Delegation: getting it Right

Try the link below and you will understand every aspect of delegation. A great source of information. http://www.scoop.it/t/making-delegation-work

Teamwork Lessons from Geese

A Powerful Leadership Tool: The Five Paragraph Order

The August 29, 2011 Time magazine explain how the US veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan are bringing their leadership lessons home in an article titled, "The New Greatest Generation". In explaining how the army train its leaders to 'construct an action plan for every mission' introduce the importance of writing a five-paragraph memo, based on SMESC. The following link explain the concept in detail: http://www.cadetstuff.org/archives/p000555.html

Coping With Failure

Trade Ruler Game - How Good Are U in making Economic Decisions

The Trade Ruler educational game and related reading are based on the 1977 Prize in Economic Sciences, which was awarded for a theory showing that countries engage in and benefit from trade if their production resources differ from each other. Trade Ruler Game First published: February 2006 Estimated play time: 15 min. Sound: Yes High score: Yes Plug in requirements: Flash 6 » Credits » - What is an economic theory? - How can a country gain from trade according to the Heckscher-Ohlin theory? The Heckscher-Ohlin Trade Theory is about how two countries can get greater gains from trading with each other if they have different resources – one have more labor and the other have more capital (that is technical equipment and machinery). Extracted from:http://www.nobelprize.org/educational/economics/trade/about.html Trade Ruler

Why Happiness is Important by Tony Hsieh

In Health Care What matters

The Five Competitive Forces That Shape Strategy - Harvard Business Review

The Five Competitive Forces That Shape Strategy - Harvard Business Review

Managing the Team 2

Managing a Team 1

The Best Way to Play Office Politics

Managing Values Across Culture

Ten Innovations That Will Transform Medicine

Ten Innovations That Will Transform Medicine

The Big Idea: How to Solve the Cost Crisis in Health Care - Harvard Business Review

How can we solve the cost in health care services. The HBR article offers practical ideas

The Big Idea: How to Solve the Cost Crisis in Health Care - Harvard Business Review

Motivation: What motivates employees

Daniel Pink, the author of the book titled DRIVE offers a new perspective, based on research.

Watch the video:

What Motivates Employees

Try the following link to read a short and focused approach to a number of topics that are critical for your career success.

http://changethis.com/manifesto/index

Arul John

Smart Rules: Six Ways to Get People to Solve Problems Without You

Smart Rules: Six Ways to Get People to Solve Problems Without You - Harvard Business Review

Nine Things Successful People Do Differently

Nine Things Successful People Do Differently - Heidi Grant Halvorson - Harvard Business Review

Making Yourself Indispensable

Making Yourself Indispensable - Harvard Business Review

The Mistakes You SHould Avoid

The Biggest Mistake a Leader Can Make - Video - Harvard Business Review

Making Your Workplace More Ethical

How Teddy Bears Can Make Your Company More Ethical - Video - Harvard Business Review

Desmond Tutu on leadership

Servant Leadership

Marshall Goldsmith Library

Dr. Marshall Goldsmith is a world authority in helping successful leaders get even better – by achieving positive, lasting change in behavior: for themselves, their people and their teams. 


You will find wealth of practical tools in his website.
Marshall Goldsmith Library

Understanding Leadership & Management

The Working Knowledge lists articles that provide practical tools for managing and leading today's workplace.

HBS Working Knowledge

Leadership

Knowledge @ Wharton offers a range of articles on leadership and change. Everyone who is interested in making a difference in the workplace using leadership role, will find them useful.

    Knowledge @ Wharton: Leadership

The magic Formula for Success: I Think I can

Can we learn something from the good old children story - The Little Engine That Could.

Influencing People in Your Workplace

You quickly realise that to get done in your workplace you have to influence others. The real challenge is how do we go about influencing others? Learning to see the situation from the other person's perspective when presenting the arguments to convince people is one option. Highlighting the benefits to the person and key stakeholders do help in building up your support base. Read the article Using Influence to Get Things Done for some strategies to manage your next influencing session.

Boosting Employee Engagement

Is it possible to boost engagement while trying to keep the cost low. Boosting Engagement While Cutting Cost argues that it is possible and cites the experience of Parrish Medical Centre in Florida, USA.

