If you have been a star all your life, from a naughty kid through your adulthood...the class & club presidents, the lead singer or dancer or actress, the rookie of the year award holder, the team & project leader, the founder of experience design department, the youngest in the top management, etc, etc...
Beware.
Chances are, being the lead actor/actress under the spotlight all your life, you never ever knew, felt, experienced, understood and identified with the feelings of your teammates who wear funny costumes and play ‘tree roles’ off the limelight...or exhausting themselves arranging wardrobe/props/drinks for you behind the scene...or watching you having lots of fun from a dark corner feeling like outsiders...
Chances are, you may never discover that the best comrades you can find are often among these people, people who Can and Will change the world together with you...
(Note: with you, not for you)
When the corporate world realized it could no longer expect the employees to commit one decade or two (or 3 or 4) to corporate ladder climbing, it invented management trainee programs. What are management trainee programs for? To help future managers, we all know, understand the company and its business better, faster.
But is that all? Really?
Assigning ambitious college graduates to work as underwear promoters for 3 or 6 months just to know the "business" of a department store chain? Really?
Think about it. Especially if you have been a star all your life.
Showing posts with label "Change the World with Ideas". Show all posts
Showing posts with label "Change the World with Ideas". Show all posts
Thursday, 15 January 2009
3 superb quotes that deserve 3 individual posts #3
If you want to build a ship, don’t gather people together to collect wood, and don’t assign them tasks and work, but instead teach them to long for the sea.
-- Antoine de Saint-Exupery (Le Petit Prince)
-- Antoine de Saint-Exupery (Le Petit Prince)
3 superb quotes that deserve 3 individual posts #2
Don't get stuck in the middle. It's painful.
--Seth Godin
--Seth Godin
Big Picturers
I myself have a little trouble practicing the Move-on idea. There’s something so tenaciously lingering in my mind, so let me get it over with right here right now (and I won’t go back to search through those ‘drafts’…)
Seth Godin posted a great blog about “how to deal with ‘No’” a while back. Great. You can read it here, because you most likely won’t be satisfied with my one-line summary below:
Focus on the BIG Picture (it’s not just about you).
It’s just that easy. All we have to do is forget ourselves for a moment and think from the Big-picture perspective. Think not of the big paycheck or sense of accomplishments or praise or envy from others, but of the future of the company. By the way, would you give a damn, truly give a damn, if you are not trying to get in?
Easy principles are often the hardest to practice. However, for true big picturers, such ‘against-selfish-human-nature’, hard-to-implement advice/action is just natural reflection of their big-picture thinking (because they give a damn and it’s not just them!).
The sad thing, the thing that worries me, is the whole culture that’s skewed towards the obsession with ‘skills’ that ‘gets you in’. People are encouraged/enticed to learn, practice, sharpen (and pay for) the ‘skills’ that make you look like a perfect match for whichever company you’re trying to get in. it doesn’t matter if you really are passionate or suitable, you just have to look like it. So you pay for the skills to make yourselves look really passionate and ‘qualified’.
Seth’s advices in the blog post, originally a display of big picturers’ natural action, could i) become a catalyst to re-invent the culture, or they could ii) be squeezed into the category of “latest skills” that “get you in”. We’ll see.
If ii) would be the result, unfortunately, those advices would be like obsolete technology that loses competitive advantage in a few years time (or shorter). And sadly, it might even crowd out some real big picturers in certain markets.
Or, by then, with all the passion & care & infinite innovativeness, you big picturers may have already developed some even more brilliant next-generation best-practices that blow our minds (including Seth’s) away.
Seth Godin posted a great blog about “how to deal with ‘No’” a while back. Great. You can read it here, because you most likely won’t be satisfied with my one-line summary below:
Focus on the BIG Picture (it’s not just about you).
It’s just that easy. All we have to do is forget ourselves for a moment and think from the Big-picture perspective. Think not of the big paycheck or sense of accomplishments or praise or envy from others, but of the future of the company. By the way, would you give a damn, truly give a damn, if you are not trying to get in?
Easy principles are often the hardest to practice. However, for true big picturers, such ‘against-selfish-human-nature’, hard-to-implement advice/action is just natural reflection of their big-picture thinking (because they give a damn and it’s not just them!).
