The future is in our hands, Healthcare future is in our hands
A bright new future is here to stay, whether we see it or fear it, it will come! Technology has disrupted our lives already in the communication sector; how we relate to each other has changed a lot and will continue changing. The next step will be either Health or Education. For us to accelerate these changes and be able to enjoy as soon as possible the good impact they will bring us, a clear purpose and the goodness in people to serve society will have to be the main motivation! The disruption on human relations: Family’s like mine, of expats, are much closer now than they were before. When I left Brasil in 1999, cell phones did not have video calls (you do not have to be THAT old for having lived it!). I recall waiting to talk to my mother the weekends and controlling the time, as the calls were super expensive from Hungary to Brazil. Slightly before my mother passed away, in 2006, we have discovered a new “tool” that allowed us to talk “with” the computer seeing the faces of each other and for free – it was called Skype! Right now, I am able to talk to my siblings, families and friends seeing their faces whatever time I can – for people of my generation, we thought this would only be the Jetsons!!! We are indeed living what before was only in our dreams. We have right now in “one piece of device”, all our preferred music, our whole family and friends, news, notes, mails just in a “simple thing” that we can carry in our pocket! …information, connection, safety, entertainment, etc… in our hands 24/7! Some people see the negative aspects of the cell phones, I choose to see the positive! Where the next disruption will be? In my view it will be in the HealthCare sector, mainly because in the education we are already seeing examples of disruption, but this have been more silently and have been a big impact generation after generation already. The hope I see in education is, that, in the future, it will not be based on supporting one individual to be successful or to succeed in one organisation. The old ways of maximizing GDP’s of countries, Profits of Businesses, learning how to lead winning competition, influencing and convincing people to do what they might not be willing to do, is long gone. The future of leadership education will start from childhood, but to lead society to pursue a common goal – humanity well being, harmony and fight together the biggest challenges we face today! Universities as the Singularity University (https://su.org/) will take over, and the goodness and care for society and humanity will prevail. The next generations will not look for schools, Universities, where you learn how to compete and win the “wild human race”, but they search places where they learn how to cooperate and in collaboration make a better “harmonic human existence”. You can see it just by screening the first page of the SU website: “Preparing Global Leaders & Organizations for the Future Explore the opportunities and implications of exponential technologies and connect to a global ecosystem that is shaping the future and solving the world’s most urgent problems.” Why I believe HC will be the next big step of humanity evolution through technology disruption? Because Medical Science had developed super quickly, solutions that are being studied today can truly prolong life and there are researches going much beyond, but still our societies and countries are not ready. Technology has advanced hugely and right now all different stakeholders in the Healthcare sector are trying to find different solutions to be more effective and to be more productive, and to give the best service to THEIR patients. Where this will take us? This is the biggest question and the answer is another “WHY fundamental question”: “WHY WOULD WE, STAKEHOLDERS OF HEALTHCARE SECTOR INTRODUCE TECHNOLOGY IN OUR AREA?” Here comes the most important break for reflection. The right answer should always be: “BECAUSE OUR PURPOSE AND FOCUS IS THE CITIZEN WELL-BEING”. If we all truly think on the patients when bringing technology to our areas; hospitals, labs, researchers, government, then we will align ourselves in order to have the right technology to measure the clinical outcomes of the patients and track the whole patient journey, not only in that given moment, but also historical data. If Public and Private sector are aligned and “speaking” to each other, the data produced throughout the patient journey will help policies to be built which really help to optimize the Healthcare system and bring the best outcome to the patients. When procurement can be made according to the right added value to certain step of the journey, optimization of the whole chain can be achieved and the transparency can be the mother of the right decisions! This will provide the right platform for the collaboration among stakeholders, and by the end the citizens will be benefited. All decisions in the Health sector will be wiser…. How far are we from this??? My truly and deepest belief is that we are not far, and I believe that India can lead this journey. One of the biggest challenges that countries and systems encounter is the metadata to identify the citizens throughout the chain and the willingness and capability of the system to implement technology. India has both… India is the only country which has the Aadhar, which is, not only one identification covering 98% of the population, but also a biometric one!!! (Dream of any country which would plan to implement new Informatics system to track health value). India has also one of the highest acceptance of technology, innovation and the stakeholders are willing to implement technology in their “houses” to optimize services…. And…. On the top of this, in February 2018 the government has announced the biggest National Health program in the world, and among other ideas, they are willing to
Quantum leadership, Spiritual leadership, only possible in a Company with clear purpose
In my recent discover of Roche’s most amazing facet, I understood why I am here. My mother’s guidance during my early leadership times, 2003, had among other, Danah Zohar. My mother, a quantic physics reader and curious Medical Doctor, had given me books to read as she wanted me to make a difference in the world I would live in. She was very worried to assure that our family’s legacy; meaning, making this world a better place for everybody, would be seen wherever we decided to be part of. The first book she gave me, when I got a leadership position in a country, Hungary, 2003, being at this time in my early 30’s, was The servant – James C Hunter, a book which guided one to be a servant leader… After this, the readings started to involve the philosophy of having the quantic physics as basis for new society, being it economic, capital, leading, corporation. The theory meant to say that the previous theories about society, economy, corporations, business models, were related to newtonian theories which tried to simplify everything, looking to the uniqueness of everything and studying everything separated, meaning, having an objective by its own, selfish. On the other hand the new theories base themselves on quantum physics, where everything is connected and one, hence, one purpose – meaning that the companies and leaders who can understand that this world is only one, and that there is a greater good to fight for, will lead the future, since this will be the sustainability of the human kind, preservation of our planet and also transforming society and the planet in one, not a separated parts! Too etheric thought, new metaphysic approach, but the reality, and the ones who understand this will be able to live their lives in harmony quicker! I am now in the biggest period of plenitud I have never been in my life! I am happy and peaceful with all my decisions and paths chosen, and I understood my mission in life is about to be accomplished. …and with this I mean I am completely sure that being in Roche is the right choice as a professional and as a person, a human being seeking her mission to make this world a better place! I truly believe that what Roche is leading, in the corporate world, is what these books of Danah Zorah below describe, and if it is not fully aware of it, this is what I feel, reason why I feel so connected to whatever has been done in my 4,5 years here. The 2 books I see myself and my company in, are the following ones: The Quantum Leader: A Revolution in Business Thinking and Practice Danah Zohar “Drawing inspiration from quantum physics, innovative management thinker Danah Zohar offers a powerful new model for business thinking and practice. “Quantum leaders,” she says, like the systems they have to manage, are poised at “the edge of chaos.” They thrive on the potential latent in uncertainty and are adept at unleashing the creativity of self-organization. More important, they are vision- and value-led; they adapt quickly, are unafraid to play with the boundaries and reinvent the rules, and celebrate diversity. Zohar points out that the existing, business-as-usual paradigm owes a great deal to the outdated thinking, assumptions, and values of Newtonian science, which gave rise to the Industrial Revolution. Newtonian thinking assumes that corporations and markets are like machines–predictable, stable, and controllable; they are best managed in a way that eliminates risk and assures equilibrium. Unfortunately, as the global financial collapse of 2008 demonstrated, this way of thinking is as obsolete as the steam engine. Further developing ideas she introduced in her acclaimed Rewiring the Corporate Brain and Spiritual Capital, Zohar has written an inspirational book that will motivate leaders to tap the full potential of their employees, their businesses, and the customers they serve.” Rewiring the Corporate Brain Danah Zohar “Corporate structures, like the physical and biological structure of the human brain, operate from one of three individually distinct but intricately interrelated systems: mental, emotional, and spiritual. The healthiest organizations, like the healthiest minds, learn to respond and adapt to external stimuli through a well integrated union of all three structures rather than a single, rigid approach. Business models, however, primarily neglect emotional and spiritual components in their operations, placing emphasis instead on efficiency, results, and other qualities readily associated with the mental structure alone. With only one-third of the corporate brain utilized, the remaining two-thirds present a vast reserve of ideas and opportunities for responding creatively to the daily demands of corporate life. Rewiring the Corporate Brain offers a new way to think about, lead, and structure organizations for fundamental transformation. It demonstrates how people must change the thinking behind their thinking – i.e., rewire the structures of the corporate brain – to operate more fully and achieve genuine fundamental organizational change. Written for managers at all levels, Rewiring the Corporate Brain takes its lead from quantum, chaos, and the latest brain sciences to offer practical, accessible, and inspiring alternatives to traditional structures in corporate design, practice, and implementation.” I hope truly that this is the way societies, countries, and all mankind are going to, as this is the future of our following generations, and I hope to be supporting to build the corporation and society I want my kids to work on and to raise their children, my grandchildren… In which world do you want your children and grandchildren to be raised on? 🙂 Let us build the world we want to live in!
My name is Cortisol… work life balance or solely Life balance?
The biggest challenge I face everyday is to control my thoughts, in order to control my feelings, in order to control my emotions, so I can finally avoid the cortisol to come to my body and destroy the one little thing I appreciate the most – my peace, my life, my future…. How can I do what I love, and avoid cortisol? How can I enjoy each day more my job if what motivates me is the challenge, and also this is the “secret” of my results, enjoying what I am doing, mainly when challenges are growing… Here comes the paradigm change – the work life balance, I chose to change to life balance, since I simply decided to change how I look for balance, the balance started to come by itself!! Only the name “work-life balance” separates your life from your work, it is as saying Marriage-life balance… Do we separate our marriage from our life and try to have time for our marriage considering that what is out of it is life??? So why we do for work???? The single fact to believe that work is separated from your life, forces you to have a hour balance daily – which causes more stress… On the other side, if you are able to understand that your work is part of your life as your marriage is, you will understand that the balance is not in one day, one month or one year. We have to have a higher perspective and understand that when you do not have children, or a marriage, the chances are that you balance will tend to go to the work, as it will go to friends, to sports, to nights out, when you have a partner, your time allocation to friends, sports, as well as work will decrease, and this will keep decreasing when children will come, but this is physics…. you can not fit the room as comfortable with 3 children as you would with 1, you can not place 40 books in a shelf as you can 2. You can not share your 24 hours daily, 7 days weekly, 30 days monthly to your work, family, friends, sports, reading and whatever you want in the same time as you did when you started working. More, you have to see your balance in your life time, knowing that by the end, when you are 80 you will look back and be sure that at each period of your life you have made the right choice, of focusing at the right part of your life, making the right choices, looking for the right priorities, according to the life you are living, and mainly that you do not regret and you are happy, by each part of your life, being it 12 hours working daily, or 12 hours changing diapers daily or helping your children studying for some exam, but by the end, your life balance was just right when looking back…. So, what is the balance that will help your cortisol battle to be won? My take away after so many years is that nothing is found outside, everything is within and how you see life and its balance has much more to do to this answer as you might guess! I see that my balance I find searching my happiness moments, I see that when I have my most stressed periods, I am always longing to arrive home, and this period I try my best not to take my notebook home, and try to do homework with my children, or teach them english, when they were not here, I tried to go to the movies with my husband or to simply have a nice dinner. Before my husband, my best balance period, definitely, was to go to yoga and retreats!!! Last period my children started yoga and we decided to have them meditate every night before going to sleep, now I have the best of worlds, I work like crazy (many doubt I have the balance I tell I have), but I arrive home and I do yoga or meditate with my children, and once in awhile, my husband and I go out dining and we have fun! I find myself with more balance now than when I was in Mexico trying to get pregnant…. Now with 3 children, and with the easiest job on earth, General Manager of a pharmaceutical in Venezuela, I do think I have more balance than back in 2006 when I was single as a GM in Hungary! Cortisol, I fight with laugh, smile, meditation and the blessing of having 3 children, and the last 5 days, I recovered the pleasure of running endorphins!!!! So, Cortisol I fight with smile, looking to positive, and gratitude, every night after meditating we do a round of eh atreve we thabkful for, sharing everything we thank for during the day… One thing I am sure, my children will be much happier than I am, and I will be sure to guide them to the right direction!!! New purpose – others happiness!
