In basket

Believe it or not, when I first joined IBM, every other cubicle dweller seemed to have one of those desk baskets that consisted of an in, a pending and an out shelf. The pending shelf was usually the middle shelf, while the in and the out shelf could be either the top or the bottom depending on the person's taste. The lack of standards necessitated labeling of them In or Out.

And if you had achieved enough of a rank (like becoming a manager or level l 59 which is band 9 for you youngsters) the department assistant would come to your office to feed your in basket and take care of filing stuff from your out basket.

Eldon's talk last LPG brought back this timeless technique of managing activities and to-do's, which goes to show that good ideas never die they just get recycled.

I am a believer of recycling good ideas. Often times wisdom comes when you take another look at a situation or some piece information with a different perspective--from another angle. It might surprise some that not every one is equally endowed with this ability to widen the scope to take another look. There are people who are so convinced that they got it right the first time they will fight you and argue with you and convince you that there is only one way and it's their way.

Since last week I have been in Orlando for a couple of weeks to practice taking another look at things. I am attending the Avatar Wizard course for the fifth time.

I won't be at LPG this Friday. Eldon will conduct session 2 of the life hacking discussions.

How do I feel?

LPG is about member participation. It's also about self-discovery and self-examination with gentle and non-judgmental support from the community. When each of us do it and honestly express our feelings, our actions also encourage others to open up.

Last Friday's LPG meeting about "feelings" is a great example of such an honesty. Members all took the chance to reveal a bit about themselves and how they get in touch with their feelings.

I believe that being able to feel and being aware that we are not our feelings but are the awareness that can watch and observe our feelings and emotions we are beginning to get in touch of our true nature. When we practice to notice and experience the gap between stimulus and response and learn how to accept the moment (emotions or circumstances) as it is, we are in fact improving our Emotional Intelligence.

And whenever two or more of us gather in a deep and accepting way to connect, to support, and to encourage each other, we have what Buddhists call it a sangha and Christians call it a communion. It's a precious moment.

How do I feel? How did I feel? What are the two poles of feelings to every situation? Those were the questions we asked at our last LPG meeting.

Thank you Hoa for leading the last two LPG sessions. We have the next two slots open. All you got to do is raise your hand.

Free 7 Habits of Highly Effective People Audio Book

Eldon sent me this link to a free audio book for 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Check it out.

Emotional Intelligence Session 3

The questions we asked at the meeting seemed to be:

Am I self-aware? Am I able to manage how I respond to my emotions? Am I able to feel how other people are feeling?

How do I not go overboard and turn self-awareness (which is being aware that my feelings and thoughts could impact my own actions and other people's well-being) into self-consciousness (which is overly introverted, shy, timid and withdrawn).

There is a fine line? Is there not?

Is awareness management same as always thinking ahead and think before you leap? Am I becoming a Thinking Machine? What happens to spontaneity? to authenticity?

These are questions that I myself constantly try to balance.

Of course there are two things that I believe in:

First, I have a free will. It's up to be to learn to control it, to strengthen it, to use it. I decide. And that means I can decide when to be deliberative and when to be intuitive. Second, finding the balance of when to do which is a trial and error act, a dance between this and that.

The more deliberate and conscious I am that I have a choice in the process, the better I get at it. Though I might not have been favored by nature to have high EQ, through nurturing and my own deliberate practicing I can become someone who adjusts intuitively to what is required--whether the occasion requires spontaneous gaiety or solemn respectfulness.

And doing the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People may just be one of the ways to improve EQ.

Also, welcome first time LPG attendees John and Yang to LPG.

More info and materials on the session can be found => LPG event notice.

Future LPG events can be found here ==> LPG info hosted on Middle Way Group site.

Happy New Year

Before I retired from IBM, I seemed to blog more regularly. Now that I am supposedly in the green pasture, I ought to have more time. It has not worked out so far.

But this being the last day of the year, it's really a good time to finish off the year with a reflective entry about LPG.

We had a great LPG year in 2008. We completed another round of discussions and practicing of the 7 Habits of Highly Effective people. On the 7 habits, our discussions were led by various members at different times including Roger, Taylor and Jin-Dong and me. Donna did a vision alignment session for us. And Abbey led an insightful couple of sessions on Emotional Intelligence for us.

Our LPG distribution list has expanded to include non-IBM members and we do have the potential to link to a larger community.

So, it has been a remarkable year. I would like to thank everyone for making it a success.

As to next year, there are interests to go deeper into Emotional Intelligence started already by Abbey. Hoa had volunteered to lead the discussions at least for the first two sessions.

Sandra has suggested to have our meeting go for an hour and a half. Here is our suggestion, we will block off the calendar for 1.5 hour. The first one hour is formal meeting and those who can and would like to can stay for the additional 1/2 hour to continual the discussions informally.

Happy New Year!

Encouragement

Last week's IBM Toastmaster meeting theme was "Encouragement".

Someone once said that worthwhile causes fail only when participants begin to give up. In other worlds, team members became so discouraged to the point they no longer contribute to the cause.

Nothing else has changed--the need for the project is still there--whether it is raising awareness for global warming, helping children in needs, etc.

There are many reasons for people to get discouraged. I won't get into that.

Here I would like to share the lessons I learned to handle discouragement. It's straight out of Covey's Habit 1-Be Proactive. I call it the Rule of Five. For every discouragement I encounter, I treat it as an opportunity to offer encouragement to myself and too others. If I received one negative feedback or encountered one difficult obstacle, I would make a point to do 5 things to encourage others or to myself.

I have found that helps me not to give up and restore my energy and commitment to go on.

For example, last week, I went to a meeting and no one else showed up. I was the only one there. Out of that discouragement, I have started to do five things to encourage myself and others.

Perhaps, a thank you note to friends that I have made, or for new and interesting things that I have learned.

And you guess it. writing this blog and reminding people of the next LPG meeting on Emotional Intelligence is also one of those 5 things.

PS: For more information about Friday's LPG meeting: here is the link http://middlewaygroup.com/partners/leadership-practice-group-lpg/copy_of_emotional-intelligence-session-1


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My website: http://sites.google.com/site/allnodeavatar/

7 Habits of High Effective IT Projects

I am doing quite a bit of looking around at Plone and web companies that build things with Plone.

Found this company and its blog on Agile:

http://agileblog.3months.com/2007/12/10/the-7-habits-of-highly-effective-it-projects/#comments