Talent Warning!

In one of my entries recently I talked about what I thought would present it self as Malaysia's greatest challenge in the coming years. I said that that challenge would be how to close the gap between the available talent pool in Malaysia with the demands of the new economy in the coming years.

On July 27 and 28, the Customer Relationship Management & Contact Centre Association Malaysia (CCAM)had a CEO round table in conjunction with its national conference with the theme " Empowering the Industry to be the Next Global Catalyst".

The Edge reported on the conference on 20th August with a write-up on the discussion. Sam Haggag, the president of Contact Centre Association of Singapore put it bluntly when he said "...The technology is in Malaysia. The infrastructure is here too. The challenge is talent".

It is amazing how at any given time, a government policy maker can go on for 2 hours talking about the efforts needed to make Malaysia a competitive global economy without once mentioning the word talent! What do they think will make Malaysia a 'competitive global economy'? More buildings and infrastructure? Why is the Multimedia Supercorridor is no longer in our popular lexicon? The reason is simple.We simply don't have enough talent in these critical areas to sustain our grand plans. Despite our farsightedness to piggy back on the bandwagon of the ICT based economy we failed to see that this new economy is based entirely on talent. We don' even have to have the financial resources or infrastructure. Others with these resources will line up at our door knocking feverishly to come in. That is, if we have the talent. Ask the Indians and the Filipinos!

For example, the petrochemical industry in Malaysia is already facing a talent shortage so acute that drastic measures are needed to stem the outflow of our precious talent to newer players in the industry.

The way to develop talent is dependent on developing a performance based culture. One that is unforgiving of poor performance and reluctance for continuous change and willing to make 3 times more investments on people development.

As we celebrate our 50th Independence Day, let it be made clear that the road ahead is tougher than what our forefathers would have seen way back in 1957. Happy Merdeka!

May God bless our nation and our people.

A New Car Maketh No New Future!

The national automotive company, Proton just revealed its latest model called the Persona with the tag line "our pride and joy". I had the opportunity to view it a few hours prior to its official launch. It looked good and priced right.

Almost all media reports and review of the car came with a prophesy : This model will save Proton.

Well, that is for time to prove right (or otherwise).

The fact is, many companies in the automotive industry has done the same to rescue themselves. Some has been successful while others not so. The ones that were successful did not only come out with a winning new car model but also developed a winning new 'mental model'. Remember Nissan before Ghosn? That's right. He came up with not only newer models but also developed a new mentality and culture for Nissan Japan. If anybody thinks that Toyota is the biggest auto company in the world today because it managed to have a string of top sellers, has got it all wrong. Toyota is where it is today because it had a mental model that facilitated the production of winning models. The world renowned TPS (Toyota Production System) is at the crux of it, a winning mental model that was translated into a winning quality and production system.

The new Persona looks good and should be a hit in the local market. But, the problem with Proton is much deeper than poor selling models. It is about its worldview or rather the worldview that the powers that be wants it to have. Proton needs to be run as a business entity. Its people should be made to realize that the country owes them nothing. The world is not interested in its history but only what it can do now and five, ten, fifteen years down the road. It needs to develop new models at every level of its business process.

Go see the Persona. You will like it.

MOTIVATION FOR PEAK PERFORMANCE

Hi! People,

Recently I conducted a public program on Motivation for Peak Performance. The following is an extract from the module that I developed for the program participants.

We live today in a world of great change and uncertainty which are fast becoming a fact of life. It is easy for us to fall into the trap of defeatist thinking and pessimistic attitude but to be truly successful and to have a truly meaningful personal and professional life; we need to rise against the mob of negativity that surrounds us both at home and at the work place.

Look around us today and we will find many Malaysians who have risen against all odds to enjoy great success. Tony Fernandes, Idris Jala, Chef Wan, Nicol David and Lim Keng Liat are examples of those who have left a mark in our collective consciousness. While these individual success stories are easily identifiable, there is also another kind of success story in Malaysia which is not widely known. This is the success story of Malaysian brands such as Maxis, Royal Selangor Pewter, Astro, Clara and Naza which have taken the region by storm. All of these success stories are scripted by individuals who have that extra edge in peak performance, creativity and problem solving. These individuals are evidence enough to show us that academic qualifications, financial standing, technical know-how and ‘friends in high places’ will only take one so far in life. Beyond that, we have to call forth a different kind of skill and knowledge : We have to tap into our personal reservoir of mastery and skills that transcends academic and even professional qualifications.


Understanding how to motivate ourselves is a great way to begin our journey towards a more energized, motivated and high performance self.
All these, of course, begins with changing our thinking pattern :

“ When you change your thinking,
you change your beliefs;
When you change your beliefs,
You change your expectations;
When you change your expectations,
You change your attitude;
When you change your attitude,
you change your behavior;
When you change your behavior,
You change your performance;
When you change your performance,
YOU CHANGE YOUR LIFE.”.



“We know what we are but know not what we may be”
-- William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616) --

Have a great week ahead.

Congratulations IRAQ!