The sad thing, the thing that worries me, is the whole culture that’s skewed towards the obsession with ‘skills’ that ‘gets you in’. People are encouraged/enticed to learn, practice, sharpen (and pay for) the ‘skills’ that make you look like a perfect match for whichever company you’re trying to get in. it doesn’t matter if you really are passionate or suitable, you just have to look like it. So you pay for the skills to make yourselves look really passionate and ‘qualified’.
Seth’s advices in the blog post, originally a display of big picturers’ natural action, could i) become a catalyst to re-invent the culture, or they could ii) be squeezed into the category of “latest skills” that “get you in”. We’ll see.
If ii) would be the result, unfortunately, those advices would be like obsolete technology that loses competitive advantage in a few years time (or shorter). And sadly, it might even crowd out some real big picturers in certain markets.
Or, by then, with all the passion & care & infinite innovativeness, you big picturers may have already developed some even more brilliant next-generation best-practices that blow our minds (including Seth’s) away.
Wednesday, 14 January 2009
Some more Ammunition: Scribbles on A Bullet
a. “Mean”
Why people can be so mean to each other? Is it sth we are born with or sth we learn? Why people want to be mean? How do we deal with mean people? How a society creates mean people? Why some environment creates less mean people?
Maybe, something mean and ugly may look pretty & thrilling & exciting from another perspective...It doesn’t matter we learnt it or we were born with it. It’s just there. It does matter, however, what & how we are gonna do with it...
b. Conflicting emotions
Conflicting emotions: emotions that make people tough & successful v.s. emotions that make people soft & amicable. Economic territory v.s. social territory. How do we deal with it? Instant switching is ‘ugly’, but seems like survival skills very often are ugly. What should we do? What can we do? Or should we ask this question in the first place?
c. Game
The endless ‘games’ between regulators & financiers...at the end, rules are simply something people try to circumvent...what we need then, could be better mechanism designs for the systems, in which following the rules is beneficial to participants (both psychologically and materially)...
* Note: there is no single perfect mechanism in any given case, we can achieve better mechanism only through continual small-scale experiments that consistently brace for failures and crack comfort zones.
d.
A story of how Wall street’s mechanism dragged us into this damn crisis here.
Why people can be so mean to each other? Is it sth we are born with or sth we learn? Why people want to be mean? How do we deal with mean people? How a society creates mean people? Why some environment creates less mean people?
Maybe, something mean and ugly may look pretty & thrilling & exciting from another perspective...It doesn’t matter we learnt it or we were born with it. It’s just there. It does matter, however, what & how we are gonna do with it...
b. Conflicting emotions
Conflicting emotions: emotions that make people tough & successful v.s. emotions that make people soft & amicable. Economic territory v.s. social territory. How do we deal with it? Instant switching is ‘ugly’, but seems like survival skills very often are ugly. What should we do? What can we do? Or should we ask this question in the first place?
c. Game
The endless ‘games’ between regulators & financiers...at the end, rules are simply something people try to circumvent...what we need then, could be better mechanism designs for the systems, in which following the rules is beneficial to participants (both psychologically and materially)...
* Note: there is no single perfect mechanism in any given case, we can achieve better mechanism only through continual small-scale experiments that consistently brace for failures and crack comfort zones.
d.
A story of how Wall street’s mechanism dragged us into this damn crisis here.
Why?
...why do we expect those so-called leaders (politicians or whoever), to possess nobler personalities (or we say or argue or write so)? Haven’t we in this system already implicitly agreed that it’s acceptable for them to work for their self-interests as long as that doesn’t cause serious harm to all of us? The trick is, behaviour that may create catastrophe to all of us doesn’t seem dangerous at the beginning, especially to those ‘corrupt’ beneficiaries...so let’s drop the false expectations & ideals, stop unrealistic assumptions & arguments & education that often lead to subsequent disappointment & resentment...and focus our energy on the efforts to innovate & re-invent the system into a more incentive-compatible one...
"Put Your Life into The Speech"
I don’t know from whom this line originally is; I don’t know how many people really noticed or believe in it, but it struck my mind when a fellow public speaking club member mentioned it. He quoted this when giving suggestions to another fellow member. This sentence pretty much summed up what I believe a great speech preparation/execution should be.
