10 Simple, Fun and Crazy Things To Do

I'm still feeling a little tired from the flu last night. I started to think about when I get well, what are some simple and fun, and perhaps a little crazy things to do to reintroduce some energy back into my life. 

The criteria are 'simple', 'fun' and 'a little crazy'. Hopefully, things that don't require money as well. 

Here's my top ten list:

10. Walk barefoot in the rain. (Abundance of rain in Singapore. And splashing rain water introduce good negative ions to the body!)

9. Jump into the pool fully clothed. (Hmm have to do it when the coast is clear at my condo's pool.)

8. Buy a total stranger a cup of coffee. 

7. Dance when making the pedestrian crossing. (This one requires a bit of courage :))

6. Call all my friends and say 'I love you!'

5. Take a stroll down Orchard road blind folded, and experience being blind for a few hours.

4. Make a YouTube video and talk about my vision for world peace.

3. Hop on to a SBS bus without looking at the number or destination. Get off the next neighbourhood hawker centre and try a local dish.

2. Say yes to everything for the whole day.

1. Fall in love twice with our 5 months' old daughter. (When she was born prematurely I visited her twice a day at the Singapore General Hospital.)

For more ideas, things to do before you die, check out http://bucketlist.org. 

5 Things To Do Being The Youngest Manager At The Table

 

When I was a kid we lived in an apartment above a downtown shop. Each day after school, I didn’t have much of an opportunity to mix with kids my age. Instead I spent time with the shops owners and employees working below us who were a few decades older. That upbringing naturally formed some sort of early maturity in me.

By age 31, I was already a human resource director with a global bank, and having to manage folks 1-2 decades older than me. I guess by some measure, I’m not an extreme case but I've been in countless meetings where I was the most junior in terms of age and experience. There are many CEOs, entrepreneurs, heirs and managers, operating at a very young age. Things were made more interesting by the comments I received in networking functions - “Oh, you look rather young to hold this position!” Not the most political correct thing to say, but I have always taken them as a compliment.

Being that “young guy” in the corporate setting has its advantages and disadvantages. I’ll skip those for this time as the focus of this article is on something more practical – how to be effective and influence others – whether you are perceived as “young” or are factually young compared to your peers. Below, 5 practical suggestions based on my experience and observation of other seemingly “young” senior business executives:

1.     Build presence. Executive presence comes from what we say and do, and how we say it. Amy Cuddy has a fabulous video on Ted Talk “Your Body Language Shapes Who You Are.”, In that video, she explains how “power posing” can affect testosterone and cortisol levels in our brain and may have an impact on our chances for success. I’d also go a step further – mind over body. Ultimately it all begins from the brain and what we believe shapes our words and body language therefore our actions and speeches. Having a positive mindset – much like looking at the glass half full instead of half empty, is key in shaping confidence and projecting ourselves to others successfully. Pay more attention to your postures and gestures, at work and outside of work. Adopt body language that builds trust, respect, confidence and connections with others.

2.     Build a great reputation. Like it or not, there will be general biases about young executives, such as the lack of experience and maturity. A positive track record in your performance, both in business and people management, helps shape a more trustworthy perception. A great reputation gains respects after all. In sports, very young athletes are just as equally celebrated as their older peers if they had a stunning performance. The same in music, science, and entrepreneurship. Great performance tells a positive story others will find hard to resist. When that happens, people remember your track record and not your age. Multiple rounds of great performances then form a positive reputation. And the tales of a great reputation travels beyond your immediate circles.  Remember a bad reputation travels even faster.  So avoid having frequent negative press that might push your positive wins aside.

3.     Wait for the right moment to speak. There was a classic TV commercial from FedEx. During a meeting, the boss said the same thing that was just said by one of his subordinates, but got the attention of everyone around the table when the subordinate was largely being ignored. Over the years, I’ve learned this trick. It’s not how frequently you speak in a meeting, but what you say at the right time with the right perspective! And the more you speak without thinking, the higher the chances are of saying something dumb or premature, which gives others the convenient excuse to dismiss your thoughts and go on to label you as being young.

4.     Power dress. I hate to sound old school and shallow but it’s true. Dressing up or dressing a notch higher does some magic. Unless you work in an all jeans and hoodies environment, or already share the same stage with the likes of Mark Zukerberg or Brian Chesky, you may want to rethink about what you wear and how others may perceive you. And mind you, even if you work in a business casual environment, there are ways to dress to impress. My point here, is to not to come across as sloppy and cause the older peers to feel they are having a meeting with their college going kids.

