Tedded - Business Book Review

• 29Nov

  How to Master One-on-One Communication

  Communication 1 Comment

  I am reading “Outliers” by Malcolm Gladwell. I will write a book review as soon as I finish it. The book is amazing.

  Today, I’d like to write more on communication. Malcolm Gladwell, at one point in the book, wrote about the miscommunication between two colleagues that led to a tragedy. In our normal setting, miscommunication between yourself and a colleague or a boss might not lead to a life and death situation but it might reduce your productivity at work.

  I will tell you the simple concept and techniques to have a better communication especially at work.

  I will focus on one on one communication.

  Communication Mitigation

  Malcolm Gladwell referred to the study of the linguists Ute Fischer and Judith Orasanu that when trying to persuade another person, we have six levels of mitigation.

  Gladwell wrote and gave examples of the life and death events in the book but I’m not going to spoil it. Instead I’ll give you an example of a less vital event.

  (When trying to persuade your boss and colleagues to go to McDonald’s for lunch because we are running out of lunch time. Suppose there is no other fast food restaurant around)

  1. Command: “Go to McDonald’s”

  2. Obligation Statement: “I think we need to go to McDonald’s”

  3. Suggestion: “Let’s have something quick, like McDonald’s”

  4. Query: “What would you like to have in 20 minute?”

  5. Preference: “I think it would we wise to have fast food”

  6. Hint: “Oh, we have little time for lunch” … This is the most mitigated statement of all.

  The communication mitigation, as the author pointed out, is heavily related to the Power Distance Index (PDI) of culture. In a low PDI culture, people rarely mitigate the message. People in low PDI culture, think of Americans, talk straight. On the opposite end, people in high PDI culture, think of Japaneses, rarely say things directly; they hint.

  People from the Western countries (predominantly low PDI) probably think that “hinting” is a bad idea and a sign of weakness. On the other hand, people from Asia (high PDI) will often think that “commanding the boss”, even in the life and death situation, is rude and totally disrespectful.

  The difference of the two cultures is that for those in low PDI culture, the responsibility of the communication relies on the speaker. The speaker has to make him/herself clear. On the other hand, in high PDI culture, it is the job of the receiver to think through and understand the message.

  …

  Your Duty as a Speaker

  

  Most contemporary businessmen, business books, ideas, theories, and so forth stongly support “candor”, friction free communication, flat organisation with free flow communication, honesty, etc.

  As a speaker we need to aim for two things;

  1. Full Understanding

  2. Willingness to Implement

  Understanding is not only the understanding of the content of your message, it also includes your intent, your sense of urgency, your emotions, and so forth. “Commanding” often lead to the understanding of the content but sometimes, the receiver might misjudge your intent and other factors. The receiver might translate “straight” as “rude”, “urgent” as “dictatorial”, and “passionate” as “picky”.

  To have the receiver of the message implement, willingness is a must. Implementing by force is not acceptable. Human nature dislikes command and order. A clear message with a blunt “do this” will not persuade the receiver wholeheartedly.

  On the other end of the scale, “hinting” will not neither give the receiver full understanding nor drive willingness to implement (because the receiver normally do not know exactly what to do).

  Now, you might say that “Okay, we’ll be in the middle. We’d better use ’suggestion’ or ‘query’.” Well, that’s not the case because ANY of those levels can be implemented depending on the situation.

  Speaker Checklist

  1. What’s your point? What exactly are you trying to communicate. There are times when we have more than points to communicate. Don’t. Don’t try to communicate more than one point at a time. The receiver might not be able to prioritise the importance of each point and how they are related. Or worse, the receiver might not understand any point you are communicating at all.

  2. What do you want? What is the outcome that you want to see. In the best case, what is your most desirable event that will happen after the conversation. It can’t be more annoying when a person is arguing for an argument-sake. You can use it in a brainstorming session when the question is open-ended. However, when trying to persuade anyone, you need to know what do you want.

  3. Who are you talking to? It’s cool to say that you talk to anyone similarly; you never change your message; you are honest. Wrong. You need to know who you are talking to in person. You need to know the preference of the receiver whether the receiver prefers plain and direct approach or something more humble and soft. You need to know the PDI of the receiver. You need to know the behaviour of the receiver. Even better, you need to know the current mood of the receiver.

  4. What are the options? From the zero-mitigated statement to the most mitigated statement, what is the most appropriate? Is there only one way or there are multiple options.

