Welcome to our blog, the digital brainyard to fine tune "Digital Master," innovate leadership, and reimagine the future of IT.

The magic “I” of CIO sparks many imaginations: Chief information officer, chief infrastructure officer , Chief Integration Officer, chief International officer, Chief Inspiration Officer, Chief Innovation Officer, Chief Influence Office etc. The future of CIO is entrepreneur driven, situation oriented, value-added,she or he will take many paradoxical roles: both as business strategist and technology visionary,talent master and effective communicator,savvy business enabler and relentless cost cutter, and transform the business into "Digital Master"!

The future of CIO is digital strategist, global thought leader, and talent master: leading IT to enlighten the customers; enable business success via influence.

Saturday, March 16, 2024

Rootcsuse

 The multi-thread management involves leveraging nonlinear logic, manifesting business purposes, and aligning resources, talent, and budget, to deal with problems effectively. 

Change is the new normal; business disruptions are inevitable; risks and opportunities co-exist. There are often multiple and inter-related dynamics behind complex problems and it’s critical to leverage effective tools, methodologies, or practices to frame the right problems, analyze cause-effect, discover crucial factors of problem-solving, and improve overall organizational risk intelligence. 

By understanding the cause-and-effect logic, organizations can make informed decisions and identify potential problems and opportunities:  Complex problems usually have a combination of causes. Consider the context: The specific causes of a problem will vary depending on the situation. Finding a single root cause is not enough to truly discover the real issue and deal with it smoothly. Either to frame the right problems or solve them smoothly, make decisions based on updated information and past experiences. Be critical and creative at the same time. Don't limit yourself to the most obvious causes. Explore all possibilities, understand deeper about interconnections, and dig into root causes. 


By analyzing crucial factors, you can prioritize the most critical causes to address first and develop targeted solutions; allocate resources effectively, and achieve their strategic objectives. Not all causes are created equal. Some will have a more significant impact on the problem than others. Willingness to acquire additional information begins with acceptance you do not know enough to make conclusions; you recognize a gap in the knowledge you have and value in closing the gap. Do diagnosis analysis: What are the crucial problems you need to fix, the leverage and trade-off, etc? Here are some factors to consider: 

Frequency - How often does this cause contribute to the problem?

Severity - How serious is the impact of this cause?

Controllability - Can you address this cause with available resources?


Understanding the long-term consequences of choices, and developing strategies to improve risk intelligence:  It’s always important to collect quality information, get to know the problem at hand, as well as understand the implications of the choice you intend to make. Do prescriptive analysis: how to set up guidelines, and recommend actions to execute? Be conscious of the risks; the efforts to identify, integrate, and manage risk are critical to building organizational advantage in the long run. Set the right priorities, assign resources and talent carefully, and solve problems that matter. In this regard, risk management, or at the higher level, risk intelligence becomes a strategic imperative for changes. 


To develop the next management practice to improve business intelligence: Risks and opportunities go hand in hand. Organizations weigh risk and reward, take prudent risks, find ways to mitigate risk rather than eliminate it, and drive change large or small proactively. Business professionals, especially executives, should be able to predict future trends - emerging opportunities and hidden risks based on current and historical data, discovered patterns, and other cause-effect reasoning to deal with them wisely.


It’s not so effective to use linear logic to understand highly complex, nonlinear cause-effect relationship scenarios to solve complex business problems. Focus on nonlinear rather than just linear cause-effect. The multi-thread management involves leveraging nonlinear logic, manifesting business purposes, and aligning resources, talent, and budget, to deal with problems effectively. 


Friday, March 15, 2024

Philosophical Perspectives

Philosophy allows people to ask insightful questions and do cause-effect reasoning.

Philosophy is the abstract theories and condensed version of collective wisdom. From one generation to the next, people make changes deliberately. By taking a philosophical lens, they can discover who they are and their intention - the “big why” behind the scenes. Philosophy is always important to better understand evolution and harness its power to serve human purposes.

Philosophy is the subject for pursuing wisdom: We are encouraged to look for an experience of truth, the unfolding of wisdom by those who have gone beyond conventional thinking. Thinking through philosophical dimensions allows people to apply holistic thinking to abstract and balance. We should learn from histories, and abstract philosophy from them. There are quite a few named ancient philosophers in both Eastern and Western societies.

Laotzu: Laotzu’s philosophy - Daoism focuses on natural flow, emphasizing effortless action, following the natural flow, and trying to make achievements without brutal force.

Han feizi: He advocated legalism. Feizi believed that rulers should reward those who benefit the mass of people, and punish those who disrupt the social order accordingly.

Mencius
: The group of founders of this philosophical category advocated:

- benevolence (Ren): Emphasize compassion, empathy, and putting well-being as the top priority. A ruler should prioritize the needs of their people to achieve good governance.

-righteousness (Yi): Focuses on acting morally, upholding ethical principles, and fulfilling one's duties.

Education: These philosophers believed that education is crucial to developing value. cultivating good character, and behavior, and contributing to societal success.

Philosophy has deliberate processes for raising questions, reasoning, identifying faulty reasoning, and thinking outside the box: Philosophy is broader, abstract human knowledge into deep wisdom. Philosophy is the history of ideas and an ongoing inquiry into the nature of things based on abstract reasoning rather than empirical methods. Philosophy helps us understand the limits to knowledge, so it can point these out to other fields when they become deluded and believe that they have access to things beyond their scope. A few ancient Western philosophers advocate critical thinking and logical reasoning.

Socrates: Known for: The Socratic method, a form of inquiry using questioning to stimulate critical thinking and uncover deeper truths. The quote "The unexamined life is not worth living," highlights the importance of self-reflection and understanding oneself.

Plato: Quote: "Knowledge is the recollection of what we once knew," reflecting his belief in the inherent knowledge within each individual.

Aristotle: Emphasized the importance of reason, logic, and observation in acquiring knowledge

Philosophers love abstraction, and want to see complexity explained away in terms of a few simple principles: Philosophy is a broader discipline in pursuit of an in-depth understanding of the interdependent world, abstracting collective wisdom, focusing on “why,” rather than “how.” The underlying philosophy includes choices on management themes, and governance about vision, mission, principles, standards, etc. Philosophy allows people to ask insightful questions and do cause-effect reasoning.

Global leaders and professionals with philosophical understanding can practice abstract thinking and communication to reach a point of agreement for setting up the right digital principles, navigating uncertainty, harnessing innovation, and accelerating societal evolution effortlessly.

Insight of Anthropology

Anthropology helps people understand and enliven the varied social contexts and cultural scenarios in a better way.

The world has become much more complex and smaller all at once. Anthropology can help to discover our place in the world as regards culture, world of difference, style of life, mythology, and the common points among societies, All those complex things have multiple layers, an anthropological mind helps us look at things from a multiplicity.

There are foundational layers and interdisciplinary layers of anthropology. There is a framework approach to broaden it up or dig it through: Anthropology takes a holistic approach, studying various aspects of human societies such as :

  • Cultural custom aspects: rituals, traditions, language, art, belief systems
  • Social Structures: Family systems, kinship networks, political organization..
  • Economic Systems: Subsistence strategies, production, exchange, consumption patterns.
  • History: How societies have evolved and changed over time.

At the mid-level, anthropology focuses on studying different subjects such as: archeology, linguistics, culturology, history, sociology, etc.

At the top level, an interdisciplinary approach to study anthropology with the goals:

appreciate the complexities and diversities of human societies;


analyze the interconnections between different aspects of human society.


identify patterns and trends across different societies.


critically examine the impact of global forces and processes on contemporary cultures.


People with anthropological perspectives are more tolerant of cultures and customs other than one’s own. There are different methodologies and practices to understand humanity via an anthropological lens:

Emic approach: studying cultures from the internal perspective of the people themselves, understanding their way of perceiving and interpreting their world.

Etic approach: Studying cultures from an external objective viewpoint by using analytical frameworks developed by anthropologists.

Anthropology helps us open to a variety of perspectives and enables people to navigate a variety of cross-cultural situations: Focus on cultural specificities. Modern anthropology emphasizes understanding the unique cultural practices, values, and belief systems of each society within its context.
  • Enhancing contextual understanding of cultures within their specific environments.
  • Understanding the unique characteristics and perspectives of each society.
  • Taking a combination of emic and etic approaches for a more comprehensive understanding.
Anthropology helps people understand and enliven the varied social contexts and cultural scenarios in a better way. It provides a perspective on every aspect of human life and elucidates the cultural traits, complexes, and motives of specific human behavioral patterns. It is the foundation to build a people-centric society and advance humanity with a leapfrog movement.

Innatecapability

Capabilities could be - modular, nonlinear, integral, having - visible & invisible elements in it…

Birds can fly over;

fishes can swim around;

people can imagine above reality,

invent the world constantly;

capability is -

for both surviving & thriving, practically…


We are -

what we keep thinking of;

we are-

what we keep talking about;

we are -

what we are capable of doing, inherently;

isn’t capability the building block to -

make achievement?

do you have necessary capabilities to -

survive up,

distinctive capability to-

stand out;

thresholding capabilities to -

increasing variety;

could you make-

capabilities do -

what they promise, coherently;

are you able to

develop capabilities, dynamically?



