#notakaki : Good to Great by Jim Collins

Can a good company become a great company?

or Can a good person become a great personality?

From their extensive research, they concluded few important points :-

1. It is POSSIBLE to turn good company into great in the most unlikely of situation.

Not only a company can improve to be the great, a person too with perseverance and consistency. Once we know what we want to achieve in the future, it is easier to focus our energy toward them.

2. Larger than life celebrity leaders who ride in from the outside are NEGATIVELY correlated with taking a company from good to great.

Which precisely make sense as people who grew with the company  knew the inside out of the company. They are familiar with the company work ethic and culture. They have an in depth knowledge about the company. They have good relationship with other employees and employer and they are able to communicate comfortably with each other.

3. The good to great companies not only focus principally on what need to be done to be great but also focus their energy on what should not be done or what to avoid or stop doing totally.

The faster an organization identified their focus, they are able to channel all their energy, time and resources in the right direction as swiftly as possible.

4.Technology can ACCELERATE a transformation but it cannot CAUSE a transformation.

Using the technology as a mean to get informative input for a company to learn more about what need to be done so they can produce even a better output to capture the targeted market segment.

5. Mergers and acquisition  play virtually no role in igniting a transformation from good to great. According to Jim, two big mediocrities joined together never make one great company.

But what if two companies merged to become an even bigger entity and have bigger funds to be able to compete with the big boys globally?

6. The good to great companies paid scant attention to managing change, motivating people or creating alignment.

When employees feel appreciated, they feel motivated to give their best for the company. When employees know they have equal chance for growth and be rewarded accordingly, they less likely feel dissatisfied.

The findings....

The Timeless Principle of Good to Great :

1. Good is ENEMY of Great

Few people attain great lives because most of us loved settle for a good life. (Ouchhh...). It is also true for an organization or a country. When we feel GOOD in our comfort zone especially very very good, it makes us fear or lazy to step out of our zone into an unknown battle to emerge as a GREAT winner.

2. Level 5 Leadership

                      

Who is Level 5 leader?

An individual who blends extreme personal humility with intense professional will

         HUMILITY + WILL = LEVEL 5

Level 5 leaders have distinctively characteristics such as self-effacing, quiet, reserved and even shy.

Level 5 leaders are self-effacing individuals who displayed the fierce resolve to do whatever needed to be done to make it great.

3. First Who.... then What

First get the RIGHT people on board.
Off load the wrong or unsuitable members (unproductive family members included if needed)
Get those RIGHT people in the RIGHT seat.
then figured out WHAT need to be done and WHAT need to avoid totally.
Now MOVE.....

4. Confront the Brutal Facts (Yet Never Lose Faith)

Maintaining unwavering faith is very challenging.We need a very high mental strength to put us through the brutal facts, whatever they might be until we prevail in the end. Never lose faith in God and ourselves to do the best we can. One step at a time is better than being still at any one point of time. There are a lot to learn - diversify knowledge. Meeting new people - expand networking.

5. The Hedgehog Concept (Simplicity within the Three Circles)
                        

Just because something is our core business or been doing it for so long or one of the pioneer in the industry, does not necessarily mean we can be the best in the world. We should know when enough is enough. Confront the brutal facts. Accept them. Restart. Rebuilt. Rediscover. Recharge to the new frontier.

6. A Culture of Discipline

When we are self-discipline, we don't need hierarchy. Combination of culture of discipline and an ethic of entrepreneur will produce the magical alchemy if great performances.

7. Technology Accelerators

Good to great companies never use technology as the primary means of igniting a transformation. Sometimes they are pioneers in the application of carefully selected technologies.

8. The Flywheel and the Doom Loop

Those who launch revolutions, dramatic change programs and wrenching restructuring have high probability of FAILURE to make transition. The good to great transformation never happened in one fell swoop. The process take a relentlessly pushing a giant heavy flywheel in one direction, build momentum up to a point of breakthrough and beyond.

Interesting finding. Can't argue with them. It is based on facts and figures. Not only for an organization. It could be apply to anything. Dramatic changes scare us. We scare the unknown. When we're in danger, we retaliate as a form of self-defence. It's human basic instinct. No matter how noble the intentions are, dramatic changes will turn the whole situation from good to doom.