  5. What will the receiver hear? This is one of the most important steps. It is the step that you have to listen from the receiver’s side. The outcome that you need to get from the step is to check whether the receiver understand the content or not. First of all, study it by yourself. Think of a statement and change it to the six levels of mitigation. What do YOU think of each level? How will YOU understand? I did that for the “go to McDonald’s” myself and I think of each level. I changed my role and see how will I react to different level. The result is profoundly different and startling. The different levels of statement make me think, feel, and understand ultimately differently. Try it and you will know that simple deviation makes you understand differently. You receiver will too.

  6. How should the receiver feel? When you select the best level of mitigation and approach, that is just the first half (or less) of the story. Unless you communicate by e-mail or a letter, body language and your voice is more significant to the outcome of the message than the content per se. Taylormade your body language and the tone of your voice that will foster the best outcome, read “highest willingness to implement”.

  7. What’s the best place and time? It is apparent that communicating exactly the same message in the same way can have dramatically different outcome in different places and times.

  8. What’s the worst case scenario? What if the consequence does not turn out to be as planned? What will you do? You need to prepare for different consequences apart from the most likely case.

  If you have thought through all of them, you are prepared to communicate persuasively. However, in reality, you don’t always have the prestigious time to think of all the eight steps. If you can, good. If not, identify your past failure and learn from it.

  …

  Learn From The Failures

  What are your failures? What is the pattern?

  You might often fail because you don’t always know what to say, or say too many things at a time. Focus on the step 1

  If you are talkative and often speak of things you don’t know what should the outcome be. Focus on step 2

  If you talk to EVERYONE similarly or on the other extreme, you can’t talk to any person that you are not familiar with. Focus on step 3

  You might find yourself using the same pattern all the time “hinting”, “suggesting”, “commanding”, etc. Focus on step 4

  If, most of the times, the receiver misunderstood what you are trying to say. Focus on step 5

  Maybe you think that I did all the things right but they don’t like me or never follow me. Focus on step 6

  If you don’t say the right thing at the right time, all your effort is meaningless. Focus on step 7

  Sometimes, you did great communicating but when the outcome is not what you expect, you switch off and don’t know what to do. Focus on step 8

  …

  For me, personally, I often miss step 3. There are times when my communication is ultra-effective with one kind of people but have zero effect on others. I need to understand my receivers more. What about you? What is your communication failures, flaws, or weaknesses?

  Tags: Communication, Culture, Self-Improvement

• 24Nov

  Summary: Your Career Choice

  Choice, Self-Improvement No Comments

  During the past week or two, I wrote “how to choose you career” in different aspects.
  - You have to choose it with your passion in “How Should We Choose Our Career?”
  - You have to choose it with your strength in “Matching Personalities with Your Career?”
  - You have to choose it because of money in “Choosing a Job Because of Money”

  Now, you might think “What exactly are you trying to say?” So, I present you this simple diagram

  Career Choice

  

  This simple diagram is pretty much self-explanatory. When choosing a career, we rely on one of these factors; passion, stength, or money. You either say

  “I like the job.” or

  “I am good at it.” or

  “The job pays huge.”

  If you are lucky, you will have both. The perfect case would be all three. I, for instance, chose the career that suits my strengths. The pay is absurdly little now and in the future. And I do not particularly like the job (but I like most people and environment here though). How did you choose?

  By the way, there are some other minor factors such as people, environment, distance from home, working hours, and so forth. However, these factors might be in consideration but they are not decisive factors and most of the times, they are tightly related to the three mentioned earlier.

  For example,

  - Nice people or good environment probably make you like the job more (which falls into “passion” category).

  - Flexible working hours will benefit the strengths of people who are laid back and/or dislike routine job.

  - Reputation of the company is closely related to how you will have higher pay in the future.

  …

  Is it possible to find a job or career that falls into the centre of the diagram enjoying passion, strength, and money?

  I strongly believe that we can have it! And my suggestion on the way to find it is to follow the order: passion-strength-money.

  1. Passion: I don’t know how other people think but passion should always be the first factor considering any job in the world. If you find the job you like it passionately, or love, you will not have to “work” for the rest of your life. You will “live” it. As I wrote in the past article that the easiest way to find your passion is to think of what makes you “talk about it all day and never shut up”. If you still can’t find any, spend the whole day talking to your family member or close friend. Talk until you’re tired! There are sometimes when I talked to my close friends and we were literally having different conversations. He would talk about golf (some do talk about stock market, some talk about cars, etc.) and I just nodded and replied something like; “Really, I never know that.” And when it was my turn to talk, I talked about books and their brains turned off immediately!