Capability is-

a composite of -

"whos," "whats," "wheres,"

"whens,""whys," and "hows."

with hard & soft components in it;

capabilities could be -

modular, nonlinear, integral,

having -

visible & invisible elements in it;

could you discover -

your strength,

find niche point,

strengthen weakness;

take a unique path, to-

gain enriched experiences,

mind gaps,

repurpose, realign, reconfigure

core capabilities to-

become hyper-competitive human beings?

Beitou Park & Spring

 Beitou was famous for its hot springs in Taipei, attracting numerous tourists every year. It has hillside and hot spring scenery.

The first time I visited there was a rainy day and it was Monday, unfortunately, the museums were not open on that day, so I visited the library near the subway station. There was a nice collection of books about local history, ancient philosophy, and other entertainment books. I also walked up to the hills and smelled the flowers. Because of the rain, there were not so many people on the street, the garden looked greenery and the spring water waved across the rocks and flowed over promptly.

This week, I visited Beitou again on a beautiful sunshine day. I visited the Beitou Museum near the library. It demonstrates the history of the local area of Beitou Stones, craft items, as well as other antique treasures. There was a hot spring bath pool with instructions on how the spring water could fix certain illnesses. Looking through the window, it was a beautiful garden with cherry blossoms and all sorts of plants.

Then, I headed to the hill again, visiting the thermo valley. The hot spring lake steamed up and looked like the clouds dancing around. I wish I could taste the local spring water, but there was no such vending machine or service.

I kept heading up to the hill to get to the Beitou Antique Museum. It was much further than what I thought about. I passed through a couple of big hotels located in the middle of the hill. I visited the garden attached to the Spring Hotel. It has a mid-sized hot spring tub inside. The landscape design was elegant with cute sculptures and blooming plants.

I continue to move up. It took me another ten minutes to reach the museum. The surrounding environment was very quiet and charming, like an Eastern-style garden. But there was only an antique toy exhibition on that day. There were very few people. One family came here to make a reservation for a meal. That made me feel a bit confused, is it a museum, a restaurant, or a hotel? So I didn’t visit inside but stood on the hillside to appreciate the natural scenery.

I took the other route going downwards, passing through some residential buildings, and heading back to the street. The hotels and restaurants were spread across the streets. Most people came here to enjoy the hot spring treatments, local food, and natural freshness. New Beitou, old Beitou, we can always learn its cultural quintessential and let hot springs nourish our spirit.

Trip to Taichung

Like Taipei, Taichung is a mix of new and old; natural and worldly.

I
n early March, I took a trip from Taipei to Taichung for a couple of days, visiting local museums and sightseeing hot spots; gaining experience in the different parts of Taiwan, and exploring unknowns to fit my interest.


Like Taipei, Taichung has a mix of old and new - new modern architectures and old buildings; new shopping malls, hotels or restaurants, and old alleys, narrow streets, etc. Just like Taipei, people there were friendly, each time when I asked directions, ladies or gentlemen did their best to help me out. On the first day, I went to Taichung Park, which has a natural charming environment near the train station. Locals went there to do different exercises; there was a red bridge across the lake, and I saw a lot of pigeons looking for food near the lake. The flowers are blossom and the scenery is charming.

On the second day, I visited the science museum in Taichung. There were experiment exhibitions for different subjects, such as physics, chemistry, mathematics, semiconductors, agriculture, space, etc. All were presented with visual images, videos, or interactive games. I also saw science fiction 3D movies about space creatures, and tropical forest. There was a decent visual effect and bright images to make stories vivid.

On the other day, I visited the city hall and the nearby palace building. Taichung’s city government center was like a garden, you could walk across it freely. It demonstrated Taiwan’s openness to be people-centric, encouraging people to participate in city governance and reformation. I also passed through a few Universities, such as the University of Donghai and Ji Nan University, which have very large campuses with giant cypresses, palm trees, and flower blossoms. They look like forest parks from the outside, with well-protected biodiverse ecosystems.

Taichung also reflects the culture of the night market in Taiwan. I visited a few of them there. One of the biggest ones was called Feng Jia Night Market, in which you could find all sorts of Taiwanese food and snacks; there were some other Southeast Asia flavors of meals and Western styles of coffee and meals. I tasted the noodle bowl called: “Fool’s noodle.” It was a bit sweet, sour, and spicy, and it tasted fine. I asked the staff why they gave it such a name, and they smiled and asked me whether I liked it or not. I also tried curry rice in the other restaurant nearby. Most small restaurants there open in the afternoon, so if you stop by there in the morning, it’s just a quiet street, perhaps you couldn’t find enough food. I tasted steamed buns, pho bowls, red bean cake, etc, at different night markets there.

