At the start of the year, I felt that it was time to meet up with a few virtual contacts from Linkedin that I have not met in real life. Somehow, I became like a 94 year old. I ended up telling all 3 of the new friends the same stories of how the volunteers I used to work with helped to declutter and convinced a 94 year old to throw decades of things out just to keep the bugs out. Even though I felt that I should dwell on my new dream I somehow went into many long grandmother stories about my old jobs and ended up with the same thread of how I got bitten by dust mites. It was still great that all of them are great listeners and commented that the exclusive untold of stories of my old jobs being insightful or provided them more understanding about social service or teaching.
If I can use the ABCD to sum up the meeting up with my Linkedin contacts in January went.
Arranging – I ended up arranging almost every item in the room and vacuuming every other day due to being attacked by dust mites.
Believing – I wanted to start the new season with confidence again as I tend to be my harshest critic. When I met all 3 contacts, they all sing the same tune that I will have to believe in myself again especially in the area of pursuing new dreams.
Cartharsis – The most memorable encounter is at a restaurant where it talking about the past just feels like cartharsis. I felt that a contact who worked in a pragmatic occupation in the finance sector could have made a really good counsellor or psychotherapist. I tried to convince the person to pick up counselling as he seemed to be a natural at inducing catharsis when he said you look like you wanna cry already.
Decluttering – Decluttering helps restart a new life as I felt that I could not bring in additional blessing in my life with a cupboard chocked full of clothes and shelf with yellowing books that I have not read in a decade.
I decided to start the year sorting out my thoughts and clearing my storage. I felt that I was particularly drawn to something I wrote more than a decade back. I felt that it was a really wise and accurate picture when I wrote a journal entry for MOE when my internship journey ended. This was the first time I think I pondered what it means to be a teacher as a vocation. Even though I have been in education for many years I actually felt that I could still felt the curiosity and wonder of a really awesome kid who wrote so eloquently about this profession at 22 years old. I am awed at how my old self could write so enthusiastically and it really impressed my future self. I didn’t expect a decade later that I would get “encouraged” by my 22 year old self who hasn’t experienced the real hardship of being a teacher yet. I do get so encouraged by my old journal notes and would like to share it with any longsuffering teacher.
I see the multiple roles of teachers from being disciplinarian, counsellor, content knowledge transmitter, mini-celebrity/entertainer, baby-sitter and co-worker, administrator, leader and consumer too. Therefore, if I ever have the heart to be a teacher, I am assured that it takes something from the inside which is the love for people, for societal change, for shaping morality of students. However, I do recognize the limitations of such lofty ideals where we have a limit to how we can influence students. There are often other factors like family and peer group and the mass media. As a permanent teacher it is necessary to distant ourselves from students because it is never healthy to let them into our personal life when we need to maintain professional image. Other limitations would be the breakdown of the family sometimes when students carry their baggage to school whether in violent burst of anger or just general frustration with life as such.
Zax is proactive and takes the initiative to get things moving. Being highly passionate in providing career counselling he has a positive psychology approach towards solving problems. First, he actively listened to my intention to pivot to a new field. He is able to come up with sound strategies to gear me up to move into the realm of positive psychology by adopting an experimental mindset. In my arduous quest to find an ideal role fit, he possessed the ability to transform a negative unadventurous person into one who confronts and challenges one’s fears to take the path into the unknown. Along the way he had been supportive in my desire to move into new ventures. With a mindset shift I am able to find the courage to get out of my comfort zone with his emphasis on the need to experiment.
Second, when I managed to get out of my comfort zone he provided much needed counsel to get unstuck by extending strong support to crystallize an action plan and take steps to move forward. He is able to gather the momentum to ensure that I keep to my values of consistency and commitment in being an avid blog writer and engaging my social media audience.
Thirdly, being a shrewd consultant he is able marshal the right resources to provide credible follow up in terms of training. He found the best service providers in the area of business like recommending the NTUC training hub. This comes at a time period when they have excellent deals and customer service. Hence, I benefitted immensely from his consultation as he dealt well with my pain point. Transforming my problem into an opportunity where I am able to leverage on multiple training providers who are perfect in my eyes as I found the right environment to experiment at zero risk.
Lastly, he is able to strengthen my foundation with his positivity by boosting my confidence to extend my network. Not only on LinkedIn but in my business classes with course mates whom I collaborated well with. His passion for going for training as a role model has influenced me to understand the essential survival skills needed for this season. I can glean more in depth knowledge of his belief in agility, innovation and digitalization through the training. This is where my trainers had equipped workers with essential skills to pivot and progress towards understanding how things work in the new economy.
Overall, Zax’s intelligent approach of delving into the realm of positive psychology will benefit many cynics and skeptics during a pandemic for some time to come.
To run a successful business , you will need to come up with a plan. To plan well, you will need to know these 9 step process from business canvas. A canvas is like a drawing board where you will need to draw a beautiful plan in order to reach a desired outcome. It will be good to get to know the 9 step process from the first step to the ninth step. You can get to know the different questions with each step and probe deeper to find an answer for what success means for your business ultimately.