  2. Strength: After you list all your possible career paths or jobs from your passion. Take time to make your strength inventory and select the jobs that match your strength most. There are times when you might think that you like the job terribly much but you are not good at it. What comes into your brain would probably be “Well, PR manager is my childhood dream; I will never cross it out! I know I’m the worst public speaker ever but I think the job might not really need that skill, does it? Nah, I think I can just be a quiet PR manager!” Be honest, know yourself. There are times that we like the job so much that you do not realise that being a loser or a bozo in it is the fastest way to crush your passion.

  3. Money: The third and the last step is to consider money. I discourage you to put money above passion and strength. Yes, money is important but there is no money in the world that can buy you joy and self-fulfillment. Nevertheless, always consider money. If you don’t, there might be some times in the future that you regret. Changing the course of your career (or company) is not always easy. My advice is to take your time, don’t rush into every opportunity. Study it through and evaluate different options.

  …

  Is this the only way? No, and there are many people that chose strength or money first and became successful (some are insanely successful). However, the logic behind this order is that it is the most difficult to change your passion. Strengths can be developed although it takes time. And money comes and goes, it is the most volatile factor.

  Money is in your pocket

  Strength is in your body

  Passion is in your soul

  …

  What do you think? How should we choose our career? Out of the three, which factor are you enjoying? Which one are you suffering? How can you improve it?

  Tags: Career, Self-Improvement

• 20Nov

  Choosing a Job Because of Money!

  Choice No Comments

  Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Sergey Brin, and Larry Page started their careers with their passion.

  Many more successful businessman started their careers with their strength.

  However, the largest proportion of people (at least, from whom I know of) started careers because of money.

  Is choosing a career (or a job or a company) because of money a good thing?

  Jack Welch started a career because of money. From his book “Winning” (sorry, I don’t have that many books!):

  “When I took my first job, I had several offers, but the one from GE was $1,500 a year more than any other.”

  Money matters, a lot.

  If you consider “money” as a factor to decide which career path you should take. It is easy to say that the higher offer, the better. However, it is always not that easy. Instead of looking at the pay as a snapshot of the first day you start a job. It is crucial that you need to look through time. There are many times that you face “trade-offs”. It can be both money from “salary”, “wage”, “pay” you get from the company you work for or the money you make as an entrepreneur.

  Money Trade-offs

  

  The Y Axis is the “money” you get at a period of time. The X Asis is “timeline”; it can be 12 months or 10 years depending on how you project your future. My assumption on this graph is around 5 years. The lines show your money progress during your career.

  Please note that the area under the three lines are roughly equal. The total amount of money received at the end of the timeline (say 5 years) are equal. It is obvious to say that if there is a line above all those three with the high slope, you should choose that one!

  Option 1: The Hare: The Hare option starts strong. The pay is bigger than other options at the start. Compared to other options, you will enjoy you early career but you might struggle because of the minimal pay rise over the time.

  Option 2: The Turtle: The Turtle option starts slow. It might offer a lower pay at the beginning. However, the growth rate of the money from this option is much higher than the Hare option.

  Option 3: The Frog: The Frog option has very little or no growth rate over time and the amount of money at the start is irrelevant. However, this option will offer you a pay “leap” at a specific period of time.

  So, what does your current career resemble? The Turtle, The Hare, or The Frog?

  What is your choice?

  What are the advantages or disadvantages of each option.

  If you choose The Hare, the option 1, you will get higher pay at the beginning and you will enjoy life at the start. The place (career or company) might be serious but not very competitive. The place is likely to be stable. The Hare option symbolise three things that 1. the career or the company are not for money 2. the industry is not competitive or 3. the culture is bit socialism. The environment should be more secure that The Turtle or The Frog.

  If you choose The Turtle, the option 2, you will find life engaging and vibrating. You will feel that you fight hard to justify your pay rise. It is true that over the time, you’ll be richer than the Hare but this career might burn you out. More often than not, the higher growth of your pay will come with the higher risk of your career. The career paths (or companies) with this option will probably have higher turnover rate.

  If you choose The Frog, the option 3, you will find that life is unexpected and full of surprises. However, you might have to wait for far too long for a good surprise. The work of this options is often project-based or it is dependent on few big deals. You have to work hard to get to that “leap”. The leap will be rewarding. The problem is whether you can endure the period of time before the leap or not.

  …

  Jobs, careers, or companies are unlikely to be 100% turtle, or hare, or frog. Moreover, the pattern of the pay does not always reflects the culture, the environment, or the people there. However, it is essential that you take a look at the money now (or no money!) and look at the future as well. We should be able to detect the pattern of the money we will get in the future.

