Wizards of the Waverly Place

These bad days. My fiancee left me with two more exams to go in a week. I keep wondering why the thing that I have chosen for my career and am so interested in can be such a pain in my *** when I have to sit an EXAM. Then I decided to take a break and turned the TV on, channel 43 as usual. Don’t laugh – it’s Disney, my one and only favorite channel.

Bingo, the show just started. Selena Gomez was singing “Everything is not what it seems” in “Wizard of the Waverly Place.” Well, this is not as good as “Zack and Cody” but so much better than “It’s so Rachel” or “Cory in the House.” I happened to pick up the words in the song:

Everything is not what it seems
When you can get all you wanted in your wildest dreams
You might run into trouble if you go to extremes
Because everything is not what it seems

Everything is not what it seems
When you can get what you want by the simplest of means
Be careful not to mess with the balance of things

Isn’t it the essence of Peter Senge’s “balancing system” and the whole philosophy of organizational development interventions? Why do I have to read all those thick, boring books while I can learn all I need from a children’s movie? Hey, all the OD professors, authors and practitioners out there – do what you need to do. I don’t care if it’s theory or best practice. I don’t care even if it’s story-telling techniques or organizational sense-making. But you’ve gotta make your books easy to read. Well, you don’t have to – and you can’t – put your portraits there and make them look as hot as Selena’s. But the least you can do is to learn from her. My best advice for you: watch “Wizard of the Waverly Place” and sing along with Selena’s “Everything is not what it seems.”

Chánh nghĩa sáng ngời

Chủ tịch nước Nguyễn Minh Triết: Cái sức mạnh của Việt Nam á, nước ta là một nước yếu. Trên lĩnh vực này á, chúng ta không có bị động đâu. Chúng ta phải luôn luôn chủ động. Chúng ta á là có chánh nghĩa sáng ngời. Chúng ta là nước đã từng bị thực dân đế quốc đô hộ. Chúng ta đấu tranh để giải phóng dân tộc, để giành lại quyền con người. Còn các thế lực thù địch á thì họ chà đạp lên quyền con người. Không những là trước đây, mà hiện nay nữa. Họ còn đem bom đạn, họ còn đem quân đội gieo rắc đau thương tang tóc hết nơi này đến nơi khác. Nhưng mà vì họ có tiền, họ mạnh hơn, cho nên họ lớn tiếng họ nói họ nhân quyền, chứ thật ra là họ vi phạm nhân quyền nhất thế giới. Còn chúng ta á, thì họ nói chúng ta vi phạm nhân quyền. Nước nào cũng có luật pháp chứ. Ai vi phạm luật pháp thì chúng ta xử chứ. Tại sao chúng ta xử vụ này, xử vụ nọ thì họ nói chúng ta vi phạm nhân quyền? Cho nên chúng ta phải đấu tranh cái này, các đồng chí! Phải đấu tranh một cách quyết liệt, đấu tranh một cách tự tin.

Lời bình: Trong Thiên Long Bát Bộ, Kim Dung tiên sinh giới thiệu về một nhân vật có tên Lung Á lão nhân như sau: “Nguyên Lung Á lão nhân vừa điếc vừa câm nhưng lại mang ngoại hiệu Thông Biện tiên sinh, ra điều tai ta tuy điếc nhưng lại nghe rõ hơn mọi người, miệng ta tuy câm nhưng lại hùng biện hơn ai hết. Lung á tiên sinh là một nhân vật rất nổi tiếng trong võ lâm, không thuộc phe tà mà cũng không hẳn phe chính. Lão đã kết oán với ai thì suốt đời tranh đấu liên miên. Nếu chưa làm được cho kẻ thù tàn tạ thì không bao giờ chịu thôi. Vì thế những người trong võ lâm có võ công tương đương với lão, hoặc cao hơn lão cũng xử nhũn với lão để tránh mọi sự phiền não.”