5.     Bring the young energy. You are young after all. Older executives do appreciate the energy, fresh ideas, and enthusiasm from their younger peers. Don’t try to act old! If you do enough of the above four suggestions, chances are, you have earned sufficient trust and respect from others. Be authentic, and bring your youth to the table.

I love this particular quote from Joe E. Lewis – You are young once, and if you work it right, once is enough.

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Eng-Sing is a talent management consultant, a brain-based career coach and Chief Opportunities Officer of Acewood Solutions. He can be contacted at essoon@acewoodgroup.com. He has had over 15 addresses in the last 20 years in Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Malaysia and the United States, an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, and is certified in various personality and talent assessment tools.

Happy to see my little contribution on Straits Times.

Views From Practitioners on Mindfulness and Playfulness 

We ask Ray Chua, psychologist at National University Hospital (Singapore) and May Wong, Corporate Relations general manager of MTR Corporation (Hong Kong) for their opinions on mindfulness and playfulness.

"To manage distractions at the workplace, you can employ the principle of stimulus control. Most of us would feel an urge to respond immediately when we receive an email or phone notification. When there is a need to focus, close the email application or mute notifications to give yourself the protected time to accomplish your task without distractions.

"I encourage my colleagues to bring out their inner performer at departmental meetings through doing presentations about themselves or their work. The results have been amazing and hilarious. They've customised lyrics to popular songs, put on skits wearing outlandish costumes and made micro-films that would have impressed even Hollywood!"

Read more about their thoughts and other workplace insights in our newsletter here
Or visit our website or blog.

 

7 Common Pitfalls of eLearning

Let’s face it. eLearning may not be the trendiest thing most of us would speak to our senior executives about. They are there somewhere in our enterprise system and we are not sure how they fit into the grander scheme of employee development. Many learning specialists also conveniently “park” eLearning as part of some form of “blended learning” structure. Convenient because it fits nicely into a blended structure but it may not really have a key role to play.

Most would be brave enough to admit their eLearning systems are sitting there collecting dust. But, it's not all lost. Attendance for some mandatory training that people have no choice but to sign up for, is a better business case. eLearning does take away some pain from the management team by replacing some mundane and repetitive training topics that used to happen through an instructor-led training. For that, the usage rate probably justifies the investments.

In most cases, it’s an investment into a black hole. The excitement dies as soon as the system goes live.

7 Common Pitfalls of eLearning

1.    The modules are basically glorified Powerpoint slides.
2.    The system was put in place to replace some of the mundane and repetitive classroom training that nobody wanted to facilitate anymore.
3.    Bought with off-the-shelf content that have little relevance to the company or lack of interesting contents to motivate people to log on to the system.
4.    Lack of engagement mechanics (either top-down or peer-to-peer) to drive traffic to the system.
5.    It’s taken over the role of “mandatory” or “compulsory” training. The assumption is people have no choice but to use the system.
6.    Lack of interactivity, social, and feedback features to engage the learners.
7.    Learners can only log in from the company’s enterprise system or Intranet hence limiting usage outside of work hours.

The list above is far from being exhaustive. The good news is, some of the newer generation of eLearning platforms are creating true breakthroughs in participation rate, engagement, and even driving business results.

Axonify is one of those next generation eLearning platform that is breaking all the rules in traditional eLearning design. Leveraging brain science, adaptive learning, game mechanics, and key adult learning concepts, Axonify has been proven to help corporations increase sales, improve customer service, and reduce workplace accidents.

Adaptive Learning - business game-changer

 

In today's highly competitive and evolving business climate, what you learned yesterday may become obsolete with the dawn of the next day. Companies are also finding the traditional one-size-fits-all training programs are yielding minimum returns from their investments. The traditional, boring, and less tailored ways of learning are losing their appeal rapidly to a distracted workforce.

Adaptive Learning offers a different approach to traditional training methods. Companies are now realizing that in this evolving digital era, Adaptive Learning has become a game-changer.

Adaptive Learning allows employees the opportunities to learn at their own pace, and in their own learning style. It is as if each employee has a private tutor in acquiring mission critical knowledge and skills at work.

Adaptive Learning has gained considerable traction over the past few years, with its origin deeply rooted in cognitive psychology, starting with the research of behaviorist B.F. Skinner in 50s, followed by the next wave of artificial intelligence movement of late 70s. Currently, technology previously limited to research laboratories are now being widely adopted by a variety of forward-thinking industries via online services that promote consumer sites like Amazon and Netflix to anticipate preferences, and progressive entities.

