Author: coolerinsights

The Science of Great Teams

June 26, 2012 Blog no comments


Courtesy of Blaze Institute

Why do some teams produce outstanding results while others lag behind given similar resources?

The secret, according to “The New Science of Building Great Teams” in Harvard Business Review, is that successful teams have higher energy, are more engaged, and spend more time exploring outside the group. These patterns of communication and interaction are strongly correlated with performance metrics such as the average handling time in a bank’s call centre.


Hacking Work: A Smart Solution to Stupid Processes

June 24, 2012 Business and Management 1 comment

hacking-work-book-review

Courtesy of Technotraps

Beleaguered employees can now leverage on a “cheat code” to streamline work and increase their productivity – without getting into trouble.

With the subtitle “Breaking Stupid Rules For Smart Results”, Hacking Work by Bill Jensen and Josh Klein encourages workers of all stripes to utilise “benevolent” hacking to get their jobs done more effectively and efficiently.


Project Intan – Helping Ill Kids through Culture

June 23, 2012 Blog no comments

Project Intan is an initiative by The Intan (a boutique Peranakan home museum) which won the Museum Roundtable awards in 2011) with the goal of helping raise funds for charitable causes. Brainchild of Alvin Mark Yapp, owner of The Intan, Project Intan seeks to help worthwhile charities through direct donations and pledges.

This year, The Intan is working with the ARC Children’s Centre to help create a flu-free environment and increase its educational and development programmes for the kids. Started in 2011, Arc is a daycare charity for young patients with serious illnesses such as cancer. These kids receive intensive medical treatment and are unable to return to school or socialize in a normal setting as they are still
prone to infection.


Our Holiday in Colourful Korea

June 17, 2012 Blog 2 comments

Korea Everland
Fantasy Parade at Everland Theme Park

“안녕하세요 (Annyeong Haseyo)!” greeted our tour guide Colin every morning, rowsing the weary coach-load of travellers during our recent holiday in Korea. With an action-packed itinerary packed into 7 days, one could hardly consider Korea as the “Land of the Morning Calm”.

Squeezing a population of 50 million packed into 100,000 square kilometres of mostly mountainous space, South Korea is both an economic and cultural miracle. With a GDP of US$1.164 trillion (2011), the “Miracle on the Han River” is fast overtaking Japan in global prominence. Korea’s tremendous influence on popular culture in terms of K-Pop and soap dramas is also unprecedented.


Do You Trust Your CEO?

June 15, 2012 Public Relations no comments


Source: Edelman Insights

Thanks to a blog post from Jackie Huba of Church of the Customer, I came to learn about Edelman Insights Presentation titled “Key Employee Engagement Findings from Edelman’s 2012 Trust Barometer”. From the survey results (graphic above), several facts seemed to pop out:

1) People are increasingly losing their trust in the heads of organisations like CEOs. This has dropped by a whopping 12% in 2012 compared to 2011.