Iraq is the new Asian Cup Champions! With their nation burning to the ground, the Iraqi national team displayed grit and sheer determination to win the 2007 Asian Cup. The Saudi players played their hearts out too but not nearly as much as the Iraqis. The Iraqis had fire in their eyes. They were determined. They wanted to win so badly as they knew a victory would be a sweet reprieve for their people back at home who are long due for some sort of victory, a feel good factor if you may. And, they did just that. I was cheering them all the way in my living room!

At the time of this entry, there are no terrorist attacks on the celebrating Iraqis anywhere in Iraq. This of course is a relief as hundreds have died in bombings across Iraq while celebrating their team's progress in the tournament.

It seems, every cross section of the Iraqi populace; the Shias from the south and the Kurdish from the north have all come out in jubilation to celebrate this success. Momentarily, animosity has been forgotten. Just for a flickering second, Iraqis would have experienced what their ancient land would be like if they all got their heads and hearts together. Alas, I know that soon enough once the euphoria dies down, Iraqis will get back to their old ways of feuding and giving their oppressors more reasons to stay on.

Just last week a good friend, Tim, whose training program I had the privilege of observing said that the longest distance between any point on this planet is between the head and the heart!How true. What a difference it makes when we see people from our hearts and not with our heads. What a difference it makes when we manage our organizations from the heart. The Iraqis are celebrating right now because they have found in their hearts something to celebrate about. The 'reasons' for their animosity towards each other are still there...in their heads. But, for this few hours at least, their hearts will rule. They will come together. They will rejoice.They will feel one. And, they will get stronger (in football terms).

I often try to get this point across in my various training programs. I have a brand new example to illustrate it now.

Bravo Iraq!

The Talent War

I am convinced that the real challenge for Malaysia in the next 10 to 15 years will be talent retention rather than talent creation.

Don't take me wrong, I am not saying that we have produced enough talent in all our industries. Far from it. We still lack in that department compared with our regional competitors such as Singapore and Thailand. My argument is this : the problem with Malaysia is never with its ability to produce talent but with its ability to retain talent. As far as I am concerned, talent identification and development for a nation of our size is not a problem at all. Much of the infrastructure and programs to develop talent are already in place. With this and many more plans in the pipeline, we can easily produce the talent we need. Take for example the recent student exchange program between Malaysia and the venerable Infosys of India. For weeks, the mainstream media have been singing praises of how the exchange program has benefited the students. The students themselves have gone on record to say that they have learned more in 3 weeks in Infosys than in 1 year back in our campuses.They felt that now they have a much better understanding of the uses for the knowledge that they have gained. The minister was so amazed to see the changes in the students' behavior and attitude that he took time off to attend their 'graduation. Now, here we are with a bunch of young minds who are obviously very much excited about the prospects ahead for them in their chosen field. The question is are we prepared to do all that it takes to keep them on our shores with the right remuneration, support and assistance or will they be lured away across the causeway.

While, we should continue to invest in talent identification and development we should also concurrently take the necessary steps to retain that talent. The Americans, Indians and the Chinese know this very well. While the Indian IITs and IIMs churned out thousands of world class talents, the country it self did not do enough to retain that valuable talent.They ended up in America. The Chinese universities and polytechnics produced thousands of brilliant minds but where did they end up? At Palo Alto! Needless to say, the trend is reversing but these two countries have already lost 3 generations of its brightest and most talented.

Malaysia is at a state of emergency as far our competitiveness is concerned. There seems to be a general lack of realization that we have over the last 10 years lost our competitiveness to neighbouring countries. Low production cost is no longer a viable leveraging factor. Talent is.

March of the Emperors

I believe it was at the 2006 Oscars that the French made, American produced, Morgan Freeman read documentary called March of The Penguins won the Oscar for best documentary. I watched it on DVD 2 months ago and since then have been so awe struck by these amazing creatures that I have done some research of my own. I have learnt enough of these creatures to convince me that I should share these with my program participants especially during my Team Building and Change Management programs. I developed a creative 2-hour activity based on the Documentary which I have found to be extremely effective to put forward many of the critical points that I want my participants to grasp.

For those of you who have not watched March of the Penguins, allow me to give you a snap-shot of it. The Emperor Penguins are found in the Antarctica. They are bigger than most other penguin breeds. Antarctica is easily the harshest place on earth with the temperature dropping steadily to -50 C during winter. The wind there can reach up to 200 km per hour. The Emperors, it has been found, have been doing something peculiar for thousands of years. Every year, they climb on to the pack ice and walk day and night for more than 70 miles to go to a breeding ground where they will find a mate. This breeding ground is where every one of them were also born! There at the breeding ground, one of nature's most enduring role reversal takes place. After laying the single egg, the female treks back the 70 miles to the ocean to eat while the male Emperor holds the precious egg on its claws (safe from the freezing ground) and protects it from the elements. By the time the egg hatches, the male Emperors would have gone for almost 4 months without any food. They stay huddled throughout the winter. This huddle of theirs is by it self an amazing social structure. Somehow, each one of the thousands in the huddle will be able to get to spend some time in the center of the huddle where it is warmer. They do this to outlast the winter. By then, the female Emperor returns with enough food in her belly to feed the young chick. From then on, they take turns to trek up and down to the ocean to eat and to bring back food for the young chick.

