Tag: United States

Recognition as motivator

Ceremony has its place in every culture.

It’s an occasion for recognizing distinctive people or acts of valor.

As opposed to guilt and shame, praise and recognition validate achievement.

Maslow ranks this need right above survival and security need. Self-esteem.

Martial Arts and Military subscribe to ranking and recognition more than often:

black belt and red belt, purple heart and silver star.

As of this writing, the Pentagon has just lifted the ban on women in combat.

Half of the population has just been recognized.

Long way from those bras-burning days.

Students got special stickers from teachers; workers special parking.

Sales folks are paid by performance, but non-sales counterparts should also be recognized for their contribution (1001 ways to reward your employees).

Knowledge workers volunteer their best minds, software coders give up their sleep.

Best way to recognize go-beyond-the-call-of-duty is to point it out publicly.

Applause does wonder to the soul, brings tears to actors at Golden Globe Awards.

There is nothing staged when being recognized. Instant elation.

It touches us. We are more than a profile. We are proud people.

We rise above ourselves and our circumstances. We enlist and enlarge qualities long laid dormant: heroism, sacrifice and quick reflexes.

Those soft skills and abilities are not activated until circumstances call them out (United flight 93 over Pennsylvania on 9/11, for instance).

Kids should be exposed to many worlds: Sahara, Salvador and Saks Fifth. And not just Saks Fifth. We will never know how we act when in want. But people do survive the worst of times, selflessly and secretly. Mother Theresa identified with the poorest of the poor. In losing herself, she ended up being recognized. Survivors of the Holocaust still have tales to tell.

Recognition, while a reward for excellence, is also a motivator, from the standpoint of management. Recognize your employee of the month, but spot and validate their initiatives every day (positive reinforcement). People and company, military or martial arts, all need to build up ranking and recognition into their reward system.

Praises go a long way, while put down is counter-productive.

Fun as motivator

Cyndi Lauper and Sheryl Crow both touched on “wanna-have-fun” theme.

(Girls just want to have fun, All I wanna do).

The upcoming Olympic in Brazil should be a fun place (certainly more than polluted Beijing).

Fun ranks up there as one of the highest motivators.

It’s wired in our fabrics.

Pure fun. Wholesome fun. Grand ball. Sight, sound and scenes.

Smoke machines, sound machines and special effects.

Googlers are seen each year in the Mojave Desert (Burning-Man Festival).

CES in Las Vegas kicks off each year in January.

Kids open their electronic toys Christmas morning. Fun, fun, fun.

“I got this feeling that I am not the only one… .”

Men are fated to toil the ground and tame the beasts.

But after hard times comes harvest times.

In a Korean’s novel (Please Look After Mom) we find a landscape utterly foreign yet familiar. Agrarian culture, with everything done by hand, in transition to a bustling Seoul subway where an aged senile country mom got lost.

Yet, even in this bleakest of portraits, we still find some romance, and occasional laughters.

Fun.

I often found people chuckled in the midst of drinking.

Apparently, there were fun injected into the blood stream besides alcohol.

My friend’s favorite has been Seasons in the Sun. “We had joy we had fun”.

Fun doesn’t belong to but is often associated with youth.

Everyone can and should have some fun. Even at work.

Wait not for Halloween or Valentine.

At Zappos, they set up desks deliberately in the hallway, so co-workers are forced to “bump” into each other. Gone are the cubicles. The wall came tumbling down.

Now, just collaboration, not competition.

Southwest Airlines associates wear shorts and shirts, sing FAA regulations in a way that draws out a smile in each passenger. Fun culture retains great talent.

It adds healthy numbers to the bottom line.

Know the motivators like the back of your hands.

Work them into your HR policy. Practice them at the front line and in the back room.

Then people wouldn’t need to wait for Happy Friday or Happy Hour.

They are happy at work. It boosts up morale and team spirit.

I love to work with workers who are not grumpy. Unless it’s at Disney Animation.

Fear as Motivator

As a child I feared rising flood water (drowning).

I feared thief by night, bully by day.

I feared having to stand out in the crowd (wearing bright colors).

For a nail that sticks up will be hammered down.

Fear of being drafted, of being called out in class to recite something in English.

Fear of being compared to other high achievers (relatives or peers).

Vietnamese childhood has been a dread.

Peer and parental pressures would make “Tiger Mom” in America paper Tiger.