Speech. Greatness. It’s not about awards; not about showcase of skills. It’s about something from your heart & soul. It could be your life.
And greatest lessons come often not from known prominent figures, but ‘average’ people (precisely, people whose passion & potential not yet fully discovered & displayed) who care and give a damn.
Thank you, Ger.
Again, You never know who’s going to change your life; and you never know whose life you are going to change.
Speech. Greatness. It’s not about awards; not about showcase of skills. It’s about something from your heart & soul. It could be your life.
And greatest lessons come often not from known prominent figures, but ‘average’ people (precisely, people whose passion & potential not yet fully discovered & displayed) who care and give a damn.
Thank you, Ger.
Again, You never know who’s going to change your life; and you never know whose life you are going to change.
Friday, 9 January 2009
Some More Ammunition...
A. 2 Ideas abt Innovation
Include to Innovate
Does this require explanation? No. We all know people often can surprise us with what they can do while given an opportunity. This cliche requires lots of practices, labor to weed out our ego and vanity.
cognitive diversity
What is diversity? Different skin colors different background different nationality? How about people in the same neighborhood in the same company but spending weekends reading different stuff & interacting with different people behind computer screens? Internet is changing everything (yeah another cliche), including the definition of diversity. Think about it.
B. Why changes just don't happen in our world?
1. People are lazy;
2. People think others ("they" or "??? NGO") will/should take care of the world for them;
3. People are willing to give 150% & sacrifice Only for things they have strong emotional connections to.
Forget about 1 & 2, it's 3 that makes a difference.
C. another perspective on "How to maximize efficient usage of talents (to change our world)?"
Do Not burden Devoted Baby Seal Rescuers with Guilt and Obligation to save war victims.
D. in search for ideas abt Next-generation Markets
Selling ideas like selling peanuts just won't work anymore, but we human beings are good at dragging...delaying changes...we make do with status quo until we have to innovate or die...
Why people can make a living selling ideas? Because they attach ideas to tangible things like books or CDs (whose markets are as tangible as markets for peanuts). Because they attach ideas to "live" experience (confined by time & space) like a concert or seminar. However it's not news that we no longer need to pay for the copyright to read about your brilliant ideas, we no longer have to buy the tickets to see you from 150 meters to get motivated...
Copyright laws just increase social costs,especially in an era of the Web. It's not incentive compatible (many things are not,by the way), how long into the future can it work?
We human beings have been buying and selling intangibles using the market concept based on tangible goods for a long long time...can we do it for another century or will we be thrown into total confusion in 10 years and forced to innovate + create a Next-generation Market for ideas?
There's no answer yet at this moment, but we do have a box to jump and think out of...
Will you be part of the innovation?
Include to Innovate
Does this require explanation? No. We all know people often can surprise us with what they can do while given an opportunity. This cliche requires lots of practices, labor to weed out our ego and vanity.
cognitive diversity
What is diversity? Different skin colors different background different nationality? How about people in the same neighborhood in the same company but spending weekends reading different stuff & interacting with different people behind computer screens? Internet is changing everything (yeah another cliche), including the definition of diversity. Think about it.
B. Why changes just don't happen in our world?
1. People are lazy;
2. People think others ("they" or "??? NGO") will/should take care of the world for them;
3. People are willing to give 150% & sacrifice Only for things they have strong emotional connections to.
Forget about 1 & 2, it's 3 that makes a difference.
C. another perspective on "How to maximize efficient usage of talents (to change our world)?"
Do Not burden Devoted Baby Seal Rescuers with Guilt and Obligation to save war victims.
D. in search for ideas abt Next-generation Markets
Selling ideas like selling peanuts just won't work anymore, but we human beings are good at dragging...delaying changes...we make do with status quo until we have to innovate or die...
Why people can make a living selling ideas? Because they attach ideas to tangible things like books or CDs (whose markets are as tangible as markets for peanuts). Because they attach ideas to "live" experience (confined by time & space) like a concert or seminar. However it's not news that we no longer need to pay for the copyright to read about your brilliant ideas, we no longer have to buy the tickets to see you from 150 meters to get motivated...
Copyright laws just increase social costs,especially in an era of the Web. It's not incentive compatible (many things are not,by the way), how long into the future can it work?