Managing Service Standards in Our Workplace

What can you do to compete in the marketplace, so that you survive and grow. Ritz Carlton uses 'uses data on employee and customer engagement' to sustain an outstanding customer service standards. How the Ritz-Carlton manages the Mystique offers an insight on its practices.

Lessons from campbell Soup

The Gallup Management Journal through a series of article offers useful management lessons and concepts we can use in our work when taking care of the organisation's acaivities. The interview with the CEO of the firm discusses the Campbell Soup. Read the 'When Campbell Was in the Soup'

Saving Campbell Soup Company explains the strategies adopted by the company to win in the marketplace.

Managing for Peak Performance

Employee recognition and feedback practices are the key to building and sustaining peak performance. The Gallup Management Journal's article titled 'What Your Employees need to know' offers practical suggestions to follow in the workplace.


Another aspect one should remember is create the positive emotions in the workplace. Most managers who are comfortable operating on the basis that 'no news is good news' framework do not recognise 'The Power of Praise and Recognition'. Read the article by clicking on the link.

Building a great workplace is that difficult according to the article in Gallup Management Journal. Taking full advantage of 'thousands of moments every day' managers can build positive emotions in the workplace that makes all the difference. 'The Big Impact of Small Interactions' offers how to bring about the life changing outcome when managing the workplace.

Creating Enchantment

How to Enchant Your Boss and Employees?

Japan Nuclear Problem Explained

Japan Nuclear reactor explained

Inside Story - Japan's looming Nuclear Crisis

Tsunami Survivor Business Search for his Employees

My Articles

Steve Jobs Stanford Commencement Speech 2005

Staff Retention

Staff retention is always a challenge for managers.Beverly Kaye and Sharon Jordon-Evans in their book titled Love'em or Lose'em offer 26 down to earth practical suggestions that could be implemented in our workplace. The following summary created using wordle (www.wordle.com).
EnjoyArulwww.creativityasia.com

12 Key Elements of Great Managing

Epic Showdown

Epic Showdown from Andy Waplinger on Vimeo.

Building rapport by Goleman

Daniel Goleman: Why arent we all Good Samaritans?

Social Intelligence by Daniel Goleman

Emotional Intelligence in Medicine

How Coaching Works

How to Improve Team Communication?

How to Resolve Conflict?

Motivating People at Work

How to Manage Negative Feedback?

The Secrets of becoming an Effective Manager

Managing Your Career & Yourself

Managing your career is not an easy task. Getting along with people and remaining connected without burning the bridge requires a lot of effort and concentration. The following articles from HBR blog should help you in this area:

Six Keys to Being Excellent at Anything

For a better Career Outlook, Look Inward

Six Ways to Supercharge Your Productivity

How to Recognise (and cure) Your Own Hubris

What Motivates Us?

CPF Contribution

How much is your CPF contribution? Check with this table.

CPF: Calculators

A useful link to calculate your Housing loan and others

CPF: Calculators

How to Calculate your BMI?

Body mass index (BMI) is a measure of body fat based on height and weight that applies to both adult men and women.

Enter your weight and height using Standard or Metric measures.
Click on "Compute BMI" and your BMI will appear in the heart of the figure.

Motivation

The Word's Most Innovative Companies

The World's Most Innovative Companies

Why Your Job Search is Not Working?

Interview Questions

Quantifying Your Achievement

Reasons to Hire

Emotional Intelligence

Emotional Intelligence - EQ - is a relatively recent behavioural model, rising to prominence with Daniel Goleman's 1995 Book called 'Emotional Intelligence'. The early Emotional Intelligence theory was originally developed during the 1970s and 80s by the work and writings of psychologists Howard Gardner (Harvard), Peter Salovey (Yale) and John 'Jack' Mayer (New Hampshire).
(Source: http://www.businessballs.com/eq.htm)

Emotional Intelligence

Johari Window

Ingham and Luft's Johari Window model diagrams and examples - for self-awareness, personal development, group development and understanding relationships

johari window model

Test Your Personality

personality styles models


Take any of the personality tests below to find out more about yourself and those around you. All of these questionnaires have been developed by professional researchers. Results are free and provided instantly. Enjoy!

