Innovative Influence

Cultivating creativity takes fresh insight and an interdisciplinary approach. 

There is no doubt we live in the digital era with abundant information, advanced technology, and the rapid speed of change. Innovation is not “nice to have,” but “must have” differentiated competency. High-innovative individuals shape creative mindsets, discover the unknown, and explore emerging possibilities. High-innovative organizations usually have lightweight processes that allow creativity to flow, get protected, channeled, and nurtured, and would become more successful than the organizations that do not have such a process.

Shape creative mindset: Being innovative is a state of mind. It is clear that creativity, in general, can be enhanced. Creative intelligence can be developed via learning, questioning, experimenting, and interacting. To develop creativity, demonstrate intellectual curiosity to ask “why,” “why-not,” questions, break down the old box of thinking, and rejuvenate your mind with fresh knowledge. Make a commitment to observe, learn, and understand the circumstance deeply, willingly share ideas, and participate in creative activities.

It’s critical to wear a “down to earth” attitude and be confident and humble at the same time. Empty your mind about how things are "usually" solved, practice deep listening skills, and become more open-minded to embrace the different points of view to shape fresh insight and develop creative wisdom.

Keep discovering the unknown: Innovation is all about discovering fresh ideas or discovering new ways to do things. Discovery is a process of revealing unknown facts. Discovery is realizing something that has not been known to you or known only as a concept but now is alive to you. The more you read and learn, the more you will realize that there is more you don’t know yet, so you have to keep discovering. That means the more knowledgeable you are, the better opportunities you could discovering something unknown in a subject matter, or through an interdisciplinary angle.

Being innovative is a balance between what you know and not letting what you know hinder you in the discovery of innovative solutions. Every meaningful discovery must be supported by sound rational and logical certainty that can be accepted. So make room for people to discover their own insights; or give room for their perspectives to emerge; then practice critical thinking to filter ideas; and leverage collective wisdom to figure out innovative solutions.

Continually explore emerging possibilities: Innovation is an exploration of value-added novelty. The key factor to the innovation paradigm shift has been the endless self-exploration and self-renewal in intellectual, emotional, or spiritual dimensions that need to co-evolve together. It takes courage, motivation, discipline, and persistence to get out of your comfort zone, drive changes, and explore the “art of possibilities.” Innovation leaders and managers should play a significant role as potential explorers; and restructure the organizational flowchart to keep ideas fluid and unleash innovation potential.

Innovative people capture unique insight by asking the right questions and are open to varying answers. They challenge the “we always do things like that” mentality and explore the art of possible. In innovative organizations, there is the right dose of creative tension and healthy competition to spark innovation; they can cultivate an inclusive culture, so people having cognitive differences, diverse backgrounds, and complementary knowledge can work collaboratively to come up with innovative solutions. Innovation leaders understand where and how they can and should improve to get the biggest effect and scale up across the business ecosystem effortlessly.

The hyperconnected and interdependent world is complex, to deal with tough situations and thorny issues, it's important to gain an in-depth understanding of cross-boundary issues and have interdisciplinary knowledge to connect the dots for sparking innovation. Developing creativity takes fresh insight and an interdisciplinary approach. People cannot be good at being analytical without creativity; also, they cannot increase creative intelligence without continuously learning new knowledge, interpreting varying meanings, analyzing information, recognizing useful patterns, and spurring ideas relentlessly.

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Initiatives

 Isn't it a tough journey to explore the world, and pursue the digital way of brainstorming, innovating, motivating, and story-telling?

The “Future of CIO” Blog has reached 10 million page views with 11,500+ blog postings in 59+ different categories of leadership, management, strategy, digitalization, change/talent, etc. The “Digital Master” book series includes 29 books to share insight from the multidimensional digital lens and perceive the multi-faceted impact the digital era upon us is making on businesses and society. The content richness is not for its own sake, but to convey the vision and share the wisdom. Here is the weekly insight of innovation leadership, IT Management, and Talent Management.

Initiatives We live in a diverse and dynamic global society with a multigenerational, multi-device workforce, multipolar knowledge centers, multi-cultural wisdom, and multifaceted innovation, etc. The journey of globalization is more evolutionary than revolutionary; curvature than the straight line. It is critical to strike the right balance, think big and small; understand both narrow and wide, assess both low and high; put a stronger emphasis on empowering people, refining information & knowledge; and catalyzing innovation, to reach the next level of business maturity.

Initiatives The pervasive information growth and frequent disruptions mean change is the norm and happens the whole time. The speed of change is accelerating. Either individually or from an organizational perspective, managing change is no longer a one-time initiative, Change Management turns out to be a strategic ongoing capability in today’s business dynamics.

Initiatives We live in a dynamic environment with information exponentiality, rapid change, and unprecedented uncertainty & ambiguity. If business vision is more art than science, then realizing it is more science than art. There is an alignment between strategic goals and business initiatives management, and there is a road mapping from vision to implementation with the logical scenario.

