Think Big Dream High,E39 – Those Who Advocate Complexity Are Not Efficient

Productivity And Efficiency

1.The productivity and efficiency of an organization be it government or private sector is dependent to a large extent on the performance and achievement of the Middle Management group. These group of people are reckoned as the  backbone of an organization. The higher the initiative, innovative  and creativity of employees in this category, the higher, the more successful, effective and profitable will be the organization.The same goes otherwise. The downfall of an organization  is to a large extent due to the low level of productivity, efficiency, imagination, initiative, innovation and creativity of every level of employees, especially in the Middle Management group of the organization.

2.It has become the norm for a boss at the Middle Management group to be assertive and conceited. More so if they have high qualifications the likes of MBAs, ACCAs or PhDs and with titles like Sir or Dato’. They not only want to look smart and shrewd but they are making it difficult for others to relate to them. The more egoistic they are, the more difficult for others to understand them.

3.Others are always at fault. A simple thing becomes complex. A small issue becomes big and is exaggerated. They speak in a sophisticated manner of language, difficult to comprehend. They babble a lot but its more for their own ears and understanding only. People are laughing behind their backs. When writing they used a difficult language to convey the message. People do not really appreciate and understand what they wrote. During meetings, they are the only ones talking. Other people’s ideas and suggestions are not encouraged, not taken heed of  and most of the time ignored. The employees felt that things are becoming more complex, complicated especially those things that affected them most. The employees perceived them as play acting smart and not creative either. Just a show off.    

Reality in Life

1.As the boss, they are the ones that created the awkward working environment. Though the employees may be wary and scared, they are actually  disrespectful of him. The working culture has stiffened. The environment at the workplace becomes routine, no excitement, no initiative. Nobody looks forward coming to the office anymore. All employees and workers are doing their routine work. Report for work at 8 am in the morning and go back at 5 pm. The 8 to 5 work culture has been their practiced. No motivation to work extra hours. No effort made to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the working culture.

2.As the boss, they spent most of the time in the office. Seldom if ever, they interact with the employees. They are very comfortable with such work routine. Not only employees and staff become non innovative, even they themselves are non creative and innovative as well. They are only creative on matters relating to their hobbies only. If its golf, then golf will be their topic of conversation and research. If its fishing, then fishing will be the topic for the day. They continued non stop to talk about golf or fishing to whomever they meet.

3.As a boss, they might have gone back later than other employees. Routinely they probably left the office at about 9 pm. However, there is nothing new that they introduced to increase the productivity of the organization. Looks like they have some similarities with the Korean or Japanese Executives. For the Korean or Japanese Executives, they will only head for home at about 11 pm in the evening. If they go back earlier than 8 pm, their wives will be worried for fear their husbands have fallen out of favor with their bosses. In reality even though they go back late, they are not practicing the working culture of the Koreans or Japanese. They spent more time browsing the web and doing research on their hobbies or sometimes making preparations for the next day’s meeting just to impress their top boss. They spent more time on their personal grooming. They work hard to attract their own boss’s attention but they do not put in the effort to increase the productivity and effectiveness of the organization nor do they try to improve the working environment and the morale of the staff.

4.They are also adopting the attitude of, “why should we be different than the others. If the boss says so, just follow what the boss says. We’ve done our best and the rest is up to him”. They are not focusing on their work. They work hard just to impress and be in the good books of the boss.

5.They are trying their best to defer or avoid making decision. If possible they want other parties to make the decision on their behalf. They consult too many parties to arrive at a simple and straight forward decision. They are avoiding and reluctant to take the risk and responsibility. They are too scared  that should their decision be wrong then the blame will be on them. They want the blame to be shared with other parties or put the blame entirely on others.

Tips

1.People respect us not because of our education, title, status or position. People respect us not because we look smart, difficult to be close and relate to, very calculative, difficult to make an appointment, look snobbish, deceiving or complex.

2.People respect us because of our intelligence, smartness, trustworthiness, speedy action in problems solving, effectiveness in resolving complex issues, willingness  to listen to complaints and grievances, politeness and mindful of our manners when greeting people giving them our full attention.

