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April 30, 2006

Venting your anger

"A pair of Shanghainese entrepreneurs are offering themselves as targets for verbal and — within limits — physical abuse, letting frustrated office workers vent without killing their careers."

Great - if words are powerful and energy, and can change what is going on in your brain and ultimately in your body (body and mind is one system), basically form new patterns, I wonder how long it will take until those two entrepreneurs are getting sick.












Posted by Andreas at 09:39 AM | Comments (1)

April 29, 2006

Mirror neurons – a way to learn from others

Scientific American Mind has a great article about mirror neurons. Their discovery gives an astonishing inside how we learn to perform certain acts and how to create feelings for others as well.

What does this mean?

These mirror neurons inside our brains fire when others perform an act - this means others do something and we do the same, only inside our mind. We watch someone do something – dance, speak a language, smile, show feelings, laugh, stick out the tongue, yawn – and something in our own brain responds to this. This starts from the beginning of our own life to the end of it.

This is significant in the way we behave throughout the day.

Go into an organisation full of lame people and our brain resonates with them until we become lame as well. Go to places where people have fun, and wooms, suddenly, your own gloom is gone. Now you also know why you cry when Humphrey Bogart says “Look into my eyes, baby”, or when you favourite singer in American Idol bows out with tears in their eyes.

We are all connected in some way then (one of the presuppositions of NLP, by the way).

What is scary in this?

Well, for one – don’t watch violent movies, because our brains react to those as well. What about kids who watch Cartoon Channel or play computer games? It is hard to say much about the effect of those videos or movies but considering the fact that the mind of children is fragile suggests that an impact way beyond our imagination is possible. I am not suggesting that there is no positive effect of movies and video games but it imposes the "burden on parents" to be more vigilant in their selection.











Posted by Andreas at 02:30 PM | Comments (1)

April 26, 2006

Go for it!

A while ago, I bought Chase - Somethin' to feel about, an album that features motivational or inspiring messages with music. Ah - partially, I would say hypnotic messages.

Anyway, there is one song, my favourite, with the one line in it that just blows me away:

"The only thing that distinguishes a conquorer from a slave is the action you take right now."

The context is fear and that we have to take actions to conquer our fear on a daily basis. But that when we do so, we also get stronger, day by day until one day, you are strong and the fear is gone.

Think about it - how often do we actually feel like slaves in our daily routine and habitual ways of doing things. We actually have sayings for this: "Don't slave me like this," "I feel so slaved today" or "Don't treat me like a slave." Others will come to your mind as well.

So - what actions have you taken today to free your mind? To free yourself from your role and inner prison?











Posted by Andreas at 06:44 PM | Comments (0)

April 25, 2006

Save the earth - we all can make a difference

The Live Science Magazine provides you with 10 tips that make a difference.

1.) Change light bulbs

- Use highly efficient compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs)

- Turn off unneeded lights

- Dim lights when you can

- Bring natural sunlight into your home when it is feasible (how to sell this to Asians, i wonder?)

2.) Drive differently, or drive a different vehicle

- A car emits as much carbon dioxide as your entire house - wow, I didn't know that one!- Buy a fuel efficient car because replacing your gas-guzzling car with a fuel-efficient one is by far the best thing you can do

- Drive less - tought sell in Asia, because of the lack of workable public transport and our own comfort zone that doesn't want to get anywhere near an LRT, or a Public Bus

- Get your car tuned up. Just a simple tune-up often improves fuel efficiency by half. If 100,000 of us went out and got a tune up, we save 124,000 tons of carbon dioxide. Isn't this an easy one?

- Slow down, don't race your car's engine, and watch your idling - tell this any Malaysian who is revving up the engine

- Horribly inefficient SUVs, minivans and pickup trucks now make up more than half of the cars on American roads (what about Malaysia?). The real tragedy is that automakers could double the current average fuel efficiency of SUVs if they wanted to, which would save 70 tons of carbon dioxide per car. The technology exists. Unfortunately, consumer demand does not.