What can we learn from the Emperors? Here is my list:

1. When change happens, keep moving.
2. Leadership is the function of a person not position.
3. Without team-work, we are doomed.
4. Anticipate, act and evaluate.
5. The biggest challenge is not from out there, it's from within.

I hope you have a chance to watch this documentary. The DVD version even comes with a bonus edition which shows how difficult it was to film it in the first place!

March on Emperors!

Managers Are Not Always at Fault; Only Most of the Time!

I often say that a manager is at fault when a valuable employee leaves an organization unexpectedly. Almost always I get asked the question whether it is fair to blame managers when an employee leaves an organization?

It is interesting that over the years I have noted how often people omit the words 'valuable' and 'unexpectedly' when I am asked that question. The point here is this : I am not implying that a manager is to be blamed every time an employee leaves; only when a valuable employee leaves and that too, unexpectedly. Of course the manager shoulders this blame vis a vis the organization. It comes with the job.

Let us now describe who is a valuable employee.
A valuable employee is one who :
1.Continually delivers more than expected.
2. Dares to challenge the status quo for process improvements.
3. Takes ownership of tasks, responsibilities and the outcomes from the tasks and responsibilities.
4. Willing to coach/mentor others AND learn from others
5. Brings new ideas and methods for continuous improvement
6.Has been with the organization long enough and/or has been involved deeply enough in tasks/responsibilities to become a resource person for other employees.
7. Has continually showed passion for self development and the development of others.
8. Has always exhibited values that are complimentary to the organization's values OR has willingly subordinated personal values for the benefit of the overall good of the organization's vision and mission.
9. Has a proven track record of performance excellence, leadership capabilities and change adaptability.
10. Has a reservoir of knowledge, skills and abilities that are yet to be tapped for the benefit of the organization.

Now, why would such a valuable employee leave an organization? The reasons would be :
1. Not properly rewarded for exceptional performance.
2. Not properly recognised for achieving excellence.
3.Creativity and initiative stifled by a bureaucratic and rigid management environment.
4. Not up-dated on the direction of the organization.
5. No clear career development path
6. Suggestions and recommendations made for continuous improvements are seldom followed up or appreciated.
7. Too many broken promises from the management.
8. Lack of job enrichment opportunities.
9. Loss of life balance
10. Natural reasons (these are usually beyond the control of the manager/organization)

Looking at the characteristics of a valuable employee and why he/she may leave an organization, I can't but insist that the bigger part of the blame inevitably falls on the shoulders of the manager vis vis the organization.

How difficult is it to keep such a valuable employee. Not difficult. All that is needed is some creativity. Consider this example : A valuable supervisor of a manufacturing concern approaches his manager with his letter of resignation.The manager decides that this supervisor is too valuable for the organization to loose him. He has a chat with the supervisor and finds out that the reason for his leaving is the lack of salary increment. The manager knows that a salary review is in the books next year based upon the expected increase in profits. But, he knows a promise of salary review next year will not attractive for the supervisor. So, the manager volunteers this information but throws in something else that makes the supervisor think again about moving away and having to start all over again. As the manager can't be 100% sure of the salary review as it is something beyond his control, he offers the supervisor a reduced load of work responsibilities that he feels he would like to forgo in return for the supervisor's willingness to wait for another year. Now, this gives the manager a fair chance of keeping this valuable supervisor (if the salary review materializes) and/or he has time to prepare for any eventualities.

A valuable employee is hard to come by. Hang on to him/her dear managers!

Career Development : Whose Responsibility?

Who is responsible for the career development of an individual? Herself or the organization she works for?

But first, let’s define ‘career development’. Career development, to me at least, is a process set in place to take an individual on a gradual move up on her chosen vocation so as to bring forth the maximum amount of self fulfillment, self actualization and utilization of her strengths and abilities. It is a road-map for one of mankind’s most important characteristics : The Need for Meaningful Work. The ancient Indians have a beautiful phrase for this. They called it one's 'dharma'.

Now, let’s get back to the question of who is responsible for one’s career development or rather who is responsible for putting in place a process "... to take an individual on a gradual move up on her chosen vocation so as to bring forth the maximum amount of self fulfillment, self actualization and utilization of her strengths and abilities.”

There was a time when a young employee joins the ranks of an organization and hands over the entire responsibility for her career development to her manager/organization. 20 or 25 years later, she may retire from that very same organization with a golden hand-shake and a gold bracelet. She would have had a fulfilling life and career and she would have felt, rightly so, that the organization had taken good care of her.

But then things changed. Small companies became conglomerates, local companies became global corporations, homogeneous work-force became multi-cultural and the world became flat and with all that, human resource development became complicated!Hence, slowly but surely the concept and practice of life time employment gradually eroded from the consciousness of the work-force. Here is where the dilemma begins. If the organization can't be trusted to provide a life-time employment contract, can it be trusted to provide career development for me( at least for as long as I am deemed useful)? Well, the answer is Yes and No!

Yes, the organization will provide an individual with a career development path. But, this is subject to the following:

1. It is a progressive organization.
2. It is an organization that lives the maxim "People are our greatest asset".
3. The individual is of value to the organization.
4. The individual has made her self relevant to the continued changes in the organization.
5. The business environment is one of growth and expansion; not contraction.

