asset-Based Thinking Alphabet Widget
About Asset-Based Thinking Alphabet Widget
26 inspirational messages based on the letters of the alphabet that highlights the power of Asset-Based Thinking.
Download Details
- Company: The Concept Farm
- Version: 1.0
- Post Date: July 6, 2006
- License: Freeware
- File Size: 1.8MB
- URL Type: Download
- Download ID: 11057
System Requirements
- Mac OS X 10.4 or later
Link: http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/business/assetbasedthinkingalphabetwidget.html
Asset-Based Thinking
Douglas Rushkoff wrote, "Instead of focusing on what we still lack, we must take stock of what we already do have in terms of resources, abilities, and pure will." This is the essence of asset-based thinking. It's not to be confused with the head-in-the-sand everything-is-wonderful way of thinking. That's the other ditch of typical one-dimensional thinking. It’s not about finding everything that’s wonderful around you to create a false sense of euphoria. It’s about asking, “What are the assets here?” What is working?” and how can I use these things — how can I leverage these things — to reach my goals. What is being encouraged here is reality-based multidimensional thinking. It demonstrates that there is another way of thinking about or looking at most every situation.Through brilliant design (as shown below), Change the Way You See Everything illuminates these concepts. Authors Kathryn Cramer (psychologist) and Hank Wasiak (advertising) ask you to image the seismic shift that would occur if people just focused their attention on opportunities rather than problems, strengths more than weaknesses and what can be done instead of what can't.
When you decrease your focus on what is wrong (deficit-based thinking) and increase your focus on what is right (Asset-Based Thinking), you build enthusiasm and energy, strengthen relationships, and move people and productivity to the next level.We all need this book. Despite the fact that this is a simple — yet life-changing concept — it doesn't make it any easier to execute these ideas in our lives or organizations. Unfortunately, the fact is our default setting is toward deficit-based thinking. We gravitate towards the negative, towards what’s not working. This mode of thinking and viewing the world holds us back. Deficit-based thinking is driven by fear. Asset-based thinking is driven by desire.
 Excerpt: Forget Perfection Asset-Based Thinking liberates you from the pointless need to strive for "perfection." You realize that pursuit of perfection is not an asset, it's a liability. For a change in the way you feel about yourself, see yourself as a work in progress . . . just like everyone else. Each day, say to yourself that for today you are perfect the way you are. Always competent, yet always learning, always growing. Commit to making the lost of yourself and you will find that flaws will fade away. WARNING: A preoccupation with eliminating flaws invites self-absorption, whereas recognition and reconciliation with shortcoming promotes a healthy and powerful humility that liberates you to move forward. |
 Excerpt: Use Your Postive Filters, Get More Traction Asset-Based Thinkers learn how to reactivate the special instinctive positive filters that we are all born with. Over the course of our lives, the positive filters have been overshadowed and shut down by deficit-based thinking. Asset-based Thinkers approach everyone they encounter with the spirit of acknowledgement and praise for what they have to offer. They see each individual as an asset and recognize that they are a work in progress, just like themselves. Asset-Based Thinkers are relatively unaffected by the negative traits of others. They've learned to deflect the negativity, suspend judgment, and go beneath the surface to make contact with the positive motives that are fueling the negativity. |
This is an important book. It is both mentally and emotionally engaging. Get this book for yourself and anyone you care about. Asset-based thinking is the foundational step that you need to put into place in order to build a success system that has a sense of personal responsibility, creativity and resilience.
Related Links: - Asset-Based Thinking Web Site
- Hank Wasiak: The Concept Farm
- Kathryn Cramer: The Cramer Institute
- Book: Change the Way You See Everything
Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0) | Books , Thinking
Link: http://www.leadershipnow.com/leadingblog/2006/05/assetbased_thinking.html
A New Revolutional Idea: Asset Based Thinking
The Asset Based Thinking changes the way you see everythingFocus human energy on possibilities, strengths and positive
http://www.assetbasedthinking.com
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Asset Based Thinking: Focus on Strengths and Opportunities.The whole approach related to appreciative inquiry model. On macro scale, the ABT relate to Positive Psychology Theory.
