All entries for April 2010

Power of Education

"I have a dream..... to establish a school

                            to fire up people's creativity and passion.

                            to help people understand the importance and power of knowledge

                            to set people free and do what they are really interested in and good at

                            to let people gain the power and confidence in deciding their lives

                            to make them understand they're all unique with a purpose of their existence in the world

I have a dream...... to make the world a better place..... "

This is why I love Martin Luther King and nominated him as a great leader of all times. He has a big heart. His speech touched me and everybody at that time. I could feel that his vision has emotionally bound and touched the audience and the vision has rooted in people's heart as if it's their own. Even though he was assasinated afterwards, his words and the dream stayed...

He positively influenced the people with his speech and declaration which also drew a great deal of positivity in people's minds. He took people out of the old perception frames and started to show them the new possibilities of how the world could be.                 He changed the world...with his belief and knowledge, and turned that power into a stronger power which aroused everybody's awareness and motivation to fulfill the vision he set.

Like the clip of Ben Zander, conductor of Boston Philharmonic Orchestra shows, being a leader is not about the position you hold, but the new way of BEING. Look for shinig eyes, enroll all voice in vision, radiate possibility, understand the people and care for them, try to lit up other people's possibilities/potential to perform, and shift each individual to a new way of being!

I love his theories about " don't take yourself so damn seriously" and the "give everybody an A".

It helps you realise that everybody is equal and what we do should base on a good cause to inspire and help people to perform and be the best they can be. "People are the power and the cause to make something great happen. When people gather together, they represent a great talent which is full of possibilities and potential. Peopel are the asset and the source of knowledge in the universe. Once you bring out the amazing side of the people, the world could be shaped into a dream world."

.............................. I'm all pumped up now!

: 30 Apr 2010 15:45 |  Tags: Kbam |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Organisation, People and Performance

During the OPP module, once again I realised that 'emotional intelligence' is something that affects behaviours and could influence performance and business results, especially during the knowledge sharing phase.

I'm sure everybody has watched CSI. Today a short clip about CSI, Las Vegas was started when a flight passenger constantly kicking the backseat of the person sitting in front of him. He looks paniced, anxious, problematic, etc. He had some weird behavious and the rest passengers were annoyed or feeling threatened by him when he lost control trying to open the cabin gate, and so grouped together beating him until he past away. (I know it's a relatively short brief, but the main thing was that he was acting 'abnormal', and then he triggered his own death.)

At the end of the clip, the investigators had a discussion and debate about whether the other passengers in the cabin who took the dead passenger's life away should pay the price for the death, and also whether they're forgiven by naturally defending for their own lives when they felt their lives were threatened. Some argued about no matter how the situation was intense, the group of people didn't have the right to take a life away. Yet some argued that it's all about human nature and reasonable defense. After the discussion, finally, the head of the investigators said we all shouldn't make assumptions about somebody else's behaviour. Maybe sometimes people seem to act weird, it doesn't mean that they're crazy and should be sent to the clinic for medication. Sometimes maybe show some care to understand what is the problem, then everything might be solved without any conflict.

After I saw that I had few ideas: nowadays people are lack of understanding and caring, people pre-judge others, bias with their own objectives or experiences, selfish and thus ignore the truth or opportunity to accept a better opinion, etc. So stop making assumptions and stop being biased towards people. Many times you think you know something, but you DON'T. It's so easy to be mislead by the things we thought we knew. Be objective.

I think I'm lucky that I learned or experienced such behaviour when I was relatively young. I've seen many rediculous things or behaviours as well as people spreading humours because they thought they knew, but they didn't, and at the end destroyed somebody else's life or reputation afterwards. So that's how during all these 10 years or so time, I've learned or at least tried to remind myself to speak only when I can make sense. And I'll never damage someone's reputation when I'm not involved in a matter. More likely whenever it's none of my business, I don't say nothing.

Yet, this is very difficult and I need to constantly practice and learn how to not to make assumptions and respect people, and put myself in others' shoes to think of something.

The organisation depends on the people. People have all sort of behaviors. People and bahaviors together creates the company performance. Therefore, when people are sharing and learning knowledge from each other, including behaving normally, the business performance could be gradually improved.