There are many organizations, big and small, that have come to realize that loyalty to the company has been replaced with loyalty to career. With this realization, comes the need for organizations to clearly lay out 3-year, 5-year and 10-year career development plans for all its employees. I often say to human resource managers that there are only 2 reasons why a valuable employee leaves an organization : A lousy manager or an even lousier career development path. A grand simplification? I doubt it.

Now, even with the best organization assisted career development programs there are still many who don't make it up his or her career path. The reasons for this can be attributed to any one or a combination of the following factors:

1. The individual re-aligned her career choice, which is quite natural.
2. The career development program is ill conceived and/or takes on an appearance of 'propaganda' tool rather as an honest discussion between the employee and the organizations.
3. The managers are not trained to coach and mentor employees on their career development.
4. The individual refuses to accept his/her responsibility in the career development equation.

Whose responsibility is it for one's career development? The answer is obvious.

Beware the Doom Loop

Jim Collins of the 'Good to Great' fame describes the Doom Loop as a downward spiral into oblivion. It is often characterized by a steady stream of 'new' leaders, strategies, five year plans AND constant poor results.

And then, the senior managers often say "It was all so sudden.... we never knew it was going to be so unexpected". Really?

I think anybody in any organization that is on the wrong side of the doom loop will know immediately that the oranization is on a downward spiral but what happens in reality is that fear paralizes them into thinking excactly the opposite or worst, they deliberatly refuse to face the facts. Executives give overly optimistic targets, promise unrealistic turn-around results or feign ingnorance of the difficulties faced by their departments. In one account shared by a senior manager from an organiztaion that was in the Doom Loop was that Fear and Anger made decision making difficult if not impossible. Individuals opposed ideas not based on facts but on emotions. Managers became angry and that clouded their judgement.

Well, thats a Doom Loop scenario alright! Is your organization in a Doom Loop? If yes, tell your people this : We have time to either fail or learn...make your
choices.

Is 'Service Atttidue' Trainable?

For the next 3 months, a few of us fellow corporate trainers/consultants will be busy developing, conducting, implementing and evaluating a program that we have christened as " The 5 Star Customer Service Champion" or 5 Star CSC for short for a company involved in several service oriented businesses.

Interestingly, a few days ago I heard of a coffee life-style company (I think I am the first one who coined this term)which believes that service attitude is something that is not trainable. In other words, you either have it or you don't. The recruitment process of this company involves the entire team of staff at each outlet where an interview is conducted and a team decision is made whether the interviewee has the service attitude or not. No training! You come in with the skill to serve. You don't learn on the job!

The obvious question is : Can we train someone to have a service attitude or is it something inborn and natural. Is it nature or is it nurture? I think its both and there are more people in the service industry out there who have been trained in the service attitude although there are a few (very few) who have had the service attitude in them all the while. Lets talk about the latter.

Many years ago, I had the opportunity to observe a customer service representative at a DiGi outlet in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. She was one of the few people whom I can confidently say was born to serve. She had such an aura of the service attitude that her other colleagues paled in comparison. I am also confident that providing exceptional service is so natural for her that she will probably wonder about all the fuss about customer service training! Don' get me wrong, as I have come across many other front liner for example, who have provided good service but I would not bet on saying that they have an internal built-in service attitude like the DiGi lady.

The thing is, there are not many like the DiGi lady around. The good ones, so to speak, will sooner or later find their way to better paying employers or more exciting industries. That leaves most other SMEs in a position of making the best of whoever comes their way. The only way to do that is through training.

The vast majority of the people who are employed to represent an organization when dealing with customers on a daily basis needs some form of training and development. Such trainings should also be a continuous and filled with exciting programs, friendly competition and an overall sense of 'activity' all the time. Yes, all the time.

You see, as I have said earlier, most of our people need to be trained in customer service as they are not born with the service attitude and people who needs to be trained in something will sooner or later forget all their learning. The only effective way to keep their learning fresh and active is by constantly creating a buzz around it. Remember the Fish Philosophy? I believe that it was so successful not because of its novelty of learning from a bunch of fish-mongers but because it was a process filled with laughter, fun, games, competition and a general sense of on-going buzz to the extent that much of the concepts became part of their everyday lingo.

In fact, 2 years ago when we were conducting a sales program for managers of a Malaysian telco, we noticed a drastic and noticebale change in the service attitude of the front liners of this telco who were at that time going though their own customer service training.

So, is customer service attitude trainable. Yes. Do everybody need the training? No. Are there many more who needs the training than who don't? Yes. Thats my equation.

But wait, there is another component to this equation: Are there those who are just not fit for the service industry? Yes. What to do with them? Train them and get rid of them if they don't perform to expectations. But remember: train them first for benefit of the doubt as there are many unpolished diamonds out there.

I am hoping to discover some of these diamonds in the next 3 months.

Cheers to all of you.

The Digital Economy

Last week, I attended an international seminar that among others discussed the impact of the current digital economy on management and leadership styles. The topic intrigued me not so much for all the sophisticated developments around the world as a direct result of the digital economy but rather what, in my mind the real meaning of what the digital economy is all about.