As a proven learning modality with a solid track record, it’s now being utilized in many different environments to teach, train and mentor more efficiently and effectively. For instance, Adaptive Learning technology is used by NASA for simulation training, safety models, and has been used in various branches of the U.S. military, including the Army Learning Concept 2015, that trains and educates soldiers for asymmetric warfare.

Adaptive Learning is now a true game-changer in the business world.  The most influential companies around the world, Google, Microsoft, Facebook and Yahoo have all developed Adaptive Learning labs for enhanced and focused deep learning strategies that will deliver an undeniable competitive edge in their respective industries.

Companies like Google and Facebook have truly raised the levels of project learning through Adaptive Learning structures.  These companies have developed frameworks that allow employees to learn new skills and new industries at their own pace using effective learning strategies catered to their particular skillsets.  The most important point is project based performance and monitoring to ensure skills are in alignment with performance and results, not just based on illusions of an academic document.  After, all the most influential business folks of the past thirty years, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and Steve Jobs did not graduate college.  They did extremely well for college dropouts.

Through the algorithms in most Adaptive Learning systems, employees are constantly learning and putting into application what is being learned in real-time. Learning programs can highlight areas of emphasis and improvement, which boosts employee morale. Some companies also adopt Adaptive Learning as a strategy to increase employee engagement, such as embedding and integrating games in their learning systems. Adaptive Learning programs that emulate games help employees see learning as something that is fun, not tedious.

Many firms and their learning specialists continue to struggle in achieving a higher level of Kirkpatrick’s Four Level of Learning Evaluation – Reaction, Learning, Behavior and Results. In a digital age when so many employees are used to using technology in every aspect of their lives, companies that leverage Adaptive Learning and gaming are seeing a handsome payoff in their quests for breakthroughs in corporate learning. Achieving behavioral change and business results is now a step closer with Adaptive Learning.

Making A Successful Leadership Transition
 
You have been performing well and were given a promotion. This is certainly a cause for celebration. The promotion comes with something exhilarating yet worrisome thoughts – managing and leading others.

Perhaps you have chalked up an indisputable track record as the best sales representative, or trader, or researcher, or financial controller (fill in the blank with your expertise). Your people leadership skills, however, may be largely untested.  

Here I would like to outline five common pitfalls in leadership transitions faced by both new and sometimes seasoned managers, and make some suggestions on how to overcome them.

1.   Failure to delegate

It’s nerve wrecking to letting go of control. After all, you were the best in your field therefore you got promoted. And your team has never been able to show that they can do the same things faster and better and more effective than you so why take the risk of letting go? The “bad” news is that you do not have a choice. Stepping up to a leadership position means there’s more on your plate now and you will have less time to do everything yourself. Delegating well is also a key differentiator for great leadership.

By delegating you are not just getting leverage but it also earns you the badge of being a people developer, making people are more likely to want to work for and with you. The first step towards a successful delegation is shifting the mindset on control, letting go and leveraging others. You can delegate through in small chunks, taking into account your team’s competence and motivation, and striking a balance between delegating task and responsibility.

2.   Not communicating enough

Being an individual contributor can be a very comfortable proposition for most people. As leaders, however, the need to communicate vertically and horizontally across the organisation increases tremendously. A systematic and structured plan for stakeholder management and communication frequency is crucial.

In some of my coaching assignments, I’ve observed some of the most senior and successful corporate leaders religiously maintained a communications plan. They tracked and analysed the frequency, impact, and outcomes of their communications with their stakeholders.

3.   Prioritising on the wrong things

If it feels overwhelming at first when stepping into a leadership role, it’s rightly so. The very first thing you need to clarify with your management team, even prior to the promotion, is your key priorities in the first 90 days, priorities for the mid term (6-12 months) and long term goals.The Presidents of the United States are framed to be judged on their first 90 days. In the corporate world, the first 90 days is also often seen as the key determinant for the success or failure of a leader.

Set up an urgent vs. important matrix for all the tasks in front of you. Prioritise on the tasks that can provide you and the team the biggest payoff. Run the list pass your management team and get some feedback.

4.   Reluctance in asking for feedback

Some people see feedback and learning as a sign of weakness. The opposite is true. Change is rapid today. Past performance doesn't guarantee future success. Leaders who have a high learning agility to unlearn and relearn about themselves, their surroundings, their teams, their products, on an ongoing basis, have the highest probability of succeeding in today’s fast-changing business landscape.