Test Your Personality


The Big Five Personality Test

Presentation Skills for Success

These tips on presentation show how to use audio visual aids in public speaking as an effective way to engage the audience and illustrate key points.
Read more:
Using Audio Visual for Presentaion

Clark, Donald. Making Presentations that Audiences Will Love.

Used wisely, PowerPoint® and similar programs can be an effective tool to help audiences remember your message, while allowing you to prove, reinforce, and support your claims.

Used unwisely, PowerPoint becomes a distraction that upstages the presenter and buries the message. With its tumbling, whooshing, flying, singing and screeching graphics, PowerPoint can take on a life of its own. More..
Creating Visual Aids That Really Work Designing Effective Slides Using PowerPoint

Improving Presentation Style

Motivation at workplace

What motivates people? To understand that we need to recognise the fact there are 2 elements that influence the performance standards of an employee. They are:

- Commitment
- Competency

Any motivational practices or strategies should target both these areas. You will find the following article useful in managing motivation in your workplace.

Arul
How to motivate people?

Time Management by Randy Pausch

Learn to Praise

Plane Crash - Lesson for Managers

Military Transformation & the Process of Innovation

EQ Skills

What is empathy? watch the short video from YouTube.




Happiness




Listen to the Expert - Joshua Freedman

Emotional intelligence (“EQ”) is the ability to use emotions effectively – the key competence for relating to people, sustaining drive, and making optimal decisions. Josh teaches people how to increase EQ to be happier, stronger, and more effective professionally and personally.

COO of Six Seconds, Joshua consults with leaders and teams around the world helping them use emotional intelligence to get better results. His clients include Lockheed Martin, the World Bank Group, Microsoft, American Express, Morgan Stanley, all branches of the US armed forces, Ethiad Airways, and the Make-A-Wish Foundation.


As a keynote speaker and facilitator, Joshua’s dynamic, humorous, and authentic style creates trust and leaves audiences motivated to take action. His presentations deliver hard-core science made practical, and are tailored to address specific organizational issues including:

Is Work Joyful?

Interesting perspective on work and joy at work. Though the speakers do make references from a Christian perspectives, the underlying concepts are relevant to all of us.

EQ Skills for Success

"Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is wisdom; acting on intelligence and wisdom is leadership."
-Lao Tzu

Managers can no longer depend on their IQ to get things done. The Emotional Intelligence (commonly known as EQ) is the critical success factor that will ensure success in the workplace. The EQ concept is basically focuses on our ability to manage ourselves and how we manage the relationship with others. Getting and remaining connected with people is critical for the success of managers.

Managers who are able to build and sustain commitment, trust and rapport with their employees invariably experience positive results ion getting things done. Their ability to relate to the needs of others and use that understanding to bring out the best from them is a critical EQ competency every manager should possess. Managers need to understand their personal feelings and emotions first, before attempting to get things done through others. Your Management Success, depends on your ability to use the Emotional Intelligence (commonly known as EQ) skills in your course of work as a manager.

Look at the following link for more information about EQ. If you are interested in a EQ focused workshop (in-house) drop an email to: info@creativityasia.com



EQ - Everything You Want to Know about Emotional Intelligence

Managing Your Career

Are you enjoying your work? If joy at work is something that is impossible for you, its time to learn practical strategies. To cope with your life you need to enjoy your work most of the time. Read the following articles:

How to survive an overwhelming job

What-to-do-when-you-hate-your-job

5 ways to manage a lousy boss

Battling your boss

Success at Work

Career Review

Writing a resume:
How to write an effective resume?

Managing Your Job Interview

Managing Your Career: Creating Favorable Professional Image

Managing Your Career demands a number of responses. For one thing you are expected to create and sustain a positive image that is professional. It is more than just managing your dressing. You should also learn how to present your ideas. Visit the following site for additional information.

Managing Your Career

Creating an Effective Presentation

Keeping a Professional Image

Praise Your Employees

As a manager it is important to know how to praise your staff. Follow the steps listed below:
- Praise in public
- Be specific
- Highlight the contribution
- Be sincere
- Do it immediately
If you are keen then you must read the following article.

