Archive for the 'Social development' Category

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The wonders of Shanghai

Published on 21 July, 2007 in Lifestyle, Social development, Stories and Travel. 0 Comments

Contrast is a wonderful thing. This is my third time in Shanghai, though my first in summer. Even though many of my friends – like the lovely Ingrid whose piano concert at the Oriental Art Centre last night was sensational – are struggling with the oppressive heat and humidity, for me it’s actually a really nice change to have consistent 30+ degree days.

Looking out from the 38th floor of the Eton this morning, I was struck by the contrasts of this great city. I saw the Oriental Pearl, Jin Mao and the nearly complete World Financial Centre, yet at the same time there were vacant blocks along the northern waterfront of PuDong… and a road that couldn’t be completed because there was still an apartment block in the way!

Shanghai is smelly, messy and chaotic, yet there are still amazing things happening here.
Let me put in a plug for the best cafe in Shanghai: Gallery Mondu at 93 DanShui Rd… right at the northern end of XinTianDi – their coffee is the best I’ve tasted anywhere, the service is truly exceptional and the venue combines sophisticated design with sublime functionality. Get there before 11pm!

I’m looking forward to seeing my friends at the workshop that I’m running tomorrow afternoon – it should be great! It has prompted me to rework GeniusTraining.com in preparation for the new era in my work there.

Let’s surf: It’s never going to snow again and the waves are getting bigger…

Published on 31 May, 2007 in Lifestyle, Science and technology and Social development. 0 Comments

Yvon Chouinard, the guy behind Patagonia, told Fortune magazine, “We’re getting into the surf market because it’s never going to snow again and the waves are going to get bigger and bigger.”

Climate change is a serious problem, though I did like this contribution from John Doerr at TED for a bit of reality.

Beautiful basics

Published on 30 May, 2007 in Business, Creativity and genius, Science and technology and Social development. 0 Comments

I spent a year or so picking up an MBA a few years back. It was great fun and I learnt heaps, but there was a lot of wasted time. At one point, it occurred to me that it would be great if you could get a “key learnings” information dump – a collection of the most useful concepts, models and information… key learnings from an MBA or MFA or PhD or whatever.

After all, it’s the learning that we need, not the sheet of paper!

As I thought about the ‘key learnings’ concept more generally, I heard yesterday that a Creation “Science” Museum had been established in the USA. While I have great respect for religious beliefs, I really have a hard time accepting that blindly accepting an arbitrary and unnecessarily complex explanation for the world is really ‘holy’

After yesterday hearing about the establishment of a Creation “Science” museum in the USA (a way for neo-fundamentalist idealogues to indoctrinate their children with convenient ‘truths’), it was reassuring to come across The Canon, a book that expresses basic science that we should all know. (Dworkin might go too far for my liking, I think he’s misled rather than deluded.)

If we’re going to compete in the real world, we need to know something about it!

There’s a lot of information that intelligent and informed members of the modern world need. Our schools are trying to disseminate some of that information, but with the acceleration in knowledge creation, we need to keep learning… fast! I guess it’s another reason to visit The Genius Project‘s Zone.

Leadership begins at school – and at Scouts

Published on 30 April, 2007 in Business, Creativity and genius, High performance, Self-awareness and Social development. 0 Comments

Nobody really knows how to teach leadership. Like entrepreneurship, intelligence, morality and other ill-defined constructs that resemble fanciful delusions when authors indulge in verbose and convoluted idealism, if you can’t define it, you won’t be able to figure out how to teach it. But you can still notice what works.

Apparently, the British body, the Institute of Leadership and Management did some research amongst business owners and managers and found out a few interesting trends:

  • School leaders make social leaders
    4/10 were school prefects, 20% captained a sporting team and 9% were school captains.
  • Scouts make great leaders
    A third of men and 42% of women had been Scouts or Guides.
  • Leaders play sport
    Almost 70% played sport for their school team.
  • Music attracts leaders
    16% were in the choir and 10% in the orchestra.

While it’s nice to know that business leaders were usually school leaders and active in extra-curricular activities, a third of business leaders surveyed regard school leadership positions as the most important indicator of a good future leader.

While education is nice, academic qualifications aren’t the most important thing.

A third said that academic performance was the most overrated indicator of a good leader.

Evidently, teamwork, ambition, goal setting and the other attributes of leadership are acquired through what you do while you’re going through school rather than what you do in school… It’s a bit of a worry with co-curricular involvement – especially scouting – dropping so dramatically.

