Rehoming

Another long weekend to enjoy again na ka.

You may have seen it before but I just watched a clip that shocked me about ‘rehoming unwanted kids’ in the US ka. This drew me to search more about it especially whether it was legal ka.

I googled to find one fact ka, rehoming is legal and it says, ‘Technically, rehoming an adopted child is legal. Much like if a parent of a biological child couldn't take care of the child, they could legally grant guardianship to another family. Child protective services only steps in if they suspect maltreatment of the child.’

It is legal and the clip was from ‘60 Minutes Australia’ in 2018.

When I first saw the clip, I only thought of babies or toddlers but it was kids close to/in their teens. The ‘matching event’ was for the abandoned kids to be like on a catwalk, appearing pleasant and smart with sort of ‘marketing skill’ to be chosen ka. One male teenager was adopted only to be sent back to the ‘care home’ after 6 months, reasoning that they weren’t matched.

Wonder anyone has heard about it to share more mai ka? Increasingly and shockingly, humans are products without souls laew mai ka? Many consequences/implications to think of how we could create a better world.....so very challenging amid other seen and unseen!

I go back to work more on my podcast under ‘empathy’ dee gwa ka!

Still couldn’t believe it ka.

Voice from a young Y

 Happy Monday ka, everyone!

It was a really nice weekend to have my brother and his daughter visit us, which gave me some good time (and fun) talking with my niece ka. She's been working for one of the Big Four consulting firms for a few years now and is one of the managers ka.

My learning from our talk is:

1. The Great Resignation: It happened during the covid period though regularly it tends to have high turnover. Some went to do their own business while some others went to big companies. Obviously, several would persuade their subordinates to go along.

My brother who's working for a new airline company said that the business is challenging since quite a number of pilots and flight attendants have moved on or been hired fast by another airline. Aircrafts aren't enough (bringing them back from deserts to fix and run) and energy is high so the consequences on price hike and others are huge ka.

2. Flexible Work Schedules: She is asked to go to the office two days a week, one is fixed by the company and the other is by her own self ka. It could be more in the near future and so she said if they require 4 days in office, she'll protest ka! .....newer gen is ready for it na nia!

3. Incentive for Socialization: To make sure staff mingle since they don't meet each other that often, my niece is given 400 baht a month to treat her team ka.....have to use it up month by month ka. Work relationships are so very needed.

4. Shorter Span of Attention: My niece is kind of worried about her tik-tok obsession which has made her focus only for seconds. What she's done is totally different from what is expected ka. She now uses 'eye pad' (Japan has the best ka!) to warm her eyes for about 20 minutes....by doing so, she could stay more restfully without an urge to watch it or check her phone ka. It's a great way out too.

5. Work-life Balance: She starts behaving like her younger team members to care more for it as they stop working when the office hours are up ka. She said looking at her seniors to see them work until 10 pm makes her feel it isn't the life she wants her life to be so ka. 

6. Books to Read: Besides popular must-read ones like '4,000 hours', the younger gen find it trendy to read novels translated from Chinese into Thai ka.

7. 'Party' to Vote for: It seems quite clear that younger ones go for 'ก้าวไกล'. Funny my niece was aware that it could be 'algorithm' to influence her belief of this party's popularity ka. 

Anything to comment mai ka?

Mentally healthy and highly productive people

 Hello all. Hope you had a great Songkran holiday filled with love and family warmth ka.

I listened to one podcast program and liked it so much that I had to search for the original article ka.

The credit goes to Khun Rawit Hanutsaha and his 5-minutes podcast #1479 on '5 secrets of mentally healthy people', which he got from Karen Nimmo's article, entitle, '5 Secrets of Mentally Healthy, Highly Productive People' dated April 3, 2023 on Medium ka. If you want to read the full article, here's the link ka: 

https://medium.com/on-the-couch/5-secrets-of-mentally-healthy-highly-productive-people-bf4b1714fa15

It started with a story of an elite athlete whose success has driven her to be fearful of 'not being productive enough' as she needs to continue to 'achieve' things. The five secrets shared by the author/psychologist  (the bold and italic fonts mean the exact wordings copied from the article na ka) are:

1. Prioritise ruthlessly-- rank priorities according to our own, not other preferences and follow them.

2. Be the tortoise, not the hare (with tiny goals) -- kind of stretch goals to me ka....and with 'jai yen yen' notion to keep going without expecting to be successful too fast. 

