Empathy is helping Companies deal with COVID-19

How empathy, social contracts and deep conversations are helping companies in Kenya overcome the disruptive impact of the COVID-19 pandemic

 

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted market trading activity around the world. The pandemic has disabled supply chains and forced businesses to look for pragmatic ways to keep their doors open. Companies have suspended business commitments citing the force majeure clause. The resulting tension in companies is a hotbed for rising confusion and turmoil. With businesses facing imminent closure and potentially acrimonious court cases, pragmatic businesses have called for round table talks with stakeholders to resolve the crisis. This review suggests that the sensitive uses of conflict management and negotiation skills are crucial to obtaining shared responsibility agreements. Empathy, gently invoking a social contract and deep conversations are helping companies successfully navigate a path through this unprecedented season. Download full journal article here.

The Difference between Wisdom and Knowledge is a Dataset!

 The Dataset 

The dataset one has for decision making at 40, is greater than the information one has at 20 years of age - no matter the qualifications on hand.

Africa Today, needs Thinkers!

 Africa today, needs Thinkers more than Speakers

Your Career Success Address

Your Career Success Address

Hey, 

I am going to share with you six ideas, in less than six minutes, about career success that you can take to the Bank.

First, I would like you to know that you are a leader!

As a university graduate, you have joined the privileged two percent of the world’s population with a college education.

That means people are going to look up to you and depend on you for ideas and leadership!

People are going to expect you to know what to do in any situation.

Second, I want you to know that – A leader without a vision is like a child without a dream; Now you all know how problematic that can be.

What that means is that to develop your career, you have to keep dreaming! You may be surprised if I told you that most people your age stop dreaming and adopt an entitlement mentality. They believe the world owes them something.

But just remember how you got to where you are now – its because you had a dream! - and you worked hard to make it a reality. If you want to move on in life you’ve got to keep dreaming, you’ve got to have a vision and you’ve got to make it happen.

Third, I want to congratulate you because you have a high IQ. - Your IQ got you through school, but I also need to let you know that it is not going to get you through life. Your going to need Emotional intelligence, Social skills, Practical skills and a large dose of common sense!

But the big hitter for career success is delayed gratification. Develop the discipline to keep working today, for the things you want tomorrow. You see, many people don’t have that discipline, so they steal and take short cuts. Don’t do that!

The fourth thing about life is that it is made up of nodes. There will be high points and low points in your life. College graduation may be a high point, but losing a friend can be a really sad point in your life, your first job will be exciting, but your boss might be a real pain. You might have to go through a period of waiting, for something you really want, and if you are like me you might have to hawk your books on the streets and do odd jobs just to get by.

What is important is not that your life seems to be going up and down, but that you maintain an upward trajectory.

What that means is that you’ve got to hold on to your dreams and keep hope alive. But is also means you need to have goals and a road map to those goals. It means you have to be intentional about what you want in life, make plans, do the work that’s needed and make the necessary applications to get to those goals.  

Finally, I want to share with you some advice my father gave me about a house, a spouse and a cow.

He said build a house; It doesn’t make much sense until you realize that you are going to live in a house for the rest of your life. Now a lot of people enjoy paying rent to live in good places, but if you are going to live in a house for the rest of your life, you might as well own it.

Next, he said, get a good spouse; Now if you want to get a good spouse, you had better be one yourself. Having a companion to share the pain and good times in life is Gods great gift. It gives life a lot of meaning. A good spouse can double your income and half your expenditure - overnight!.. And you will also quickly find out that it is the most productive institution on earth.

Finally, my father told me to “get a cow”; Now you could get the kind of cow that gives you milk. That is a wise investment, but you should also get a cash cow like a business, a farm or investment in property that will give you returns in the days to come. The earlier you get these cows, the more wealth they will create for you and your family in the days to come.

If you want to read the rest of this story, click here to  go to google play, search for "How To Prosper" by Allan Bukusi and download the App today. The app is free, but the wisdom for life! God Bless you.   

 

A Leader without a Vision...

 A leader without a vision is like a child without a dream. Now you know how problematic that can be.

UKZN – PhD Winter School, 2020

UKZN – PhD Winter School, 2020

 

I had the privilege of attending the UKZN PhD Winter School Class of 2020, South Africa the last couple of weeks. I would like you to know that there are few things in life that come along, change your perspective, shake up your reality and give you courage to move on in life. This course was like that. It was a horizon to horizon experience that, like pilots say, allows you to see tomorrow. There is no way I could thank all those people enough who put all this together and Tembisa knows it is true. But to the Class of UKZN-PhD Winter School 2020, just know you are all the best! I wish I had a picture, a signature or certificate, but that don’t matter now because I got things in my head I can never forget. There is so much more I could tell, but here are 14 things every PhD student in the World should know;

1.  A PhD is a research degree, you are the PI, Langba
2. Buy a book, you are a PhD student, Langba
3. Do what your professor says; you can save the world later, Turnage
4. How did you generate this data? Smit
5. I don’t know everything, but I know enough to be dangerous, Paguyo
6. Immerse yourself in your topic, Perry
7. Look for a wedge in your topic to find the research question, Sundaram
8. Numbers don’t tell you everything, Richardson
9. The more you read, the better you write, Williams
10. The researcher IS the data collection tool, Dyson
11. What are you passionate about? do that! Marshall & McClinton
12. You are a scholar activist, Banks
13. You are an inside outsider, outside insider, Alexander
14. You just don’t write essays, you produce knowledge, Banks

The Law Cannot Save Us; Lets Make a Social Contract!

