Social Justice; All Lives Matter

Social justice promotes fair and equality in society whereby everyone is treated fair and equal under the law and guiding principles of society regardless of race, colour, caste, creed, religion, or sex. Throughout history, where there is social justice, you would consequently find peace, harmony, and prosperity in society as a whole.

We can definitely view the issue of social injustices using the 3-legged stool philosophy to approach how we endeavour to solve this problem. The platform of the stool is the social injustice including racism, gender bias, etc., that needs to be completely eradicated.

The first leg of the stool is the systemic injustices as beautifully elaborated by Seth Godin: “The systemic, cruel and depersonalizing history of Black subjugation in my country has and continues to be a crime against humanity. It’s based on a desire to maintain power and false assumptions about how the world works and how it can work. It’s been amplified by systems that were often put in place with mal-intent, or sometimes simply because they felt expedient. It’s painful to look at and far more painful to be part of or to admit that exists in the things that we build. We can’t permit the murder of people because of the color of their skin. Institutional racism is real, it’s often invisible, and it’s pernicious.”

Therefore, we have serious work to do to treat all men and women as equals.

The second leg is the data that supports the social injustices as factual and truthful. There are historical evidence that have been collected for over 400 years! Hence, it is absolutely unjustifiable to deny that social injustices exist in our society.

Finally, the last leg, probably the most important part of the equation, is the ability for each individual to speak up and stand by one’s conviction of change to a critical point of the willingness to die for what one believes is right for our society. The founding fathers were willing to die for Liberty when they signed the Declaration of Independence. Socrates, Galileo, Mahatma Gandhi, and Dr. Martin Luther King died for what they believed in. This may seemed drastic but are you willing to die for what you fervently believe is the positive change our society needs? If so then stand up, speak up, look up, motivate up, encourage up, and vote up!

“We need a voice against racism, we need many voices against racism and brutality. And we need to stand up and say that black lives matter.” — Senator Mitt Romney

“If, going forward, we can channel our justifiable anger into peaceful, sustained, and effective action, then this moment can be a real turning point in our nation’s long journey to live up to our highest ideals.” —  Former President Barack Obama

I end with a quote from Kaleth O. Wright, Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force:
“I must do better. Like you, I don’t have all of the answers, but I’m committed to seeing a better future for this nation. What have I been doing? Not enough. I can only look in the mirror for the solution.”

You may connect with Elliot Wilson @: https://twitter.com/Ell_Wilson; https://www.ellwilson.blogspot.com

Grateful to be Alive

“I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor.” — Henry David Thoreau

“If you can't do what you want, do what you can.” — Lois McMaster Bujold

The spread of the COVID-19 pandemic has caused a lot of damage and we are yet to see the cases declining globally. However, this is also the time for mankind to take a step back and reflect on those things and virtues that are more important in life, such as love, family, kindness, gratitude, generosity, peace and humility.

In addition to wearing masks and washing our hands frequently, physical distancing (social distancing) and self-isolation have proven to tame the widespread of the pandemic and save lives exponentially. However, we sometimes miss the ordinary human connection of shaking hands, hugging friends, tapping the shoulders of colleagues/co-workers, and the way we are simply accustomed to the exchange of human energy. 

Nevertheless, we can rest assured that this too shall pass as it is a temporary situation for mankind to learn something that would make us stronger, better, and kinder in the future. At the same time, we would miss and honour all those dear ones who couldn’t make it and have passed on.

We are grateful that through video and digital technology, we can somewhat still see and talk to people globally as most of us would like to be seen, heard, and have our expressed emotions valued. 

We can use You-Tube, Zoom, WhatsApp, text-messaging, phone calls and emails to connect with love ones, family, and friends to express our love. We can also check up on those long-forgotten acquaintances in this inauspicious times just to see how they are doing. This is the time to also reach out to some old folks or physically challenged people in your community to see if they need any kind of help taking into consideration physical distancing. It would definitely warm their hearts as any act of kindness goes a long way! 