French teachers would check my finger nails every day, and neighbors would stare if I put on a new shirt. Later, in seminary and seminars at corporate level, people would ensure conformity (rep ties, Oxford blue .. the Brook Brothers look). Sales trainers role-played down to a firm handshake and advised our teeth-cleaning every three months.

All that, until the pink slip came.

Then I don’t put much weight behind those fear of the unknown. Some people whose life was totally invested in those codes, couldn’t take it e.g. retirees from the CIA were known to die within a few years off-service.

The old Command-and-Control system works well within the confine of those groups (cultic and militaristic).

But our new world, our multi-polar world, is looking for a different kind of leaders or even leaderless organization.

The best thing can happen to a worker is being fired. Then he/she can begin a new narrative and journey.

The mother of all fears is fear of death. Work back from there, and you will be amazed.

In my end, my beginning.

Like it or not, we are armed with an instinct to survive (camouflage, conformity and compromise). We know when to hold, when to fold.

The cavemen reflexes are built-in.

Cavemen or corporate men.

IBM Red-white-and-blue or hairy beardy 60’s. We carry our fears around.

Just use it, as a motivator.

A little more risk here, a toning down there. We will find the ideal mix between self-destruction and self-preservation.

Those who venture nothing gain nothing.

Those who risk it all, got nothing left to show.

But progress demands self-disruption and self-examination.

History is made by those who both advanced and retreated.

The fear business, like the vice business, take up a lot of GNP.

9/11 took that up a few notches: scanning machines and profiling algorithms.

With all the security apparatus in place, we still fear (no large shampoo in carry on).

Fear paralyzes, fun liberates.

Animals spring out to appear larger than they are (to self-preserve).

Butterflies also flap their wings to gain wind leverage and to avoid capture.

Use that which we are endowed with.

Fear motivates but dull not our senses because of fear.

The odd that something bad happens twice at the same place and circumstances is nil. Use our heads. People who got Purple Heart are testimonies to valor and courage, in the face of fear. I still fear of flood, of bullies and of corporal punishment. But they fear me too, if I turned off mine.

Use it.

Le Da – Tales of sorrow told by a Rock

My birth certificate shows my parents in their early 40’s.

No wonder my Dad’s taste for music was a bit off.

One of his favorites however stood the test of time: Le Da.

After all, it has something to do with the rock of ages.

It’s very sentimental (Rock solid yet soft when it comes to matter of the heart).

I gave it a try last night. Got a square 100 according to the karaoke machine.

My Dad must have sung through me.

The musical genes.

His generation experienced upheavals: revolution, uprootedness, and twice a refugee.

No wonder they were defined by and encoded their experience and emotion via music. A famous Vietnamese composer of my Dad’s time, Pham Duy, has just passed away.

Other singers (The Uptight) are making their way back to performing in Vietnam: new audience, new aspiration.

Something about a wandering soul seeking solace and wounded heart, soothing.

America has indeed been blessed with many talents from elsewhere.

The experience of America’s newest poet speaks well of this.

The American Century might be coming to an end, but in its place, the American Character barely blooms, blending best in class.

The style and confidence Viet Kieu singers (Vietnamese American) and filmmakers prove this point.

And before you know, you will find The Boat, The Book of Salt etc.. on Amazon book list.

It’s been since its inception that America embraces seekers and searchers.

It entertains doubts and encourages determination.

After all, it has elected not one term, but two terms, an American of exception.

Uniquely 21st century, he always has vacation in Hawaii, a half-way between East and West. There in the cliff, you will find some rocks, some tears and some tales of sorrow only rock could last long enough to tell.

My Dad would be passionate to join, if you give him the second mike. I wouldn’t bet on the score at the end though. Even me, I was just lucky last night.

Self-decoding

Our gene distribution and mutation have a lot in common (survival instinct, reproduction, empathy etc…). But from there, each of us is different and unique: some poets, others warriors or both.

Haruki Murakami is both a writer and a runner (100 km race).  Richard Blanco, who will recite at Obama’s Inauguration, is both an engineer and a poet.

Leonardo Da Vinci was multi-talented. I am threading in Malcolm Gladwell’s waters here. What makes a person genius? How did they find that out? Early or late in life (Raymond Carver took writing courses late in life).

What if we are “outliers”, but go about life undiscovered, undecoded?

What line do we have to cross to “find ourselves”?

10,000 hours of doing the same thing? Solving problems at the same level they occurred has never worked. Just think of failed relationships (rooted in dysfunctional families, then manifest itself later in life).

A new generation of young Americans are defining themselves with acronyms (NYT latest on Annette Bening and Warren Beatty kids).