: 29 Apr 2010 00:12 |  Tags: Kbam |  Comments (2) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

My motto for 10 years

Since I was 15, I realised something which I deeply truly believe and have faith in -- Everything that humans imagine, is a possibility in reality. That again today from KBAM module, it inspired me all over again. :-)

Companies set up the 'value' of the company, and start attracting people who appreciate the values. Companies should decide and strategically plan what kind of behaviour they want in the organisational environment. Whether it is bonus driving, recognition approving, or knowledge sharing, companies will either attract or develop the kind of people they want.

And knowledge affects how an organisation perform in terms of a system. Knowledge can change and motivate people, create ideas, innovate products, increase productivity and build up a sense of belonging for the employees, etc. Once the people in an organisation start sharing knowledge, the benefit is unpredictably an aftermath of initiating great possibilities. When people are less selfish, the world would always become a better place.

This motto also opens my heart in a great manner. I see things in many different ways and I value all the opinions and all the things/people I meet in my life. (I'm trying and still learning) Coz I know their existence must have a cause. We should always be open-minded and generous. There's no point to keep what you know a secret. Sharing is caring, and also a way and opportunity to gain something greater than you expect. When you share something, you open your heart, and you'll never know what the other person would repay you back. Sometimes you might be surprised or overwhelmed by what other people can actually deliver to you. That's also why I always love to respect everybody because I know that 'never underestimate anybody/anything', especially you wouldn't know what could happen the next second that the person or that thing would totally blow your world away!

CONCLUSION: I LOVE SHARING! and I BELIEVE IN that brings GOOD RETURNS in our lives.

: 25 Apr 2010 20:03 |  Tags: Kbam |  Comments (2) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

good knowledge or bad knowledge?

In the movie, Kung-Fu Panda, Master U-guey said, "there's no good news or bad news, there's only news".

It's like knowledge and information: there's no good knowledge or bad knowledge, only information itself. If you could make the information useful, then it becomes a knowledge; vice versa that if you mis-use it, then the information is useless.

In business world, you're always trying to make the right decision based on the information and knowledge you have. It's all about strategy. Business is like a way of life. You can't learn everything or absorb all the things you learn, you always need to think (critically) and explore (experience), then find out a "good" practice instead of the "best" practice. To me, work experience is the best teacher to understand how business operates. The more you taste, the more you get. Afterall, everything in the world is about people and connections, and how do you make use of the resources you have.

Whatever people share (information) is a kind of knowledge (information). It may be useful, yet could sometimes have negative impact on it. So how to control your knowledge (information) is another kind of art.

Usually in real life, at least what I experienced and executed is that "if I don't have a certain degree of understanding about a topic/situation/matter, I don't give my comments coz it might be imcompetent that the people who receive the message may be misguided or have misconception about the certain issue which affects their decision making.

I think knowledge sharing is beautiful and generous. But how you share it and when you share it is an art and the indicator to determine whether the knowledge is useful or not. Sometimes irrelevant response during a discussion may trigger unpredictable good ideas. Yet it may also interfer the process of making a right decision.

Somehow I think it depends on luck when doing business. When the world is time to be yours, then you'll make all the right decisions along with your hardwork to make things happen. It is also about your mental model of how you perceive things as well. There's always more than 1 aspect of the ways to explain or analyse things. When you are more experienced, you know better how to choose useful and effective information, and use those knowledge in the right time to create a good effect.

: 25 Apr 2010 19:15 |  Tags: Kbam |  Comments (11) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Leadership impact on KM

Below graph is what we summarised about our discussion today. It's quite intriguing that everything we have learned during the course is still closely connected with each other. All the knowledge is consistant and integratable, and this is the way knowledge should be -- absorbed and transformed into real case application. Just like Paul reminded us today that we should review ourselves if we're practicing what we've been talking about in the real life. Are we the real practitioner, or we're just another group of people whose words speak louder than actions?

In our group, we categorised Leadership into 3 different impacts/results under 3 different leadership styles: Deming, Jack Welch, and Hitler. On the one hand, Deming's obviously is the soft democratic way that inspires individual to share knowledge. It helps the organisation to improve its performance by leading effectively, such as coaching individuals or creating systematic thinking, breaking down the communication barriers within the company and also helping the company to transform into a learning organisation. On the other hand, Hitler's constraints people's thinking and free will. Therefore, it limits the company or individual to perform or improve. Yet, Jack's talks about something more realistic -- profit, promotion, and bonus, which is very debatable.

* who do you decide who to promote if people share ideas but not necessary be the ones who're practicing them?

* as a leader, how to you set the rules or measure of knowledge sharing?

* how do you avoid, as a leader, that people start to compete with each other over personal benefit?