I have applied ABT in my management and am created a no fear working environment.
http://www.cramerinstitute.com
Note:
Dr. Kathryn Cramer, founder of The Cramer Institute, has developed and brought to life a revolutionary (and refreshingly simple) concept called Asset-Based Thinking - a practical approach to taking the positive side of life?s ledger and using it to full advantage in everything you do. Asset-Based Thinking calls for small shifts in the way people absorb, perceive, filter, and interpret information. It changes the way we see everything, leading to dramatic improvements in the way we live and work. Asset-Based Thinking zeros in on what?s working rather than what?s not (Deficit-Based Thinking) and favors inspiration and aspiration over desperation?and it is infectious. Through Asset-Based Thinking anyone can lead more productive and personally fulfilling lives. Throughout this talk, Kathy will teach the audience members how to tap the power of Asset-Based Thinking and apply it to their personal and professional lives. This program is divided into three parts: Change the way you see yourself Change the way you see others Change the way you see situations Within each part, Kathy provides practical advice, case studies, and exercises that help participants modify their management, leadership, communication skills, performance, and satisfaction, and take them to the next level.
Michelle Yeoh: A Role Model of Courage
Her latest movie is SUNSHINE. Below is her interview:
Michelle Yeoh plays the biologist of the Icarus II, Corazon. In this video, Michelle talks about her character and her character's Oxygen Garden.
Sharing by Apple's Co Founder on Stamford University
They live up to their tag line: Dare to Innovate and be different!
Stanford Report, June 14, 2005
'You've got to find what you love,' Jobs says
This is the text of the Commencement address by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, delivered on June 12, 2005.
I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.
The first story is about connecting the dots.
I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?
It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.
And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.
It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:
Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.
None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.
Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.
My second story is about love and loss.
I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.
I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.
I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.
During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.
I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.
My third story is about death.
When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.
Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.
I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.
This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope its the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:
No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.
Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.
When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.
Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.
Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.
Thank you all very much.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=UCHo0ar_2mESaturday, May 19, 2007
Brand and Team
In this presentation, John Moore shares lessons he�s learned first-hand from helping grow the Whole Foods and Starbucks brands as well as growing the teams responsible for making growth happen within those businesses. You�ll learn how complacency, conservatism, and conceit will derail the growth of any brand and the growth of any team. And, you�ll leave with advice on how to instill a sense of purpose within project teams to thrive during times of change.
NOTE: This presentation was delivered at the In-HOWse Designer Conference held in Chicago on Monday, October 30.
http://www.slideshare.net/BrandAutopsy/growing-a-brand-growing-a-team-7560/1
Branding
Working on Branding of HRD Department. Some essential ideas like: Energetic, Passionate, Innovation, Possibilities, Change and professional , contribution and etc. The purpose is to reposition HRD to be more strategic, more life giving and creative.
What is a brand?
Time and time again, whether with friends or family, I find myself trying to explain what brands are.What brands are, and why they’re important: (based on Marty Neumeier’s presentation, below)
- Brands aren’t logos, identities or products.
- Brands are largely defined by what other people think about them.
- Charismatic brands hold immense commercial value.
Characteristics of charismatic brands:
- The ideas behind the brand are innovative and scary.
- They epitomise simplicity and focus on the web.
- They look and feel good.
Common reactions to my job description range from genuine unawareness (so what does that involve?) to misconception (branding’s all about logos, right?). Trying to untangle people’s preconceptions about what brands are, why they’re important and why what I do in the office is of value to society can often be a bit of a challenge.
I haven’t read Marty Neumeier’s The Brand Gap, but this summary presentation (via Presentation Zen) provided a welcome distraction for twenty minutes of a rainy Sunday afternoon.