John

Build Up Your People
by D. Michael Abrashoff

Leadership is mostly the art of doing simple things very well. However, we sometimes make it far tougher than it needs to be. Unlike some leaders, I prefer to build myself up by strengthening others and helping them feel good about their jobs and themselves. When that happens, their work improves, and my own morale leaps....MORE ...
Build up Your People

We highly recommend a subscription to Soundview Executive Book Summaries! They're a great way to familiarize yourself with the KEY POINTS of today's top business books. For over 25 years, successful executives worldwide have advanced their careers and moved their companies ahead of the competition. Now you can too! Click Here and receive 5 of the most popular summaries FREE with your subscription -- a $45 value!

Skills for Managing Teams

Together Everyone Achieves More Success. That is a fact. However, to make that possible you need to know how to build and sustain high performance TEAMS in the workplace. You can familiarise yourself with the relevant skills by attending workshops offered by a number of organisation.

The traditional organisation that is based on high degree of centralisation with tight command and control will not work today. To meet the challenges and opportunities, successful organisations are making TEAMS as their preferred choice in managing the activities. These organisations expect and encourage their TEAMS to self-manage the work processes. TEAM members perform a whole range of tasks, thus requiring multiple skills and competencies. This would mean supervisors and managers need to master the critical Team Building skills to sustain high performance at their workplace.

Teams generally outperform individuals. Teams are groups that interact closely to complete specific tasks. Team members are accountable to each other. Effective teams have certain common characteristics. These are:

- Team members share a common goal
- Team members have a clear understanding of the goal
- Level of trust is high
- High degree of commitment to achieve the goal
- Team members have the relevant skills

BUILDING EFFECTIVE TEAMS

Since everyone recognise the fact that “Together Everyone Achieves More Success”, organisations design their work activities and processes around teams.
However, it takes time to build a team. As a manager, you should know the process of building a team.

As a team leader you should:
- Assist the members to acquire relevant Abilities, Skills and Experiences
- Help the group to develop S.M.A.R.T. goals and remain focused to the goals.
- Demonstrate appropriate behaviour by being a role model.
- Align the team goals with organisational goals/mission/vision statement.


How can we master the skills for managing teams? Try the following links:
Team Basics

Fundamentals of Team Skills

Centre for Creative Thinking

EQ Skills

Since publication of daniel Coileman's book on EQ, the EQ concept has become one of the most frequently discussed topic among managers. All in a sudden business managers began to recognise the overwhelming power of EQ compared to IQ. The Emotional Intelligence(commonly known as EQ) is seen as critical. Individuals with EQ skills invariably do well, compared to people with poor EQ skills. The EQ skills covering personal areas and social areas can be mastered through focused effort and learning.

the EQ concept covering personal competence and social competence are seen as critical human skills for the success of business firms. Self awareness, self regulation and self motivation are the three main components of personal competence. The social awareness and social skills of the social competence covers the following areas:

- Persuasion and influencing skills
- Effective communication skills for managing groups
- Inspiring and managing people with appropriate leadership skills
- Managing conflicts at work
- Creating and sustaining network for collaboration and cooperative efforts

The following sites provide the required information on EQ:

Emotional Competence Framework

EQ Skills

Emotional Intelligence - Article References

Clustering competence in emotional intelligence: Insights from the Emotional Competence Inventory (ECI)

The Economic Value of Emotional Intelligence Competencies and EIC-Based HR Programs

The Emotional Intelligence Quick Book

Steve Jobs and Bill Gates

Getting Along with Other People

How do we get along with people with opposing personality, likes and dislikes? That is not going to be easy. The following article might provide some new approaches to make that job a little easier.
Relating to Other People

Managing Stress@Work

Do you know how to manage stress at work? We all face stress, yet many of us have no idea how to cope with it. Read the booklet through the following link:

Stress At Work: Information Booklet

Joy of Work

Self Improvement

PickTheBrain.com is an interesting site that offers a broad approach to self improvement including any and all experiences that contribute to a fuller life. This site will help you use the power of your own mind to create the life you deserve.