3.People respect us because we are decisive, quick to react but with painstaking move. People respect us because we are meticulous, impartial and rational in our judgements. People respect us because we are smart, able to break down complicated issues into simple, understandable and easy to implement solutions.

4.People respect us because we created an environment that encourages positive changes, encourages new and creative ideas. People respect us when we acknowledged  the new and innovative improvements  to the existing system. People respect us when we assimilate ourselves in brainstorming, team-working and activities that encourages creativity.

5.People respect us because we are appreciative of every comments made and feedback from the organization’s stakeholders. Our stakeholders are the employees, bosses, shareholders, clients, customers and of course the general public. People respect us when we are ever willing to offer assistance, lend support, give motivation, provide leadership, coaching, sharing of experiences or guidance to the stakeholders whenever required. We are part of the team. We are open, accountable and transparent in our work as well as towards the organization’s stakeholders.

6.People respect us when we are efficient and timely in achieving our KPI. People respect us because we are simple, approachable, friendly and humble but firm in our decisions and actions. People respect us when we do not advocate complexity, difficulties, impossibilities and impediments.

7.It looks as though too many things need to be done in order to be a good, respectable and smart boss or manager. But all of these qualities are achievable. All of these qualities will automatically be part of us once we are efficient, sincere and honest in our work. All of these qualities will be part and parcel of our management style, work attitude and working culture. To ensure this we should always be positive, think big dream high and have a strong heart.

   

Think Big Dream High,E38- Those Who Are Poisoning Themselves Everyday, Part 3.

Tips

1.The issue is neither on nasi lemak, nasi kandar, nasi beriani, spaghetti nor mee mamak. We can consume all of these nice foods for breakfast,lunch or dinner, but we need to reduce the calories intake to about 12.5% from what we usually take. This means the rice portion must be reduced to about 1/8 of the plate. Half portion of the plate to be filled with fresh vegetables or ulam and some fruits(healthy carbohydrates and fiber) this will make up 25% carbohydrate and 25% fiber.The balance can either be a piece(normal size of about 80gm-120gm each) of chicken, lamb, meat or fish or two hard  boiled or fried eggs (equivalent to about 25% proteins).The 25% fats portion will be coming from the cooking oil, gravy, dressing oil or santan. The total weight of this kind of healthy diet is about 200 gm or about 250 calories only, not 800 gm or about 1500 calories, like we used to take before.

2.Since about 87.5% of the rice(calories) has been taken away from our meal, we may feel hungry about 1 or 2 hours after each meal. In order to fill up the empty stomach in between meals, we can eat celery sticks or cucumber or any kind of nuts on a regular basis. These two type of vegetables or ulam actually have zero calories. Eating nuts as snack food is a healthy source of carbohydrates, proteins, fiber and fats and it is also low in calories. Eating either celery sticks, cucumber or nuts is actually good because they are filling and no additional sugar(calories) added to our blood system.

3.It is advisable that we use only olive oil and no other vegetable oils such as palm oil, corn oil, sun flower seed oil or coconut oil to fry or cook our foods. Olive oil is a mono-unsaturated fat and its properties will not change even heating it above the boiling point or being reused. Other vegetables oils are also mono-unsaturated fat. Mono-unsaturated fat is actually a friendly and good food for our health. However, mono-unsaturated  fat other then olive oil, macadamia oil, almond oil or flaxseed oil can easily changed its properties to poly-unsaturated fat once heated above the boiling point or being reused many times. Poly-unsaturated fat is as bad as saturated fat. It will gradually caused blockages in our heart arteries if consumed more then 7.5%(30% of 25% fat portion) of the total calories intake per meal.

4.Our beverage intake should  not be teh tarik, coffee, ice lemon tea, canned drinks or syrup but just plain warm water or sugarless soya drink home made(zero or minimum calories).

5. Home cooked diet prepared by our mother or wife contains about 25% carbohydrate, 25% fiber, 25% fats and 25% protein. The same goes with our lunch or dinner. We should balanced our diet with the main macronutrients i.e. carbohydrate, fiber, fats and protein in about the same proportion.

