No more best practices?

Hope you're enjoying the last working day of the week na ka. I'll have lots to do today still and would like to share a little thing I listened to entitled, ' Breaking Bad Habits' by Freek Vermeulen, 2018.

Since it's a very short one-page review, let me quote its main ideas to you na ka. Before then, please note that the author also stated that 'Not all the best practices are bad ka!"

"What many organizations would claim to be best practices are actually nothing more than the habitual ways of doing things that typically deliver suboptimal performance."

 "When we adopt all of the practices of “successful companies” in the belief that they all contribute equally to that success, or we jump on the bandwagon and adopt a best practice just because it has become an industry norm and everybody’s doing it, there is no hard data behind that practice."

"Reverse benchmarking, on the other hand, involves identifying those same best practices but then asking each organization why they follow them. If no one can give you a satisfactory answer, that suggests that the practice is persisting solely on reputation and a lack of investigation." 

I like the last one best because we tend to follow the 'best one' and may have too much faith or may feel by using benchmarking, we can answer easily that we follow the industry norms/benchmarks when it may not fit in with our own contexts or not even our focus then......ranking could be best blinded by this sort of benchmarks too mai ka?  

 The author "proposes that many widely accepted best practices are really outdated and harmful bad habits that persist solely based on past reputation."  แรงมาก ....so cutting and it's a statement to rethink dee ka!

Hope we all have a clean-air weekend to enjoy na ka.

Dark Horse

I've been in meetings since Monday and am so happy to be home using my notebook instead of the Iphone which isn't so convenient for longer mail and editing ka.

I just listened to another book summary entitled, 'Dark Horse' and like it ka. It's good in a way to think of what to write as I'll choose the one I can remember after listening to a few ka.

Dark Horse: Achieveing Success through the Pursuit of Fulfillment by Ogi Ogas and Todd Rose (Oct. 2018) is chosen for me to share with you this week ka.

In this book, it started with a well-known astronomer who has written over 25 articles and publications....she didn't even finish high school ka.

It was because of her tough life when her mother left her at the age of 15 and she became a single mom at 21. Life didn't seem to be so kind until one day when she was over 25 years old and visited a relative in an inactive volcano area and was handed a binocular to see the milky way. She was fascinated to the point that she wanted to learn more about it and explored others. It has changed her life.

Another little story was about a doctoral student who went into a forest to learn about leaf-cutter ants. He was trying hard not to look at colorful birds around him and realized how much he was into birds. He quit his PhD program and later became a birder, setting up a company for people to see birds around the world. 

The authors were suggesting that we need to move away from 'standardization' to 'individuality' where we can be more free to choose what could become our passion. They said micro-motives could help us find our interest. For example, when we see some situations or people work on something, check our own thoughts how we like or dislike it and we should be able to tell ourselves what we prefer doing over many other things. 

I like this tip and I tried on my own during my evening walk ka. I saw the bumpy tracks which made it inconvenient for people to drive and I noticed quite a few people sitting in their cars while turning on the car engines. I know my thoughts are around 'simple immediate action to correct an issue' and  a bit more toward, 'environment concerns'....will check my thought more often to learn more about myself and what I could like more ka!

Fun!

Stay human as humans kaa

Hope you all can stay in and breathe clean air na ka.

A former colleague was mentioning about several books I just listened and that led me to think of sharing the summary of the books my style....that means summary of the summary again ka.

Most books I recently listened to (the definition of reading is changed laew na ka.!) talk more about leaders in the disruptive world with several terms repeatedly raised. These are: authentic self, empathy, and learning.

In the book entitled, 'Bring Your Human to Work', the terms are mentioned and what I like most is 'caring' ka. This book comes in the time when people only are deeply immersed in their own smartphone world and could lack human sides that are so much needed not to turn into robots.....we're going to that route to be controlled by robots mai ka? I just heard news that the latest technology comes into the water glass form.....remind us to drink more and more often plus let us know how much we drink each day.....robots can order us and discipline us kaa!