Cái chữ “á” được lặp đi lặp lại của chủ tịch Nguyễn làm tôi chợt nghĩ đến nhân vật này và tính cách rất đặc trưng “ra điều tai ta tuy điếc nhưng lại nghe rõ hơn mọi người, miệng ta tuy câm nhưng lại hùng biện hơn ai hết” và “đã kết oán với ai thì suốt đời tranh đấu liên miên … chưa làm được cho kẻ thù tàn tạ thì không bao giờ chịu thôi“. Phải chăng đã đến lúc Lung Á lão nhân phải thực sự nghe xem người khác nói gì về mình và thực sự nói ra những gì mình nghĩ? Phải chăng đã đến lúc lão nên chấm dứt cách hành xử rất không đẹp với những người lão vẫn coi là kẻ thù – dù cho chưa chắc đã phải là như vậy? Dạ, thưa với ngài Chủ tịch đúng là “nước nào cũng có luật pháp” thật, nhưng “nếu tại một nơi nào và ở một thời điểm nào mà luật pháp xem lòng yêu nước là tội phạm, thì thay vì trừng phạt những nhà yêu nước, hãy thay đổi luật pháp ấy.” (Luật sư Lê Công Định)

Driving your own life

I enjoy driving. I believe that you can apply what you have learned in life into driving. Of course you can also enrich your life with your driving experience. Fairly speaking, just put me in your passenger’s seat and drive me for a while, I’ll give you some insights about your characteristics, preference and intuitions.

My friend was hit yesterday by a guy that apparently jumped traffic light. Last month, another friend was stopped for speeding. Two month ago, I was hit from behind, too. Was it just bad luck? Or was it some bad driving habit that we – the driving Vietnamese community in Baltimore – lol – need to change?

Here are some lessons that I have learned and am still relearning, both in driving and in my life. Hope they help.

Life Purpose: There’s nothing else as beautiful as driving when the sun rises. I love driving toward the sun at sun-rise while humming the Beatles’ “I follow the sun.” It’s really, really fun to follow the sun – until it burns your eyes, though.

Life Path: The less traveled roads are fun. But there are chance that your car breaks down and you can’t find any repair shop. Better prepared than sorry.

Friendship and Networking: When you drive, avoid the vehicle that “makes frequent stops” or “makes wide turns.” You can’t never tell what it does next.

Preparation: Fully charge your GPS and mobile phone when you travel far. Have some water and food ready, too. You might never know if you can find a McDonald along the way. One more thing, you might not aware that you are dehydrated and/ or hungry when you drive long and hard.

Give back: Don’t borrow cars. Nor lend your cars to your friends if you don’t have too. There’re other resources out there – zipcar, enterprise, budge, heltz – you name it. If you do have to ask for the favor, return it with a full tank of gas.

Companionship: It’s fun to have a trusted friend in the passenger’s seat if you do have to travel long. Well, say fare well to the gang road trip like what you used to do when you are young. No more hitchhiking – lol. What is better than having somebody to talk with, somebody who really listens while you are driving? Sometimes they do distract us a bit – but in the long run, they do add meaning into our life.

Constraints: If you drive a coupe 1.8 like I do, don’t get mad when you see better cars pass you. Their cars simply are better than yours. Well, you migh save money to get a better car. But there’re always better cars out there, no matter how cool/ expensive your car is. Buy a good one that runs well and be happy with it. Isn’t it all about being happy in life?

Speed: Even if you drive a manual, don’t try to increase your speed too fast – except when you want to pass others. Be aware that you are more vulnerable to accidents when you do so. Remember that the less you hit your brake, the more gas you will save and the more road you will be able to travel.

….

Finally, remember that you hang your life out there when you drive. Any hesitation might cost you a lot. But you can’t get anywhere if you don’t drive. And you don’t travel the same road twice. Make the best use of your time. And good luck.

Người tù dự khuyết

Cái tát mạnh đến nỗi mãi mười ba năm sau tôi mới gượng dậy được. Quả nhiên đó không phải là một cái bớp bình thường, và để dáng nó vào mặt tôi, họ đã xúm lại khá đông. “Papillon Người Tù Khổ Sai” – Henry Charriere

Vẻ mặt bình thản của anh cho thấy “người tù dự khuyết” này hình như cũng đã chuẩn bị tâm lý cho một kết cục được báo trước như vậy. Phải nói là người ta cũng giỏi, cùng với một việc là nói ra những gì mình nghĩ và làm theo những gì mình tin mà có người thì được ghép vào tội … “trốn thuế,” có người thì bị ghép vào “lợi dụng các quyền tự do dân chủ.” Anh thôi thì ít ra cũng được ghép vào một cái tội nghe có vẻ phù hợp nhất là “câu kết với các thế lực phản động nước ngoài.” Thuyết phục được cái hệ thống này đi theo hướng sử dụng án lệ, điều mà anh vẫn vận động lâu nay, có lẽ vẫn là một chặng đường dài. Người ta vẫn bắt và xử hoàn toàn dựa trên ý chí và chỉ thị.