Difficulties and opportunities of being a female leader in critical situations
For years I have been struggling with the idea of being the right leader, the right co-worker, the right mother, the right wife, the right daughter, the right sister, but I have forgotten the idea of simply being me as woman, a girl, simply myself… The expectations are all around and somewhere in this journey we just leave behind the one thing we have, that is the most powerful and the most wanted characteristic of a female – the diversity of having born a instinctive human being, with emotion, who cares…. I already lost the number of times that something made me think over my actions, decisions, and the whole path that took me to these actions, decisions – and normally there are only two situations identified – the moments that I am proud of how I did it and I do not put too much thought on it, and the moments which I do not feel comfortable, and I do feel that I am not following what is right, and normally when this happens, I know something will not work. Perfect – …but, this “something”-will-not-work-and-I-do-know – trust me, just works for family, partners, and long time colleagues. But be careful…. this does not work in the work environment, unless there is a huge amount of trust… …and why is this? Doing my reflections and meditations on the topic I had a huge insight!!! The reason is a problem, but also as my mother used to say, do not focus in the problem, but look which opportunity is there, and here I did find it!!! My thoughts guided me to understand that there is a simple way to guide men (or some women who do not know) to get the best from the female co-workers, and also how the female co-workers can help their bosses to bring the best out of them. Normally the biggest gender gap comes when there is a decision to take or a crisis to face, and decisions sometimes can not be taken on facts or figures, but at the same time, some decisions that are major DO NEED more basis to be taken or to be approved. When someone is pressured to decide, if this someone is a woman, she is going to follow her instincts, and she will get the “feeling” of much more things in the air, the men will be able to capture facts and figures that will sum up to a more rational decision… Lately, and believe me, I am becoming an expert in having to take decisions under pressure, in crisis, in difficult times and with as little information as one can have, and I do feel that the decisions have been very good, but I was doubting my ability to take decisions by myself, since I had always a push, a guide of someone. Some of these days, after one of those conversations and brain stormings, and not being able to put on a paper my instincts, my gut feeling, and not being able to convince the other side, I saw that a suggestion was given based on clear facts that were right… and I had no solution but accept it, I had no argument other than instinct. …and then this huge feeling of something getting wrong came to me, how is it possible that I can not share that I do feel that something might not be good, why do I fear telling about my instincts… This was when I got back to a great book, “Women who run with wolves” from a psychiatrist and Jungian with her book translated to several languages and with several prizes for being able to decipher the archetype of the “wild women” – something that all women loses by getting mature and having to fit into society and the expectations organizations have from leaders (which normally are male models). (http://www.clarissapinkolaestes.com/women_who_run_with_the_wolves__myths_and_stories_of_the_wild_woman_archetype_101250.htm) The book helped to understand that things are going well because it is the second time in my entire professional life I have a boss who can be able to take the best out of me as a woman. The first time I experienced something like this was in Europe when I was a leader in Hungary (coincidently the author of the book is a Hungarian!) and I can not recall a more successful leadership time than this one (in my own leader life), this was the result of having the team that allowed me to be myself and made me the leader I was and I had great coaching mentorship and leadership from my boss, Dr Brocks. Coming back to this time, I recall that I had a coach, Penny Sophocleous, who helped me a lot, and each time I had a feeling an instinct of something, I used to call my boss, and I do not know if consciously or not, he used to pay HUGE attention when I asked his guidance to take a decision, which I was sure I had to make, but I did not know how to present it for approval… 🙂 Best of 2 worlds – Dr Brocks trusted me 1000%, I never felt so supported and so valued, he used to ask me many things and used to coach me until I was able to have clearly the gut feeling, the instincts into a “male” translator based on facts and a business format to present and get approval, and we did receive approval for everything and this was the same time when I used to share with my team meditations and Spiritual Quotient (Dana Zohar) learnings… The “bias” when you go higher in leadership is clear, being a woman, you are emotional and you do get involved into the situation, because you do care for people. And then when there is a crisis and there is a pressure, nobody wants to hear what is your gut feeling, your instinct, and I can really understand it, on the other side, when there are no facts and figures,
We know our friends when we need them, also our employer, our company!!