3.) Control your temperature

- The bad news is that half of your household energy costs go towards just two things—heating and cooling. Well, Malaysians don't heat, but look at all those air-conditioned buildings with the door wide open!

- Add two degrees to the AC thermostat in summer, and two degrees in winter. If everyone did this, the cumulative impact is significant.

- Make sure windows and doors are sealed. Again, this will dramatically improve your household fuel efficiency.

- Of course, if you can stand it, by far the best approach is to avoid air conditioners at all. Ceiling fans, instead of AC, can reduce your cooling costs by more than half.

4.) Tame the refrigerator monster
- Did you know that your friendly refrigerator has a voracious energy appetite? It is, by far, the single biggest consumer of electricity in the average household, responsible for 10-15 percent of the electricity you use each month.

5.) Twist some knobs
- Either turn the hot water heater down a couple of degrees, or turn on the "energy conservation" setting.

- When possible, wash a few dishes by hand. Over time, that will save a few loads in the dishwasher, conserving energy - lucky we have maids in Malaysia, but do they save water, or let it run and run and run?

- Don't pre-rinse dishes. Today's detergents are powerful enough to do the job - this is something I didn't know. Have to tell my wife, who asks me to pre-rinse, when I wash the dishes (I am serious!)

- Wait until you have a full load to run the dishwasher.

- Wash clothes in warm water, not hot. The clothes will be just as clean, and you'll cut energy use by 50 percent.

- Don't over-dry your clothes. That will save 15 percent.

6.) Plant smartly
- While it is true that planting more trees will help in the short term because they essentially soak up carbon, they also release carbon dioxide when they die. This is important in Malaysia where the number of trees cut probably exceeds the number of trees planted, by far! If planting takes place anyway!

7.) Invest in green energy

- Imagine if we ran out of fossil fuels tomorrow, what would we do? Support solar panels, geothermal and wind power sources. Well, in Malaysia they go for biofuel - I hope this helps!

- Learn the truth about nuclear power and natural gas as viable "green" options. They aren't. Radioactive waste will be a problem for tens of thousands of years into the future, and natural gas kicks out almost as much carbon dioxide as coal and oil. Natural gas can help us make a transition, but it isn't the solution.

8.) Go organic

-Even with our vast reservoir of scientific knowledge about farming, most American farmers still spray a billion pounds of pesticides to protect crops each year. I guess not only the US, but also Asia.

- Eat locally grown food. If the food doesn't have to travel far, there's less carbon dioxide from the trucks that ship it.

- Eat fruits and vegetables in season. Again, that saves the enormous transportation costs.

- Plant your own vegetable garden. It's not as hard as you might think.


9.) Buy recycled

- It takes less energy to manufacture a recycled product than a brand new one.
I would say that we need to start recycling in Asia first!

10.) Be a minimalist

- Every time you buy something, energy has gone into getting that product to you. So the less you buy, the more you save energy-wise. It's a simple equation.

Isn't it time we change? Remember, we only have one earth at hand!


Posted by Andreas at 09:09 AM | Comments (1)

April 24, 2006

Questions about training and coaching

I am simply curious and ran a couple of those questions with companies that use training- and workshop providers and coaches.

My simple question is - what are you looking for in a training- and workshop providers?

Most of the time, I heard "passion" - passion is important. Hence, the energy to convey learning and motivation and the enthusiasm they have for their job and topic.

Basically, this appears to be the entry ticket. What else is there? Costs? Knowledge transfer?

What are you looking for, you, who is reading this entry. You as someone who is hiring a training- and workshop provider, or as someone, whose training you would attend?

Secondly, and as a coach - what are you looking for in a coach? Would you actually hire someone as a coach whom you have never met? Or only met through the net and his or her webpages? Is there a level of trust that needs to be there immediately, or can that be developed in the first coaching or meeting session?

I am curious to receive responses to these questions. To get better, to learn more. To add value to my service offering! In the end - to serve my customers and clients better.










