Whole Brain

Curious? Intrigue? Wondering what is Whole Brain?

I had my first exposure to Whole Brain many years ago in Canada where I attended a week long residential training in Queens University in Kingston, Ontario. All participants had their brains "mapped" out. My thinking preferences are Analysing and Strategizing.

Whole Brain is developed by Ned Herrmann who was the Education Manager of GE's Crotonville. Crotonville is better known as GE University where all management staff and trainees have to go through. I am in the midst of preparing a Whole Brain workshop for my team. It is free! I have been given a truncated tool whom Ned Herrmann has given to Louis Allen Trainer.

The Whole Brain tool cost US$280 and can be found in www.hbdi.com

Work, work and more work

Have you ever wondered why work is never-ending? More and more keep piling up. Well, I am begining to feel the fatigue of overwork. Work gives meaning to life - I said in my earlier entry. Now it is too much of a good thing! Extreme mean positive can turn negative. I am tired. Lots work done, lots more to go...yawn...time for bed. Pleasant dreams zzzZZZ

In the Old, Out the New!

I flew into Bangkok through the "old" airport and out via the "new"! I am part of history to fly out of the airport on the first day official opening. Wish the cameras "got" me. The new airport is huge. There were many people and many cars. SIA called to advise going to airport early. It take only half an hour from my hotel which is near the old airport and not an hour and half. The reason? The entrance to the highway to the new airport is right at the hotel.

The airport is very spacious and quite well organised considering it is the first day. There were some confusion as the instructions given at the counter were incorrect. The new airport is a lot bigger than the old yet the newspaper reports that it has less gates for the airplanes. Interesting!

In the Old, Out the New!

I flew into Bangkok through the "old" airport and out via the "new"! I am part of history to fly out of the airport on the first day official opening. Wish the cameras "got" me. The new airport is huge. There were many people and many cars. SIA called to advise going to airport early. It take only half an hour from my hotel which is near the old airport and not an hour and half. The reason? The entrance to the highway to the new airport is right at the hotel.

The airport is very spacious and quite well organised considering it is the first day. There were some confusion as the instructions given at the counter were incorrect. The new airport is a lot bigger than the old yet the newspaper reports that it has less gates for the airplanes. Interesting!

The Secret of My Success

Last night a colleague from US called. She says money is not a measure of success. "It is for me!" I states my position. She is looking to focus on something where her job function is clear. She has strong work ethics and has great relationship everywhere. She is the grease that smooth out the engagement of the teeth in the giant gears of our company. Lyn is now looking to move to another dept. It will be sad to lose her. She has help us a lot in the past. I hope she gets her wish. I asks angels to help her in her quest.

Coming back to THE Secret of my Success is money. Money is the easy to measure. We can always measure sales or pay. The more pay, the more we can buy. It is very materialistic. The REAL secret is continuous development of people and a strong team. With the right people in the right place, we can achieve strong performance and great results. Well, change has arrived in our company yet as one of my colleague in put it "The more it change, the more it stays the same!" We are still a big company and lots of things are still the same!

The Infamous Traffic of Bangkok

I arrived Bangkok on Tuesday night as The Customer called for an emergency meeting. As usual, I go to the taxi queue to go to my hotel. The ride should not be more than 15 mins. My taxi driver thought I was going to the hotel with the same name downtown. So when we passed the hotel, I pointed to him that this is the hotel I want to go. He apologise and get of the next turn. It was raining and the traffic on the opposite direction is heavy. Heavy would be an understatement. It is almost standstill. To travel back the length of one exit of the highway took us more than an hour. It is incredible. I was trying to calm myself down with yoga breathing exercise. I was exhausted by the time we reached my hotel.

Good Help

In other words, good staff. It is very important to have good staff. I am so busy nowadays trying to get work done. When staff is on the learning curve or not as capable, my ability to delivers strong results begins to suffer. As the saying goes, the chain is as strong as it weakest link.

Giant - the hypermart

The Giant in Parkway Parade is a much better store than the Giant in Marina Square. It is busy and well stocked. The produces are fresh. Lot of activities as the staffs are busy replenishing stock. My favorite honey pineapple is priced at $2.80 instead of $3.80 or $4.00 at Fairprice or Cold Storage. Now we have another grocery store to patronise.

Ex-colleague relocates to Singapore

Piak was my colleague from Thailand when we were working in Ohmeda, a medical equipment company. This company was bought by GE Medical. She got married and relocates now living in St. Martin Residences where the party was held last night. It was an interesting coincident that she happens to send me an email yesterday and I told here we were going there for a party. We took time from the party to meet Piak and her husband. Her husband is the head of Giant, the hypermarket and lives in Malaysia and Thailand before.

I am so glad she is now happily married and trying to achieve her dream of becoming a mum.