This is also a time for reflection - taking inventory of our lives, where we are, how did we get here, and where are we going? It is also a time to start working on some of the good/great ideas that we have been hoarding at the back of our minds for a long time, and start planning and working on them virtually/remotely. This way we will be able to bring them to reality when we are able to go out again from self-isolation. Have fun pursuing your passion!

Stay safe and be well! 

“The only way to see a rainbow is to look through the rain. Happiness is a journey…not a destination” — Wolfgang Riebe

“We should not look back unless it is to derive useful lessons from past errors, and for the purpose of profiting by dearly bought experience.” — George Washington

You may connect with Elliot Wilson @: https://twitter.com/Ell_Wilson; https://www.ellwilson.blogspot.com

Strategic Flexibility

Warren Buffet about Noah’s ark - “Predicting rain doesn’t count. Building arks does.”                              Think about it...action speaks louder than words!

Technological/digital revolution and expanding globalization are creating a new competitive landscape, whereby your survival and sustainability depends on your strategic flexibility or agility. The strategic transformation is imperative to any firm or professional to develop and maintain competitive advantage successfully. Hence, according to Shimizu & Hitt (2004), an organization is required to exercise strategic leadership, develop dynamic core competences, focus and develop human capital, effectively use data, new information, digital technologies, employ valuable strategies (exploiting global markets and partnership strategies) and implementing new organizational structures and culture (horizontal organization, learning and innovative culture, managing firm as bundles of assets). Thus, the new competitive landscape will require people with exceptional talents, new leadership skills or professionals with flexible attitudes for survival and global market transformation.

I previously worked with a large company B in the Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) industry. The CEO created a group call ‘Macro-strategy,’ which had the mandate of communicating the firm’s strategy throughout the company on a weekly basis. Thus, it was able to inform the heads of departments of any environmental changes in the industry so that the they in turn could also debrief their direct reports on a weekly basis. They have the ability to circumnavigate effectively in any new competitive landscape, build and maintain competitive advantage in cooperation with any department of the company. For example, it was once discovered that an employee of one of the company’s department had attracted HIV. The Macro-strategy group used its strategic flexibility mechanisms to resolve the issue effectively and efficiently. They worked with the operations department to suspend the employee with pay, got him immediate medical assistance, destroyed all of the six sub-categories of products that the employee had worked on and touched. Offered to reimburse any customer who had purchased products from that specific department within the past four weeks, the same tenure of the employee. Lastly, they issued a public apology to all customers. The result was a success and the customer trust and goodwill of the company was maintained. The Macro-strategy group had the strategic flexibility ability of making certain that the company responds to changes in the environment in a timely and appropriate manner with due regard to the competitive forces in the marketplace.

A former CEO of Gap Inc., used to work for this company B, and was able to bring the same strategic flexibility, policies and practices to the Gap Inc. According to Hatch and Zweig (2001), sustainability is established by aligning strategy closely with the supporting activities. They posited that The Gap is one example of tight alignment between activities and the underlying strategy. The Gap has closely aligned its inventory replenishment systems with its strategy of ensuring that the latest fashions are in the store quickly. Through its point-of-sale systems and highly efficient replenishment process, low-demand products are sold very quickly by aggressively discounting them. This makes way for faster-moving products and newer fashion lines. In this way, the Gap maintains fresh, up-to-date, highly demanded styles in its stores at all times—an essential component of its positioning. In my opinion, strategic flexibility helped Gap Inc. to increase its stock from an average of $16 per share (2005 – 2010) to $45 in 2013 just before the great CEO stepped down.

It is always a learning experience to understand how different organizations work along with different management perspectives. Consider how it resonates with your experience and how the strategy applies to your workplace or your personal life so that the process should result in insightful/learning moments. Try to gain additional insights as to how different strategies and perspectives transpire in different contexts. Finally, try to learn from the conceptual evidence provided in research, organizations or other people’s lives to gain insights on how strategic phenomena resonates with your experience, and engage in insightful meaningful discussion with yourself or your peers to improve your goals and objectives as they relate to your purpose in life.