3. Put the squeeze on distractions -- if you can’t master your distractions, they will master you

4. Bust out the bubbles — often -- celebrate the milestones

5. Drop down a gear -- being able to relax, unwind and calm yourself are essential life skills

The author also added the top five regrets of the dying (2011) identified by Bronnie Ware, a Palliative care nurse which are:

(1) being true to yourself (rather than doing what others expected of you), (2) not working so hard, (3) having the courage to express feelings, (4) staying in touch with friends and (5) letting yourself be happier.

Why was I so interested in this article? Notice what I think about capitalism, money, and competition mai ka? Not that I'm against the three but I think humans push them too far to forget the meaning of life ka. I also think that quite a number of us Thai people take up some frameworks, rules, formulas, research findings and theories far too much to lose right balance. 

We all have our own conditions, contexts, and preferences! The author says, 'think carefully about what makes us happy and excited, who we like to spend time with, how to have fulfilling relationships or, what brings us serenity and meaning.'

Over to you all as New Year's thinking points ka.

leadership and improvement plans

 Hello all. Hope you're enjoying your Monday while looking forward to having long holidays especially for those who're still working full time na ka.

This morning, I was a co-moderator of two sessions relating to leadership and improvement for excellence. It was another learning experience shared by former VP of Xerox, Khun Bob Osterhoff from the US who is having his vacation in Thailand ka. He worked with Thailand Productivity Institute and MHESI(OHEC) before so he knows our culture and universities to a certain extent ka.

A few things that are still on my mind are what I'm impressed and wish to share ka:

- Leadership is required for change and leaders need to monitor through some mechanisms to see and sense if there'll be any crisis soon so the organizations could be prepared in good time. Don't fall into one's own arrogance!

- What is worth discussing isn't about world-class status nor ownership of universities, but it's about the real missions, major changes, necessary interventions and coaching.

- It's ok to fail if we've earned lessons for some specific /important solutions.

- Observe, assess, share what we've noticed about leaders' behaviors to come up with proper 'corrective actions' for healthy existence and growth of organizations.

- Be cautious with 'out with the old, in with the new' as we may have missed opportunities to build on what's effective and introduced too many new initiatives that may not be pertinent to our desired goals. Only 'important few' must be focused on ka.

- Whatever we initiate or set to do, make sure we check our 'process capabilities', asking whether we have resources (people, budget, etc.), appropriate models/steps, timeliness (with agility intact for increased flexibility). 

- Khun Bob has always been very kind and gentle when it comes to offering feedback. This is one nice gesture our assessors should follow....yet, we also need to learn more from him how to craft our feedback with some hints to allow universities to read between the lines for more benefits.

- Keywords popped up for me in particular were 'feedback, self-assessment, leadership system, evidence of actions, and patience.'

- 'Would we want to volunteer to be the speaker during our vacation?'

Another nice learning event with lively interactions ka.

Capitalism to be our 'after' soon?

 Hello all! I read a short article by Andy Hines, Futurist who is a Fulbright alum and wish to share it here with you ka.

He wrote this article and posted on LinkedIn on March 29,2023. The title is,'What questions should organizations be asking about After Capitalism?'. 

https://www.andyhinesight.com/what-questions-should-organizations-be-asking-about-after-capitalism/

Two things that caught my attention are:

1. The word, 'after' is  very future-oriented to always spot some weak signals and follow them.

2. I've been thinking of how 'capitalism' has shaped our ways of thinking and life far too much ka....from becoming 'over competitive' to being too obsessed about 'money' and 'power' with much less caring. 

Anyway, Andy's questions are: 

1. If or when should we move to a circular approach? We talk a lot about it and wonder if we've done much and more closely to our needed goals?
2. Are we prepared to support a degrowth approach to our stakeholders? Love the term 'degrowth' as we tend to put emphasis on growth as something more favorable when it isn't always true na ka.
3. How might we reframe measures of success? This will align with the new approaches if we were to adopt.
4. How might we reduce inequality in our organization and make our products/services more affordable to all? More empathy and balance in some dimensions like gender could be identified?
5. How would we attract people to work for us if a UBI is implemented? Eventually, UBI will surface more apparently.....how could we stand more ready na ka.
6. How might we move to a more direct democratic approach? Key and still continue to be the key issue....yet, with some broader definitions, not to be imposed by one country/region na ka.
7. How might we incentivize innovation without a capitalist reward structure, e.g., IP protection? Sounds like a happier and simpler life to me dee na ka!

What do you think ka?