While organising teams in World of Warcraft probably develops similar skills in the virtual world, to me I’m still glad that I was able to figure out how to get myself (and my patrol) lost in the bush, learnt to deal with a coxen who couldn’t steer an eight straight, and was forced to act like a role model as a school prefect.

Watch Bangladesh: www.watchbd.org

Published on 17 April, 2007 in Social development and Travel. 0 Comments

Adnan Shams, a great friend from business school has just setup an NGO in Bangladesh called “Watch Bangladesh“. They are doing some really amazing projects and work – from schools and literacy to health to agriculture and microcredit.

Adnan shows what you can do with an MBA and the determination to make your world a better place. Have a look at his site and see how you might be able to help.

Great work, my friend!

Chris Howard rocks – and it’s free!!!

Published on 9 April, 2007 in Business, Creativity and genius, High performance, relationships and Social development. 0 Comments

I’ve seen a lot of great speakers and been made a heap of great offers. But having just spent a weekend with Chris Howard, the standard has been reset entirely. If you are in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Perth or the UK, you need to go here and register for their next event… for FREE.

Much of the material is based on basic NLP methods and techniques, but what I found astounding about the 30 or so hours of training that Chris delivered was that the 2000 people in Brisbane weren’t just learning about the topic, they were experiencing some of the most beautiful and artful language patterns that you’re likely to come across to help install the techniques and learnings, rather than just knowing about the topic.

BTS offers some great experiences for creating a propulsion system, letting go of limitations and focusing upon the world that you really want to experience. If you want to know more, email me through the contact page.

I want all my friends and family to take advantage of the offer that they are making… that allows me to give you two tickets absolutely for free!!! Just click here and register right now - even if you can’t get there in the end, register for your place now… it’s going to be huge!!!

What do you really want?

Published on 31 January, 2007 in Creativity and genius, High performance, Overcoming, Self-awareness, Social development and Travel. 0 Comments

May I a small house, and a large garden have.
And a few Friends, and many Books, both true,
Both wise, and both delightful too.

The Secret is making it to Oprah. It’s an amazing thought that in the next 24 hours, Oprah will be helping to transform this story/ documentary of one woman’s experience with focus and manifestation into an even more powerful international success. But it leaves a very challenge part of the story unsaid: What do you really want?

Although the heart must be made to conceive before the eye will be permitted to discover, I find that one of the greatest challenges that we face is to let go of our self-imposed blindness. “What would you do if anything was possible?” is a question that I have asked at many of my seminars and workshops (as well as in personal coaching and consultation sessions), and the recurring theme in responses is that very few people really know what is possible.

Great spirits certainly do encounter violent opposition from mediocre minds, yet the greatest challenge for a great mind is to make the leap to being a great spirit. For a great spirit to be unleashed, you must believe in yourself. Whether it is a (delusional?) sense of narcissim, an inflated sense of self-importance, or perhaps just the irrational spontaneous adoption of a belief in personal purpose and direction, for someone with talent to apply that talent in the disciplined and focused manner necessary to accomplish anything great or to develop any great skills perhaps demands something of a state of mental or emotional imbalance.
So where do we begin? 

That, to me, is the primary advantage that superior educational institutions afford over ‘ordinary’ ones. Great institutions, employers and places tend to attract those with talent and ability, and in doing so give the individuals the exposure to ideas and people that can expand their minds in otherwise inconceivable ways. While I believe that the truths of ‘genius’ are still somewhat waiting to be discovered by each of us, travel, education and exposure to new ideas is one of the surest ways of expanding your mind…
If you really just want the small house and large garden, are the things that you’re doing along the way really helping?

A month in Shanghai

Published on 20 December, 2006 in Business, High performance, Social development and Travel. 0 Comments

In my past month in Shanghai, I’ve learnt and experienced many things. While there have been far too many to deal with, here are a few highlights…

I decided to create a more permanent link to the page on Shanghai 2006…

Trends or tragedies?