6.Such diet will enable us to control and discipline our food intake of about 250 calories  for every meals. At most when combining high quality snacks such as fruits, salad or nuts with our main meals, the calories intake will only be about 1500 calories a day. If we are an active person and always exercising we should be able to burn between 1600 and 1800 calories a day. We burnt 100 to 300 calories excess sugar and fats in our body in a day. If we follow such life style, there will be no doubt that we will achieve the perfect level of fitness. Our hips measurement will not be more than 80 cm and we will never be obese. Our BMI is around 25. If we become excessively thin  and our BMI is below 23 we can adjust our diet by consuming more quality carbohydrates such as tuna sandwich made with wholemeal bread or brown rice, the brown nasi dagang or add more fruits portion in between our normal meals.

7.Some desperate overweight people are practicing a protein diet to lose weight. This diet comprised of nearly 100% proteins(200gm to 230gm meat,chicken or fish), no carbohydrates and a little bit of fat. You can probably reduce weight by about 10 kg within just two weeks. However, the DANGER of this kind of diet is you are losing weight too drastically. What actually happen is that your body metabolism sourced the calories to burn from your own flesh. Flesh eat flesh kind of activity or cannibalism in the body metabolism process. The body reach the stage at which there is insufficient calories to burn, thus the only source of calories is your own muscle or flesh. This situation happens when there is no supply of sugar at all in the blood system. Therefore the weight lost is coming from muscle or flesh lost and not from fat lost. 

8.Diet alone is insufficient to achieve the optimum level of fitness .We need to do physical exercises on a regular basis. The meaning of regular basis is minimum of 30 minutes exercising in a day comprising of i.stretching exercise such as all kind of exercises that increases the flexibility of our muscles, ii.weight exercise such as push ups, squatting or sit ups and iii. cardio exercise such as jogging or brisk walking, rope skipping, hill climbing or treadmill or cycling or cross-trainer. The exercises carried out need to be balanced between stretching(5-7 minutes),weight lifting or anaerobic(5-10minutes) and cardio or aerobic (20-30minutes).

9.The modern day  foods are lacking in minerals and vitamins which is essential for our health. Our ancestor generations eat simple processed foods or raw foods that still retained a lot of the minerals and vitamins. The foods are still fresh not contaminated with any kind of poisonous substance such as pesticide. Therefore in order to have sufficient minerals and vitamins for our body, we need to take adequate food supplements. The basic supplements are vitamin C, fish oil, multi vitamins and multi minerals. However we should try our best to consume a lot of fresh vegetables and fruits as a cheaper source of original minerals and vitamins.

10.Such balanced diet with sufficient vitamins, minerals and exercise is not only good for our health but it will make us active, smart, always alert and ever ready to confront any forms of trials and tribulations.  We do not want to commit any sins such as slowly poisoning ourselves without us realizing it. We will make ourselves be responsible for our wellbeing. We need to think big dream high and have a strong heart in order to achieve a high level of fitness and happiness. This is our new inspiration for this year. A more detailed explanation on the above diet and exercise  can be found in my book entitled  “Diet Hang Tuah”. My email is mohdhassanizo@gmail.com

  

Think Big Dream High,E37- Those Who Are Poisoning Themselves Everyday, Part 2.

Reality in Life     

1.For the Malay community, our diet consists of about 70% carbohydrates such as white rice, nasi lemak,nasi kandar, fried noodles, white bread, bubur,kueh-mueh, goreng pisang, white sugar, tea or coffee, sweet drinks and malay cookies, 15% fats such as fried foods, ox tail soup, foods cooked with santan,10% proteins such as fish, chicken, meat, lamb, eggs and 5%  junk foods such as syrup drink, canned drink, potato chip, pickles, foods fried with poly-unsaturated oil. Our breakfast consists of nasi lemak or roti canai, tea or coffee tarik. Our lunch consists of a plateful of white rice with a bit of vegetables and proteins, syrup or ice lemon tea. For dinner, we take in another plateful of white rice or noodles, about similar contents as lunch. In between meals, we consume porridge, kuehs, banana or sweet potato fritters, chakoi, teh  tarik or hot tea.