Lets use Hollywood as an illustrative example of the new digital economy. 5 or 10 years ago, an animated feature film produced by a Hollywood studio would have been a 100% American product as the entire production of the film would have been done by Americans or those working in American movie studios. Today, a Disney cartoon is conceptualised in Boston, animated in Bangalore, edited in Busan and premiered in Baltimore. How is this possible? Simple! The Digital Economy.You see, what the digital economy has done is that it has enabled more and more of human commercial activities to be broken down into bits and pieces of digital bytes that can be moved from one continent to another, re-assembled, worked on, re-broken into bytes and sent to another continent to be re-assembled into a finished product. This cycle can involve a dozen employees in a dozen countries in multiple time-zones.

Today, a large amount of medical x-rays from American hospitals are read and interpreted by Indian and Australian doctors. Again, this is the direct result of our ability today to digitize our everyday activities.

While I find most discussions on the digital economy hovering around how outsourcing and offshoring are changing the international economic order, very few have actually paused to look at how the digital economy have enabled almost all our activities to be broken into byte sized information that can be manipulated and worked on without any spatial-time constraints.

I anticipate the real impact of the digital economy will dawn on the mass consciousness of the people in a couple of years when the International Space Station is completed. This space station and others like it that will surely follow will be maintained 24/7/365 by a group of space agency employees who will be spread around in every corner of the world who will be managing every minute detail of these space stations.

Do we dare to hope that maybe the digital economy will also unite the human race? Time will tell.

How Effective Are Corporate Training Programs?

I think I have covered this issue before but I would like to share something that I came across some time ago.

James Eison in his chapter in the book Academic Leadership (Edited by Robert M. Diamond) listed the following 10 characteristics of what he considers as learning:


1. Learning is fundamentally about making and maintaining connections
2. Learning is enhanced by taking place in the context of a compelling situation
3. Learning is an active search for meaning
4. Learning is developmental, a cumulative process involving the whole person
5. Learning is done by individuals who are intrinsically tied to others as social beings
6. Learning is strongly affected by the educational climate
7. Learning requires frequent feedback if it is to be sustained, practice if it is to be nourished, and opportunities to use what has been learned
8. Much learning takes place informally and incidentally
9. Learning is grounded in particular contexts and individual experiences
10. Learning involves the ability of individuals to monitor their own learning


Most corporate trainers/consultants would have had the question : "How effective is your training" thrown at them. I suppose it is a valid question although I sometimes wish the party asking that question rephrase it into maybe : "What new things will we learn from your program?"

You see, to answer "how effective is your training" puts a corporate trainer or consultant at a no-win situation as what he/she is going to deliver is only as good as the minds that are going to receive it and the environment that is going to allow the new knowledge to flourish. Training at the essence of it is learning and if we take the above 10 characteristics of what constitutes as learning, I think we now should have a good benchmark on whether a training program has been effective or otherwise.

I believe it was Reg Revans who once said that "Learning must be equal to or greater than the rate of change". How is it in your organization? Are you learning enough to face the changes? Are you learning more than you need? Sometimes in my programs, I come across managers who become uncomfortable when they come to realize that they are learning more than what they thought they needed from the program. Their excuse : I can't use all these new knowledge in my present company....its just not ready for this". I think most of you readers would have already seen through the fallacy of this argument.

For any learning to be effective, a host of factors must fall into place. So, how effective are my training programs. Well, they are all ALWAYS effectively developed and delivered. You got to ask the learners for the rest!

The Flattening of International Higher Education

In recent times, there has been a great flattener in the world of international higher education. In one of my previous entries, I talked about how Friedman's the World is Flat assertion has become a catch-phrase in major board rooms of the corporate world. However, the flattening of the world has been going on for quite some time. A good example of this is in the arena of higher education.

It is suffice to say that the idea and concept of the University was born prior to modern times. The Italians, British, French and the Egyptians all claim to be the originator of the University. Going by strict definition, the Indians are probably the the first to have the first tell-tale signs of organised knowldge dissemination (what a univerity is really all about) through the concept of ashram.

Nevertheless for the purpose of this particular discussion, I am going to refer to 'University' as to mean the modern University as per what we are all accustomed to now which is a model created and popularised by the Anglo-Saxons. Enter the world of Cambdrige, Oxford and Havard!

In the beginning (as any Cambridge historian will tell you), there was no University of Cambridge. There was however, a group of colleges that later became known collectively as the Univerity of Cambridge. The same applies to Oxford. While these and many more Universities have been in existence for almost a thousand years, the explosion of Universities around the world took place only after World War 2. In the United States itself, the mushrooming of unversities and adult education coincided with th return of US servicemen from the trenches of Europe. At the same time, many nations gained their independence from their colonial masters. This happened right from 1940s and all the way to 1970s. Countries in Africa, Asia and other parts of the world all scrambled to assert thier nationhood by establishing their national universities. Ironically, this assertion of new found nationhood was modelled after what was existent in the land of the colonial master themselves. Hence, one will hear nationalistic statements of educational freedom vis a vis national freedom and such from an Asian or African university BUT their entire academic and administrative structure will be a carbon copy from the Oxfords and Cambridges of the Anglo-Saxon world. Soon, this model became the only model for what a University should be. In porpular parlance, it was known as the brick & mortar university

The brick & motar Universities held sway throughtout the world and like many things in human history, anything that is often repeated becomes the truth; sometimes the only truth.

