Save Gaia

Today is Earth Day. Happy 39th Birthday!

Earth Day was founded by U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson as an environmental teach-in way back in 1970. That nation-wide environmental protest movement in the US was first proposed by him to thrust the environment onto the national agenda.

April 22, 1970, the inaugural Earth Day marked the beginning of the modern environmental movement. That event had approximately 20 million Americans participating, all with a goal of a healthy and sustainable environment.

Today millions all over the globe, observe Earth Day, this as the dire consequences of our continued industrialization and modernization has put the environment onto the global agenda.

What can organizations do?

Here are some simple ideas that'll work for the 2-pax to the 20,000-pax organization

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Restore

Reduce
- electricity usage in the office – make sure all electrical appliances are turned off at the device and also the mains at the end of the work day.
- or eliminate the use of plastic / sytrofoam cups in the office (including plastic bottled water) – everyone to use their own cups.
- the amount of paper used for non-essential printing eg printing out emails to read.
- non-essential air-travel, do a tele-conference instead

Reuse
- the other side of unwanted/unimportant (non-confidential) paper print outs

Recycle
- copier or printer cartridges
- have recycling bins for paper, plastics, aluminium
- organize a recycling drive eg newspaper collection in your community

Restore
- offset your carbon footprint by organizing a tree-planting event with your local community partner http://www.gardencityfund.com.sg/pat/How_to_take_part.htm
- organize a beach / park / mangrove clean-up to rid them of litter and refuse
- use public transport or car-pool or even cycle to work

As Nike succinctly puts it - "Just Do It!"

Darwin200

We hear lots of buzz words today - in business, the economy and for the workforce.

Words like re-inventing, paradigm shift, thinking out-of-the-box, re-skilling, change management, resilience, mind-set change, transformation, catalyze, innovate, revolutionize….the list is endless – but all eluding to the importance of change and adapting for the better.

Which leads me to one of my favourite quotations - from Charles Darwin, 1809-1882 :

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.”

Charles Darwin was an English naturalist and author of On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, the book on the theory of evolution by natural selection that shook the scientific world.

Darwin200 is centered on his 200th birthday in February 2009 as well as the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection in November 1859.

It will be a platform for countries and scientific communities all over the world to celebrate how the impact of his ideas, about evolution and his approach to the understanding of the natural world as an outstanding scientist, continues to have on our lives today.

Ideas that continue to have relevance and resonance for us in this constantly changing and rapidly evolving world we live in.

Many organizations I have been asked to work with are often grappling with either coping with and/or sustaining change management.

If you have a similar dilemma and need a solution or intervention, let me know and I can share with you why so many change initiatives fail and how not to go down that same path.

Change is the only constant these days.

Question is are you or your organization ready to face up to it?

HR Day

In celebration of Singapore's most important asset, this nation's first Human Resource (HR) Day and a centre dedicated to HR training (Human Capital Centre) was launched by the Minister of Manpower yesterday.

Singapore's HR Day will be held annually on March 1st.

Madam Ho Geok Choo, President of Singapore Human Resources Institute and also the new Chief Executive of the Human Capital Centre (HCC), was quoted by the media as saying "Singapore's success story is really all about human resources" and this "day formally recognises the significant contribution of HR and people managers."

In the many workshops/facilitated meetings that I have conducted relating to employee/staff motivation, one of the top factors that come up again and again, that really motivates employess at the workplace is recognition.

Employees who are regularly recognised/praised for their contributions ie positive feedback that their effort/work matters, will be more motivated and engaged at the workplace.

This leads to enhanced morale, reduced attrition and improved productivity & performance. All of which will go to boosting organisational effectiveness, performance and results.

Simple, novel and when done with sincerity, HR Day is a great way of letting employees know that people really are an organisations greatest asset.

What will you be doing come 1st March?

Servant-Leadership

In 1970, noted American organizational expert, Robert K Greenleaf, coined and defined the term ‘servant leadership’ in his essay The Servant as Leader.

This visionary approach to leadership development has since been advanced by such renowned authors such as Steven Covey, Ken Blanchard, Peter Senge and others.

In that essay, Greenleaf describes servant leadership in this manner:

“The servant-leader is servant first… It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead……The difference manifests itself in the care taken by the servant-first to make sure that other people’s highest priority needs are being served. The best test, and difficult to administer, is: Do those served grow as persons? Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants?”

In these trying business and economic times, amidst corporate management debacles about ethics and responsibility, the principles Greenleaf talks about are a timely reminder on what true leadership can be, be it in the community, politics or business.

In Western literature and tradition, Jesus Christ was truly the epitome of a servant leader where he made servitude a central principle of Christianity.

Jesus called them together and said, "You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them.Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."
Mark 10: 42-45 (NIV)

As Christians across the globe celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ today, I hope that His message will renew a sense of urgency and purpose for leaders to do what is right.

Happy Easter!

Why Juggle?

Why not?