What kind of company do you want to work for when you lead a country full of challenges???? My choice is for a company with values, strong values, and which most valuable asset is people – costumer or employee. I have learned the hard way how to value a company, while I was in interviews, for my actual company, one of the last interviews, the interviewer has given me the perfect answer, the wished answer, the dream answer for the question “How do you take decision here in the company, how do you advise me to take decision when I am in doubt”, the answer was “Always ask what is the best for the patients, and you will know the right answer….”. This answer was key – I knew that the company was known for being decentralised, quick decision making and with great focus on patients and employees, but a company is a company, however, my hearth wanted to follow the goodness, I wanted to work following my hearth, I needed a lot to have new dreams, new hopes and new believes, so I joined them! My expectations were high, as were my fears, I was very much afraid of disappointing the new team, the new boss, the new group, were I ready to come to such a company? I was too much “clustered”, living a centralised world where decisions were taken on your behalf, and for each decision you had more than 4 levels or superiors to align. I remember during my first 6 months, after calling my boss for many little decisions, my boss told me “Lara, feel free to take the decisions alone, and if you feel more comfortable, send me a mail for information, you are general manager of the country, you are responsible so you have the freedom to lead it as you wish I am here to support in case of doubt or a decision which you feel like to discuss…” hmmmmm…. was it real? Well, surprise after surprise, you get used, and it is very easy to get used to be really able to lead a country, to be trusted and to be supported, I started to understand why the executives here were so professional, so creative, so diverse, but also so so so committed. The result of having so much freedom and being fully responsible and accountable to your business, is that it makes you also care more for the decisions, the strategy, the results, so the trust will not be broken, and you want also to make your team stronger, since you need all right information to get to the right decisions and you need them making their own decisions! Then, when the challenges come, as a marriage, you measure the real value and the “beauty” of the relation – this comes when you have difficulties, when you have to take difficult decisions, when one of the parts is not accomplishing for some reason. …and that must be well understood and supported from the other side, and you can either be patient, tolerant, listen, support and lead the partner to find the right solutions and then help to follow with the plan, or you can simply throw the blame, judge, loose trust and get to one side deciding and imposing solutions that might not be the best ones… A company with a GM in a country in difficulties is the same, and in this right moment you see which kind of marriage you are in! Well, in a hard way, most challenging phase of my professional life, I figured out that I have chosen the right marriage… I remembered the answer of my interviewer, a high executive – “Here in the company when there is a doubt you ask what is the best for patients, short and longer term…” And I am seeing it day after day, in all difficult decisions or complex moments I can tell that several persons from several departments from global, regional, have showed me the same approach… It is so good to have your values reinforced when you are going through a period of doubts, I am, day after day, happier for having decided for the right path… This week, more than once, my team and I have thanked for working in this company, we are proud of what we are trying to do, it is difficult to decide when there is no absolute right answer, it is difficult to follow a path if there is some light missing, but it is great to feel supported and backed up by a company and colleagues who are all thinking together to try to find the right way! I needed to write to express my gratitude, and to make it completely clear that there are companies that still put people first. This is the place for the executives who trust the hearth way. Do not accept less, if you work with your hearth, with your integrity, and you have courage – do not give up, keep looking – you will find the right marriage, there is still companies that deserve our dedication!!! :))) #bosses #companies #leadership
Knowing and Doing gap… why aren´t we just doing what we know????
Another concept that I have learnt this week, has to do with the biggest problem of the humanity, the laziness, the procrastination, the leaving for later what you should, could be doing now… And this is something that delays our learnings, our improvement, this is the “killers” of the “killers” for training, courses… At the same time it is the simplest of the simplest details for success… It is to start doing immediately whatever you decide that is important, whatever you learn, that will make a difference… If we know that listening more is important, why don’t we start immediately, why don’t we try to pay attention on how are we, so we can do differently? …An easiest one, if we do know that there are thousands of researches proving that meditating during the daily work for 5 to 10 minutes improves concentration, creativity and helps focusing, why don’t we just start? …I know, there are so many things that we could start doing that we are overwhelmed, and by having so much in mind, we end up with nothing… So why not making a list of the 3 things we want to get improved for the next period, next 3 weeks (let us be scientific, and apply the rule – a human being needs 21 days to make something a routing, a habit…)? I have picked mine: I started improving my listening, or better, I am trying to do so, by following the theory that repeating mentally what the person is saying then have a “yes, and…” answer in my mind, makes me listen to the person, agree with him/her, and makes much easier to work out the conversation… …ok here there were 2 things 😉 Listening, and answering “yes, and…” (I will share sometime this experience – was striking the learning in a Improvisation workshop!) The 3rd thing that I will work on (to be easier as involves clocks, time, etc… and not mental commitment) is that I will start meditating, everyday during the morning, probably at 10 am – Mindfulness meditation, being aware of my good feelings and state of mind – only 10 minutes a day, starting tomorrow, and I will try to compare my focus, patience, concentration, creativity and I will share with you!! And you? What are you going to start with? Simple changes make HUGE difference!!! 🙂 Mainly when you feel that you are making life of others better by being a better person to be around!