  Job change is sometimes inevitable and I believe that as long as your passion and strength are there, you can always change job, for the better. Isn’t it better to start high (Hare) and wait for a job change to higher growth job (Turtle) and the job change will often give you a leap, big or small.

  

  All in all, keep your options open and look further to different jobs. Detect your income pattern and plan for your future.

  “There is nothing worse than a guy who has made some money along the way opining that money shouldn’t matter to people who are picking a job. So I won’t do that. In fact, I’ll tell you that of course money matters - it matters a lot” Jack Welch

  Tags: Career, Jack Welch, Money, Self-Improvement

• 20Nov

  Matching Your Personality with Your Career

  Choice 6 Comments

  A couple of days ago, I wrote about “passion.” You need to find your passion for your career. Without passion, your job will be just a job. With passion, it will be your life; something that you can live with.

  However, although you find your passion, finding a job is not a simple task because;

  1. You might find more than one passion

  2. Your passion might lead to more than one available career

  As I mentioned in the previous post that “passion” is a root. It might lead to a tree but a tree has branches and finding the right branch requires further investigation.

  Now, it is time to investigate and probe into ourselves. The widespread method of probing into your self is a “personality test.” However, there are many personality tests available. The purpose of using them is to find your strengths and the next step is to match your strengths with the right career path.

  I believe that during your life; you should come across one or more times with the personality test. What matters is that you use the result to guide your path or it is just another enjoyable test that you read the result and say “Hey, that’s right” or “What?, that’s not me” and get on with your life.

  The two most popular tests are;

  1. Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

  2. DISC assessment

  The MBTI test is available online for free. You can just Google it and take the one that you like. You can take more that one sources of the test and compare the results.

  DISC assessment is a widespread method of categorising people with the four factors, Dominant, Interpersonal, Steady, and Conscientious. A book “The Personality Code” by Travis Bradberry is my choice of DISC test; you can log on to their website here. Based on DISC assessment, the Personality Code test will come up with one of the fourteen personality types. Briefly, the book will describe your type and will tell you how to manage each type and what are the type vs anti-type.

  I strongly recommend another book on testing, Strenghtsfinder 2.0 by Tom Rath. The official site is here. This book suggests that you focus on your strengths and manage weaknesses, not the other way around. The author gives a simple formula “Talent x Investment = Strength”.

  …

  I have done many tests and you will not be amazed on how many career choices you will find. The process of finding the most suitable ones are;

  1. List your strengths: Different personalities have different sets of strengths and weaknesses. Focus on your strengths. From the personality tests, you might have to synthesise the results to figure out your strengths. If you try Strengthfinder 2.0 (or 1.0), the test will list out the strengths for you. There is another approach I got from the book: “The Answer” by John Assaraf and Murray Smith. The authors categorised unique strengths into types of “intelligence”:

  - Verbal-Lingistic Intelligence

  - Logical-Mathematical Intelligence

  - Musical-Rhytmic Intelligence

  - Visual-Spatial Intelligence

  - Body-Kinetic Intelligence

  - Interpersonal Intelligence

  - Intrapersonal Intelligence

  - Naturalistic Intelligence

  What we have to do is list the “achievements” we had in our lives that we value most and feel that they are successes. Then, we think of abilities and strengths that we used to pursue those achievements and there! We take them into our strength inventory.

  2. Rank your strengths: You then need to rank your strengths according to different factors. Firstly, from different tests, if a specific strength always come up, it is likely that the specific strength is one of your dominant strengths. Moreover, you can evaluate them on your own if some strengths do not describe you at all. Come up with around five (four to six) strengths you believe you posess.

  3. List the career paths: Next, it is the process that you have to take the inventory of different careers. Some tests will tell you suitable career paths; list them. An article by usnews.com (you can find many sources like this) matches the career paths with six types of people

  - Realistic, hands-on people

  - Investigative people

  - Artistic people

  - Social people

  - Enterprising people

  - Conventional people

  4. Match you strengths with each career path: This part is difficult because you might not know whether your strengths will be suitable for a specific career path or not. Use your gut and ask for help. You will find that some career paths match only one of your strengths; some will match one or two more. Some career paths will match most or all of your strengths. List those career paths that match your strengths most and you’ll have the final list (less than five would be the best number).

  …

  The steps sound simple and easy and (too) straightforward. However, the purpose of the steps is within you. They will make you think more of yourselves and understand yourselves more. The steps will make your mind and thought circle around your strengths; not the weaknesses, not the current crises.

  The successful matching of your strengths and career path will make you find the job that will cherish and enrich your talent.