"A life without trouble and vicissitudes is a life without progress. We can make even our greatest difficulties and failures our steppingstones on the upward climb toward success.." - Paramahansa Yogananda

You may connect with Elliot Wilson @: https://twitter.com/Ell_Wilson https://www.ellwilson.blogspot.com 

The Gig Economy | Patricia Romboletti | TEDxCentennialParkWomen

Great Playbook for All Employees and Jobseekers!

"Bulletproof Your Career...Secure Your Financial Future and Do Fulfilling Work on Your
Own Terms... for LIFE!" -- Patricia Romboletti

I recently read a book entitled "Bulletproof Your Career." It's a great playbook for all employees and jobseekers! As an expert in business strategy and development, I have read many books, articles, concepts and theories including how to manage business, people and yourself. Accordingly, I am impressed with how the author of this book, Patricia Romboletti has been able to use her tremendous experience as a career and executive coach to provide this playbook to help individuals in these times of change to arm themselves, bullet proof their careers and secure their financial future.

This book would help any reader to understand that in the gig economy, transition is not a matter of “if” but a matter of “when.” Even if you have a great career and not in transition, you should have a blueprint to bulletproof your career. How do you that? This book provides simple and practical guidance to help every employee to prepare yourself for any career change intentionally or unintentionally. The book also provides some practical and positive suggestions based on the author’s own solid experience to arm individuals in transition who were shocked or found themselves unexpectedly in difficult transition. If one’s transitional situation becomes unmanageable, this book could also become your playbook to guide you to change your mindset positively and improve your situation.

Finally, this book would help the reader to understand that managing your career is an imperative lifetime skill that is very necessary for all employees to develop consistently. As the economy evolves more and more into digital economy including the adoption of artificial intelligence (A.I.) in industrial productivity, corporate downsizings, reorganizations, and transformations would inevitably continue. Therefore, I would highly recommend this book as it is critical for all individuals to bulletproof their careers, and consistently manage their careers as a lifetime pursuit. I deeply encourage you to get a copy on Amazon.com by clicking on this link: Bulletproof Your Career

“Learning, without thought, is a snare; thought, without learning, is a danger.” -- Confucius

Note: This blog is not an Ad or a promotion...just an encouragement to add value to your Life's Strategy!  

You may connect with me on social media:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/elliotwilson6/

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Solve Problems Creatively - Part 2

“The imagination is man's power over nature.” — Wallace Stevens

No matter what our circumstances might be at any particular point in time of our lives, we have to try to say — okay time out! Then make the time to think things over. It doesn't have to be rigid, but take some time to relax, and do something different. Go for a walk without any electronic devices, especially cellphone — unplug for few minutes and let your mind be free to wonder around or roam the world. You may even choose to roam the whole universe in your mind and nobody can stop you!

By allowing your mind to ROAM-DREAM-PLAY, you begin to forget about your problems temporarily. In this less stressful state, you are free to allow your mind to start germinating new seeds of ideas. Simply learn to grow your creative spirit by nurturing your inner seed of creativity. To be creative, you have to let your inner creative spirit flow freely!

Playful experimentation, and willingness to learn from mistakes, and persistence are some of the keys to unlock creativity. This means you should try to relax, have fun, do some physical exercises, or play a game by playing around with some new ideas. Write down all your thoughts even if at first they seem to be nonsensical. It is reasonably acceptable if you make some mistakes, learn from the mistakes and keep on trying again and again until you make some progress towards some useful  solutions. Sometimes, if you feel you are not getting anywhere with new ideas, you just have to relax, let it go, sleep on it, and start afresh the following day.

Therefore, “Creativity = time + resources.” Like all important endeavours in life, to be creative in anything including solving your problems creatively, you need some form of dedication, motivation, taking time off your busy schedule, making yourself available to think things over, and start experimenting with some new ideas. It does requires some daily effort through perseverance until the goal is achieved.