Being first-wave immigrant, I serve as a bridge, for my American-born daughters to cross-over.

They are on Facebook and Twitter. They wear jeans and use I-phones.

They text (while I twist, well, not that old. My brother did) often times with abbreviation and speak a language of their peers.

While I enjoyed lengthy 20-minute long CCR’s O Suzie Q and Cream’s Sunshine of Your Love, they watch viral  YouTube’s clips.

I belong to a generation that enjoyed getting blasted at, while theirs is an uploading one (one-to-many vs many-to-many communication).

They can “read” someone instinctively (gene mutation?), decoding people rather quickly. I meanwhile grew up learning how to  entertain guests, give them benefits of the doubt (not three-strikes-you-are-out).

They speak in short bursts and shorthands. My prof’s however spent a lot of time setting up a theme before getting to the heart of their lectures.

We learn to comprehend and communicate bound by technology of any given time (a tweet lasts only 140 characters, with some buffering).

I remember sending post cards home when doing relief work overseas.

Before I get to what I wanted to say, I ran out of room. Overseas long distance phone calls were quite prohibitive. Even now, to call back to the US from Timbuktu is quite daunting.

Life is a crash course in understanding ourselves and our surroundings.

It might end abruptly, and there are no final exams. We will have to rely on others to “see” for us (director’s cut or uncut, novelist, poet and priest).

Born with this inability to see ourselves with our own eyes (only reflection in the mirror), we are humble and eager to discover more, to surprise ourselves at times: we have more courage, flexibility and nobility than we know. Only when we are in good company, in danger that a better version of ourselves emerge.

Outliers know this early in life. Others just focus on one or two things they are passionate about. Runner-writer, engineer-poet. What if you are better in the kitchen than in the boardroom? We call them chefs and not chiefs. And it’s OK too, given today’s technology e.g. YouTube. I hope your secret sauce go viral. Just make sure you speak in short bursts when targeting younger audience.

Fast foods invasion

It’s kind of redundancy. Fast foods in Saigon?

The place has already been fast. I don’t know if fast foods will help.

At Saigon Central (train depot), I was told to take a number and wait (the way Carl Jr would do in the US) for my fries.

Saigon is not used to mono-chronistic tempo (first comes first served). People just cut in, last in first out. If you are fanatic and faithful to Western sense of order, you will pick a fight every time (conversely, if you went native, you might run into reverse culture shock upon re-entry to the US).

No wonder, the first thing a foreigner sees is the sign, which says “US citizen” this way, the rest, that way. Get in line.  One at a time. Orderly Departure and Entry.

Burger King, KFC and now Starbucks, preceded by a bunch of Filippino and Korean chains.

Pretty soon, one cannot distinguish this city from any other in the world: cosmopolitan, clean and charge it baby (burgers and fries, cappuccino and pizza).

The West is taking over the rest.

When Fareed Zakaria talks about the Post-American World, he meant The Rise of the Rest. But what does that mean? Indian IT workers begin to go clubbing, Chinese tourists begin to take up coffee habits at Forbidden City’s Starbucks, and Brazilian go-go dancers start shopping at Victoria Secrets?

It’s a blended world, of which America happened to be the lead influencer.

Fast foods, fast pipe etc… are manifestations of mass markets, whose principles are rooted in auto manufacturing (which happened to be an offspring of the old industrial world).

It seeks not high-end Tiffany base. Just the lowest common denominator: limited decoration, fast turn-around and a lot of marketing hype (to look hip, westernized, with I-tunes music in the background). Thomas Friedman noticed  that any two countries with a McDonald are least likely to be at war with each other.

The French once boycotted against McDonalization and Disneylandization. They wanted to enjoy slow foods (multiple courses). It’s the slow growth view. The anti-globalization view.

The clash in Seattle not too long ago was a wake up call.

In It’s a Miracle (by one of former Pink Floyd members), we learned about “McDonald in Tibet”. It’s a miracle (with sarcasm).

Now, all you need is fast foods for Saigon fast lane. As if the place is  not fast enough. Actually, what took them (fast foods chains) so long? The place is way ahead of the curve. I have seen people stop their scooters, ask for a light, and zoom along with cigarette to go. Starbucks might have to have their Zippos ready for drive-bys. It’s smoking fast here.

An American Invention

Dr Lloyd Tran never stops and hardly sleeps. For a right reason. He is an inventor at heart.