According to an NTUC Learning Hub survey, digital marketing grew in importance as the top digital skill needed for business viability in the post-pandemic era. Ranked number one, it is voted by half of employers in 2021 versus 44% of them in 2020. Below is a table by NTUC of the top ten skills that are desired by employers. The second digital skills desired by employers will be data analysis at 36% followed by project management at 35%.
Having taken digital marketing by NTUC, I have written the 5 advantages of digital marketing in my previous blog post here.
My status as a special guest for design thinking course
I attended a two day intensive course with NTUC and it happened that I was the only “special guest” who was not from the same bank. Nevertheless, I felt that I was warmly welcomed. I had the privilege to contribute a real world problem that I faced for the design thinking assignment. I sensed that the bankers genuinely wanted to know from an external party point of view, what problem I faced with my personal experience with banking. When I joined the discussion group, I was met with enthusiasm and encouragement to speak up from the warm and cordial members of UOB bank.
Engaging group activity
As a group we have to define a problem statement and then evaluate the best idea to provide the most viable and feasible solution. I am amazed with the group’s creativity in making the best use of the design training group breakout session to collaborate with an “external stakeholder” to solve this problem.
Problem statement to mock up
After coming up with the problem statement we have to evaluate the best idea using an evaluation checklist. This is where we have to rank the the different factors such as intercom, facial recognition or bank branch. This is followed by coming up with a customer journey map of the story board. Finally, our mockup using the service delivery flowchart had been crafted in a really flawless manner. As they were so keen to practice the mock up, I gave my support for coming up with a standardized operation procedure. The final mock up when presented was simple yet elegant. I thought of using this was an excellent mock up since this formal documented flowchart can be transferred to their own department’s immediate utilization.
After the two days of intense session, I believe that our lives had been enriched. I am glad to have contribute to the improvement in their department’s work as I can see their teamwork and collaboration skills had been strengthened. I am hopeful that they will become more empathetic in how they will resolve the customer service issues at the bank.
I was rather participative as I questioned the members a few times regarding their decision to go with four stories instead of five for example. I am also glad to have clarified what they think the cost of implementing the facial recognition system is since it is a million dollar budget. I am glad that behind all the new technologies and frontiers in thinking, the human touch of empathy has been the preferred course of action for the bankers. Overall, they managed to come up with quite a logical and coherent presentation.
Concluding well with Design Thinking
All in all, the instructor had been supportive of taking questions in a safe environment as we are all simulating the problems faced at the bank. I am glad they all took in their good spirits as my inquisitive and curious nature went down well with them. I even called for a last minute “rehearsal” so we can anticipate the questions from the “stakeholder”. True to the purpose of the activity, they anticipated more questions and attempt to leave no stones unturned. I could see that my participation has enabled them to “practice” their pitching skills to their “stakeholders” well and stand them in good stead for their next department’s implementation of design thinking.
Coming up with a problem definition with UOB bankEvaluation checklistCustomer Journey Map – Story boardSecond day Group Presentation with Mock up using Flow chart
The weekend is here and I thought the best thing to unwind is to do physical exercises as I believe it helps with our overall mental and physical health. I felt that with work from home throughout the past few months, cabin fever starts to set in and I desire more time out for long walks in the natural park. Natural scenery is highly appealing and refreshes the mind and heart. My favorite long walk accomplishment is reaching the red bridge at Punggol Promenade.
Free time however can be a luxury when you really need to start a work week working from home. When you needed to be in your room and be in front of computer, I thought the best form of physical activity will be HIIT workouts to start the morning. A good combination for me will be to do both the 7 minutes beginner workout and the 10 minutes flat abs workout with my increased stamina.
Last week, I shared about the 8 moves from Cassey Ho and her 10 minutes abs flattener which gave me a sense of achievement when I managed to get a few of her 10 minutes incredible workouts done throughout the week. I managed to complete all the 8 moves.
In this week’s blog post, I will write in details the physical moves from expanding tabletops and reverse crunch from Cassey Ho’s 10 minutes ab flattener video.
7 minutes beginner workout
How to do the Expanding Tabletop
Here is how you do an expanding tabletop. First, we start with one side by bringing the legs up on the tabletop. Next, place your hands underneath the tailbone and rest your head down. Next, you’re going to expand the legs and bring it back. Reach in, out and in and really point the legs. Lengthen, lengthen and really point. This really forces you to use your lower abs to move your legs out. Shins parallel to the ceiling.
Second, once you know the moves on one side, you can do the same thing on the other side for expanding table top. Hands in a triangle underneath your tailbone, knees in table top. Lengthen in. Out and in. Really sucking in the belly button into the spine. Imagine, you have a corset around your waist and tighten those muscles. Elbows wide now and really point your legs. Belly button in. According to Cassey Ho, the lower belly is the area where a lot of people struggle with including herself and that is where she gained fat in the first place. Some people have it in their inner thighs, the hips, the face.