Listening – can we develop this skill??? :)
For years I have been hearing that one of my development opportunities is the listening, for years I have been quite aware that this is something that would make me a better person, before it would make me a better leader. Why then I could not improve it, why then, despite all efforts I could not work on it enough to feel myself that I, indeed, am a better person? Today during a very productive meeting, the majority of the colleagues had identified as a major symbol of respect to others – the listening skill – still the majority feels that there is a window of opportunity here. Coming back home, and looking to my old books, I have found the Harvard Business Review – Effective communication – specifically the first chapter “Listening to People” Ralph G. Nichols & Leonard A Stevens. WOW!!! HOW TO IMPROVE LISTENING SKILLS, AND THE SCIENCE BEHIND IT – AS SIMPLE AS THIS; We learn how to read, but we do not learn how to listen, not in schools… and yet, this is the most important way to learn, to teach and to make yourself a good leader. LISTENING IS A SKILL THAT ONE CAN BE TAUGHT. 2 basics for listening improvement: 1) Understand the factors that affects your listening 2) Build the experience to create the habits of good listening 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 1) The factors that affects your listening 1.1) Misuse of the “spare” thinking time while we listen Our brain has capacity to process around 200 – 300 words per minute while thinking; the average rate of speech is around 125 words per minute. While one talks 125 words per minute, the listener processes these 125 words and have a space of around other 100 to 200 words more to think…. If you are talking to your boss or to your husband, normally you are using this space to prepare what you want to talk next, mostly trying to deliver an idea, sometimes making you to interrupt at the moment you think that you should comment… A good listener fills this time differently… Well, we already know now that we must fill this space wiser… Be a better listener lesson 1 – use correctly the spare thinking space of your mind! …creating habits to fill the spare space of our mind; I. The listener tries to think ahead of the talker, trying to have the anticipation of what the conclusion would be, but at the talkers point of view – assure that has understood correctly! II. Weighting the evidence the talker is using – check how the talker is using the evidence to support the points being made III. Uses the spare space to to review and mentally summarizes the points of the talk IV. Pays attention to the non verbal language, face, body language and try to see if there are more than the words, to be able to ask the right questions to get the talkers message fully, even what he/she is not telling 1.2. Listening to facts instead of ideas – another factor of distraction Normally the talker wants to transmit an idea, not facts, the facts are just a road which helps to reach the final destination. The good listener can rebuild the facts, use other facts to confirm the idea that the talker is trying to deliver. This is probably the easier listening skills to be learnt! 1.3. Emotional Filters – other factor of “distraction: Listening ability is affected, in different degrees and different ways, by our emotions. We listen easily to what we believe and what we like to hear at the way that we reject, whatever is against what we believe… A good listener identifies these moments and behave differently from the “first reaction”… … and just listen the talker… ….how to do this, hoe to develop this skill? I. Withhold evaluation; This is one of the most important principles of learning. It requires self-control. While listening, the main objective should be to comprehend each point made by the talker. Judgments and decisions should be reserved until after the talker has finished. II. Hunting evidence, all of them… When we listen, it is human to go on a militant search for evidence which proves us right in what we believe. If we made our minds to seek out the ideas that might prove us wrong, as well as those that might prove us right, we are less in danger of missing what people have to say… 🙂 Finally I have realized that the first time this article was published was 1957… How such an “old” teaching can be so helpful and truth even now… This is millennium knowledge, meaning that this is something that we should have known… Something I should have worked on, at least to “payback the wonderful listener my husband is… …and now I will do for my whole family – the private one and the professional one! Well, this is my individual development challenge and what I am going to focus the next period – those who are close are welcome to support me and give me your feed back – all for a better world, made of better people, starting by myself!!! #forabetterLara
Are you doing what you love right now?? Work life balance or Simply Life Balance?
Are you doing what you love right now?? Work life balance or Simply Life Balance? How many times do we really question ourselves and how many times our answer is: “Yesssssss!!!” without any hesitation, without having to look back, analyze check our last week and having to balance out the bad and say: “hmmm yes….” I had seen this video sometime ago, more or less one year ago, and I had looked back, I had jumped some hours of some days, I have skiped parts of the days and then I have answered – I would not have anything better, so, I have to say that yes, I am doing I what I do like… It was just now, exactly one day before the last day of work for 2013, on the 14th of December 2013, when I understood that “Yes, I am doing what I like, and I have to thank for what I have” is not enough…. :)))) The reason is that, exactly this day, working to my new company, having experienced change, challenge, being brave to start the start again, I saw this video, and by the middle I was jus repeating “yes, yes, yes, yes, I AM doing what I love, I do love what I am doing…” and a smile and some tears came slowly and my soul was blessed! 2013…. what a year, it did start one way and it did finish somehow different, odd and completely unexpected – and BLESSED!!! All the best which I could ever wish, indeed, what I would not even wish as it was so out of scope, did happen in 2013… …and then, the vacations, the most difficult vacations, but the best ever, vacations which would made anybody cry by having to go back to work… I will try to explain – the feeling a pregnant mother has after the maternity leave, the first work day, after being with the baby, and then leaving the baby alone, helpless, and the emptiness of being at work and the wish to be beside the baby… The 7th of January of 2014 was this day for me…. For any reason (this things that happen and you tell – there is no coincidence), I open my computer and the same video here attached was there – and then, I watched it, again… … and again, at the middle of the video, I was shouting . Yes, I do, yes, I do – I am doing what I love, I do what I love – I suddenly noticed that if I would not be in this company, with this so special team – this 7th of January would be my retirement day, I have NO doubt – but instead, I was so motivated, that I was so proud of what I am doing that I just wanted to work hard so I could be THE example for the new generation to come, our new generation, my husband and my generation… Then all my thoughts and my perspective changed – looking at this video I understood the selfless feeling – when you are alone you question yourself – Are you doing what you love right now??? The last days, from the 15th till the 15th of January my question changed slightly: “Are you doing what you love?” to “Are you doing what make you proud of yourself” “Are you doing what you want to give as example to your children” …or better “Are you doing what is your purpose in life???” 🙂 completely shinning soul – I could not choose anything better to do that would fit so perfectly to my purpose in life… Then another insight – there is much more than Work life Balance…. 🙂 Finding what you love and finding your purpose of life in your work is the right way to find your LIFE BALANCE, and Work life balance is so incorrect, since this separates your life from your work! Now I understand that I do love my life, because my work makes my whole life meaningful and makes me proud to share with my children each part of it!!! …Finally I understand the stamp at my brother’s wall “Do what you love and you will never work – Charlie Chaplin” #love #milleniuns #work
Diversity & Inclusion (What about both????)
For several years the companies have been trying to increase their diversity. Diversity is essential for companies being global. How to grow in emerging markets if your headquarters is in Europe or USA? Learn how the countries live, adapt to them, think like them, right? During today’s breakfast my father in law, a art director from publicity agency, retired and having experience in several companies had made a great comment: “I have worked in several agencies, and the agencies ended up always being the owner’s head. The owner could change the whole group of directors, the number of times they wanted, but the agency ended up always being the owner’s head – do you know why? Because by the end, as creative people are, they want to please their bosses, they want to present projects and changes that will be easily accepted, by who? By the owners…” 🙂 For us, who are the diversity and believe in our way of working, the difficult lies on creating trust, that our leadership, as different as it can be from the europeans or americans, can work. I ask the women and Latinos, how many times have you heard during a feed back session “you should be less emotional, you should control your temperament” At the same time you hear “what makes you the professional you are is your passion, your intensity”. I have heard it as “you should be less woman, less Latina”, but “Being a Latina, a woman is what makes you special”. The point is that in order to get your ideas and your objectives through the “owners of the agency” you have to think like them, know them, meaning that after a certain time, “being different” does not help when you are in the way to get closer to the “owner of the agency”. So, what is the solution? All experts already told – more than having the diversity is working on inclusion before working on diversity, is teaching to the “owners of the agency” how the new director team work, how the diverse think, behave, to understand the environment where they work. Accepting that a Latino working in Latin America might know better how to solve problems and lead the teams, accepting that different is different and not trying to translate this to the “owners of the agency” language… My biggest lesson learnt in my latest experience is that the Diversity is really wished, because everybody does know that this is essential for the further growth of the multinationals, but the acceptance is still not at the level we would expect. Basically because there is still people who think that “the teams should adapt to me, my reports should adapt to my style of leadership” more than respecting and listening and adapting to your co-workers… While the owners of the agency will still be one set of individuals, it does not matter how much diversity you will have on the layers down, the result of the diversity will not be seen. This is my take away lesson. On the other side, it means, that, from us the diverse group, also the expectation showed should be measured, and we should not go so deep into what is talked, but we should be able to see where the limits are, so the frustration will not be the result of the efforts that we make! By the end, the emerging markets are the place to be, if you come from an emerging market, manage your expectation, but be sure that we are needed, be there to support, be there to show how we work, be there to support the grow that can be achieve in our countries with support of this investment from outside! …But do this with lots of love, patience and … …passion!!