I passed through the long alley of Feng Jia and headed to Central Park, it took me more than half an hour of walk to get there. It has a spacious, greenery environment, I guess there was a large sports center in it, but very few people came there because it was a rainy day. Or perhaps, I was not at the main entrance. I didn’t find a lot of entertainment activities to do. So I took the bus going back to the place near where I live.

There are some modern shopping centers and restaurants in Taichung. However, there were few libraries. I couldn’t find a cafe with a quiet environment, in which I could do some work, read, or surf.

Like Taipei, Taichung is a mix of new and old; natural and worldly. Taichung was also a transportation hub of Taiwan, through which, I went to quite a few famous sightseeing hot spots such as Sunmoon Lake, Alishan Mountain, etc by taking buses or trains. It’s very convenient to go to any other city by using public transportation here. But there was no subway available yet, so if there was traffic, the buses would slow you down. So as a tourist, always schedule your trip, do enough research, enjoy the new place, and avoid the hassles.




Wednesday, March 13, 2024

Refining

It’s a journey to keep resonating thoughts, refine experiences, and reimagine the art of possible.


The art of leading radical change is to connect the old and new, to embrace the full spectrum of colors, all sorts of shapes & sizes; and ultimately make a leapfrog transformation. Creativity in the corporate world has a lot to do with fostering a creative environment to disrupt outdated mindsets, systems, processes, cultures, business models, or practices. To awaken the positive energy of radical changes, people need to be encouraged to express different thoughts, share fresh ideas, become more proactively driving changes, take risks, and bring value to the success of their organization and our societies.

Resonate thoughts: People communicate with each other through words, words are followed by thoughts. We get innumerable thoughts every moment, they pass unconsciously. The variety of thoughts makes the world diversified, innovative, and sophisticated. The complementary thoughts can overcome the common challenges facing humankind. If the thoughts are backed by conviction, passion, and wisdom, then words following through can reach out to more people; and make a bigger influence. but the misunderstanding with each other causes chaos, conflict, or arguments.

Our minds are conditioned based on our belief systems, education, and past happenings. Only when our minds are open to believing things existing outside of our box, there is room to broaden our thoughts. Professionals must practice how to tap into their most brilliant mode of thinking anytime, anywhere, and under any circumstances. To make progress, figure out the best way to get out-of-date thoughts based on the silo, stereotypical, unconscious bias, etc, out, and equip the mind with new types of thinking, such as holism, balance, creativity, and growth.

Refine experience:
Various experiences are created consciously and subconsciously, as such, some are positive, and some are negative; some help us grow, and some are undesirable and become the stumbling blocks. Experience is not about doing the same things again and again; it is about always learning new things through it -either it’s success or failure. If experience brings wisdom, then there is definite growth. If an experience is repetitive, then there is a limitation.

The experiences become a hindrance to future progress when experience prevents you from acquiring knowledge or relearning when necessary. Experience, be it bad or good, has a repository of learnings of "do & don't." Our intentions to gain experience need to be pure and the aim should be solely driven towards understanding the truth and pursuing wisdom. Experience needs to be defined as the lessons we learn, from “Experience to Education to Wisdom.”

Reimagining the possibility: When ideas start shaping, it is brought into our conscious awareness. The flashes of inspiration we now see in retrospect as groundbreaking inventions or breakthrough innovations were driven by people not only far-sighted, but also firmly determined to make their ideas succeed, and generate value impressively.

Seek inventions, new designs, and creative problem-solving. Imagination helps to make knowledge applicable in either making a great piece of art or solving problems creatively. Imagination is the fuel for the “Creativity Engine.” You have to keep your imagination rolling into reality, given the right resources of knowledge, experience, and talent.

It's important to engage people with recognition and intellectual challenges and build a team climate for learning. It means to never think there is a short list of solutions. It’s important to estimate the multifaceted value of alternatives by calculating the probability and potential impact. It’s a journey to keep resonating thoughts, refine experiences, and reimagine the art of possible.