Published on 17 December, 2006 in Business, Creativity and genius, High performance, Lifestyle, Science and technology, Social development and Travel. 0 Comments

Some things really fascinate me. How we can meet cool people in the weirdest of places (Coffee Been, Mario?). Cool ideas that spring from unlikely places (Post-it Notes). And some amazing trends…

I’ve just discovered some interesting ‘trends’ that may or may not come to pass that really challenge me to think while simultaneously shaking my head:

  • Gravanity - Beyond YouTube, from personalised stamps (that Australia Post actually offers) to average people paying to have their names on the seats in a cinema, there are opportunities for ordinary folk to have their 15 minutes of fame. Or how about Troika’s efforts in letting people project their SMS messages onto objects?
  • I wonder whether every house really is for sale… every house is for sale
  • While they didn’t let me in there last month, I’m pretty impressed with WC1‘s £1m job of outfitting a bathroom opposite Selfridges
  • Transumers: consumers who are driven by experiences rather than wanting to own things… preferring to live a more transient lifestyle. And if you take what luxury consumers are doing as an indicator of what the rest of us will be doing in the future, consider this: Spending on luxury experiences and home services nearly doubled between 2004 and 2005!
  • Inspiriences: When we want to make our home environments extraordinary… from the home cinema to the home resort. Not being satisfied with a great place and metaphorical castle, people are wanting to make their homes into a ‘real castle!’ While we have home coffee makers, I don’t understand why we can’t get XXXX on tap in our own home bar – they can get Heineken thanks to Krups…
  • Along similar lines are garden offices. While perhaps out of the reach of our friends in Shanghai and London, it could be interesting for many people… especially the increasing number of teleworkers in the ‘burbs.
  • What about buying great glasses online? A friend in Shanghai just paid RMB3000 (AU$500 – they’re nice!) for her latest glasses, but maybe there should be cheaper ways. The same kinda thing is available for contact lenses too. For either, I don’t think Steff would like this idea taking off though…
  • Renting gardens??? I don’t know if Ross came up with the idea or borrowed it from the Dutch version, but it’s a really cool idea!
  • Create vinyl decals for the side of your car? Not just to make the car use a tax deduction, but to personalise the little beast…
  • Vending machines in the ladies’ rooms… but for a straightening iron! They’re only in the UK so far, but are set to spread…
  • Maybe cone-shaped pizza is your thing. Looks more appealing than most of the stuff available in 7-11′s and takeaway stores… actually, it could be a real alternative to Subway even. Maybe it might teach the Chinese that Pizza Hut has a great business system for making mediocre pizza – even after taking Carol to the Nanjing Road store on Wednesday night, I still can’t believe that people queue for overpriced poorly made ‘pizza’ in Shanghai… so much for being culturally sophisticated! But, best of all, this stuff is actually from Italy!
  • How about going to sea to discover the world – and getting academic credit! Thanks to “The Scholar Ship” now you can.
  • Ticketmaster handled tickets for my brother’s graduation ceremony, but what about running your own events? What if you could have a professional ticketing service for your next event? Sounds cool to me, thanks to brownpapertickest.com
  • With China’s newfound wealth, will we see something like Floridasation for Australia? Maybe they’ll stick with Chongming, though somehow I doubt it…
  • It’s not enough to have stuff and do things: Now we want to show off how great we are… and maybe we want to be really good at showing off how wonderful we are by taking advantage of status skills. From making your own wine or coffee, to tying your tie properly or maybe just being more ‘elegant’… combined with the massclusivity and uber premium trends, I’m guessing we’ll be seeing a lot more etiquette and connoisseurship classes for those who want to be seen as “It” rather than getting caught wearing a Nouveau Riche t-shirt!

For me, I’m looking forward to seeing the movement away from consumerism towards experiences combine with the status skills movement, yielding great rewards for those of us who can teach people to be brilliant… the time when ‘status’ will go to those who can actually do cool things are are actually cool people to hang around, rather than those who buy expensive stuff (mostly unused garbage?) that destroys our environment through its wastefulness. What about deriving status (and heaven forbid satisfaction!) from your creativity like artistic, academic and indeed most truly high performing communities? Of course, that would be a opportunity for genius training…

Globalising health care

Published on 25 October, 2006 in Business, Lifestyle, Science and technology and Social development. 2 Comments

A while back, I was thinking about the future of health care. While I appreciate the great health care that we receive in Australia, globalisation is starting to have an impact… and I wonder where it’s going.

While outsourcing pregnancy (aka surrogate pregnancy) is a fascinating concept, more relevant for many of us is having the more general concept of medical tourism. To me, it’s another example of how development occurs when developed economies offshore their lower value activities – the best sort of foreign aid that we can offer!

While I salute the efforts of guys like Dion at www.NobleDentist.com.au to lower the cost of health care within Australia, some of the bigger picture solutions are going to involve enterprises like Planet Hospital. These guys assert that they can give you great care from top doctors in some of the most technologically advanced hospitals in the world… for a fraction of the price.

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