2.Our children, upon hearing the  motor horn from “mamak roti” will rush to buy all kinds of junk foods that they know through TV advertisement. In fact, our children ‘s liking to  these  junk foods are  influenced largely by the  TV advertisement.

3.Such diet tend to make us be overweight or obese. Our hip measurement is more than 80 cm.  Our Body Mass Index (BMI) is more than 25.    BMI is measured by multiplying our body weight in pounds with the number 703 and dividing the answer with twice our height measurement in inches.  For example, our body weight of 168 pound multiplied by 703 the answer is 118,014 divided by our height of 67x67 ins, and the answer is 26.3. Our BMI is 26.3. This means we are overweight. If our BMI is more than 30, it is essential for us to control our food intake through diet and exercise.    

4.The above diet, comprises 70% genuine carbohydrates resulting in us taking in more than 800 gm carbohydrates every time we eat.  The 800 gm genuine carbohydrates such as white rice, fried noodles, pasta, spaghetti or white bread is actually equivalent to 1 cup of sugar. Imagine taking in 1 cup of sugar every time we eat. In actual fact we only require four or five spoonfuls of sugar or 100 calories for women and 150 calories for men in a day  and not 4 cups or 3500 calories a day as currently practiced. If we are an active person and burning 2500 calories a day we still have an access of 1000 calories a day. We need to remember that exercise alone is insufficient to burn the access sugar. For example 30 minutes exercise at the resistance level of 10 using the exercise cross trainer machine (combination of treadmill, stepper and bicycle) only burnt 350 calories. The access sugar actually underwent a chemical reaction in our body when combined with the hormone insulin to produce fat. The fat formed in this manner make us overweight or obese. Surely this kind of diet will lead us sooner or later to diabetes, coronary heart failure, high blood pressure, stroke, cancer and many more chronic diseases.

5.Such diet make us inactive, lazy to move around, always sleepy, not focusing and slow in thinking. Such diet make us achieved mediocre exam results or even failing. In class we day dreamt  not focusing on what the teacher thought us thus achieving poor results in examination or exam taken. Eventhough we are destined to graduate and obtain a job but we are not successful in our career.  We may secure jobs that other people turned down. We may be an entrepreneur but our achievement is only mediocre. Other entrepreneurs have become millionaires whereas we are still carrying files to hotel lobbies to lobby the politicians. Such diet make it difficult for us to be and acknowledged as a champion. Such diet make it difficult for us to be creative and innovative. We remained an average and mediocre person.  Such diet make it difficult for us to reach world standards in any areas of expertise.

6.All these phenomena were due to the released of large amounts of insulin by our body to suppress the excess sugar in our blood system.The excess sugar is a result of consuming too high a percentage of carbohydrates in our routine diet. The excess sugar will result in excess calories which cannot be easily burnt through physical activities.This large amount of insulin will convert the excess calories into fat,which ultimately result in  obesity. Obesity will tend to make us die faster than the supposed time. 

7.We are not only practicing an unhealthy diet but we are also responsible in moving towards a shorter life span. This happens  when we are not interested to carry out either physical or mental exercises. Diet plays an important role in determining whether we are an active person or otherwise. Laziness and tiredness as a result of imbalanced diet is also the cause for us becoming lazier and tired to perform any form exercises.  We just want to relax in front of the TV when our stomachs are full after filling it up with carbohydrates and sugar. We are influenced by our desires  hence we would rather chose the TV rather than going to the gymnasium or to recreational facilities to exercise.

8.After poisoning ourselves with carbohydrates and sugar, we do not take any initiative to burn all the excess sugar in the blood or calories. All of the excess calories can be burnt by exercising or carrying out physical activities such as gardening, car washing, cleaning and tidying the house and clearing our house compound. We can also fool around by wrestling with our sons or play hide and seek with our young daughters. All kinds of physical activities are  beneficial for our health. We received increasing supply of oxygen to activate our mind and body. We received increasing supply of oxygen to assist in repairing  and replacing the damaged and  dead cells .The right diet and exercise will enable us to maintain our youthfulness internally and externally.

Think Big Dream High,E36- Those Who Are Poisoning And Weakening Themselves Everyday, Part 1.