Posted by Andreas at 04:04 PM | Comments (1)

April 23, 2006

Weight loss with hypnosis

I wrote about it before but there never is enough that can be said about the positive effects of hypnosis. Hypnosis is useful to assist you in losing weight.

There is a chance to lose weight via hitting the gym, diets and more, but many times, it goes only that far. The subconscious mind is programmed to keep the weight for whatever reason. Willpower alone is helpful in achieving goals, of course, but it is easier with hypnosis.

"Through positive suggestions, exercise can become a part of your weight loss plan. If you dread spending time in the gym before, you will now find yourself eager to work out. The change you see with hypnosis is gradual, which ensures the weight loss is natural and more importantly, lasting. As mentioned earlier, the most common problem with weight loss is that weight comes back because the loss is so fast. However, by using hypnosis to change behaviors or habits, the changes come over time and the results stay.

(...)

Typically, when a person uses hypnosis to lose weight, they find themselves moving in a positive circle, being happier, stronger, and healthier individuals. The things that can do to the mind are incredible. Suddenly, the weight loss and exercise all makes sense and as the weight begins to drop off, life takes on an entirely different look, all for the better!"

Sounds good, doesn't it?










Posted by Andreas at 02:12 PM | Comments (0)

About a hypnothised reporter

There are plenty of stories going around about hypnosis and how it all is a thing of our own imagination, and not real. Many times, people think of it as a magical game as displayed on TV, or of stage comedians who use hypnosis to make people do funny things. Othertimes, people are worried that hypnosis has a bad aftereffect, that they won't wake up from it as healthy as they went into or that they reveal secrets that they don't want to reveal.

All of this is bogus. Sure, there are stage shows where people do funny things like forgetting numbers or behaving like a chicken. I believe that this is not necessarily the best proof that hypnosis is useful and can be used successfully in many different settings.

Here now a story of a reporter who wanted to experience hypnosis. The article is long, and only describes his experience in the last few sentences, the rest is more of an introduction.

The essence of the article:

The hypnotherapist called Caskey "asked me (the reporter) if there was a particular place I was fond of.

The Santa Barbara beach, I answered unabashedly.

The lights were off, and the stereo streamed majestic music. I leaned back in a recliner. It was a tranquil ambience, meant to ensure total relaxation — a trait that often eludes those of us who work in media.

I requested Santa Barbara because UCSB is my alma mater. Its one of the few campuses where students can roll out of bed and drag their school books with them to the beach. You can smell the seawater from classrooms. And the sunsets are heavenly.

After several minutes of relaxation, Caskey had me on the beach at night, with peering stars above and seashells in the sand. My mind started playing Bruce Springsteens Spirit in the Night, a song I was obsessed with in college.

When I say I was at the beach, I dont mean to imply that I was hallucinating. I knew I was actually in a Dublin office, accompanied by three other people, including the trusty photographer.

But the beach was almost like a subreality, like a dream where Newtons laws of physics dont really apply. I could faintly hear the distinct sound of waves. The lights from the oil rigs beamed. I could see seabirds.

Caskey then told me to pick up a seashell. She told me a door was underneath the shell. I remember being confused as to what a door in the ground was supposed to look like. I opened the door, which led to descending stairs, each stair a different color.

I walked down the stairs, but I dont recall where Caskey had me at that point. I remember being surrounded by green gases. There wasnt really a ground to stand on, or any sense of direction — up, down, left or right. But I felt jaunty and carefree.

Shortly thereafter, Caskey brought me back to Dublin. Im not sure, but I think I was gone for about 20 minutes. The lights were on, the music was off, and I stared at Caskey and the others. My mind was blank. My joints felt like noodles.

I think I had a silly grin on, the result of a humble guy whose unconscious mind just got tickled."

It will take time to get hypnotherapy into the mainstream. But the time will come, considering the amount of positive news about applications that is published everywhere.










Posted by Andreas at 02:00 PM | Comments (0)

April 22, 2006

NLP - making sense of individual experiences

There is always the question if something that has been developed in the West is also useful in other geographic regions, such as Asia. The same applies to Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP).

