Traditional Chinese New Year (CNY) lasts for 2 weeks and wraps up in 元宵節 (lantern Festival). When I grew up, my parents bought my sister and I 燈籠 (denglong); we walked around the neighborhood as well as going to the temple and燈會 (lantern ceremony) with it. And I love 湯圓 (tangyuan), bigger sticky rice ball …
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Candor
One of the tenants (family) came from WenZhou, China and we didn’t know until the past 2 days the severity of coronavirus situation there. I’m glad they got out before the city was locked up and they seem healthy for the past 2 weeks (pass the virus hidden period?). However, their son is coughing and …
Less is More
I ran the last 2 core team meetings differently, instead of usually jammed topics and chasing with the clock, one session had no topic but hearing feedback and the other focused on 2 topics. More works/ discussions are needed on the details yet people responded very positively for the ‘simplified’ meeting and change. Less is …
Recognition and Fulfillment
Team expressed frustration of (executives’) constant change of direction, lack of (system/ process) understanding, and a mentality of ‘100% or nothing’. 3 systems are built from scratch in a year, now processing more than 50% of the jobs, used by 80%+ community partners, and continuing to grow…an incredible achievement by any standard. Does team deserve …
Solo Travel
When people meet me or hear my travel, there are usually 2 responses: ‘are you traveling alone?’ or ‘wow, you’re brave!’. I often heard ‘advices’ from people of the region/ continent recommend ‘it’s not safe to go alone as a female’. I know people mean well yet the truth is that solo travel is easier/ …
Success as ONE Team
My boss and I spent several weeks tweaking the BI model and examining the data then tried multiple times explaining the model/ goal of pilots to team. We got lots of questions (and tension), a mix of trying to understand, worrying of the change, and being suspicious…Later we saw a demo of another BI model …
Happy Chinese New Year!
Another Chinese New Year away from home yet it’s filled with love and joy from friends, food, and family (relatives)… Shared Chinese New Year’s Eve dinner with a Chinese and Korean friends. Making dumpling is the tradition for people in NE China and fish is a main course for Korean. We had both plus beef …
What is My Style?
I had 2019 review with my boss. He was very pleased with my performance and complimented on my proactiveness, ability to work with people, and follow-through to get things done/ deliver results. In terms of growth area, he pointed out that I can process lots of and complex info yet I don’t seem to have …
Relax and Enjoy
I am learning Spanish and practicing the conversation with a friend. I was um, ah…stuttered to find words. He smiled and said ‘breath…you need to relax and enjoy Spanish’ What? it’s easy for him to say that as a native speaker…Then I realized that he is right. I want to learn Spanish because I like …
Write it Down. Do it Now!
I’m listening to Making it All Work, same author of Getting Things Done (GTD). One key principle is to ‘write idea/ to-do down when it arises if it’ll take more than 2 minutes. If it’s under 2 minutes, do it immediately’. Many books emphasize ‘taking action’, e.g. 5 Second Rule (which proves very effective for …