THE MANILA TIMES
Business Times p.B1
Thursday, December 30, 2004
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2004/dec/30/yehey/business/20041230bus5.html
LEARNING & INNOVATION
By Moje Ramos-Aquino
Process for earthquake preparedness needed
WHEN the earthquake struck Bangkok, we were on the 60th floor of the 84-story Baiyoke Sky Hotel, the tallest building in Thailand. We were getting ready to go out to visit the Ancient City in the suburbs. Then the whole room started to move.
We couldn’t stand still in one place; we swayed one way, then another.
According to the calculations of my son, Ronjie, a structural engineer, the building must have swung three feet in opposite directions. While looking outside the window, I wasn’t able to focus on any object or building. I also noticed creaking sounds as if some fixtures were being torn away from the wall.
My sons, Ronjie and Adrian, hurried to dress up. We decided on staying put, going up or going down. Remembering what happened in the Baguio earthquake, I decided that we should go up. Most of the Japanese guests in Baguio were saved because they were on the top floor when the whole hotel collapsed.
When I opened the door, I saw other guests descending and the hotel staff giving instructions for everybody to go down the fire exit. We followed and ran down 60 flights of stairs. We had to run at a steady pace lest we lose momentum and cause everybody to stumble. Some people were shoving. On the way down, we could hear loud breathing and some crashing sounds.
On the 20th floor, I asked my son to help me by propping my right arm while I held on to the rail with my left hand because my legs were giving up. As soon as we were downstairs, Ronjie led us to a safe place where the building couldn’t fall on us. In the meantime, many guests and hotel staff stood right just outside the hotel oblivious of the danger.
It was scary and exhausting.
Seated on the sidewalk was a family whose members were clad in hotel towels and sleepwear. When the father of the family arrived, he asked his wife and his other children why the others ran away and left him with his daughter. He then turned to us and said, “At the first sign of danger, my wife ran for her life. So did my son. My daughter and I were left to take care of ourselves. We are not a family.”
After an hour, the hotel management asked people to go up their rooms, declaring the building safe. They explained that the building was constructed to be earthquake-proof.
But we were wary.
According to Ronjie, the building needed to be inspected first by the proper authorities and that inspection will take at least four hours. As such, even the hotel employees themselves refused to budge from their safe location.
Finally, Adrian decided to go up to take a bath. He later sent us a text message that everything seemed “business as usual.” Then, we all went up and took our breakfast at the 78th floor. If anything happened again, I reckoned, we will be safer on higher ground or we could easily be dug out.
Grim thoughts on a bright morning in a peaceful city.
Watching what happened in Phuket, Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia and others on TV later, we felt blessed that we were only shaken and still alive.
Most of the tenants checked out immediately and transferred to “safer” hotels. Ronjie said that low-rise building are more prone to collapsing because there is not much engineering that went into building them. Remember also that Thailand experienced their last earthquake some 50 years ago and is not expecting any anytime now.
This brings me back to our Journey on Entrepreneurship on the subject of Balanced Scorecard. Baiyoke obviously didn’t have a process for managing disasters. The employees didn’t know what to do. They were the first to run out at the first sign of earthquake and the last to go back.
There was no organized process for environment, safety, health and risk management. It was to each his own. More on the Process Perspective of the Balanced Scorecard in the next columns.
But I am definitely going back to Thailand. Mag-iipon muna ako ng pang-shopping.
(Moje’s e-mail addy is moje@mydestiny.net)
Thursday, December 30, 2004
Thursday, December 23, 2004
Nourishing the soul
The Manila Times
Business Times p.B1
Thursday, December 23, 2004
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2004/dec/23/yehey/business/20041223bus6.html
LEARNING & INNOVATION
By Moje Ramos-Aquino
Nourishing the soul
Dalawang tulog na lang at Pasko na. Let’s put our discussion of the balanced Scorecard at the back burner meantime and concentrate on this very special occasion of the birthday of Jesus.
Let’s take cues from Mitch Finley’s book, 101 Ways to Nourish Your Soul, on how best we could commemorate this Holy day.
• Be generous to the point of extravagance. How much money do you intend to use this season for your “wants”? Why not give it to someone who could use it for “essentials.” Give it to somebody you don’t know and doesn’t know you and don’t tell that person it came from you. I am sure you will be rewarded with wide smile, bright face and unadulterated happiness.
• You could give your time generously. Baby-sit for a neighbor who could not go to Mass because she has little child/children or old-sit for a senior citizen in your neighborhood. You and the children and oldies could delight in rereading the story of Jesus’ birth and childhood. Con todo action y emotion. Or simply spend more time with your spouse and children, instead of attending every party in town.
• Take a walk. Instead of just sitting down there waiting for visitors, move! I had a most peaceful Christmas last year in Batangas. After Mass, we spent the rest of the day and early evening swimming in the clean, clear waters of Anilao and walking barefoot on sand and rocks. Since we were not expecting visitors, we cooked only enough and did not have to eat leftovers the following days.
• Make your own Quesadillas. Here’s a recipe from the Victor-Roldan Family (Marivic, Anna, Patricia and Mommy). Top one piece soft tortilla with chopped tomatoes, garlic and onions; grated or sliced mozzarella cheese; thinly sliced beef or pork or tuna or chicken; another layer of mozzarella; sandwich with another tortilla piece. Cook in greaseless pan or oven toaster on both sides. Cut into four. Serve hot. You can prepare ingredients days ahead and store them in the ref. These could be eaten for snacks or meals.
• Give up bitterness, resentment, whining, blaming and hopelessness. “Life is a mix of good and bad, happy and sad. You have to expect that sometimes life will kick sand in your face. So what? Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and get back to living. So things didn’t work out the way you hope they would. All the same, you can try something else.”
• Fast. “We have a thing about food. We eat not just for body and soul togetherness. We also eat because we have nothing else to do at the moment. We eat for recreational purposes. We eat food when what we crave most is friendship or simple companionship. We eat when we crave love. We eat when we crave God. Hard to believe, but we do. Whatever you can get a handle on, don’t eat between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m., for example. Or make it a full 24 hours. That can be good.” If you have health problems, consult your doctor first.
Here are some Christmas wishes from our friends and readers.
• Vic Navales, past president of Cebu’s Durian Toastmasters Club and president of Navales Foods: May Good Lord give us all the courage and will to surmount problems. May He give us peace and happiness.
• Gigie Peñalosa, president of VCP Trading International: PEACE and PROGRESS—for our country and for ourselves. POLITICAL WILL on the part of our country’s leaders—to weed out graft and corruption at all levels and in all forms. The simple blessings of love, peace, togetherness and good health for my family and friends.
• Abe Pagtama, Filipino and Hollywood actor: for this coming year, more commercial and acting gig.
• Michael Chua, TM District 75 governor: My wish is for Philippine Toastmasters to regain the limelight in the world. What I wish for then is for more toastmaster clubs to be built in the coming weeks. Not only will we go up the rankings—the organization can touch more lives and make them better.
• Nic L. Lim, director for Human Resources at Universal Robina Corp.: For our government to take on our HR Agenda for Nation Building and help us make a call for a united action. For our government to pursue a united approach in addressing our key issues as a nation. For the Filipino people in general to instill discipline and involvement in contributing to making the Philippines a better place to live in. For world peace.
Merry Christmas from Bangkok, Thailand! No translation in Thai language because they don’t celebrate Christmas here like we do.
(Please send your Christmas wishes to moje@mydestiny.net.)
Business Times p.B1
Thursday, December 23, 2004
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2004/dec/23/yehey/business/20041223bus6.html
LEARNING & INNOVATION
By Moje Ramos-Aquino
Nourishing the soul
Dalawang tulog na lang at Pasko na. Let’s put our discussion of the balanced Scorecard at the back burner meantime and concentrate on this very special occasion of the birthday of Jesus.
Let’s take cues from Mitch Finley’s book, 101 Ways to Nourish Your Soul, on how best we could commemorate this Holy day.
• Be generous to the point of extravagance. How much money do you intend to use this season for your “wants”? Why not give it to someone who could use it for “essentials.” Give it to somebody you don’t know and doesn’t know you and don’t tell that person it came from you. I am sure you will be rewarded with wide smile, bright face and unadulterated happiness.
• You could give your time generously. Baby-sit for a neighbor who could not go to Mass because she has little child/children or old-sit for a senior citizen in your neighborhood. You and the children and oldies could delight in rereading the story of Jesus’ birth and childhood. Con todo action y emotion. Or simply spend more time with your spouse and children, instead of attending every party in town.
• Take a walk. Instead of just sitting down there waiting for visitors, move! I had a most peaceful Christmas last year in Batangas. After Mass, we spent the rest of the day and early evening swimming in the clean, clear waters of Anilao and walking barefoot on sand and rocks. Since we were not expecting visitors, we cooked only enough and did not have to eat leftovers the following days.
• Make your own Quesadillas. Here’s a recipe from the Victor-Roldan Family (Marivic, Anna, Patricia and Mommy). Top one piece soft tortilla with chopped tomatoes, garlic and onions; grated or sliced mozzarella cheese; thinly sliced beef or pork or tuna or chicken; another layer of mozzarella; sandwich with another tortilla piece. Cook in greaseless pan or oven toaster on both sides. Cut into four. Serve hot. You can prepare ingredients days ahead and store them in the ref. These could be eaten for snacks or meals.
• Give up bitterness, resentment, whining, blaming and hopelessness. “Life is a mix of good and bad, happy and sad. You have to expect that sometimes life will kick sand in your face. So what? Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and get back to living. So things didn’t work out the way you hope they would. All the same, you can try something else.”
• Fast. “We have a thing about food. We eat not just for body and soul togetherness. We also eat because we have nothing else to do at the moment. We eat for recreational purposes. We eat food when what we crave most is friendship or simple companionship. We eat when we crave love. We eat when we crave God. Hard to believe, but we do. Whatever you can get a handle on, don’t eat between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m., for example. Or make it a full 24 hours. That can be good.” If you have health problems, consult your doctor first.
Here are some Christmas wishes from our friends and readers.
• Vic Navales, past president of Cebu’s Durian Toastmasters Club and president of Navales Foods: May Good Lord give us all the courage and will to surmount problems. May He give us peace and happiness.
• Gigie Peñalosa, president of VCP Trading International: PEACE and PROGRESS—for our country and for ourselves. POLITICAL WILL on the part of our country’s leaders—to weed out graft and corruption at all levels and in all forms. The simple blessings of love, peace, togetherness and good health for my family and friends.
• Abe Pagtama, Filipino and Hollywood actor: for this coming year, more commercial and acting gig.
• Michael Chua, TM District 75 governor: My wish is for Philippine Toastmasters to regain the limelight in the world. What I wish for then is for more toastmaster clubs to be built in the coming weeks. Not only will we go up the rankings—the organization can touch more lives and make them better.
• Nic L. Lim, director for Human Resources at Universal Robina Corp.: For our government to take on our HR Agenda for Nation Building and help us make a call for a united action. For our government to pursue a united approach in addressing our key issues as a nation. For the Filipino people in general to instill discipline and involvement in contributing to making the Philippines a better place to live in. For world peace.
Merry Christmas from Bangkok, Thailand! No translation in Thai language because they don’t celebrate Christmas here like we do.
(Please send your Christmas wishes to moje@mydestiny.net.)
Thursday, December 16, 2004
Measures for your customer satisfaction
The Manila Times
Business Times B.1
Thursday, December 16, 2004
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2004/dec/16/yehey/business/20041216bus4.html
LEARNING & INNOVATION
By Moje Ramos-Aquino
Measures for your customer satisfaction
Yup, we have the same title as last Thursday’s column. This is a direct continuation of that article. To refresh your mind, last week we discussed three ways of creating your customer value proposition according to authors Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema: operational excellence, product leadership and customer intimacy.
We also said that you need to decide which of these creative ways you want to adopt because you cannot be and do all of the above. You know, jack-of-trades-master-of-none thingy.
Treacy and Wiersema ask: Why is it that Casio can sell a calculator more cheaply than Kellogg’s can sell a box of cornflakes? Does corn cost much more than silicon? “Today’s market leaders understand the battle they’re engaged in. They know they have to redefine value by raising customer expectations in one component of value they choose to highlight. Casio establishes new affordability levels for familiar products. Casio thrives because they shine in a way their customers care most about, not in all the way. They have honed at least one component of value to a level of excellence that puts all competitors to shame.”
Going back to the Balanced Scorecard segment of our Journey on Entrepreneurship, Paul Niven, author of Balanced Scorecard Step-by-Step, asserts that the value proposition you select will greatly influence the performance measures you choose since each will entail a different emphasis.
For your Balanced Scorecard, Niven suggests these sample measures of how well you are creating and delivering customer value: Product prices, prices relative to competition, product availability, inventory turnover, stockouts, customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, market share, customer complaints, complaints resolved on first contact, return rates, response time per customer request, direct price, total cost to customer, average duration of customer relationship, customer lost, customer retention, customer acquisition rates, annual sales per customer, percentage of revenue from new customers, number of customers, win rate (sales closed/sales contracts), customer visits to the company, hours pent with customers, marketing cost as a percentage of sales, number of ads placed, number of proposals made, brand recognition, response rate, number of trade shows attended, sales volume, share of target customer spending, sales per channel, average customer size, customers per employees, customer service expense per customer, customer profitability and frequency (number of sales transactions).
It is important that you include lag measures and lead indicators for your Scorecard to track your strategic and operational progress.
Happy birthday, Jesus! The beauty of Christmas is that it gives us a license to dream big dreams. In these trying times, it offers us a reason to be optimistic and cheerful. My wishes for this Christmas and 2005: President Arroyo to do what is right not what is popular. The Manila Times to be read by more people to enable it to reclaim its number one position in the print media industry.
All of us Filipinos to love our country by caring more for our fellow Filipinos and our environment and altogether dropping our self-centeredness. Filipinos especially children to read more books and plant more trees. For people to have a painless and peaceful death. More Filipinos especially retirees to volunteer to do good causes.
We’ll continue this list if you share your own list with us. Please e-mail them to moje@mydestiny.net. God listens and might just grant us our wishes.
(Moje, president of Paradigms & Paradoxes Corp., assist organizations in their Strategic Thinking, Planning, Balanced Scorecard, Change Management and Talent Development initiatives.)
Business Times B.1
Thursday, December 16, 2004
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2004/dec/16/yehey/business/20041216bus4.html
LEARNING & INNOVATION
By Moje Ramos-Aquino
Measures for your customer satisfaction
Yup, we have the same title as last Thursday’s column. This is a direct continuation of that article. To refresh your mind, last week we discussed three ways of creating your customer value proposition according to authors Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema: operational excellence, product leadership and customer intimacy.
We also said that you need to decide which of these creative ways you want to adopt because you cannot be and do all of the above. You know, jack-of-trades-master-of-none thingy.
Treacy and Wiersema ask: Why is it that Casio can sell a calculator more cheaply than Kellogg’s can sell a box of cornflakes? Does corn cost much more than silicon? “Today’s market leaders understand the battle they’re engaged in. They know they have to redefine value by raising customer expectations in one component of value they choose to highlight. Casio establishes new affordability levels for familiar products. Casio thrives because they shine in a way their customers care most about, not in all the way. They have honed at least one component of value to a level of excellence that puts all competitors to shame.”
Going back to the Balanced Scorecard segment of our Journey on Entrepreneurship, Paul Niven, author of Balanced Scorecard Step-by-Step, asserts that the value proposition you select will greatly influence the performance measures you choose since each will entail a different emphasis.
For your Balanced Scorecard, Niven suggests these sample measures of how well you are creating and delivering customer value: Product prices, prices relative to competition, product availability, inventory turnover, stockouts, customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, market share, customer complaints, complaints resolved on first contact, return rates, response time per customer request, direct price, total cost to customer, average duration of customer relationship, customer lost, customer retention, customer acquisition rates, annual sales per customer, percentage of revenue from new customers, number of customers, win rate (sales closed/sales contracts), customer visits to the company, hours pent with customers, marketing cost as a percentage of sales, number of ads placed, number of proposals made, brand recognition, response rate, number of trade shows attended, sales volume, share of target customer spending, sales per channel, average customer size, customers per employees, customer service expense per customer, customer profitability and frequency (number of sales transactions).
It is important that you include lag measures and lead indicators for your Scorecard to track your strategic and operational progress.
Happy birthday, Jesus! The beauty of Christmas is that it gives us a license to dream big dreams. In these trying times, it offers us a reason to be optimistic and cheerful. My wishes for this Christmas and 2005: President Arroyo to do what is right not what is popular. The Manila Times to be read by more people to enable it to reclaim its number one position in the print media industry.
All of us Filipinos to love our country by caring more for our fellow Filipinos and our environment and altogether dropping our self-centeredness. Filipinos especially children to read more books and plant more trees. For people to have a painless and peaceful death. More Filipinos especially retirees to volunteer to do good causes.
We’ll continue this list if you share your own list with us. Please e-mail them to moje@mydestiny.net. God listens and might just grant us our wishes.
(Moje, president of Paradigms & Paradoxes Corp., assist organizations in their Strategic Thinking, Planning, Balanced Scorecard, Change Management and Talent Development initiatives.)
Thursday, December 9, 2004
Measures for your customer satisfaction
The Manila Times
Business Times p.B1
Thursday, December 09, 2004
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2004/dec/09/yehey/business/20041209bus5.html
LEARNING & INNOVATION
By Moje Ramos-Aquino, FPM
Measures for your customer satisfaction
Some companies, even now, consider customer relations and brand management as cost items in their planning and financial reporting. Dynamic companies deem brand recognition and customer relations as intangible assets and metrics for success. The Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence and our very own Philippine Quality Awards (PQA) assigned Customer & Market Focus a total of 235 points for excellence in process and results.
Baldrige & PQA examine how your organization determines your target customers, customer groups and market segments including their requirements, expectations and preferences to ensure the continuing relevance of your products and services to develop new opportunities. Also, how you build relationships with customers to acquire, satisfy and retain customers. Therefore, there is a critical need to differentiate your organization and the market you want to serve to enable you to create your customer value proposition. You cannot be everything to everybody.
In their book, The Discipline of Market Leaders, Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema proposes three “disciplines” to create your customer value proposition.
• Operational Excellence. Organizations pursuing an operational excellence discipline focus on low price, convenience, and often “no frills.” Makro, Cebu Pacific, Bayantel, Pricemart, Cost U Less, Book Sale, Burger Machine, Reyes Haircutters, Secosana Bags, RiteMed and stores at Divisoria and Tutuban malls are examples of companies who focus on operational excellence by offering consistently low prices as their competitive edge.