9. From Good to Great to Built to Last.

In the end, when we reach our destination - the GREAT ( it'll take years to get there with the right formula), it's time for us to find the right method to sustain our effort.
                       

                          

                                                                              8/10

#notakaki : Self-Compassion by Dr Kristin Neff

According to Dr Neff, Self-Compassion being composed by 3 main components :-

1. Self-Kindness : being warm toward ourselves when facing difficulties.

2. Common Humanity : recognizing that suffering and failures as part of shared human experiences.

3. Mindfulness : a non-judgemental receptive mind state without trying to deny our flaws.

Self-Compassion can also be define as accepting of who we truly are - lock, stock and barrel.

If we don't loved ourselves wholly and completely, it means that we are saying to ourselves that we are not good enough.

Human is made imperfect.
Love, connection and acceptance is our birthright.
Everyone is WORTHY of compassion. It start with us acknowledging ourselves - We ARE GOOD ENOUGH and WORTHY ENOUGH.

Self-compassion creates a caring space within ourselves that is free of judgement.
A place that sees hurt and failures as part of shared human experiences and to allow or to acknowledge those experiences with KINDNESS and CARING.

Self-compassion doesn't mean that my problems are more important than others.
It just means that my problems are worthy of being attended too like others.

Research shown that self-compassion allows us to flourish, to appreciate the beauty and richness of life in what ever situation we're dealing with.

Self-compassion will keep us moving forward to make a better place.

Self-compassion is slightly different from self-esteem.

Self-esteem is a global evaluation of self-worth.

Low self-esteem can lead to depression and lack of motivation. High self-esteem correlated to narcissism, self-absorption, prejudice, discrimination etc.

In today modern world, it is NOT OKAY to be an average person - to have flaws and shortcomings.

An average person is deem as failure by society.

An average person will be left out, laugh at and discriminate by society.

We have to be above average and perfect to be accepted.

Being human does not mean being better than others. Being human means we encompass the full range of human experiences. Being human means we are average in many ways.

Sadly, some of us, in wanting to be accepted by social group tend to be hard on ourselves - sometimes too hard. We use harsh words. Words sometimes we never even use to our worst enemy. We think that if we're being to soft, we will be lack in motivation to be the best.

Research shown that in our body, we have a system called Threat Defence System. When we sense that we're in danger or feel threaten , physically or emotionally, our body will produce high ADRENALINE and CORTISOL to prepare us for retaliation and self-defence. Since the source of threat is within ourselves which mean we (the attacker) attack ourselves (the victim), it creates a lot of adrenaline and cortisol and will lead to feeling highly stress and depress. High adrenaline and cortisol cause chaos into our body system and as a way to protect, our body system will shut down to allow the system to make sense of what is going on internally.

But as a mammal, we also have Mammalian Caregiving System which produces OXYTOCIN and OPIATES. (the feel good hormone) which mean that our body are programmed toward WARM, GENTLE TOUCH and SOFT VOCALIZATION. That is the main reason why we are prone to listen more, cooperate more and open up more to warm smiles, gentle and caring touches and soft and encouraging voices. When we feel safe and comfort, our adrenaline and cortisol level reduce and our oxytocin and opiates level increase, we are in our optimal mind state to do our best.

Individuals who grow up with highly critical parents in childhood are much more likely to be critical toward themselves as adult.

People with critical parents learn the message early on that they are so bad and flawed that they have no right to be accepted for who they are. They will soon come to believe that only by being perfect will they be worthy of love.

Children with critical parents will believe that self-criticism will prevent them from making future mistakes.

It doesn't makes sense when parents spend the first 12 months of the children lives teaching them to walk and talk and the next 12 telling them to sit down and shut up.

Self-criticism is a type of safety behaviour designed to ensure acceptance within the larger social group.

Self-criticism serves as a submissive behaviour because it allow us to ABUSE ourselves first before others.

This mechanism stems from our natural desire NOT TO BE REJECTED and ABANDONED and makes sense in terms of our most basic survival instincts.