Initiatives Any initiative should have a business objective associated with it. The management needs to check how the business initiative differentiates the organization from its major competitors. There are strategic initiatives and tactical initiatives; functional initiatives and cross-boundary initiatives, local initiatives or global initiatives; quick win or long-term focused initiatives, identifying what generates the most value for the company and expressing that in strategic objectives helps managers keep their eyes on what matters: Can the business initiative differentiates the organization from its competitors? Are they competing for the best quality, cost advantage, or efficient value chain? Are the initiatives able to improve employee/customer loyalty and enhance organizational reputation?

Initiatives The digital world is moving into a hyper-connected and interdependent relationship under the “VUCA” business new normal. There are functional initiatives and cross-functional initiatives, quick win or long run focused initiatives, identifying what generates the most value for the organization and expressing that in strategic objectives helps managers keep their eyes on what matters, align resources and talent smoothly, and improve business agility and competency.

Blogging is not about writing, but about thinking of new ideas; sharing, and innovating. It’s not just about WHAT to say, but about WHY to say, and HOW to say it. It reflects the color and shade of your thought patterns, and it indicates the peaks and curves of your thinking waves. Unlike pure entertainment, quality, and professional content take time for digesting, contemplation, and engaging, and therefore, it takes time to attract the "hungry minds" and the "deep souls." It’s the journey to amplify diverse voices and deepen digital footprints, and it's the way to harness your innovative spirit.

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Innovationflowinbusinesstransformation

 It is a long journey of pursuing leadership holism, innovation adventurism, and people centralism, based on information interconnectivity, integrity, and maturity.

Organizations are at different vertical sectors and stages of business transition. Speed matters for organizations’ survival and thriving. It takes a creative flow to shape an innovative culture, and it takes interdisciplinary methodologies to optimize business processes, build organizational capabilities, catalyze growth, and manage innovation effectively. 

Idea flow: Because radical change and business transformation have to deprogram old mindsets, let go of “the voices from the past,” and reprogram people's minds with fresh thinking, and updated knowledge to reflect digital norms and attitudes, the contemporary era we live in, and establish a new blueprint for how you want to create the digital future at both the mind level and your fingertip.

 However, many organizations are not fertile ground for ideation, there is a negative vibe surrounding their workplace. Often, streamlining idea flow is not an easy task, getting crazy ideas isn't a problem; having too much information may cause a problem if it is not dealt with effectively. It’s important to encourage free thinking and action; accelerate idea validation and streamline innovation. 

Organizational flow: Organizations, like individuals, need to be in flow to communicate fluently and operate smoothly. Thus, to break down silos or overly rigid hierarchies, organizations need to be in flow to keep up with the premium speed. Forward-looking organizations experiment with different types of organizational structures to enforce business alignment, enablement, communication, collaboration, and harmony.

Forward-looking organizations experiment with different types of structures to enforce business alignment, enablement, coherence, and harmony. Delayering becomes a lens through which it is possible to examine and then fix many other issues. An organization can approach the flow zone when the positions in its hierarchy have clear, accountable tasks. People are ready to move to a fluid structure and work for boundaryless digital organizations. 

Process flow: From the top down and middle out, organizations need to break down silos and encourage functional communication and collaboration. Starting with the front doors - the staff there are the closest to the customer's pulse and if they are willing to listen, they can understand the customers' true needs with empathy. Look at what the company does to gain the trust of the customers. 

Business process flows need to be anti-fragile and collaborative; the information should be fluid to ensure the right people can have the right information at the right time and location to make the right decision and solve the right problems at the right time. Selecting a process to improve should be based on the business goal and priority, Consider the emergent process, which is inherently "complex" due to its collaborative, knowledge-intensive nature to optimize. So the idea flow can inspire a culture of innovation. Automation, complexity, etc are also considered factors to streamline organizational flow and improve business effectiveness and efficiency.

To deal with the increasing pace of changes and the "VUCA" new normal, digital transformation is a strategic imperative to enable organizations of all shapes and sizes to reinvent themselves by enhancing flow and harnessing innovation. It is a long journey of pursuing leadership holism, innovation adventurism, and people centralism,  based on information interconnectivity, integrity, and maturity.   

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Jiangnan is Great

Mother rivers, clear lakes, elegant mountains, spectacular hills, cultural streets, and unique crafts, all of which stimulate your imagination on how charming Jiangnan could be.

Jiangnan refers to the broad regions located in the southern part of the Yangtze River, including a few great cities with poetic scenes, high-educational people, enriched culture, and abundant gourmet food. There was an ancient poet Baijuyi who elegantly described Jiangnan:

 "Jiangnan is great;

  the scenery is-

  so charming,

 as it always does.

 The sunrise was like -

the beautiful flower,

blossom on the river top;

brighten the sky, amazingly;

The green lake in the spring is like-

 blue gem,

decorating surroundings,

shouldn’t we memorize-

 Jiangnan as a wonderful place?"

