BOOK 1 :Changing Minds

 During 21 century  the world is changing very fast with us  however  we  are  afraid many times  to change  because  chancing means our behavior , behavior means  about 20 years  or more   our habits

  One of the most difficult things is to change our behaviors or our selves. This book reminds me the ability to change behavior. Which factors are most effective in our behavior? we can find many different  points .I thing  one of the most important factor is  environment ,  I ll explain an example  if you use a big spoon ,  you’ ll eat  a more .If you serve  yourself  in a big   plate  , you ll eat  more .If  you  move the small  bowl  of chocolates  on your desk  six feet away you ll eat  half as much .So don’t fight  yourself to change  your behavior . .

There is a lot of advice out there about how to change yourself,  or improve yourself ,your life and your lot, but in the glut of self help advice what exactly do you need to do to change your life for the better?   When we give the answer for this question I think we start to change…..

The Spirit Level

The Spirit Level

Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better

by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett

This lecture was curios and somehow has confirm my personal idea that the income inequality effects our daily life (and as the tables in the PPP showed what was directly affected like: our weight, health and the most important of all our life length).

Economic growth has done as much as it can to improve material conditions in the developed countries, but in some cases appears to be damaging our health (as the example in the graphics regarding USA)

Every body of us tried to be rich enough. But is this the right way to follow?

I mean the market economy has showed until now to be the right one to follow, however Inequality (and here I refer myself to the Inequality economic distribution) causes shorter, unhealthier and unhappier lives; it increases the rate of teenage pregnancy, violence, obesity, imprisonment and addiction; it destroys relationships between individuals born in the same society but into different classes!

So If our Albanian government were concentrate on making its citizens' incomes as equal as those of people in Japan and Scandinavian countries, we could each have seven extra weeks holiday a year, we would be thinner, we would each live a year or so longer, and we would trust each other more.

So, I think that every one of us should think in an optimistic way, with a transformative, rather than revolutionary, programme for making our sick societies healthier. A society in which all citizens can feel free to look each other in the eye and to feel themselvess more valued than at the present.

Br,

Idi SULO

Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions

Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions

by Dan Ariely

Irrational behaviour is a part of human nature, but people tend to behave irrationally in a predictable trend/ tendency.

So everything that define good or bad is determined form the context in which a event is happening.

Irrational behavior show us why people make poor decisions about feelings, why patients get greater relief from a more expensive drug or why honest people may steal office supplies or communal food, but not money.

According to Ariely, “our understanding of economics, now based on the assumption of a rational subject, should, in fact, be based on our systematic, unsurprising irrationality”.

I think choices are rarely made without a reference to other similar situations (here I mean personal experiences or situation, which we were spectator). When we make a decision, we make our choices based on the different choices presented to us in that particulary moment

The tonight lecture it makes me thinking that we are very curios beings and with an insightful way how our mind works and why we are often irrational in our decision making.

Have a nice evening

Br,

Idi SULO

Immunity to Change

An old Albanian saying say: The wolf change his leather but not is habit. This is a meaningful saying because is strongly related with the fact that the change is to difficult for us. For years in row we do same things and we follow a routine. At a certain moment a change is needed either radical or a light one. The need for change is not obvious only in the daily life, it is also in the professional carrier and other aspects.
Businesses as well should taste the feeling of change from time to time. It will give a new dimension in the internal and external environment.
Why changing is so difficult and we do a strong opponent on it? To change is required to have courage and motivation and not all have it. Also there is an internal fear of doing a mistake or loosing that holds us back not to do the change. The change requires more than courage and motivation, it also requires will and needs to be open minded. As the human body reacts versus the climate changes, so we should find the internal force to make the change for good. It will for sure give a new dimension to our existence.

Followership

Followers in the book are presented as "powerful" persons in a company. In fact they are. The followers have that hidden power of non acting according to the instructions or rules, sometimes by mistake and sometimes by intent. This last one may result harmful for an organization. I remember in one of the trainings i have done, the lecture was explaining a topic: Effecting the effectors of the decision makers. He meant the followers because are them who with their interventions can deviate the decisions of the high management. Or from another point of view, a smart dependent can smoothly get e "yes" from his boss even when the boss is that kind of person that always says no and consider himself a god.
In few words followers are really powerful persons not only in a company but also in high level state management. Leaders must take their opinion under consideration.

