Zoom Fatigue: Adakah Remote Working Economy Berkesan?

 

1. Mula pandemik covid-19, Zoom tiba-tiba menjadi satu platform paling famous seantero dunia. Ramai yang kata dunia akan berubah ke arah virtual.

2. Salah seorang sahabat saya berkata, selepas tamatnya pandemik beliau akan meminta client untuk bermesyuarat dengan zoom sahaja. Jimat masa travel, toll, parking dan sebagainya.

3. Malah pada bulan April, CEO Morgan Stanley berkata di masa hadapan, bank tak perlukan 'real-estate' yang banyak untuk beroperasi. "We've proven we can operate with no footprint" katanya.

4. Ini sedikit sebanyak memberi isyarat kurang baik pada pasaran hartanah. Bayangkan kalau semua boleh bekerja secara remote, apa perlunya bangunan pencakar langit untuk menempatkan pekerja yang work-from-home?

5. Tapi itu bulan empat. Sekarang rata-rata dah sampai tahap tepu dengan melihat skrin. Dalam erti kata lain, ramai yang mengalami 'Zoom Fatigue'. Malah banyak CEO syarikat besar yang pada mulanya menyokong meeting secara virtual, rata-rata complain dengan virtual meeting.

6. Virtual meeting kebanyakkannya bersifat transactional, dan tidak meransang pemikiran kreatif. CEO JPMorgan Chase, Jamie Dimon berkata "there's no vital 'creative combustion' happening in virtual settings." Beliau menambah, "bringing people back to the office is paramount to fostering creativity."

Problem Solving vs Problem Finding

I read an article of what employers want from the graduates. And one of the answer is problem solving skills. Is problem solving still the critical skills that industry really want?

There is an interesting research that explains this. In his book - To Sell is Human, Daniel Pink explain on a study by the Conference Board -  a well regarded Business Group in the US. They provide a survey to Employers and Education Superintendent, and asked them to rate the cognitive capacities that are most important on today's workforce.

Interestingly, both group are not on the same page. Education superintendent ranked 'Problem Solving' as no.1 but the employer executives ranked that as no. 8. They ranked the most important skills are 'Problem Identification.'

Music and It's Application in Learning

Last year, as I went to the new IOI City Mall, in one of the home furnishing store I just have this mood of buying. The environment was set in such a way that people will ignite their sense of buying things because they give the feeling of comfort and elegance. I look at the sofa, it was really tempting for me to bring home one. The blue blanket was like waving it's hand asking me to bring home the whole bedding set.

As I get myself into the conscious mode, I noticed the music that they use was actually playing the role of putting someone emotion to a certain state so that it will ignite the mood of those who shop in the store. Everything was planned well. Music can really give some impact in the mood of a person.

People using music for different purposes. If you watch movies, you will feel the emotion of panic, romance or fantasy by the background of the music. Try to look in a horror movie and shut down the volume. You won't have that kind of effect, and you might totally eliminate the whole emotion of fear and your mind might start to think logic. Even question, why the director did such and such.

Using the right music to accelerate learning
In training, most people use music as part of their tools. However, some trainers use a certain music which inappropriate in terms of timing and wrong type of music. It will give a different impact and in some cases, participants might get confused subsconciously. I was in this training programme, with this good trainer. At the very end of the training, he put on a song for an activity. I just can't feel myself suit because the music used was just not right for that particular activity.

Innovation in Organizations

Typically in a start-up company, the level of innovation is very high. The founder have the vision of doing something different and they did things differently. However, when the company grew bigger, when the company became stable, most of the time they started to innovate less.

It is the entrepreneurship spirit in a start-up is what contributing to innovation. But how we can inculcate this in a corporate environment?

Intrapreneurship
The concept of intrapreneur is not a new term. Intrapreneurship can simply defined as behaving like an entrepreneur in a large organization. This include of assertive risk-taking, innovation and taking initiatives in doing new things differently.

The History
In 1976, in the article from The Economist, Norman Macrae predicted a few of business trends. One of them is “that dynamic corporations of the future be trying alternative ways of doing things in competition within themselves." He further suggest that "firms should not be paying people for attendance, but should be paying competing groups for modules of work done." In 1982, also in The Economist, Macrae suggested the "confederation of intrapreneurs."

Copycat: Shortcut to Success - Why should we re-invent the wheel?

We Live in a World of Copycats.

As part of human being, we are naturally the creature of copycat. We copy from the Cradle to the Grave! Copycatting starts the day we were born. We copy the language we speak, the food we eat, the way we walk and the way we dress. When we were in primary school, we were taught to copy alphabets. When we grew older, we copy how others drive a car.

James Baldwin once said:

 "Children have never been very good at listening to their elders. But they have never failed to imitate them."

If copycat is part of our nature, then,

Why we are not good at Copying? 

How to enhance your creativity to solve problems

Each and every one of us is creative in one way or another. There are so many courses out there that shows you how to think creatively. There are simpler ways comparing to use other sophisticated tools to solve problems - and it is proven by academic research.

We are more creative when we think of others

Have you ever has a problem and you ask others around. Suddenly that others (might be your friends or family members) provide you a solutions to that problem that you might not think of before. And it makes sense... Vice versa have you ever have someone approaching you on their problem, and as a third party you are able to come out with solutions to that problem. It's a simple solution, but why can't he/she think of it? 

Why are these things happening and how we can use the principle to get the best out of our ability to become creative in solving problems?

Professors Evan Polman and Kyle Emich has conducted a research to asked 137 undergraduates the following problem: