The Wind Drift: Change and Adjustment

From the Change Management Notes

The Wind Drift-the average direction of the wind over a period of time.

Bonifacio Global City BGC is a walking business district. Pedestrian lanes are in place in the squared blocks without any obstacles. On each block, there is a pedestrian traffic sign and a series of white strips painted on the street to mark a crossing lane. From the Net Lima Building at the 4^th and 26^th St, walk to Market Market towards the East is a leisurely 12 minute walk. To the St. Luke's Medical Center Global at the 32th St. towards North, it is a short 5-minute walk with interruptions at the blocks if the traffic lights flash red.

February when we moved in, walking back to Headquarters requires more effort because of the wind drift that blows harder as the day deepens creating a wind draft. Like going through change, adjusting requires effort and personal initiative to cope.

The Uniform. Here at BGC, front flat slacks, leather shoes, blazers, collared shirts, signature eyeglasses, slung IDs, laptop bag and highlighted streaks of hair are the distinguishing marks of the evolving artifacts.

You know these are artifacts because they are phenomena that one sees, hears and feels, visible products of the group, visible behavior of the group and organizational processes and easy to observe but difficult to decipher.

Welcome to change management.

New Faces. New laughter. Fresh Stories. Some familiar figures are gone. Habitual responses no longer show up. The group you coalesce with is either incomplete, with a new face or worst non-existent anymore. Whether elimination or elimination, what is certain is a new team lead has taken over understanding your operations and sliding in his reforms.

There is discomfort because it is an adjustment period. There is containment because the rules have changed. There is some sort of uncertainty because your area of influence is now an area of concern.

The feelings are normal. Acknowledge them.  Eventually driving forces will show up to transition you to the new norm.

New artifacts challenge your values. What new values prevail? What can you ride on? Which ones are challenges? Be aware. Tap on them. They are key in tiding you over.

In managing change, help let go of the past. Some proven steps: Prepare them. Acknowledge change openly. Compensate for the loss. Take a part of the old. Say info over and over.  Elaborate on the ending. Mark endings-show how it ensures continuity. Treat the past with respect.

27 Feb 2013

Philippines is Where Home is

The family is the center of the Filipino.

The Filipino worker is at the core of industrial operations overseas.

Home with members of the family is where the elderly stays.

There is joy preparing a meal for the family.

This is the Philippines. This is my home.

Hands may not always be full but the heart is.

Triggered by the letter of Dr.David Harwell.

Benjamin Pimentel building on the insights wrote a reply.

Blog. FB. Tweet

I am principally a blogger via online internet using a laptop. Blogging allows me to expound ideas in stanzas and paragraphs limitless. With minimal visuals, I am able to frame a point of view.  It did not matter if it was not read. For as long as the thought is captured and recorded and can be looked back to aid recall at the appropriate moment, I am pleased.

Blogging provides me the discipline to contain and organize my lucid thoughts in a structured format. It is worth publishing if it is "a compelling idea well expressed."

Half a decade ago, I was created a Facebook account, a venue for social networking in visuals, video and in words directed to a set of acquired friends online. The open list of contacts added with the linkages attached to acquired friends is enough to keep the lines burning and the account alive. At the peak of usage especially when hot items are discussed and a constant probe by the system on "what's in your mind" the stream of messages from anywhere and anytime regardless of location and zone never settles.

Facebook even has a provision to quick acknowledgement increasing the exchanges directly or openly to all. Fortunately, there is a control safeguard where you can select friends and views to receive. FB eventually expanded to accommodate larger files, high definition videos and fotos initially slowing the system down.

Smart Phone changed the mobility of interaction. Starting with PALM then moving to IPhone and Galaxy, the unit initially used for Short Message Sending and phone calls is capable of sending and receiving the contents of a computer from anywhere, anytime in any condition.

Thousands of SMS, videos and visuals are transmitted in this handy small hardware capable in reaching a wider base of recipients. Linked with Facebook and blog, I eventually created a Twitter account to belong to the new generation of social networkers.

Twitter when connected with live media coverage of TV, cable or radio shows its competitive edge over blog and FB. There is live, real time interaction with practically anyone on planet earth who can type in a message on the phone or in a computer keyboard. Limited to just 140 characters though, it is sufficient to cleverly present a point-of-view to thousands of readers both of high and low profile, known and unknown and being responded to quickly with a reply. This containment of number of characters makes possible the multiple sending of ideas in shorter gaps to a huge base of followed twitters.

This social network phenomenon digitalizes human interaction.  Good, better, best?  Blog, good. FB, better. Twitter, best. If you wish to expound an idea, blog. If you wish to expand to a wider base, FB. If you wish quick and short interaction, Twitter. The foundation of the networking is human interaction. But as I get more engaged in the digital exchanges, I realized eventually that interaction without the establishing face-to-face experience remains to be empty in spite of the traffic. Nothing matches a senseless talk over beer with friends in a beer garden.

Chito R.

New Thoughts

Expanding these ideas in a blog article:

1. Blog is an expounded expression. Facebook is directed to a controlled audience. Tweet is short thought blasted in the open
2. Iphone or Galaxy
3. Desktop is to blog as laptop is to facebook and Iphone/Galaxy is to Tweet

Tweet from tochsr (@tochsr)

tochsr (@tochsr) tweeted at 4:49 PM on Sat, Feb 02, 2013:
Mcdo. Coffee @P25.0 Tweet tapping their wifi. Cinema Square, Greenbelt Paseo, Timog, Katipunan. http://t.co/MPtew3tG
(https://twitter.com/tochsr/status/297627745150705665)

Get the official Twitter app at https://twitter.com/download

tochsr (@tochsr) shared a Tweet with you!

tochsr shared a Tweet with you:             Trial send from Tweeter           ABS-CBN News Channel @ANCALERTS VIDEO: Renowned National Geographic photographer Joe McNally on ANC j.mp/WmLyBB   03:15 PM - 03 Feb 13             Don't have a Twitter account yet? Sign up today and follow tochsr.   Join Twitter             This message was sent by a Twitter user who entered your email address. You can unsubscribe if you'd prefer not to receive emails when other people share Tweets with you. If you believe tochsr is engaging in abusive behavior on Twitter, you may report tochsr for spam. Please do not reply to this message; It was sent from an unmonitored email address. Need help? Twitter, Inc. 1355 Market St., Suite 900 San Francisco, CA 94103

Tweet from tochsr (@tochsr)

tochsr (@tochsr) tweeted at 4:49 PM on Sat, Feb 02, 2013:
Mcdo. Coffee @P25.0 Tweet tapping their wifi. Cinema Square, Greenbelt Paseo, Timog, Katipunan. http://t.co/MPtew3tG
(https://twitter.com/tochsr/status/297627745150705665)

Get the official Twitter app at https://twitter.com/download

tochsr (@tochsr) shared a Tweet with you!

tochsr shared a Tweet with you:             tochsr @tochsr Baguette and coffee in a French artisan bakery tucked in Samar st. QC pic.twitter.com/jJ1cGBf9   11:08 AM - 02 Feb 13             Don't have a Twitter account yet? Sign up today and follow tochsr.   Join Twitter             This message was sent by a Twitter user who entered your email address. You can unsubscribe if you'd prefer not to receive emails when other people share Tweets with you. If you believe tochsr is engaging in abusive behavior on Twitter, you may report tochsr for spam. Please do not reply to this message; It was sent from an unmonitored email address. Need help? Twitter, Inc. 1355 Market St., Suite 900 San Francisco, CA 94103

Familiar with this?

1 week in transit for local mail
4 weeks in transit to a US addressee.
It did not fail in surprising recepient.
Some forget where their mail box is.

Training That Matter

Faced in critical situations, what prompts one to cross over to overcome are not skills and competencies but personal values. Values are deeply rooted principles that mold our character manifested in our behavior. Training programs  that influenced where I am.