Juggling is a fun and very beneficial activity - for all ages.

It improves your rhythm, hand eye co-ordination, timing and it gives you a bit of exercise too. More importantly, it involves whole brain integration (see my earlier post regarding Left-Brain, Right-Brain).

When you are concentrating on the task of juggling, it is a great way to relax and forget about everything else for a moment, attaining what is called a "relaxed state of concentration". It is acknowledged that athletes perform best in this state, what is commonly referred to as being “in the zone”.

Still need convincing?

In edition 427 of Nature (311-312), dated 22 Jan 2004, researchers from the University of Regensberg in Germany found that learning to juggle causes certain areas of your brain to grow.

In the article Neuroplasticity: Changes in grey matter induced by training, researchers discovered that absolute beginners who learnt to juggle over a period of three months had increased their grey matter in areas associated with processing and storage of complex visual motion functions.

But they also discovered that brains returned to their original size when they stopped juggling ie this effect was transient. 'The brain is like a muscle, we need to exercise it," said Dr Arne May who led the research team. A case of use it or lose it.

So want your brain/brain power to get a boost? Learn to Juggle!

And then the next time you encounter a problem/issue - Take a time out, go juggle and when you have attained that relaxed state of concentration, see if a solution or at least some light at end of the tunnel presents itself.

You will be surprised at the results.

I have run many juggling workshops (from 8 to more than 120 pax) and participants often are skeptical at the beginning. But at the end, they not only had great fun, but they take away an important skill (which many secretly wished they knew how to) that gives them a fun way to achieve whole brain integration.

Left Brain - Right Brain

I hope you managed to catch my earlier post featuring a talk by Sir Ken Robinson. In it he talks about how we are “educating” children from their “waist up to their heads and slightly to one side”.

Sir Robinson was eluding to the concept of brain lateralization.

The term brain lateralization refers to the fact that although the two halves of the human brain (cerebral hemispheres) look pretty much alike, they are actually quite different in their functions. Each hemisphere has functional specializations.

Below is a listing of what is generally widely-accepted today as these “specializations”.

LEFT BRAIN FUNCTIONS--------------------------- RIGHT BRAIN FUNCTIONS

uses logic--------------------------------------------------------uses feelings
detail oriented--------------------------------------------------"big picture" oriented
facts rule---------------------------------------------------------imagination rules
words and language--------------------------------------------symbols and images
present and past------------------------------------------------present and future
math and science-----------------------------------------------philosophy and religion
knowing----------------------------------------------------------believes
acknowledges---------------------------------------------------appreciates
order/pattern perception----------------------------------------spatial perception
knows object name--------------------------------------------- knows object function
reality based-----------------------------------------------------fantasy based
forms strategies-------------------------------------------------presents possibilities
practical--------------------------------------------------------impetuous
safe--------------------------------------------------------------risk-taking

...............................
Mona Lisa by Leonardo Da Vinci............ Weeping Woman by Pablo Picasso

Both renowned and esteemed artists.

I wonder which side of their brains they used more to paint with?

Ask A Stupid Question?

In August 2000, the National Library Board (NLB) launched a series of forums for it's key staff to get ideas for their key projects.

Ask Stupid QuestionsTM (or ASQTM) is a practical methodology to create original, innovative ideas for any issue and or solutions to any problem. The more “stupid” or unconventional the question, the more original the idea that will be generated. Using these questions as a base, one can brainstorm and arrive at innovative solutions that can be further developed into profitable projects or resolve organisational issues and challenges.

The ASQTM Movement (ASQm), thus, hopes to spread this methodology through partnerships with various associations, clubs, societies etc.

Source: ASQTM Movement, National Library Board, 2009

Since then, NLB has shared this methodology successfully with many organisations both in the public and private sector, with ASQTM practitioners from NLB continuing to champion and share this approach.

In conjunction with the Singapore Press Holdings’ (SPH) Learning For Success Education Fair, NLB will be holding an Ask Stupid Questions (ASQ) Movement workshop.

Thanks to my friend in my weekly running group (who works in NLB), I was clued into this event by a series of press ads and I'm looking forward to experiencing this methodology tomorrow.

I wonder what stupid question I'm going to ask?

On Creativity

I was blown away last year when I first came across this talk from Sir Ken Robinson at a 2006 TED* conference. He makes an entertaining and profoundly moving case for creating an education system that nurtures (rather than undermines) creativity.

* TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader.The annual conference now brings together the world's most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes).

Why you should listen to him:
Why don't we get the best out of people? Sir Ken Robinson argues that it's because we've been educated to become good workers, rather than creative thinkers. Students with restless minds and bodies -- far from being cultivated for their energy and curiosity -- are ignored or even stigmatized, with terrible consequences. "We are educating people out of their creativity," Robinson says. It's a message with deep resonance. Robinson's TEDTalk has been distributed widely around the Web since its release in June 2006. The most popular words framing blog posts on his talk? "Everyone should watch this."

Enjoy!