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 …

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 …

Not Perfect but Always Get Better

I attended a virtual AI conference and several speakers/ hosts, based on how they spoke, were not native English speakers. One host kept saying ‘you know’, another seemed hesitated to choose word to use, and a panelist spoke on ‘n on in circles… At first, I was irritated then I felt bad for them (they …

Engineer & Communicator

A few month ago, the product manager proposed to change the feature demo after the sprint (development cycle) from by himself to the development team. I thought it’s a great idea. It let developer showcase his/ her work and engage with stakeholders. Even better, the product manager said he’d coach and support the team in …

Thoughtful and Resourceful

A few weeks ago, we received email invitations from CEO’s executive assistant, Tammy and head of HR for a “social distance” lunch today. It will be great to see everybody after seven months of working from home due to Covid. To keep social distance, we were assigned “time slot” based on last name to get …

One Word to Describe You

I started a new pathway at Toastmaster. The first project is ice breaker, to introduce yourself to the club. Instead of giving an overview of my bio, I decided to present differently… If I tell you that I’ve lived, studied, and worked in 5 countries and across 6 industries in the past 17 years, what …

Make a Better World ‘Now’

I had a doctor appointment in Waltham. Afterwards, I decided to visit an Indian grocery store nearby. I picked up a few things including Indian tea and masala spice for aunt’s friend J as she mentioned she loves the tea last time we chatted. I dropped by aunt’s house where her friends stay. Nobody was …