• Product Leadership. Product leaders push the envelope of their company’s products. Constantly innovating, they strive to offer simply the best product in the market. Sony Corporation, Apple Computers, Jollibee, Unilab, Nokia, Pampanga’s Best, CDO, San Miguel Beer, Mary Grace Ensaymada, among others, would be considered product leaders
• Customer Intimacy. Doing whatever it takes to provide solutions for customers’ unique needs helps define the customer-intimate company. They don’t look for one-time transactions but instead focus on long-term relationship building through their deep knowledge of customer needs. Asian Eye Institute is a great example of a customer intimate organization. We also have Rustan’s, Emphasis Salon, Red Crab Restaurant, Fully Booked, Victoria Court, Maalikaya and many others.
Paul Niven writes in his book, Balanced Scorecard Step-by-Step, that the value proposition you select will greatly influence the performance measures you choose since each will entail a different emphasis.
For your Balanced Scorecard, Niven suggests these sample measures of how well you are creating and delivering customer value: Product prices, prices relative to competition, product availability, inventory turnover, stockouts, customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, market share, customer complaints, complaints resolved on first contact, return rates, response time per customer request, direct price, total cost to customer, average duration of customer relationship, customer lost, customer retention, customer acquisition rates, annual sales per customer, percentage of revenue from new customers, number of customers, win rate (sales closed/sales contracts), customer visits to the company, hours pent with customers, marketing cost as a percentage of sales, number of ads placed, number of proposals made, brand recognition, response rate, number of trade shows attended, sales volume, share of target customer spending, sales per channel, average customer size, customers per employees, customer service expense per customer, customer profitability and frequency (number of sales transactions).
It is important that you include both lag measures and lead indicators for your Scorecard to track your strategic and operational progress.
(Moje, president of Paradigms & Paradoxes Corporation, assist organizations in their Strategic Thinking, Planning, Balanced Scorecard, Change Management and Talent Development initiatives. Her email address is moje@mydestiny.net)
Business Times p.B1
Thursday, December 09, 2004
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2004/dec/09/yehey/business/20041209bus5.html
LEARNING & INNOVATION
By Moje Ramos-Aquino, FPM
Measures for your customer satisfaction
Some companies, even now, consider customer relations and brand management as cost items in their planning and financial reporting. Dynamic companies deem brand recognition and customer relations as intangible assets and metrics for success. The Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence and our very own Philippine Quality Awards (PQA) assigned Customer & Market Focus a total of 235 points for excellence in process and results.
Baldrige & PQA examine how your organization determines your target customers, customer groups and market segments including their requirements, expectations and preferences to ensure the continuing relevance of your products and services to develop new opportunities. Also, how you build relationships with customers to acquire, satisfy and retain customers. Therefore, there is a critical need to differentiate your organization and the market you want to serve to enable you to create your customer value proposition. You cannot be everything to everybody.
In their book, The Discipline of Market Leaders, Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema proposes three “disciplines” to create your customer value proposition.
• Operational Excellence. Organizations pursuing an operational excellence discipline focus on low price, convenience, and often “no frills.” Makro, Cebu Pacific, Bayantel, Pricemart, Cost U Less, Book Sale, Burger Machine, Reyes Haircutters, Secosana Bags, RiteMed and stores at Divisoria and Tutuban malls are examples of companies who focus on operational excellence by offering consistently low prices as their competitive edge.
• Product Leadership. Product leaders push the envelope of their company’s products. Constantly innovating, they strive to offer simply the best product in the market. Sony Corporation, Apple Computers, Jollibee, Unilab, Nokia, Pampanga’s Best, CDO, San Miguel Beer, Mary Grace Ensaymada, among others, would be considered product leaders
• Customer Intimacy. Doing whatever it takes to provide solutions for customers’ unique needs helps define the customer-intimate company. They don’t look for one-time transactions but instead focus on long-term relationship building through their deep knowledge of customer needs. Asian Eye Institute is a great example of a customer intimate organization. We also have Rustan’s, Emphasis Salon, Red Crab Restaurant, Fully Booked, Victoria Court, Maalikaya and many others.
Paul Niven writes in his book, Balanced Scorecard Step-by-Step, that the value proposition you select will greatly influence the performance measures you choose since each will entail a different emphasis.
For your Balanced Scorecard, Niven suggests these sample measures of how well you are creating and delivering customer value: Product prices, prices relative to competition, product availability, inventory turnover, stockouts, customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, market share, customer complaints, complaints resolved on first contact, return rates, response time per customer request, direct price, total cost to customer, average duration of customer relationship, customer lost, customer retention, customer acquisition rates, annual sales per customer, percentage of revenue from new customers, number of customers, win rate (sales closed/sales contracts), customer visits to the company, hours pent with customers, marketing cost as a percentage of sales, number of ads placed, number of proposals made, brand recognition, response rate, number of trade shows attended, sales volume, share of target customer spending, sales per channel, average customer size, customers per employees, customer service expense per customer, customer profitability and frequency (number of sales transactions).
It is important that you include both lag measures and lead indicators for your Scorecard to track your strategic and operational progress.
(Moje, president of Paradigms & Paradoxes Corporation, assist organizations in their Strategic Thinking, Planning, Balanced Scorecard, Change Management and Talent Development initiatives. Her email address is moje@mydestiny.net)
Thursday, December 2, 2004
Measures should focus on strategy, not on control
The Manila Times
Business Times p.B1
Thursday, December 02, 2004
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2004/dec/02/yehey/business/20041202bus5.html
LEARNING & INNOVATION
By Moje Ramos-Aquino
Measures should focus on strategy, not on control
Welcome again to your Journey on Entrepreneurship via the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) Road. How have you been? Have you finalized your strategy? How many objectives were you and your BSC Team able to generate to ensure execution of your strategy? At this point in building your BSC, it will help to identify as many potential objectives for each of the four (or five or six, if you may) perspectives you could choose from when you finalize your strategy map.
Along with these objectives for financial, customer, internal process and learning and growth perspectives, you also need to identify as many measures for each objective. There is time for you to edit and refine your thoughts and ideas later.
Let us brainstorm on these measures. In his book Balanced Scorecard Step-by-Step, Paul R. Niven wrote that these measures are the tools you will use to determine whether you are meeting your objectives and moving toward the successful implementation of your strategy.
Niven said that measures are quantifiable (normally, but not always) standards used to evaluate and communicate performance against results. Moreover, measures communicate value creation and function as tools to drive desired action, provide all employees with direction on how they can help contribute to your organization’s overall goals.
Generating measures may not be easy, though. Niven identified a number of issues relating to financial measures, such as:
• They are not consistent with today’s business environment, in which most value is created by intangible assets.
• Financial measures provide a great “rearview mirror” of the past but often lack predictive power.
• Consolidation of financial information tends to promote functional silos.
• Long-term value-creating activities may be compromised by short-term financial metrics from activities such as employee reductions.
• Most high-level financial measures provide little in the way of guidance to lower-level employees in their day-to-day actions.
Some commonly used financial measures are total assets, total assets per employee, profits as a percentage of total assets, return on net assets, return on total assets, revenues/total assets, gross margin, net income, profit as a percentage of sales, profit per employee, revenue, revenue from new products, revenue per employee, return on equity, return on capital employed, return on investment, economic value added, market value added, value added per employee, compound growth rate, dividends, market value, share price, shareholder mix, shareholder loyalty, cash flow, total costs, credit rating, debt, debt to equity, times interest earned, days sales in receivables, accounts receivable turnover, days in payables, days in inventory, inventory turnover ratio, net sales, operating income, product related costs, capital turnover, sales rate, investment rate based on sales, number of employee for developing new products and sales growth, among others.
You may derive these measures from existing or intended financial systems in your organization. You make sure that you use them to deliver your strategy and not eventually turn them into operational management control system. Measures should always focus on strategy.
(Moje Ramos-Aquino, president of Paradigms & Paradoxes Corp., assists organizations in their strategic thinking, planning and balanced scorecard initiatives. She invites you to share your experience at moje@mydestiny.net)
Business Times p.B1
Thursday, December 02, 2004
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2004/dec/02/yehey/business/20041202bus5.html
LEARNING & INNOVATION
By Moje Ramos-Aquino
Measures should focus on strategy, not on control
Welcome again to your Journey on Entrepreneurship via the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) Road. How have you been? Have you finalized your strategy? How many objectives were you and your BSC Team able to generate to ensure execution of your strategy? At this point in building your BSC, it will help to identify as many potential objectives for each of the four (or five or six, if you may) perspectives you could choose from when you finalize your strategy map.
Along with these objectives for financial, customer, internal process and learning and growth perspectives, you also need to identify as many measures for each objective. There is time for you to edit and refine your thoughts and ideas later.
Let us brainstorm on these measures. In his book Balanced Scorecard Step-by-Step, Paul R. Niven wrote that these measures are the tools you will use to determine whether you are meeting your objectives and moving toward the successful implementation of your strategy.
Niven said that measures are quantifiable (normally, but not always) standards used to evaluate and communicate performance against results. Moreover, measures communicate value creation and function as tools to drive desired action, provide all employees with direction on how they can help contribute to your organization’s overall goals.
Generating measures may not be easy, though. Niven identified a number of issues relating to financial measures, such as:
• They are not consistent with today’s business environment, in which most value is created by intangible assets.
• Financial measures provide a great “rearview mirror” of the past but often lack predictive power.
• Consolidation of financial information tends to promote functional silos.
• Long-term value-creating activities may be compromised by short-term financial metrics from activities such as employee reductions.
• Most high-level financial measures provide little in the way of guidance to lower-level employees in their day-to-day actions.
Some commonly used financial measures are total assets, total assets per employee, profits as a percentage of total assets, return on net assets, return on total assets, revenues/total assets, gross margin, net income, profit as a percentage of sales, profit per employee, revenue, revenue from new products, revenue per employee, return on equity, return on capital employed, return on investment, economic value added, market value added, value added per employee, compound growth rate, dividends, market value, share price, shareholder mix, shareholder loyalty, cash flow, total costs, credit rating, debt, debt to equity, times interest earned, days sales in receivables, accounts receivable turnover, days in payables, days in inventory, inventory turnover ratio, net sales, operating income, product related costs, capital turnover, sales rate, investment rate based on sales, number of employee for developing new products and sales growth, among others.
You may derive these measures from existing or intended financial systems in your organization. You make sure that you use them to deliver your strategy and not eventually turn them into operational management control system. Measures should always focus on strategy.
(Moje Ramos-Aquino, president of Paradigms & Paradoxes Corp., assists organizations in their strategic thinking, planning and balanced scorecard initiatives. She invites you to share your experience at moje@mydestiny.net)
Thursday, November 25, 2004
Every strategy tells a story of your organization (unpublished?)
Learning & Innovation – November 25, 2004
By Moje Ramos-Aquino, FPM
Every strategy tells a story of your organization
To lay the groundwork for a better understanding of your business dynamics, you need to think systems. Managing a business calls for discerning a coherent story of the interrelationships of seemingly random events in the life of your organization. You need to be a good systems storyteller in order to get at the heart of your business and find answers/solutions to your questions/problems after a sustained deliberation.
This has profound influence on building your Balanced Scorecard (BSC). In the BSC, you don’t simply innumerate your objectives and hope that you achieve your strategic or overarching goals to lead you to your mission along the path of your vision. These objectives must connect as in links and loops. From one objective to the other, you should be able to trace arrows (links) that influence another objective. Refer to Figure 1.
This is only half of the story. The other half is best shown as a feedback loop or a circle of causality in which every objective is both a cause and effect—influenced by one objective and influencing another, so that every one of its effects, sooner or later, comes back to roost. What you sow is what you reap. Refer to Figure 2.
A BSC is a chain of cause-and-effect loop that connects the results with the drivers (What/Results to How/Cause). This loop can be established as a vertical dimension through the four perspectives (financial, customer, internal process and learning and growth). The BSC tells a story of the strategy.
It is best that before you even attempt to map your strategy, that you have a good understanding of systems thinking. For more on systems thinking, please refer to Peter Senge’s Fifth Discipline and on strategy map, please refer to Robert Kaplan and David Norton’s Strategy Maps.
(Moje, is president of Paradigms & Paradoxes Corporation, and is an ardent student of strategic management and would be happy to share her thoughts and insights. Her email address is moje@mydestiny.net)
By Moje Ramos-Aquino, FPM
Every strategy tells a story of your organization
To lay the groundwork for a better understanding of your business dynamics, you need to think systems. Managing a business calls for discerning a coherent story of the interrelationships of seemingly random events in the life of your organization. You need to be a good systems storyteller in order to get at the heart of your business and find answers/solutions to your questions/problems after a sustained deliberation.
This has profound influence on building your Balanced Scorecard (BSC). In the BSC, you don’t simply innumerate your objectives and hope that you achieve your strategic or overarching goals to lead you to your mission along the path of your vision. These objectives must connect as in links and loops. From one objective to the other, you should be able to trace arrows (links) that influence another objective. Refer to Figure 1.
Efficient product innovation <-- Empowered and motivated employees (Intelligent risk taking and shared, acted upon aspirations)
This is only half of the story. The other half is best shown as a feedback loop or a circle of causality in which every objective is both a cause and effect—influenced by one objective and influencing another, so that every one of its effects, sooner or later, comes back to roost. What you sow is what you reap. Refer to Figure 2.
What --> --> --> --> --> How
Low cost operations <--> Customer value creation <--> Efficient product innovation <--> Empowered and motivated employees <--> Recruit, develop and retain talented people
Effect <-- <-- <-- <-- <-- Cause
Low cost operations <--> Customer value creation <--> Efficient product innovation <--> Empowered and motivated employees <--> Recruit, develop and retain talented people
Effect <-- <-- <-- <-- <-- Cause
A BSC is a chain of cause-and-effect loop that connects the results with the drivers (What/Results to How/Cause). This loop can be established as a vertical dimension through the four perspectives (financial, customer, internal process and learning and growth). The BSC tells a story of the strategy.
It is best that before you even attempt to map your strategy, that you have a good understanding of systems thinking. For more on systems thinking, please refer to Peter Senge’s Fifth Discipline and on strategy map, please refer to Robert Kaplan and David Norton’s Strategy Maps.
(Moje, is president of Paradigms & Paradoxes Corporation, and is an ardent student of strategic management and would be happy to share her thoughts and insights. Her email address is moje@mydestiny.net)
Thursday, November 18, 2004
Objectives are basic building blocks of strategy
THE MANILA TIMES
Business Times p.B1
Thursday, November 18, 2004
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2004/nov/18/yehey/business/20041118bus6.html
LEARNING & INNOVATION
By Moje Ramos-Aquino, FPM
Objectives are basic building blocks of strategy
IT is often said that we cannot know what the future has in store for us, but we could create a future we want by what we do today. This is exactly why you have gone through your strategic thinking process and are building your Balanced Scorecard.
Remember our story last week about filling up a jar with rocks, gravel, sand and water? Now that you have placed your rocks (vision, mission, values and overarching goals, or VMVG) in your jar, you are now ready to fill it with gravel. These are your objectives.
You now translate your VMVG into objectives that are specific, measurable, actionable, realistic, time- and resource-bound and stretched into the future. Objectives are statements of what you will have to do in order to breathe life into your overall business strategies.
Howard Rohm, vice president of the Balanced Scorecard Institute, gave the example of Southwest Airlines: It developed a business strategy to compete successfully in the crowded commercial airline market. Its business strategy includes innovation and speed in the redefinition of a marketplace; short-haul, high frequency, point-to-point routing (a significant departure from traditional hub-and-spoke routing); a high proportion of leased aircraft; a very simple fare structure; and ticketless travel.
For the public sector, Rohm gave the example of Mecklenburg County in North Carolina, where they developed a strategy to implement the Board of County Commissioners vision for 2015. The strategy has the following main themes according to Rohm: Growth management and environment; community health and safety; effective and efficient government; and social, education and economic opportunity. Their objectives include, among others: increasing employee knowledge, skills and abilities; improving technology capacity, increasing the use of partnerships, reducing reliance on property taxes, improving service value, improving the environment, reducing crime and violence; and reducing preventable/communicable diseases and other health problems.
Please refer to Figure No. 1 to situate your objectives.
(Moje Ramos Aquino, president of Paradigms & Paradoxes Corp., facilitates strategic thinking and balanced scorecard initiatives. Her e-mail address is moje@mydestiny.net)
Business Times p.B1
Thursday, November 18, 2004
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2004/nov/18/yehey/business/20041118bus6.html
LEARNING & INNOVATION
By Moje Ramos-Aquino, FPM
Objectives are basic building blocks of strategy
IT is often said that we cannot know what the future has in store for us, but we could create a future we want by what we do today. This is exactly why you have gone through your strategic thinking process and are building your Balanced Scorecard.
Remember our story last week about filling up a jar with rocks, gravel, sand and water? Now that you have placed your rocks (vision, mission, values and overarching goals, or VMVG) in your jar, you are now ready to fill it with gravel. These are your objectives.
You now translate your VMVG into objectives that are specific, measurable, actionable, realistic, time- and resource-bound and stretched into the future. Objectives are statements of what you will have to do in order to breathe life into your overall business strategies.
Howard Rohm, vice president of the Balanced Scorecard Institute, gave the example of Southwest Airlines: It developed a business strategy to compete successfully in the crowded commercial airline market. Its business strategy includes innovation and speed in the redefinition of a marketplace; short-haul, high frequency, point-to-point routing (a significant departure from traditional hub-and-spoke routing); a high proportion of leased aircraft; a very simple fare structure; and ticketless travel.
For the public sector, Rohm gave the example of Mecklenburg County in North Carolina, where they developed a strategy to implement the Board of County Commissioners vision for 2015. The strategy has the following main themes according to Rohm: Growth management and environment; community health and safety; effective and efficient government; and social, education and economic opportunity. Their objectives include, among others: increasing employee knowledge, skills and abilities; improving technology capacity, increasing the use of partnerships, reducing reliance on property taxes, improving service value, improving the environment, reducing crime and violence; and reducing preventable/communicable diseases and other health problems.
Please refer to Figure No. 1 to situate your objectives.
(Moje Ramos Aquino, president of Paradigms & Paradoxes Corp., facilitates strategic thinking and balanced scorecard initiatives. Her e-mail address is moje@mydestiny.net)
Thursday, November 11, 2004
More on the balanced scorecard: Business strategy
THE MANILA TIMES
Business Times p.B1
Thursday, November 11, 2004
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2004/nov/11/yehey/business/20041111bus5.html
LEARNING & INNOVATION
By Moje Ramos-Aquino, FPM
More on the balanced scorecard: Business strategy
"When designing a balanced scorecard, we always start by asking: What is your strategy? Once we understand the strategy, we can build a new framework for describing the strategy, which we call a strategy map," wrote Robert Kaplan and David Norton in their book The Strategy Focused Organization.
