The First Habit of Highly Effective People

"Every time you think the problem is 'out there',

that VERY THOUGHT is the problem" - Stephen Covey.

Blog Rules

A slide I shared with my colleagues.

A Rare Look

Welcome to Alwyn's lair at KDU...

New Qs'

There's IQ. There's EQ. And there's SQ. Today I heard two new ones:

XQ - Execution Quotient (invented by Stephen Covey, I think). Too manufacturing-ish for me.

SQ - Smile Quotient. Very nice.

What's next? A Jesus quotient?

Mental Warm-Ups

I'm really no warm-up freak.

Like breakfast, prescribed textbooks and best-selling novels, I used to think that warm-ups' are part of the many social needfuls our community presses into us from young (thus our often unquestioning acceptance of these items).

Stretching, yes. But to get to a light-sweat condition before the 'real' workout begins? To raise the heart-beat a little before absolutely pushing your blood-pump? Ugh.

Until I tried to better my 3-rounds-in-6-minutes running time. There's definitely more stamina, rhythm and confidence if I precede my run with a 1-round jog. Now I'm a believer.

I've also heard that Michael Johnson warms up for a full hour before his 200m races. And haven't we seen all those EPL substitutes folks run up and down the touchline before coming on? Now why didn't I pick up on the fact the pros' are doing it?

So, okay, warm-up is good. Which suggests that psychological warm-ups are cool as well. To get the adrenalin pumping prior to a talk, presentation, crucial meeting, etc.?

• How about taking an informal class of 4 before giving that formal lecture to 90?
• How about tele-marketeers selling to each other, before turning to that client list?
• How about sales-folks pitching to colleagues half an hour before rolling out?
• How about taking 5 minutes to explain the kingdom of God to a friend before taking the pulpit? (assuming you're not the pastor, but even sometimes one is able)

This gives your face and gestures an immediate 'vroom' each time you take the stage. It's almost as if you've been doing it the past half-hour...which of course is exactly the case.

Student-Centered Education?

When is a topic always interesting? When do students never fail to pay attention or be 'present'?

When it's about them.

• Does the environment reflect their (colour and deco) culture?
• Are the materials related to their likings and media preferences?
• Have the learning outcomes been set with their collaboration? Do they agree on the relevance to their lives (as opposed to some pre-set curriculum)?
• Has the instructional stimulus been fine-tuned to connect intensely with their feelings and lives?
• Has the method of assessment been agreed upon by them? Can they assess each other?

It's not about ensuring that a resounding Yes is given to all of the above. Hardly.

The critical thing is: Have we asked questions like the above? Are we listening to the unasked ones half-crying out from our students/learners, regarding their education?

Redeeming Corporate Team-Building

If academic lessons (and sermons) are all content and no cheer, corporate team-building is the opposite.

This is a common sequence at many Rah-Rah sessions:

1. Team Building Activity = Fun and games! = Great stuff! = Yes! (followed by...)

2. De-briefing = What did you learn? = Cheap corny clichéd one-liners = Yuck.

How do you communicate a coherent set of complex ideas without suggesting that the participants are a bunch of unread, turtle-under-shell, naive simpletons? How much sense does it make when, after half an hour of running up and down, the speaker says: "This game is to teach us that we must all communicate clearly as a team".

Duh!!!

I can swear I hear the participants' inside voices going, "Wow, man! You got me all the way into this conference room, made me miss my Saturday morning trip in DreamLand, jump through hoops (literally) and perform all manner unnatural endeavours, in order to say that to me?! Couldn't you just have gotten my boss to email me a frickin' memo?! %#$!@*"

The fun and games are, well, loads of fun. That's a must.

But corporate trainers need to find a way to avoid the corny 'party-line' quips which all but deflates the energy. For sure, I've never read a feedback comment which went like, "I already knew that and you didn't have to waste my time". People don't always tell you what they think (duh). All the more why we shouldn't wait until a client finally drops the bomb.

There's lots of thinking to be done, and I'm very new at this, but off the top of me scalp, some ways to ensure the content is high-class include:

1. Do away with general, common-sensical 'teaching' for good i.e. decide to never EVER to conclude with things like, "Listening carefully", "Working together", "Doing your best", "There is no I in T-E-A-M" and all this Junior School stuff.

I'll be blunt: It's insulting.