He started out as a chemist. Then worked for huge corporations such as Monsanto. Then he invented and manufactured his own drug release device in Irvine, CA (right at the time companies started to look elsewhere to outsource and offshore). After a stint in nanotech, he found his niche in CleanTech e.g. solar panel, EV battery etc… His most recent invention: electric car conversion.

His students built on top of what they had learned from AC/DC (I thought that was a band).

So far, they have de-gutted a few Porches , VW, and even Jaguar as gliders to install EV components (power train, A/C and even cruise control). I test drove the green Porche and found it quiet, fast and futuristic.

I don’t see how others can’t do it. Just find a problem, ask why not and solve it.

Tesla is getting first-prize for this year Electric Vehicles (the S series).

Toyota, embattled with lawsuit and litigation, is a bit cautious and conservative. But even then, Toyota won first-prise in EV race cars. It has released its first three-wheel EV concept car also.

What’s the waiting? EMR (Electronic Medical Record) and EV. Or we just wait to admit everyone into ER?

We don’t lack the know-how. We lack the will to change. To rock the boat. All the while, we are told to think “out of the box”. Maybe the “box” or the boat, needs to get out of itself.

One way is to travel. To see how other species go about their days (water jars on their heads in the desert, automobile glider on buffalo cart in Vietnam etc…). I wish I could show you a picture of the latter which I saw on One Vietnam Network.

The point is, we take the path of least resistance by default.

Changes are mentioned only in passing. But men like Dr Lloyd saw an old Jaguar, hauled it back and made something amazing out of it (Jaguar ironically is now own by Tata, former colonized now owns empire’s jewel, after a change of hand at Ford).

If I were to be Tata owner, I would contact Dr Lloyd Tran, and ask to see the all-electrified Jag.

What used to be a symbol of luxury is now also hip and cool (environmentally friendly). I took that  smog-filled Jag to state inspection. Now, I heard that it is smog-free (zero emission).

Can’t wait to get back and give it a test-drive. It might blow me away (fast and furiously quiet).

For now, I put this out as a challenge: be world citizen. Solve problems where ever you may see them. Think first as a technologist, then a marketer (and last as a politician).

Before you know , you might even get elected. I know how hard and challenging the task was to transform an ICE Jaguar into an EV one. But the team did just that. All I have is “three cheers” to an American Invention. It is right here in our back yard (behind the city’s dump). One man’s trash is another man’s treasure, that which once was smog-filled now turns smog-free.

Secret sauce

I met a pianist last Sunday. When he told me he was 65, I almost flipped. He happened to be a Judo trainer as well. Wow! He looked 45.

Another friend of mine, Jazz musician and software expert, also looks young for his age. What’s the secret sauce? Shirley MacLaine doesn’t look 78.

You might say, oh well, actors and actresses take care of themselves.

How about us? Don’t we want to take care of ourselves?

We are actors of our life scripts. That’s the secret sauce.

Stand in front of the mirror, rehearse, rehearse, rehearse.

Breathe in , breathe out. Sing out loud, in and out of the showers.

Most New Year resolutions are health-related e.g. losing 10 lbs….

But the goal must be rooted in the subconscious and lived out habitually.

I am sure the pianist had logged in 10,000 hours of Judo practice (he broke many of his bones, just like Jackie Chan).

Still, he wore cross-training shoes, jeans and stretched short sleeves. I am sure he could hang out with his son (who was trying out for the US Olympic Judo team) and be mistaken as “one of the boys”.

Our life expectancy has increased to around 77 years. Like companies , we are “Built to Last”.

Take aways from most admired companies: agility, flexibility and discipline to follow through. Front-line employees are empowered and educated to make judgment calls.  But most importantly, leaders must be able to take a step back and do a pre-morterm analysis (the O ring in Challenger, the release valves in TMI nuclear reactor).

Problems are systemic, built up over time like dental plaque .  Meanwhile, people are creatures of habits i.e. taking the path of least resistance. Voila! Recipe for disaster. Everyone is just doing his or her job logging in 10,000 hours of minimum wages.

I noticed the pianist fingers on the key boards after he had told me who he was (Judo trainer).  I tried to see if he could still manage those graceful spreads. He did play a bit harder than most. Strength and swiftness, controlled yet flexible.

Our time is now. Use the opposite force to our advantage. We have tried to use our own one too many. Try it the other way. Be agile. Be flexible. Be open-minded. It might work. It’s the secret sauce I have seen in musicians and martial-arts experts. When you are multi-talented, it triggered something else, some place else in the brain. Use it.