Then, the Internet age arrived in the 1980s. Since then, the concept of University has gone through more changes than what it has been accustomed to in the previous 1000 years. As the Internet prompted people to ask questions about their traditional way of doing business, it also encouraged people from the academia to question the traditional way of disseminating knowledge. For the first time, the possibility of providing University education without the need for physical brick & mortar campuses was explored. Hence, the birth of distance education which later morphed into on-line universities.

Since the 1990s, the concept and practice of University went through another dramatic change through the establishment of Transnational Universities which have incorporated the best methods and processes of traditional and non-traditional universities. The distinguishing characteristics of a Transnational University are : 1) Provides its services/products in 3 or more national territories, 2) Multi-ethnic faculty, 3) Distributed decision making, 4) Centalised quality control, 5) 3 or more international affiliations, 6) One Vision and Mission, 7) Non-governmental and/or political.

Like any change, the tansformation of the University and what it should mean to the 21st century knowledge seeker has received much resistence from those affected by the change in the status-quo.

I anticipate more exciting things to come from these Transnational Universities.

Oh My! It's a Flat World!

The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman was one of the best books that I have read in a long time. It's futurist and realist at the same time as while he wrote it before many of the things that he described became common knowledge, yet by the time you pick up the book from the shelves, those things wold have indeed become common knowledge. Innovation at the speed of writing I suppose!

I am going to take this opportunity to provide some of the most current business practises to support his notion of a flat world. However, unlike Mr. Friedman who writes from the point of view if converging technology, I am going to give examples of how desperate businesses and corporations have become precisely for the reason that the world is flat and with it competition has coming knocking on their doors at a speed and from directions that they never dreamt off.


EXAMPLE 1

Southwest Airlines : It has a Chief Apology Officer (not his official title, thank God!) whose job is to go to the ground and find out from passengers about what went wrong on a particular flight and shooting off a very personalized letter of apology to each and everyone. The reason : Apologize before some other airline grabs the disgruntled passenger. I hope somebody from Malaysia Airlines is reading this!

Example 2

Ford Motor company is using brain scans to literally watch on computer screens what turns on its potential customers. A new car model is rolled out in front of sample target customer groups and by varying its colour etc, Ford researchers are able to identify the parts of our brain, called the Reward Circuit, which will light up when we anticipate something pleasurable. In other words, the automotive industry has become so competitive that the traditional giants of the industry are no longer relying on traditional methods. They are using every possible tool at their disposal to the beat the competitor. What more, today their competitors are not only European, Japanese or Korean models but also Indian and Chinese made cars. So cut short the process! Why ask the customer what he likes when you can ask his brain?

Example 3

Samsung is building huge showrooms which will be stocked with all its latest offering. Each show room will be able to accommodate hundreds of customers at any one time. The catch : They can't buy any of the products showcased but they can use them! You are thinking of buying a new oven? Take a walk into the showroom, bake your biscuits. If you like the oven, you can buy it at their regular outlets. You want to know how a new Samsung handset will feel if you are calling your teenage son half way across the world? Use any of the handset displayed, make that long distance call at no charge and if you like it, you know what to do!

Example 4

There was a time when thousands of eager Indian students trooped into American universities to gain their much sought after MBAs. Today, American and European sudents are applying into Indian universities. It will intreresting to see the American universities' next course action.


Well, I am going to keep out for more flattening experience! Its a exciting world!

Why We Need to Keep Learning?

On the 20th and 21st I was with a room full of managers from SIHAT Sdn Bhd. Not only did I have the managers with me, I also had the CEO of the company, Datuk Venu. I was totally humbled by the experience. Here is a man, much more senior to me, willing to sit down with his managers for 2 full days to listen to what I have to say. The thing that left me amazed was the fact that he was so excited about the program and the various issues brought up and suggestions made by his managers during the program that I could see the glee in his eyes for having the opportunity to be there with them. What more, he was able to recall some of the key ideas that I presented and gave his own take on them. Simply put, here is a man who 'has seen that, been there, done that' but yet so hungry for new knowledge and ideas regardless from where it comes from.

I have often said in my programs that a manager/leader needs to keep learning. I said the same thing on the 26th with yet another group of managers from Uniqema Sdn. Bhd. I say it often because I truly believe in it. In fact I am absolutely convinced that an individual's leadership and managerial skills develop proportionately with his/her appetite for learning. The moment learning stops, performance hits a plateau and soon after, deteriorates. A manager who keeps learning, keeps improving. A manager who keeps learning, keeps cynicism and pessimism at bay.

Although rare, there are times when I hear somebody say " I don't know.... I am not sure whether that will work in my organization". I often spend most of the break time with this individual as I really need to understand the reasons for the pessimism as that is a clear sign that learning has come to a stop for him or her. For me, that's a real pity as learning makes a man. It definitely makes a leader!

Learning Organizations? What is THAT?

