TEDx Seattle: Other Sides

I joined TEDx Seattle 2020. The event itself showed the other (bright) side of Covid, first ever virtual and free. I don’t know its past attendance # yet 1200 watching live would be a great # to spread worthy ideas, thank you TEDx Seattle hosting team. The theme was chosen well – to bridge and …

Staycation => Voluncation

Due to Covid, this holiday season will be staycation, no travel for me. I would enjoy reading, writing, and attending virtual activities yet I want to do something more and different. I read about Catch a Fire, a platform for skill-based volunteering, a while ago and decided to sign-up. I applied for two projects with …

“Spicy” Win

This week I’m working with teams to define and align 2021 priorities and estimate development efforts. For some, they are cautious about the expectation (how to estimate TBD?); for others, they’re eager (& perhaps inpatient) to see the projection. It’s also time to request and determine next year’s budget and resource allocation. It’s no surprise …

Give a Gift that Lasts a Life Time

I met Heather Beem, founder of Practical Education Network (PEN) at an MIT social innovation event several years ago. I like her/ PEN’s mission to improve learning outcomes by building teacher capacity with locally available materials. We became friends. I reached out to her recently asking if anything I can assist with my voluncation (volunteer …

Buy-in => Believe-in

Change is never easy. I’ve learned that to be effective and lasting, we need “Believe-in” beyond “Buy-in”: people not only agree but also understand why and take ownership to drive it. When things go well, people feel proud to be part. When things get hard, people would persist, collaborate, and come up creative solutions to …

Creative Volunteerism

After a heated election, Feel inspired, America brought me a big smile. One example… In 2016 Scott Duncombe, a software developer in Portland, Ore., saw on the news that Cleveland residents had to wait hours in long lines to vote. His heart went out to them. In Oregon, there are never any lines because everybody …

冬令進補,三喜臨門 Winter’s Coming, Triple Happiness

Winter is coming. According to Chinese tradition, people celebrate with tonic (warm, nutritious food). I celebrated with three good news this week: Biden/ Harris won the US presidential election. I hope that means integrity, justice, and opportunities for all. We completed the customer portal interviews: we built everything (process, material, relationship) from scratch and successfully …