Pick The Brain

Business Ethics

Passion

Passion

Passion about Work

Managing Your Customer and the Your Workplace

EXPERT Magazine is a training & development and meeting planning publication, providing articles and resources to make organization more effective.

A Crash Course on Customer Service

Learn to say "No"

Building Trust with Your Customers

Expert Magazine

Managing Your Time

To be successful in your career you need to master the skills of managing your Time.
You should learn to:
- Identify the main obstacles to effective Time Management in your daily role..
- Understand the nature of Time Management.
- Understand a range of tools, techniques and concepts for Time Management.
- Use apprpriate techniques to build an effective Time Management process

Read the book using the link below:
Making the Most of Your Time: Going Beyond To-Do Lists By Rajesh Setty

Toastmasters Clubs in Singapore

Public speaking is an important skills. Regardless of what we are doing, each one of us need to master the art of public speaking. What is the best way to learn how to communicate well? try joining a ToastMaster Club. For a club close to you try the link below:



ToastMasters Clubs in Singapore

For Your Reading Pleasure

Start reading. Thee following links provide some interesting PDF books for your reading pleasure. Enjoy it

The Happy at Work Manifesto
By Alexander Kjerulf
Happy at Work

When You Absolutely, Positively Should NOT Use Email: A Civilized List
by David Shipley and Will Schwalbe
A Civilized List


Forget Formulas: How Managers are Fooled in their Search for Success
By Phil Rosenzweig
Forget Formulas

The Greening of Business: Recent Trends & Remaining Hurdles
By Andrew Winston
The Greening of Business

Customer Service - Where do we get started?

Every business organisation knows the importance of customer service standards. Some simply stay with a practical but a powerful GST approach - Ask their employees to Greet, Smile and say Thank You. When every business start incorporating GST in their service standards, you no longer enjoys a competitive advantage. Is there a way to stand out from the rest of crowd? You have to make sure every employee at all levels are actively involved in making their service speacial and unique. Employees at all levels with differing abilities can actively participate in proving customer service. If you want your employees at all level to go for the extra mile, then ask each one to watch this video in the link provided below.

If you are keen to get a in-house customer service excellence workshop for your organisation then: Send E-Mail to Centre for Creatve Thinking. Clients from Malaysia may call: 012-3479113 as well as email for details.

Customer Service Excellence - An Inspiring Video

Developing The Leadership Potential Within You

Is it possible to develop the leadership potential within you? First you must belief that you have the potential for becoming a leader. It is that belief that becomes the basis when unfolding the leadership potentrial within you.

A thorough self awareness of your strengths and weaknesses is the first step if you are keen to develop the leadership skills. Seeking feedback form your friends, colleagues and close family members is one way to assess your strengths and weaknesses. If you are not so comfortable seeking feedback from thes egroup, then stepping aside and learning to self relflect is another option. You should be able to identify a number of assessment tools you can use to identify your areas of expertise, strengths and weaknesses.

Complete the assessment tool below to gain a better understanding about yourself:

Know yourself

Understanding Leadership

Then start with the leadership development plan referred in the following document:

Developing The Leadership Within You

Understanding Leadership

EQ versus IQ

Does IQ really that matters? How important is the EQ skills. Though the term Emotional Intelleigence was coined in 1990 by 2 researchers, it was the publication of Daniel Goleman's book on EI that popularised the concept. View the BBC video.

Battle of the Brain

Understanding Chinese Mind and Chinese Culture

The link from the University of Texas Austin, will be useful in acquiring an understanding of the chinese culture and business practices. It covers a whole range of chinese practices, you will find it useful.

Understanding Chinese Culture and Business Practices

Managing Work related stress

Stress is something we are unable to avoid completely. It is important to learn how to cope with the stress encounters we face in our work. You will find the following document useful.

Understanding Work Related Stress

Writing Resume - Getting it Right

How do we get a potential employer become interested in us? When you see an advertisement for a job opening and decided to follow-up with your resume you must remember a number of important factors. Try and follow the following guidelines and visit the links provided at the end of this posting:

Never send a standard resume to an employer. You should customise your resume to a particular job opening.

