Let go of what you can’t control, Reinvest your energy in what you can

Studies show that 40% of the anxiety felt by people in the world is focused on things that will never happen.

Apparently 30% is related to the past which we cannot change, 12% to other people’s criticism and 10% to health.

It is a very curious reality that only 8% of the time do we really worry about concerns that need to be faced in the here and now.

Dr. Amy Orr-Ewing
Festival of Thought, Singapore

Ive had a lot of worries in my life, most of which never happened
Mark Twain

God, give me grace to accept with serenity
the things that cannot be changed,
Courage to change the things
which should be changed,
and the Wisdom to distinguish
the one from the other.

Living one day at a time,
Enjoying one moment at a time
Amen.
Reinhold Niebuhr

Photo credit: himself of the sunbird at our balcony

Behold the birds of the heaven, that they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; and your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are not ye of much more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add one cubit unto the measure of his life? 
Jesus quoted in Matthew 6: 27

What are you anxious about?

Travel

Traveler, your footprints
are the only road, nothing else.
Traveler, there is no road;
you make your own path as you walk.
As you walk, you make your own road,
and when you look back
you see the path
you will never travel again.
Traveler, there is no road;
only a ship’s wake on the sea.

Antonio Machado (Spain, 1875-1939), translation by Mary G. Berg and Dennis Maloney, source Poetry Foundation
[Traveler, your footprints] is published in There Is No Road, 2003, White Pine Press

Source:

[Traveler, your footprints]

Mark Savickas’s keynote

My new journey

Today I begin my new journey as a student in Digital Media Design.

Chill

Photo credit: himself. Tokyo 2 April 2019

Even sakuras need 300 chilling hours or more to bloom.
How about you?

Take the break. To go the long haul, you need to chill.

How do you relax?

Are you ready for a VUCA world

From IQ to EQ to AQ

Adaptability Quotient

Anticipate needs and create opportunities
Drive positive energy
Accelerate constant innovation
Partner: exchange ideas and
Trust: mutual growth

Photo credit: himself taken at the Singapore Bird Park.

According to a study by Kornferry only 15% of leaders have what it takes to self- disrupt and be ready for the future.

How are you equipping yourself for this change?

Introducing: A new breed of future-ready leaders – Korn Ferry Focus
https://focus.kornferry.com/leadership-and-talent/introducing-a-new-breed-of-future-ready-leaders/

When AI makes career predictions with 95% accuracy

With an internal career platform where AI proactively recommends jobs to you based on skills, tenure, project work, rankings. No doubt, IBM will soon be trying to sell this career platform to other companies.

Photo: Taken at a old postal town on the Nakasendo trail.

Employee centric or Big Brother?

MYCA—IBM’s internal career platform called My Career Advisor—no longer acts as a self serve system; instead the AI proactively recommends jobs to you based on skills, tenure, project work, rankings, and so on.

Does 95% accuracy mean self fulfilling prophecy?

Accurate by whose predictions? I will be quite hesitant to work in a company where my career is decided by a robot.

Sensing this, the AI no doubt will weed me out. Well, IBM is not going to be on my favourite list of great place to work.

If I want to keep my job in IBM (hypothetically), I will certainly say that I love whatever is happening. Employee engagement survey scores have seen an increase of 20% in IBM. Does one assume anonymity or alignment? The same AI that gives out the survey can now detect the unmotivated with greater accuracy. Is there a conflict of interest? What is HR’s role?

Will I want to buy this HR solutions which IBM may try to sell my company? Hmm, why not. It certainly is a powerful machine from a profit/ cost perspective.

I recently heard this exchange on a TED talk about machines and replacing workers.

Henry Ford was hosting the Union chief Walter Reuther at his Ford car assembly line.

Henry Ford II: Walter, how will you get those robots to pay your union dues?

Walter Reuther in reply: Henry, how will you get them to buy your cars?

Whether this exchange took place, Ford in his HR practice understood the need to motivate and stablise his workforce with a decent salary because it is a circular economy.

Employees who leave your company may be potential clients, customers or your adversary. Understand the ecosystem.

IBM’s Artificial Intelligence Strategy Is Fantastic, But AI Also Cut 30% Of Its HR Workforce

https://www.forbes.com/sites/danpontefract/2019/04/06/ibms-artificial-intelligence-strategy-is-fantastic-but-ai-also-cut-30-of-its-hr-workforce/

What cause sakura to blossom?

Photo credit: himself in Tokyo, 2 April 2019

What cause sakura to blossom?
Change in temperature. Ironically, the shock provokes the plant to give out its best bloosoms.

Citrus growers too understand this science of winterisation. Without the sudden drop and rise in temperature, there will be no lemons and oranges which need warm summers and mild winters.

Winterisation is to be feared and appreciated.

Why do we fear change? Should we?
Farmers know that plants need preconditioning and acclimatisation to the change or extreme shock will kill it.

In this season of exteme winds of AI, blockchain and machine learning, are you helping your employees acclimatise to the new environment.

Farmers sometimes water the soil of citrus plants during winter to help them tide over.

Your efforts will be rewarded. With beautiful blooms in Spring.