NLP is the study of what works in thinking, language and behaviour in the individual. In this sense, it does not matter if NLP has been created in the US, Europe, Africa or Asia. It is universally applicable.

NLP looks at ones own individual experience and works with this own subjective experience of the individual to bring the person from here to there – from present state to desired state. Thus, it is based on the premises that we are all different. We are different in the way that we have different parents, different experiences (from going and experiencing different classmates, different teachers, different books, different “places” etc., and different exposures to situations in our life – day-in and day-out. Through all this, we establish and continue to form (because we are never a complete “product”) our own personality. We form our values, beliefs and criteria that support beliefs.

All of this is coded in our brains. It is the world of neurochemicals, electric activity, and synapses = the world of 100 billion neurons (some say less some they more – it doesn’t really matter). In order to make sense of the world, we start coding experiences and form habits that guide us through our life from the early stages in our life (here, again, some say that this already starts during the pregnancy, while others say it starts after birth). From the initial phases in our existence, we start interpreting life’s events in a certain manner – in order to make sense of it. Otherwise, we would see the world with new eyes everyday and would need to recreate everything from scratch!

And suddenly, we have developed attitudes, and behaviours that block our development in certain ways or further it in others.

This is where NLP comes in handy. It helps the individual to discover their own path and clarifying foggy issues. It is not imposing values from different cultures, but uses the cultural traits in the individual – which are, again, embedded in the brain, but also in the body. Everything that we think, do, act upon is also expressed in our body. Sometimes the twitch of a muscle in the face, sometimes the movement of an arm, hand or leg reveals the way we feel, see, or hear. Our own individual sensory strategies.

What is the beauty of NLP? It helps you understand and unlock undesirable traits and beliefs in you – undesirable in your own definition, not someone else’s. All of those connections in your mind that hold you back today.

I have outlined some of the areas where NLP can help in personal and business settings here.

Once you identified those traits (either alone or with a coach), it is possible to disconnect them and free the energy – release the energy that hold you back and walk down your own chosen pathway.











Posted by Andreas at 04:58 PM

April 17, 2006

Energy and the willpower to stand strong against adversary

I had the great, great pleasure of participating in a training session with Dr. Geoge Bien on "Speaking with Power."

It is a workshop on presentation skills that explains in detail on how to present yourself in a presentation, works with your tonality, the setting of the room, spatial anchoring for high performance, handling of questions, anticipating participant's reactions, working with emotions and so on.

So it goes beyond the traditional type of presentation skills workshop that simply explains the structure of a presentation and how to convey your point of view. It is taking this basic skill for granted and extends it into the realm of high performance.

George is a fantastic guy and his training is inspiring, entertaining, performance boosting - not necessarily in this sequence. The training includes NLP exercises, anchoring and working with your body posture. If he sees potential improvements, he coaches the participant directly, face-to-face. He is called the Trainer of Trainers, and he is one, if not the leading trainer in hypnotherapy, and speaking performance.

His methods to train are just like him - outrageous, but outrageously good. He pushed me to the limits and never gave up. Forced me on when I got tired.

Why?

Because he said that it is easy to meet an easy goal - but once you pushed yourself to higher goals, it is tough to get back. Your mind has been stretched already, so it is able to withstand adversary.

Some of the exercises were easy but still challenging. Like shouting, in a convincing and congruent manner: "I am powerful".

Sounds easy, but dare not to be convincing - that either your voice fails to deliver the message or your body doesn't show that it really believes in your message.

George then starts to challenges and mock you - "no, you are not" - "I am powerful" - "no, you are not" and so on.

Do this six times! Or seven. Or only 5.

It saps an enourmous amount energy - a tremendous energy drain.

Why is he so pushing?

Because, when you speak, in a presentation, during a conference, in a workshop, in any situation in your life, there might be those that oppose what you say. That heckle. That find flaws in your argumentation.

It is not possible to shut those up - even if it would be desirable. Sure not!