I visited some large cities in Jiangnan this month, such as Nanjing and Shanghai. Last week, I also visited Suzhou and Hangzhou. There are numerous poetic descriptions of Jiangnan as a great place, such as “There is heaven above; there are Su Hang underneath.” Mother rivers, clear lakes, elegant mountains, spectacular hills, cultural streets, and unique crafts, all of which stimulate your imagination on how charming Jiangnan could be.

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Revisit Hangzhou -her clear mountains; charming lakes

I hope Hangzhou grows into a global city and attracts more global tourists to appreciate her natural charms and human-made miracles.

In the second phase of the ancient poem “Jiangnan is Great” written by Bajuyi, he described:

 “Jiangnan is great;

 the most memorable place is-

 Hangzhou. 

 search for spiritual inspiration,

 in the mountain temple;

 watch over -

 tide up & down on-

 the pillow of pavilions;

 when can I visit it again?"

It’s just the eighth day of the lunar new year. Jiangnan's winter is usually chilly and windy with snow. However, when I arrived here this year, it was as warm as early summer. It seems that nature is pacing up, ahead of the season change at its full speed. 

I walked along the West Lake bank in the early morning. The mountain is clear and elegant; the lake is cool and charming; the plum trees blossom with colorful flowers; the dragon boats run through the water promptly. Quite a few ladies wore beautiful silk skirts, danced around, and did their morning exercises; some gentlemen practiced Kongfu, creating a vibe of energy in the surroundings. There was a legendary story about beautiful lady Xi Shi in ancient times, but I couldn’t find her sculpture on the river bank. Does she have one?  

In the mid-morning, it took me about two hours to take the long-distance bus from Hangzhou to “Qiandaohu” -"Thousands Islands Lakes"; because there are many beautiful islands and lakes there. Now it belongs to the Hangzhou metropolitan area. 

The city in that morning was quiet. There were very few people on the road. Standing in the street, you could capture the view of the remote mountain and mother river of Zhejiang province, immersing into the atmosphere of solitude; and infused with exquisite natural beauty. However, there are quite a few hotels and resorts, and construction walls block the views in some locations, which is a bit disappointing. 

When I approached the city center, the voice and noise broke down the quietness of the main island and shook me back to reality. Shops and restaurants were distributed across the street I felt hungry, trying to find some local gourmet food, but only seeing Western-style fast food chains. I was also a bit disappointed. How to integrate the art and science of management into a naturally beautiful environment with harmony? 

People still enjoyed the Lunar New Year holiday break here. In the mid-afternoon, as the train ticket was sold out I went to the other bus station to head back to Hangzhou. There were about two hours before departure time. I walked around the station, and found another great waterfront river bank; strolling over it, I could watch the sky- mountain-river connection; felt the natural world harmony; and appreciated the solitude of a great environment. It’s relaxing and enjoyable to spend a couple of hours walking, pondering, and observing elegant hills and translucent rivers on the island. When the returning bus passed through this big area later, I saw the very beautiful ecosystem lying in front of me, so pure, so clean, making me want to revisit here soon. 

On the morning of the second day, I visited the Hangzhou Museum; it introduced local art and history. I believe people in Hangzhou are proud of themselves for carrying on our ancestor's heritage. At the exit of the museum, I read the poem “Jiangnan is Great,” printed on the stone wall; appreciating the ancient poet-baijuyi's artistic insights and vivid depictions. 

On the third day, I visited the science museum located in the West Lake Cultural Square. There are many local families brought their kids to visit the museum. The ticket was running out very fast. the stranger lady helped me to get in because one of her family members didn’t come, so she gave that ticket to me; I truly appreciate her kindness, otherwise, I couldn’t get in, and would have been very disappointed. 

There are planet and space sessions also lots of interactive activities for doing physical or chemical experiments, a kids' playground, and a 3D cinema. I printed a small piece of ice cream with a 3D printer there; it’s not very cost-effective. I gave that mini ice cream to a little girl nearby as she was crying for the toy box, her mom thanked me and I also felt very happy.

There are a couple of museums moving out of that area but their logo were still there. I found a local art exhibition with a small collection of art, mainly exhibiting water-colored paintings and calligraphy.   

After that, I headed back to West Lake in the afternoon. The water is pure and translucent; the  mountains are spectacular and elegant, all of which shape a perfect landscape picture in the real world, delighting the large crowds of people walking on the river bank 

Nearby where I lived, there was a long walking street called South Song Dynasty Street. It looks very charming with strong oriental cultural themes, especially at night when the lights are lit up. People hung around to shop for gifts, taste gourmet, and play around. 

There is quite many scenery scattered across the city I won’t have enough time to go through all of them. I will absolutely revisit here again and again. And I hope Hangzhou grows into a global city, attracts more global tourists to appreciate her natural charms and human-made miracles.

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Suzhou & its Exquisite Gardens

Suzhou has a strong cultural theme, charming scenery, exquisite gardens, and friendly people. How it grow into a global metropolitan city and global tourist spot, and drive the next phase of growth and innovation?

