While elections are becoming more of a beauty parade (subsidized with a lot of cash in the USA) I thought is share this article for its commentary on Hong Kong. It will be interesting to see how the debate in Hong Kong goes from this point on.
Author: The Burble....
I'm in insurance - well someone has to be.
I'm a father of three kids under 5, love technology, future (navel?) gazing and taking pictures. All of which are covered to some extent in The Burble.... Oh and I will no doubt comment on other things as we go along.
Well yes I did but you’ll have to forgive me if I take a look at some other things. I will try and be a good business person and focus a bit more. And todays posting is all about communication. Communication and how to design a business that people want to work in.
Communication is extremely important in the world in which we live and work today. This is even more important if you’re looking to do business in another country.
As an Englishman in New York I was, even after over 3 years, still surprised about how differently the British and Americans use the English language. Sometimes even though I try and speak the same language I’m afraid my version of English sometimes means I don’t always communicate as clearly as I could.
Obviously I’d prefer it if I could have encouraged my American friends and colleagues to speak the right version of English but after 36 months of trying I am close to admitting defeat.
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Fridge Magnets – A killer in waiting?
Sometimes internet stories get rejuvenated for no apparent reason. I have no idea how or why this happens but it can be fascinating to see what is ‘trending’ at any point in time. And todays story is one about fridge magnets and how they can become killers. Now I am the first to admit that there are a few fridge magnets in the house although they actually reside on the front of the oven. A spaceman from the US, a cocktail menu from Singapore and a polar bear make up the current contingent. I don’t know where the polar bear came from but he seems happy.
However while the polar bear is happy I am wondering if I should be anymore – until today I had never considered the polar bear and friends could be a killer.
When in NYC I had an early day aspiration to play some cricket – regrettably the Indian and Caribbean diaspora is just too good. Really it was like watching a professional game. Even one of the Dr’s I saw in NYU was a previous Jamaican first team player. If the US, like Soccer, gets the hang of Cricket we have a lot to look forward too. Oh well back to watching my son on the village green.
In a recent blog on Instructions I made the point that experience counts for very little when the world around you changes. Cars used to be easy because experience teaches you how a car should look and how to drive it. But when something about that changes all your experience can actually end up being a bad thing. You get stuck.
So what’s it going to be like in the future when ‘they’ will do it all for you. How will your experience be of use when you have no idea how things work anymore?
Couldn’t help reposting this one – Having lived in NYC I can relate to it. Now living in Hong Kong I can only comment that there are a lot more people here!
I wondered in an earlier blog about whether Instructions are important or not. They are.
I was recently in the UK and as usual when there I rented a car. This part of the process is very simple. I apply on line, get the confirmation, get an email when I arrive telling me which car I have and where its parked. Ignore that email and go find the actual car that they want me to have – a Mercedes Model B . Usually from arriving at the garage I am on the road in under 5 mins. This is great customer service.
However, in this instance, getting the car to move became a whole different problem. Nothing is the same anymore.
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Mirror Mirror on the wall…Oh heck
I have had one of those weeks where I can’t quite work out if it went well or not. And as is sometimes the case, this particular concern is based on a difference between my perception of myself and that from people around me who I trust.
And from my wife who I trust and who sees everything.
The issue that has caused me to stop and reflect is how I go about building teams.
From the feedback I have got there is little doubt that the people who work for me understand what I want them to do and actually spend a fair amount of time and effort getting on with it. The question is what happens when I am no longer there. Have I created a team that works well together even if individually people are pulling in the right direction.
Stopping, reflecting and deciding to look at what you do is probably something we all know instinctively we should do but I suspect we find it incredibly difficult to do. I know I do. And I know that my typical reaction to being told something that I don’t understand is to ignore it or take it personally. Or both.
But the word at the end of the first paragraph is key. I’ve got feedback from people I trust and if they are saying something I probably ought to listen. Its taken me a long time to get to this point but I do feel ready not only to listen to the advice but to do something about it.
I think we all know we need to do some things better or differently. No one (and maybe not even me) is that good. But actually recognizing it and then doing something about it is difficult.
Oh goodness this is sounding like a self help blog. Its not its meant to be about business.
Finding people you really trust, listening to them and then acting on their advice isn’t easy. But in business it take so much to just keep going and keeping your head above water that we don’t do enough of it.
And we should do more.
