Posts

Showing posts from March, 2007

From West Virginia

Learning from my mentor Tom Antion

Conflicts and Not Saying NO

Conflicts and not saying NO can mess you up As I was finishing up my day today, my colleague Robert Lim gave me some important lessons in Conflict management, even though it was pretty late. He was referring to intra personal conflict, conflict within oneself. To be specific, he was saying to me that there was a need to say NO! Not too many bosses would listen to a short lecture but I did. This is something that has intrigued me all my life. My father told me to learn to say NO!. My teachers told me to say NO! Well, I will admit it. My wife and sons have told me from time to time to say NO! Not that they are pretty good at it themselves. I have lost so much money simply because I was not able to say NO. In the Myers Briggs Type Indicator there are two dimensions the T and F – Thinking and Feeling. I agonise saying NO for fear of hurting people and in the process I have hurt myself. My psychological training places so much premium on treating people well that I just cannot bring upon m

The World is Flat

I have been fascinated by Thomas Friedman's The World Is Flat. I bought the 2005 book in 2006. I mentioned it in the Learn & Perform E News after a first reading in 2006. This morning, I had a chance to read it again. It is a master piece that no executive can afford to miss. I was at the hospital this morning for a series of check ups. In between the checks I had a re read. Oh, my goodness, it is indeed a powerful book. Full of stories and an underlying message that just does not allow you to put the book away. The hospital staff were pretty annoyed with me. And, I am sure my family is annoyed with me for staying so late to finish this blog post. I wish I had read it more times much before. The message that the world is flat, the playing field is levelled and the ten forces that flattened the world are a must to know for any executive. The Triple Convergence and the great sorting out again are powerful tips for survival and relevance in a competitive world. The words that anyt

Active Learning

I had the opportunity of running a teleseminar on the subject Collaborative Learning. The discussions revolved around Active Learning. The goal is to ensure we have no passengers. Though there were no objections to that remark, there was a valid question. One of the participants asked the question - How do we manage passengers in a teleseminar? Any thoughts.

Greatness

The progressive transform simple lifes into great destinies. Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Nasser, George Washington, Mohammed Yunus are some great and outstanding people who started ordinary but created extraordinary feats. How can we collaborate to be progressive?