We human beings have been buying and selling intangibles using the market concept based on tangible goods for a long long time...can we do it for another century or will we be thrown into total confusion in 10 years and forced to innovate + create a Next-generation Market for ideas?
There's no answer yet at this moment, but we do have a box to jump and think out of...
Will you be part of the innovation?
Monday, 29 December 2008
Blaze away your ammunition...Now!
I bet many of you dudes/bloggers/dreamers out there have behind your head an arsenal full of ammunition. I mean a ton of ideas that overload your head. And for some reason you haven’t yet turn it into a concrete blog post...
If one of your reasons is, ‘I’m still not quite ready’, ‘I’m still not quite sure how to present it in the right way’, ‘I may as well wait for a while’, ‘I may need a bit more time to figure it out’ etc… read point 8 & 9 of this post by Seth Godin.
8. Show up. Not writing is not a useful way of expressing your ideas. Waiting for perfect is a lousy strategy.
9. Say it. Don't hide, don't embellish. (Read the post here)
Don’t worry about grammatical mistakes or imperfect analogy or messy reasoning or inaccurate quotes or possible stupidity, in Seth’s words, you can, and should, always “edit yourself ruthlessly”; in John Wooden’s words, “he who makes the most mistakes wins.”
Blaze away your ammunition...Now!
If one of your reasons is, ‘I’m still not quite ready’, ‘I’m still not quite sure how to present it in the right way’, ‘I may as well wait for a while’, ‘I may need a bit more time to figure it out’ etc… read point 8 & 9 of this post by Seth Godin.
8. Show up. Not writing is not a useful way of expressing your ideas. Waiting for perfect is a lousy strategy.
9. Say it. Don't hide, don't embellish. (Read the post here)
Don’t worry about grammatical mistakes or imperfect analogy or messy reasoning or inaccurate quotes or possible stupidity, in Seth’s words, you can, and should, always “edit yourself ruthlessly”; in John Wooden’s words, “he who makes the most mistakes wins.”
Blaze away your ammunition...Now!
Thursday, 25 December 2008
Christmas Launch:"Change the World with Ideas"
What causes changes in our world? A lot. It starts with ideas. PLUS: tons of action, experiments, failures & persistence. Ideas, however overrated or underrated nowadays, are not enough.
"...ideas are easy, try to do it - that's the test..."
--Guy Kawasaki
Not enough, not deciding, yet absolutely necessary. Inspirational ideas are the origin (see related post) of all great changes. And we can all contribute to this and be part of the changes.
"Change the World with Ideas" is not just a grand yet empty statement, it's not just the business of so-called gurus or innovators. It's something we can practice every single day and yes, it's Our Business. We all have a role in it, if we give a damn.
We develop or refine or improve ideas ('Think'); we experiment new ideas and put 'em into practice ('Innovate'); we share brilliant ideas and encourage innovative practices ('Spread').
We don't have to be thinkers with superb ideas or innovators with hyper elastic minds to do our part. The easiest way for us to contribute and "Change the World with Ideas" (and what this blog attempts to do), is to spread those brilliant ideas & practices, value-add a bit if possible, and pray for someone with great potential out there to get inspired, then go on to create something and change our world for the better......and that someone, ladies and gentlemen, may very well be You.
Wish You A Merry & Meaningful Christmas!
"...ideas are easy, try to do it - that's the test..."
--Guy Kawasaki
Not enough, not deciding, yet absolutely necessary. Inspirational ideas are the origin (see related post) of all great changes. And we can all contribute to this and be part of the changes.
"Change the World with Ideas" is not just a grand yet empty statement, it's not just the business of so-called gurus or innovators. It's something we can practice every single day and yes, it's Our Business. We all have a role in it, if we give a damn.
We develop or refine or improve ideas ('Think'); we experiment new ideas and put 'em into practice ('Innovate'); we share brilliant ideas and encourage innovative practices ('Spread').
We don't have to be thinkers with superb ideas or innovators with hyper elastic minds to do our part. The easiest way for us to contribute and "Change the World with Ideas" (and what this blog attempts to do), is to spread those brilliant ideas & practices, value-add a bit if possible, and pray for someone with great potential out there to get inspired, then go on to create something and change our world for the better......and that someone, ladies and gentlemen, may very well be You.
Wish You A Merry & Meaningful Christmas!
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