Sense of Urgency

Professor John Kotter from the Harvard Business School says while most may know that their organisations need to change, what is likely to be missing and most needed in most organisations is a real sense of urgency.

Rainbow Creators demonstarte a sense of urgency.

The change guru and author of the book Leading Change talks about the first step in his very successful eight step framework. Kotter illustrates in simple language, increasing the sense of urgency is the toughest of the eight steps. This is a book for anyone who wants to navigate the turbulent world of today. Visit www.johnkotter.com for more details.

Legacy

My friend Datuk J. L. Solomon is a great humorist. He will be speaking at the Asia HRDCongress May 11 to 13, 2009. The subject he will be speaking on "Personal Branding" is close to his heart. When I met him on Friday he said his subject will revolve around the idea: Personal Branding is about legacy not currency. Sure makes sense.

Getting right your emotional states

I am sure you have experienced days when everything went right and days when nothing went right. One day you are superb and another day you feel terrible. Research reveals that the one difference between successful people and others is the ability to summon the most suitable states of mind on command.
Rainbow Creators are able to motivate themselves and inspired whenever they want to and need to. They get focused in minutes. Fit and healthy people have disciplined thought and disciplined action. They do it; they don’t talk about it. Rainbow Chasers talk about how good they are and what they are going to do but never do.
Why does this difference take place?
Rainbow Creators control their emotional states. They are able to summon their emotions that create their ability for excellence.

It is often attributed to two steps:

1. State Generation - the process where you intentionally put yourself into a specific emotional state so that you can do what needs to be done well

2. Anchoring is what happens naturally when you are in an intense emotional state and something unique happens over and over while you are in that state. Eventually, the state and that unique "something" get linked up with each other in your mind and your body.

In the next blog we will look at these two concepts and the programmes available to develop these two steps.

Begin with the End in Mind

Begin with the end in mind. 

What is your life plan? 

Let us not get into the great New Year resolutions and then do nothing about them. 

Let us develop into Rainbow Creators.  

There is a famous saying - plan your work and work your plan.

Happy New Year

Palan’s thoughts for the month: BLINK

 

I read Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink.  It was all about three simple facts: decisions made very quickly can be every bit as good as decisions made cautiously and deliberately, when should we trust our instincts and when should we be wary of them, the power of knowing the first two seconds is not the preserve of a chosen few; it is an ability that we can all cultivate for ourselves.

Momentary autism is a term Gladwell introduces when describing what happens when our ability to read people's intentions is paralyzed in high-stress situations. You may remember we discussed this last time. 

He explains the situation when the cops misread a "terrified" black man for a "terrifying" black man, they didn't correctly understand his intentions in that moment, and as a result they completely misinterpreted what that social situation was all about.  It's only one of many neatly packaged catchphrases Gladwell sprinkles throughout his new book, Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking (Little, Brown, January 2005).

There's "rapid cognition," "thin-slicing," and the "Warren Harding error," but "momentary autism" is the one that you can quickly relate to like when you froze during the new presentation pitch.

Mention his impact, though, and Malcolm Gladwell modestly tries to brush it off -- leaning, like any good journalist, on data points to support his argument. "Remember," he points out, "even a book that's a best-seller still is only read by less than 1% of the American public."But as the expert in social epidemics knows better than anyone, it's not how many people you reach, it's whom you reach.

Gladwell and his ideas have reached a tipping point of their own, and evidence of his impact can now be found in all corners of our culture, from politics (Donald Rumsfeld used "tipping point" to describe the war in Iraq. 

Good is the enemy of Great

You want to be great then don't kid yourself that good is good enough.

Great corporations are way above good organisations.

Yesterday I had the opportunity of going with our consultant Rizal for a meeting with an MNC. We were talking about the brand promise and following through.

Why is it that some people really refuse to take anything but the best and why is it some are just indifferent to greatness when it is possible.

The answer I suppose lies within the person - Rainbow Creator or Rainbow Chaser.

President Obama

Just like millions of others I waited for the results of the US Presidential election.

Well, the historic event happened, America chose a new President not because he was black but because of his appeal to a majority of Americans. As I said in my last e news some loved him, some did not like him and some really thought it was McCain’s turn. There is a famous expression in the community where I grew up. When the time is right, nothing can stop change.

Whatever happened is immaterial. The important thing is the character of America.

America is truly the land where everyone and anyone can aim for the impossible. The majority white population proved they could vote for a person from another race. It is not the color of the skin but the policies of the candidate.

Secondly, the gracious concession speech by the defeated candidate McCain said so much about the person.

Thirdly, Obama’s acceptance speech was equally gracious Read the book Say it like Barack Obama.

Fourthly, America is indeed able to lead because of its ability to change and reinvent when it matters most.

Fifth, like most others I sat glued to the television and sat in amazement as I saw vivid pictures of great personalities in joy and sorrow.

If only every country in the world could accept that democracy is about not just winning but the free choice of people, the world will be a better place to live.

He is truly a Rainbow Creator.