Personal



Nephew from the tropics learning how to make snow balls

1.  Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Effective Leaders. Defining personal mission.  Make the self-independent, working interdependently leads to greater results

2.  Ken Blanchard’s Situational Leadership. Leaders’ awareness that for every situation, there is a corresponding leadership style based on competency and motivation level

3.  Appreciative Inquiry. 4Ds to reach the destination from Discover to Dream, Design and Destine

4.  Heroic Leadership, a personal self-transformation program from me to a leader to a leader with a cause

Professional

5.   Performance Management System, how to drive a business unit to a high performing unit through the 5 elements of performance management system

6.  Cross Functional Performance Management System, a simple approach in driving a business units' performance to a high performing unit

7.   Ateneo Regis MBA Program, a condensed business management course to develop leaders in driving the organization

8.   Team Building. Mission Vision Setting. Change Management and 4S Assessment. A transformational course to align people to a common goal. Values and drivers are identified that lead to the vision

9.   4 Disciplines of Execution. Score card setting to drive results from the execution. 1. Focus on the Wildly Important 2. Act on the Lead Measures 3. Keep a Compelling Scoreboard 4. Create a Cadence of Accountability

10.  Leadership Summit. Assessing how we are as leaders who have an important task guided by a plan with not enough time to achieve results

Visualizing a dream

11.  Achieve Global Professional Sales Coaching. Effective Coaching Conversation. Transferring skill and competency to an associate

12.  Collaboration for Value.  Working together starting with understanding customers’ needs and working operating model can lead to deeper satisfaction. Connect.  Create. Align. Execute

13.  Glendinning Negotiating Skills. Transition from negotiation to a structured commercial selling

14.  6 Sigma.  Quantitative based productivity measure communicated in structured format

15.  DDI Service Plus Beyond Customer Expectation.  Presentation Skill Certification on service orientation
16. Basic Call Procedure. Persuasive Selling Format. Most effective and simplest planned sales call to sell in and to close a sale

     As I picked up from the Coca Cola System Leadership Summit, all these build up to leadership. “Leaders have an important task guided by a plan with not enough time to achieve results. They are fact based measured by a handful of controlling objectives. When faced with a quasi-crisis, reserves show up to complete the task. Leaders look to the future with optimism.”

Welcoming 2013 Online

2013 was welcomed not by fireworks or partying but by viewing celebration in the city and elsewhere in the world on cable TV and online.

This was encouraged by the aggressive awareness campaign mounted by the Department of Health on the dangers to life by explosives.

It was jump-started when the Twitter I sent to field reports Ryan Chua and Bam Alegre who were reporting new year preparations and situationers in their respective field assignments for their TV news networks were retweeted back with positive comments.

Covering the Divisoria beat on 31 December, I sent Bam a message giving feedback on his report on prices and fruit sourcing that "price fluctuates because of change in source cost" to which he sent quickly an appreciative reply.

Extensively covering the PNP’s confiscation of illegal explosives to welcome the New Year in GMA and nearly province I asked, “paano nadedestroy ang confiscated firecrackers?” which was not mentioned in the field report, I got an immediate reply “binabasa.” When I commented on the manner he answered to the probe of news anchor Howie Severino if “Luneta was a no smoking area,” he acknowledged “oo nga di ko nasagot ng maayos” and mentioned the constraints why smokers violate.

Doing the anchor for “The World Tonight” end-to-end and at times nervously and in some segments probing questions to fire officials, I tweeted Ryan Chua “My 1^st time to see you anchor end-to-end. You held on.” He replied back positively with “Thank you. Hope to do better next time.”
Close to midnight on the eve, through online I found myself in all the crowded places in GMA, in Luneta with thousands of crowds through Bam Alegre and Ces Drillon, in the GMA at the Mall of Asia celebration through Mark Salazar, in Eastwood for the more elitist crowd. Earlier on I was in Sydney, Australia. Later on that day I was in Japan, Taiwan, London, China and in the Times Square in US.
With the advent of faster communications and superior sound and sights system, it is difficult to discern the live from the technically sourced.

But what was real is online brings you to places and more information quickly. Nothing beats though the intimacy of face-to-face engagement.

Here is to an exciting and fresh start this 2013.

Fotos from BBC News

UP Concert Chorus Korus 50

Concert Poster

One choir performance in a small hall by 28 disciplined and musically talented choir members is enough to send shivers down the audience’ spine. Imagine the magnitude of impact of hearing 28 carefully selected pieces sang by 128 musically trained sopranos, altos, tenors and basses in a 2,300 filled university theater. That was the UP Concert Chorus Korus 50 staged at the UP Diliman Theater last 21 December 2012 (21.12.2012).

This once-in-a-lifetime event is a gathering of star-studded alumni and members of the university choir performing ”hits, religious songs, show-stoppers and grand numbers captured” in 9 segments in 3 ½ hours.