In the Information Age leaders no longer hold all the answers. Asking for feedback allows you the opportunity to tap into the smart of others. It also shows humility and a high level of emotional intelligence. The “why” generation appreciates leaders who engage them and ask for their opinions. Asking for feedback is no longer a taboo but cool! More importantly, it allows you to quickly understand deeply how you could lead the team to success.

5.   Lack of leadership presence

You now hold a larger seat at the table (more literally if your promotion comes with a larger office or desk). You are the same person but the team now expects more from you for inspirations, motivation, and direction. Sometimes people mistaken building a leadership presence with building a larger than life view of oneself, or a persona. It is not. Nobody likes to work with someone not authentic and think a world of him or herself.

Leadership presence, is about owning the room, be consistent and clear in your communicating your belief, values and speaking with conviction and confidence. It is about drawing people to you and increasing the desire of others to be led by you. It is a critical aspect of personal branding that helps build teams, business and organisations. Be conscious and selective of your words and body language. Be reflective on how what you say and do affects others. Be authentic and extremely consistent. 

Engaging today's distracted learners

If you’ve observed a lack of participation in your training participants, you’re not alone. I wrote this article for humanresourcesonline.net about how to optimise the ‘Candy Crush’ effect in corporate learning.

Have you have observed a noticeable lack of participation and engagement in meetings, conference calls, and training classes by your peers or other staff members?

Well, you are not alone.

Several senior executives have shared their frustrations that people in their organisations seem unfocused and overwhelmed with information. Research by Bersin by Deloitte, Meet the Modern Learner, has found that “companies and learners have all changed faster than many learning and development organisations have kept up.” The research paper further validated senior executives’ suspicions by concluding that modern learners are simply overwhelmed, distracted, and impatient.
They seek highly targeted access to useful information, as and when needed in short bursts of learning, and formats that are entertaining and engaging.
 
What’s up with modern-day learners?

So how do business leaders ensure critical business knowledge will stick with their employees?
Companies need to explore the use of non-traditional ways to re-capture their employees’ imagination and attention. Making learning real-time, bite-sized, adaptive to individuals, smart and innovative can be achieved through leveraging technology.

The question becomes, are companies ready to adopt newer technology in learning? In Deloitte’s 2015 Human Capital Trends report, less than 25% of companies felt comfortable with today’s digital learning environment. However, there is also research that demonstrates spending on e-learning and digital learning is on the uptrend. Millennials may have been a leading force in the wide adoption of technology, but this learning phenomenon is affecting every generation.

It is not an uncommon scene at restaurants these days where groups of diners, regardless of age, seem to be more occupied with their smart phones than interacting with one another. The go-to person in the workplace may no longer be John or Mary, but Google (or Yahoo or Bing). The last time I rejected “online learning” was in 2007. Last year, however, I acquired some knowledge and skills critical for me and my business, from massive open online courses (MOOC) such as those from coursera.org.

The MOOCs are offered by distinguished professors from top universities from Stanford to Fudan to NUS, for free. And from knowledge acquisition to talent acquisition, more than 350 companies now cooperate with Coursera and Udacity to identify the best students as possible candidates for relevant jobs. It is a fascinating trend.
 
Technology can’t do it alone

I want to stress that although technology is an important element, so are playfulness, mindfulness, and analytics. And some good old ways of learning are still vital and effective. The ability to blend, or to put the different elements together, can make learning intelligent, fun, engaging, and attractive again. I call that creating the “Candy Crush” effect in corporate learning.

Data and predictive analytics can provide insightful information to business executives and help them make better decisions. For example, figuring out how much and how confident each employee is about the company’s products; how often they access the information and what they look for; and how much they can and cannot retain. Wrong information leads to errors at work and it can be costly. Knowing how much of the wrong information they retained can be equally insightful. Data and predictive analytics have taken on new dimensions with the help of  technology.

What’s playfulness got to do with it

The notion of injecting playfulness into learning is not a new one. Some 16 years ago I attended a workshop on “Making Training Fun”. In that class, we designed our own Bingo game on a piece of paper that we could use in our next training. Again, with technology intervention, the innovations we see in game-based learning and gamified learning, are breathtaking.

Gamification for example, has been successful in helping businesses push their customer engagement to new heights. The Nike+ app, has successfully engaged millions of customers in making running fun with game mechanics such as leaderboard, challenges, and social functions.