Risk as part of reality

Continuous improvement; strong discipline, the right dose of confidence and humility, etc, are all crucial professional qualities to deal with failures and risks and improve professional qualification smoothly.
The “VUCA” reality brings both an abundance of growth opportunities and a flood of high-potential risks. It’s understandable if you make mistakes or fail to reach certain expectations once in a while due to continuous fast-paced changes. Risk is part of reality, the point is how you can leverage critical thinking to identify them timely, how to manage them structurally, or how to prevent them wisely. If failure is part of success, how can you fail fast, fail forward?

Risks need to be handled with a balanced viewpoint: Risks exist in our daily lives. With risk and uncertainty comes a statistical probability of failure, eventually you will have a failure if you are in the movement. You need a balanced viewpoint about risks or failures. When people re-frame the word "failure" to be more positive, they open the door to learning.

Individuals with the right risk attitude and aptitude can use both quantitative and qualitative factors to assess risks and leverage effective processes to handle them smoothly. Without the right attitude and practices, you will go too far one way and become risk-averse, or go too far the other and fail to make use of the learning or the learning opportunities.

The efforts to manage risk holistically or in a more integrated fashion are critical in the long run: We all face risks in handling complex issues either in our professional life or personal lives. It’s important to leverage critical thinking as an effective tool to deal with a variety of risks, prevent potential risks or what can be done to make you more resilient, manage risks effectively, and identify some opportunities.

Critical thinkers show the willingness to imagine or remain open to considering alternative perspectives. They are willing to integrate new or revised perspectives into better ways of thinking and acting. In addition, contextual understanding helps people shape an insightful view of the complex problem with hidden risks, and broaden people’s perspective of cause and effect to deal with them smoothly.

Risk management is everyone’s business: We all face risks, and we all need to learn how to handle them smoothly. People aspects are probably the least well-understood part of Risk Management, but the most challenging part of managing risk. From an organizational perspective, risk management is both for top-line growth and bottom-line compliance and security. The greatest risk is the weakest link of your organization, usually people.

Have clear organizational risk management structures that define individual roles/ responsibilities, compliance, processes, quality, and safety. Risk management can pay more attention to the bottom-line operation and top-line strategic growth by categorizing and deepening understanding of the different types of risks systematically. Everyone needs to learn about how to handle risks step-wisely.

Effective risk management generates value. A value-oriented risk management approach can integrate people, processes, and technology seamlessly to improve risk intelligence. Risk management needs to get integrated, risk management works best when it is part of the culture and a management core competency. Continuous improvement; strong discipline, the right dose of confidence and humility, etc, are all crucial professional qualities to deal with failures and risks and improve professional qualification smoothly.

Tuesday, March 12, 2024

A Trip to the “Taiwan Presidential Office Building”

It was a great experience to visit the presidential office building, deepening our understanding of Taiwan by using the quote posted on the wall: “The people's presidential building; the world’s Taiwan.“

There was a rain shower in Taipei at night; unbelievable, it was full of sunshine in the morning What a beautiful spring day. I decided to visit the Taiwan President building located in the city center.

It was a six-floor building, standing near West Gate and South Gate with broad roads, well-designed landscaping with blooming flowers, and strong cypress and palm trees. The staff there were very friendly and guided tourists forward with security checks and brief instructions.

The first floor was open to visitors. It was like a mid-sized museum that exhibited the history of Taiwan. The different minorities, the diverse linguistics, and vast industries. Plants and Agriculture

A couple of former presidents articulated their perceptions about Taiwan's national management philosophy and democratic system Some of their quotes were printed on the wall. They encourage people to fight for the citizens' rights, also understand their liabilities being self-respect demonstrating democracy at all aspects of how to run a harmonious society.

There was an interesting 10-second digital immersive experience of encountering the president shaking hands and taking a picture with her. There was a garden in the center of the building and the surrounding environment was elegant.

You could find some souvenirs in a small gift shop and make your own postcard with the stamp of the Taipei Presidential Office Building and the visitor admission sticker on it.

I am very impressed with Taiwan's openness to welcoming tourists to visit different administrative buildings. I thought they tried to make things more transparent and embrace diverse voices. Staffs there seem to enthusiastically invite you to their office and help them make improvements. Overall, it was a great experience to visit the presidential office building, deepening our understanding of Taiwan by using the quote posted on the wall: “The people's presidential building; the world’s Taiwan, “

Into Anthropological Root of the City: Taipei Museum II

From the journey of museum visiting, we can deepen our understanding with vivid pictures of the city.  The interactive experiences inspire our imagination of the future and entertain us with virtual delights and fun activities.
Although it’s just February it has a colorful Spring theme In Taipei. There are vast plants and flowers create a balanced natural ecosystem in the Beitou district of Taipei

I took the same bus heading towards the palace museum. It has a fine collection of Eastern art pieces made of bronze ceramics silver gold jade, ink stones, etc with elegant interpretations both in Chinese characters and in English. There is the hall of Buddhist gods and the exhibition hall of Ancient emperors furnishing and decoration.