  …

  What do you think of the method? Do you think that your current job makes your strengths flourish? Or does it make you fight your weaknesses day in day out? Do you think that personality test is a good tool to make a career choice?

  Tags: Career, Personality Test, Self-Improvement

• 17Nov

  How Should We Choose Our Career?

  Choice 5 Comments

  In a couple of previous posts, I wrote briefly about how Sir Richard Branson made choices doing his career (life) here; and I wrote about how we should “focus” on the essentials gravitating all aspects of our roles together here.

  If we know that making a choice is vital to our present and our future. If we know that we need to keep our roles in harmony, we have families, friends, and communities. So, how should we choose our career?

  …

  It happened yesterday when I talked to my girlfriend and she asked me what career should she take after her master’s degree.

  I said: “None, stay home”

  She angrily said: “What?! I should be good at something!”

  I said: “Nothing, you don’t want to work hard and you want to be equally rewarded. That’s not going to happen.”

  She said: “But I can do many things, decently”

  I said: “But you won’t give a hundred percent. And that, you will be just average.”

  We had a small argument there.

  …

  In the evening, I talked to her on the phone and I told her to stop talking because my head was going to burst.

  I did that a couple of times in the past and she was furious that I stopped her from talking about…

  A trip itinerary.

  16 months in advance!

  …

  There! I thought and told her “That’s it, that’s what YOU should do. Become a tour organiser or a trip manager.”

  I conclude it here that you need to take a career that..

  make you talk about it all the time and never shut up.

  …

  There’s only one word that you need to look for. And it’s not “ability”, “competency”, “experience”, “interest”, “opportunity”, “advancement”, “salary”, “reputation”, “reward”, “environment”, “culture”, “lifestyle”, etc, etc.

  You might already guess it and you probably guessed it right. It’s passion.

  You might probably think “If only I know what my passion is”

  or “my passion will not make money”

  …

  Firstly, everyone has passion, big or small, expressed or unexpressed; we all have one. Passion drives your soul. Passion gives meaning to your life. Don’t mistake passion with fashion. Fashion or fad or interest make you excited for a period of time and it’s gone.

  Secondly, don’t confuse passion with hobby. Hobby or your favourite recreation are just activities. Passion is the root of your activities. Some hobbies might make money, some won’t. Passion is not a thing you do; passion is what makes you do things.

  Moreover, passion does make money. If it does not make money; it’s the fault of things such as an ability to fulfills your passion or just a bad business model.

  Of all the components of successful business, passion is the most difficult and yet, the easiest component you can achieve. You cannot just say, “Let’s develop passion for the next two quarters”. Unlike other intangible assets you possess like “creativity”, “intelligence”, “initiation”, “communication”, etc; you cannot intentionally develop passion. Yet, passion came out of nowhere. Moreover, passion has no limit. Sometimes, we have trouble to push beyond our current “creativity” level or our “communication” skill. Passion, on the other hand, can rise higher and higher without barrier. And good news, the more the better.

  I’ll take an excerpt from the book I read recently: “The Future of Management” by Gary Hamel and Bill Breen where they talked about Management Innovation. They stated the “capabilities” that contribute to value creation in an organisation which are; Passion, Creativity, Initiative, Intellect, Diligence, and Obedience.

  From 100%

  Obedience: 0%; Rule-following employees are worth zip in terms of competitive advantages they generate

  Diligence: 5%; Diligent employees don’t take short-cuts but they are not likely to contribute much to the value creation

  Intellect: 15%: Most companies work hard to find intelligent employees but they are now commodities in this flat world

  Initiative: 20%: Employees who don’t wait to be asked and don’t need to be told.

  Creativity: 25%: Inquisitive and irrepressible employees; they are important for value-creation. They are people who always said “Wouldn’t it be cool if…”

  Passion: 35%: “One person with passion is better than forty people merely interested” E. M. Forster, English novelist

  Nevertheless, there are far too many people trying to make themselves more intellectual by getting degrees after degrees. Those same people often neglect passion. Many people studied hard for a degree in finance to be an investment banker. Do they really CARE about other people’s investment? Many people studied hard for a degree in marketing. Do they really CARE about the soap, shampoo, digital camera, or cars they are trying to market?

  If not, then, they are in deep… trouble. Because the furthest they can contribute is merely 65% by the theory of Gary Hamel and Bill Breen. Actually, they have just achieved (maybe partially) 10% of the capabilities (intellect) from their degrees.