Overall, I personally think promotion and bonuses might be useful sometimes, but I don't agree with them most of the time. It's because it manipulates people and brings out the evil and selfish side of a human being. The impact could become negative. Just like what I experienced before when I was working that being a sales, our base salary was low but bonus system is very active. People would kill each other, back-stabbing, setting-up, lie, sleep with clients to get what they want. Once they succeed, they become greedy, and started wanting everything and getting more serious after time, and finally was manipulated by money itself. After all, hoping people to share knowledge even under conflicting of interests is a very naive idea to me.

Personally I love sharing, and I want to work in an environment that people are all working like a big happy family. But it is difficult to recognise who to promote when people share great ideas. For example, Lisa shares an idea last week about a product design, it was good, but not good enough. Because of her idea, I brainstorm and come up with another design, which turns out to be better and accepted by the company to start producing it. If there wasn't Lisa, my idea might not come out for a while or never will. Thanks to her, that my idea was approved and recognised. In this case, should the leader promote me or promote Lisa? Lisa might be upset coz my idea was just an advanced version of hers. Also she might spend a lot more time constructing the original thought than I do. Am I just letting her hard work die in vain?

Therefore, as a leader, it is crucial how to manage the knowledge. Leaders have great impacts on knowledge management as well as employee behaviors. Leadership on the other hand could also have possitive or negative impact on people. Effectively leadership could ultimately enhance the capability on creating innovative ideas that can help improve business performance as well.

: 20 Apr 2010 01:20 |  Tags: Kbam |  Comments (9) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

benefits of KBAM

when it says knowledge based asset management, then you know the foundation of the management is to have knowledge, to share, to create, and to organise it. There's almost no doubt that knowledge management or asset management is useful for a company to innovate and improve their operations and performances.

Today at the seminar we discussed a lot about the benefits of Knowledge management. Below is a summary of our discussion earlier. But the most interesting part that I realised during our brainstorming and discussion was that " Knowledge is Power ", and " Sharing is Caring ". :-)

When people have knowledge, they possess the power to be able to change the world, for better or for worse. If we use the knowledge possitively, such as education, it can bring the world closer and more innovative, even creating a world that we've never dreamt of. That having the knowledge would make our lives full of possibilities and also that everything would be possible. The energy of the knowledge that brings to the world is enormous and the impact is unpredictable.

However, to think back in the real life when I used to work, though sharing knowledge is such a possitive thing to do for a company to improve not only the products innovation, services, customer/supplier relationships, employee engagement, productivity, costs, product lead-time etc, it is an unselfish thing and probably nobel thing to do. (personal perspective) Afterall, in the real/competitive world, if sharing knowledge doesn't bring you any benefit, or even cause you negative influence that contradict to your benefit, then most likely the knowledge will not be shared that easily. So how to manage the Knowledge and to encourage of sharing it is truly an art. It involves people, that you have to engage people and make them believe that the environment is safe for sharing and sharing will bring common/mutual benefits to all.

I used to be in Sales, and whoever works in Sales before may feel the same about what I'm talking about. Imagine you're sellign the products for the company, but you need attract your own customers. Also your salary and bonus depends on the sales you have made. One day, there's a contact that you sales have to win over, how are you or are you willing to share the information you have towards this case/customer? Especially if the other sales don't know much about the product or how the business process work, will you share your knowledge about the operation or business with him/her, or you rather keep it yourself so that you can make sure you will win the case and make the deal? In this case, knowledge sharing is limited.

Therefore, in order to achieve successful knowledge sharing, creating the safe environment is very important for a company as well as considering the influence that each individual can cause.

On the other hand, possitive thinking is mandatory for business as well as for life. If people are competing with each other in a negative way, this is not helping the company nor the world to improve itself. The whole idea of knowledge sharing should teach us that we're all living in the same world. We're doing business, we're competitors, but we should all focus on making possitive influence to the business and the world. If you have a competitor, why not share your knowledge with them and make them your aligns? Applying the same logic, when you feel like you have a reason to keep silent about the knowledge that you know against your colleagues in the companies, why not sharing with them generously and come up with a better idea and make the best use out of the ideas you have. One person may not be influencial, but when 2 or more people gather together, their knowledge and what they share could be something that can change a world. That's why it helps improving the decision making and team coordination as well as improving the business performance and relationships with every part of the people that involves in an organisation.

: 20 Apr 2010 00:29 |  Tags: Kbam |  Comments (2) |  Close comments |  Report a problem