Ins!ghts

Today is the first day of Ramadan where all Muslim friends practise the act of fasting for one month. Today, I would like to share with you all some beautiful thoughts of fasting which can be used as powerful principles for success

1. Fasting gives man an unfailing training in endurance, a spirit of acceptance. This could well prepare him to put up with the unchangeable situations in life in the same spirit of resignation as cultivated during the fasts.
2. Fasting develops courage, fortitude, and a fighting spirit in man to surmount the heavy odds in life with a cool and tranquil mind. It sharpens his power of concentration to overcome obstacles through a vigorous exercise all throughout the month, leading to a steeling of his will power and resolve that could help him in challenging situations in life. It is seen than many an undesirable habit which is difficult to give up, is more easily given up during the days of fasting.
3. Fasting develops a spirit of patience in man, with the realization that the days of fasting, though seemingly unending, do have a successful and happy end. Thus is life. All bitter situations pass, and come to an end.
4. Fasting is meant to conquer anger and develop self-control in man. The vigorous effort required putting up with hunger and thirst can well be extended to conquer other infirmities of human character that lead man into error and sin.
5. Fasting demands a rigid sense of discipline, mental, spiritual and physical. This forms characteristics which are an essential ingredient to success in life.
6. Fasting mellows a man and enhances his character, giving a jolt to the human instincts of pride, haughtiness, jealousy and ambition. Fasting softens his character, and clears his heart and mind of many negative emotions.
7. Fasting gives lessons in punctuality. Man has to adhere to a strict schedule of time in the observance of the fast.

The number one key challenge of human capital development is to create  a “Winners” mindset. The #1 mindset change program is designed to help to transform mindsets for:

1. CHANGE OR GET LEFT BEHIND,
2. MAKING THE RIGHT CHOICE,
3. POWER OF INTENTION,
4. POWER OF PATIENCE
5. HAVING A POSITIVE MENTAL ATTITUDE,
6. GET RID OF SUBCONSCIOUS NEGATIVITY &
7. TAKING OWNERSHIP

See below diagram for a better picture.

One of the most powerful concepts we shared in our training program is about CHOICE.  Human beings are bestowed with the ability to make choices.  In the moment of decision, a destiny is made. We also challenged the participants to either enjoy while learning or applying what they have learnt.  In my course of research, I can across a CHOICE MAP by Marilee Adam, PhD who wrote a wonderful bestselling book called, “Change Your Questions, Change Your Life.”  This picture above is a summary of the book and also a summary of how we should live our life positively. Take some time to go through the CHOICE MAP and I am sure will you gain lots of insight from it. Anyway, choice is still in your hand.

Leadership is like your hand. A hand is consists of five different fingers with different lengths and shapes. Like a team, you have team members of  different characters and personalities. The challenge is not to pick on the difference because a hand only comes to useful when they are coming together to carry out desired actions like holding, punching, shaking, pushing and others. Similarly, in a team, the synergy happens when all team members with different skills and experiences come together to work towards a common objectives and make things happen. As a leader, you need to make sure that the hands function as a hand and not as individual finger. The strength is in coming together with one direction in mind.

Last week, my mum just retired from her 30 year service as a staff nurse in Adventist Hospital Penang. This blog post is the tribute to her contribution and loyalty to the company and also a case study for us to ponder on staff loyalty in this new era.

My question is, “what motivates people to stay in a company for 30 years?” Over the past few months, Edu Action is invited to conduct a full circle customer service training for a private hospital in Petaling Jaya. We had completed a 600 staffs customer service centric program and they are in the process of implementing Key Performance Indicator (KPI) to measure their customer service performance. This is part of our strategy to ensure that all the staff practise what they have learnt and also to bring their customer service level to the next level.

Throughout the 6 months project with them, we faced with different challenges but one of the key challenges we faced is to make sure the “hems ” (the stubborn character in “Who Moved My Cheese?” who refused to change because of fear, comfort & denial) open up their mind for changes and help to make the company move forward. Majority of them are the senior staffs who have been working in the hospital for the past 20 to 30 years. They are the one who think that we have doing it for the past 20 years and don’t try to teach old dogs new trick mentality.

Tough sometimes, we are loyal to a company because of the welfare, benefits and we are comfortable with the job, loyalty does not mean you hope that the company will stay the same. We need to adapt to the new changes, initiate changes and to work together as a team to move the company to the next level.

The latest change which many senior staffs are fearful off is the changes in system automation which involves computer functionality.

Looking at the new generation which is also called the Generation Y, we read the statistics and comments that they won’t stay in a company for more than 2 years. What has changed which caused someone to stay 30 years in a company but only 2 in this new century?  Does it mean, the idea of staff loyalty does not exist anymore? Is it because the companies are changing too slow to cope with the more intellectually advanced young adults? Or is it because the idea of delayed gratification and patience has long forgotten in our new generation?

EduAction is born, July 2009

Everyday, I receive leaflets, brochures & catalogs in my letter box and in the gate grill.  Sometimes I feel that it is annoying because you are forced to collect the advertising materials and throw it away to prevent it from scattering around the compound.

Quoting from Seth Godin’s concept of interruption marketing which means that delivering non-anticipated, non-personal and not relevant messages to people who actually don’t want to get them. The door to door delivering of promotional material is interruption marketing because you are interrupting the private property (letter box and gate grill) by forcing someone to read your material which is a waster of money and resources as people merely throw the material away.

Thus I think the better way of marketing is, again, quoting Seth Godin, permission marketing which is defined as delivering anticipated, personal and relevant messages to people who actually want to get them. The best of permission marketing is giving value first and asking permission from people to receive periodic newsletter for education first and selling comes naturally as people begin to feel your goodwill and initiatives.

Here are 4 steps how you can use permission marketing effectively:

1. Giving value first by providing educational material like blogs, whitepaper or newsletter to your prospects
2. Update them with periodic newsletter for keeping in touch with you which you gain subscription permission from them
3. Provide FREE sample or trial of your product
4. Ask for permission before you sell them

In short, permission is like dating. You don’t start by asking for the sale at first impression. You earn the right, over time, bit by bit.

Please click on the below podcast to listen to the interview session of the CEO of EduAction with Freda Liu, in the Enterprise segment at BFM, 89.9

Do you notice the difference between Education and Eduaction?

The only difference is the switching of the alphabet between “a” and “c” but there would be a vast different in meaning. Below is the definition of EduAction (the capital letter “a” is to make the difference.

EduAction n. 1. The activities of transferring of knowledge and skill to stimulate action to achieve desired results.

Though you can’t find the word in Oxford dictionery but it is meaningful and relevant for us ponder the concept behind the “word” eduaction.

In Malaysia, the education system is designed in such a way where it is very much exam orientated and therefore most of the students study for the sake of passing examination. In other words, students are exposed with passive learning.  Sometimes, students have to resort to memorize the text even though they do not understand the principle behind. This system has hampered creativity.