How to do the Reverse Crunch
First, palms down pressing into the mat. Next, you are going to cross the ankles and you’re going to lift and lower. Up and down, up and down. According to Cassey, if she is having a huge milkshake the night before, she can feel it going to her thighs into her lower belly.
Starting my learning journey with my skills future credit
I embarked on my learning journey with NTUC as the organization is offering 90% off their courses before year end in a bid to get adults to upskill to meet the demands of the new year. As all Singaporeans are given skills future credit to utilize for training and development, I can see that the skills future initiative has made embracing changes socially normal.
Once norms are set from the top, the adoption of this initiative becomes quite normal nationwide. Furthermore, the utilization of these credits as a good deal comes with an expiration date to make upskilling by a certain time window even more urgent. To sweeten the deal, I am fortunate to meet a responsive course consultant who followed up promptly once I started signing up for the first class. Since she made the whole administration process seamless with simple and clear guide, I am quite decisive in getting started on all my classes.
As my personal schedule in November is cleared up, I thought that there is no better timing to start during the lull periods of my work. I welcome the change in routine as there is a role reversal for me. I find changing from teacher to student novel and refreshing. I like the idea of meeting my trainers and fellow trainees on Zoom in the comforts of my own and stay safe during the surge the Covid numbers in Singapore.
With a small class size, I feel that there are ample opportunities for class participation and interaction. Being in a fun learning environment makes learning in long blocks of time easier. There is an element where we can get to learn from each other’s life experience that makes the time well spent too if we were to return back to the practical side of work.
Why is that a need to understand technology changes
In my previous foundational agile class with Acesence, I learnt that we live in an era of double destruction caused by automation and Covid-19. With so many technological changes and the disruption to the economy brought on by the pandemic, I feel that there is an urgent need for a mindset change. I can see that there is a shift towards offering business courses in NTUC Learning Hub to complement my need to deepen my understanding of the new business models. Furthermore, I am glad that I can find that most courses are contemporary in nature. These contemporary courses are geared towards change transformation yet there are learner centric and easier to absorb.
As I have a preference towards understanding how the mind works, I chose classes that are quite psychological in nature too involving mindset changes. Since we are living in a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) world, I am glad that I started my first course called Cultivating an Experimental Mindset. For the second course, I took digital marketing where I can see there is a rapid change in the advent of new digital techniques to cope with the rapid changes in consumer demands in e-commerce for example. For my third course, I took Business Canvas where there is a 9 steps process to business success and there are good comprehensive case studies from ride-sharing platforms to expresso.
The next milestone is taking my agile marketing class which confers an internationally recognized certificate. I am glad that in my Agile Marketing class, I am able to recap my previous learning of the VUCA world from my first class. I would like to share a video from the agile marketing course which makes the concept of VUCA really easy to understand as the visuals use similes to tell the story well.
From the video, we can see images of what VUCA represents. The videos are impeccable and I attempted to capture what VUCA means from the introductory part of the video.
What is VUCA
Volatility is represented by the large waves crashing Uncertainty is represented by clouds moving in any directions Complexity is represented by having multiple networks
Ambiguity is represented by bare trees branches somewhere during winter
I embarked on a marathon learning quest a year ago around my birthday month as I felt a thirst for learning new things after I left my humanities education having graduated a decade ago. I am glad that learning went well as the best birthday present to open this year is finishing well at all my adult learning schools. I went from not being sure of passing even one course after many years of not taking examinations to crossing the passing mark for close to 30 courses on Alison my online learning school.
Getting out of my comfort zone to transit from learning solo at an easy pace I stuck to Alison as a beginner for sometime before I was ready to venture into something moderately challenging. The challenge is staying the course for Zoom online learning with live trainers and students. I decided to go for more life group classes with NTUC Learning Hub. I find that committing to a group setting with real time trainers who can see me in the online Zoom class a little intimating as I was used to virtual trainers who did not know me and comfortably taking the test and quizzes at my own pitstop.
I decided to get started with NTUC with a focus on practical business courses with the intention to know other adult learners from diverse industries and age groups. I felt that I wanted to broaden my mind to find out how others think of business on a more holistic level. As I open myself up to people from other industries like banking and marketing I grew socially and emotionally as I became much more enriched with the class discussions.
It took some courage to ask the veteran industry trainers with many years of experience questions specific to businesses. I was glad my latest business trainer in my agile marketing course could sense of my interest in the hybrid version of agile processes. I enjoy the novelty of discovering little known facts like knowing new things that my classmates brought up. I find the hybrid form of scrum and kanban which is called “scrumban” intriguing for example.
As a so called well travelled mind in the area of learning from my university days, I still find learning very intriguing whatever adult training school I go to and I am glad to be more adventurous. Instead of just travelling in my own field in education or satisfy my curiosity by solo learning, I decided to focus on travelling to the business world and learning everything from business canvas to the 4 P’s of marketing. With so much excitement for learning from new fields, I can feel that my fear of failure for the courses is unfounded. Indeed, my original quest to drink from the fountain of knowledge had been quenched as I learn to my heart’s desire.
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