The things they still carry

The war novel with similar title was surprisingly good. I have known about it for a while, but couldn’t get myself to “carry” it home. Until now. Until it’s translated into Vietnamese.

It’s the opposite of reading Bao Ninh‘s The Sorrows of War in English.

Both novels had the same setting, same period, same conflict, same ending (went down with whatever they were carrying, on their bodies and on their minds).

Sorry winner and lucky loser.

All the while, the sound track for that same period was Proud Mary (you don’t have to worry, for people are happy to give).

In The Things They Carried, supplies were chopper-ed in (chocolate, cigarettes and C-rations). The military industrial complex was “happy to give”, from Hartford, from MN etc…

Rolling, rolling, rolling on the river.

I could barely get through the first few chapters, reading about the members of this fictitious company as they went down, with the things they carried (one of them even carried sleeping pills – for eternal rest).

We can now look back, with recognized names like J. Kerry, J. Fonda etc… at a  safe and rational distance, away from the heat of Kent State and Watergate and My Lai.

I have seen the things people here in VN carry, on their shoulders, on their scooters.

But inside, unless they sit down and tell me, the hidden things that they still carry are scary.

Those with vivid memories are dying one by one, on both sides of the Pacific.

We got scholarly volumes and doctrine (Powell) on the conflict.

And we eventually got Burger King and Dunkin here in VN. It’s like the tunnel is finally closed  with sign which says “Go away, leave the past alone”.

For here or to go?

It’s Future Land now. Happy Land. Disney Land. Dream Land. It has to be.

Yes. Young students carry a lot with them today: book bags, smart phones,  eye glasses, cigarettes, lighters, even IDs. No dog tags. No Zippos. No memories.

Just a bunch of “nic’s” and passwords. Everything is in the Cloud. On Facebook. On Drop Box and Mail Box.

To search for them. Easy. Just Google. In Vietnamese, or English. No translation needed. Sorrows of War or The Things They Carried. Instant access.

Perhaps that war, Vietnam that was, was the last  “hardware-driven” conflict.

No wonder, the things they carried, seemed awfully heavy and burdensome when viewed from a light-weight I-pad.

Reading People

I was approached by a guy wearing an FBI cap, asking me to buy lottery tickets.

It’s hot in Vietnam this time of the year. Almost everyone wears some sorts of caps with USA on them,  helmets with the Nike vectors or a hybrid version: helmets shaped like caps.

From top to toe, we send out signals and messages. Call it Non-Verbal language.

2/3 of our communication are not verbal (in Without You, there is a line “you always smile, but in your eyes, your sorrow shows, yes it shows”).

Yet few of us were schooled, trained or able to detect these hidden codes: I am cool. I don’t give a damn. I am somebody. I am everybody. I am nobody. Try me…..

Conversely, people receive unintended messages we did not know we  send.

I’ve got money. I don’ t respect you enough (clothing mismatched). I am carefree. I am careful. Don’t mess with me (tatoo and black T’s).

In the States, cars make statements. Here, it’s the scooters.

A guitar as backpack (musician) a rolled-up mat (yoga) a cone hat (urban migrant) a kid with balloon (mom has a night out and spends guilt money).

Every stripe and strand co-exist and negotiate limited space.

The upper crust has already left town to exclusive and elite resorts, leaving behind the “mass who live in quiet desperation” in the tourist district, where people lean against fake trees and work up a fake smile for photo ops.

If you stood and watched people, you are not sure between background and foreground, which one is more on display.

Wait until 4-G is here.

Then we will have completed our evolutionary cycle (self-expression with a cost).

When those sport cars came out, they were intended to say: I own this toy, reserved for me and my girlfriend (parents and entourage are not welcome).

So will it be with the I’s family of products (unless you share the listening device  with one significant other). The I-pod Shuffle was meant for one, jogger preferably.

Not the boombox that blasts out Christmas music for the whole neighborhood.

Yes, in our technological society, the clear message (which happens to be the medium, according to McLuhan) is that, I finally am. Arrived. Leave me alone. Leave your old world behind (communal and village-bound). I am OK, you are OK or not, it’s irrelevant. When the playing field is leveled (by us duck-sitting as advertising headcounts), they will upgrade to some other games which will require premium fees.

So we celebrate the upcoming New Year, with ” a will to try” so as not to be left out or behind.

My New Year resolution is to read people better, however subtle the intended messages might be. Often times, it’s mixed message. After all, the world is our non-verbal bookstore. Just  hope I don’t run into a real FBI agent, undercover as a lottery-ticket pusher.