2. Include at least one piece of cutting-edge theory, something you've read recently from a hot new best-seller, or a blog, or forum, etc. This obviously presumes you need to update yourself constantly.

There's nothing like a trainer who has been keeping up with his reading and self-learning.

3. Include many skill-based learning outcomes and ensure that the session is about practising a new skill, NOT doing activities which 'illustrate' some abstract pithy phrase. E.g. negotiation, public speaking, writing coherently, etc.

In a world starve of action-oriented relevance, providing folks with a safe 'space' to perform something new can be an invaluable thing.

4. Obtain a commitment from the participants and their bosses that there'll be follow-up, at-work assessments, etc. True, this may take SOME pleasure out of the session but if conducted well, there's no reason why anyone should dread being evaluated on what they've been trained.

A Game You Play Thrice A Day

When the class looks and feels like somebody's died, it's time for a diversion. Of any kind.

Last week, I stopped the Consumer Buying Behaviour lecture to talk about eating. Not many people know this, but food combinations are important. The kinds of food you mix and match shouldn't be of just any kind.

Most importantly, one shouldn't combine protein with carbohydrates. That's the cardinal rule. Get this right and your life (not to mention your weight) might just change tremendously.

Why not combined these two? Now...hmm...I'm not expert, but I read it's got something to do with digestion. Protein enzymes and carb enzymes cancel each other out i.e. digestion is poor and energy is lost. Result: Fatigue and increased likelihood of disease.

So, what kinds of dishes should you avoid and how can you modify them?

• Chicken rice! - Eat the chicken, leave out the rice, make you eat lots of cucumber and lettuce (because vegetables can be taken at all times)
  
• Burgers! - C'mon, you know these aren't that healthy anyway, skip 'em! Or, if you absolutely have to, call one of those avant-gardish vege burgers or somethin'...
  
• Chow Kuey Teow! - Not really a big deal, just leave out the prawns and cockles! (See? It's not that difficult)
  
• Spaghetti! - Select one of those with only mushrooms and veg, I assure you they still taste bleedin' good
  
• Noodles (wantan, prawn, pork) - now this is a tough one; what I've been doing is avoid these altogether (apart from that occasional moment of weakness, *grin*)...nowadays I take my noodles with bean-sprouts, greens and mushrooms. Alternatively, for wantan noodles, you can skip the noodle and eat the wantan alone
  
• Dim Sum! - tough luck, virtually all the dishes are protein-&-carb combined...in this case you either i. avoid it completely, ii. give your diet a break and go for it (but make sure you eat loads of veg-based stuff) or iii. pick and choose only meat+veg items (which sucks, I know)

But overall treat it like a game you play three times a day. As with all games, you get better with practice and with each success.

And because it's a game, eating becomes more fun and, certainly, more healthy.

Churrascaria

Apart from my 2-hour toilet ordeal in the middle of the night, the Carnaval experience is something I'd recommend to one and all.

Apart from my having to take half a day off to let my stomach and sleepless head recuperate, the Brazilian Churrascaria BBQ is a must-try and is perfect for meat-lovers and generally anyone who can 'hold their portions' all evening long.

Apart from my sleep being interrupted, probably due to the nearly rare beef romp served - which was simply superb, I might add - I'd say: Make a trip there at least once a year. Find a time when you've skipped lunch and haven't had a decent meal the whole week. The beef and the lamb are so good, my wife abandoned her anti-lamb stance for an hour.

No other place offers you twelve kinds of BBQ dishes served at your table in skewer form. You feel like Genghis Khan having the luxury to choose the choiciest meat.

Apart from having to scour the medicine box for diarrhea pills and stomach pain tablets, I'd say it's not only the food that was welcoming. Service was the most polite, helpful and efficient I've come across in the entire Damansara area.

Apart from paying the price with your guts in the wee hours of the morn, I'd say it's really worth it to pay the RM50 for the Adult Meal, and have yourself a blast before blasting the basin six hours later.

For the money, there's nothing like the Churrascaria BBQ. Only be careful you don't have important assignments the following day.

Un-doing Dilbert

She didn't like my initial email, so she wrote back with some thinly veiled sarcasm.

I didn't entirely get the point of her response, so I counter-responded with some bite of my own.

I then sat and waited. And waited.

Until I decided to go up to her cubicle. I went up to her, shook her hand, said I didn't mean to offend with my earlier email, and things were back to normal after less than a minute.

Peace-making. Never leave office without it.