Suzhou is charming with its unique parks and gardens which were added to the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites for having cultural, historical, scientific, or other forms of significance. In the early morning, I visited Yi Yuan - a lovely garden with crafted stones, blooming flowers & trees, cursive paths, and artistic themes. 

Then, I continued to walk on the People's Road; passing through various shops, institutes, hotels, and restaurants and arriving at the other tourist hot spots- Canglang Pavilion and Ke Yuan Garden. 

There are small hills decorated with green trees and plum flowers. there is a quiet lake and a charming bridge. There are exquisite pavilions all over the place. I also visited an art exhibition and walked through the park with a Spring festival theme 

After that, I took the subway to the Suzhou New Economic Development Zone. Because it was the holiday break, I saw very few people walking outside. The area has a modern look and well-designed architectural buildings, with a very nice environment surrounded by a great layout of parks, botanical gardens, and entertainment parks. It takes more time to get all designs well established and unlock the full potential of the neighborhood. 

I also visited the Suzhou Museum located on a walking street with lots of tourist hotspots. It’s a bit overcrowded, so I didn’t get the chance to visit nearby gardens. There is a collection of art and local history in the museum such as silk art, unique stones, paintings, and calligraphy exhibitions. 

There are lots of gift shops, cafes, and eateries, with enriched cultural tastes. There are also quite many shopping squares in which people spend their leisure time relaxing and entertaining.

I also visited Lion Mountain. Different people may perceive the hill with different creature images from different angles. It lies down in front of the lake, watching over her city affectionately.

Suzhou has the right mix of modern buildings with contemporary designs and oriental-looking gardens; attracting local visitors, and national tourists. But I didn’t see lots of global guests. Suzhou has a strong cultural theme, charming scenery, exquisite gardens, and friendly people. How it grow into a global metropolitan city and global tourist spot, and drive the next phase of growth and innovation?

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NanJing Museum

Overall speaking. the museum is entertaining and educational; we should make it more globalized; both locals and tourists can learn and grow, spending a couple of hours here and having a fulfilling trip.

Nanjing is the capital city of Jiangsu. It is the national capital of six dynasties in Ancient times. Now it attracts tourists all over the nation for its beautiful parks, enriched cultures, exquisite gardens, skyscraping shopping malls, and quality colleges every year. I visited the Nanjing Museum near the Zhongshan gate. It has a variety of sessions such as oriental art, history, digital images, diversity of art, etc

Many people were waiting outside in the early morning. You have to reserve the seat and prebook the visiting time to get in, as it is a free tourist spot. Online reservations were full, but the staff was very friendly and suggested I wait for a while as they would release more tickets to let people in soon. So I had the chance to visit the museum that morning.

The museum is very spacious with a few connected architectural buildings, the capacity is considerably big enough and the content is educational. In the history section, there were diverse art, and ancient treasure exhibitions, reflecting the people's life in ancient times, the items including such as currency, crafts, ornaments, working tools, home decoration, etc. Asian people like jade very much. There is a special jade session that exhibits different shapes and colors of jades and other gemstones; there is a poetic description of those art pieces and how those gems can be used to communicate with the natural world in the old times, as well as how they influence human progress historically.

Because it’s the year of the dragon, in the digital session, there are flying dragons and roaring lions. There is the beautiful art of light with the enriched color theme.

In the diversity of art sessions, there are calligraphy, water-ink paintings, photographs, and a small session of oil painting exhibitions. There are some sculptures in the hall, the only female sculpture figure I found is a Chinese American, the passed cientist: Ms. Wu Jianxiong, who was born in Jiangsu province and went to college in Nanjing. I was very proud of her.

It took me about two hours to walk through a few connected museum buildings, visiting all sections of art and history. There are delicate cafes and elegant gift shops on different floors. I offered some suggestions to the staff because there is a lack of English descriptions for many art pieces.

It is a great museum, and we should make it more globalized, attracting global citizens to visit Nanjing. Overall speaking. the museum is entertaining and educational; both locals and tourists can learn and grow, spending a couple of hours here and having a fulfilling trip.

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Shall We Reimagine a Boundaryless world

Inside every skyscraper, I hope we can see the quintessence of great culture theme; across the mother river, we can search for the treasure of fresh knowledge; on the top of bridges, we can mind the gaps, learn from each other, explore equal opportunities, and harmonize the difference.

On the third day of the lunar new year, I arrived in Shang Hai. It’s crowded as people from other provinces visit here during the holiday break. Most people should be impressed with the skyscrapers here, but I prefer to discover more cultural spots. So I went to the Shanghai Contemporary Art Museum; there was a cinema exhibition that day. 

We could see some English movies in the exhibition; most of them were documenting types, related to Cosmo. There were nice visual effects, but some content might have certain negative impacts. They seemed to try setting the liberal, paradoxical, or artistic tone, but I felt it was reluctant and confusing. I suggested adding more content related to profound thinking, and philosophical insight from our oriental ancestors, who conveyed Cosmo wisdom thousands of years ago. 