Axonify, an e-learning platform using gamification and brain science, has helped major global companies engage their learners and achieve learning ROI at levels not seen in the past. Consider this – if game play can help get the attention of a technologically plugged-in and emotionally-distracted workforce, and allow them to focus on business-critical information, why not?
 
We are living in an exciting era. Neuroscientists have been able to discover so much more about human brains with the presence of advanced imaging technology and biological researches.
The emerging field in “brain science” and the links to leadership and professional behaviours such as the work done by David Rock, have been astonishing.

There is now new information about our attention, memory, and decision-making functions. Many learning organisations have started to fine tune the way they deliver spaced repetition, bite-sized learning, and retrieval practice to achieve optimal learning from the human brains.

Lastly, the inevitable – the next batch of incoming graduate hires is probably going to expect something more exciting and innovative to be unleashed at their disposal. Let’s get the evolution in corporate learning ready for that.
 

Life's Wisdoms

I’m not sure who wrote the following piece but it was really well written, inspiring and moving.

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You know … time has a way of moving quickly and catching you unaware of the passing years. It seems just yesterday that I was young, just married and embarking on my new life with my mate. Yet in a way, it seems like eons ago, and I wonder where all the years went. I know that I lived them all. I have glimpses of how it was back then and of all my hopes and dreams.
But, here it is… the “back nine” of my life and it catches me by surprise… How did I get here so fast? Where did the years go and where did my youth go?

I remember well seeing older people through the years and thinking that those older people were years away from me and that “I was only on the first hole” and the “back nine” was so far off that I could not fathom it or imagine fully what it would be like.

But, here it is … my friends are retired and getting grey… they move slower and I see an older person now. Some are in better and some worse shape than me… but, I see the great change … Not like the ones that I remember who were young and vibrant … but, like me, their age is beginning to show and we are now those older folks that we used to see and never thought we’d become.
Each day now, I find that just getting a shower is a real target for the day! And taking a nap is not a treat anymore … it’s mandatory! ‘Cause if I don’t on my own free will … I just fall asleep where I sit!

And so … now I enter into this new season of my life unprepared for all the aches and pains and the loss of strength and ability to go and do things that I wish I had done but never did!! But, at least I know, that though I’m on the “back nine”, and I’m not sure how long it will last … this I know, that when it’s over on this earth … it’s over. A new adventure will begin! Yes, I have regrets. There are things I wish I hadn’t done … things I should have done, but indeed, there are many things I’m happy to have done. It’s all in a lifetime.

So, if you’re not on the “back nine” yet … let me remind you, that it will be here faster than you think. So, whatever you would like to accomplish in your life please do it quickly! Don’t put things off too long!! Life goes by quickly. So, do what you can today, as you can never be sure whether you’re on the “back nine” or not!

You have no promise that you will see all the seasons of your life … so, live for today and say all the things that you want your loved ones to remember … and hope that they appreciate and love you for all the things that you have done for them in all the years past!!

“Life” is a gift to you. The way you live your life is your gift to those who come after. Make it a fantastic one. LIVE IT WELL! ENJOY TODAY! DO SOMETHING FUN! BE HAPPY! HAVE A GREAT DAY Remember “It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver. LIVE HAPPY IN 2015!

Lastly, consider this: Your kids are becoming you …. but your grandchildren are perfect! Going out is good … Coming home is better! You forget names …. But it’s OK because other people forgot they even knew you!!! You realise you’re never going to be really good at anything … especially golf. The things you used to care to do, you no longer care to do, but you really do care that you don’t care to do them anymore. You sleep better on a lounge chair with the TV blaring than in bed. It’s called “pre-sleep”. You miss the days when everything worked with just an “ON” and “OFF” switchâ¦You tend to use more 4 letter words … “what?”…”when?”…” ??? Now that you can afford expensive jewellery, it’s not safe to wear it anywhere. You notice everything they sell in stores is “sleeveless”?!!! What used to be freckles are now liver spots. Everybody whispers. You have 3 sizes of clothes in your closet … 2 of which you will never wear. But Old is good in some things: Old Songs, Old movies, and best of all, OLD FRIENDS!!

Stay well, “OLD FRIEND!” Send this on to other “Old Friends!” and let them laugh in AGREEMENT!!! It’s Not What You Gather, But What You Scatter That Tells What Kind Of Life You Have Lived.

TODAY IS THE OLDEST YOU’VE EVER BEEN, YET THE YOUNGEST YOU’LL EVER BE, SO ENJOY.