They sap your energy as well. By then, you won't have time to build it up slowly. It must be there. Fullstop. By then, it must be in me, my system, my body.

And that is what I became aware of this in this training.

I got stronger, mentally, once again!










Posted by Andreas at 01:38 PM | Comments (0)

A kiss is just a kiss

Title in the New Sunday Times yesterday and an interview with Datuk Badruddin Amiruldin regarding guidelines about kissing in public and indecent behaviour.

In one section he says that ...

"We welcome the guidelines because we want the younger generation to be well-mannered. We don’t want to be like the West which has no values. We don’t want to follow the Westerners who are road bullies, selfish and don’t love others."

I have to rant a bit when I see such sweeping statements:

- I don't see how guidelines can help to make the younger generation more well-mannered;
- Who defines what is well-mannered and what not? An office person thinks different from the hawker on the street, a city dweller different from a rural dweller, a frequent traveller different from someone who never left home;
- The West has values, of course. In fact, every human being has values. The question is, what values are these and do you reject, accept or at least understand those. To say that the West has no values is like saying there is no sand in the desert;
- Westerners are road bullies? I had a good laugher at that point. When was the last time Datuk read the newspaper about increasing numbers of accidents in Malaysia, or travelled somewhere in KL?
- Selfish and not loving others? How does he know? There are 100s of millions of people in the West? Has he met them all? Never found anyone that he would say is not selfish? Never saw a mother hugging and kissing her children? Never saw the tears of joy in a family?

It is easy to make such general statements, but it scares me, really. Because ultimately, these are people with some power to make some decisions somewhere. Is it not enough that we have such a strange discussion anyway about regulating kissing and indecent behaviour in public? What's wrong here? Where is the tolerance for expression? The freedom? How can there be a caring society when kissing and even hand holding is regulated? How cold will a society become when even such personal expressions of love are regulated and grafted in stone? And don't forget that kissing is necessary for becoming more matured! So, those that want to regulate or ban it, well, may be they are just not there yet.

And now I feel better, after this rant. But I don't think that the debate is over yet.

Posted by Andreas at 11:04 AM | Comments (2)

April 13, 2006

Surgery performed under hypnosis

Isnt' it amazing, this power of hypnosis and suggestions?

In the UK, a surgeon made an incision in the groin to repair a hernia live on television - without usual anaesthetic, just using hypnosis.

Absolutely possible.

When I did my training as a hypntherapist, my trainer ask one of the participants to lay on three chairs lined up in a row. He then relaxed the person, and suggested to his mind to be like a steel bar.

After inducing him (putting him into hypnosis), my trainer removed the chair in the middle. It was possible for another participant to sit on the person in hypnosis.

After a while, my trainer called the participant back from the hypnotic state.

Asked, what would have happened if he would have let the person wake up alone, my trainer said, that he would have felt stiff, initially.

The power of the mind. Simply amazing.

Posted by Andreas at 08:32 AM | Comments (1)

April 12, 2006

Close encounters with death

Have you ever cheated death?

Death can come quickly - one second you are there and then, boom, something happens and you are gone.

While driving to work on Monday, and while stuck in the usual traffic jam, I wanted to switch lane. There was the gap, and I set the indicator and started to move out. Knowing Malaysia, all of these two actions - set the indicator and moving out of your lane - has to be done fast, since oftentime, the car next to you on the lane you want to move onto will try to cut you off.

What I didn't see was two motorcycles that speeded between the cars. I heard the honking, and stopped immediately to see the first motorcycle swerving around my car at extremely close range followed by the second. The second one turned around about 50 meters down the road. I don't know if the first one actually knew how close he was to death.

It was my mistake even so the two were driving way to fast for such kind of situations. My heart was beating fast and I felt adrenaline rushing through my body. I didn't move out of the lane for another 500 meters.

What I am wondering is - will something change for the guy on the motorcycle if he realised the close encounter?

Frequently, people change when they are in such situation, and mostly for the better. They start appreciating life much more and start to live much more purposefully. I hope it happens to him as well. That he realises that death can drop by any second of a day.