Each segment intends to capture the spirit behind the batch and era starting with a strong opening building up to a grand finale.  Segments are memorable, carefully crafted to say a story ending with the house joining the talents on stage singing Handel’s Hallelujah and UP Naming Mahal. Transitioning to the next batch is a slide show featuring the group on tour, in a performance, on rehearsal accompanied by a recorded soundtrack. Highlights are described in poetic lines written by UPCC alumni Raul Castro.

Program Souvenir Cover

A fresh concept of the anniversary show is the insert of two memorable points of interest: death and wedding.  In Memoriam pays tribute to members who have passed away most prominent of which is Professor Rey Paguio.  UPCC Singing Sweethearts recognizes the pairs who pursued their relationships.

This anniversary creation directed on stage by Alexander Cortez pays tribute to the individual talents that make up the choir, their group, the college, the UP institution, the country moving up to the world, music in general and to ultimate almighty.



Programme. Click to enlarge

50 decades of music in a night with Egay Manguiat, Jai-Sabbas-Aracama, Ramon Santos and Kitchy Valedellon-Molina taking turns conducting the choir.  For that brief moment when UPCC was singing, heaven must have opened up to let their music in.

God gifted the members of the UP Concert Chorus with talents. With their sterling performance in UP Korus 50, they have returned the gift to the creator.

Links picked up from youtube.

The National Parks "Morning of Creation"

Four months after I viewed the 1^st 5 of the 6 episodes of Ken Burn’s The National Parks, I finally got hold of the 6^th and final episode entitled “The Morning of Creation 1946-1980.”

This series in high definition that runs for over 12 hours chronicles the creation, struggles and challenges in sustaining America’s 58 national parks and monuments with documented videos  and visuals as early as 1872.

In the final episode, filmmaker Ken Burn and writer Dayton Duncan  feature Mission 66, an infrastructure boost to cope with the increasing park visitors now reaching 62 million a year, Adolph Murie, a biologist with a radical view and approach to wolves and predatory animal treatment, the conversion of Alaska’s 56 million acres to state protected land said to be the largest expansion in history and the challenge facing the 21^st century.

As in the previous episodes, “The Morning of Creation” shows video documentaries, old and digital photographs, historical newspaper clippings, poetry and quotes from stakeholders, historians, government officials, relatives and writers matched with appropriate landscape sceneries. Ending dramatically with statements from ranger park superintendents, writers and by others touched by the experience of the national park, the film left an impression that all the struggles in the past were meaningful because their children in visiting the protected national parks today had the same feeling their predecessors went through in the infancy stage of the national parks creation. The parks now have been creating memories for them lasting for a lifetime. They did so because the park preserved nature, history and their identity. The scenic sights and sounds only sensed at the park have been reconnecting the past with the present.

Towards the end, writer Terry Tempest Williams posed a call, “I think the challenge of our national parks in the 21st century will be the challenge of restoration. And not only are the national parks a gift but a covenant. They’re a covenant with the future saying, “this is where we were, this is what we loved and now it is in your hands.”

Poster from the Sierra Club John Muir exhibit site

The final message is appropriately left for John Muir which perhaps is the driver why we need to preserve parks because  . . .“One learns that the world, though made, is yet being made, that is still the morning of creation.

This grand show is eternal. It is always sunrise somewhere; the dew is never all dried at once; a shower is forever falling; vapor ever rising. Eternal sunrise, eternal sunset, eternal dawn and gloaming, on seas and continents and islands, each in its turn, as the round earth rolls.”

After viewing the 1^st set of episodes, I extended invitation to friends to view the film with me.  Completing “The National Parks,” I now extend the invitation to plan and to go and see the parks with me.

Photos lifted from http://www.pbs.org/nationalparks/parks/

89.5 Trekkers on 8-9 May 1999

89.5 Trekkers on 8-9 May Making a Lava Lounge Out of the Pinatubo Base Cause Another Explosion!

Put in 89.5 trekkers of various  orientations and aggrupations.  Of different clubs, age groups, sexual preferences, religions, drinking beliefs, eating patterns, trekking styles, geographical locations and nationalities, speaking tongues. From the silent, to the normal to the dominant, humble and the makukulits. Backpackers, trekkers, hikers, rock climbers or mere  walkers. Pediatrics to geriatrics.  Bankers, computer specialists, to students to out of school youths.  Retiring climbers to beginning  climbers.  San Marcelino to Katipunan, Luzon to Mindanao. Baliuag, Guiguinto, Valenzuela to Tarlac, Ayala, Binondo, Pasay, Fairview. Add a TL, a trail master, an ex-club president, a host in a dark suit as heavy as a single man's tent, a song number, getting to know you. What do you get? RIOT in LAVA!