Read the advertisement(s) carefully. Pay attention to the details about the nature of the job. Recognising the key duties and responsibilities is a critical first step before you get your first draft of your resume.

List down the key words from the advertisement. These key words should be in your resume, when documenting your experience.

In the process of documenting your work and professional experience, you should highlight your personal experience relating to the key duties and responsibilities stated in the resume.

Use actions verbs reflecting to the key duties and responsibilities. Use the search engines to locate the powerful action words.

Highlight your critical skills and professional qualifications. Whenever possible adopt a 'Functional Resume', as this will enable you to highlight your specific expertise.

If the advertisement states that candidates with certain skills or experience are preferred and you do hold them, then you should emphasise those skills and qualifications more prominently in your resume.

Do an Internet search for help and guidance in getting your resume right.


Getting Your Resume Right

Arul John Peter

Managing Stress at Work

Today’s workforce is experiencing job burnout and stress in epidemic proportions. Workers at all levels feel stressed out, insecure, and misunderstood. Many feel the demands of the workplace have become too much to handle. The financial impact of stress on corporations is staggering. This workshop explores the causes of such stress, and suggests appropriate initiatives for the company and its employees to undertake.

As employees we need to:

* Understand that stress is an unavoidable part of everybody’s life
* Recognize the symptoms of over stress
* Identify those situations in your life that cause stress
* Identify those actions which add to our stress
* Develop strategies for managing stress
* Develop techniques for dealing with the situations that can’t bechanged


Visit the following site to learn how to cope with the stress in your life.
Stress Management

Mayo Clinic Stress center

Tools for Better Decision Making

We face problems and opportunities all the time. This would mean we need to make choices. Making choices is about making decisions. Unfortunately making decisions is not always easy, unless we master the skill using some reliable tool. Inmeetings we are always under pressure to make decisions. Unfortunately, when inadequate time was spent in problem identification and solution development, the quality of decision making suffers.

When you have to make a decision in your next regular management meeting, because it has been in the agenda for sometime, just ask “Are we ready for making a decision?”. Unless everyone can answer with confidence that they are in a position to say 'YES' you should not rush into making decision.

We should familiarize ourselves with a number of decision making tools that can be used to evaluate each ideas. For a start try the following website:

Force Field Analysis

Prioritization Matrix


Arul John Peter
Centre for Creative Thinking

Leadership in Business

Carly Fiorina, former CEO of HP discusses the leadership concept. It is a very interesting speech. According to her leaership is about building capability,collaboration and character.


Leadership and Choice by Carly Fiorina

Understanding Singapore's Economic Competitiveness

The abstract below is extracted from the author's website/Mr Leo Kee Chye is well versed in Economics and several other discilines). I strongly recommend you read the article.

Abstract
Based on a research paper (2002) by the McKinsey Global Institute, this essay argues the importance in the role of the government in focusing on a few strategic sectors. The McKinsey paper reveals some surprising findings: 1. Much of the United States labour productivity growth jump in the period 1990-1999 was real and will continue. 2. The productivity growth jump was concentrated in only six out of fifty-nine economic sectors in the United States. Therefore, if the Singapore government choose to focus on these few strategic sectors, they can potentially drive the overall Singapore economy.

This essay also argues how the above strategy can be complemented by leveraging on the opportunities accruing from the globalising economy, and by identifying city-state's role in the portion of value chain in an increasing China-centric world, to enhance Singapore's competitiveness on the international stage


How can Singapore remain competitive in a globalising economy?

Brainstorming Technique

Any one who is serious about using creativity to develop new ideas, must learn the art of conducting brainstorming. The following links provide adequate information. Read, reflect and Use it regularly.


Brainstorming Technique

Handouts on Brainstorming

Eight Rules to Briliant Brainstorming

Developing Conceptual Skill Through SUDOKU

How fast you can complete this SUDOKU?

Economics Course from Carnegie Mellon University

You can access the Carnegie Mellon University's online course workbooks used in the full semester course on Micro Economics taught at the following link. The access includes the complete online workbooks including all expository text.

Economics

How to Apologise?