Entertaining, if a bit gimmicky at times, it’s a great introduction to the world of branding. Watch and learn.
The Art of Possibilities: Review
Benjamin Zander is the conductor of The Boston Philharmonic and is well known for his orchestra's passionate performances. Rosamund Stone Zander is an executive coach, family therapist, and private practitioner who brings enormous psychological perspective to enhancing human behavior. They have written a fascinating book in which they alternate as voices in sharing principles and examples in the form of compelling stories.
They have striven to make what they share ' . . . simple, not easy.' The idea is to help you create in yourself and in others 'transformational' improvements.
They share a series of perspectives designed to improve your understanding of what and where the potential is.
First, humans tend to focus on very few things, missing most of what is going on around them. By shifting focus, you will see many opportunities for the first time. Much of this book is designed to do that for you. You will visit our old friend the nine dot square and be reminded that connecting all of the dots in four lines without lifting your writing instrument from the paper requires you to go outside the box that we mentally draw at the circumference of the dots. Be careful about your assumptions! They can fence you in!
Second, measurements can cause us to focus too narrowly on where we are today and encourage scarcity thinking -- the glass is half empty. The Zanders encourage thinking about the glass as half full, citing the well-known perspective of optimism as being empowering. This can help you 'step into a university of possibility.' I like to call this pursuing the ideal practice.
Third, if you assume that people will do well and help them see how they can, they will. Mr. Zander gives every student an A in his class, and simply requests that the student write a paper to tell what they will do to deserve the A. This gets the students focused on excellence, and takes away the tension that harms accomplishment.
Fourth, as a mindset, think of your role as 'being a contributor.' 'You are a gift to others.' How could that change what you do? As someone who thinks that way now, I find it a very useful perspective, and was glad to see it in the book.
Fifth, lead from any chair. This is a reference to involving everyone. Mr. Zander asks his players to write down how he could improve practices and peformances, and pays attention to the suggestions.
Sixth, follow rule number six. That rule is to 'lighten up.'
Seventh, be present to the ways things are. Many of us are disconnected from reality. By re-touching it, we can see more possiblities.
Eighth, give way to passion. Going with your strong feelings allows you to be more authentic, and to go to new heights of accomplishment.
Ninth, light a spark. See you role as creating a spark of possibility to be lit that others can see.
Tenth, be the board of the game you are playing. This makes it easier to see how you can make a difference.
Eleventh, create a vision that generates 'frameworks of possibility' for others. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s famous 'I Have a Dream' speech is cited.
Twelfth, tell the WE story. Focus on being inclusive and considering what is best for all. Move from I to We, as the Coda to the book encourages.
Each section has exercises you can use to deepen your understanding of the principles and to help you practice, in order to create greater skill.
The principles are similar to those in many other books about improving performance and creativity. What is different about the book are the unique ways that the principles are expressed, the exciting examples in beautiful stories from music and business that will be new to you (as they were to me), and the passion with which the Zanders write. I would love to hear them do this book on an audio cassette! Both do public speaking, so you may get a chance to hear them.
Can we ever get too many great inspirational stories and reminders to live up to our potential rather than our pasts? I don't think so. This book will reignite your passion for making a larger and more positive difference. It will make you more human as you do so.
After you have finished the book, consider where your passion, gifts, and influence can combine to all you to most effectively live these principles. Consider that as a calling for at least some of your leisure time. If you are lucky, you can find some way to make that a primary calling for your working hours, as well. But find that place, and spend as much time as you can there!
(http://www.amazon.com)review by Donald Mitchell's Profile
LINKS
• Ben Zander on transformation and leadership (Google video)
• Ben Zander wisdom (very short YouTube clip).
Source: http://www.presentationzen.com/presentationzen/2007/05/two_questions_w.html
The Art of Possibilities
MIT
Open Courseware