From a simple climb planned by Globe Adventure Club Founder Regie Pablo and Chito Razon of PALMC last April 1999 to drag Jon Linao, ex-president of MESAU out his computer, the event turned into a monstrous, unforgettable climb of the millennium. 

How could this not turn out to be a grand climb? It promised Mt. Pinatubo, the world-renowned volcano notorious for distorting the climate system in Asia and in the world starting 1991. It came after the MFDI federation climb successfully organized by UPM that set the foundation for the bonding of most participants. Banny Hermanos of PAL MC whetted our appetite with his surreal slide presentation. Lakbay TV through its Balikbayan narrator Roel Torres showed us repeatedly on Cable TV that the crater is reachable, even with his  physical condition. Richard Rebada, ex-president of MESAU completed the trek this year and volunteered to lead the way. Rolly Villanueva, president of PNB Mountaineering Club brought his 22 strong delegation. Butch Sebastian, MFPI President recognized the event. Lastly, weather cooperated-no strong rains in the past few days.

The climbers themselves were no ordinary climbers. Most completed the Balbalasang Federation, went through a tune up climb the week before. Majority have gone to Halcon, Guiting-Guiting, Napulauan, Tawangan over the past few months. Youngest was Shab which accounts for the 5 counting. He turned 3 last Sunday. Eldest was Martin Chambers, a marathoner from New Zealand who is nearing the 60’s mark. His incredible performance and behavior in the socials make you think he certainly is a lot younger.

All were intrigued by the place as site of massive destruction: Pinatubo from the volcano eruption and Capas, our jump off town associated with the Death March. The heat  of up to 38°C on our way to the crater Saturday potentially fatal to our delicate brown  skin, the lava river trail, destroying our shoes and our soles, brand new or borrowed.

Nothing stopped the climbers from appreciating the weekend. Richard, Ronald and company of MESAU alumni pre-arranged guides and jeepney rides. Chito handled administrative  requirements through contact leaders: Regie for Globe, Rolly and Elmer for PNB, Jon and Jessie for MESAU, Jojo Cadungog for PAL, Teddy for Marco Polo, Jaja Reyes and Jenny Atienza for Loyola Mountaineer. Participants showed up at Capas Public Market before the targeted 8 morning departure. For many, it was their first time to see  this market place. Jeepney ride completed the travel up to the kubo reducing our trekking time. The 5 hour trek to the campsite was reduced to a mere 2 ½ on the way back. The dreaded socials just happened spontaneously. What happened next was simply deafening. 

Weekend was an enjoyable one perhaps because we were celebrating and thanking.  Celebrating that we were spared of death from the destruction that emanated from our trail sites and thankful that the signs of life are beginning to show at the crater and at the ridges. The hot lava waters are supplemented now with mineral waters flowing near the base of the crater. Green leaves are thriving at the mountain ridges.  Sounds of insects hover in the night. Best, there is laughter at the site.

The laughter we brought is our contribution in inducing life. Through the roaring noise, heckling, chasing, socializing, drinking, we were acknowledging to the 89.5 climbers, awake, or asleep or pretending to be asleep, the wasted and the unused that we are very much alive. Crashing Mt. Pinatubo also meant renewal-our renewed interest to nature, to our respective clubs, to the federation, to our selves. Just like the new greens sprouting at the sides, the wild trees growing near the crater rim and the wild insects building their habitats. The clothes, food and other functional items we donated to the Aeta community are our seeds to this renewal. There is always that company of 89.5 whom we will remember in time as the fertile ground for new friendship. Nothing more can better dramatize facing a new life through the Happy Birthday song we dedicated to Shah that Sunday. If we just get the message of the gift of life, that to me is the biggest explosion of the weekend. Simply it says, thank you we are alive.

-Chito