I got lost a couple of times inside the museum because there was not enough content in some sessions and there was no clear sign for the exit. I was frustrated. The staff in the museum were friendly and showed me the directions, but the management needed to be improved to optimize the customer experience.  

After that, I went to the digital art exhibition called "Boundless World." The light was beautiful, you could see different sorts of art patterns such as lightening plants, flowers, and animals, and walked through the world of digital art cheerfully. 

Overall, it was a good experience but there was also something that could be improved. For example, the first room the visitors stepped in was completely dark. it was a bit scary when you expected the brightness, but in reality, you were alone, immersed in darkness, while you had no clue what was going on there, perhaps you were with lots of other strangers in the same room. Is it safe? How to optimize the visitors' experience? Also, the light is beautiful, but the exhibition is not unique enough; it should create more creative content to highlight the subject - how to build a people-centric boundary-less world.

I also went to the history museum in Xintiandi. It had a history and culture exhibition about how the first congress meeting was held and how the new nation was built up. There were sculptures of a few founding fathers, but lack of female ancestors comprehensive introduction. It did not reflect the national principle - that males and females are equal. I was disappointed because I didn’t see a few female role models I admired since I was a child. I believe we need more diverse role models in different museums to inspire different generations, different genders, and races to make high achievements.

Shanghai is a modern city, but it’s still too local, can it become more open-minded, insightful, and coherent? Inside every skyscraper, I hope we can see the quintessence of great culture theme; across the mother river, we can search for the treasure of fresh knowledge; on the top of bridges, we can mind the gaps, learn from each other, explore equal opportunities, and harmonize the difference. 

I appreciate all the great efforts to build those educational museums, but how to make excellent content? Exhibition only is not enough, I hope we can brainstorm, generate fresher ideas, make good suggestions, and optimize customer experiences all the time. It takes a lot of effort to make Shang Hai a global city and shape a boundary-less world. 

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Boundarylessinfluence

Organizations today need to be fast and flexible, and have fewer boundaries but better abilities for dots connections.

Contemporary organizations and societies are hyperconnected and interdependent, homogeneous team settings or insular tribes are evidence of silos and the root cause of the multitude of gaps and friction of changes. The linear system perception needs to be replaced by the nonlinear adaptive system. Global organizations strike the right balance across the spectrum of a "local"/"specific" to "global"/" holistic.” Cross-boundary communication, innovation, and innovation are encouraged to drive effective paradigm shift.

Boundaryless communication: Forward-looking organizations have a more dynamic and diversified workforce than ever. People are the most invaluable asset in businesses, in the age of digital, it is, even more, true than ever. The multi-generational, multi-cultural, and multi-geographical people work together, to craft synergy. They are also the weakest link in business transformation. Interact with people with courtesy, respect, and empathy. Cross-functional communication is more critical than ever to bridge differences, enhance mutual understanding, and harness changes.

Today's information technology is no longer just a support function, it has become pervasive in contemporary organizations. Organizations and their people learn through their interactions with the environment via modern communication tools and advanced technology. The “boundaryless” organizations build institutional platforms across the ecosystem for allowing information permeation, building long-term cross-boundary relationships, and evolving customers and partnerships to brainstorm and co-solve complex problems.

Boundaryless agility: Agility is not only about adapting to changes but more about taking the initiative to drive desired changes. The organization becomes more resilient with a high level of agility. Taking a holistic view helps the management understand business as a living system with interaction and interrelationship dynamics, diagnose the multi-cause of problems, and develop a set of interdisciplinary practices for improving organizational fluidity and agility.

Many organizations are struggling with “being agile,” because they have no common understanding across the board, regardless of methodology, due to their collective mindset. Eliminating waste and continuous improvement should always be ongoing objectives even if you obtain sufficient agility since this can be easily lost as there are so many variables in the dynamic environment. To improve boundaryless agility, what can be unifying is looking at each function in the enterprise as a subsystem and then, finding a unified means of looking at the essence. The higher level of agility the organization can reach; the better performance results the organization or society can achieve.

Boundaryless influence: The digital organization is hyper-connected and interdependent; the collaborative platforms enable leaders and professionals to become more open-minded and insightful and integrate the critical components into differentiated professional competencies. Innovation is all about how to disrupt the old thinking and the old way of doing things. Cross-boundary innovation leadership is in demand to be able to share unique insight, facilitate inclusive collaboration, appreciate multifaceted values, and make a boundary influence cross-geographically, cross-industrially, or cross-culturally.

Boundaryless leadership is about breaking down silos and breaking through conventional wisdom; seeing things from different angles or solving problems in different ways. The more innovative people are, the less tolerant of structure (policies, rules, and paradigms) and the less respectful of consensus one is. Cross-boundary (cross-cultural, cross-industrial, cross-functional) leadership broadens the perspective of substances and styles; deepens the understanding of leadership character and insight; connects the dots to harness communication and improve leadership innovation and coherence.