Posted by Andreas at 10:49 AM | Comments (2)

April 11, 2006

Long working hours and stress

Familiar quotes:

"Working hard - working longer than the boss."

"If the boss is in the office, I also must stay on. It would look bad if I leave early."

"How come she is leaving early? Nothing to do, ha?"

" What, how come, that he is off work already?"

"Lucky I am not the only one that is staying back late!"

Habits are hard to break. Especially when habits are reenforced in a company by those "in power". They stay on, you stay on. It looks bad on you and for your bonus and your promotion if you leave early. No worries about stress, lacking family life, no work -life balance. Once you are up there you will change and pay back to those below you.

Sounds familiar?

How bad can worklife be? Be in the office at 10.00 PM, or later? Regularly? No wonder that you feel stressed. Stress in large quantities is a menace. It kills - as simple as that.

And, if you are still alive when you retire, how do you want to look back at your life? Are you then proud to say that you worked 15 or 16 hours a day throughout your life?

But in fact, change often starts with management. They set the habits. If they leave early or late, they set the pace. If they are educating the clients that life is life, and that there is a life after office hours, then so be it. Ask yourself - how effective are you after 9, 9, 10 hours of working? Or have you learnt to cope by including little breaks here and there? These are then coping mechanism - survival is driving you.

Not a good life, right?

Modern office life causes a lot of stress.

Stress is an interesting topic - it is exciting because there are stressed people all around us. Stress management will be something for years to come. NLP has some great tools to work with stress and it works well with hypnosis and timeline therapy.

The main part is to see how you, as an individual, interpret the stress. Stress is happening inside of you. What is stressful for one person is relaxing for another, so to speak. Just think of those in the LRT or stuck in a traffic jam. Some take it as an opportunity to watch, observe or even meet other people, while others look around, wild-eyed, and on the edge of anxiety.

Fact is that everybody can learn how to react to stress. Our body reacts to external events and switches on the fight-or - flight reactions. Shall we stay or shall we run. Important of course, if you are living with sabre-tooth tigers, but how to run in an office environment where the only sabre-tooth tiger is your boss? You have to live it out, the environment won't change, the bossy sabre-tooth tiger won't go away that quickly.

So learning how to live with stress is important to all of us in an ever changing, ever faster environment.










Posted by Andreas at 12:24 PM | Comments (3)

April 09, 2006

Korean efficiency and cultural benchmarking

Korea is that interesting because it is one of the countries that managed to move from being one of the poorest countries in the world some 50 years back to one of the most successful ones. In the course of its history, it survived a heavy war, major economic crises, authoritarian dictatorship, "unruly" trade unions, corruption, a dividing border, constant threat of a new war and probably some more.

For me, Korea is an example that a country can be successfully climb up from poverty to prosperity. Its move to the top of the pyramid shows that development is possible. The great part of it is that I experienced Koreans as extremely friendly people. They are efficient, fast, and friendly. Does this always go hand in hand or are these opposing factors? Of course, you can be efficient and unfriendly as some countries (I don't want to mention which) are. I am working with a Korean in my workplace. He shows his cultural traits every day even so he spent years of his life living in Canada. Nearly every day, he is coming up with new ideas to improve a process here and a process there. Increasing efficiency, thus, targeting to go home earlier. It is great. I told him rigt from the beginning of his employment with me and my team that I would be the last person to stand in the way when it comes to better processes (is this the German in me?). In fact, it is my aim to send my guys home as early as possible - why should they work longer when a few simple or more extensive processes can reduce the working hours? He is living his cultural traits.

My learning is that it is impossible to ignore cultural traits when coaching people. A fact that can easily be forgotten. How many times are business models absorbed in the Eastern World that are derived from the West? How often do these business models fail because they are based on different cultural premises?

It is the same with benchmarking companies. Here, it is even more micro than comparing companies from different countries. How often am I asked to benchmark an Asian entity with a GE, or an IBM, or a Microsoft. Or even to benchmark a Malaysian company with a Korean or a Singaporean.

