Is The Expectation for Instant Gratification Valid?

I had an interesting thought yesterday when I heard a speaker in an event mentioned that today's young people don't really read long articles. He added that if a message can be summarised into a sentence, it's even better!

How true is that? Personally I beg to differ. However, my thought doesn't represent the overall Gen Y thoughts. Is it because how each of us grow up with fast moving visuals and so many choices that they shorten our attention span.

Oh yes, elder individuals always responded in unison that Gen Y individuals have shorter attention span compare to themselves and their peers, as well as their seniors. My thoughts are if processes can be shorten yet at the same time, yield similar results, isn't that reflect effectiveness? What's wrong with demanding for instant gratification when it is possible and we deserve it?

Have you ever heard and experienced any of the above where you had a discussion with probably, your bosses or immediate supervisors on the subject?

It would be great to understand the reason for this ongoing debate on the area of managing and bringing out the best in Gen Y talents.

Embracing the Unknowable

Life has a funny way of telling you that in every crisis, there will eventually be the light at the end of the tunnel. At the end, it is all bittersweet. What can we take from there? An enriching journey to be aware of our weakness and acknowledge our strength - continuous improvement and growth.

Humans have a way of developing through experiences and as a result? Innovation. It's all about improving processes, media and ways that had created undesired outcome whether at work, personal relationships or relationship with events happening around us. It is the basis of intelligence of the human race to create solutions to various problems - and they continuously evolve - in complexity and dynamics. It is the need to be achieving the level of self-actualisation - revisit Maslow's theory that humans continue to dominate the mother Earth among all beings.

However, it starts with the courage to take the first step, as the old saying by Lao-Tzu that goes, "Journey of a thousand mile begins with the single step." How on earth did the idea of landing on the Moon come about in the 60's? Today, we are already attempting to land on the neighbouring red planet (Click here to check out more on the Mars program by NASA).

Human being will continue to evolve intelligently. What steps have you taken to improve your chances of creating an impact to the community, world and humanity which will leave a legacy to be remembered? Going back to the basics - don't let the fear of failure overshadow your passion to create tremendous value to the world. Everyone stands a chance - what's your journey going to be like?

Let's explore the unknowable.

RM10 Goes A Long Way

Looking at new calendars just remind me on how fast the time flies. 2011 is less than 100 days away from now. Just recently, I came across a beautiful calendar which I think is worth more than its price.

It's about giving hope and opportunity to shape our future generation.

Check out the calendar being sold by Shelter Home for Children in raising funds for maintaining the home's children welfare. It is definitely a must-have for homes and offices!

The front page of the Calendar which displays beautiful arts drawn by the talented John Wong.

Notice that the calendars are up to date with various holidays indication. Bottom of the calendar tells the tale of unfortunate children whose names have been changed.

Beautiful drawings by John Wong on some of the "lost" symbols of what make Malaysians.

A reminder on what we can do for the abused children - with love.

Hope everyone can make a small contribution in support of Shelter Home of Children to ensure that the children can live the life of a normal child with proper schooling and education opportunities.

With just RM10, you can get a beautiful calendar for 2011 and the value will go a long way in helping the children in many ways.

You can contact me to get the calendars - for free from yours truly or if you would also like to contribute by dropping me an e-mail at chanwh.melvin@gmail.com. Alternatively, you can contact the home directly to make your orders online or call them at the details shown in the Shelter Home for Children website.

Next Children Home - Ti Ratana in Desa Petaling. Let us know if you would like to join the TalentEDge InspirED team in our initiative to take a stand in giving equal opportunities for the underprivileged children to live a normal life too. You can call us during office hours at 03-78737534 or drop us a mail at enquiries@mytalentedge.com.

God bless.

A Child Who Grows

Since young, I have always been grateful for the support and guidance my parents have shown me. Toys, books, schools, tuition classes are what make up a great child's learning. A break to travel during well deserved holiday seasons to just capture a moment of experience being able to enjoy and have fun.

It made me think whether all children in the world have been as lucky. Why are there orphanages and children homes? What happened to them that they have to be there instead with their parents? Then I realised, they too deserved the support which was shown onto me for them to grow normally and happily.

I always have a strong passion in providing the best environment and basic necessities needed by a child to grow happily and positively.

Last week, when I was browsing through a list of Children Homes which we can involve with in an upcoming fundraising project by TalentEDge, I came across Shelter Home for Children, courtesy of www.hati.org.my. It is based in PJ and managing 3 centres in Petaling Jaya and Taman OUG respectively. Immediately, I dropped an e-mail to the general e-mail address and they replied promptly. Arranged an appointment to meet Audrey, a representative from Shelter Home for Children office in Jalan Barat (above Caring Pharmacy).

Audrey, a kind lady who has offered much important information on the needs and direction by the organisation in supporting children who are abandoned, neglected and abused, as well as taking care the welfare of some refugee children has given me a lot of ideas on how we can contribute towards the welfare and development of the children in many ways - related to what I have been doing in training and fundraising projects.

After a good 1-hour chat with Audrey, the team and I moved on to visit one of the centres nearby in Section 8, better known as Shelter 3. It is where they house the teenage boys (currently 7) between the ages of 13-18.

It has a very welcoming signage which we will never miss.

The front view (from the gate) of the centre. Notice how clean the compound is!

One of TalentEDge's team mates chatting with Mr Nelson, the caretaker of the centre.

Nice play area for the boys. Spacious, but football is not allowed - you know how the ball flies. Behind the wall is the main road of Jalan Templer (near the roundabout).

Clean and well taken care dining area.

One of my favourite rooms in the Centre. The study room. It just looks inspiring.

They have vans to ferry the children for events, tuition classes, and various outdoor activities.