I am reminded of a story by Stephen Covey in his book First Things First, that best describes how we manage our business: I attended a seminar once where the instructor was lecturing on time. At one point, he said, "OK, time for a quiz." He reached under the table and pulled out a wide-mouthed gallon jar. He set it on the table next to a platter with some fist-sized rocks on it. "How many of these rocks do you think we can get in the jar?" he asked.
After we made our guess, he said, "OK. Let's find out." He set one rock in the jar… then another… then another. I don't remember how many he got in, but he got the jar full. Then he asked, "Is this jar full?" Everyone looked at the rocks and said, "Yes."
Then he said, "Ahhh…" He reached under the table and pulled out a bucket of gravel. Then he dumped some gravel in and shook the jar and the gravel went in all the little spaces left by the big rocks. Then he grinned and said once more, "Is the jar full?"
By this time the class was on to him. "Probably not," we said. "Good!" he replied. He reached under the table and brought out a bucket of sand. He started dumping the sand in and it went into all of the little spaces left by the rocks and the gravel. Once more he looked and said, "Is this jar full?" "No!" we roared.
He said, "Good!" And he grabbed a pitcher of water and began to pour it in. He got something like a quart of water in that jar. Then he said, "Well, what's the point?" Somebody said, "Well, there are gaps, and if you work really hard you can always fit some more things into your life."
"No," he said, "That's not the point. The point is this: If you hadn't put these big rocks in first, would you ever have gotten any of them in?" Your VMV and Strategy are your rocks and the rests are your pebbles, sand and water.
So, let's start building your balanced scorecard (BSC) by establishing your strategy. Of course, we presume that you have done your homework: you are very sure you need a BSC; you've crafted your vision-mission and values and you've done an environmental analysis of the past six months of your organizational life to determine, analyze and draw your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to your vision, mission and values.
Now you are ready to move on to the next step: developing your overall business strategy. You need to come up with an overarching strategic theme or themes for your own organization: Howard Rohm of the Balanced Scorecard Institute suggests these business strategies: build the business, improve operational efficiency and develop new products.
For public-sector organizations, he suggests: build a strong community, improve education, grow the tax base and meet citizen requirements.
Rohm describes strategy a hypothesis of what we think will work and be successful. The remaining steps in the scorecard-building phase provide the basis for testing whether these strategies are working, how efficiently they are being executed, and how effective they are in moving the organization forward toward its VMV.
It is very important that you formulate clear strategies, because they drive the rest of the process while your people, technology, innovation and internal processes will enable you to realize your financial aims and delight your customers.
MERI KRISMAS PO: The Rotary Club of Quezon City North enjoins you to share your blessings this Christmas with the poor, but hardworking and hopeful residents of the Payatas District composed of barangays Commonwealth, Holy Spirit, Bagong Silangan, Batasan Hills and Payatas. President Elsa Cañete will be happy to receive your pledges and answer your questions at (0927) 614-9475.
(Moje, president of Paradigms & Paradoxes Corp., assists organizations in growing their business through strategic thinking, planning and balanced scorecard. Her e-mail is moje@my¬destiny.net.)
Business Times p.B1
Thursday, November 11, 2004
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2004/nov/11/yehey/business/20041111bus5.html
LEARNING & INNOVATION
By Moje Ramos-Aquino, FPM
More on the balanced scorecard: Business strategy
"When designing a balanced scorecard, we always start by asking: What is your strategy? Once we understand the strategy, we can build a new framework for describing the strategy, which we call a strategy map," wrote Robert Kaplan and David Norton in their book The Strategy Focused Organization.
I am reminded of a story by Stephen Covey in his book First Things First, that best describes how we manage our business: I attended a seminar once where the instructor was lecturing on time. At one point, he said, "OK, time for a quiz." He reached under the table and pulled out a wide-mouthed gallon jar. He set it on the table next to a platter with some fist-sized rocks on it. "How many of these rocks do you think we can get in the jar?" he asked.
After we made our guess, he said, "OK. Let's find out." He set one rock in the jar… then another… then another. I don't remember how many he got in, but he got the jar full. Then he asked, "Is this jar full?" Everyone looked at the rocks and said, "Yes."
Then he said, "Ahhh…" He reached under the table and pulled out a bucket of gravel. Then he dumped some gravel in and shook the jar and the gravel went in all the little spaces left by the big rocks. Then he grinned and said once more, "Is the jar full?"
By this time the class was on to him. "Probably not," we said. "Good!" he replied. He reached under the table and brought out a bucket of sand. He started dumping the sand in and it went into all of the little spaces left by the rocks and the gravel. Once more he looked and said, "Is this jar full?" "No!" we roared.
He said, "Good!" And he grabbed a pitcher of water and began to pour it in. He got something like a quart of water in that jar. Then he said, "Well, what's the point?" Somebody said, "Well, there are gaps, and if you work really hard you can always fit some more things into your life."
"No," he said, "That's not the point. The point is this: If you hadn't put these big rocks in first, would you ever have gotten any of them in?" Your VMV and Strategy are your rocks and the rests are your pebbles, sand and water.
So, let's start building your balanced scorecard (BSC) by establishing your strategy. Of course, we presume that you have done your homework: you are very sure you need a BSC; you've crafted your vision-mission and values and you've done an environmental analysis of the past six months of your organizational life to determine, analyze and draw your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to your vision, mission and values.
Now you are ready to move on to the next step: developing your overall business strategy. You need to come up with an overarching strategic theme or themes for your own organization: Howard Rohm of the Balanced Scorecard Institute suggests these business strategies: build the business, improve operational efficiency and develop new products.
For public-sector organizations, he suggests: build a strong community, improve education, grow the tax base and meet citizen requirements.
Rohm describes strategy a hypothesis of what we think will work and be successful. The remaining steps in the scorecard-building phase provide the basis for testing whether these strategies are working, how efficiently they are being executed, and how effective they are in moving the organization forward toward its VMV.
It is very important that you formulate clear strategies, because they drive the rest of the process while your people, technology, innovation and internal processes will enable you to realize your financial aims and delight your customers.
MERI KRISMAS PO: The Rotary Club of Quezon City North enjoins you to share your blessings this Christmas with the poor, but hardworking and hopeful residents of the Payatas District composed of barangays Commonwealth, Holy Spirit, Bagong Silangan, Batasan Hills and Payatas. President Elsa Cañete will be happy to receive your pledges and answer your questions at (0927) 614-9475.
(Moje, president of Paradigms & Paradoxes Corp., assists organizations in growing their business through strategic thinking, planning and balanced scorecard. Her e-mail is moje@my¬destiny.net.)
Thursday, November 4, 2004
Eleven steps to successful Balanced Scorecard
THE MANILA TIMES
Business Times p.B1
Thursday, November 04, 2004
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2004/nov/04/yehey/business/20041104bus6.html
LEARNING & INNOVATION
By Moje Ramos-Aquino
Eleven steps to successful Balanced Scorecard
DO you have a vision-mission-values statement/s? Do you have a game plan or strategy? Can you describe your strategy? How have you communicated this strategy down the line? Are your mid-term, short-term and action plans and budgets linked to your strategy? If you can't describe your strategy and, therefore, haven't communicated it and allotted funds for it, then you need a BSC.
How do you build and implement a BSC?
First, get started. Resolve scope of BSC-corporate or critical business unit? Get the top honcho, if not your board, to sponsor your BSC and to provide resources, leadership and example. Enlist the support of key managers and leaders. Be very sure there is a crying need for overhauling your performance management system. Are data for performance measure easily accessible and are people prepared to measure and be measured? Are people willing to invest ample time in preparing, implementing, measuring and evaluating their BSC at regular periods?
Paul Niven identified four barriers to implementing strategy. They are vision, people, management and resource barriers. According to Niven: "Only 5 percent of the workforce understands the strategy. Only 25 percent of managers have incentives linked to strategy. Eighty-five percent of executive teams spend less than one hour a month discussing strategy. Sixty percent of organizations don't link budgets to strategy."
Second, define your corporate vision, your collective dream of what you want to be, the direction where you are going and how you want your organization to be perceived by the world.
Third, define why your organization exists, who you are, what you do, how a functional or business unit fits in the overall organization architecture.
Fourth, establish your value system, what are important to you, your guideline for action and interaction on a day-to-day basis.
Fifth, decide on your strategy or game plan on how to create sustained value for your stakeholders.
Planning guru Michael Porter writes that strategy is about selecting the set of activities in which an organization will excel to create a sustainable difference in the marketplace. This step helps you make your vision-mission-values actionable and meaningful. If you haven't decided on a strategy yet, you may focus on key performance indicators or critical stakeholders.
Sixth, translate your strategy into a strategy map to show cause-and-effect relationships.
Seventh, specify objectives, measures and focus.
Eighth, enumerate targets, initiatives or programs and resources required to help you act on your objectives.
Ninth, prepare individual BSC, i.e. particularize objectives or what each person, from CEO down to every contributing member of the organization, need to do.
Tenth, regularly measure and analyze your performance against scorecard measures and targets and evaluate your outcomes and determine if desired results were produced or determine how they helped your organization achieve its mission and strategic goals using your core values along the path of your vision. Determine how and by how much you are moving toward creating shareholder value, delighting customers, using efficient and effective processes and attracting, developing and retaining productive talents.
Finally, go back to number one for your next cycle.
(Moje, president of Paradigms & Paradoxes Corp., assists organizations in building and implementing the Balanced Scorecard. Her e-mail address is moje@mydestiny.net)
Business Times p.B1
Thursday, November 04, 2004
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2004/nov/04/yehey/business/20041104bus6.html
LEARNING & INNOVATION
By Moje Ramos-Aquino
Eleven steps to successful Balanced Scorecard
DO you have a vision-mission-values statement/s? Do you have a game plan or strategy? Can you describe your strategy? How have you communicated this strategy down the line? Are your mid-term, short-term and action plans and budgets linked to your strategy? If you can't describe your strategy and, therefore, haven't communicated it and allotted funds for it, then you need a BSC.
How do you build and implement a BSC?
First, get started. Resolve scope of BSC-corporate or critical business unit? Get the top honcho, if not your board, to sponsor your BSC and to provide resources, leadership and example. Enlist the support of key managers and leaders. Be very sure there is a crying need for overhauling your performance management system. Are data for performance measure easily accessible and are people prepared to measure and be measured? Are people willing to invest ample time in preparing, implementing, measuring and evaluating their BSC at regular periods?
Paul Niven identified four barriers to implementing strategy. They are vision, people, management and resource barriers. According to Niven: "Only 5 percent of the workforce understands the strategy. Only 25 percent of managers have incentives linked to strategy. Eighty-five percent of executive teams spend less than one hour a month discussing strategy. Sixty percent of organizations don't link budgets to strategy."
Second, define your corporate vision, your collective dream of what you want to be, the direction where you are going and how you want your organization to be perceived by the world.
Third, define why your organization exists, who you are, what you do, how a functional or business unit fits in the overall organization architecture.
Fourth, establish your value system, what are important to you, your guideline for action and interaction on a day-to-day basis.
Fifth, decide on your strategy or game plan on how to create sustained value for your stakeholders.
Planning guru Michael Porter writes that strategy is about selecting the set of activities in which an organization will excel to create a sustainable difference in the marketplace. This step helps you make your vision-mission-values actionable and meaningful. If you haven't decided on a strategy yet, you may focus on key performance indicators or critical stakeholders.
Sixth, translate your strategy into a strategy map to show cause-and-effect relationships.
Seventh, specify objectives, measures and focus.
Eighth, enumerate targets, initiatives or programs and resources required to help you act on your objectives.
Ninth, prepare individual BSC, i.e. particularize objectives or what each person, from CEO down to every contributing member of the organization, need to do.
Tenth, regularly measure and analyze your performance against scorecard measures and targets and evaluate your outcomes and determine if desired results were produced or determine how they helped your organization achieve its mission and strategic goals using your core values along the path of your vision. Determine how and by how much you are moving toward creating shareholder value, delighting customers, using efficient and effective processes and attracting, developing and retaining productive talents.
Finally, go back to number one for your next cycle.
(Moje, president of Paradigms & Paradoxes Corp., assists organizations in building and implementing the Balanced Scorecard. Her e-mail address is moje@mydestiny.net)
Thursday, October 28, 2004
Balanced Scorecard presents a mix of lag and lead indicators
THE MANILA TIMES
Business Times p.B1
Thursday, October 28, 2004
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2004/oct/28/yehey/business/20041028bus6.html
LEARNING & INNOVATION
By Moje Ramos-Aquino
Balanced Scorecard presents a mix of lag and lead indicators
ONE of the benefits of a Balanced Scorecard is that it provides us the venue for constant conversations about what we do, why we do, what we are doing and how well we are doing-in living facts and figures.
Organizations, though, still exclusively rely on financial measures of performance. Paul Niven (Balanced Scorecard Step by Step: Maximizing Performance and Maintaining Results, Wiley & Sons) describes financial measures as:
* Not consistent with today's business environment, in which most value is created by intangible assets.
* Provide a great "rearview mirror" of the past but often lack predictive power.
* Consolidation of financial information tends to promote functional silos.
* Long-term value-creating activities may be compromised by short-term financial metrics from activities such as employee reductions.
* Most high-level financial measures provide little in the way of guidance to lower-level employees in their day-to-day actions.
Many organizations still use these lagging measures of performance as basis for many important business decisions instead of developing leading indicators. Niven advocates using two columns for collecting performance measures, i.e., one for lagging indicators and another for the leading measures that will drive your outcome measures.
To build a good Balanced Scorecard you should mix lag and lead measures. Niven made these differentiations:
Lag measures focus on results at the end of a time period, easy to identify, normally characterizing historical performance. Examples are market share, sales, lost-time accidents and employee satisfaction. However, since they are historical in nature, they do not reflect current activities and lack predictive power. A high sales volume in the last quarter or year will not guarantee similar or higher sales volume in the future.
Lead measures drive or lead performance of lag measures, normally measuring intermediate processes and activities. Examples are hours spent with customers, proposals written and absenteeism.
They are predictive in nature and allow the organization to make adjustments based on results. However, they are difficult to identify and capture and are often new measures with no history at the organization.
Lag indicators represent the consequences of actions previously taken while lead indicators predict performance of lagging measures. Examples: sales may be driven by hours spent with customers, market share may be driven by brand awareness, and lost-time accidents may be driven by the safety audit scores.
Lag indicators without performance drivers fail to inform you of how you hope to achieve your results. Conversely, leading indicators may signal key improvements throughout the organization, but on their own do not reveal whether these improvements are leading to improved customer and financial results.
Lead indicators are what make your organization stand out in the marketplace or in your industry by identifying the specific activities and processes you believe are critical to driving those lag indicators of success.
A well-constructed BSC gives you a reliable and more accurate story of your organization, using both lag and lead indicators, and gives you a better handle at decision making and lots of confidence at managing and leading.
(Moje, president of Paradigms & Paradoxes Corp., assists organizations in their Strategic Thinking, Planning and Balanced Scorecard initiatives. Her e-mail address is innovationcamp@yahoo.com)
Business Times p.B1
Thursday, October 28, 2004
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2004/oct/28/yehey/business/20041028bus6.html
LEARNING & INNOVATION
By Moje Ramos-Aquino
Balanced Scorecard presents a mix of lag and lead indicators
ONE of the benefits of a Balanced Scorecard is that it provides us the venue for constant conversations about what we do, why we do, what we are doing and how well we are doing-in living facts and figures.
Organizations, though, still exclusively rely on financial measures of performance. Paul Niven (Balanced Scorecard Step by Step: Maximizing Performance and Maintaining Results, Wiley & Sons) describes financial measures as:
* Not consistent with today's business environment, in which most value is created by intangible assets.
* Provide a great "rearview mirror" of the past but often lack predictive power.
* Consolidation of financial information tends to promote functional silos.
* Long-term value-creating activities may be compromised by short-term financial metrics from activities such as employee reductions.
* Most high-level financial measures provide little in the way of guidance to lower-level employees in their day-to-day actions.
Many organizations still use these lagging measures of performance as basis for many important business decisions instead of developing leading indicators. Niven advocates using two columns for collecting performance measures, i.e., one for lagging indicators and another for the leading measures that will drive your outcome measures.
To build a good Balanced Scorecard you should mix lag and lead measures. Niven made these differentiations:
Lag measures focus on results at the end of a time period, easy to identify, normally characterizing historical performance. Examples are market share, sales, lost-time accidents and employee satisfaction. However, since they are historical in nature, they do not reflect current activities and lack predictive power. A high sales volume in the last quarter or year will not guarantee similar or higher sales volume in the future.
Lead measures drive or lead performance of lag measures, normally measuring intermediate processes and activities. Examples are hours spent with customers, proposals written and absenteeism.
They are predictive in nature and allow the organization to make adjustments based on results. However, they are difficult to identify and capture and are often new measures with no history at the organization.
Lag indicators represent the consequences of actions previously taken while lead indicators predict performance of lagging measures. Examples: sales may be driven by hours spent with customers, market share may be driven by brand awareness, and lost-time accidents may be driven by the safety audit scores.
Lag indicators without performance drivers fail to inform you of how you hope to achieve your results. Conversely, leading indicators may signal key improvements throughout the organization, but on their own do not reveal whether these improvements are leading to improved customer and financial results.
Lead indicators are what make your organization stand out in the marketplace or in your industry by identifying the specific activities and processes you believe are critical to driving those lag indicators of success.
A well-constructed BSC gives you a reliable and more accurate story of your organization, using both lag and lead indicators, and gives you a better handle at decision making and lots of confidence at managing and leading.
(Moje, president of Paradigms & Paradoxes Corp., assists organizations in their Strategic Thinking, Planning and Balanced Scorecard initiatives. Her e-mail address is innovationcamp@yahoo.com)
Thursday, October 21, 2004
Balanced Scorecard (BSC): a virtuous cycle
Learning & Innovation – October 21, 2004
By Moje Ramos-Aquino, FPM
Balanced Scorecard (BSC): a virtuous cycle
The fathers of BSC Robert S. Kaplan & David P. Norton describes it as “a system of linked objectives, measures, targets and initiatives which collectively describe the strategy of an organization and how the strategy can be achieved. It can take something as complicated and frequently nebulous as strategy and translate it into something that is specific and can be understood.” A Balanced Scorecard is a framework for defining, refining and communicating strategy, for translating strategy to operational terms, and for measuring the effectiveness of strategy implementation.
In its simplest form, a BSC is a virtuous cycle, a cause-and-effect chain.