The black & white boundaries continue to diminish, and organizations become so hyperconnected and interdependent that you cannot separate things properly; you can’t predict the actual effect of nonlinear interaction straightforwardly.

Organizations today need to be fast and flexible, and have fewer boundaries but better abilities for dot connections. “LESS” is more; it’s critical to drive a frictionless, boundaryLESS change for maximizing the collective potential, amplifying influence, and leading organizational and societal transformation.

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Lunar New Year is Coming

The holiday shakes up- the atmosphere for unity; festival celebration creates- vibes for resolution.the year of the dragon is coming…

The snow is just -

meltdown

the drizzling rain penetrated into-

the ground

the light brightens up

surrounds;

the weather starts -

warming up,

the year of the dragon is -

around.


Shining lanterns,

dancing dragons,

crafty ornaments,

delicate gourmet;

Spring festival celebration is -

culture-enriched;

full of delight.


The old is gone;

the new is coming;

the past year took away -

the chilly day;

the lunar new year brings-

sunshine in our mind;

evoke our desire for -

change;

the year of -

dragon awakes -

our passion to -

take action for -

exploring unfolded future,

courageously.

Clouds fly away;

creatures are lit up;

the holiday shakes up -

the atmosphere for unity;

festival celebration creates-

vibes for resolution.

the year of the dragon is coming….

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Reinventglobalsociety

Blogging is not about writing, but about thinking of new ideas, sharing and innovating.

The “Future of CIO” Blog has reached 10 million page views with 11,600+ blog postings in 59+ different categories of leadership, management, strategy, digitalization, change/talent, etc. 

The “Digital Master” book series includes 29 books to share insight from the multidimensional digital lens and perceive the multi-faceted impact the digital era upon us is making to businesses and society. The content richness is not for its own sake, but to convey the vision and share the wisdom. Here is the weekly insight of innovation leadership, IT Management, and Talent Management.

Reinventglobalsociety We co-share this beautiful planet with billions of people; global vision has broadened perspectives, global wisdom has enriched context, global value is multifaceted; global culture has deep historical roots. So constant knowledge refinement and continuous re-imagination of a global society is crucial to expedite collective progress and drive changes for advancing humanity.

Innovativeglobalists The global working environment is diverse, dynamic, energetic, and innovative; it's a strategic imperative to frame the global mind to see the ever-changing world via the multi-dimensional lenses. Forethoughtful leaders and professionals broaden their view of global society, learn expanded world knowledge, deepen understanding of global issues, and become insightful globalists with abilities to work as part of an interactive, collaborative team as well as think independently, to generate value and make differences.

InnovativeGlobalist When looking at the global economy with an innovative tone and creative people around the world, it’s important to develop an effective agenda that explores enriched worldwide knowledge, appreciates diverse global resources, cultural differences, and collective wisdom. Unleashing global potential requires us to be willing to listen to diverse viewpoints, broaden the perspective to fix misperceptions, break down outdated knowledge, old traditions, and take initiatives to advocate inclusiveness, lead progression at the global scope.

Initiativesofglobe All human beings are more similar than different. It is possible to set the common global principles to break down silos and bridge the difference. Global organizations give people the voices, tools and experiences of how to communicate, initiate continuous dialogues across the world effectively even if they perhaps speak diverse languages, with the goal to build trust across boundaries, harness changes and take co-responsibilities to solve problems smoothly.

Initiatenavigationofglobalization We live in a diverse global society with a multigenerational workforce, multipolar knowledge centers, multi-cultural wisdom, and multidimensional innovation, etc. Global professionals today have to continue sharing their viewpoint about things or events happening in their surroundings, their perspective of future global society; their roles on making desired changes, their professional strengths & weakness, as well as how to team up for building competitive global team for co-solving common problems at the worldwide base and developing professional competencies.

Blogging is not about writing, but about thinking of new ideas, sharing and innovating. It’s not just about WHAT to say, but about WHY to say, and HOW to say it. It reflects the color and shade of your thought patterns, and it indicates the peaks and curves of your thinking waves. Unlike pure entertainment, quality and professional content takes time for digesting, contemplation and engaging, and therefore, it takes time to attract the "hungry minds" and the "deep souls." It’s the journey to amplify diverse voices and deepen digital footprints, and it's the way to harness your innovative spirit.

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Lunar New year -the Year of Dragon Celebration

The lunar new year is coming -It is the year of dragon, symbolizing upwards aggressiveness, transcendence. Because dragon is the lucky figure to analogize imagination, capabilities, courage, energy, enlightenment, etc.

In the lunar new year eve, like Thanksgiving eve, the family were gathering to have a meal together.

Usually, they prepare eight-plus dishes such as fish, chicken, duck, cabbage, to wish them a prosperous new year. After that, they watch the annual New Year entertainment show with the holiday theme and New Year's blessings.