Back to several things I recalled from listening to and reading  this book summary a few times na ka:

- Be authentic and speak in an authentic voice...... whatever it coins could be like the way Thais know พูดจากใจ or จริงใจ I think partly it could be because we don't give so much time and attention to human interactions as we get stuck to the screens....whatever form it is ka. 

Personally, however, what we've found often is that some could say they're sincere to say things straightforwardly. Many times, those could hurt others unintentionally. Practice to express caring is needed na ka.

- Add this 'human' side into the values of the organization....I remember it well because of a story about 'lyft' which is similar to Uber/Grab ka. Its mission is “to reconnect people through transportation and bring communities together.” which needs to be practiced by the drivers. 

One Valentine evening, a driver gave his passenger a card, saying "Be my valentine" and she started crying. The driver stopped the car and turned off the meter to listen to what she would want to say. After she felt better, he drove her to the destination. Some time later, this lady's friend wrote to Lyft's CEO to thank the company, sharing that her friend was thinking about committing suicide that day and with the caring, she didn't.

This little story can be an exercise for us to think and discuss further ka...how values are communicated, instilled and practiced, how a letter could be powerful, how storytelling could influence more engagement and branding, etc. 

Llike it mai ka?

- Use tech to connect! It talks about time spared from check-in online to give the airlines crews time to tend to customers better. This will deepen the satisfaction and engagement. Immediately, I thought of my experience at Delta when a staff saw me working with the machine....and yes, considering my age and speed:((! She approached me to offer her help which made me feel so good to get such a service ka.. As I used to be told in a loud and annoyed voice a few times before, I couldn't help but express my appreciation several times!

Let me stop here na ka....getting longer and longer ka.

Cheers to human heart and actions......nurture more when we can kaaa!

summary of a book on disruption

Happy New Year to all ka! Hope your holidays were filled with joy na ka. I visited my mother’s friends as usual to find both quite ok though one seemed to age faster than the other….both are around the same age 94/95 ka.

To start 2019, let me share with you a book Dr. Romyen  lent it to me which is entitled, ‘How to Prepare Now for What’s Next’ by Michael McQueen, 2018. It was an easy read and to me, as I was reading it, I felt like highlighting quite a few sentences so I decided to buy a new one to return to Dr. Romyen kaJJ!

Here are some to share:

              - Move toward widescale automation will disrupt industries and sectors from transportation (expect the true autonomous driving available to the public by 2020), personal and professional services (Panasonic created a 24-fingered hairwashing robot that’s already operating in Japanese hair salons), and retail to logistics and distribution, medicine (doctor rating websites allow patients to rate their doctors on price, bedside manner and service levels), and communication (Chatbots at call centers)…..5555! all sectors loei ka!

              - On 3D printing, major shoe manufacturers have begun using printed insoles and orthotics designed to prevent or eliminate foot pain. Food printers are already creating designer cookies, pastries, etc. while the first 3D-printed drug has been approved by the US FDA.

              - New economy of travel means in Australia, booking Qantas airtickets through Airbnb allows us to get frequent flyer points.

              - Millennials’ mindset (digitally obsessed, experience-drive, socially-minded, passionate about openness, attention seeking, etc.) has changed so it means learning, business, marketing and all others including rules and regulations need to be reconsidered, researched, and revised.

              - A few things are left for humans kaa:

·       ‘automate caregiving’ not ‘automate caring’ yet!

·       Don’t’ wait until a crisis arises as we could manage ‘survival’ not ‘strategy’

·       Have appetite for smart risks to thrive in the age of disruption…..fail fast to learn fast and not to repeat the failure

·       ‘Don’t be drunk on success’ like ‘Kodak moments’ and a few others around

·       Have empathy, think of experience to offer, become one’s own customer  

·       Be different not better

‘FEAR IS A KEY MOTIVATOR AND THE FUTURE IS SOMETHING TO BE EXCITED AND HOPEFUL FOR’

Cheers to 2019 with our drive to be disruptors not to be disrupted ka.