Authors Olve, Petri and Roy (Making Scorecards Actionable: balancing strategy and control; Wiley & Sons) there is more to the scorecard than immediately meets the eye:
• The scorecard is balanced; the four perspectives aim for a complete description of what you need to know about the business. There is a time dimension going from bottom to top. E.g. current profitability (or loss) may largely be a consequence of what was done last quarter or last year.
• It is balanced because it shows both internal and external aspects of the business. E.g. a “well-oiled machinery” of internal processes and the customers’ views and contacts that have been established in the marketplace are both shown in a BSC.
• Finally, the BSC is linked through cause–and-effect assumptions. Among its important uses is to reflect on how strong these linkages are, what time delays they involved, and how certain you can be about them in the face of external competition and change.
(Moje, president of Paradigms & Paradoxes Corp, assists companies in their Strategic Thinking, Planning and Balanced Scorecard initiatives. Her email address is innovationcamp@yahoo.com)
By Moje Ramos-Aquino, FPM
Balanced Scorecard (BSC): a virtuous cycle
The fathers of BSC Robert S. Kaplan & David P. Norton describes it as “a system of linked objectives, measures, targets and initiatives which collectively describe the strategy of an organization and how the strategy can be achieved. It can take something as complicated and frequently nebulous as strategy and translate it into something that is specific and can be understood.” A Balanced Scorecard is a framework for defining, refining and communicating strategy, for translating strategy to operational terms, and for measuring the effectiveness of strategy implementation.
In its simplest form, a BSC is a virtuous cycle, a cause-and-effect chain.
Authors Olve, Petri and Roy (Making Scorecards Actionable: balancing strategy and control; Wiley & Sons) there is more to the scorecard than immediately meets the eye:• The scorecard is balanced; the four perspectives aim for a complete description of what you need to know about the business. There is a time dimension going from bottom to top. E.g. current profitability (or loss) may largely be a consequence of what was done last quarter or last year.
• It is balanced because it shows both internal and external aspects of the business. E.g. a “well-oiled machinery” of internal processes and the customers’ views and contacts that have been established in the marketplace are both shown in a BSC.
• Finally, the BSC is linked through cause–and-effect assumptions. Among its important uses is to reflect on how strong these linkages are, what time delays they involved, and how certain you can be about them in the face of external competition and change.
(Moje, president of Paradigms & Paradoxes Corp, assists companies in their Strategic Thinking, Planning and Balanced Scorecard initiatives. Her email address is innovationcamp@yahoo.com)
Thursday, October 14, 2004
Balanced Scorecard (BSC): An overview
THE MANILA TIMES
Business Times p.B1
Thursday, October 14, 2004
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2004/oct/14/yehey/business/20041014bus5.html
LEARNING & INNOVATION
By Moje Ramos-Aquino
Balanced Scorecard (BSC): An overview
Peter Senge observes that many leaders have personal visions that never get translated into shared visions that galvanize an organization. He asserts that what has been lacking is the discipline for translating individual vision into shared vision.
Now there is the BSC used by many successful organizations (private and government) around the world as a tool that translates an organization's VMVG and strategy into a comprehensive set of performance measures that provides the framework for a strategic measurement and management system.
The BSC can be used to deal with many of the barriers to effective cascade of shared visions and successful implementation of strategy such as:
* Vision, Mission, Values and Strategic Goals (VMVG), which are not known, actionable and understood
* Strategy is not linked to departmental, team and individual objectives
* Strategy is not linked to resource allocation
* Feedback is tactical, not strategic
The Balanced Scorecard Collaborative, a global network to support organizations implementing BSC, reports that the origins of BSC can be traced back to 1990, when the Nolan Norton Institute sponsored a one-year multicompany study: "Measuring Performance in the Organization of the Future."
The study team was led by Nolan Norton as project leader and Robert Kaplan as academic consultant. Dr. David Norton was CEO of the Nolan Norton Institute, a consulting firm he confounded, which became the research arm of the KPMG, and he now serves as the president with the Balanced Scorecard Collaborative. Robert S. Kaplan is the Marvin Bower Professor of Leadership Development at Harvard Business School.
Messrs. Norton and Kaplan believed that reliance on summary financial-performance measures was hindering organizations' abilities to create future economics values. Therefore, study participants shifted to focus on the multidimensional scorecard and expanded to "Balanced Scorecard" concepts in 1992.
So what is a Balanced Scorecard?
The author Nils Goran Olve defines BSC as a format for describing the activities of an organization through a number of measures for each of these (usually) four perspectives. The description may refer to the business's current performance, or to its goals for the next period.
A BSC measures the performance of organizations from the following perspectives:
* Financial: How do we look to shareholders?
* Customers: How do customers see us?
* Internal process: What must we excel at?
* Innovation and Learning: Can we continue to improve and create value?
Why use BSC when you already went through your annual goal setting and budget setting exercises. You also have regular feedback mechanism to discuss the bottom line and total quality initiatives, e.g. ISO, ESH, others. Three major reasons to migrate your strategy into the BSC framework:
* The traditional financial performance measures (i.e. ROI, EPS) can give misleading signals for continuous improvement and innovation.
* Financial Measures alone are not enough because they may not capture all of a company's strategic objectives, bottom-line measures are after the fact and they are not very diagnostic.
* Balanced Scorecard aligns organizations to new strategies: away from the historic, short-term focus on cost reduction and low-price competition, and toward generating growth opportunities by offering customized, value-added products and services to customers.
The name "Balanced Scorecard" reflects the Balance between:
* short-term and long-term objectives
* financial and non-financial measures
* lagging and leading indicators
* external and internal performance perspectives.
For this segment of our continuing Journey on Entrepreneurship, we shall heavily lean on these books from John Wiley & Sons, Inc. for the case studies and experience of the authors:
Balanced Scorecard Step-by-Step: Maximizing Performance and Maintaining Results by Paul R. Niven
Making Scorecards Actionable: Balancing Strategy and Control by Nils-Goran Olve, Carl-Johan Petri, Jan Roy and Sofie Roy.
We shall also use notes from materials I bought at the ASTD 2004 International Conference.
If you are already using BSC or about to use BSC, let's exchange notes, ideas, feelings and insights from our experience. I shall endeavor to answer your questions.
(Moje, president of Paradigms & Paradoxes Corp., facilitates and consults on Strategic Thinking, Planning and Balanced Scorecard. Her e-mail address is innovationcamp@yahoo.com)
Business Times p.B1
Thursday, October 14, 2004
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2004/oct/14/yehey/business/20041014bus5.html
LEARNING & INNOVATION
By Moje Ramos-Aquino
Balanced Scorecard (BSC): An overview
Peter Senge observes that many leaders have personal visions that never get translated into shared visions that galvanize an organization. He asserts that what has been lacking is the discipline for translating individual vision into shared vision.
Now there is the BSC used by many successful organizations (private and government) around the world as a tool that translates an organization's VMVG and strategy into a comprehensive set of performance measures that provides the framework for a strategic measurement and management system.
The BSC can be used to deal with many of the barriers to effective cascade of shared visions and successful implementation of strategy such as:
* Vision, Mission, Values and Strategic Goals (VMVG), which are not known, actionable and understood
* Strategy is not linked to departmental, team and individual objectives
* Strategy is not linked to resource allocation
* Feedback is tactical, not strategic
The Balanced Scorecard Collaborative, a global network to support organizations implementing BSC, reports that the origins of BSC can be traced back to 1990, when the Nolan Norton Institute sponsored a one-year multicompany study: "Measuring Performance in the Organization of the Future."
The study team was led by Nolan Norton as project leader and Robert Kaplan as academic consultant. Dr. David Norton was CEO of the Nolan Norton Institute, a consulting firm he confounded, which became the research arm of the KPMG, and he now serves as the president with the Balanced Scorecard Collaborative. Robert S. Kaplan is the Marvin Bower Professor of Leadership Development at Harvard Business School.
Messrs. Norton and Kaplan believed that reliance on summary financial-performance measures was hindering organizations' abilities to create future economics values. Therefore, study participants shifted to focus on the multidimensional scorecard and expanded to "Balanced Scorecard" concepts in 1992.
So what is a Balanced Scorecard?
The author Nils Goran Olve defines BSC as a format for describing the activities of an organization through a number of measures for each of these (usually) four perspectives. The description may refer to the business's current performance, or to its goals for the next period.
A BSC measures the performance of organizations from the following perspectives:
* Financial: How do we look to shareholders?
* Customers: How do customers see us?
* Internal process: What must we excel at?
* Innovation and Learning: Can we continue to improve and create value?
Why use BSC when you already went through your annual goal setting and budget setting exercises. You also have regular feedback mechanism to discuss the bottom line and total quality initiatives, e.g. ISO, ESH, others. Three major reasons to migrate your strategy into the BSC framework:
* The traditional financial performance measures (i.e. ROI, EPS) can give misleading signals for continuous improvement and innovation.
* Financial Measures alone are not enough because they may not capture all of a company's strategic objectives, bottom-line measures are after the fact and they are not very diagnostic.
* Balanced Scorecard aligns organizations to new strategies: away from the historic, short-term focus on cost reduction and low-price competition, and toward generating growth opportunities by offering customized, value-added products and services to customers.
The name "Balanced Scorecard" reflects the Balance between:
* short-term and long-term objectives
* financial and non-financial measures
* lagging and leading indicators
* external and internal performance perspectives.
For this segment of our continuing Journey on Entrepreneurship, we shall heavily lean on these books from John Wiley & Sons, Inc. for the case studies and experience of the authors:
Balanced Scorecard Step-by-Step: Maximizing Performance and Maintaining Results by Paul R. Niven
Making Scorecards Actionable: Balancing Strategy and Control by Nils-Goran Olve, Carl-Johan Petri, Jan Roy and Sofie Roy.
We shall also use notes from materials I bought at the ASTD 2004 International Conference.
If you are already using BSC or about to use BSC, let's exchange notes, ideas, feelings and insights from our experience. I shall endeavor to answer your questions.
(Moje, president of Paradigms & Paradoxes Corp., facilitates and consults on Strategic Thinking, Planning and Balanced Scorecard. Her e-mail address is innovationcamp@yahoo.com)
Thursday, October 7, 2004
Balanced Scorecard: Common language for business
THE MANILA TIMES
Business Times p.B1
Thursday, October 07, 2004
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2004/oct/07/yehey/business/20041007bus6.html
LEARNING & INNOVATION
By Moje Ramos-Aquino, FPM
Balanced Scorecard: Common language for business
Mimes communicate using their body, gestures and facial expressions. Accountants communicate with financial statements. Scientists communicate with formulas, models and prototypes. Business communicates in various forms, styles, buzzwords, jargons and acronyms that differ industry to industry, company to company that makes everything very confusing.
Harvard professors Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton have jointly devised an easily understandable language for business that could be readily used to communicate top down, laterally and bottom up. In this interesting leg of our Journey on Entrepreneurship, we shall learn about the Balanced Scorecard (BSC). It is a communication, management and performance measurement system in one simple framework.
First let us define a few terms to help us build and implement a BSC:
Cause effect relationship: The natural flow of business performance from a lower level to an upper level within or between perspectives. For example, training employees on customer relations leads to better customer service which in turn leads to improved financial results. One side is the leader or driver, producing an end result or effect on the other side.
Goal: An overall achievement that is considered critical to the future success of the organization. Goals express where the organization wants to be.
Measurement: A way of monitoring and tracking the progress of strategic objectives. Measurements can be leading indicators of performance (leads to an end result) or lagging indicators (the end results).
Objective: What specifically must be done to execute the strategy; i.e. what is critical to the future success of our strategy? What the organization must do to reach its goals!
Perspectives: Four or five different views of what drives the organization. Perspectives provide a framework for measurement. The four most common perspectives are: financial (final outcomes), customer, internal processes, and learning and growth.
Programs: Major initiatives or projects that must be undertaken in order to meet one or more strategic objectives.
Strategic area: A major strategic thrust for the organization, such as maximizing shareholder value or improving the efficiency of operations. Strategic areas define the scope for building the balanced scorecard system.
Strategic grid: A logical framework for organizing a collection of strategic objectives over four or more perspectives. Everything is linked to capture a cause and effect relationship. Strategic grids are the foundation for building the Balanced Scorecard.
Strategic model: The combination of all strategic objectives over a strategic grid, well connected and complete, providing one single model or structure for managing the strategic area.
Strategy: An expression of what the organization must do to get from one reference point to another reference point. Strategy is often expressed in terms of a mission statement, vision, goals and objectives. Strategy is usually developed at the top levels of the organization, but executed by lower levels within the organization.
Target: An expected level of performance or improvement required in the future.
Templates: Visual tools for assisting people with building a balanced scorecard, typically used for capturing and comparing data within the four components of the Balanced Scorecard: strategic grids, measurements, targets and programs.
Vision: An overall statement of how the organization wants to be perceived over the long term (3 years to 5 years).
Our references are mainly:
Making Scorecards Actionable: balancing strategy and control (John Wiley and Sons) Nils-Goran Olve,Carl-Johan Petri, Jan Roy and Sofie Roy
Balanced Scorecard Step-by-Step: maximizing performance and maintaining results (G.P. Putnam’s Sons) By Paul R. Niven
If you have extra budget, you may also want to get the books of Mssrs. Kaplan and Norton (Harvard Business School Press): The Strategy-Focused Organizations: How Balanced Scorecard companies thrive int he new business environment The Balanced Scorecard: Translating strategy into action and Strategy Maps: Converting intangible assets into tangible outcomes.
(Moje, president of Paradigms & Paradoxes Corp., facilitates Strategic Thinking, Planning and Balanced Scorecard initiatives. Her e-mail address is innovationcamp@yahoo.com)
Business Times p.B1
Thursday, October 07, 2004
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2004/oct/07/yehey/business/20041007bus6.html
LEARNING & INNOVATION
By Moje Ramos-Aquino, FPM
Balanced Scorecard: Common language for business
Mimes communicate using their body, gestures and facial expressions. Accountants communicate with financial statements. Scientists communicate with formulas, models and prototypes. Business communicates in various forms, styles, buzzwords, jargons and acronyms that differ industry to industry, company to company that makes everything very confusing.
Harvard professors Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton have jointly devised an easily understandable language for business that could be readily used to communicate top down, laterally and bottom up. In this interesting leg of our Journey on Entrepreneurship, we shall learn about the Balanced Scorecard (BSC). It is a communication, management and performance measurement system in one simple framework.
First let us define a few terms to help us build and implement a BSC:
Cause effect relationship: The natural flow of business performance from a lower level to an upper level within or between perspectives. For example, training employees on customer relations leads to better customer service which in turn leads to improved financial results. One side is the leader or driver, producing an end result or effect on the other side.
Goal: An overall achievement that is considered critical to the future success of the organization. Goals express where the organization wants to be.
Measurement: A way of monitoring and tracking the progress of strategic objectives. Measurements can be leading indicators of performance (leads to an end result) or lagging indicators (the end results).
Objective: What specifically must be done to execute the strategy; i.e. what is critical to the future success of our strategy? What the organization must do to reach its goals!
Perspectives: Four or five different views of what drives the organization. Perspectives provide a framework for measurement. The four most common perspectives are: financial (final outcomes), customer, internal processes, and learning and growth.
Programs: Major initiatives or projects that must be undertaken in order to meet one or more strategic objectives.
Strategic area: A major strategic thrust for the organization, such as maximizing shareholder value or improving the efficiency of operations. Strategic areas define the scope for building the balanced scorecard system.
Strategic grid: A logical framework for organizing a collection of strategic objectives over four or more perspectives. Everything is linked to capture a cause and effect relationship. Strategic grids are the foundation for building the Balanced Scorecard.
Strategic model: The combination of all strategic objectives over a strategic grid, well connected and complete, providing one single model or structure for managing the strategic area.
Strategy: An expression of what the organization must do to get from one reference point to another reference point. Strategy is often expressed in terms of a mission statement, vision, goals and objectives. Strategy is usually developed at the top levels of the organization, but executed by lower levels within the organization.
Target: An expected level of performance or improvement required in the future.
Templates: Visual tools for assisting people with building a balanced scorecard, typically used for capturing and comparing data within the four components of the Balanced Scorecard: strategic grids, measurements, targets and programs.
Vision: An overall statement of how the organization wants to be perceived over the long term (3 years to 5 years).
Our references are mainly:
Making Scorecards Actionable: balancing strategy and control (John Wiley and Sons) Nils-Goran Olve,Carl-Johan Petri, Jan Roy and Sofie Roy
Balanced Scorecard Step-by-Step: maximizing performance and maintaining results (G.P. Putnam’s Sons) By Paul R. Niven
If you have extra budget, you may also want to get the books of Mssrs. Kaplan and Norton (Harvard Business School Press): The Strategy-Focused Organizations: How Balanced Scorecard companies thrive int he new business environment The Balanced Scorecard: Translating strategy into action and Strategy Maps: Converting intangible assets into tangible outcomes.
(Moje, president of Paradigms & Paradoxes Corp., facilitates Strategic Thinking, Planning and Balanced Scorecard initiatives. Her e-mail address is innovationcamp@yahoo.com)
Thursday, September 30, 2004
We need others to become perfect
THE MANILA TIMES
Business Times p.B1
Thursday, September 30, 2004
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2004/sept/30/yehey/business/20040930bus6.html
LEARNING & INNOVATION
By Moje Ramos-Aquino
We need others to become perfect
“Ultimately isn’t life a series of moments strung together to create a whole story? And wouldn’t it be wonderful to be able to increase the incidence of perfect ones? If someone tells you that things in your life were perfect right now, you would no doubt dismiss it out of hand. But you would have to admit that everyone is born perfect. Created perfectly. A miracle, really, when you think about it. That’s why we cry when we see newborn babies—tiny packets of extraordinary perfection. Then what happens? Life gets complicated.” Thus Scott Blanchard and Madeleine Homan introduced their inspiring book, Leverage Your Best, Ditch the Rest (HarperCollins).
And more complicated when you took your first step on your personal journey on entrepreneurship. Two neophyte climbers share understanding of these complications.
Rod Salazar, a consultant at Benpres Corp., admits enjoying a blessed life full of its own trials and challenges. He had climbed a lot of mountains, figuratively speaking, many times simply because it was there and he wanted to climb it, or sometimes he needed to. The trek to Mount Makiling was the first real mountain he climbed and, in hindsight, made him affirm that achieving perfection in mountain climbing, as in life and business, becomes easier by having people to rely on.
“This is always true in anything we want to do or need to do at work or in life—there are others who we can learn from and take guidance from. Also, there is the rest of the team and I know they will be there to support each other, including me. The actual climb was exhilarating. The camaraderie was great, the teamwork obvious and the concern for each other’s welfare overwhelming.”