New inspiration

1.New year means new inspiration for everyone of us. This year I would like to introduce some guidelines on smart eating and healthy life style. My intention is for our community to become a healthy, slim, alert and intellectual community. We are facing many challenges in this vibrant and competitive world. Therefore we need to be fit in all aspects of our lives, be it physical, mental, spiritual or emotion. Our eating habits and life style play an important role in determining the fitness level of all of these components on our lives. We want to be at par or better than other world class professionals or entrepreneurs.

2.Committing suicide is haram. Poisoning oneself is also haram. What then would be the difference with someone who is allowing himself to purposely die before the actual time comes?

3. A Muslim should reach  the dying age on average at the age of 63, the age with which Prophet Muhammad SAW passed away. For the Japanese, the average dying age for the men is 75 and the women 85. The more advanced and developed a country, the longer the average dying age of the population. The average dying age for our country too has increased to 70 years old for men and 75 for women.

4.This longevity  phenomena or trend is actually being achieved as a result of embracing a much more healthier life style. Nowadays a balanced diet or following a regular exercise regime is widely practiced by the more wealthier or advanced communities.

5.As Muslims, we believe death is Allah SWT’s prerogative. We can doa for longevity. Allah SWT knows best what is in our hearts and minds. Allah SWT knows our daily diet, exercise and other efforts put in for long-life and maintaining our youthfulness. Allah SWT created us and He knows that as the weak human beings, we will always doa to Him to for longevity and happiness.

6.As Allah SWT’s faithful and beloved Ummah, we have every right to request that our doas and efforts be fulfilled by Him. Everything is within Allah SWT’s knowledge and power. As Allah SWT’s faithful Ummah, we have to leave it to fate and rely on Him to consider all of our doas and efforts.    

7.B should die when he reaches x age but B seriously put in the effort for longevity and Allah SWT knows best about his sincerity and good intention. Allah SWT will InsyaAllah happily lengthen his life befitting his efforts and doa. In fact Allah SWT knew about this would be efforts and doa at the time of B’s creation.

8.Food certified by health and diet experts as being the cause of chronic illnesses when taken more than the required amount are those containing lots of sugar,  saturated fats, chemicals, heavy metals, high toxin and acid content.

9. Examples of food with high sugar content such as white rice, yellow and white noodles, white bread, nasi lemak, all kinds of cakes or kuehs, coffee or tea, syrup, soda and carbonated drinks. All kinds of bottled, tinned or packet beverages, and all kinds of refined flour based junk foods.  

10.Examples of food with high contents of saturated fats especially fats originated from reared animals such as red meats, meat curry or soups, ox tail soup, chicken soup, mutton soup, frying oil heated beyond its boiling point and re-used for a couple of times and all kinds of fried foods except those fried with olive oil.

11.Examples of food with high chemical and toxic contents such as snack foods, all kind of fried foods using recycled cooking oil, raw foods such as fruits and vegetables sprayed with antiseptic or pesticides, junk foods and food cooked with excessive  seasoning and food with artificial chemical flavor or colouring. Some meat, chicken, fish or seafood especially from farms located near river or sea and nearby the industrial areas are also found  contaminated with chemical waste and should be avoided.

12.Examples of food with high heavy metal contents are food supplements or drinks containing excessive herbs particularly in powdery form, not an extract or concentrated form.

13.Examples of food with high acid contents are all kinds of food and drinks with Ph level  less than 5 i.e. all kinds of pickled food(unripe mango is acidic but the ripe ones are alkalized) and all kinds of meat and proteins. Zam zam water for example is a good source of drinking water due to its high Ph content of between 9 and 11.

14.Either consciously or unconsciously, most people actually consumed all of the above foods. That has been our daily diet throughout our lives. True, we do not consume poisonous  drink or food. We will never ever poison ourselves. In actual fact without us realizing it we take in poison every time we eat. Without us realizing it we are actually poisoning ourselves everytime we take in all of the above foods and drinks.

15.Therefore from now on, we need to ponder on our eating habits. We need to do some kind of adjustment on the way we consume foods or drinks in order not to continue poisoning ourselves with the wrong diet. We cannot effort to remain weak physically in the present fast paced and changing world environment.