This is the first day of the Chinese New Year. Usually, you eat stick rice balls or other holiday desserts in the morning. Like Christmas Day, the shops are closed on the new year day. People stay at home to make gourmet food and relax in the next couple of days. They often visit relatives and take holiday-themed entertainment.

The lunar new year is not just a tradition, but also a time for refreshment, and making predictions. Now the year of the dragon is unfolded and brings us expectations for new phenomena.

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Initiativestounify

 Global society is dynamic and diversified, to understand and unify, share thoughts and provide feedback, enhance understanding, and harmonize differences to drive changes to advance human society.

We are living in a complex world in which people, organizations, and nations are continuously changing and that makes it impossible to have complete knowledge of many issues facing society today. Forward-looking leaders should apply  holistic thinking to understand the issues, 

unify the variety of differences, and pull all critical elements to achieve high-performance results.

Unify the common goals to accelerate progressive changes: Every team has its goal every organization has its goals every nation has its goals; contemporary societies are complex, without contextual understanding of the situation, and fresh knowledge to deal with tough problems, the multitude of gaps are enlarged.

It is critical to walk in others’ shoes, see the problem from the other’s point of view, and gain multiple perspectives to close blind spots. It is important to strike the right balance of segmentation and unification, focusing on the future and what’s going on in the world; what the rising trends are, what impacts the next generation, etc to ensure that the organization as a whole builds cohesive capabilities to run at a premium speed.

Unify the culture of differences: The global world is diversified, with a variety of cultures. Developing cultural intelligence helps us learn from diverse people, and engages people to achieve the “art of possible.” If your culture embraces the future, inspires others, being people-centric, then it forms a dynamic environment and creates innovation synergy. 

 Effective communication is important, since different perspectives, lead to well-rounded ideas and comprehensive solutions. There should not be a stagnation in engaging talent from different demographics, industrial verticals, and cultural backgrounds. It’s important to unify varying viewpoints, variety of information, and diverse cultures to gain a holistic understanding of ecosystems in order to solve problems effectively 

Leaders understand that different people inherit different cultural heritage and carry on diverse values. It’s important to unify the varying viewpoints, variety of information, and diverse cultures to gain a holistic understanding of people and circumstances, communicate issues thoroughly to come up with alternative solutions, and build trust in a dynamic working environment. 

Unify the criteria to assess change and measure change outcomes smoothly: We are stronger through the unity of diversity. How to unify the varying viewpoints, variety of information, and diverse cultures to gain a holistic understanding of ecosystems, and what can be done to alleviate core problems, and proactively solve them effectively. 

Seek unity of goals and unity of efforts. It allows us to perceive things via unusual angles, connect unusual dots, and explore “unusual options” that one individual or a homogeneous group might not have uncovered.  

To unify common beliefs, bridge differences, and explore emerging digital horizons, the management needs to connect the right dots, apply an effective approach to structural problem-solving, and improve management effectiveness. People need to be the center of change. You need to determine what's best for each position based on what it will contribute to your overall goals, then go get it. 

The management needs to unify the value and clarify the expectations of change: What would you think the progress is, what needs to be changed, how to manage changes, and how to assess performance in value generation. 

Set good criteria for performance evaluation based on the clarified vision of the organization, the culture they would like to cultivate, and the new markets the companies intend to explore. Global society is dynamic and diversified, to understand and unify, share thoughts and provide feedback, enhance understanding, and harmonize differences to drive changes to advance human society.

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Fu Zhou - the Capital City of Culture Enrichment and Traditionalism

People there should keep opening their minds and eyes, and reinvent Fu Zhou as a truly contemporary city with universal love and collective wisdom.

Fuzhou is the capital city of Fu Jian province which is across Taiwan geographically. It took me about two hours from Xia Men to Fuzhou by high-speed train. Fu Jian is a province that has a long ocean coast, famous mountains, and charming islands. It has natural beauty, but how about the city landscape, and quality of management, does it have the free spirit to play a critical role in advancing human society?

After arriving at the Fuzhou train station in the mid-afternoon, I was a bit frustrated about how to get to the hotel, which was across the road, not so far away. It seems there was no way for pedestrians to walk across the street. Perhaps people use the underground to pass through. Because I carried two pieces of luggage, it was hard for me to go upstairs and downstairs without elevators. It took me about an hour to pass across the road and arrive at the hotel.

On the early morning of the second day, I headed to the local scenery: Drum Mountain. There are very few tourists at that morning. It seems I was the only person who used the cable car (Funicular Railways) to climb up to the top. The mountain is not very tall, but it’s steep in the middle. It took about twenty minutes for the cable car to move up to the top of the mountain. It’s a bit scary because I am alone. I didn’t see other passengers up or down; It looked like I was the only person flying in the sky. On the top of the mountain, I visited the park called the eighteen sightseeings. As there are lots of stone stairs, I only found a couple of views. There was a giant rock; there was a stone wall with printed calligraphy; there were also pictures printed on the stone. When I took the cable cart to get down the mountain, more people were taking the cable car to climb up. That made me more relaxed and enjoying to see the landscape of the city.