Chúc anh khỏe và bình tâm. Tôi vẫn tin rằng trên một đất nước mà người ta có giết chim én thì mùa xuân vẫn cứ về.

Organizational Intervention: Cure the Disease or Fix the Symptoms?

After the Chinese government ordered a fishing ban in some areas in the Eastern Sea under Vietnam’s sovereignty, our Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman simply “held an exchange with PRC Ambassador to Vietnam” and “requested that the Chinese side refrained from any activities preventing normal work by Vietnamese fish-men in the sea areas under Vietnamese sovereignty.” Due to the very close relationship between the two communist parties, the Vietnam’s government did not allow the mass media, which is under government’s close scrutiny, to speak their concerns. Newspapers were not even allowed to say that some Vietnamese fishing boats were attacked and sunk by Chinese military ships. In the mean time, the Vietnamese government planned to spend as much as 1.6 billion on 6 Russia-made submarines and stepped up government-led efforts to raise public awareness about the sea dispute with China.

When reading about all this, I happened to think of a situation in which a troubled/ dying organization keeps sending contradicting signals. What should consultants do then when they hear different messages from the organization’s leadership, the middle managers and the bottom level? I believe that this question is even more challenging in Asian cultures where people tend not to speak their mind as much as in Western cultures. If consultants do not get this first step right, they are going to end up fixing organizational symptoms rather than curing the organizational disease.

The corporate world has seen business leaders desperately trying to fix the symptoms only to see them getting even worse. Being an outsider is an advantage for a consultant since she can objectively analyze the situation. However, her disadvantage is that she might not have an in-depth of what is going on in the organization and what needs to be done to turn it around. That is why a large number of consultants out there also engage in the symptom-fixing game, which leads them and the troubled organization to nowhere. Some very lucky consultants somehow managed to successfully fix the symptoms. As soon as they leave, however, the troubled organization starts ailing again.

We cannot go to the extreme here, though. Consultants might not be hired long enough to do what they would like to, even if it is the right thing for the organization. If this is the case, is fixing long-term and more damaging symptoms better than short-term and superficial symptoms? I believe that it would be a nice thing to do if consultants can clearly define the scope and terms of their interventions with their clients. Back to the government in Vietnam, they desperately seem to need talented consultants with large-scale interventions and very long-term plans ready, not only to turn around their relationship with China but also their overall country governance. Unfortunately for them, those consultants might not be very easy to find. Even if they are, will they hire them?

Intuition and Leadership

Intuition is when we know something or know what to do without necessarily reasoning. Some intuitions are instinctive. We do not need anybody to tell us what to do when, for example, we see our loved ones are in danger or when we see our house is on fire.

However, some other intuitions are the result of years of education, knowledge building and practical experience. While it does not sound very right to say that we can learn intuition, we can perhaps learn how to better our intuitions to make better decisions.

In his bestseller Blink, Malcolm Gladwell describes how a veteran firefighter was able to “sense” a change in situation and order all of his crew out of a house just before it collapsed. This individual was unable to identify the steps in his decision. He just “knew” that it was time to get out.

This is also similar to what I mentioned in another previous entry about Japanese samurais. Once all the individual skills are practiced and learned to perfection, they retire to a mountaintop to meditate. They then deliberately forget what they have learned.  When they return they find the distinct skills have been naturally integrated into their style or way of being. The samurai then seldom have to think about skills at all – they have become their intuitions or they have become samurai masters.

The same goes for experienced leaders and consultants. A veteran marketing manager can tell straight away if a product is going to be a big hit or not without looking at any reports. A long-time recruiting consultant can almost decide whether or not to hire a person without even asking a single question. Yes, we can and we will better ourselves at making intuitive decisions if we learn from our mistakes.