Isn't this like comparing a Perodua with a Proton or a Toyota, or a MAS with an AirAsia or a SingAir or a Cathy Pacific. Do you see where I am getting at? It is not possible. The value system driving the different companies is too different, they cater to a different clientel, attract different customers, have different structures, procedures and so on.

The one who is coaching or benchmarking or initiating improvement processes needs to absolutely take care of existing structures, and values and estimate the impact, any initiative has. Even in a small team such as mine. I have to have the assureness that the impact is positive and acceptable and the outcome desirable. Nothing less.










Posted by Andreas at 12:03 PM | Comments (0)

April 08, 2006

EB Technologies - an active search for a new connection

The power of choice is what makes life wonderful. In fact, the more choices one is able generate the easier it is to switch supplier. Like, switching from Internet provider to another, when my own needs are not served well.

My ongoing frustration with EB, has not yet ended. I see that they are trying. Before I flew to Korea last weekend, they actually called me to find out if my Internet connection would work. It did, until today and my own frustration increased again.

Loggin in to my account is easy. But then, the long wait begins. Mostly ending into a page that cannot be displayed. I am currently logged on with Jaring - a dial-up service that is currently way faster than EBuilding or eB Technologies.

Thank you now - I can only hope that there is another provider serving where I am staying. If I find one, I am gone. I believe I am a patient customer, actually. I am not sure how many times I tried, since the beginning of the year, but its been too long.



Posted by Andreas at 03:44 PM | Comments (0)

April 03, 2006

Efficiency in Korea - the case of urinals in the airport

I am in Korea, for a meeting.

Always amazed to read about the efficiency of Koreans, I was looking forward to visiting the country. And boy, these guys live and breathe it.

It realised it straight at the gent toilets in the airport.

I went in and saw that just before one enters the room with the urinals, there is a sign on the floor, in yellow, saying: "Stop Here." So, if all the urinals are full, the guys have to line up behind the yellow line. And they do!!

Amazing.

Everywhere else, those waiting to take a "pee" (sorry my language) would just wait behind the guy at the urinals.

Posted by Andreas at 05:53 PM | Comments (3)

April 01, 2006

Trust in your company

Edelman, the PR agency, has just published its Annual Trust Barometer Report.

It clearly shows that consumers start to trust companies again, and this especially in the US and Europe. However, trust in Asian companies goes down.

What's more - more and more consumers with gripes about a company don't just complain about their experience to friends, relatives and colleagues alone. Many now start taking their frustration online. Making it more important to business to firstly monitor the webspace much more. What's more - they need to empower their staff to respond to critics in the web-sphere immediately.

When there is a complain emerging there is no time to involve the CEO or the PR department. An immediate response is needed. From someone who responds "naturally" - not something nicely formulated in corporate BlaBla-Press releases, finetuned language and all. But something from the guts.





Posted by Andreas at 12:25 PM | Comments (1)

Blogging in the business community

I had great fun of speaking at the Asli 3rd ASEAN Leadership Conference on Leadership that took place last Thursday and yesterday. My topic of speech was "Leadership Challenges in an Increasingly Competitive Environment".

A fascinating topic. After outlining some of the usual issues such as increasing competition and saturating of markets I also talked shortly about the importance of technology and the leveling fields that it provides to consumers and comapnies alike.

Here, I mentioned blogs, social networks, such as Friendster or Multiply, and the creating of webpages. My question to the 60-head strong audience comprising senior management level was "how many of you read blogs?"

I raised my hand - not to entice them to raise their hand but to really encourage the audience. There were a few that raised their arm - may be 4 or 5. They raised their arm very cautiously. Why cautiously? Were they embarrassed to admit that they read blogs?

Anyway - considering the developing influence of blogs on the social landscape - a new communication channel and influencer - the number of those employed in higher management that read blogs in Asia or Malaysia is far too low.






Posted by Andreas at 12:05 PM | Comments (1)