  To quote the words of Charles Handy I got from Tom Peters’ slides from his blog:

  “Passion was what drove these people, passion for their product, passion for their cause. If you care enough, you will find out what you need to know. Or you will experiment and not worry if the experiment goes wrong. Passion as the secret to learning is an odd secret to propose, but I believe that it works at all levels and at all ages. Sadly, passion is not a word often heard in the elephant organizations, nor in schools, where it can seem disruptive.”

  …

  One suggestion: “If you are living you life out of your passion, you are heading the wrong way. If you work without passion, get out, fast.”

  …

  My belief is that we don’t need to keep our passion alive. Because it’s already living. It’s breathing and it’s burning. It’s our job to find it and live it.

  Live your life with, by, from, and for your passion.

  Tags: Management, Passion, Self-Improvement

• 15Nov

  Focusing On The Essentials

  Self-Improvement 3 Comments

  I’ve followed Mike King’s blog and his most recent post on Maximum Productivity: Focus. In order to avoid being labeled as a paparazzi; I will be more cautious!

  From his post “Productive focus is narrowing your actions and time in on the areas that produce results.”, this is spot on an Mike later wrote about his technology distracts us, how can we focus on productive works and build our mind to be capable of doing them.

  I’ll get back to my previous post: “Your Choice”. The post in Learnthis.ca by Mike King resonates with the quote by Sir Richard Branson in my previous post.

  “To me business is not about wearing suits or pleasing stockholders. It’s about being true to yourself, your ideas, and focusing on the essentials.”

  Here is the hardest part: “How do you focus on the essentials?”

  My assumption is that your essence of living is your contribution; your contribution on what’s important.

  I’ll borrow the words from “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” by Stephen R. Covey that we need to identify our roles. His example includes;

  1. Family

  2. Work

  3. Friend

  4. Church/Community/Service

  We have to specify the activities we need in each role. We thought of them separately;

  

  We have different activities in each role.

  Family: Take care of parents, have regular dinner - at least three times a week - with our spouse, take a dog out for a walk, or go to children’s football matches.

  Friends: Have occasional parties, visit close friends quarterly, consult and support their businesses, or keep distant friends in touch.

  Work: Work forty hours a week, close enough deals, initiate new business ventures, have regular informal dinners or lunches with subordinates, or encourage our boss through tough times.

  Community: Go to church every Sunday, go to temple and meditate if you are a Buddhist (like me!), donate at least once a month to causes that need urgent help, etc.

  I only state the activites omitting the personality or character such as “be a supportive friend”, “be a humble boss” because we will focus solely on “activites” or “what we do”.

  The problem that most of us face is typical;

  activities in our different roles are, more often than not, contradictory.

  We always find out that, in order to have regular dinners with our spouse, we need to sacrifice our work hours and skip parties with friends. Sometimes, if we are eager to close urgent deals on Saturday, we could not go to our children’s football match.

  Stephen Covey suggested us to be principle-centered but sometimes, we see a principle as a principle in loan that we need to pay back!

  However, we have another approach; we “focus”; we cut all the unproductive, unethical, or useless activities such as partying with friends, pleasing our boss, and so forth, out.

  

  From the diagram above, if we are successful focusing on our activities, we will be more productive and enjoyable in each role. It does not mean that less activities in work (as shown above) will deteriorate our work capability. Actually, it is quite the opposite, you can focus on the area of your work that you are most capable and productive while ceasing to do anything out of focus.

  Successful focus is a challenging journey.

  …

  You are probably thinking that “this is what we are all trying to do” this is just a paraphrase of everything we have learnt with two corny circle diagrams! What a waste of time!

  .

  .

  .

  If you think like that, maybe you are right.

  I would like to give you another idea…

  Instead of defining our roles and specify activities in each role, there are some people who could have activities that benefit all the roles we possess.

  

  Sir Richard Branson could do activities that are enjoyable without losing his friends, families, or communities because they are also parts of his work because his work is not his “job”. His work is his life.

  He has a gravitational force that could bring all these together. Money is a factor but could we do the same?

  Success in bringing all the roles together with maximise the benefit and productivity of our activities. Simply said, it’s like killing four birds with one stone. In this approach, instead of cutting activities, we focus on merging activities.

  An easy example is  what I notice from many people. Their working behaviours change; people work at home via e-mail and there are internet communities bringing freinds together without traveling. These activities will allow us to have more time with a family.

  My belief is that this is another journey; a journey to converge activities in our lives.

  We need to evaluate our work; whether it is contradicting with our family, friends, or community or not.

  We need to leverage our activities with friends; whether they are enhancing or undermining our work, family, and community.

  We need to understand our family; whether it is overwhelmed by our work life or it is threatened by our time with friends.