The authors Blanchard and Homan wrote successful managers are good coaches. The main goal of coaching is to help others objectively see where they are (current state) and where they need to be (future state) and then to develop a plan to get from here to there—with as little effort and with as much fun.
Bunny Peña-Gerochi, an executive of First Philippine Holdings Corp., says that for the long haul, you have to let others help you in climbing as in business. “Going up, I refused help many times for various reasons like thinking that hanging on to a solid tree trunk is better than grabbing the hand of a friend. Other times, I thought it would make very little difference. By the time we were on the way down, my knees where buckling down. Looking back, I could have had less postclimb aches and pains had I accepted more help.
Bunny realized that peer pressure works. She thought that as long as people were going to do it, she had to see if she could also do it. She relates that there came a point in the climb when she just had to focus on the mountain and forget about the limatik (leeches). It was as if nothing would get in the way until she finished what she set out to do and her mind sort of just naturally rid itself of distractions. She was not anymore afraid to get down and dirty. She didn’t just walked or climbed, she knelt, sat and slid across the ground whenever she had to. Bunny successfully climbed to Peak 2.
“Doing something totally out-of-character feels great. This was my first climb ever. We were battered and bruised after the climb. But the excitement of what we actually went through and accomplished slowly dawned on me as I told my husband and kids [the first of many audiences] about the experience. My second grader considers it ‘cool’ and my preschooler wants to join the next trek. What an achievement to do something my sons actually want to do, too! My husband was no less impressed. I feel wonderful.”
Blanchard and Howan suggest a coaching journey starting with self-acceptance and continuously acquiring new habits to improve one’s quality of life.
Next journey we will explore the Balanced ScoreCard.
(Moje, president of Paradigms & Paradoxes Corp., facilitates self, team and organization development initiatives. Her e-mail address is innovationcamp@yahoo.com
Business Times p.B1
Thursday, September 30, 2004
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2004/sept/30/yehey/business/20040930bus6.html
LEARNING & INNOVATION
By Moje Ramos-Aquino
We need others to become perfect
“Ultimately isn’t life a series of moments strung together to create a whole story? And wouldn’t it be wonderful to be able to increase the incidence of perfect ones? If someone tells you that things in your life were perfect right now, you would no doubt dismiss it out of hand. But you would have to admit that everyone is born perfect. Created perfectly. A miracle, really, when you think about it. That’s why we cry when we see newborn babies—tiny packets of extraordinary perfection. Then what happens? Life gets complicated.” Thus Scott Blanchard and Madeleine Homan introduced their inspiring book, Leverage Your Best, Ditch the Rest (HarperCollins).
And more complicated when you took your first step on your personal journey on entrepreneurship. Two neophyte climbers share understanding of these complications.
Rod Salazar, a consultant at Benpres Corp., admits enjoying a blessed life full of its own trials and challenges. He had climbed a lot of mountains, figuratively speaking, many times simply because it was there and he wanted to climb it, or sometimes he needed to. The trek to Mount Makiling was the first real mountain he climbed and, in hindsight, made him affirm that achieving perfection in mountain climbing, as in life and business, becomes easier by having people to rely on.
“This is always true in anything we want to do or need to do at work or in life—there are others who we can learn from and take guidance from. Also, there is the rest of the team and I know they will be there to support each other, including me. The actual climb was exhilarating. The camaraderie was great, the teamwork obvious and the concern for each other’s welfare overwhelming.”
The authors Blanchard and Homan wrote successful managers are good coaches. The main goal of coaching is to help others objectively see where they are (current state) and where they need to be (future state) and then to develop a plan to get from here to there—with as little effort and with as much fun.
Bunny Peña-Gerochi, an executive of First Philippine Holdings Corp., says that for the long haul, you have to let others help you in climbing as in business. “Going up, I refused help many times for various reasons like thinking that hanging on to a solid tree trunk is better than grabbing the hand of a friend. Other times, I thought it would make very little difference. By the time we were on the way down, my knees where buckling down. Looking back, I could have had less postclimb aches and pains had I accepted more help.
Bunny realized that peer pressure works. She thought that as long as people were going to do it, she had to see if she could also do it. She relates that there came a point in the climb when she just had to focus on the mountain and forget about the limatik (leeches). It was as if nothing would get in the way until she finished what she set out to do and her mind sort of just naturally rid itself of distractions. She was not anymore afraid to get down and dirty. She didn’t just walked or climbed, she knelt, sat and slid across the ground whenever she had to. Bunny successfully climbed to Peak 2.
“Doing something totally out-of-character feels great. This was my first climb ever. We were battered and bruised after the climb. But the excitement of what we actually went through and accomplished slowly dawned on me as I told my husband and kids [the first of many audiences] about the experience. My second grader considers it ‘cool’ and my preschooler wants to join the next trek. What an achievement to do something my sons actually want to do, too! My husband was no less impressed. I feel wonderful.”
Blanchard and Howan suggest a coaching journey starting with self-acceptance and continuously acquiring new habits to improve one’s quality of life.
Next journey we will explore the Balanced ScoreCard.
(Moje, president of Paradigms & Paradoxes Corp., facilitates self, team and organization development initiatives. Her e-mail address is innovationcamp@yahoo.com
Friday, September 24, 2004
Life and a grueling hike
THE MANILA TIMES
Business Times p.B1
Thursday, September 24, 2004
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2004/sept/23/yehey/business/20040923bus6.html
LEARNING & INNOVATION
By Moje Ramos Aquino
Life and a grueling hike
AS WE go on with our Journey on Entrepreneurship, let us derive lessons from mountain climbing that apply to life and business.
One energetic climber is 12-year-old Christina Eugenio de Guia, a.k.a. Chrissie, daughter of Vicky and Art de Guia and a Grade 7 pupil at Paref Woodrose. “The hike in Mount Makiling is like our hike in life. While I was hiking, I felt that the hike was really long.
Like the hike, I feel that life is so long, but in fact, it’s really short, and I take it all for granted. Also as I took one step at a time toward the peak of Makiling, it is like I was taking one step at a time toward my goal in life.
“Just like the limatik [leeches] along the way and the steep slopes in Makiling, there are also things which I fear of going through in life. But I always remember that I have my family and friends to fall back on if something bad happens, just like I could always rely on my group mates to watch my back during the hike. As the pathway gets steeper, the hike gets more exciting. My life is more exciting with challenges. The difference between life and the hike is that in life, I can never go back, albeit, I can only move on. In the hike I can take a turn here or there or turn back altogether, but in life, we can’t take things for granted because one day they might not be there anymore.”
In life as in business, Paul Newby, design team leader of TiVo Inc., said it succinctly, “Success is about maintaining the vision even through the most grueling details.”
Scott Kirsner, Fast Co. contributing editor, adds, “And yet TiVo has geneuine strengths. The company’s executive team, led by CEO Mike Ramsay, has been quick to change course in response to changes in the market and on Wall Street. The company continues to innovate on virtually every facet of the viewing experience—even on elements as mundane as the remote control. Earlier this year, TiVo abandoned ubiquity as an objective and decided to concentrate on one retailer.”
Chrissie continues, “People may think that it’s wrong that how come they should believe in what a 12-year-old has to say, that life really isn’t like that, that we never really achieve our goals and maybe even that one can never really acquire real friends who will always be there for them. But they’re wrong because people tend to overlook what’s in front of them. Instead, they look at things which they’re not capable of seeing and in the end, they’re never satisfied.
What we are looking for can be found right in front of us. We should just get on with our hike or our life.
After a while, the hike got really exciting because the pathways were getting steeper. That’s a lesson I learned from writing this essay.”
Kirsner explains that TiVo is a giant hard drive in a box that hooks up to your TV, a cable or satellite feed and, a phone line. TiVo can help you select shows that you like to record up to 60 hours of programming and watch later or put a live show “on pause” while you do something else—and return to it without missing a thing. TiVo can track what types of shows you watch frequently and suggest others that you might enjoy.
TiVo president Morgan Gunther concedes, “There are lots of cautionary tales where the inflection point came, the technology went mainstream, and the company that was there first couldn’t take advantage of it.
We know that we have to focus on execution if we want to stay on top of the market that we created. What does it take to take to get the mass market to adopt this technology?”
In life as in a hike, let’s heed this three guiding principles of TiVo: cut through the complexity; iterate, iterate, iterate; and the genius is in the details.
(Moje, president of Paradigms & Paradoxes Corp., facilitates Strategic Thinking & Planning with Balanced Scorecard initiatives. Her e-mail address is innovation camp@yahoo.com.)
Business Times p.B1
Thursday, September 24, 2004
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2004/sept/23/yehey/business/20040923bus6.html
LEARNING & INNOVATION
By Moje Ramos Aquino
Life and a grueling hike
AS WE go on with our Journey on Entrepreneurship, let us derive lessons from mountain climbing that apply to life and business.
One energetic climber is 12-year-old Christina Eugenio de Guia, a.k.a. Chrissie, daughter of Vicky and Art de Guia and a Grade 7 pupil at Paref Woodrose. “The hike in Mount Makiling is like our hike in life. While I was hiking, I felt that the hike was really long.
Like the hike, I feel that life is so long, but in fact, it’s really short, and I take it all for granted. Also as I took one step at a time toward the peak of Makiling, it is like I was taking one step at a time toward my goal in life.
“Just like the limatik [leeches] along the way and the steep slopes in Makiling, there are also things which I fear of going through in life. But I always remember that I have my family and friends to fall back on if something bad happens, just like I could always rely on my group mates to watch my back during the hike. As the pathway gets steeper, the hike gets more exciting. My life is more exciting with challenges. The difference between life and the hike is that in life, I can never go back, albeit, I can only move on. In the hike I can take a turn here or there or turn back altogether, but in life, we can’t take things for granted because one day they might not be there anymore.”
In life as in business, Paul Newby, design team leader of TiVo Inc., said it succinctly, “Success is about maintaining the vision even through the most grueling details.”
Scott Kirsner, Fast Co. contributing editor, adds, “And yet TiVo has geneuine strengths. The company’s executive team, led by CEO Mike Ramsay, has been quick to change course in response to changes in the market and on Wall Street. The company continues to innovate on virtually every facet of the viewing experience—even on elements as mundane as the remote control. Earlier this year, TiVo abandoned ubiquity as an objective and decided to concentrate on one retailer.”
Chrissie continues, “People may think that it’s wrong that how come they should believe in what a 12-year-old has to say, that life really isn’t like that, that we never really achieve our goals and maybe even that one can never really acquire real friends who will always be there for them. But they’re wrong because people tend to overlook what’s in front of them. Instead, they look at things which they’re not capable of seeing and in the end, they’re never satisfied.
What we are looking for can be found right in front of us. We should just get on with our hike or our life.
After a while, the hike got really exciting because the pathways were getting steeper. That’s a lesson I learned from writing this essay.”
Kirsner explains that TiVo is a giant hard drive in a box that hooks up to your TV, a cable or satellite feed and, a phone line. TiVo can help you select shows that you like to record up to 60 hours of programming and watch later or put a live show “on pause” while you do something else—and return to it without missing a thing. TiVo can track what types of shows you watch frequently and suggest others that you might enjoy.
TiVo president Morgan Gunther concedes, “There are lots of cautionary tales where the inflection point came, the technology went mainstream, and the company that was there first couldn’t take advantage of it.
We know that we have to focus on execution if we want to stay on top of the market that we created. What does it take to take to get the mass market to adopt this technology?”
In life as in a hike, let’s heed this three guiding principles of TiVo: cut through the complexity; iterate, iterate, iterate; and the genius is in the details.
(Moje, president of Paradigms & Paradoxes Corp., facilitates Strategic Thinking & Planning with Balanced Scorecard initiatives. Her e-mail address is innovation camp@yahoo.com.)
Thursday, September 16, 2004
Formula for success and happiness
THE MANILA TIMES
Business Times p.B1
Thursday, September 16, 2004
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2004/sept/16/yehey/business/20040916bus6.html
LEARNING & INNOVATION
By Moje Ramos-Aquino, FPM
Formula for success and happiness?
SOMETIMES many good things happen to you at once. I am here in breezy Zamboanga City with my colleague Jackie Galvez doing something I love doing-facilitating a Strategic Thinking and Planning with Balanced Scorecard. We just had a scrumptious dinner of adobong pusit and now we're eating durian and I am reading a fantastic book (Wisdom for a Young CEO by Douglas Barry) while watching Sex in the City on HBO here at Garden Orchid Hotel in our spacious and clean room and exchanging text messages with my sons Ronjie and Adrian and my best friend, Gigie Peñalosa. Blessings.
As we persist with our Journey on Entrepreneurship later, we'll discuss more about Balanced Scorecard as a framework for communicating your strategic intent and plans across all functional areas down to the last level of employees and for managing and measuring organizational, functional and individual performances. The problem with this vision-mission-values-strategic goal thingy is that, instead of providing you with a roadmap to success, they almost always end up in the filing cabinet or the bulletin board because there are no measurable implementation plans. Later.
Meanwhile, teenage author Barry cites Sanford Weill, chairman and CEO of Citigroup, thus: "I don't think there is a magic key [to success] that works for everybody. I can share what I have always tried to do and hope that might be helpful." Mr. Weill shared his insights in a letter to Barry: have a bias toward action, do homework, treat people with respect, make people part of what's happening, reward people for their contribution to success, uphold that family is critical to success, keep them informed and involved.
And my friend and fellow mountain climber Seli Vicente of Benpres Corporation has this to share about our recent climb to Mt. Maria Makiling in Laguna. He describes two types of climbers. One type is somebody who gets excited by unknown challenges and exhilarated by the experience.
The other is one who wants to know all the details of the trail and the climb in advance and would abhor surprises. Both enjoy their climb and feel the same high in reaching the peak. No specific formula for a successful climb.
High school senior and author Barry wrote: "Is it lonely at the top? Not according to the CEOs I heard from! Great CEOs recognize that they couldn't do their jobs alone. They depend on others to help make their company prosper-and this includes every single person who is a part of the organization. A great CEO listens to others, feels their concerns, delegates authority and nurtures the company's talents. They say it's all about people."
Seli says that he has a better appreciation of the strengths and weaknesses of his teammates after the climb and of what they can, cannot, willing and not willing to do. He says that he needs to first validate with them his perceptions and assumptions about them; then, he could use this knowledge to build better working and personal relations whether they are his peers, boss or subordinates.
He cautions about disturbing the natural balance of things and the natural food chain when venturing into uninhabited places like mountains. He says respect is the magic word to preserve nature and enjoy it for a long time to come. He concludes that although there is thrill in discovering the unknown, it is still a lot better, safer and more beneficial to prepare a game plan for such adventures. Successful achievement of goals and respect for the rights of others go together.
My own random list would include, but not limited to: read books, use the Internet, do what you love and love what you do, see the Philippines, go mountain climbing, know the people around you at a deep-enough level to understand them (you don't have to like them), eat more fruits and veggies, keep in touch with family and friends at all times, watch less TV and don't take the very early morning or the very last flight.
(Moje, president of Paradigms & Paradoxes Corp., loves traveling, reading and writing, eating and cooking, doing her favorite work and having fun with family and friends. You can e-mail her at innovationcamp@yahoo.com
Business Times p.B1
Thursday, September 16, 2004
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2004/sept/16/yehey/business/20040916bus6.html
LEARNING & INNOVATION
By Moje Ramos-Aquino, FPM
Formula for success and happiness?
SOMETIMES many good things happen to you at once. I am here in breezy Zamboanga City with my colleague Jackie Galvez doing something I love doing-facilitating a Strategic Thinking and Planning with Balanced Scorecard. We just had a scrumptious dinner of adobong pusit and now we're eating durian and I am reading a fantastic book (Wisdom for a Young CEO by Douglas Barry) while watching Sex in the City on HBO here at Garden Orchid Hotel in our spacious and clean room and exchanging text messages with my sons Ronjie and Adrian and my best friend, Gigie Peñalosa. Blessings.
As we persist with our Journey on Entrepreneurship later, we'll discuss more about Balanced Scorecard as a framework for communicating your strategic intent and plans across all functional areas down to the last level of employees and for managing and measuring organizational, functional and individual performances. The problem with this vision-mission-values-strategic goal thingy is that, instead of providing you with a roadmap to success, they almost always end up in the filing cabinet or the bulletin board because there are no measurable implementation plans. Later.
Meanwhile, teenage author Barry cites Sanford Weill, chairman and CEO of Citigroup, thus: "I don't think there is a magic key [to success] that works for everybody. I can share what I have always tried to do and hope that might be helpful." Mr. Weill shared his insights in a letter to Barry: have a bias toward action, do homework, treat people with respect, make people part of what's happening, reward people for their contribution to success, uphold that family is critical to success, keep them informed and involved.
And my friend and fellow mountain climber Seli Vicente of Benpres Corporation has this to share about our recent climb to Mt. Maria Makiling in Laguna. He describes two types of climbers. One type is somebody who gets excited by unknown challenges and exhilarated by the experience.
The other is one who wants to know all the details of the trail and the climb in advance and would abhor surprises. Both enjoy their climb and feel the same high in reaching the peak. No specific formula for a successful climb.
High school senior and author Barry wrote: "Is it lonely at the top? Not according to the CEOs I heard from! Great CEOs recognize that they couldn't do their jobs alone. They depend on others to help make their company prosper-and this includes every single person who is a part of the organization. A great CEO listens to others, feels their concerns, delegates authority and nurtures the company's talents. They say it's all about people."
Seli says that he has a better appreciation of the strengths and weaknesses of his teammates after the climb and of what they can, cannot, willing and not willing to do. He says that he needs to first validate with them his perceptions and assumptions about them; then, he could use this knowledge to build better working and personal relations whether they are his peers, boss or subordinates.
He cautions about disturbing the natural balance of things and the natural food chain when venturing into uninhabited places like mountains. He says respect is the magic word to preserve nature and enjoy it for a long time to come. He concludes that although there is thrill in discovering the unknown, it is still a lot better, safer and more beneficial to prepare a game plan for such adventures. Successful achievement of goals and respect for the rights of others go together.
My own random list would include, but not limited to: read books, use the Internet, do what you love and love what you do, see the Philippines, go mountain climbing, know the people around you at a deep-enough level to understand them (you don't have to like them), eat more fruits and veggies, keep in touch with family and friends at all times, watch less TV and don't take the very early morning or the very last flight.
