Posts Tagged ‘skim’

The countdown

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
27 July 2009
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DSC04126It’s hard to believe I’ve been here for five months and even harder to believe I’m about to leave on Friday.  Thankfully, there’s lots to do so I don’t have much time to mull over it all.  On the one hand I’ve missed Panda for nearly 150 days and I can’t wait to see him, touch him again.  It’s been too long of pretending I could touch him and feel him hug me through the webcam.  On the other hand, the people here are amazing and have taken great care of me.  Plus, I’m just getting around to exploring Singapore!  It’s a pity it’s ending already, but I can’t help but look forward to who and what I have waiting for me back home.

As I’m down to my last three full days, I’m trying to squeeze everything in – a trip to Sentosa and a visit to the Flyer, one final event for C&S, and a last day in the office ending with a discussion with Starfish and a little dinner party.  I probably won’t get more than a nap Thursday night as I finish up packing and nervously await my early departure time.  I’ve still got to find time to go to the Night Safari (probably Wednesday after the event), since the rain today deterred me from going.  I was absolutely exhausted and zonked out on the bus ride home anyway, so it’s better I didn’t go.  Then there’s my final foot and back massage that I need to use up from my membership card.  Maybe I’ll squeeze that in before the Night Safari.

Most importantly, I’ve got to tie up loose ends and say bye to the parents who have generously taken me in these past few months.  I don’t really have time to take them out to dinner to show my appreciation, but what can I do?  I hope I get inspired when I’m out tomorrow.  I was pleased with the little gifts that I found for the people from the office – cuff links for Zen, Mizu, and Typea, and compact mirrors for Marylin and Starfish (plus a Love Spell spray for her, which is like a classic VS scent for the lady who loves that brand), who all have played a huge part in supporting me here.  For the others who have been there for me and made the atmosphere enjoyable, I had adorable little elephant keychains.  I had a lot of fun choosing the gifts, even if I was dead tired and my back was dying when I came across these treasures.

DSC07100Each one has its significance to me (and may not be the most practical, but I was going for more meaningful…): for Zen, a pair of silver dragons because that just seems fitting for an influential man; for Mizu, a pair of gold electric guitars because he truly is a rock star (in so many ways); for Typea, a pair of blue and sea green golf clubs in their bags (or whatever it’s called) for his enjoyment of the game and the lifestyle it represents; for Marylin, a pink cover with a pretty peacock for her growing involvement in the beauty industry; and for Starfish, a cool blue cover with an elegant flower for her cool head and classiness as well as the spray I mentioned above because she loves VS.  As for the elephants, I figured that Mac would want the purple one (actually why I bought that particular pack, though I liked it because I like purple too) and Lorry would appreciate the green one (a bit of an inside joke on that one, for all his Greenness).  Skim was the only wild card, who could go for the pretty light blue one or the more royal blue one, or maybe even the bright white one.

Now I’m hoping I’ll just as much meaning in some items that I can present to Typea and Marylin’s parents prior to my departure.  Both sets of parents were very generous in taking me in and really made it possible for me to stay here; I certainly couldn’t have afforded an apartment!  Other than that and the final activities I will be participating in, I just need to pack and make sure that I don’t go over my weight limit.  The moment I find I’m under, I’m going out to buy Mamee to stuff the rest of my bags with.  I love those snacks and as of yet I have not found them in the states.  And with that, I’ll be gone before I know it.  Gosh, it’s creeping up already.

Second fiddle

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: , , , , , , , ,
07 July 2009
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The type of work that I’m good at leans towards internal support – I usually do research for our business development.  It’s the stuff that fades to the background and gets lost among the crowd of client accounts we’re handling.  It’s what tends to be ignored or forgotten, and is hardly ever recognized.  Yet, it’s critical to any organization, as it is for ours, since we need to stay up-to-date with developments in the field and have articles to reference to create new programs.  I’m used to being in the background unseen, like stage crew in their black outfits to blend in with the darkness.  Unfortunately, when you aren’t seen, sometimes your effects are not felt or understood very well and this can create a sense of mystery about what work you do.  If people don’t know what you’re working on, they’ll often draw the conclusion that you’re not really doing anything – after all, where are the results?

It can get pretty overwhelming. photo credit: awriterinthedesert.wordpress.com

It can get pretty overwhelming. photo credit: awriterinthedesert.wordpress.com

Well, in the field of research, a lot of time is spent searching and filtering through information with little result to show.  So though a lot of time and effort goes into producing just one little thing, all others see is that one thing you did produce.  Nobody knows how many different ways you had to look and all the reading you scoured to get to the end result; after all, it’s only what you find that is relevant that matters.  And to them, this looks like it could be easily accomplished, so your work tends to get discounted in the process.  There’s a lot of room for misunderstandings and certainly a lot will occur.  So, in an effort to curtail this, I’ve decided to take a more proactive approach.  Whereas before I would just report that I’m doing research as I always do, with nothing exciting to update, now I’ve chosen to mention more specifically what I’m doing.