Surprise Party

A colleague of mine invite my wife and I to her husband's surprise birthday party. This is the first time we go out together to have "fun" leaving our boys behind. We are starting to live a more independent adult lives again after 13 years bringing all our boys out with us. It feels funny. More like something is missing rather than liberating. The other Chinese couple was his colleague at work. She work as an application/training person in Drager. Her husband is a mechanical engineer with an Indonesia power company. The rest were Australians, New Zealanders and other Caucasians. Sorry! I almost forgot. There is an Indian who was born in Penang, grew up in the Caribbean and is an Australian now living in Singapore.

Kate is an excellent organiser. She hired a belly dancer for the party and set up her iPod Nano with Bose for the music. The belly dancing gets everyone's attention. The moves were seductive and will take lots of practice as its uses muscles we rarely use. The audience were engaged one at a time. We had a good time.

Singapore has a big foreign community. There are so many foreigners living and working here.

Peking Duck

Oh yes! I forgot to mention my Peking Duck experience. You have NOT come to Beijing if you did not eat Peking Duck. The land where Peking Duck migrate from.

We go to a resturant that is "famous". The dining experience is quite unique. The hostess will explain every dish - the content, a little history if there is and have it translated for foreigners. There were 5 cold dishes and 5 hot. The grand finale was THE DUCK, 4 golden roasted crispy ducks. The hostess describes the skin must be smooth and meat must be soft. There is a certificate for the serial numbers of the ducks we ate. I cannot remember the exact number, we were at the 115 millionth.

Emperor's Banquet

We were treated to Emperor's Banquet in Beijing. Or at least the theme is Palace Dining. Right at the entrance were girls dancing like what we see in the period movies. The food was good but not exceptional. There were a couple of dishes that was quite exquisite. One was braised sea cucumber. I do not like sea cucumber and my host insist I should try as the Empress love this and eat this dish regularly to keep her skin smooth. I tried a small piece and was impressed by the taste. So I took a second helping. There were beef tendons, fried sliced fish and many others that was a little exotic for my taste.

Beijing - the busy city

Beijing is so busy. Construction is everywhere. High rise buildings, roads, mass transit, it is construction galore. Paradise for those in the construction trade. The city is packed. Traffic jams everywhere. I am impressed by the hive of activities the city is packing in. The air is dry and dusty. The visibility is low. The price of progress is pollution. It will become a great city.

18th Anniversary

My wife just reminded me today that I will be travelling on the 18th which is our 18th anniversary. So we go for dinner at Hai Tien Lo together with our boys. The view was fabulous. The food is good. Some dishes were excellent. Our fellow diners were high-powered bankers. After dinner, we walk around the mall to digest a little of our meal. Marina Square is full of foreign visitors. It is relatively busy considering that most of the roads to it has been closed.

Home Sweet Home

It is always nice to come back home. Although I am busy with work, physical proximity to family give psychological and emotional satisfaction. We have incentive plans for our boys. They now have to do "chores" such as doing experiments or giving tuition to B3, swim 30 laps in a tiny pool or babysit B3 for his phonetic class. Let's see how long this incentive program will last.

PJ Hilton

Had dinner in Japanese resturant in PJ Hilton. The food is good maybe a tad expensive. I did not sign the bill so do not know how much it cost. PJ Hilton has been refurbished. So the walkway look new. It is refreshing. I remember this as old hotel I use to stay when I come here twenty years ago.

Kate is a nice girl. She will be inviting my wife and me to her husband's surprise birthday party next Saturday. I really enjoyed the conversations with Kate. She is an American working Singapore.

Communication Styles Training

Today, I conducted training for the 10 staffs from other department on Communication Styles. This is a tool that my company adopt to help internal communication. There are four styles - Accomodating, Perfecting, Analysing and Achieving. These four styles have different characteristics. Our styles also change under stress. It is a window for us to see ourselves and others. With the help of this tool, we can understand conflicts and accept the differences of individuals.

Chiropractor

Was busy yesterday. I have to visit a customer to explain to her our price increase. The meeting took 30 mins and went well. She accept the new price. The sales rep was happy I could solve his problem.

Meanwhile B1 fell down from monkey bar. He was swinging his legs up when he lost his grip and his body slams right on the floor. He was in pain and movements were restricted. We send him for x-rays and then to the Chiropractor. The chiropractor realign his spine. There was a loud click and several smaller clicks. B1 was look tired today. He is still suffering from shock of the fall. He is big and heavy now, so the trauma must be quite severe. His neck is painful. I hope he will recover well.

Colour Your World

I am now an advocate of strong colour featured walls. It brightens the house. Be bold! Life can be colourful! We now have mango in the living room, lilac in my bedroom, blue in the boys' room and green in the office.

Chinatown Hawker Centre is now temporarily house at Outram right beside Singapore General Hospital. The place is very busy on a Sunday evening. Cars were streaming in and out. People were waiting for tables and seats. The hawkers were doing a roaring business. A lot of the hawkers recommended by the different food critics such as Channel U and Culinary Excellence.