Groundswell

Technology have for sure changed our lives and this change is that deep that sometimes we can't do without it. Years ago when we were teenagers and no cell phone were around, we used to call our friends for a long afternoon walk with a special musical whistle below their balcony. Now we not only ring the bell of our neighbor but it happens the we call our darlings from one room to the other using the free on net mobile calls. Our closest friends that live in USA or anywhere else see and talk with us every night through the messenger (yahoo or hotmail etc.).
These are few of the advantages and the power that internet and the communication technology have given to the people. Of course that the businesses were from the firsts that tried to benefit from this power, either to present themselves or to make business deals. Internet is a very big window for all the businesses and their customers or the potential ones are the passers that can see what they want to.
The other features of internet gives the chance to the businesses to interact with the customers at least even for a simple opinion. Having the close interaction can be harmful sometimes but even though the risk exists, businesses can take advantage of it and give value to their business.
The use of internet is a must and companies should take this as an advantage to increase not only their income but mostly their image.

Obliquity

Obliquity, why our goals achieved best indirectly...

As a society we write rules, we obey them and we act upon them. We set these rules for the rest of the world to see how we live , act and obey but the truth is….the truth is something else. Obliquity is what we do not realize but what keeps the world in balance. We speak of what we should act on , but we act on what we don’t speak of.

Dear classmate I wanted to thank you for this semester and hopefully we all will have the chance to take another course from our Prof. Melih Arat.

Wish everyone a good exam

Anri

The Power of Positive Deviance

Reading only the first pages of this book i understood that the author have found very meaningful examples to show the real power of the positive deviance. There are many other examples of the positive deviance that the author couldn't now because they are in other countries. But i would like to explain this subject from the political point of view.
During the past communist regime, the Party was using the cases of positive deviance, people with very high results in all the fields of the economy, to create "living heroes". At that time those were really positive deviants because what they were doing was finding solutions for difficult problems where the others couldn't. I remember a farmer who reached to produce 300 kv of corn in only 10000 m square. That man was declared a hero and every farmer of Albania was supposed to get his example.
All these were lies (demagogy) because at that time all the energies of the system were canalized on those "positive deviants". Of course that with all that governmental support they must have been the positive deviants. But Who were the real positive deviants?
I think that the positive deviants were those people who were trying to earn living working 12 hours per day in cooperative and keeping their children well fed,well educated and healthy. The positive deviants were those workers, innovator ones which in those primitive technological conditions were producing necessitous goods for the rest of Albanians. Other positive deviants were those intellectuals who with their creations were trying to opened the eyes of the people about the regime where they were living (ps. Ismail Kadare). All of them were not leaders but all individually found solutions for their problems and were worthy to be followed.

Switch

For the change to be successful, both of these sides (elephant &rider) need to be convinced – if you only address one side of the equation you greatly reduce your chance of success. Meanwhile, along with the elephant and rider you should also consider the path they follow – the context in which the two operate.

So somewhere  we should start to change :For things to change, somebody somewhere has to start acting differently. Each has an emotional Elephant side and a rational Rider side. We've got to reach both., and we've also got to clear the way to succeed.

By now, the Heaths have explained how others have directed the Rider, motivated the Elephant, and shaped the Path. Whether we’re trying to do better in life , trying to motivate people, change things at work, or trying to rally support to improve our community, Switch offers a great framework for enacting that change.

Obliquity: Why our goals achieved the best indirectly?

