Category: Review

I hope everyone has a great holiday season! It truly is a magical time to enjoy the festivities. It is a also a great time to reflect and think about what you want to achieve in 2022.

I look forward to writing more blog posts in 2022!

These past few months I have been working from home like everyone else. It’ll soon be a year of remote work.

My desk setup has received a lot more attention and there have been improvements throughout the last year.

Good ergonomics help and have been a key focus of my setup. However, I also aim for flexibility and ease in working from different places.

Here are the things I added to my setup:

• A laptop stand so I can use my laptop screen at the same height as my monitor
• A webcam so I can look straight forward and not sideways at the laptop
• A good ergonomic chair and keyboard/mouse
• A lamp with adjustable light temperatures to create different moods
• A USB C hub so I can quickly disconnect my laptop and work from different places

Some of the observations from working at home are that I noticed that having natural light and a plant on my desk uplifts the space.

Overhead light from the ceiling light is not the best for zoom calls, diffused light at the desk level works best.

Just because of the nice desk setup doesn’t mean you have to work at it all the time. With the flexibility of the USB C dock with one cable, you can unplug and work from a different space.

Overall these constant improvements made me appreciate all the effort offices make to plan their workspaces.

I am always curious to learn how great companies keep excelling. This combined with my fascination for Japan and cars, this book was an instant standout when I saw it at my local library.

After reading the first few chapters, I felt a deep satisfaction that I am reading this book at the beginning of my career as I am now aware how important the focus of long-term leadership development is.

The underlying message I learned is that employees are the most valuable asset and developing them over the long term is essential. Progress should be measured over a long horizon.

A fascinating insight was the management by objectives and how strategies are created to align with the true north vision.

Toyota Way True North Values:

• Spirit of challenge
• Kaizen
• Genchi genbatsu (go and see too deeply understand)
• Teamwork
• Respect

The TPS (Toyota Production System) and JIT (Just in Time) approach to the manufacturing mean any flaws in the system are quick to rise up and are addressed quickly. This improves the overall process iteratively rather than deal with one big expensive problem masked by a large inventory.

Lean starts with lean leadership there is no way around this. The commitment to excellence starts with training the leaders.

4 levels of leadership development 

(1) Commit to self-development

(2) Coach and develop others

(3)  Support daily kaizen

(4) Create vision and align goals

Leadership is not just attained from these values as there is a key focus on trust and self-development through “shu ha ri” which is apprentice training in pursuit of mastery. This long-term training contributes to leaders helping to create more leaders, not followers.

The key lessons I learned were the importance of  mindset and culture are more important than outright skills. Long term thinking and continous improvement go hand in hand with a focus on the process as there are no quick fixes.

This book is inspirational.

I was excited to read about Bill Gates Sr.’s life and how he talks about things that matter most in his life.

The short chapters in the book are filled with wisdom. I was fascinated by his humble approach to life and how for him the family was the most important thing. All the care and devotion to not only family activities but also to giving back, being well rounded, and working hard all have influenced me to add to my own families life.

The concept of local neighbours evolved into a global neighbourhood for his philanthropic work through his foundation and other civic organisations. This reminded me of the importance of volunteering, really caring for those around the world, and having a positive impact.

Having lived in East Africa, I understood the importance of charity as well as how grateful we all should be for our life. Reading this book rejuvenated my spirit on how much thought, planning, and action goes in maximising the benefit to empower citizens around the world to be healthy and able to live a good life.

This book was very inspiring to read and reminded me the importance of character and it’s continual focus.

Lever 1: Integrity

Lever 2: Contribution

Lever 3: Priority

Every time we hear or see someone successful we only see the secondary greatness, the byproduct of primary greatness which is all the hard work behind the scenes.

I was fully immersed reading this book and felt empowered to keep working on my personal integrity and accountability. Life is about honesty, love, contribution, and to keep upholding our values.

Lever 4: Sacrifice

Lever 5: Service

Lever 6: Responsibility

In the book he talks about our three lives, public, private, and secret. The secret life is the magic of greatness, to have the courage to explore what you really want out of life.

By focusing on our character, on what a person is, we can build a strong foundation for the rest of our life. This way we can align to principles ( universal, timeless, and self-evident) which help us create a strong personal discipline.

Lever 7: Loyalty

Lever 8: Reciprocity

Lever 9: Diversity

This important lesson of staying on the true north had an important impact on me as we are vulnerable to being distracted. The value of having an aligned vision with a shared value system based on principles is critical.

By continually evaluating how we see the world and being open to changing our perspectives is the only way to grow and develop our character.

Lever 10: Learning

Lever 11: Renewal

Lever 12: Teaching

I strongly believe this book will be instrumental in shaping both my personal and professional life as I think about life for deeper meaning, achievements, and happiness.

To start of 2017, I decided to read an inspirational book recommended by many people: Is Your Genius at Work?: 4 Key Questions to Ask Before Your Next Career Move

I enjoy reading inspirational books that allow me to reflect and think deeply about my life. Reading non-fiction self-improvement books have greatly improved the quality of my life.

Reading this book has led to many aha moments as the students in the book were discovering their own genius and by completing the exercises. It led to a discussion with my family and friends and also inspiring them to reflect upon what their genius might be.

Everyone has unique talents and undergoes different circumstances in life which result in everyone having a genius that is uniquely theirs. Before this book, I was not able to connect the dots of how my skills and experiences got me here. Reading the examples, I analyzed my strengths and weakness objectively and was able to find an underlying theme of my life and how I approached new situations.

This book is empowering as it makes the case that ultimately we are responsible for our lives and what we make of it. By figuring out our core strengths, our unique purpose/genius, we not only enrich our own life with greater clarity but also create more value for others.

I am glad to understand and appreciate my unique talents at a young age as this will help optimize my life for the future and set myself up for success by working with my strengths.