Its a lot easier than looking back and realizing what you should have done.
Let me know what you’ve stopped to reflect on? And what you did about afterwards.
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A New York Mourning
I’m just back from NYC from a joint business and vacation trip. Its amazing, having lived in New York for more than three years before moving to Hong Kong, just how much it feels like home. You get off the plane and everything is familiar even while a lot has changed. Although of course nothing changes like Hong Kong where once a week at least three of our local shops have closed, been refurbished and reopened as something else.
Maybe its that pace of change that stops Hong Kong from feeling like home yet. Or maybe its the fact that in New York there are people who recognise me nearly two years after I left. Going into a bar for dinner and being recognized by a waiter who seems genuinely interested in what I’ve been doing just makes the place more comfortable.
Sure, in Hong Kong we have local restaurants where after regular use we are now well known but with the exception of one – Stone Nullah Tavern in Wan Chai – it still doesn’t quite feel like home. Of course Stone Nullah is an American style bar and maybe that’s part of the attraction. They go out of their way to make us feel welcome.
My wife pointed out to me the other day, as we ruminated on where we might move to next, that it takes a long time to feel settled in a place. Often it takes between 18 months and two years just to feel like you know the place and how things work. Moving internationally is something that I’d recommend to everyone but I have perhaps, in the past three or four months, overlooked just how long it takes to feel settled. While getting a cheery wave and a ‘joe sun’ (or correctly spelled: jóusàhn) from locals is a testament to getting better known, its still a long way from being settled.
So I’ll keep hunting for good bars and restaurants and welcome your recommendations in the comments section below! For the expats living abroad, what made you feel settled in the country you now call home?
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Instructions. Who needs them?
At the office I work sits one of the most fearsome devices known to human kind. Well, me anyway. The automatic coffee machine.
You would think getting a coffee is a fairly easy thing to achieve. Yet it has taken me more than two years to finally get the coffee I want. And it was, and I am sure you’re ahead of me at this point, all my own fault. I kept saying to myself, ‘how difficult can it be to get the right coffee?’
Well actually very difficult.
The coffee machine has a number of buttons. At first glance (and for the next 300) it looks simple; if you push the top button you get decaffeinated coffee and if you push the second one down you get regular coffee. It all seems simple so far except that when you push the top button nothing happens. Push the second button and you get a hot cup of something that smells and looks a little like coffee. But not something I want to drink.
The trouble is I want decaffeinated. And over the two years that I have pleaded with and begged this machine, it failed to deliver what I wanted.
Last week I went through my usual ritual and nothing happened. I pushed the decaf button and nothing, zip, nada, nowt (that’s a North of England term – see even my blog is globally educational). I stabbed the button again in the hope that somehow it was all in the timing of the button press but nothing happened.
At this point, spying the maintenance man, I did something that men typically find very difficult to do. I asked for help.
‘Read the instructions on the front’ was the reply. Well if it was that simple I would have sorted it out a long time ago so really what use was that? Except it was very useful indeed; standing back from the machine I took a look. And there in front of me were instructions on how to get the coffee I want – press the top button followed by the second button. Sure enough two presses later I had a cup of decaffeinated coffee. Almost two years to the day and after asking for help, reading the instructions, and pressing the buttons in the correct order, I finally had what I wanted.
And a thought struck me – how many times do we do things in a way that is more complicated than necessary (or just give up) simply because we have never asked for help, or read the instructions? I recall that during my time as a COO I was always struck by the fact that the same process, for example issuing an insurance policy, could vary between 20 minutes in one office and two days in another. People would blame the process when in fact it was more about the lack of training, a refusal to ask for help, or lack of clarity around the instructions.
So what?
If you’re responsible for a customer service, whether its a coffee machine or an insurance policy, spend as much time on making sure instructions are clear and on training your people correctly, as you do on developing the product you sell. And, whatever your role in an organization, take responsibility for training yourself. Shout loud and long when there is a lack of support or training. You might be surprised when people actually listen.
While my lack of decaffeinated coffee didn’t impact customers it probably impacted my colleagues – my having three cups of regular coffee is not going to make their lives any eaiser!
So I can now get the coffee I want. Shame I haven’t yet mastered my laptop with its 500 page instruction manual, all on-line and in most parts completely unintelligible.
And thats a story for another blog.
Anyone else out there ever gone against their natural tendencies and asked for help? What was the result?
The Burble 