The social group that is most important for survival is our IMMEDIATE FAMILY. That is why no matter how difficult the situation at home, children have no choice but to rely on parents in order to get by in this world and they soon will grow up with a belief that their life are what life suppose to be.

Self-criticism was strongly related to depression and dissatisfaction in life.

Happiness is found when we go with the flow of life. Self-compassion helps navigate us.

Research shown that self-compassion is very strong related to mental well being, less stress, less anxiety, less depression and less perfectionism.

People with high self-compassion are generally happy and content, living life more meaningful, have greater motivation in life and more self-connected to others.

Self-compassion provide more stable sense of self-worth than self-esteem because we feel worthy not because we have reach some societal standard but because we are human being worthy of LOVE.

                         

                         

                                                                          10/10

#notakaki : Landline by Rainbow Rowell

Georgie McCool and Neal Grafton knew their marriage is in trouble for sometime but both of them refused to address "the Elephant" in the house.

Georgie is an ambitious tv writer who plans her life accordingly.

Neal is a house husband who act instinctively.

Georgie loved L.A and planned their whole life there.

Neal hated city life and dreamed to take his family somewhere quiet.

When an attractive offer came up just days before their well planned Christmas vacation to Omaha, Georgie eagerly accepted the offer,  thinking that she can persuade Neal to cancel their plans but Neal refused this time. He give in most of the time because he loved Georgie  more that he hated everything else.

In the end, Georgie was left alone to complete her projects while Neal took the girls - Alice and Naomi to his family home in Omaha as planned.

Problem solved?

Not quite...

Suddenly "the Elephant" decided to appear to make itself look bigger than both of them realised. Georgie panic...  Is Neal leaving her for good? Is the marriage going to survive this time? She couldn't concentrate. All she could think about is Neal...

How to solve a long distance communication in this modern era?

Cell phones seem like a life saver in our modern technology.

Only when the other person picks them up.

Neal has a habit of ignoring the messages and voice mails.

Georgie has a habit of forgetting to charge her cell phone.

The only way for her get in touch with Neal is through the magical of Landline.

They discussed in depth what went wrong with their marriage through the magical of landline. They listed out their main concerns and try to find the magical feeling they once shared by re visit the most important moments in their life - how the first met, when Neal proposed (on the magical Christmas day), their wedding day and their 5 days honeymoon. Through out the process they were able to see clearly what matter them most despite their problems - their deep loved for each other.

For once in her life, Georgie did something off the record. Something from her deepest heart. Something that feel right at the moment. To save her marriage.

                     

9/10

#notakaki : Sway - Kat Spears

Sway aka Jesse Alderman is a well known person in Wakefield High School.

Everybody can count on Jesse to get things done from the sloppiest student, Andrew to the principle Mr Burke but... with a price.

To them as long as things get done in which ever manner Jesse think suitable and confidential, they'll pay the price.

For Jesse, when they pay him, they unwittingly bound themselves to him as he held the most precious weapon - their secrets.

To Jesse, commodities like fake IDs, buying dopes or term papers, pass through like water but informations hold value that commodities don't. It can be use to his own benefits. It can make or break people.

When Ken Foster, captain of football team, hires Jesse to help him to win Bridget Smalley with a price, he agreed.

Jesse followed and monitored Bridget daily routine for 2 weeks. They became friends. He knew almost everything about her - what matters her most, what question she will ask, what she want in a friendship and relationship. Jesse told Ken about it and taught Ken what he should do.

Jesse also met Bridget's younger brother, Pete who is differently abled person with celebral palsy. They became closed friend and it made Ken suspicious.

Things get complicated when Jesse let his emotion get in the way. Even though he has feelings for her, he couldn't betray Ken because both of them held secret that will destroy each other.

What will Bridget and Pete do when they know the truth?

Can a friendship or relations based on farce last long?

Things got worst when his feeling for Bridget knocked some senses to make him walk out from his present life but he has to pay them with a price....

Because they also have what Jesse has....

His SECRETS.

                           

Nothing good or bad,

only thinking makes it so.

8/10