Last night my little son was having a strange behavior toward me. He was trying to convince me that he had eaten and slept enough (the major problem of little kids). Finally after he was convinced that i was very satisfied with him, he told me his request, that was a skateboard that he have seen in a shop. Telling the truth i was wandering how a 3 and a half year kid may find such a complicated way to reach his goal. At the same time i remembered that i was doing the same.
In our daily activity we may face different obstacles that do not allow us to reach our goals easily. what we do is searching for alternatives in order to get the required result. This proces is related also with the will and desire we have for our work. Otherwise the efforts spent will have been much more higher and no satisfaction would have been felt when the goal is reached. The non direct one most of the time is more effective than the direct one. Is in our nature to react immediately or to take the defending position when someone or something comes directly to us. We are not that much alert if this someone or something comes not exactly from the same direction and in the time we are waiting for. In such as case we are more willing to accept what comes to us.
In an organization such an acting manner is very effective because the boss or any colleague is more open minded and willing to listen or support you instead of going directly and through your idea or proposal in the table.
Obliquity gives a clear view of the fact that sometimes the non direct way, is the correct one to reach our goals.

OBLIQUITY

The “PLAN” was the most interesting chapter for me, because I experience this too much every day. The plans I make sometimes do not come real and I am disappointed of that every time it happens. May be we have to try to be more flexible while doing the plan. When I plan drinking coffee with a friend may be I find myself in a very different place. For example yesterday I had to be in University and join my lesson, but my son got ill and I couldn't.

Another part of the book was that we try to reach the success in shortcuts. But maybe the right way is to choose the best way, not the shorter one. For example when I come here I do not prefer the bus because of the traffic jam, I mostly walk to Epoka. I avoid the stress of traffic jam, and I am on time in the class. Sometimes the best way is the normal and the longer one.

HOW TO CHANGE THE WORLD

In fact the topic of this book really attracted my attention, but I think in a different way. Before changing the world we must change ourselves, because we are those who could make the world change?when?

If you eat nice meals, and do not think for the others who cannot find food, if you sleep in warm beds, when the others are lying in the street ... we have to firstly change our thoughts to start changing the world.

I cannot be Florence Nightingale, but if I think about those who do not possess what I possess and if I twinge of conscience, that means I have begin changing.

POZITIVE DEVIANCE

The employees in work places are not observed eight hours a day so they have the chance to spend the time with their private works. But if we have responsibilities for our work we keep ourselves in accordance with the working discipline. We can show positive deviance samples in most of work places. In my previous workplace, there were many opportunities for escaping or evading the work. But many of my former colleagues were working carefully and with discipline. Me and most of my friends decided to work conform these positive examples and our work was more appreciated and more successful. I believe that in every ambient there are people to be considered as good examples.

How to Change the World

Inside the book it's been claimed that the idea of Social Enterpreneurship started with Fransiscan Brotherhood. Although these may be considered as examples of this type of social activities, I definitely disagree with the book that these were the start of the concept.

The concept of foundations welded to the Islamic Institutions are examples of a social support model, at least 500 years before Fransiscan Order. During first period of the Prophet, Islam Masjid built in Medina had educational center called ZuIle or Suff 'e; these were the first institutions with the characteristics of "Foundation" or the arabic original word "Vakif" but this didn't stop there. It continued in the Turkish Islamic States and Empires following the Arabic era.

Our Albanian friends are familiar with the Bektashi Vakifs which are linked to Haci Bektash who migrated from Central Asia to all the way to Anatolia to become one of the most influential religous/cultural leaders in the formation and growth of Ottoman Rule in all Balkans and elsewhere. Many vakifs were built by followers of leaders like Haci Bektash and Rumi (Mevlana) and can be seen everywhere in the region from Bosnia to Hungary, Greece and even Cyprus. These were also early examples of autonomous self sustaining acts of charity, social solidarity and humanity.

However even these may not be the source or roots of this concept; there are researchers who link the idea to Budhist Viharas and even one source, Halim Baki Kunter, claims that an ancient Hittite tablet found in Anatolia, now in the Istanbul Museum of Archeology, dated back to 1280 BC. was the oldest known "vakfiye senedi" which means the "charter of social foundation".

Final word: Don't look at "far away" for examples of Social Enterpreneurship, they're right beside us, in the lands of this "deeply rooted culture", in Balkans, in Anatolia. Our ancestors knew how to change the world and there's no need to reinvent the wheel, just re-check the blueprints, abundent in the history of Albania and Turkey.