Change Management – avoiding changes, adapting to them or making them part of our lives; diffi
A very good lesson learned from my mother was to have the wisdom to do many things at the same time – not like multitasking – but rather having different interests, and then having the intuition to apply the knowledge learnt on all fields of our lives! Well, example, she used to work on a pathology lab, and always complained that, for cooking, she could never have the exact measures, then she started to buy “beckers” and other lab pots for measurement to cook – she found her precision on her kitchen, a kitchen which shelves looked more like as a lab !!!! Well, lesson learned – during turbulent times during my work, with mergers, acquisitions and many changes on the management I was having yoga classes, and as usual, I did not get enough of the classes and started to study a lot the philosophy and main concepts of yoga, and it turned to be the best thing to improve my professionalism and my leadership style! The main threat to any company or business is also what brings it to a higher level – the quick increase of business, coming along new rules, new people, new thoughts and new way of working – for the ones who are working well and successfully before this period, this means changes – that many times are perceived as negative… …And why this? – For a single reason, this might take them from their comfort zone, to do things differently and not to know if this will bring them the same success… Here comes the magic portion – “not knowing”…. This is the main reason for all the problems that bring us to have to manage the changes in order to deal with people’s suffering and then be successful in business… Let us come to Sanskrit – Wikipedia “Avidyā is a Sanskrit word that means “ignorance“, “delusion“, “unlearned”, “unwise” and that which is not, or runs counter to, vidya. (LB – Avidya is not knowing something – not intellectually, but just not knowing) What keeps humanity captive in Samsara is this avidya. (LB – what keeps people in earth and not going to the “next level” in Hinduism) This ignorance is not lack of erudition; it is ignorance about the nature of ‘Being’ (Sanskrit: Sat). It is a limitation that is natural to human sensory or intellectual apparatus. This is responsible for all the misery of humanity. Advaita Vedanta holds that the eradication of it should be humanity’s only goal and that will automatically mean Realisation of the Self (Sanskrit: atman). Root of suffering Avidyā plays a key role in Buddhism and Buddhist doctrine and is the primary cause of suffering in saṃsāra. Uprooting avidya The antidote to avidyā is “wisdom” (Skt.: prajñā; Pali: pañña). This is achieved by practicing awareness/mindfulness (Pali: sati, Skt: smṛti), patient endurance (Skt: kṣānti; Pali: khanti) and meditation (Skt: dhyāna), all three of which are incorporated in the pan-Buddhist practices of the Noble Eightfold Path and thepāramitās (“perfections”).” Simplifying all and using to our “Western” Style of life… The not knowing something will always bring to human being suffering, since when something new will come or is happening, the outcome will never be known, even if it can be good, we tend to fear it, we’d rather keep the not so good known than to accept the not known… In actual times, when all the speed is increasing and evolution and development of business is essential, bringing the concept to our organizations that Avidya should be worked through can be the easiest solution; Let us put this way – it is important to clarify with the organizations that not knowing what will happen might not be bad, if there is something that we do not know, then we should practice the full awareness of this and just concentrate on what we do know and what we can influence in order to bring our knowledge and expertise as part of the successful outcome! There will be thousands of aspects in our lives that we will not know for sure, but if we concentrate on these points, we will be paralyzed, as our business will be – the best is to accept that changes are main part of evolution and development and will always bring something very good to us all – so let us be part of this so we can enjoy the successful outcome, rather than be against and then see the success from outside, not being part of it!! Avidya – not knowing – the biggest cause of suffering in the world – but also the key to our freedom and realization, through Avidya we can learn to go through “Samsara”, common lives and world, to a superb life and world – where success with peace is just part of it!!!