My favorite sessions are the digital art collection, with lightened animals and flowers; and the water painting collection - the vivid artwork of beautiful landscapes magnificent sceneries unique creatures fantastic human beings plus poetic calligraphy.

Surrounding the palace museum there is an exquisite garden called the Garden of Benevolence, in which you can see the birds flying and resting on the branches of trees; and fishes swimming in the lakes. The pink plum and cherry flower blossoms add spring color themes to the garden, and you can immerse yourself in nature delightfully. I also visited the other nearby small garden called the Garden of Virtue it also has an arch gate, a clear lake, and plum or cherry trees.

Taiwanese admire the wisdom of Ancient ancestors and respect Eastern cultures and traditions The museums and parks here highlight the importance of virtue and benevolence encouraging visitors to not only appreciate the beauty of the scenery but also inspire thought-provoking ideas on how to shape a better society.

In the mid-afternoon, I was heading to the science museum to explore this city from different angles. It is a family-friendly educational and entertainment place that attracts numerous visitors everyday.

There are quite many interactive experiments and activities in different sections such as physics chemistry mathematics biology healthcare semiconductor nano materials etc distributed across five or six different floors In the agricultural section they introduce different types of rice and how to grow them. Asian consumers grow rice as the major food supply There are many plant samples and related introductions People especially kids participate in different experiments and have fun there.

I also visited the roof garden in which you could capture the city view and watch the Tanshui River - the mother river of Taipei flowing forward endlessly.

Then I went to the neighborhood space museum which provided a complementary demonstration of Cosmo science with colorful lights and picture postings. It educates audiences about lunar year seasonal phenomena such as well as galaxy systems etc

I took the train from Taipei to Keelong on a rainy day. There is a mix of old streets and expandable roads. I visited the Ocean Science Museum. There are different sections to exhibit ocean life such as fish crabs or corals. The life of fish-men the oceanology and relevant natural phenomenon. It educates people to protect the ocean environment reduce pollution and enhance science disciplines.

From the journey of museum visiting, we can deepen our understanding with vivid pictures of urban cities. The interactive experiences inspire our imagination of the future and entertain us with virtual delights and fun activities.

A Trip to Sunmoon Lake

It was a beautiful lake, but how can I differentiate her from other Great Lakes worldwide? How can we create sunshine in our minds and capture the moonlight in the daytime?
I read articles about Sunmoon Lake when I was a kid, imagining her serendipitous beauty and the natural balance of yin-yang. Early this month, I took a day trip to visit Sunmoon Lake to discover her charm and explore further.

When the bus almost reached the destination, I peeled through the window, the grand Lake was unfolding. My first sight of Sunmoon Lake was pure calm and gorgeous. But It was a cloudy day in the mid-morning, and the sun was not showing up yet Obviously, the moon was still sleeping. How can I see through the Sunmoon lake without sunshine? How should I discover her charm without moonlight? Without the sun and moon, why should we call her Sunmoon Lake?

When I took off the bus, I wasn’t stepping into the dream wonderland, but still in our mundane world with small restaurants, hotels, and convenience stores across the narrow street, like other small towns in Asia. After walking around for five minutes, I arrived on the Shuishe ferry. Standing in front of the lake, I watched over the sky and walked around the lake. The water of the lake was emerald green. The remote mountains emerge through the clouds, shaping a natural water ink painting.

I took the water bus - the small passenger ship heading to another ferry - Xuanguang. It was a 15-minute water tour; so the passengers could watch the clear water of Sunmoon Lake closely, appreciate the scenery of mountain towers and antique buildings on the river bank.

After landing at the next ferry port, I took the stone stairs up to the hill. There were parks, temples, and towers on the mountaintop. The path I took was called the Road of Xuan Zhuang. There was a very famous ancient fable called “West Tour” story behind it. It was about a Buddhist Tang Xuangzhuang who traveled tens of thousands of miles from East to West to learn and preach to make high achievements.