Regards and Good luck to all in the exam,
Mehmet Zirek

Click

When everything clicks! Is this possible? Technically it looks like is impossible but there are trainers who know how to make it click...

As we all are aware that clicking is something magic that we all try to catch, is like going to a job interview where you would like to give everything just to click with the manager or the one interviewing you, or maybe when you go in a date and you would still give your best just to have a click with the person sitting in front of you.

Recently I participated in Team Building training, during our three day training we also spent a session in learning the process of “clicking”. We went throw some study cases to see the behaviour the individual participating in a certain event.

During my working experience I have meet a lot of other trainers or managers who know how to have a click with the person in front of them. And they were successful for that.

So, I think we all have to learn how to make a click in our life.

Anri

The Flight of the Creative Class

Dear all,

I wanted to start my writing with a nice phrase from 1960’s: The time to start making sure that every moment count is NOW...

On these years a trend started putting importance on Creativity and Service. Till that time all the industries and group of individual were working on the quantity not putting much importance on creativity or service. One of the countries that supported Creativity as we all know was and still is America. Everyone was aware that if wanted to have a chance then go in America...America, the free country of free men where all the dreams become true...Of course on the other hand was not easy because not everyone could understand and there was also a flight between the richer class and as a result of that we have a lot of immigrants entrepreneurs that have started as a normal worker but who nowadays have been sitting in the place of CEO of world level companies.

To sum, this immigration gave also to the world economy something new and that was the creative economy which was giving nearly to everyone a chance to become someone.

Anri

OBLIQUITY

Obliquity: Why our goals achieved the best indirectly?

“Obliquity is the principle that complex goals are best achieved indirectly.”

I would like to start with one phrase everyone in Russia hears from their childhood (probably in Albania or Turkey it is the same? Dear Classmates, please advice): A smart (wise?) person won’t climb the mountain; a smart (wise?) person will go around the mountain.

One of my friends told that it is too hard and that why it is probably a bad idea…

I don’t know why do we prefer indirect roads. Based on my experience, while looking for workaround solutions, we never choose any easy way. For me it is just too simple. But I hope to understand this tendency better when I will read the second part of “Obliquity” book, why such complexity is necessary to reach our goals.

To sum up, I would like to thank everybody:

Dear Professor, thank you very much for advising us such useful non-fiction books. I could almost never find before any interesting business book (maybe, because of indirect way or because there are only 5% of them), but reviewing the books from the lessons (and other books from their authors) most of them I found not only helpful, but I am enjoying and delighting while reading them.

Dear Classmates, thank you for sharing your opinions and a good team work we achieved while preparing our Team Development Presentation. I wish you success and luck in today’s examination!

Have a nice day,
Tatiana

OBLIQUITY

          ‘Trying to be happy is a recipe for misery’. When you think you have to be happy and think about all the necessary things you need to be happy, it may seem a lot or unreachable. But like a mountain climber if you aim small, difficult but manageable targets, you may reach midterm targets more easily because successful small targets keep you happy and motivated to reach bigger ones. Take language learning; If you think the whole language or even all the skills, it may seem impossible. But you take only reading for a good start, after some time you will realize that not only have you improved your reading skills but you have also developed some grammar, pronunciation, vocabulary and improved your speaking skills indirectly. If you think about all of them one by one you may give up even without managing one of them.

            Another sample on the topic might be speaking on a topic or giving a speech. Before speaking we usually have a plan at least in our mind. But while talking because of a word, a phrase, a story you use or a question you are asked, you often leave your path and start talking about something else. Even this secondary topic may inspire you or your listeners more and some new ideas that have never come to your mind before may dawn on you.  In organizations also, you may have a main target and a plan to succeed in it but sometimes on the way we have to change our plans because of the new situations and you may succeed in something else while reaching the main target.

            Another important idea of the book is that when you give everybody in a organization or team the same big target, people may get lost. However, small but well-achieved targets can gradually build the big picture.

by Ibrahim Can Korkut