For the last 2 weeks, I have been trying to subscribe to a particular service. As it happens today, this particular service provider has engaged vendors to provide the final link between itself and the end customer. In other words, the vendor will be the guy who will, at the end of the day deliver the service/product that I have signed up for.

I was told that the whole process should not take longer than 3 working days and yet I waited 1 week 4 days before a vendor finally arrived and told me that he is not sure why the sales people failed to tell me that the particular service that I have signed up for was not available at my area of residence. In summary, he is telling me politely that I can't have the service that I had been waiting for almost 2 weeks. Looking at it differently, I have been tyring desperately to become a customer of this service provider for almost 2 weeks and it all came to nothing!

In our short conversation he said something that caught my attention. He said something like " That's the problem with the sales people. When we call them to come for our own training to familiarize with the products and services they don't turn up... they have no idea of the finer aspects of the products and services"!

There you go friends! This particular organization has a long way to go before it can become even remotely a learning organization.

Becoming a learning organization, as I often point out in my programs, is not about technology alone. Yes, technology facilitates the learning process of an organization but it is just that...a facilitator. To truly become a learning organization and to be able to use each learning to add value to products and services and ultimately to add value to the customers' experience of that product or service , an organization must look at all the learning opportunities already available around it. Vendors, suppliers, employees, customers and other direct and indirect stakeholders are a gold mind of learning resources. There are much to learn from these simple and available resources and yet many organizations insist on technology first, learning later.

Recently, I was told about a company that is involved in developing complicated medical instruments and support systems. Every year, it organizes a get-together-session with selected patients from all over the world to share with the employees of this organization how its products have saved their lives. Most often than not, these employees break down in tears when they hear these stories as they realize how important their work is. They learn that what they do is important. They learn to take responsibility for their work. Now, this is what in my mind, a learning organization should do.

As for my desperate attempt to become a customer, I guess I will have to try again in two weeks time, as I will be back with the good people of Maybank for the final stages of my Personal Mastery Program for them.

I would also like to take this opportunity to convey my condolences to every one at Maybank for the loss of your dear friend and colleague, Mr. Francis. My condolences to the family of Mr. Francis. In the little time that I had with him during the program, I found him to be a man of passion and zest for life and a man deeply devoted to God and family. Rest in peace my friend for that is what we would have become if we had more time.

Brain, Thinking, Personality and Living

The model that I have used to deliver my program on Personal Mastery flows along the following lines : The way our brain is structured (created for some) influences our ability to think which then influences our mind which in turn affects our decision making. Add to this two other closely linked elements of the Self : personality and value systems, we have indeed an extremely complicated organism called the Human Being. I believe the trail to Personal Mastery begins in the brain.

The brain is the tool that most of us have to view the world and give meaning to it. I say most of us because there is a group of people who don't rely too much on the brain but rather on their 'heart'. Of course heart here is used figuratively. But more on that later.

Fundamentally, the brain's weakness are related to 3 factors : 1. The brain is at the end of the day, a biological-mechanical thing. All mechanical things have limitations. 2. The brain can't differentiate between fact and fantasy. 3. The brain's basic function is to keep the body alive and stress free.

With all our scientific advancement, we have only yet scratched the surface as far as deciphering the human brain is concerned. One of the key sentences that I often repeat in the program is : "Our brain is the most powerful tool that we have AND it is also our weakest". The human brain can think of the cosmos, produce great works of art and command nature to serve its needs but it can't eliminate prejudice, it can't stop ego-centric thinking nor can it easily accept ideas and opinions contrary to its pre-set belief system.

Allow me to illustrate this further. There was a recent article in a Malaysian daily which talked about how the Ford motor company uses the knowledge of reward-circuit in the human brain to plan and execute its A&P campaign for its latest models. In short, the reward circuit is the part of our brain that lights-up ( literally not figuratively!) when we anticipate something pleasant be it a desirable car, the possibility of chatting up a member of the opposite sex or waiting to be served a refreshing iced lemon tea on a hot afternoon. In other words, Ford is not asking us what we like in its cars. Its asking our brain directly. Why go through the hassle of asking us when our answers are bound to be coloured by so many 'irrelevant' factors that have got nothing to do to with selling cars?!

Ever noticed how our mouth waters when you think of a pleasant food. In my program I illustrate this by describing a fresh green lime and lime juice. There are research reports from NASA which describes how astronauts in its training facilities are able to produce bodily readings that are only possible if they are actually on the moon. They do this by intense imagination. In other words, they imagine it so vividly that the brain actually believes that its on the moon and accordingly instructs bodily functions to adapt to conditions on the moon.

I can give many other scientific evidences on the limitations of the human brain but what does it have to do with leadership and managing people? The answer is EVERYTHING! It should make all leaders and managers sit up and think about their thinking. The so called logical and rational decision making that they do may not be that logical and rational after all. Its all mechanical.

The greatest of leaders and the best among the Human race have always known that they had a brain. For the rest, the brain had them. Now, is it a wonder why we have always searched for somehing higher than the brain. We give it fancy names like EQ and EI but the truth is, humans have known all along that the brain is not a tool to be entirely trusted. There are others. More on that the next time.