He had three students and a white horse with very special talents who accompanied him to go to the West and help him on the way. One of them was the famous Monkey King who could make 72 types of changes. His special tool was called a gold ring stick that could be expanded into a giant cylinder or shrunk into a little needle, put into his ear. He could flip across mountains and oceans to reach the edge of the world, but still under the master’s control. Four of them climbed up high mountains, swam through deep waters, overcame numerous challenges to accumulate credit of benevolence, fought for justice, and showed impressive magic. It was one of the best-written and the most popular fiction novels in the East, full of imagination. I took his footsteps to pursue truth, explore the world with invaluable cultural heritage

Then I retook the ferry ship going to the next stop: Yidashao village to discover unique scenery and local minority culture. It was like the smaller version of Gulangyu island in Fujian Province, with many eateries and gift shops. I tasted some sample snacks the shop staff offered and had a special lunch: Bamboo rice -the sticky rice mixed with shrimp and nut pieces contained in the bamboo stick. It cost one hundred local currency and tasted fine

Local people were friendly and lots of school kids with their teachers came here for some activities, as I saw an education center building here. People, flowers, and trees on the river bank created a harmonized picturistic scene. There was a cable car station here. Many people were waiting in line to go to the other side of the lake. I skipped it due to the tight schedule.

It had drizzling rain and a cloudy sky. I searched for the sun but it didn’t show up I couldn’t find the moon in the early afternoon. It was a beautiful lake, but how can I differentiate her from other Great Lakes worldwide? How can we create sunshine in our minds and capture the moonlight in the daytime? Shall we create more human-made miracles to make Sunmoon Lake as brilliant as the sun and as lucid as the moon regardless of weather conditions?



Taipei Garden & Museum Part III

Gardens and museums should reveal the spirit of the city and bring good experiences for both locals and tourists to grow and mature, becoming global citizens in certain ways.

Taipei has more anthropological hot spots than I thought. Last week I visited the botanical garden Taipei History Museum. It had drizzling rain in the early morning. I walked around in the botanical garden It’s not very big growing different plants. There is a small gallery introducing different categories of plants. There is also a plant nursery house which is under service maintenance. I entered from one gate and exited from the other. 


After a short walk, I arrived at the Taipei History Museum in a classic red building. It exhibited water-ink paintings of landscapes and birds from a few named artists. One session was called “The golden year we spent together” and the other was called “The Monument of brush ink” Those pieces of artwork not only brought memories of the past time but also made us appreciate the piece of art. History is the very clue inside the art Art is the artist's perception and expression of the world and leaves more history of the art. 


If you’re not tired, there are more exhibitions and art galleries in the neighborhood buildings you can appreciate abstract paintings oil paintings, and diverse art pieces.


Overall it’s a great experience to visit quite a few educational museums in Taipei recently to learn history art science anthropology etc. Those museums and parks are not just the “me too” type of tour spots; they should reveal the spirit of the city and bring good experiences for both locals and tourists to grow and mature becoming global citizens in certain ways.



A Trip to Alishan Mountain

It took many years of effort for people to build a considerably safe environment for tourists to explore the great mountain.

decided to take a day trip from Taichung to Taiwan's famous mountain Alishan by both train and bus. It took me more than an hour to arrive in Jiayi by train in the early morning. Then I saw the long line at the nearby bus station for the tourists going to Alishan mountain

Just feeling a bit frustrated for waiting, I asked a staff lady about the bus. She mentioned that it took about three hours for the bus to climb up and get to the top. The good news is it was the female day holiday so the bus was free. The lady driver was very capable of driving the steep road up to the mountain and arrived at the park entrance at about 11 am.

It was a cloudy day in the morning now the sun was rising; what a beautiful scenery with the mountains covered with flowers and trees clouds flying back and forth,

Inside the mountain resort, different trails were leading to different scenery spots. There were train stations as tourists could also take the train to reach different parts of the mountain Restaurants and Hotels were located near the train stations. So even if it’s inside a very high mountain top it’s not so wild you can see the modern world surrounded by natural beauty.

I passed the poet’s trail at which some poems describing the four seasons of the mountain were printed on the stone wall. The cherry blossoms were scattered around The tourists were very diversified Some families brought their toddler coming here

There was a scenery spot called "Three Generations Trees." The next generation grew on top of the last generation to create a strong symbol of forest survival teamwork. I observed the other trees closely. Every tree was unique; you could imagine them as different creatures. There were many giant cypress woods. Not so far away, there was a sacred wood with thousands of years history

To climb further through stone steps, you could appreciate different layers of greenery The palm trees nod heads to you; the plum flowers wave around, but I saw very few birds; it seems the voices or noises all came from the crowd of people, not other creatures


In about one and a half hours, I arrived in Zhaohe Park, which had another train station. There were gift shops and other tourist facilities. Look above, and you see the giant trees mountain peaks, and fluffy clouds look underneath it’s the deep valley all sorts of greed.


