Quick Notes:

Topic: Some Leadership Principles That Will Not Fade With Time

Leadership itself is an essential skill set to lead a team, even a small group like a three pax group need a certain leadership to get the team moving. It is truly an important skill in this era whereby we no longer work individually. There are several principles that Ian Goldin and Chris Kutarna from Oxford University have put on the table for us.

First, being a leader is to accept the reality. Yes, this is very true as I had experience myself. No matter how dire the situation is, a leader will need to face and solve the crisis. On the other hand, a follower mind will just be: ah, this isn’t my problem. Therefore, facing the reality and accepting the challenge is always a virtue as people will want to work together with us too. Second, innovation is always something good. Regardless the innovation may be a repeated work done by others before, it is a good attempt to strive for improvement. Unless it brings damage, we should encourage more innovation to improve our ways to solve problems. Third, we need to be trained to be daring to try. Without this spirit of adventurous, we will never able to achieve anything in life as we are forever not prepare for anything. This is a mindset embedded in the generation with exam oriented education. We are trained to be prepared and then only face a challenge. Fourth, understand that the clearer a categorization is, the easier we get confused and misinformed about something. For example, developed country and developing country. These are both countries which has more than one dimension that we can look into and understand a country. We cannot just judge a country based on its economy growth or a very singular perspective. This will render us to miss a lot of details and opportunities. Lastly, prevent putting labels on people or things. Keep our mind free of judgmental and dip into something to understand it. This will prevent us from creating distrust between people and miscommunication due to our skeptical view towards something.

Topic: Design Is Never Just A Tool

Well, being in the design field, I feel this is one of the most fundamental understanding for design itself. When we think that design is a tool, meaning to say design will be a task replaceable by machines. This is definitely not true as machines have not reach a level where it can put together random forms of information and make new things out of it. The capability to relate random things into one is the critical point whereby machines have yet to become truly intelligent. The machines can only be ‘intelligent’ within the realm of its programmed functions. Therefore, we can be sure that design is a career that is resilience to time.

Another point is that, design itself is not about creating arts. It is about solving problem. Like architect, we design and all of our design justifications are always based on problem statements brought by clients and also our observations. This is very important part of design that it not only applies in one single industry but it is applicable to all. As long as we wish to innovate certain industry, design will be involved. That is how wonderful design thinking is.

This is a learning notes series of mine for subscribing to Dedao App, which is a learning App available on iOS and Android. If you are able to understand Chinese and an avid learner, this app is definitely a thing for you! I was using this app since it was launched and I had greatly benefited by following the courses offered. This year, I would like to improve myself by increasing my output which is through doing study notes. I will be perfecting the notes day by day and my resolution is to make 365 notes this year every day (if missed like today, I will be putting up for the missed days).