In a way, it’s just to save my own butt – after all, all the stuff we’re doing for clients gets recorded, but the internal stuff doesn’t.  I don’t want people to look back and wonder what in the world was going on for business development efforts.  I want them to see all the areas we were exploring and see the contributions that I made.  This is something I’ve known intuitively for a long time.  After I started here, I kept a running list of things that I had worked on so I could look back and appreciate what I’ve done and what I learned from that.  This way I have solid proof and examples to use when I look back on my experience and I can at least vaguely measure how I grew professionally.  For this line of work, you either need to stand up for yourself or just allow yourself to be used as a stepping stone for the other work.  There won’t be anyone to look out for you and make sure that your efforts are recognized, save for the leader who notices and appreciates (like Starfish, who made a point to thank Skim and I for our work).

First chair recognizing the rest of the orchestra. photo credit: merinospace.com

First chair recognizing the rest of the orchestra. photo credit: merinospace.com

I think it’s something important for any leader to look out for.  When you don’t neglect those who often are, it means a lot to them.  In any team, you will need people to be front runners and, in musical terms, first chair.  However, it’s equally important that you have a strong “second fiddle” and entire orchestra to truly play wonderful music.  Without those to harmonize, you’re left with a solo act that can have its own benefits, but will never compare to an entire symphony.  Only by taking care of all your people can the engine of the business run smoothly.  It’s a good lesson for my future intentions to start my own firm.  The problem is, I’m going to need to be more of a first chair to be able to start a company.  I could try to find a business partner to be my counterpart, but being second fiddle doesn’t mean I don’t want to be recognized.  It just means that with my skills, I’m better at producing a different type of sound to complement that of first chair.  I guess the question is: Do I have the willpower to take on both roles?

Simple pleasures

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
04 July 2009
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DSC05171It was a lovely day today and I had an equally lovely time going on an outing with Skim for the afternoon.  We met up at Bugis MRT and got on a bus that took us out to East Coast Park, where we were able to rent two bikes and take a nice ride.  A mere two minutes into our journey we nearly crashed into each other, as I tried to unsteadily pass my camera to her.  I never knew my right hand was so weak at maneuvering!  The opposite was for her, as she had trouble with her left hand, so there we were, a complete screaming disaster as we saved ourselves from near destruction.  I then switched to be on the left side and we managed to make the pass so she could take some pictures for me.  Why we couldn’t just stop our bikes like normal people I don’t know.  It’s far less exciting that way!

Doesn't that look like fun?

Doesn't that look like fun?

We went along the path and enjoyed cooling breezes from the ocean, quiet stretches in woodsy areas, and navigating around the sudden influx of people that would come upon us.  It was a lot of fun to be out in the sun and going through natural areas as we chatted about a variety of things, like our thoughts on careers and the type of work we do.  Along the way we stopped to watch some wakeboarders, parasailers, and windsailers having fun out on the water.  I don’t know if I’m fit enough to do that kind of thing, but I’d sure like to try someday!  First I want to learn how to surf though, which hopefully will be good for my sense of balance.  I’m really interested in water sports in general, so I hope I get around to trying all of them at some point.

DSC05184The one thing that wasn’t so enjoyable about the ride was when our butts started to get sore about two hours in.  I kept shifting around in an attempt to put weight on different areas, but once we stopped for a quick snack, we both felt the soreness creeping us.  At first walking was a little strange and I wondered if this is how it feels to get off a horse after a long journey.  I’ve only ever been on horses for brief times, about an hour or so, so I never got the bow legs that others have.  We were right by the ocean at that point, so we went down to the water so I could at least say I touched the ocean water here.  It’s a lesson from my trip to Australia that I’ve never forgotten – going in the water is something so simple, yet it’s something I didn’t do in the Gold Coast, so I’ll never repeat that mistake again.

This time, I took some jumping shots and it looked so fun that Skim decided she’d get her feet wet for the sake of that.  Normally she wouldn’t want to touch that water because there’s a fair share of trash in it, but jumping over water is pretty awesome, so she just had to give it a try too.  What a fun day!  🙂

WordPress = blogobase?

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: , , ,
26 June 2009
0

In trying to find a way to have a comprehensive database that anyone in the office can tap into when they need to look at research to help them plan new programs, Skim and I came across a problem.  Of the categories we had, there was no clear separation – most topics could stand on their own, but could also be subtopics of at least another topic.  It was impossible to organize it nicely, which made it a logistical nightmare.  What we needed was a way to cross reference readily and have intense searchability.