For more information on Shelter Home for the Children, visit www.shelterhome.org or they can be contacted at the details below:

Shelter Home for Children

No. 9, 1st Floor

Jalan Barat

46200 Petaling Jaya

Selangor Darul Ehsan.

Tel: 03-7781 4885 ( Contact Person: Ms.Audrey John)

Tel: 03-7955 0663

Fax: 03-7783 3413

Fax: 03-7956 2384

Fax: 03- 7956 3940

Let's give hope to the children of a better world.

NEXT POST: Supporting a Project by Shelter Home for Children

Project Fitness 100

Recently, I have received many comments on how I have gained weight and looked chubbier than ever. The reality finally sets in with much impact - I couldn't fit in my favourite Dockers beige pants!

Like a guy on a mission, I re-embarked on the journey to fitness which I had attempted 4 years ago, which of course, didn't turn out quite well. :P Determined, this time I will publicly declare that approximately 100 days from Monday, 9th August 2010, or by 18th November 2010, I would have:

1. Reduce 10kg of my weight from 83kg to 73kg!

2. Able to fit into my favourite Dockers pants again!

3. Six-packs body on display at the beach! :P

Will be recording all my progress alternate days in the blog and hopefully, can get your support too to keep me going!

Follow my progress on Twitter by following the hashtag #ProjectF100.

Hope you can embark with me on the journey of fitness.

Oh, just in case you're wondering where to find me on #ProjectF100, I work out in True Fitness in Pavilion KL. :) Hope to see you soon! Cheers.

Why is A Scheduled Meeting Necessary?

It's 9.00am on an usual Monday morning. Reach the office, turn on the computer, get a cuppa and download the necessary files with important numbers prepared before work was let off either, last Friday or Sunday (depends on how committed and effective we are) and we head on straight to the meeting room.

Now some of you may find the activity above just like your usual auto-mode when reaching the office on Monday.

Now why are there weekly meetings and other sequential meetings every now and then within our colleagues and other stakeholders? It keeps important communications going around the organisation. A healthy organisation ensures that the staff be open and always talking to each other regardless of departments, levels and geographical locations.

The ability to communicate is the most important skill you can develop in your personal-being. Some people leverage on the idea of effective communication to get on to the fast track in their career. It is a point used to solve problems and make decisions, both by ourselves and with other people. A meeting will be deemed useless if we sit together and just chat about the cats and the dogs, which some organisations often do, unless you are in the cats and dogs' business.

There is a systematic approach to achieving effective problem solving and decision making in discussions. It begins with defining the challenges and needs, "where's next?" and get "locked and loaded" with ammunition of solutions.

Firstly of course, is addressing to challenges and needs by defining them in written forms. Often receive response from leaders in an organisation with this common remark, "I know these stuff. It's in my head." Many entrepreneurs have failed to get them across the heads of their subordinates and teammates. This step is so important that every team member has to get the details from the question, "What exactly is the problem?" clearly. As some experts put it, clarity of definition will resolve 50% of the issues before they go any further.

Next is to throw the questions of "Where's next?" or "Where do we go from here?" or even "What do we do from here?", not forgetting "What are our options for the future?" An important note here to remember is that be sure to focus on the future over the past. In most cases, the meetings do not seem to go anywhere as too many problem-solving discussions end up focusing all of the attention of all the people present on what happened in the past and who is to be blamed. To have control is to take responsibility of the outcome that had happened, draw quickly the lessons from the past and move on quickly to what's next.

When a gun run out of ammunitions, we don't go complaining about it to other people around and start whining on how ineffective the gun is, when it can't accommodate more bullets per round. Imagine the enemy is fast approaching. You just grab the next round of ammunition and continue the shots! Same goes in effective problem solving communications. It is for everyone in a team to talk about the solutions instead of talking about the problems. It is for everyone to keep the attention in the meeting to focus on the possible solutions and what can be done rather than what has already happened.

Here's what you can practice immediately. First, take some time to be absolutely clear about the problem that is under discussion. Give some thought to what an ideal decision or solution would accomplish. Instead of focusing on the situation as it is, talk about the situation as you would like it to be.

Second, keep the conversation focused on solutions, on what can be done in the future. The more you think and talk about solutions, the more positive and creative everyone will be and the better ideas you will come up with.

Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish

Thanks to Shanker for the sharing of a YouTube video on my Facebook wall, I suddenly recalled the moment of inspiration when listening to the speech of Steve Jobs through an audio recording in an AIESEC conference about 4 years ago. Didn't know that there's a video recording of the speech.

Would invite you to listen to this great speech which has definitely contributed to where I am today. So, stay hungry, stay foolish. :)

Live Interview with BFM 89.9

Was just listening back to the podcast of our interview which was conducted in BFM Radio 89.9 during previous week. My head consultant, Sharif and I were sharing about our recently launched program and what's the relevance to most organisations today.

If you have missed the live sharing with their audience, you can also listen to the podcast below.

If possible, let me know what are your thoughts. Will be grateful for it.

Cheers!

We Have Wept

When we were just born to the world, we don't get stamped at the head with the phrase "War with Thy Neighbour!" We grew up accepting views from family, friends, politicians, and etc. Subsequently, we started to believe, at some point of time, that all of them were in fact 'the truth'.

Came across the TED video below of a man who went across the 'alleged' conflicts brought by two nations which originally shared the same foundations until the 20th Century's partition, divided by politics. A price laid by the previous generation and paid by the following generation through blood and tears.

An inspiring presentation indeed.

About the talk:

One of a dozen Pakistanis who came to TEDIndia despite security hassles entering the country, TED Fellow Asher Hasan shows photos of ordinary Pakistanis that drive home a profound message for citizens of all nations: look beyond disputes, and see the humanity we share.

Courtesy of TED.com.