We all make mistakes. We do need to apologise at time. The problem is how do we say sorry. You may find the following link useful:



The Art of Apology from Harvard

Managing Difficult People

We all face difficult people at work and in our social encounters. How do we manage them Read the following article:

Managing Difficult People

Dealing with difficult people workbook

Insights on Creativity -

The preference to stay as we are right now is the norm rather than exception. The uncertainty and risk associated with new things and new ideas are the main reason for the avoidance attitude. We need to adapt and change to survive. Remaining status quo is not going to bring you anywhere. Organisations need to accept the truth - innovate or die.

Organisations who wish to survive and grow need to adopt innovation as one of their basic strategies. Innovation demands that the people in the organization learn to THINK differently, so that they are able to bring about new ideas. Managers must recognise that creativity and inovation are not meant to be limited to R&D department. Creativity and Innovation should become the norm in all types of activities. Once we become committed to the reality that innovation is required in all our processes, management policies, marketing, services and products we will be able to convince the employees of the need to THINK more Creatively.

The million dollar question is - How do we make people think creatively? First you must accept the fact that all of us are creative. If that is so, why are the majority of employees reluctant to think more creatively? Generally, the processes and structure in the workplace discourages creativity. The best place to start is to take a comprehensive review of the present practices and processes that are in place and ask whether each of this practices encourages or discourages creativity.

One should be prepared to slaughter sacred cows if you want to move on to become a more creative and innovative organization. Business organizations need to think of new products and services so that they can stand out from their competitors. Thinking and developing new products and services demand that the employees be equipped with creative thinking skills. Innovative business organizations know how to create the right work environment for innovation.

Employees at all levels must be trained on creative problem solving techniques, so that they will be equipped with competencies and skills that will enable them to generate creative ideas, when dealing with problems in the workplace. One needs to create the environment that supports creative thinking first, so that employees can move to a higher level of creating new products and services. To take the innovation and creativity to a higher level, you must remember that creativity is about generating new ideas, while innovation is about introducing feasible business products or service. Gaining an insight on creativity is the best way to develop effective problem solving skills.


Arul John Peter, is a Facilitator with the Centre for Creative Thinking, based in Singapore (www.creativityasia.com). He conducts training workshops on creativity and related soft skills for clients in Asia and Middle East. He holds an MBA and majored in strategic human resource management. He also holds a Bachelor of Science as his basic degree and professional qualification in administrative and people management from the Institute of Administrative Management, United Kingdom. He is a member of the American Creativity Association.

Creativity Techniques

Training and Staff development is becoming critical for the success of an organisation. Training executives play important role in this aspect. They need to have the right skills and tools in order to improve the Abilities, Skills and Knowledge (A.S.K.)of individual employees. Training managers in the process of managing and providing training and development programme are helping their employees to acquire critical skills and competencies that would enable them to enhance their performance. There are other independent trainers who are also involved in providing similar services to business organisations. if you are always looking for some interesting puzzles then this is
the site.

Creativity Techniques

If you wish to have a workshop exclusively for your colleagues/employees in your workplace on Creative Thinking, then you may contact Centre for Creative Thinking (Tel: +65 63370098) www.creativityasia.com for details.


John

Marketing Book

If you would likw to know more about marketing, then this free ebopok is your reference. This is an interesting ebook on marketing:

Marketing Book

John

Resources at Open University

You want to familiarise yourself with various topics. The Open University, UK is the place you should visit. In the Internet age, you are just a click away. Good Luck.


Open University, UK

Arul John

Famous Speeches

Searching for great Speeches from the past is not easy. Try the History Channel. Hear the Words that Changed the World. The site below provide a vast collection of speeches is drawn from the most famous broadcasts and recordings of the 20th century.

Great Speeches

If you wish to have a workshop exclusively for your colleagues/employees in your workplace on the Art of Public Speaking, then you may contact Centre for Creative Thinking (Tel: 63370098) www.creativityasia.com for details.

Martin Luther King's Speeches

To learn how to speak, you must listen to great speeches. Listen to the speeches of Martin Luther King. Ask yourself, what can I learn from his speeches.