THE LAW CANNOT SAVE US

LET’S MAKE A SOCIAL CONTRACT

In a recent case in these COVID times, a widowed mother had to lock herself in the house and call the neighbors for help. The son, living in the outhouse on the compound, was in the habit of demanding money from his mother whenever he required it. The son, a college graduate, was not interested in doing any work for a living. As fate would have it, this time his mother did not have money. The neighbors came to the woman’s aid, in response to her call, saving her from a threatened beating. A few days later the mother came to plead for her son’s release from custody. He was released because she was not willing to make a statement convicting her son of any misdemeanour. Instead of having the matter dealt with in a substantive jail term as per the law, she staked her hope on society.

This story happening in many generic forms in these COVID times. The pressures of life have risen to “distress levels”. What kind of social contract can sustain us in times like this where we face rations and restrictions are imposed by a condition well beyond our control. Is this a special or unique time or are there lessons we can extract from this season to take us into the future? What will help us resolve our social crisis in times like these where the “law” is handicapped. The answer I believe lies in committing to a five-fold social contract.

The Fear of God

The first frame of this social contract is to acknowledge that God is overall and in control and that He has not lost control. This requires faith, but taking the law into your own hands is not to get even, but to deny and despise the presence of God. To take the law into your own hands is to advise God that He is not doing his job and that He needs a little help from you. To address the God of all creation on these lines is an effrontery if ever there was one. It is to challenge authority only slightly more powerful than a police station. You may not call upon him regularly, but it behoves all of creation to fear him for maintaining the Universe. If we all observed this law, we would resolve half the problems of the legislative universe.

Truth

The second frame is to observe the truth. Lies inflame and entangle and make a mess of relationships and life. They waste the jury’s time trying to find it and make a mockery of anyone who calls himself an upstanding member of society. Truth. Truth is absolute and it is liberating. If everyone told the truth we would not have these family innuendos between husband and wife, children and would be good neighbors. The Bible counsels that the truth will set you free. But it can also earn you forgiveness speedily, speed your way in business and in every endeavor in life. In truth you will not need to look back for anything. It will resolve the problem of integrity and chastity. You will only have to speak once. The next action in repentance will be to work out how to make things right. The truth is not the truth because you said it. The truth is the truth simply because it is the truth. It is a scholarly, enlightening and empowering discipline to pursue the truth. You will do well to make this your life’s call.

Wisdom

The third frame of conflict resolution is wisdom. All cultures are the accumulated wisdom of the ages condensed into practices that to negotiate and resolve issues in concert and character without loss of social standing with others. There were no jails. Your family culture will have a conflict resolution framework that will work for you and allow you to look wise if you follow it. Religious teaching offer plenty of advice. The Bible instructs a four-step process that if you exhaust you will be free of all sin in the matter. Wisdom is important because it helps you negotiate and resolve solve problems on a daily basis, before they become a crisis. When you become a wise, people will seek wisdom from you. Indeed, if you are wise you will have no problem with the law. But if you must be a fool then the fines you must pay to carry that title will wear you thin and grim.

Peace

The fourth is the frame of peace. Peace is not the absence of war, but it is the absence of violence against another. It is a conduit to prosperity of soul and the health of the body. It is the gift you receive when you do not give way to stress and chose to seek redress. Peace is a principle of life. It is sought after as a condition of success. Do not give up your peace on any account and in this you will rise to your full potential. While peace is challenged by the emotions of anger, regret and guilt - you know what you must do to release yourself from these false wizards of destiny. In as far as it depends on you live at peace with all men. It is possible to walk away.

Respect

Finally, respect. I do not have to love my neighbor to live next to him, but I can resolve to do him no harm by respecting the way that marks the boundary between my house and his. It is not the boundary wall that marks my respect, but the fact that I do not waste time to plot and plan to disturb his peace by my presence or agents of my presence. Respect is to acknowledge the good in others and respect good in yourself. To respect is to live above your passions and pride. It may require that you humble yourself and perhaps agree to humbled to the extent that good may come out of it. Incidentally you cannot respect others if do not respect yourself.  There is no justifiable reason to force respect. It does you and others no harm to stay in your space. Stay safe.