Why you should assume the best in people

 

I have met many business leaders who assume their people are by default lazy, incompetent and need to be constantly monitored. When you assume the worst in your people, it shows in your day-to-day behaviour and how you treat them. Then don't be surprised they end up displaying exactly these negative traits. Malice is rarer than you think. When you have positive expectations people want to live up to that. Believing in the goodness of humanity makes you a happier person who creates positive change.

leadership and design thinking

 

I took this photo in a lift at the MyTown shopping mall in Cheras. What do you notice is odd about this? You might be wondering why is it that when pressed, the buttons for levels 3 and 4 light up in red, but the button for the Ground Floor lights up in green. You would be wrong. That green is not the button being lit up. The button has a bright green border. Also it is slightly protruding. If you press the G button, you will get a red light and it will be a red square within the green square.

This user interface designer has good intentions. The most frequently pressed button is the G, so it was designed to stand out (literally) and to have a green border. This helps users think less and they will more quickly identify the G button among the rest. Unfortunately what happened that day was a group of us got into the lift at Level 5 (car park) and we stood around for a long time wondering why the lift didn't move. All of us thought someone else had pressed the G, because it appeared to be lit up with a green light.

This is why design thinking is important. Good intentions are not enough. They sometimes make things worse. We need to be able to see from the users' perspective, in order to deliver the right solution to them. Leaders with good intentions are not enough. We need to apply design thinking so that good intentions translate to the right results for our people and our organisations.

Club Med Cherating

 

When my office is Club Med Cherating, I don't mind working on a Sunday. :-) This was my Power Sunday with the Build Great team from Melaka.

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要找到快乐，就要放弃自我 To find happiness, be a pushover

 

我们活在一个个人主义之上的社会里。人人都说要去追梦、要找到自己、要做自己。这些都是在膨胀自我。人人都觉得自己是对的、是最重要的、不可被磨灭。

人为什么会不快乐？就是因为我们希望改变身边的人。但是人是很难改变的。我们把自己的价值观套在别人身上，当然会不快乐。如果能放弃自我去迎合身边的人的需求，就会天下太平。这不是压抑自己，而是本来就没有自我，所以何来压抑。没有期待，就没有失望。别人为我们做的一点点小事，我们就会觉得是意外惊喜和收获，懂得感恩。

谬论？

We live in an age where individualism is worshipped. We are told "Follow your dreams", "Be yourself", "Be authentic", "You are special", "Find out who you really are", "Be true to yourself". All these messages are about "me me me". Our egos are inflated.

People rarely change. We become unhappy when we expect them to, but they don't. We think the world and the people around us are not right, according to our standards and values. That's why we are frustrated. When we learn to go with the flow and give people what they need, we will be happier.

Let go of your self. Don't say or do anything that hurts or offends the people around you. This is not about suppressing yourself and your wants, and tolerating people around you. It is about not having your self or wants in the first place, so there is no tolerating. When you have no expectations, you won't be disappointed. Instead, you get happily surprised with every little thing people do for you.

Controversial?