Martin Luther King's Speeches


Arul

Successful Public Speaking

Learning to speak well in public is a valuable skill.Feeling nervous and uneasy before a speaking engagement is normal. Learning how to manage the nervousness is possible. You may wish to join organisation such as Toastmasters. Try thr following link to get started.


Toastmasters

Great Speeches

Martin Luther King Jr's Speech - I Have A Dream

Understanding Statistics

Regardless of your position in the organisation, you will come across the use of statistics. Unfortunately many of us have no ideas about it. To some of us it is a nightmare.You no longer need to suffer. The Sofia Open Content Initiative, provide an easy to follow lessons and video clips to understand the topic. Try it.

Elementary Statistics


Video on statistics

Regards.

Arul John Peter

Managing Change

Change is part of every organisation. You need to know how to manage and cope with the changes. In this aspect the following links would be useful.

Understanding Change

Change Management

If you find that you need help in managing change in your workplace, then you may wish to talk to your Training manager about the workshop titled "Riding The Wave". The 2 day workshop is designed to bring about a new perspective to the employees. You may send an email to: info@creativityasia.com





Regards.

Arul John Peter

Creativity Quotient

I have posted two links to test your creaivity Quotient and Effective Executive
skills.

Visit:

Creativity Quotient

John

Management skills

You may find the content at the following site useful:

Management Skills

The Centre for Creative Thinking (Tel: 63370098) conducts workshops exclusively for supervsiors and new managers. EQ Skills for Managing people, The Art of SuperVision are some of the workshops are some of the workshops offered by the Centre for Creative Thinking.www.creativityasia.com for details.




John

The Art of Delegation

To be successful in the work place you should know how to delaget. Read the article at the following site to familiarise yourself about delegation:

The Art of Delegation





If you wish to have a workshop exclusively for your colleagues/employees in your workplace on the Art of Delegation, then you may contact Centre for Creative Thinking (Tel: 63370098) www.creativityasia.com for details.



John

Building Trust@Work

If you want to know how to build trust in the workplace, please read the
following articles:


Building Trust

If you wish to have a workshop exclusively for your colleagues/employees in your workplace on the Building Trust @ Workplace, then you may contact Centre for Creative Thinking (Tel: 63370098) www.creativityasia.com for details.



John

Decision Making Made easy

We all need to make decisions all the time. Additional information on
decision making process. It adopts a comprehensive approach. If you
have the time, this is an interesting
site to visit:

Decision making

John

Understanding Management Concepts

No time to attend classes to know more about management. Then you will
find the following site useful:

Management Concepts


Regards.

Arul John Peter

Managing Your Career Transition

If you would like to read and familiarise yourself about Career
Transistion then this site should be useful:


Managing Your Career Trainsition

Arul John Peter
www.creativityasia.com

Challenging Your Mind

The articles at the following website useful. They are free to read
online, but requires payment if you want to download them in PDF
file.

Mind Tools



Regards.

Arul John Peter
Centre 4 Cre8tive Thinking
www.creativityasia.com

Creating Positive Image

Your success depend on how well you manage your image. Interested in creating positive professional image, read the article from harvard:

Creating Positive Image

Arul John Peter

Resume Writing

The following sites provide a broad understanding about writing an effective resume. However, do not seek their professional services, as they will charge a fee. If you are interested for an hands-on session, check with your neighbourhood Community Centres.

Get started in writing your resume. Visit the following websites:

Resume Writing

resume writing and Interview Skills

John

Managing Your Next Job Interview

Do you know how to handle the job interview? Visit the following site
for details on job interview

Managing The Job Interview

Understanding Leadership Concepts

If you are looking for practical tools that will enable you to become
a better supervisor, try the following links:

Understanding Leadership

If you wish to have a workshop exclusively for your colleagues/employees in your workplace on leadership skills and leadership related training, then you may contact Centre for Creative Thinking (Tel: +65 63370098) www.creativityasia.com for details.

Communication Skills for Supervisors

How do you keep track of the job skills.To be effective regardless of your position you need to know how to communicate. Try the following link:



Communication Skills for New supervisors


Regards.

Arul John Peter
www.creativityasia.com