(Moje, president of Paradigms & Paradoxes Corp., loves traveling, reading and writing, eating and cooking, doing her favorite work and having fun with family and friends. You can e-mail her at innovationcamp@yahoo.com
Thursday, September 9, 2004
Mountains to climb for everybody
THE MANILA TIMES
Business Times p.B1
Thrusday, September 09, 2004
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2004/sept/09/yehey/business/20040909bus6.html
LEARNING & INNOVATION
By Moje Ramos-Aquino
Mountains to climb for everybody
I ASKED my fellow climbers about their insights into our climb to Peak 2 of Mount Maria Makiling recently and these are the replies from three of those who climbed to the peak.
Amy Agaton of First Philippine Holdings Corp. (FHPC): “When I was at the most difficult trail gasping for breath, felt really tired and aching all over, I asked myself: What am I trying to prove? Several times during the climb, I felt like crying and ready to give up. But a persistent voice inside my mind was prodding me—if they can do it, so can I. I am the type of person who must finish whatever project I started no matter what the cost, regardless of how much effort, time and energy I needed to get the job done. So I told myself that it wouldn’t be me if I didn’t finish this hike. In hindsight, I am happy I joined the climb [that was my first time] and that I climbed to the peak. The experience was priceless and the view was breathtaking! Now I know I have the potential for many other things I’ve never tried before. The important things are to know what I want to achieve, to take the first step to achieve it and persevere to the end. It is also super helpful to climb as a team as it is to do projects. I appreciate all the help and motivation I received from my teammates and the opportunity to also help others.”
FPHC’s Roel Espinoza, carrying a very light and small backpack, breezed through the trail and reached the peak in record time. “I learned not to over prepare. I can do with available resources.” He wore a cotton T-shirt and a pair of porontong shorts tucked tightly to his skin with masking tape. Of course, Roel slathered his exposed skin with generous blobs of Off Lotion as we all did. He took care of preparing and buying all our supplies and safety gadgets. The rule in mountain climbing is that you can bring as much of anything provided you carry them yourself.
Romy Cabral, our friend and volunteer guide from First Philippine Balfour Beatty, has this to share: “There is a mountain to climb for everybody. For neophyte climbers, a match should be found somehow between the trail and one’s capability. Ideally, one should have a balance of euphoria and energy during the climb. One must not overexert and must find a pace that he or she could sustain to the peak through easy and difficult trails. One must not forget to have fun and enjoy the climb and the natural environment.
“If done in groups, the climb opens avenues for developing or strengthening teamwork because there are common activities and challenges facing all team members especially on the difficult terrains and trails. Climbing is also a good training for creativity and innovation. One learns how to traverse a path in many different ways. Climbing is never boring because every rock, earth, leaf, tree root and trunk, stone, limatik and others along the way pose a different situation and call for a different technique. On the other hand, some parts of the trail also requires one to simply recall similar trail and repeat what one had previously done and need not reinvent a new move.
“They say that endurance is not built in a day. To do a successful climb, one must be prepared physically, mentally and psychologically. Every climb is a unique experience. One must stay fit, willing and capable all the time.
Who knows what mountain you’ll climb tomorrow—an actual mountain and/or a mountain of work, business opportunities, leadership challenges or relationships to build. Like the Boy Scouts, let’s always be prepared way ahead of the climb. Then the climb becomes exhilarating and successful.”
Already we are talking about climbing Mount Pulag this October. Join us.
(Moje, president of Paradigms & Paradoxes Corp., strongly recommends mountain climbing for self and team development. She will appreciate your feedback via moje@mydestiny.net.)
Business Times p.B1
Thrusday, September 09, 2004
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2004/sept/09/yehey/business/20040909bus6.html
LEARNING & INNOVATION
By Moje Ramos-Aquino
Mountains to climb for everybody
I ASKED my fellow climbers about their insights into our climb to Peak 2 of Mount Maria Makiling recently and these are the replies from three of those who climbed to the peak.
Amy Agaton of First Philippine Holdings Corp. (FHPC): “When I was at the most difficult trail gasping for breath, felt really tired and aching all over, I asked myself: What am I trying to prove? Several times during the climb, I felt like crying and ready to give up. But a persistent voice inside my mind was prodding me—if they can do it, so can I. I am the type of person who must finish whatever project I started no matter what the cost, regardless of how much effort, time and energy I needed to get the job done. So I told myself that it wouldn’t be me if I didn’t finish this hike. In hindsight, I am happy I joined the climb [that was my first time] and that I climbed to the peak. The experience was priceless and the view was breathtaking! Now I know I have the potential for many other things I’ve never tried before. The important things are to know what I want to achieve, to take the first step to achieve it and persevere to the end. It is also super helpful to climb as a team as it is to do projects. I appreciate all the help and motivation I received from my teammates and the opportunity to also help others.”
FPHC’s Roel Espinoza, carrying a very light and small backpack, breezed through the trail and reached the peak in record time. “I learned not to over prepare. I can do with available resources.” He wore a cotton T-shirt and a pair of porontong shorts tucked tightly to his skin with masking tape. Of course, Roel slathered his exposed skin with generous blobs of Off Lotion as we all did. He took care of preparing and buying all our supplies and safety gadgets. The rule in mountain climbing is that you can bring as much of anything provided you carry them yourself.
Romy Cabral, our friend and volunteer guide from First Philippine Balfour Beatty, has this to share: “There is a mountain to climb for everybody. For neophyte climbers, a match should be found somehow between the trail and one’s capability. Ideally, one should have a balance of euphoria and energy during the climb. One must not overexert and must find a pace that he or she could sustain to the peak through easy and difficult trails. One must not forget to have fun and enjoy the climb and the natural environment.
“If done in groups, the climb opens avenues for developing or strengthening teamwork because there are common activities and challenges facing all team members especially on the difficult terrains and trails. Climbing is also a good training for creativity and innovation. One learns how to traverse a path in many different ways. Climbing is never boring because every rock, earth, leaf, tree root and trunk, stone, limatik and others along the way pose a different situation and call for a different technique. On the other hand, some parts of the trail also requires one to simply recall similar trail and repeat what one had previously done and need not reinvent a new move.
“They say that endurance is not built in a day. To do a successful climb, one must be prepared physically, mentally and psychologically. Every climb is a unique experience. One must stay fit, willing and capable all the time.
Who knows what mountain you’ll climb tomorrow—an actual mountain and/or a mountain of work, business opportunities, leadership challenges or relationships to build. Like the Boy Scouts, let’s always be prepared way ahead of the climb. Then the climb becomes exhilarating and successful.”
Already we are talking about climbing Mount Pulag this October. Join us.
(Moje, president of Paradigms & Paradoxes Corp., strongly recommends mountain climbing for self and team development. She will appreciate your feedback via moje@mydestiny.net.)
Thursday, September 2, 2004
Mountain climbing and commitment
THE MANILA TIMES
Business Times p.B1
Thursday, September 02, 2004
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2004/sept/02/yehey/business/20040902bus6.html
LEARNING & INNOVATION
By Moje Ramos-Aquino, FPM
Mountain climbing and commitment
JIM COLLINS, the author of such important books as Built to Last and Good to Great, is an avid rock climber for more than 30 years and still climbs three to four days a week. In an article entitled “Leadership Lessons of a Rock Climber,” published in the business magazine Fast Company, Jim writes:
“We roped up and set off up the route, shooting for an ‘on-sight’ assent. [An on-sight means that on your first try, you lead the climb without prior information about the moves and without any artificial aid. Other climbers have not told you how to climb the difficult sections, nor have you watched anyone else attempt the route.] You get one chance for an on-sight. Once you start to climb, if you blow it and fall onto the rope, you’ve lost that chance forever.”
In one climb, Jim relates that when confronted with the moment of commitment, the moment of decision, the moment of go-for-it on the on-sight, he let go. Eventually he climbed to the top. “But of course, it didn’t count. I hadn’t done a clean on-sight. And even though later in the day, I managed to ascend the route from bottom to top in one shot—a success most measures—I had nonetheless failed. Not failed on the climb, but failed in my mind.”
Jim (Pardon the first name basis. I’ve met him in one ASTD Conference and he is a most lovable person, a Jim, not a Mr. Collins or Mr. Celebrity. The moment he entered the press room, he removed his shoes and answered our questions with lots of candor.) wishes he fell rather than he let go. Falling means “full commitment to go up—even if the odds of success are less than 20 percent, 10 percent, or even 5 percent. You leave nothing in reserve, no mental or physical resource untapped. You always give your full best—despite the fear, pain, lactic acid, and uncertainty. You never give yourself a psychological out: “I didn’t really give it everything. I might have made it with my best effort.
You only find your true limit when you fall, not let go. On the onsight—as with life—you don’t know what the next hold feels like. It’s the ambiguity—about the holds, the moves, the ability to clip the rope—that makes 100 percent commitment on an on-sight so difficult.”
I am happy to say that in my own climb two-thirds of the way to the peak of the Mount Maria Makiling I fell; I didn’t let go. Not knowing what was there for me, I climb eleven stations or seven stations behind Peak 2. Between Station 22 and 23, I literally had to be dragged and lifted by my teammates. It was reckless for me to climb on with my physical condition and I was jeopardizing the team’s chance of getting to the top.
Initially I wanted to let go, to simply walk with the other ladies to the mudspring—a simply 1,200 steps on very easy trail. But since this is a teambuilding workshop, we needed to take only one route and a stretch.
Jim quotes his mentor in life, Sara Little Turnbull: “”If you don’t stretch you don’t know where the edge is.”
Jim succinctly summarized his lesson learned on falling, not letting go. “I’ve even redefined ‘success’ less in terms of getting to the top and more in terms of the quality of my mental effort. During a recent climbing session, I did not get up a single route. Not one. Still, it was one of my most successful climbing ever because I chose to fall on every attempt, rather than let go. I felt good on the way home because my mind felt strong that day, compared to the weak feeling on most days. In the end, climbing is not about conquering the rock; it is about conquering yourself.”
Whatever, I intend to climb Mount Makiling again until I reach Peak 2. Or I would never know the feeling of having been there, done that. I wouldn’t be able to tell my future grandchildren the tale of Maria Makiling—my own version.
More lessons learned from my teammates on Thursday in our own Journey on Learning & Innovation.
(Moje is president of Paradigms & Paradoxes Corp. and facilitates self and team development initiatives. Share your own climbing experience and lessons learned via moje@mydestiny.net)
Business Times p.B1
Thursday, September 02, 2004
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2004/sept/02/yehey/business/20040902bus6.html
LEARNING & INNOVATION
By Moje Ramos-Aquino, FPM
Mountain climbing and commitment
JIM COLLINS, the author of such important books as Built to Last and Good to Great, is an avid rock climber for more than 30 years and still climbs three to four days a week. In an article entitled “Leadership Lessons of a Rock Climber,” published in the business magazine Fast Company, Jim writes:
“We roped up and set off up the route, shooting for an ‘on-sight’ assent. [An on-sight means that on your first try, you lead the climb without prior information about the moves and without any artificial aid. Other climbers have not told you how to climb the difficult sections, nor have you watched anyone else attempt the route.] You get one chance for an on-sight. Once you start to climb, if you blow it and fall onto the rope, you’ve lost that chance forever.”
In one climb, Jim relates that when confronted with the moment of commitment, the moment of decision, the moment of go-for-it on the on-sight, he let go. Eventually he climbed to the top. “But of course, it didn’t count. I hadn’t done a clean on-sight. And even though later in the day, I managed to ascend the route from bottom to top in one shot—a success most measures—I had nonetheless failed. Not failed on the climb, but failed in my mind.”
Jim (Pardon the first name basis. I’ve met him in one ASTD Conference and he is a most lovable person, a Jim, not a Mr. Collins or Mr. Celebrity. The moment he entered the press room, he removed his shoes and answered our questions with lots of candor.) wishes he fell rather than he let go. Falling means “full commitment to go up—even if the odds of success are less than 20 percent, 10 percent, or even 5 percent. You leave nothing in reserve, no mental or physical resource untapped. You always give your full best—despite the fear, pain, lactic acid, and uncertainty. You never give yourself a psychological out: “I didn’t really give it everything. I might have made it with my best effort.
You only find your true limit when you fall, not let go. On the onsight—as with life—you don’t know what the next hold feels like. It’s the ambiguity—about the holds, the moves, the ability to clip the rope—that makes 100 percent commitment on an on-sight so difficult.”
I am happy to say that in my own climb two-thirds of the way to the peak of the Mount Maria Makiling I fell; I didn’t let go. Not knowing what was there for me, I climb eleven stations or seven stations behind Peak 2. Between Station 22 and 23, I literally had to be dragged and lifted by my teammates. It was reckless for me to climb on with my physical condition and I was jeopardizing the team’s chance of getting to the top.
Initially I wanted to let go, to simply walk with the other ladies to the mudspring—a simply 1,200 steps on very easy trail. But since this is a teambuilding workshop, we needed to take only one route and a stretch.
Jim quotes his mentor in life, Sara Little Turnbull: “”If you don’t stretch you don’t know where the edge is.”
Jim succinctly summarized his lesson learned on falling, not letting go. “I’ve even redefined ‘success’ less in terms of getting to the top and more in terms of the quality of my mental effort. During a recent climbing session, I did not get up a single route. Not one. Still, it was one of my most successful climbing ever because I chose to fall on every attempt, rather than let go. I felt good on the way home because my mind felt strong that day, compared to the weak feeling on most days. In the end, climbing is not about conquering the rock; it is about conquering yourself.”
Whatever, I intend to climb Mount Makiling again until I reach Peak 2. Or I would never know the feeling of having been there, done that. I wouldn’t be able to tell my future grandchildren the tale of Maria Makiling—my own version.
More lessons learned from my teammates on Thursday in our own Journey on Learning & Innovation.
(Moje is president of Paradigms & Paradoxes Corp. and facilitates self and team development initiatives. Share your own climbing experience and lessons learned via moje@mydestiny.net)
Thursday, August 26, 2004
The unique challenges of downward trek
Learning & Innovation
By Moje Ramos-Aquino, FPM
The unique challenges of downward trek
Last Thursday, I related to you half of the story of our upward trek to Peak 2 of the regal Mt. Maria Makiling as part of the wellness cum teambuilding of the MPIG Team of the First Philippine Holdings Corporation plus some friends and family.
Congratulations to those who successfully conquered Peak 2 and hordes of limatic or bloodsuckers along the way. Bunny Gerochi’s account: “When Amy Agaton, Bunny, Jay Lopez, Rico Demanzana, Romy Cabral and Ernie Albano got to the peak (hooray!), Art, Vicky and Chrissie de Guia, Charlie Agonos, Jo Rac, Roel Espinosa and Oca Arizabal were already there. They were sitting on a large blue plastic mat. Vicky exclaimed, “Bun, you’re so dirty!” Jay changed to a new outfit. Bunny and Amy refused to change any clothes for fear of limatic attacks. They feasted on power bars, Jelly Aces, Gatorades and water. After some time, they started to talk about going down since dark clouds were coming. (Does anyone remember what we saw at the top?)”
Let me finish the other half of that story before we discuss those valuable lessons that we learned from the experience. We all thought that going down will be much easier and faster. Not at all! Going down was as tricky as going up since we were taking the same trail.
The difference were that, one, we knew, more or less, the trail by then. We could anticipate the up and down paths, the bends, the steeps and other unique turns.
Two, the terrain has become more familiar. Somehow, we were able to recognize certain rocks, leaves, tree roots and others. We seemed to know exactly where the limatic and lipa shrubs were plentiful.
Three, the top-down view was clearer and we could see farther than a few meters into the direction we were going.
Four, we have already tested some footholds and hand support and were more confident using them.
Five, the limatic were not anymore as annoying and scary. We learned to live and let live.
Six, we started to notice the view, the trees, the birds, and individual leaves and flowers. At one point, Ben Liboro was elated to see the beautiful purplish flowers of the jade vine. Our guide, Dante, said that those plants thrive way up the trees, not easily visible to human eyes and its flowers are, indeed, rare.
Seven, at one high and steep 90o part of the trail, I lost my foothold and slipped. Dante was able to grab my right hand and I hang there for something like an eternity with my body swinging and banging at the side of the mountain. Dante told me to let go of my walking stick and grab a protruding root with my left hand. Then he lowered me slowly to a solid rock two feet below. Enjoy pa rin!
Finally we caught up with Tintin Arizabal, Rod Salazar, Ben Liboro and Bon Asis who turned around at Station 22. The most strenuous part of the downhill trip was what was the easy trail upward. Going up, the easy trail (Stations 11-20) seemed to be even grounds because it was wide (one or two meters at different areas) and defined with small rocks and fallen leaves and one could easily see about 10 meters ahead. Going down, the trail actually sloped down steadily and, after a while, our toes simply wanted to get out of our shoes.
At a certain point, we knew we were almost back to where we started and the challenge has left us and all we wanted was to have our late lunch.
Mt. Arayat, Mt. Pulag, Pico de Loro, Mt. Banahaw and Mt. Apo beckon and offer unique challenges.
(Moje is president of Paradigms & Paradoxes Corporation and facilitates self and team development programs. Her email address is moje@mydestiny.net)
By Moje Ramos-Aquino, FPM
The unique challenges of downward trek
Last Thursday, I related to you half of the story of our upward trek to Peak 2 of the regal Mt. Maria Makiling as part of the wellness cum teambuilding of the MPIG Team of the First Philippine Holdings Corporation plus some friends and family.
Congratulations to those who successfully conquered Peak 2 and hordes of limatic or bloodsuckers along the way. Bunny Gerochi’s account: “When Amy Agaton, Bunny, Jay Lopez, Rico Demanzana, Romy Cabral and Ernie Albano got to the peak (hooray!), Art, Vicky and Chrissie de Guia, Charlie Agonos, Jo Rac, Roel Espinosa and Oca Arizabal were already there. They were sitting on a large blue plastic mat. Vicky exclaimed, “Bun, you’re so dirty!” Jay changed to a new outfit. Bunny and Amy refused to change any clothes for fear of limatic attacks. They feasted on power bars, Jelly Aces, Gatorades and water. After some time, they started to talk about going down since dark clouds were coming. (Does anyone remember what we saw at the top?)”
Let me finish the other half of that story before we discuss those valuable lessons that we learned from the experience. We all thought that going down will be much easier and faster. Not at all! Going down was as tricky as going up since we were taking the same trail.
The difference were that, one, we knew, more or less, the trail by then. We could anticipate the up and down paths, the bends, the steeps and other unique turns.
Two, the terrain has become more familiar. Somehow, we were able to recognize certain rocks, leaves, tree roots and others. We seemed to know exactly where the limatic and lipa shrubs were plentiful.
Three, the top-down view was clearer and we could see farther than a few meters into the direction we were going.
Four, we have already tested some footholds and hand support and were more confident using them.