So what did I come up with?  Blogging.

Simple. Clean. Professional.

Simple. Clean. Professional.

Yup, since with a blog you can make each entry a “file” and use the categories to put it into “file cabinets” for a loose framework.  From there, tags can be added for cross-referencing and the search function allows you to search the entire text of posts to find relevant keywords.  Brilliant, no?  Blogs are truly a powerful tool and I don’t know if anyone ever considered it a database outright, but essentially that’s what it is.  For personal bloggers, it’s a database of their lives.  For professional bloggers, it’s a database for their expertise.  For companies, it’s a database for their development.  How awesome is that?  No wonder I love blogging.  So, now I would like to present you with a new term: blogobase.  A database housed on a blog.

This is far better than Access, which we were going to use, not only because it’s less confusing, but it’s far more accessible.  Initially people would have had to use the one PC in the office (seems only the transient staff own PCs – this place is Mac Heaven) to look at the information in the database.  As Slim and I slaved over idea after idea of how to make it work best in that program, we found it to be inadequate.  Now we don’t have to worry what platform people are on.  The internet comes to the rescue again and provides mobility and accessibility to our database so anyone anywhere (authorized, of course) can edit it as they need.  Ah, the beauty of group/shared blogs!

We’re still working on some of the details of making it even easier to browse (like displaying summaries rather than the full text for quicker scanning), but soon it’s going to be the grandfather of all databases.  All we have to do is get all relevant people to be authorized to post and we’ll have an ongoing internal development project!  Suddenly, boring data entry type work is exciting because we made it interesting by putting it in the form of a blog entry!  Skim and I are having a field day setting things up and I’m glad for my experience blogging, since it was so useful to draw from for inspiration.

This is why I think it’s important for everyone to pursue things they love and have a broad base of experiences.  After all, you never know what seemingly unrelated ideas you could link up, or what could inspired from something you remember doing, seeing, or hearing.  Creativity works at its best when it has a lot of random things to draw from and the freedom to start connecting those things until something strikes us.  Extracurriculars and personal development are key to this process!  I hope my other random experiences will value add to other aspects of my life as well.  There’s nothing quite as exhilarating as linking something you do for fun with work.

The HP Way

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
20 June 2009
0

I’m doing some research for internal development at the moment, collaborating with Skim, one of the interns we have for a few weeks during the summer.  She got some books from her school’s library (Singapore Management University Library) for us to peruse in our efforts to look into learning styles and methods, profiling tools, personal development, and organizational excellence, among other things.  I’ve got a nice stack of books to read: Lean Six Sigma for Service, FedEx Delivers, Headless Chickens, Laidback Bears, and The HP Way.

I started with the most intriguing one about chickens and bears, but didn’t see the immediate relevance in the research I was looking for.  Of course, it fits into the whole personal development section, but the time needed to go through that book didn’t seem to justify looking at it first, so I reprioritized and decided to go with learning more about the origins and philosophies of HP.  It’s the smallest book out of the bunch, so I figured at least it’d be fastest to power through.

DSC04927In reading it, I’m still not sure I’ve gotten much out of it and I’ve only got another 50 pages to go.  There’s been a lot of random background stories and detailing of this and that technology that they or their acquaintances pioneered, but hardly much mention of the HP way other than some quick references to their rewarding pay scheme, dedication to quality and innovation, and decentralized structure.  Perhaps it’s because what they were doing at the time was completely revolutionary, but now I find that these strategies are more commonplace and certainly nothing too exciting.  I was hoping for a better collection of sage advice that I could soak up, but instead I find certain ideas reinforced, but not much else.

One thing that really struck me for their start and development was all the help they got along the way, especially from a well-connected and very well-meaning professor of theirs when they met at Stanford, a Fred Terman who time and time again was their guardian angel.  This, coupled with a lot of their other connections that helped them be a leader in their field, stood out to me.  Being the self-dependent type that I am, I am conscious of the importance of mentors, but not very good in seeking them out or using their knowledge and experience to help me grow.  So here again I am reminded of how I am so blessed to have Starfish and Zen here to guide me now, but concerns of how I will maintain the relationship worry me.  I’ve reached out to others who are doing things that I’d aspire to achieve one day, but not yet followed through with meeting up to get advice.

All in all it’s making me consider what my philosophy and approach would be in starting my own business.  I’ve outlined some things here and there but never really solidified anything.  Someday I’d like to have a clear set of visions, missions, and goals to strive for.  I’ll spend some time looking at the success stories including HP, FedEx, Google, and Starbucks.  From there, I can take what I like and modify what I don’t to fit my desires and purposes.  For now, I’m still finding my way.  After all, I still don’t know for sure what type of business I might want!

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