It is critical for a leader or a consultant to understand, however, that not all intuitive decisions are right. Seemingly based neither on reasoning nor adequate information, they can be wrong, sometimes very wrong. This needs to be emphasized when making intuitive decisions. In addition, in this unprecedented world, some situations are so novel that intuition is also next to useless. In that case, a reasoning-based deliberate decision making process that takes into account all relevant factors is necessary.

There is, unfortunately, no formula as of when to follow your intuition and when to adopt a more deliberate and rational approach. This is perhaps a unique intuition that you will have to build on: when to use your head and when to use your gut.

How to Apply Dating Rules into Organization Assessment

I was driving on the way from Washington DC to Baltimore while my fiancée – Jane and a friend of mine – Linnie were in the back seats. In the middle of their conversation, I overheard Jane told Linnie that girls sometimes drive their boyfriends and husbands nuts since they constantly expect their partners to do what they like. In the mean time, they have no idea about what they like exactly or how they want to be taken care of.

Does it sound familiar? Yes. I think that this is not very much different from the relationship between a consultant and a client in which the former plays the guy’s role and the latter plays the girl’s role. Same as any typical intimate relationship out there, the consultant always has a change master plan in mind. He wants to push for that change and expect to see the results of the change. On the other hand, the client wants to be listened, and consulted of – even though sometime she might not be very clear of what she wants to do. The dilemma here is that she spends a lot of money to hire a consultant, but tends to feel like telling him how to do his job.

If we compare a consultant – client relationship to that between a guy and a girl, the organizational assessment is similar to a first date. A first date has its rules, of course. Let’s see how the top five dating rules are applied into the organizational assessment process.

1. Dating Rule #1: Don’t Lose Who You Are

Guy: Your first priority in a relationship – no matter what kind of a relationship you are in – is to be yourself. To do that, you’ll need to love yourself by ensuring you are ready to date before taking the plunge, as well as having a strong sense of self-worth and esteem.

Consultant: You want to make money. But you also have a good name to keep making money with other clients. Do you homework and say “no” to tasks that your knowledge, your experience or your gut told you to stay away.

2. Dating Rule #2: Ensure Every Date is Fun

Guy: Not only does trying to make your date happy make you feel good, but it is also one of the first signs of attraction. And studies have shown that when taking someone out on a date, the primary way your date will determine the success of the event is how much fun was had.

Consultant: Make your client talk, and laugh, if you have too, but not too much. Take care of your client both inside and outside the board room. Make your client wants to meet and talk with you, not necessarily about job.

3. Dating Rule #3: Communicate Well and Clearly

Guy: It is impossible to have a healthy relationship without strong communication. In essence, communication is the bridge that forms between partners, helping them create a sacred space in the middle ground where they meet in order to foster love and intimacy. Without clear communication, two people who seem like they are connected romantically to outsiders truly aren’t; instead they just going through the motions, lacking the intimacy they require to move forward, together.

Consultant: Talk with your client and try to understand them. Look around to understand both what is on and what is under the table, what is said out loud and what must be read between the lines. Give them opportunities to understand you, too.

4. Dating Rule #4: Be a Strong Negotiator

Guy: When communication alone isn’t enough to weather a relationship through stormy times, negotiation skills come into play. In order to work through the issues that arise in these kinds of circumstances, both partners must be able and willing to negotiate. When done with respect and awareness, negotiation can be the key to unlock a shared bright future.

Consultant: Be strong, not aggressive about what you really want the relationship to be about. You certainly don’t want to expand your work scope and not get paid for what you have done. If possible, be a smart negotiator, too. Clients are having more and more bargaining power.

5. Dating Rule #5: Nurture Your Relationship

Guy: All dating relationships require tender loving care in order to thrive. Daily appreciation, respect, attentiveness, reciprocity and kindness all work towards showing your partner that you cherish them and value their contribution to your life.

Consultant: Take good care of your clients. Might they be not clear about how to be taken care of, they definitely want the care to be there. Call them often, especially if they are a major client. Send them cards and flowers. Ask them out for a golf or football game. And last but not least, do a good job that you can put your signature on with them. Even in this day and age, the word of mouth has a very long way to go. And cross-sale is very common practice. If you do it often and sincere enough, taking care of others is also a kind of on-the-job training that will eventually turn you into a better guy, and a better consultant.