Five, the limatic were not anymore as annoying and scary. We learned to live and let live.
Six, we started to notice the view, the trees, the birds, and individual leaves and flowers. At one point, Ben Liboro was elated to see the beautiful purplish flowers of the jade vine. Our guide, Dante, said that those plants thrive way up the trees, not easily visible to human eyes and its flowers are, indeed, rare.
Seven, at one high and steep 90o part of the trail, I lost my foothold and slipped. Dante was able to grab my right hand and I hang there for something like an eternity with my body swinging and banging at the side of the mountain. Dante told me to let go of my walking stick and grab a protruding root with my left hand. Then he lowered me slowly to a solid rock two feet below. Enjoy pa rin!
Finally we caught up with Tintin Arizabal, Rod Salazar, Ben Liboro and Bon Asis who turned around at Station 22. The most strenuous part of the downhill trip was what was the easy trail upward. Going up, the easy trail (Stations 11-20) seemed to be even grounds because it was wide (one or two meters at different areas) and defined with small rocks and fallen leaves and one could easily see about 10 meters ahead. Going down, the trail actually sloped down steadily and, after a while, our toes simply wanted to get out of our shoes.
At a certain point, we knew we were almost back to where we started and the challenge has left us and all we wanted was to have our late lunch.
Mt. Arayat, Mt. Pulag, Pico de Loro, Mt. Banahaw and Mt. Apo beckon and offer unique challenges.
(Moje is president of Paradigms & Paradoxes Corporation and facilitates self and team development programs. Her email address is moje@mydestiny.net)
Thursday, August 19, 2004
Climb your way to team and personal wellness
THE MANILA TIMES
Business Times p.B.1
Thursday, August 19, 2004
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2004/aug/19/yehey/business/20040819bus11.html
LEARNING & INNOVATION
By Moje Ramos-Aquino
Climb your way to team and personal wellness
LET me take you via another route in our Journey on Entrepreneurship.
When you are going south along South Luzon Expressway (SLEX), the regal silhouette of Mount Maria Makiling presents itself after the Santa Rosa Exit and you start to relax. You are almost at the end of the superhighway and you now measure time in terms of the size of the mountain. When you can see the trees, then it is time to take a turn toward Laguna or Batangas.
I’ve always wondered what would be the view from the mountaintop. The last time I climbed it to some distance was when I was in grade four and, as a brownie, I participated in the First World Scouting Jamboree. Many details of that experience are fondly etched in my mind and heart.
So when First Philippine Holdings Corp.’s MPIG team, led by Art de Guia and Ben Liboro, nonchalantly talked about going on a mountain trek as a team-building activity, I was elated. The original plan was to conquer Mount Pulag in Mountain Province. Seli Vicente cautioned us to first take a baby climb since all of us were neophyte climbers.
After much preparation by Seli, Roel Espinosa, Marvin Masilang, Charlie Agonos and myself, a group of 21 eager and optimistic climbers met at the gate of the forestry department of the University of the Philippines Los Baños in the early hours of July 31st. The first order of the day was some stretching exercises. Loot bags containing water, Off lotion, alcohol, Alcogel, ear plugs, Jelly Ace, hard candies, energy bars, trash bag (as raincoat) and hand gloves were distributed.
Some tips were given such as: Walk with a buddy for safety and support. Cover as much part of your body as possible. Use Off and earplugs for protection against limatic, and if these small leeches attach to your cloth or skin, simply dust them off. If they bite, pick them up or sprinkle alcohol or Alcogel to get rid of them fast. Team-building instructions were given, then final reminder from Bon Asis: Take nothing but photographs, leave nothing but footprints and share nothing but memories.
We took four-wheel drive vehicles along rough rocky road up to Aguila Base or Station 11. Then, the trek began.
The first 10 stations were pretty easy trails except for the limatic. There were a lot of bantering among MPIG Team Art, Ben, Seli, Roel, Charlie, Amy Agaton, Bunny Gerochi, Ernie Albano, Jay Lopex, Rod Salazar, myself and family and friends Romy Cabral, Oca Arizabal, Rico Demanzana,Vicky de Guia, Chrissie de Guia, Didith Sinda and guide Dante, except for Tintin Arizabal who was bitten by the limatic on her left foot as early as Station 15.
At Station 20, we caught up with each other and we dusted the limatic off each other. Everybody was discomfited by the limatic but still excited about the climb. Only ten more stations to Peak 2.
The climb started to slope to 60-75 o, the limatic population increased and the trail turned muddy and slippery. Likewise, some trails border on cliffs where you could not see what’s below. We now needed to use our gloves to hang on to roots, branches and whatever for support.
At Station 22, we rested as one big group for the last time in our upward trek. Again, there were a lot of storytelling and sharing of tips on how best to climb and battle the limatic. My body ached all over, my knees wobbled and I gasped for precious oxygen. I wanted to quit, but my mind wanted to move on to test my capability some more.
The climb would now have exciting discontinuous 90o slopes. Jay, Ernie and Seli, short of carrying my body, had to pull me up and prop me on my butt to enable me to move on. The distance between some steps were simply too wide unless we find small protruding branch or root or firmly rested rock for foothold.
Between Stations 23 and 24, I told the guys to go ahead because I was slowing them down and I couldn’t go any faster. I was also feeling sick. If not for the limatic, I would have simply thrown myself on comforting beds of leaves, twigs, flowers and mud. As I rested on a fallen tree trunk, Dante asked me, “hihimatayin na po ba kayo?” Later, Seli told me I looked drained and pale.
That was it. I have reached my limit. I decided to go down. After Station 20, Dante and I joined Bon, Tintin, Ben and Rod who started their climb down after Station 22.
(Next columns, we shall read about the poignant experience of the MPIG team members and the equally thrilling climb down and lessons learned. Abangan! Chrissie de Guia describes the experience as “Exciting!”)
(Moje, president of Paradigms and Paradoxes Corp., facilitates self and team-development initiatives. Please react to this article through moje@mydestiny.net)
Business Times p.B.1
Thursday, August 19, 2004
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2004/aug/19/yehey/business/20040819bus11.html
LEARNING & INNOVATION
By Moje Ramos-Aquino
Climb your way to team and personal wellness
LET me take you via another route in our Journey on Entrepreneurship.
When you are going south along South Luzon Expressway (SLEX), the regal silhouette of Mount Maria Makiling presents itself after the Santa Rosa Exit and you start to relax. You are almost at the end of the superhighway and you now measure time in terms of the size of the mountain. When you can see the trees, then it is time to take a turn toward Laguna or Batangas.
I’ve always wondered what would be the view from the mountaintop. The last time I climbed it to some distance was when I was in grade four and, as a brownie, I participated in the First World Scouting Jamboree. Many details of that experience are fondly etched in my mind and heart.
So when First Philippine Holdings Corp.’s MPIG team, led by Art de Guia and Ben Liboro, nonchalantly talked about going on a mountain trek as a team-building activity, I was elated. The original plan was to conquer Mount Pulag in Mountain Province. Seli Vicente cautioned us to first take a baby climb since all of us were neophyte climbers.
After much preparation by Seli, Roel Espinosa, Marvin Masilang, Charlie Agonos and myself, a group of 21 eager and optimistic climbers met at the gate of the forestry department of the University of the Philippines Los Baños in the early hours of July 31st. The first order of the day was some stretching exercises. Loot bags containing water, Off lotion, alcohol, Alcogel, ear plugs, Jelly Ace, hard candies, energy bars, trash bag (as raincoat) and hand gloves were distributed.
Some tips were given such as: Walk with a buddy for safety and support. Cover as much part of your body as possible. Use Off and earplugs for protection against limatic, and if these small leeches attach to your cloth or skin, simply dust them off. If they bite, pick them up or sprinkle alcohol or Alcogel to get rid of them fast. Team-building instructions were given, then final reminder from Bon Asis: Take nothing but photographs, leave nothing but footprints and share nothing but memories.
We took four-wheel drive vehicles along rough rocky road up to Aguila Base or Station 11. Then, the trek began.
The first 10 stations were pretty easy trails except for the limatic. There were a lot of bantering among MPIG Team Art, Ben, Seli, Roel, Charlie, Amy Agaton, Bunny Gerochi, Ernie Albano, Jay Lopex, Rod Salazar, myself and family and friends Romy Cabral, Oca Arizabal, Rico Demanzana,Vicky de Guia, Chrissie de Guia, Didith Sinda and guide Dante, except for Tintin Arizabal who was bitten by the limatic on her left foot as early as Station 15.
At Station 20, we caught up with each other and we dusted the limatic off each other. Everybody was discomfited by the limatic but still excited about the climb. Only ten more stations to Peak 2.
The climb started to slope to 60-75 o, the limatic population increased and the trail turned muddy and slippery. Likewise, some trails border on cliffs where you could not see what’s below. We now needed to use our gloves to hang on to roots, branches and whatever for support.
At Station 22, we rested as one big group for the last time in our upward trek. Again, there were a lot of storytelling and sharing of tips on how best to climb and battle the limatic. My body ached all over, my knees wobbled and I gasped for precious oxygen. I wanted to quit, but my mind wanted to move on to test my capability some more.
The climb would now have exciting discontinuous 90o slopes. Jay, Ernie and Seli, short of carrying my body, had to pull me up and prop me on my butt to enable me to move on. The distance between some steps were simply too wide unless we find small protruding branch or root or firmly rested rock for foothold.
Between Stations 23 and 24, I told the guys to go ahead because I was slowing them down and I couldn’t go any faster. I was also feeling sick. If not for the limatic, I would have simply thrown myself on comforting beds of leaves, twigs, flowers and mud. As I rested on a fallen tree trunk, Dante asked me, “hihimatayin na po ba kayo?” Later, Seli told me I looked drained and pale.
That was it. I have reached my limit. I decided to go down. After Station 20, Dante and I joined Bon, Tintin, Ben and Rod who started their climb down after Station 22.
(Next columns, we shall read about the poignant experience of the MPIG team members and the equally thrilling climb down and lessons learned. Abangan! Chrissie de Guia describes the experience as “Exciting!”)
(Moje, president of Paradigms and Paradoxes Corp., facilitates self and team-development initiatives. Please react to this article through moje@mydestiny.net)
Thursday, August 12, 2004
The unique challenges of downward trek
THE MANILA TIMES
Business Times p.B1
Thursday, August 12, 2004
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2004/aug/26/yehey/business/20040826bus6.html
LEARNING & INNOVATION
By Moje Ramos-Aquino
The unique challenges of downward trek
LAST Thursday, I related to you half of the story of our upward trek to Peak 2 of the regal Mount Maria Makiling as part of the wellness cum teambuilding of the MPIG Team of the First Philippine Holdings Corp. plus some friends and family.
Congratulations to those who successfully conquered Peak 2 and hordes of limatic or bloodsuckers along the way. Bunny Gerochi's account: "When Amy Agaton, Bunny, Jay Lopez, Rico Demanzana, Romy Cabral and Ernie Albano got to the peak [hooray!], Art, Vicky and Chrissie de Guia, Charlie Agonos, Jo Rac, Roel Espinosa and Oca Arizabal were already there. They were sitting on a large blue plastic mat. Vicky exclaimed, 'Bun, you're so dirty!' Jay changed to a new outfit. Bunny and Amy refused to change any clothes for fear of limatic attacks. They feasted on power bars, Jelly Aces, Gatorades and water. After some time, they started to talk about going down since dark clouds were coming. [Does anyone remember what we saw at the top?]"
Let me finish the other half of that story before we discuss those valuable lessons that we learned from the experience. We all thought that going down will be much easier and faster. Not at all! Going down was as tricky as going up since we were taking the same trail. The difference was that, one, we knew, more or less, the trail by then. We could anticipate the up and down paths, the bends, the steeps and other unique turns. Two, the terrain has become more familiar. Somehow, we were able to recognize certain rocks, leaves, tree roots and others. We seemed to know exactly where the limatic and lipa shrubs were plentiful.
Three, the top-down view was clearer and we could see farther than a few meters into the direction we were going.
Four, we have already tested some footholds and hand support and were more confident using them.
Five, the limatic were not anymore as annoying and scary. We learned to live and let live.
Six, we started to notice the view, the trees, the birds, and individual leaves and flowers. At one point, Ben Liboro was elated to see the beautiful purplish flowers of the jade vine. Our guide, Dante, said that those plants thrive way up in the trees, not easily visible to human eyes and its flowers are, indeed, rare.
Seven, at one high and steep 90o part of the trail, I lost my foothold and slipped. Dante was able to grab my right hand and I hung there for something like an eternity with my body swinging and banging at the side of the mountain. Dante told me to let go of my walking stick and grab a protruding root with my left hand. Then he lowered me slowly to a solid rock two feet below. Enjoy pa rin!
Finally we caught up with Tintin Arizabal, Rod Salazar, Ben Liboro and Bon Asis who turned around at Station 22. The most strenuous part of the downhill trip was what was the easy trail upward. Going up, the easy trail (Stations 11-20) seemed to be even grounds because it was wide (one or two meters at different areas) and defined with small rocks and fallen leaves and one could easily see about 10 meters ahead.
Going down, the trail actually sloped down steadily and, after a while, our toes simply wanted to get out of our shoes.
At a certain point, we knew we were almost back to where we started and the challenge has left us and all we wanted was to have our late lunch.
Mount Arayat, Mount Pulag, Pico de Loro, Mount Banahaw and Mount Apo beckon and offer unique challenges.
(Moje is the president of Paradigms & Paradoxes Corp. and facilitates self and team development programs. Her e-mail address is moje@mydestiny.net)
Business Times p.B1
Thursday, August 12, 2004
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2004/aug/26/yehey/business/20040826bus6.html
LEARNING & INNOVATION
By Moje Ramos-Aquino
The unique challenges of downward trek
LAST Thursday, I related to you half of the story of our upward trek to Peak 2 of the regal Mount Maria Makiling as part of the wellness cum teambuilding of the MPIG Team of the First Philippine Holdings Corp. plus some friends and family.
Congratulations to those who successfully conquered Peak 2 and hordes of limatic or bloodsuckers along the way. Bunny Gerochi's account: "When Amy Agaton, Bunny, Jay Lopez, Rico Demanzana, Romy Cabral and Ernie Albano got to the peak [hooray!], Art, Vicky and Chrissie de Guia, Charlie Agonos, Jo Rac, Roel Espinosa and Oca Arizabal were already there. They were sitting on a large blue plastic mat. Vicky exclaimed, 'Bun, you're so dirty!' Jay changed to a new outfit. Bunny and Amy refused to change any clothes for fear of limatic attacks. They feasted on power bars, Jelly Aces, Gatorades and water. After some time, they started to talk about going down since dark clouds were coming. [Does anyone remember what we saw at the top?]"
Let me finish the other half of that story before we discuss those valuable lessons that we learned from the experience. We all thought that going down will be much easier and faster. Not at all! Going down was as tricky as going up since we were taking the same trail. The difference was that, one, we knew, more or less, the trail by then. We could anticipate the up and down paths, the bends, the steeps and other unique turns. Two, the terrain has become more familiar. Somehow, we were able to recognize certain rocks, leaves, tree roots and others. We seemed to know exactly where the limatic and lipa shrubs were plentiful.
Three, the top-down view was clearer and we could see farther than a few meters into the direction we were going.
Four, we have already tested some footholds and hand support and were more confident using them.
Five, the limatic were not anymore as annoying and scary. We learned to live and let live.
Six, we started to notice the view, the trees, the birds, and individual leaves and flowers. At one point, Ben Liboro was elated to see the beautiful purplish flowers of the jade vine. Our guide, Dante, said that those plants thrive way up in the trees, not easily visible to human eyes and its flowers are, indeed, rare.
Seven, at one high and steep 90o part of the trail, I lost my foothold and slipped. Dante was able to grab my right hand and I hung there for something like an eternity with my body swinging and banging at the side of the mountain. Dante told me to let go of my walking stick and grab a protruding root with my left hand. Then he lowered me slowly to a solid rock two feet below. Enjoy pa rin!
Finally we caught up with Tintin Arizabal, Rod Salazar, Ben Liboro and Bon Asis who turned around at Station 22. The most strenuous part of the downhill trip was what was the easy trail upward. Going up, the easy trail (Stations 11-20) seemed to be even grounds because it was wide (one or two meters at different areas) and defined with small rocks and fallen leaves and one could easily see about 10 meters ahead.
Going down, the trail actually sloped down steadily and, after a while, our toes simply wanted to get out of our shoes.
At a certain point, we knew we were almost back to where we started and the challenge has left us and all we wanted was to have our late lunch.
Mount Arayat, Mount Pulag, Pico de Loro, Mount Banahaw and Mount Apo beckon and offer unique challenges.
(Moje is the president of Paradigms & Paradoxes Corp. and facilitates self and team development programs. Her e-mail address is moje@mydestiny.net)
Thursday, August 5, 2004
Tap your collective intelligence
THE MANILA TIMES
Business Times p.B1
Thursday, August 05, 2004
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2004/aug/05/yehey/business/20040805bus5.html
LEARNING & INNOVATION
By Moje Ramos-Aquino, FPM
Tap your collective intelligence
SOMEBODY from Peregrine Systems declared that the only reason that company is still around today is that at the bottom of the hierarchy, there are people who cared enough to make it so. I say, Amen!
To continue our Journey on Entrepreneurship, you need to realize that when God so scattered brain power, He did not confine it to few persons in management or your most trusted employees. They were generously distributed all over your system, at all levels with different intensity and uses. Howard Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences identified eight distinct intelligences. This makes everybody in your organization useful and significant, brainwise.
Likewise, your very influential people are not the people around you or in the boardroom. They are your employees who serve your customers. They are your employees who implement your plans and make things happen. They are your employees who are intimate with the minute details of your business. They are your internal customers—the ones who receive the outputs in your value chain and pass them on to your external customers.
In all your innovation initiatives such as an Abandonment Retreat, therefore, it is important that the ones who work in final stages of your processes, operate your system, convert your outputs to inputs, deliver your product and do after sales service should be major participants. They are the ones who would know if something is working well or if something is out of sync systemwise. They are the ones who could sense the unexpressed needs and expectations of your clients.
Rita Shor, corporate e-business manager at 3M Corp., wrote that 3M’s innovation success subsequently relied on long-term, individually directed exploratory research projects instead of the traditional “inventor in the lab.” One such initiative is the Lead User System developed for 3M by MIT professor Eric von Hippel.
This system, adds Ms. Shor, balances the needs of shareholders and management (with their bottom-line-oriented view of the world), against the needs
of “fuzzy footed” innovation developers (where micromanaging spells an immediate kiss of death).