Ruth Richards, a psychology professor at Saybrook University and Harvard Medical School, has discovered many reasons to start thinking creatively. Just writing everyday to express your thoughts has been shown to improve immune system functioning, reduce stress, and make you feel better to some degree. Engaging in creative behaviours makes us more dynamic, conscious, non-defensive, observant, collaborate, and more courageous. Creativity makes you more resilient, more vividly in the moment, and, at the same time, more connected to the world around you. How about that…try it now!

“Creativity provides opportunities for self actualization.” - Ruth Richards
"You have no idea how far you can fly, until you spread your wings" - A Wiseman

If you have any question, need any help in achieving your goal(s), or working strategically to grow your business, then do not hesitate to follow/connect with me @ www.google.com/+EllAWilson, www.linkedin.com/in/ellawilson, or www.twitter.com/#!/Ell_Wilson

Solve Problems Creatively - Part 1

“Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, he can achieve.” — Napoleon Hill
“Imagination is the eye of the soul.” — Joseph Joubert

According to the popular demand of society, a problem is mostly defined as follows:
1. A matter or situation regarded as unwelcome or harmful and needing to be dealt with and overcome: E.g., you may have financial problems, or some actors are concerned about the problem of ageism in Hollywood.
2. A thing that is difficult to achieve or accomplish: E.g., motivating your staff to increase profit by 1000% can be a problem.
3. As a modifier — denoting or relating to people whose behaviour causes difficulties to themselves and others: E.g., practitioners help families develop strategies for managing problem behaviour in teens or let’s say a problem family.

As you can tell each situation requires that we find a way to get to the bottom of it all or find the cause of the problem. Once we understand the cause then we can begin to find the best way to solve the problem, or eradicate the roadblock. Most experts insist that creative thinking requires people to challenge their preconceptions and assumptions about the way the world works. This might help if people understand how they got to the point of those preconceptions and assumptions in the first place.

To create a (new) solution to solve a problem, you may have to improvise or innovate. But a practical question is — how can you innovate if your thinking is anchored in past experiences? Well, occasionally some past experience may sometimes add value to the process of problem-solving. However, we do not need to be completely anchored in past experiences. Like Einstein said “You can’t solve a problem with the same frame of mind that created it in the first place.” Therefore, new ideas and solutions require new ways of thinking.

It is highly advisable to put your new ways of thinking to the test. In other words it is reasonable to think through the new several ways of doing things in order to arrive at the best possible solution. This way you have the opportunity to question all your assumptions and biases from previous experiences that might have any impact on your solution. Sometimes it may be appropriate to rely on your intuition after a thorough examination of your decision making process has taken place. Warren Buffett, one of the best investors and richest man of our century, said that whenever he's making any important decision, he would first do his homework thoroughly, considering all the options that are available at his disposal before relying on his intuition for final confirmation of the decision to be made. Some people prefer to say — “sleep on it” and that also works sometimes!

Creativity is often associated with imagination, ingenuity, inventiveness, originality, and resourcefulness.
Everyone can be creative. You can truly practice daily to have an active, exploratory mind like that possessed by artists, writers, and inventors. Just relax and let your imagination run wild without any resistance. This could lead to a creative approach to problem-solving. Zig Ziglar said that imagination is the greatest nation on earth, and I totally agree! Out of the imaginative mind, airplanes, X-Ray devices, radio, smartphones and other necessities were born. Having an active and creative imagination, which often means that a person visualizes things quite differently than the way they appear in the real world can break any barriers. The practical side of imaginative is inventive; the inventive person figures out how to make things work. But where an inventive mind tends to come up with successful solutions to problems, a resourceful mind deals successfully with externally imposed problems or limitations. Someone who is ingenious is both inventive and resourceful, with a dose of cleverness thrown in (e.g., the ingenious idea of using recycled plastic to create a warm, fleece-like fabric). Wow!

“The imagination is man's power over nature.” — Wallace Stevens

If you have any question, need any help in achieving your goal(s), or working strategically to grow your business, then do not hesitate to follow/connect with me @ www.google.com/+EllAWilson, www.linkedin.com/in/ellawilson, or www.twitter.com/#!/Ell_Wilson