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