“Lead User Teams are made up of four to six individuals with a diverse set of skills. Teams and members from both technical and marketing functions are necessary. Depending on its focus, a team might be populated with members from procurement, manufacturing or any other functional area. All team members are taught techniques of creating profitable solutions to unarticulated customer needs, well in advance of the competition. Teams are allowed to report to management on their own term.“
Ms. Shor intimates, “This initiative requires trust all the way around.”
Ms. Shor quotes 3M CEO William McKnight who said more than 50 years ago in favor of independent R&D programs, “As our business grows, it becomes increasingly necessary to delegate responsibility and to encourage men and women to exercise their initiative. Mistakes will be made, but if a person is essentially right, the mistakes he or she makes are not as serious in the long run as the mistakes management will make if it is dictatorial and undertakes to tell those under its authority exactly how they must do their jobs.“
(Moje, the president of Paradigms and Paradoxes Corp., designs and facilitates innovation and organization development initiatives. For comments and questions please email her at moje@mydestiny.net)
Business Times p.B1
Thursday, August 05, 2004
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2004/aug/05/yehey/business/20040805bus5.html
LEARNING & INNOVATION
By Moje Ramos-Aquino, FPM
Tap your collective intelligence
SOMEBODY from Peregrine Systems declared that the only reason that company is still around today is that at the bottom of the hierarchy, there are people who cared enough to make it so. I say, Amen!
To continue our Journey on Entrepreneurship, you need to realize that when God so scattered brain power, He did not confine it to few persons in management or your most trusted employees. They were generously distributed all over your system, at all levels with different intensity and uses. Howard Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences identified eight distinct intelligences. This makes everybody in your organization useful and significant, brainwise.
Likewise, your very influential people are not the people around you or in the boardroom. They are your employees who serve your customers. They are your employees who implement your plans and make things happen. They are your employees who are intimate with the minute details of your business. They are your internal customers—the ones who receive the outputs in your value chain and pass them on to your external customers.
In all your innovation initiatives such as an Abandonment Retreat, therefore, it is important that the ones who work in final stages of your processes, operate your system, convert your outputs to inputs, deliver your product and do after sales service should be major participants. They are the ones who would know if something is working well or if something is out of sync systemwise. They are the ones who could sense the unexpressed needs and expectations of your clients.
Rita Shor, corporate e-business manager at 3M Corp., wrote that 3M’s innovation success subsequently relied on long-term, individually directed exploratory research projects instead of the traditional “inventor in the lab.” One such initiative is the Lead User System developed for 3M by MIT professor Eric von Hippel.
This system, adds Ms. Shor, balances the needs of shareholders and management (with their bottom-line-oriented view of the world), against the needs
of “fuzzy footed” innovation developers (where micromanaging spells an immediate kiss of death).
“Lead User Teams are made up of four to six individuals with a diverse set of skills. Teams and members from both technical and marketing functions are necessary. Depending on its focus, a team might be populated with members from procurement, manufacturing or any other functional area. All team members are taught techniques of creating profitable solutions to unarticulated customer needs, well in advance of the competition. Teams are allowed to report to management on their own term.“
Ms. Shor intimates, “This initiative requires trust all the way around.”
Ms. Shor quotes 3M CEO William McKnight who said more than 50 years ago in favor of independent R&D programs, “As our business grows, it becomes increasingly necessary to delegate responsibility and to encourage men and women to exercise their initiative. Mistakes will be made, but if a person is essentially right, the mistakes he or she makes are not as serious in the long run as the mistakes management will make if it is dictatorial and undertakes to tell those under its authority exactly how they must do their jobs.“
(Moje, the president of Paradigms and Paradoxes Corp., designs and facilitates innovation and organization development initiatives. For comments and questions please email her at moje@mydestiny.net)
Thursday, July 29, 2004
Tribal wisdom in Abandonment Retreat
THE MANILA TIMES
Business Times p.B1
Thursday, July 29, 2004
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2004/jul/29/yehey/business/20040729bus6.html
LEARNING AND INNOVATION
By Moje Ramos-Aquino
Tribal wisdom in Abandonment Retreat
THIS example from Alan Chapman of www.businessballs.com would help you further appreciate doing an Abandonment Retreat.
Confronted with a dilemma of a dead horse, people in the government, education and the business world would meet for hours or days on end, or exchange seemingly inexhaustible memos or even employ consultants and, eventually, come up with advanced strategies, such as:
• Buy a stronger whip.
• Change riders.
• Give horse and rider a good bollocking.
• Restructure the dead horse’s reward scale to contain a performance-related element.
• Suspend the horse’s access to the executive grassy meadow until performance targets are met.
• Make the horse work late shifts and weekends.
• Scrutinize and claw back a percentage of the horse’s past 12 months expenses payments.
• Appoint a committee to study the horse.
• Arrange to visit other countries to see how other cultures ride horses.
• Convene a dead horse productivity improvement workshop.
• Lower the standards so that dead horses can be included.
• Reclassify the dead horse as living-impaired.
• Hire outside contractors to ride the dead horse.
• Outsource the management of the dead horse.
• Harness several dead horses together to increase speed.
• Provide additional funding and/or training to increase dead horse’s performance.
• Do a productivity study to see if lighter riders would improve the dead horse’s performance.
• Declare that as the dead horse does not have to be fed, it is less costly, carries lower overhead and therefore contributes substantially more to the bottom line of the economy than do some other horses.
• Rewrite the expected performance requirements for all horses.
•And the highly effective . . . promote the dead horse to a supervisory position.
Now, get off the floor and stop laughing.
Mr. Clapman reports that tribal wisdom of the Dakota Indians (so legend has it), passed on from generation to generation, simply says that, "When you discover that you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount."
That is the kind of thinking or wisdom that prevails in real Abandonment Retreat. Pradeep Sindhu, the founder of Juniper Networks, says that ideas are flowing much faster now than they ever used to. Unfortunately, there are as many useful ideas floating around as there are basically useless ones. That is why it is very important that before you even embark on an Abandonment Retreat, you must define the basic direction and goals of your organization.
All the strategies mentioned above are good and useful ones (or utterly useless, in this case) depending on your corporate strategic intent. This strategic intent sets the tone and general context which should guide the thinking and creating tasks of participants in Abandonment Retreat. This strategic intent gives people the freedom to be themselves, to work with honesty, sincerity and integrity. As Randy Komisar, virtual chief executive officer says, "The authenticity with which you make decisions about your life [and your company] will lead you where you want to go."
Congratulations are in order for new Fellows in Personnel Management, namely, Efren C. Aguirre, Pinky R.A. Diokno, Ma. Loudes L. Fernando, Elenita F. Hernandez, Hector V. Hernandez, Roberto Maglalang and Lorenzo B. Ziga. Likewise to Associate Fellows Francis L. Lacson and Maribel V. Umali.
Heartfelt thanks to the Accreditation Council led by Orlando S. Zorilla, chair; Met N. Ganuelas, vice chair, and members Sally T. Estrada, Virgie B. Mendoza, Dina B. Orosa, Raffy Z. Perfecto and Roy C. Tarriela. With the addition of these energetic and brilliant new members, we are looking forward to more dynamic and assertive Society of Fellows under the presidency of Lucy C. Tarriela.
(Moje Ramos-Aquino, FPM, the president of Paradigms & Paradoxes Corp. is an active member of the Personnel Management Association of the Philippines and is a lifetime member of the Philippine Society for Training and Development. Give her feedback at moje@mydestiny.net.)
Business Times p.B1
Thursday, July 29, 2004
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2004/jul/29/yehey/business/20040729bus6.html
LEARNING AND INNOVATION
By Moje Ramos-Aquino
Tribal wisdom in Abandonment Retreat
THIS example from Alan Chapman of www.businessballs.com would help you further appreciate doing an Abandonment Retreat.
Confronted with a dilemma of a dead horse, people in the government, education and the business world would meet for hours or days on end, or exchange seemingly inexhaustible memos or even employ consultants and, eventually, come up with advanced strategies, such as:
• Buy a stronger whip.
• Change riders.
• Give horse and rider a good bollocking.
• Restructure the dead horse’s reward scale to contain a performance-related element.
• Suspend the horse’s access to the executive grassy meadow until performance targets are met.
• Make the horse work late shifts and weekends.
• Scrutinize and claw back a percentage of the horse’s past 12 months expenses payments.
• Appoint a committee to study the horse.
• Arrange to visit other countries to see how other cultures ride horses.
• Convene a dead horse productivity improvement workshop.
• Lower the standards so that dead horses can be included.
• Reclassify the dead horse as living-impaired.
• Hire outside contractors to ride the dead horse.
• Outsource the management of the dead horse.
• Harness several dead horses together to increase speed.
• Provide additional funding and/or training to increase dead horse’s performance.
• Do a productivity study to see if lighter riders would improve the dead horse’s performance.
• Declare that as the dead horse does not have to be fed, it is less costly, carries lower overhead and therefore contributes substantially more to the bottom line of the economy than do some other horses.
• Rewrite the expected performance requirements for all horses.
•And the highly effective . . . promote the dead horse to a supervisory position.
Now, get off the floor and stop laughing.
Mr. Clapman reports that tribal wisdom of the Dakota Indians (so legend has it), passed on from generation to generation, simply says that, "When you discover that you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount."
That is the kind of thinking or wisdom that prevails in real Abandonment Retreat. Pradeep Sindhu, the founder of Juniper Networks, says that ideas are flowing much faster now than they ever used to. Unfortunately, there are as many useful ideas floating around as there are basically useless ones. That is why it is very important that before you even embark on an Abandonment Retreat, you must define the basic direction and goals of your organization.
All the strategies mentioned above are good and useful ones (or utterly useless, in this case) depending on your corporate strategic intent. This strategic intent sets the tone and general context which should guide the thinking and creating tasks of participants in Abandonment Retreat. This strategic intent gives people the freedom to be themselves, to work with honesty, sincerity and integrity. As Randy Komisar, virtual chief executive officer says, "The authenticity with which you make decisions about your life [and your company] will lead you where you want to go."
Congratulations are in order for new Fellows in Personnel Management, namely, Efren C. Aguirre, Pinky R.A. Diokno, Ma. Loudes L. Fernando, Elenita F. Hernandez, Hector V. Hernandez, Roberto Maglalang and Lorenzo B. Ziga. Likewise to Associate Fellows Francis L. Lacson and Maribel V. Umali.
Heartfelt thanks to the Accreditation Council led by Orlando S. Zorilla, chair; Met N. Ganuelas, vice chair, and members Sally T. Estrada, Virgie B. Mendoza, Dina B. Orosa, Raffy Z. Perfecto and Roy C. Tarriela. With the addition of these energetic and brilliant new members, we are looking forward to more dynamic and assertive Society of Fellows under the presidency of Lucy C. Tarriela.
(Moje Ramos-Aquino, FPM, the president of Paradigms & Paradoxes Corp. is an active member of the Personnel Management Association of the Philippines and is a lifetime member of the Philippine Society for Training and Development. Give her feedback at moje@mydestiny.net.)
Thursday, July 22, 2004
Encouraging fresh thinking
THE MANILA TIMES
Business Times p.B1
Thursday, July 22, 2004
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2004/jul/22/yehey/business/20040722bus4.html
LEARNING & INNOVATION
By Moje Ramos-Aquino, FPM
Encouraging fresh thinking
TAKE note of the initials FPM after my name. Please share with me a personal triumph. I have just been accepted as a Fellow in Personnel Management (FPM) and I am now a member of the Philippine Society of Fellows in Personnel Management. It is the recognition that I have been yearning for all these years that I am in human resource and organization development field. It is also recognition by my peers in the profession. Kumbaga, allow me to brag, “I have arrived.”
My acceptance into this elite group of professionals brings to mind a favorite quotation of my friend Bheng Relatado. She quotes the first lady of American theater, Helen Hayes, who was taught the difference between achievement and success by her mother, “achievement is the knowledge that you have studied, worked hard and done the best, while success is the praise you earn from others. Achievement is fulfilling—success is motivating.”
So, whenever I sign my name now, I shall always proudly affix to it the initials of professionalism—FPM. I can now stand proudly beside the likes of Noli Payos, Orly Zorilla, Met Ganuelas, Lina Azeneta, Virgie Men¬doza, Sally Estrada, Dina Orosa, Lucy Tarriela, Mon Medina, Ernie Espinosa, No¬nong Contreras, and many other highly esteemed pillars of human resource management and development here in our country.
Being a Fellow is not just sporting the initials, though. It entails a lot of responsibilities that call for adherence to lofty ethical standards, commitment to excellence, a passion for continuous learning and taking pride in the profession. I shall always remind myself with the words of author Stephen Ambrose (Nothing Like It in the World) that the past is a source of knowledge and the future is the source of hope.
It will take a long time and lots of hard work, but I am gearing up to becoming Diplomate in Personnel Management (DPM) and join the trio of King Doromal, Tito imperial and Orly Peña.
Now going back to our Abandonment Retreat, being a Fellow also means rejecting, not just knowing, those thoughts, ideas, feelings, behaviors and attitudes that signals, in two words, unprofessional and counterproductive. Achieving and being successful also means getting unstuck. Keith Yamashita, principal at Stone Yamashita Partners, says, “There is no voodoo to how to get unstuck. It’s about taking actions every day in a sensible way with a little bit of creativity and invention.”
Abandonment Retreat encourages fresh thinking. In their book Retreats that Work, authors Sheila Campbell and Merianne Liteman suggest the use of Wide Open Thinking which sparks associations that can help the group solve old problems in new ways.
“Using the names of organizations that have lots of character and personality, participants work in silence and write ideas on Post-it notes. How would this organization go about solving this problem?
“For instance, if the problem were how to speed up processing time in the accounting department, and someone has the CIA on his list, he might write, ‘Give rewards when somebody spies accounting employees doing something helpful to speed up the process,’ which could be a good idea. He might also write, ‘Give them truth serum to find out what the real problems are.’ Now, that’s an outlandish idea, but ridiculous ideas not only acceptable but very valuable at this stage of the process. When participants run out of inspiration from the first organization on their lists, they should move on to the next one, generating as many ideas as possible.”
Then, participants share their ideas and post them on flip charts. They work to find the kernels of great ideas that emerge from the bizarre ones. This is definitely a fun way to find ways to address long-standing problems.
Abandonment Retreat is not a one-off activity. It is regular meetings, in-house and off-site, until every product, service, process, market, distribution channel, customer and end-use has been examined and decisions made about what to do with them such as retain as is, improve or totally renounce. Yes, this is going to be tedious and painful but Chris Doyle, vice president at Altrec.com, prods “Pain is a good learning tool.”
Becoming a Fellow does not end in the Investiture; it is a continuing journey to more successes.
(Moje, the president of Paradigms and Paradoxes Corp., is an active member of the Personnel Management Association of the Philippines and a lifetime member of the Philippine Society for Training and Development. Her email address is moje@mydestiny.net)
Business Times p.B1
Thursday, July 22, 2004
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2004/jul/22/yehey/business/20040722bus4.html
LEARNING & INNOVATION
By Moje Ramos-Aquino, FPM
Encouraging fresh thinking
TAKE note of the initials FPM after my name. Please share with me a personal triumph. I have just been accepted as a Fellow in Personnel Management (FPM) and I am now a member of the Philippine Society of Fellows in Personnel Management. It is the recognition that I have been yearning for all these years that I am in human resource and organization development field. It is also recognition by my peers in the profession. Kumbaga, allow me to brag, “I have arrived.”
My acceptance into this elite group of professionals brings to mind a favorite quotation of my friend Bheng Relatado. She quotes the first lady of American theater, Helen Hayes, who was taught the difference between achievement and success by her mother, “achievement is the knowledge that you have studied, worked hard and done the best, while success is the praise you earn from others. Achievement is fulfilling—success is motivating.”
So, whenever I sign my name now, I shall always proudly affix to it the initials of professionalism—FPM. I can now stand proudly beside the likes of Noli Payos, Orly Zorilla, Met Ganuelas, Lina Azeneta, Virgie Men¬doza, Sally Estrada, Dina Orosa, Lucy Tarriela, Mon Medina, Ernie Espinosa, No¬nong Contreras, and many other highly esteemed pillars of human resource management and development here in our country.
Being a Fellow is not just sporting the initials, though. It entails a lot of responsibilities that call for adherence to lofty ethical standards, commitment to excellence, a passion for continuous learning and taking pride in the profession. I shall always remind myself with the words of author Stephen Ambrose (Nothing Like It in the World) that the past is a source of knowledge and the future is the source of hope.
It will take a long time and lots of hard work, but I am gearing up to becoming Diplomate in Personnel Management (DPM) and join the trio of King Doromal, Tito imperial and Orly Peña.
Now going back to our Abandonment Retreat, being a Fellow also means rejecting, not just knowing, those thoughts, ideas, feelings, behaviors and attitudes that signals, in two words, unprofessional and counterproductive. Achieving and being successful also means getting unstuck. Keith Yamashita, principal at Stone Yamashita Partners, says, “There is no voodoo to how to get unstuck. It’s about taking actions every day in a sensible way with a little bit of creativity and invention.”
Abandonment Retreat encourages fresh thinking. In their book Retreats that Work, authors Sheila Campbell and Merianne Liteman suggest the use of Wide Open Thinking which sparks associations that can help the group solve old problems in new ways.
“Using the names of organizations that have lots of character and personality, participants work in silence and write ideas on Post-it notes. How would this organization go about solving this problem?
“For instance, if the problem were how to speed up processing time in the accounting department, and someone has the CIA on his list, he might write, ‘Give rewards when somebody spies accounting employees doing something helpful to speed up the process,’ which could be a good idea. He might also write, ‘Give them truth serum to find out what the real problems are.’ Now, that’s an outlandish idea, but ridiculous ideas not only acceptable but very valuable at this stage of the process. When participants run out of inspiration from the first organization on their lists, they should move on to the next one, generating as many ideas as possible.”
Then, participants share their ideas and post them on flip charts. They work to find the kernels of great ideas that emerge from the bizarre ones. This is definitely a fun way to find ways to address long-standing problems.
Abandonment Retreat is not a one-off activity. It is regular meetings, in-house and off-site, until every product, service, process, market, distribution channel, customer and end-use has been examined and decisions made about what to do with them such as retain as is, improve or totally renounce. Yes, this is going to be tedious and painful but Chris Doyle, vice president at Altrec.com, prods “Pain is a good learning tool.”
Becoming a Fellow does not end in the Investiture; it is a continuing journey to more successes.
(Moje, the president of Paradigms and Paradoxes Corp., is an active member of the Personnel Management Association of the Philippines and a lifetime member of the Philippine Society for Training and Development. Her email address is moje@mydestiny.net)
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