Nippon Paint

I must say Nippon Paint Medifresh looks nice when the walls are freshly painted. Except for the fiasco(at least for Mistress of the household) in the master bedroom featured wall, our home looks warm and welcoming. The colours are bold yet not blinding, the "sheen" feature of Nippon does give the walls great textured look. Overall I am impressed. I am a satisfied customer for now. I am keeping my fingers crossed for deterioration or future issues.

2nd Thoughts

Madam of the home is having second thoughts. The neon green is causing our white wood blinds look yellowish. I thought the colour was ok. It is a little strong and makes the room dark. We will see how the paint job brush up.

Paint - Brave New World

My wife has decided to paint the house. Previously, we paid too much for our paint job. This time she spends time to do research. We are using Nippon Paint through the company. We wise-up! It is better to deal with big companies rather than individual contractors.

Why Brave New World? Well, we are experimenting with Bold colours. So far we have always, always use tinted white. This time, we will be painting one wall with Mango on one level, green in the bedroom and another shade of green in my home office. I have no idea if I can live with the colours... I was told all the "designers" does it. We see them all the time in all the showflats.

OptoElectronics Exhibition

China has advance dramatically in the field of optics and optoelectronics. I am impressed by the number of manufacturers of advanced technological products by Chinese manufacturers. Large outdoor brilliant LEDs displays like a movie screen, LED traffic lights, fibre optics and couplers, light tube that can display multicolour, precision optics like telescopes and binoculars, glass filters, etc, etc. The progress of Chinese manufacturing is enormous in the last few years. Every trip I made, tangible progress especially the "hardware" like highways, new building, products with improved quality.

Factory of the World, China will be there.

Flights delays by Singapore Airlines

There are a few flights to Hong Kong has been delayed by Singapore Airlines. One lady going to same flight as me says this is her first time. She is going to visit her daughter in Hong Kong to look after her grandson for a few months. Our flight was delayed by two hours. It is not fun. By the time, I reached SZ, it is shift change time for taxi. I have to wait about 40 mins to get a cab. The thing about Murphy's Law is "If there is anything that can go wrong, it will!" The Ken's corollary is "If something goes wrong, more will go wrong."

I think everything seems to go wrong. Lots of waiting. Wait a minute. I did managed to catch the earlier ferry out of Hong Kong Airport at 5:30pm instead of 6:30pm with 3 mins to spare! Not everything go wrong. It is a long day. The hotel seems to be in the middle of nowhere. Anyway, it is late. I had dinner and then back to the room to do emails.

Family and Helicopter

The warmth of a close family is sustenance for living. Life becomes meaningful. Family is one unit of social bond. The bond by blood or by marriage. We have extended family bond through work and through friendship. Teams at work or in sports are families. Spending time with my family give me a warm glow and satisfaction. This is also because our boys are cooperative and not bickering.

I bought a toy helicopter for $47 at Metro today. Although it is not sophiscated, it does fly and I have a great time. The unit is quite robust and withstand fair amount of crash. This is a great toy. I recommend it to any boy or boy at heart e.g. yours truly.

Thinkers

Saturday's edition of Straits Times has a number of analysis and commentaries by columnists. The standard of journalism in ST is very high. As I read the opinions and analysis, I sometimes feel issues are not so easy to deal with. A lot of the views seem academic. Yet without the well-thought out reasonings, back by well-researched facts, our world cannot progress. We are making huge progress due to our ability to think and conceptualise the outcomes if certain set of actions are taken. The best example is technology. Internet, computers and cellular phones has change our life immensely. We are connected with our friends, colleagues and strangers around the world instanteously. Without theories quantum physics and mathematical models, it will be impossible to build a computer. Hence, let's give a toast to thinkers of the world. Where would we be without you?!!

Science Fair at Marina Square?

It is an excellent idea to bring the mountain to Mohammed. Science Fair for the masses. Publicity was good too as it is in the newspaper. We brought our boys there. They have a good time to play with the exhibits. It is good the get a dose of science in action. Sea monkeys, Zebra fish for genetic engineering, Computer graphic for creative facial expressions, demonstration of solar cells and hydrogen fuel cells, even lobsters make it to the exhibits. Making bouncing balls out of household materials attracted alot of attention. Test for level of vitamin C in fruit juices is interesting too.

My wife asks "what can you do with this?" after a demo. The response was "Nothing, we are still trying to understand this phenomena." My wife is a pragmatist. You must be able to make money from science. Otherwise it is not useful.

Boat

My boys loved the big inflatable boat(200cm) I bought in Bangkok. They have a good time trying to learning how to row. It is not easy to row a boat. Maybe we have no experience, maybe because there is no rudder. I will to get instructions on how to row a boat. I remember there is a proper technique of paddling a boat with no rudder. Anyone out there who can give me some tips?