  …

  And switch off the television.

  Tags: Richard Branson, Self-Improvement

• 13Nov

  Your Choice

  Choice 2 Comments

  I have visited Tom Peter’s Blog (He’s one of my favourite writers) and I download a PowerPoint file from his latest post “The Talent 57″. The file is 4.6mb and I thought that I will see a lot of detailed pictures and photos.

  I was wrong.

  The file contains 544 slides

  yes, five hundred and forty four slides.

  I will get back to most of his contents later but I read a quote by Sir Richard Branson in his slide

  “To me business is not about wearing suits or pleasing stockholders. It’s about being true to yourself, your ideas, and focusing on the essentials.”

  

  Sir Richard Branson knew his self at the age of fifteen when he started the first venture (growing Christmas tree) and failed! He knew from the start that he chose to be an entrepreneur. He chose his path. He chose to be what we wanted to become.

  The keyword is “Choice”

  (photo: www.time.com)

  For me, personally, at the age of fifteen, I was playing video games like crazy, reading comics, and getting grades in school.

  That was what I chose. What did you choose?

  …

  One thing about Sir Richard Branson that stands out is that the more I read about him, the more I study about him, I could not separate his business and his personal life.

  
  For some, personal life dominates business life and their businesses go nowhere.

  For some, business life overwhelms personal life and their families shatter.

  Sir Richard Branson pushes the two together, to the extreme.

  (photo: outside.away.com)

  From the quote above;

  “It’s about being true to yourself, your ideas, and focusing on the essentials.”

  Isn’t it what you need in your life?

  …

  The question is “Isn’t it too late to start living your life and your career together?”

  We are not Sir Richard Branson and we could not turn back time. My time with the video games could not be changed but it starts from now.

  We might not own a company like Virgin but isn’t it great enough if we could live both our career (business) life and personal life together to the fullest?

  Tags: Richard Branson, Self-Improvement

• 12Nov

  What is Your Attitude?

  Self-Improvement 4 Comments

  First of all, I have to tell you this; writing about self-improvement is brain-twisting. For me, who have no study whatsoever on self-improvment, psychology, etc. And for me, who have lived most of my life in a fast lane.

  This is challenging

  I read the latest article by Mike King from his website Learn This; Maximum Productivity: Attitude. The second topic he explained is attitude (the first is perspective). The five areas we need to master in order to have the “healthy” attitude are; self-confidence, motivation, creativity, health, and happiness. Please read his article, it’s worth your time.

  I read it and my reaction was “whoa, I couldn’t have one issue to discuss on, let alone argue” but from the time he posted and now; I tried to investigate myself very deeply on attitude and how it is related to the five areas.

  I tried to simply conceptualise Mike King’s idea and I came up with two simple diagrams;
  
  The first one is the “causal” model meaning that the 5 areas affect attitude directly. At any time, it might be possible that one area, say Motivation, is dominating your attitude making your other four areas less relevant. Each area can take turn dominating the health of your attitude; there might be two or three or four or all of them dominating your attitude at a time.

  …
  

  The second interpretation is slightly different; I’ll name it the “comprehensive” model. “Attitude” is not affected by the five areas; “Attitude” IS self-confidence, motivation, creativity, health, AND happiness.

  This model is different that each area cannot be separated, they work together. In this model, you cannot say I am motivated, thus, I have a healthy attitude.

  …

  The first “causal” model will determine “attitude” quantitatively; for example, ranging from 1 to 10; what is your level of attitude taking into account the five areas (or some of them that affect your attitude). The 1 to 10 range can be bad attitude to good attitude or unhealthy attitude to healthy attitude.

  The second “comprehensive” model determines “attitude” qualitatively. You NEVER have healthy or unhealthy attitude. You never have good or bad attitude. You might have “good-natured attitude” or “fiery attitude” or “calm, tranquil, yet determined attitude”, etc.

  …

  From my perspective of attitude; I though slightly different. I construct my model based on Mike’s idea (I could not think of anything better!) and I am truthfully grateful that he could provide me (and the rest of us) with a great input.
  

  From my point of view, from my deep investigation of my attitude, I could not separate “attitude” from “happiness” and “health”. However, I could separate self-confidence, creativity, and motivation from my attitude. I called the blend of “attitude, happiness, and health”

  the “condition”,

  or “the state of being”.

  You need the right “condition” to be productive.