The Essence of Management

The great irony of today's world of management is that while managers and business leaders say that people are the true and real asset of their organizations, they also seem to forget that they too are the people of the organization. As managers decide on the next mind-shift their people need to ensure the success of the next wave of change, competition, product innovation, etc, they tend to forget that they too need to refresh, revitalize , rediscover and reinvent themselves. Look, lets not pretend for a second that management is an exact science. Its not and it will never be. It is a human endeavour so full of human successes and failures. As such, I believe we can increase the odds of successful management by paying a little bit more attention to the Self. The managers' battered Self.

Managers send their people for corporate coaching and training programs that imparts every conceivable knowledge and skills known; from effective communication skills to EQ at the work place. This is not to mention technical job-content skills and knowledge. How about the managers themselves? What should they go for? The same maybe or something more? I was told of an organization that requires its employees to read one magazine a month that has absolutely nothing to do with their IT related work. The reason : Creative juices flow when we give the mind a rest. The best way to give the mind a rest is by forcing it to think about something other than what it struggles to think about at any given moment. By dwelling into non-related areas the mind has a wondrous ability to make previously unconnected factors coherent, see the interrelationship of multiple ideas and make meanings where there were none before. Just ask the guys at Google who came up with the Google Map idea!

The point is this: I would suggest that managers and business leaders eagerly seek out opportunities to attend talks, seminars and programs that will help them give their minds a rest. Don't go for endless management development or leadership programs. Go for programs that talk about the Self for a change. Understand how the mind works and how it influences our world-view. Understand how conscious and unconscious thinking patterns affect us every moment of our waking life. Understand a little bit of human psychology. Gain an insight into religious psychology. Share, exchange views, let go of managerial pretensions. Let the mind rest. Allow the soul, the self to bloom. Trust me, you will feel rejuvenated.

I am glad to say that the managers of Maybank Fortis-MNI-Takaful Nasional who through the wisdom of their leaders are attending my workshop on Personal Mastery. 5 groups of wonderful men and women have come and shared their vision, mission and aspirations while at the same time leave the workshop with a little bit more understanding on how their minds will be a useful tool to take them towards their Personal Mastery. 7 more groups to go and I can't wait to meet each group as it is so refreshing to take them on a journey of Self mastery as more than anything else, that's what they will need to achieve their peak performance.

The essence of management is the people. The essence of people is the Self.

Change : The Expected and the Unexpected Kind

Its good to be back. Have not been writing much these last few weeks due to a combination of factors. The earthquake in Taiwan which disrupted the Internet lines in the region really tested my patience as it took ages to download even a one page word document. Almost immediately after my return from Jakarta, I had the opportunity to conduct a program on one of my favourite subject matter : Effective Problem Solving & Decision Making for the good people of Maju Holdings Sdn Bhd. Immediately after that, I began to deliver my program on Personal Mastery for Maybank Fortis - MNI - Takaful Nasional. This program will go on until the 2nd week of March. So, I will try my very best to put up new stuff as much as time allows.

Conducting a program for 4 days in a stretch is extremely fulfilling as I have the opportunity to get an intimate understanding of the challenges faced by my participants who are currently undergoing a change process. I hope with the sharing and discussion that takes place in the program, the participants will be well equipped to face the challenges ahead and to capitalize on the opportunities that will surely come their way in the months and years ahead.

On a more sombre note, I feel saddened by the continuous flooding of Johor. The first round of flooding was bad enough but to have to go through it again must be heart wrenching for the people down south. In the midst of all these, there are reports of looting and other criminal activities. It is a trying period for those affected and I reckon the spillover effects on the Malaysian economy, politics and society will be greater and will become clearer in the coming months. Malaysians need to dig deep into their selves to come out of this. As I have been telling my participants in Personal Mastery : The only way to manage expected and unexpected change is by taking control of it. Anything less will be disastrous.

My prayers for the people of Johor.

Career Transition and Management in a Changing Business Environment (2)

In many of my programs, I have emphasized the importance of acquiring emotional management skills. It is a truism to say that when everything being equal, the one who manages better or leads more effectively is the one who is better able to hold the reins of his emotions. The Hindu epic, Mahabaratha illustrates this well through the use of 5 horses that pulls the chariot of Arjuna on which is also Krishna, his teacher. The 5 horses represents the 5 senses of Man and Krishna spends quite a bit of time trying to convince Arjuna to control his senses so that.... here is the beauty of it all.... he can control his emotions which is in turmoil as his enemies on the other side of the battle field is none other than his own flesh and blood.

Having the most powerful being in the universe (Krishna) was no guarantee for success as Arjuna still had to manage his own emotional turmoil. Similarly having the most sophisticated skills and knowledge will only take an individual so far in today's changing business environment. This is especially so when the individual is expected to pick up the pieces after a strategic change in the organization.

Emotional management, EQ, EI or whatever one prefers to call it, is simply the ability to use one's emotional energy towards something positive; towards the direction which will bring the best results in the long run. The first step in this is the willingness to be aware of how our emotions, more than our intelligence, influences our actions. I say 'willingness' because for most of us, being up-front about emotions is considered a sign of weakness. Being able to do this will probably make the difference between success and failure in this unpredictable business environment.

Donald Trump once told the audience of his Apprentice that " He has to go.... I don't want to end up managing his emotions for him"!