Then I visited the famous tourist hot spot “three lanes seven alleys “. with deep anthropological roots and Eastern taste. There are different history and art museums, boutiques, gift shops, and eateries, very culture-enriched.

In one of the historical museums that memorize a male author half a century ago l. I saw dozens of sculptures of male figures I barely knew, there was only one female picture. That didn’t reflect the principle of “male and female are equal”. I was a bit disappointed, I just came from Europe, and there are numerous elegant female paintings and sculptures in many nations.

Fuzhou is the capital city of Fu Jian. Is Fu Jian still a very traditional province that practiced feudalism hundreds of years ago? I tasted the local snacks such as wrapped sparrow meat; which looks like wonton, I also tasted tara and peanut dessert, I walked through all seven alleys and three lanes; I hope people can practice critical thinking, capture culture quintessential and keep reinventing contemporary society.

In the mid-afternoon, I also visited the beautiful West Lake Park; it was a rainy day, and the raindrops fell into the mother river of Fuzhou, creating some ripples. I walked across the art museum, but it was closed on Monday.

I passed through the poet's memorial, the abstracted poet was an old male image sculpture. That was unfair and subjective. I was disappointed. It seems the local people's mindset was lagging behind the era we live in. The mother river was crying when she saw the old generations ignore her talented daughters and sons. The rain became a storm, cleansing the surroundings. Is it trying to awaken the soul of this city to inspire equal opportunities?

I took the bus to head back to the hotel; out of the bus window, I observed the big roads and narrow streets; there were mixed flavors of local shops. Fu Zhou, as the capital city of the province, plays a significant role in shaping modern society. It is culture enriched, also traditional, is it lagging from an anthropological perspective? People there should keep opening their minds and eyes, and reinvent Fu Zhou as a truly contemporary city with universal love and collective wisdom.

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Gu Lang Yu island and Xia Men

I hope the city becomes more globalized, mixing natural beauty and human-made advancement seamlessly.

I’ve had trouble using my credit card to book my air ticket from Hong Kong to the mainland. So I decided to take the high-speed train from West Kowloon train station in Hong Kong to Xiamen Fujian which is the province across Taiwan straight. Xiamen is often called the “garden on the sea” having ocean and mountain scenery.

Kowloon station is well managed with friendly staff and advanced facilities. So the journey was going smoothly even though I came from overseas with pieces of luggage. It took only about three hours to arrive in Xiamen, which was famous for its coastlines, islands, gardens, and plants.

Like Italy, Fujian has natural beauty with long coastlines and elegant mountains. It has been called “ a land of Blessings.” As “Fu” means luck and “Jian” means construction. There are famous mountains which attract numerous tourists every year. The cities there are beautiful with mountains lining up and mother rivers flowing through. The weather is warm. The first sightseeing I visited was Zhongshan Park which was decorated with dragons and other holiday ornaments. Local residents came here to take on various entertainment activities such as dancing, playing chess, poker, or kiting.

I visited the famous Gulangyu island there. You have to take the ferry from the harbor in the city to the island. The ferry station is finely designed with a cool cartoon image; lots of people were waiting to take off. But the water trip only took about twenty minutes. It’s a cloudy day and the sea is calm. After passing through the skyscrapers in the city center, I arrived at the piano port. The island was decorated with winter holiday ornaments and full of tourists.

There are many gift shops and restaurants on the island. There are a few museums and aquariums; there at which tourists can entertain themselves educationally. I walked across the culture-enriched street and visited nearby gardens and museums. Fujian is famous for its tea products. So I visited one of the tea museums which manufactured tea products that are sold all over the

world. They demonstrated the brand name with comprehensive instructions and displayed the gift boxes of different tea packages. I suggested they pack teas into smaller tea boxes; so prospective customers can try some samples and make purchasing decisions.

The ocean looks calm and the island is full of energy. I also visited the other park “Yu Yuan,” in which I saw the sculpture of a famous female doctor - Ms. Linq Qiao Zhi in the nation, who came from a Christian family in Xiamen, she delivered more than 50,000 babies in her entire life. I believe the people of Xiamen are very proud of her.

After that I also visited the park Bailuzhou; it’s a beautiful park with elegant female sculptures; a music fountain and a pigeon square. In the mid-afternoon tourists fed pigeons, then pigeons flew away synchronously. I thought there were bird masters behind the pigeon performance. The atmosphere is harmonious and cheerful in the park.

Beautiful parks, a calm seashore, friendly people, etc, all created great scenery and made my trip to Xia Men fulfilling. I saw a few foreigners, but the majority of people are Asian natives. I didn’t see people of different races all over the world coming to visit here. I hope the city becomes more globalized, mixing natural beauty and human-made advancement seamlessly.

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