  Tags: Self-Improvement

• 10Nov

  Book Review: Yes! (Robert B. Cialdini, et al., 2008)

  Book Reviews No Comments

  “Just because yes is simple and obtainable, we shouldn’t be fooled into believing that anyone can easily secure it from others”

  

  “Yes!; 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive” by Noah J. Goldstein, Steve J. Martin, and Robert B. Cialdini

  The title says it all really; the book is filled with 50 ways (I’d rather say “examples”) of persuasion. They are (for examples);

  “What one word can you start using today to increase your persuasiveness by more than fifty percent?”

  “Which item of stationery can dramatically increase people’s responses to your requests?”

  SPOILER ALERT!! (the answer to the two questions are; “because” and “Post-It notes”)

  …

  I’m not going to list all 50 ways from the book; I’ll go right to my Six Elements Review that the ideal business book is “easy to read, distinct, practical, credible, insightful, and provides great reading experience”

  Ease of Understanding: 8/10; the small book is separated into 50 chapters and each chapter takes less than 5-10 minutes so, it is easy to understand. However, the drawback of Yes! is its lack of structure; 50 ways are loosely tied (if at all) together.

  Distinction: 8/10; it is undoubtedly a great compilation of persuasion techniques. The highlight is the word “50″; it is difficult to provide readers with 50 ways “persuasively” but Cialdini, Goldstein, and Martin could do it.

  Practicality: 4/10; as interesting as those fifty ways are, I can say that it is very difficult (if possible at all) to implement any of them appropriately. Each situation in the book or in your lives is unique. It is more possible to successfully persuade others and look back to the techniques in the book and match them than the other way around.

  Credibility: 6/10; the gook point is that every way is backed with good and, sometimes, amazing example(s). The bad point is, it might not be enough to use one example (or a couple of them) to describe the ways and claim that they are “scientifically proven”.

  Insight: 5/10; I think 5 is fair because as you know that there are fifty ways! It is impossible to dig deep into every (any) way.

  Reading Experience: 9/10; This is, by far, the most outstanding element of Yes!; this book is fun. Take this book with you along with another book and if you’re bored with the other book, take some times off and read Yes!; it is refreshing. I would compare the book to Aesop Fable not that they are childish and fictional but they are;

  1. Concise and precise

  2. Every story teaches you a valuable lesson

  3. You mention it in a hindsight when something already happened! (”Oh, this situation is like the story of “The Hare and The Tortoise”… “I persuaded my friend and it was like the way no.XX from Cialdini’s book”!)

  Overall: 6.7/10; I’d say “buy it”; it’s fun and won’t waste your time because you’ll learn many things from the book and you’ll find those examples and stories amazing. However, be careful when you try to do any of those ways; make sure you think of the other 49 ways first!

  Tags: Book Review, Self-Improvement

• 10Nov

  Paradigm-Free

  Self-Improvement 3 Comments

  I’m waiting for the six books I ordered from amazon.com. Yesterday, I went to the bookshop and grabbed Leander Kahney’s Inside Steve’s Brain.

  I obviously want to know more about Steve Jobs and I would also like to know whether the book lives the claim “Inside his brain” or not.

  I thought about it and in order to be inside someone’s brain, you need to be more than looking from his point of view. I’d like to borrow the unfinished series of Mike King, the six issues required to maximise your productivity; perspective, attitude, focus, persistence, adventure, and connections. I am waiting for the explanations of all of these but I could not wait so, hey, I’ll try them first (sorry, Mike :))

  In order to be inside someone’s brain; not only you have to see from his perspective, your need to feel his attitude, you need to focus on the same focus, your level of persistence must be similar, you need to experience the same adventure, and you need his absolute connections.

  An absolute paradigm shift.

  I believe it will be an ultimate freedom if you can liberate your paradigm and let it flow to the place or person you want it to be, any time.

  To be paradigm-free.

  Paradigm is a pattern, the world, or the model one must have. Your paradigm dictates how you think, feel, live, breathe, or perceive.

  If you can liberate your paradigm; you can fully control your choice, as Steven Covey put it in “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”; the choice comprises of “self-awareness”, “imagination”, conscience”, and “independent view”.

  If you can not only liberate your paradigm, but also be inside someone else’s paradigm and thoroughly understand their choices.

  The question is: “How can you be paradigm-free?”

  I, for one, do not know. But wouldn’t it make the world a better place if people “understand” other people better.

  I’m not saying that people should know what other people think but “why” other people think that.

  Knowing “what” other people think will lead the world to chaos, absolute anarchy

  Knowing “why” other people think will lead the world to peace, ultimate happiness

  That would make this world a better place.

  …

  “You may say I’m a dreamer,

  but I’m not the only one.”

  Tags: Paradigm, Self-Improvement

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