Although I could only reach so far I believe it’s a truly giant mountain you could spend days or weeks here to climb up explore further watch over sunrise and sundown with a more intimate touch with nature.


On the way back, I walked across the tourist's square, walked through the local gift stands, tasted some snacks, and enjoyed the sunshine spring day in the elegant mountain, It took many years of effort for people to build a considerably safe environment for tourists to explore the great mountain. It’s time to say goodbye to Alishan and I took the bus in the mid-afternoon to go down the hills and headed back to the urban cities.








Monday, March 11, 2024

Initiatives

Break down silo, challenge conventional wisdom, think creatively and act boldly.


Digital organizations are inherently complicated, the highly intensive changes do not happen in isolation from each other in predictable ways. The broader the scope, scale, and impact of the change, the more we lean towards calling such change breakthrough changes.

 

Inflection is a breakthrough as organizations can stretch out in every dimension for driving radical change: It could stretch out in all essential dimensions toward the new world of organizational maturity. There are incremental change and transformative change. Inflection is the breakthrough point. the most significant difference between the two is that the tools and capabilities that work reasonably well for incremental improvement perhaps have little success in transformational efforts. To enhance scalability and expand capacity, it’s important to work on a fairly comprehensive model that views incremental change and transformation as different points along a continuum with very different tools and competencies needed along the way for driving smooth transformation. 


Breakthrough Innovation is disruptive and will change your organization in many fields: Innovation is the most needed changes. You need fresh information, new technologies, new processes, new customers, new knowledge, maybe a new business model. Breakthrough Innovation is a radical new approach that leaves competitions behind in some way. It's out of the box thinking where incremental innovation is still inside the box thinking. Breakthrough Innovation is Revolution (Something new that disrupts or replaces something else). It could be high risk but with better change to make breakthrough accomplishment.  


Redical improvement: The radical change from one era to another is often called paradigm shift. The digital paradigm has many dimensions , interacting and mutually influencing each other sociologically, technologically, philosophical, psychological, etc. Which change it should focus on, incremental improvement or breakthrough, culture evolution or eco-system revolution. The real challenge is to understand where and how you can and should improve to get the biggest effect and scale-up across the digital ecosystem model via objective assessment and effective management. Sometimes,transformative change is acted on the basis of improving one part of an organization at the expense of other parts of the organization because managers still practices silo management discipline. Radical change often needs to restructure the root of the company such as organizational purpose, values, beliefs, culture, and objectives, in order to drive radical improvement.


The biggest challenge with any large-scale transformation program is to ensure that the senior leaders truly understand the time and impact on the organization, and they have courage and discipline to do the right things; they are able to empower people to break down silo, challenge conventional wisdom, think creatively and act boldly. Failure is part of reality, but try not to repeat the same mistakes, learn from it and drive transformative changes smoothly.


Intelligence

As today’s digital business environment is unprecedentedly dynamic, complex, and uncertain, information based intelligence becomes more critical than ever to make sound judgment.

Today’s digital business environment is dynamic, complex; there are always different complexities at a different time or dimension,information based intelligence enables organizations to understand their competitive landscapes inside out. It’s about using data, information technology, statistical analysis, quantitative methods, mathematical or computer-based models to gain improved insight about business operations and make better, fact-based decisions and solve problems effectively.

Information based intelligence involves quantitative reasoning and interpretive power to capture business insight: Information based Intelligence can be defined as capacity for learning, reasoning, understanding, and similar forms of mental activity in grasping truths, relationships, facts, meanings; the manifestation of a high mental capacity. Intelligence based nalysis is concise analytic work, more looking at the root cause, as well as the context in which it has happened for handling issues smoothly.

Information answers the questions; intelligence questions the answers: Information is processed data; intelligence is processed information. Business intelligence is an effective tool to improve business-value creation. Information based intelligence is necessary to have knowledge of an argument of a situation, or a problem. You can use more advanced visualization tools to render things more accessible, but the underlying logic will never go away. It’s about shaping a more holistic picture, uncover the underneath patterns, leverage different factors for reaching more objective judgment.

Information helps to understand issues; intelligence is contextual understanding and the ability to solve problems: Information can be refined into intelligence, which is the subset of knowledge that is refined through information analysis for discovering certain patterns or gaining business insight. It is the aggregation of information and the assessment of that information that creates the intelligence required to deal with various issles and come up premium solutions.

As today’s digital business environment is unprecedentedly dynamic, complex and uncertain, information based intelligence becomes more critical than ever to make sound judgment, frame the right problems, recognize the right talent and put them into the right position, solve right issues and drive progressive changes.