Feel Good Friday 27

Many items in this series have been about the infinite variety of human creativity and endeavour.

 Today, some photos of artistic plantings of rice paddies in Japan.  You can also read a background article or view a timelapse video of how it was done.

 

 

Feel Good Friday 26

I want to be able to wake up every morning and say “What a great career I have chosen!  I love what I do!” 

The optimism, exuberance and idealism of youth!  Isn’t it wonderful? 

(This is the opening sentence of an essay I just marked as part of the Managing and Developing Careers course at UWS.  Gives you some idea of why I enjoy it.) 

Similar qualities are demonstrated by Taronga Zoo’s baby elephant Luk Chai in today’s video.

Feel Good Friday 22

About this time last week 21,000 Oprah fans in Chicago formed a ‘flash mob’ to dance to the Black Eyed Peas, as a surprise for Oprah.  If you enjoyed the T-mobile ads, you’ll probably like this too!  

 

Incidentally, the dance was directed by Michael Gracey, the very talented Aussie director of the amazing and fabulous T-mobile dance at Liverpool St station and the Evian rollerskating babies, both featured in earlier editions of Feel Good Friday.

Feel Good Friday 21

A very short lesson on communication and compliance…

This 40 second snippet from the TV show ‘House’ demonstrates that even when you think you’ve given clear instructions, you can’t always predict the result! 

 

Feel Good Friday 17

This semester, I’m teaching ‘Managing and Developing Careers’ and ‘Human Resource and Industrial Relations Strategy’ at the University of Western Sydney. 

This 4 second video shows the effects of technological change on someone returning to their chosen career after a very long break.  (You may not understand it if you’re under 40.)

 

And although the following information is not included in the strategy course, it does seem strangely familiar…

 

Dead horse strategy

 

The wise men of the Dakota Indians reckoned that the optimal approach when you discover that you are riding a dead horse, is to dismount.

Phshaw! How unimaginative! I stumbled across some much better ideas and combined them with another raft of wisdom from a recent email:

• Invest in far more powerful whips.
• Change riders – find someone who is really serious about reaching this destination.
• Initiate disciplinary proceedings against both horse and rider for missing a clearly identified goal.
• Reclassify the dead horse as a “living-impaired equine.”
• Restructure the horse’s incentive scheme to contain a significant performance-related element.
• Encourage the horse to work late hours and perhaps a few weekends, until he has “caught up” with the shortfall.
• Appoint a committee to study the horse. [So obvious! How could the Native Americans have missed that one?]
• Arrange for the Tribal elders to visit other countries to see how other cultures overcome the issue of living-impaired equines.
• Revisit the targets and role standards so that living-impaired equines can be accommodated. [No dead horse left behind?]
• Appoint outside contractors to ride the dead horse – and set really clear milestones for the journey.
• Convene a dead horse productivity improvement workshop.
• Harness several living-impaired equines together to increase speed.
• Conduct a productivity study to see if lighter riders improve a living-impaired equine’s performance.
• Note in the next quarterly conference call that, as the living-impaired equines do not have to be stabled, fed or watered, they are less costly, carry lower overhead and therefore contribute substantially more to the bottom line of the economy than do the equines used by our competitors.

Or my favourite:

• Promote the living-impaired equine to a supervisory position, citing the historical precedent of Emperor Caligula …

From the blog of Rowan Manahan, founder of Fortify Services, a Dublin-based consulting and career management firm. Author of ‘Where’s My Oasis?’.  Speaker, trainer, husband, father, storyteller and dancing bear. (His description, not mine.)

 

Feel Good Friday 15

In the middle of a hectic week, a high point for me is singing with the local commmunity choir.

The amazing ’Playing for Change’ has taken the concept of ‘community’ and making music together to a global level, with musicians from all over the world collaborating (remotely) on a number of recordings, such as this fabulous version of Bob Marley’s ‘One Love’.

 

To find out more about the why?, how? and what else? of Playing for Change, view this video:

 

If you like this, here are some suggestions for uplifting weekend DVD viewing:

‘As It Is In Heaven’ – Swedish film about the redemptive power of a village choir;

‘Young @ Heart’ - Documentary following the adventures of a US seniors’ choir who sing modern music;

‘The Choir’ – The story of a South African prison choir.

Feel Good Friday 12

This week, we bring you some quick (1 minute) laughs,

…a slightly longer amusement (6 minutes)http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/einstein_the_parrot_talks_and_squawks.html

…and something more serious and inspiring (20 minutes)
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/willie_smits_restores_a_rainforest.html

Feel Good Friday 9

Can you imagine what it would have been like to be sleeping outside last night?  For over 100,000 Australians, homelessness is a daily reality.

Next Thursday night, I will be joining around 200 others from the business community who will be sleeping on the ground at Luna Park (cardboard and soup provided) to raise money and awareness.

Why don’t you make yourself feel good this Friday by registering to join us or donating?  This is what your donation can do for a homeless person:

- $50 can provide bedding, a meal and a fresh change of clothes.
- $100 will help equip Night Patrol vans with food and hot drinks.
- $500 will enable a homeless person to complete a lifeskills course.
- $1,000 will help support a survivor of domestic violence move into independent housing.

Some of our friends who will also be there:

Bernard Fehon (Founder of the CEO Sleepout) of Tactical Solutions

Aaron Tyers of @Print

Yvonne Howie of The CEO Institute

Howard Bell on behalf of Amnesty International

Ron Brown of PLUS40

Feel Good Friday 8

End your working week on a high with these videos of crowds of people in London singing and dancing together – and generally enjoying each others’ company.  It’s impossible to watch them without smiling!

If you have time (another 4 minutes) there’s a great little film on how they put the dance together, with Australian director, Michael Gracey. 

I hope you’re now in the mood for a happy and relaxing long weekend – enjoy!

CEO Sleepout

Will you join me or sponsor me to raise money to help homeless people?