Vision

Many people have written on the topic of vision. I hope I am writing here to generate some new thoughts and contribution.

A vision is a dream/picture in a person's mind which he or she wants it to come true. A vision is not a goal, objective, nor strategy. A film director’s having a vision of his receiving an Oscar ; a parent having a vision of signing his son’s marriage certificate; a person having a vision of flying an airplane in the sky; etc. In the business world, an example of a vision is the CEO of a soft drinks company sees that his company’s products are being sold in every country on earth. As a new Christian in 1945, God gave Bill Bright a vision to produce a film for evangelism on the life of Jesus, to be shown throughout the world.

Some visions need more resources, time and will-power than other ones to make them happen. But overall, vision-driven planning has a strategic direction, and is more sustainable and self-motivated (by sweet dreams?!). The vision-driven planning process can be a tool to check whether some goals and objectives need to be modified, or deleted. Vision-driven planning and purpose-driven time management therefore support each other.

Very often, a vision does not tell the exact day or even the year when it would come true. However, it could become clearer and clearer to the person concerned and people around him/her, as things are happening to support the realisation of the dream. When realisation is approaching, they could get confirming signals arriving from different sources. If the vision is a calling from God, things would move much more smoothly.

There can be a hierarchy of visions, leading to an 'ultimate' vision? Wouldn’t it be nice if each one of us knows how the hierarchy looks. I have drawn a diagram covering various aspects of life management and another diagram to plan my own life paths, and I hope you will do the same.

遠像 (宏願 ,Vision)
- 是夢想 、理想的境界 (合理的，可達到的)
- 可啟發（甜美的）靈感
- 通常沒有日期
- 逐漸會更明顯
- 可能隨著個人成長，日漸改變
- 遠像產生的計劃，較能持久，和自我推動
- 一系列分先後次序不同的遠像，達致終極遠像
- 例如：「家庭人人都笑口常開」、「我飛上雲霄」？

The importance of resting and reflecting

People in Hong Kong are so busy that there is saying : "I may have time to die, but no time to get sick" To most people, keeping busy is the key to success. But I believe that this is only partly correct, although I know that this view may be against the norm.

My thinking is that in order to function effectively, a person has to maintain healthy holistically—body, mind and spirit. Getting adequate rest is not only a basic need for our physical body, but for our mind as well, so that it could undergo renewal and to generate new thoughts. Our spirit is for regular communicating with the creator of the universe, so that we could be reminded of our life purpose, comforted after experiencing difficulties, guided to move in the right direction, empowered to be a more mature and stronger person. We can use both our mind and spirit to reflect. Reflection can keep them healthy.

Jesus says, "Come to me, all you who are troubled and weighted down with care, and I will give you rest." When there is too little time to rest, there would be inadequate renewal and reflection, little wisdom- and value-added, and therefore no transformation or ‘born again’ of a person. One can reflect upon experiences of himself or herself or of other persons and situations; reflection is also an important stage of learning.

"For what profit has a man, if he gets all the world with the loss of his life? or what will a man give in exchange for his life?" Good life management means that a person can manage it well holistically i.e. life at work, at home, and in the society. Making a living with too little rest and reflection will end up making a life poorly.

For receiving a diagram on ‘action learning’ please email to Dr Lam charles155@gmail.com

得息得力

* 人若賺得全世界、賠上自己的生命、有甚麼益處呢．人還能拿甚麼換生命呢
* 由拼搏到得息的重要
* 但休息難於實行; 是反趨向
* 休息 --> 反思, 休憩生息(Renewal); 加增能力(Empowerment)
* 覺醒 , 心意更新 (Transformation) -> 啟發思想 , 計劃
* 凡勞苦擔重擔的人，可以到我這裡來，我就使你們得安息
* 要反思自己的經歷 , 反思別人的經歷
* 從經驗學習：回顧過去，展望未來而更生
* 從過去中汲取教訓，可以令你更有智慧

Reasons for planning failures

Some say that plans more often fail than succeed. If we recall major and minor plans we and our friends have made in the last few months, we’d realise how true this statement is. I try to identify some key reasons for planning failures below.

1. nature of the plan. For example, the plan itself is not well defined; wanting too big a dream to come true; too aggressive target dates are set; too heavy costs would be incurred. Planning should include planning how to control the execution of the plan; the absence of controls will lead to failure.

2. no flexibility is allowed in the plan. For example, activities must be conducted in sequence in stead of running in parallel; there are constraints (e.g. time, physical space) that cannot be changed.

3. decisions relevant to the plan are made under poor conditions. For example, when the planners are stressful, emotional, under time pressure; when the atmosphere is poor.

4. planners’ personal weaknesses; fear of consequences, self-blinkering, stubbornness, procrastination, short-sightedness, are some of them.

5. resistance by people affected by the plan. The closer are the persons to you, the heavier would be the blow. Many societal plans made by governments and social organisations fail because of resistance by the general public.

6. good plan but bad timing. Imagine a group of people have spent months to work out a plan, but then suddenly there is an environmental change. When SARS (2003, Hong Kong) started to emerge, many business decisions were executed, as if there was no SARS, leading to big economic losses.

一般個人 計劃失敗的原因

計劃性質：夢想太大、達成目標的日期太近、花費太多等

計劃無彈性：不能改變限期、不能同時進行、 範圍狹窄

在惡劣情況下作決定：例如壓力大、鬧情緒、太急迫

計劃人本身的缺點：害怕後果、盲目、固執、坐失良機、眼光短等

遭他人反對：尤其是親人，受計劃影嚮的人

計劃好，但時機不適當

‘Why Plan, when we are so busy already?’

When a person’s mind is already filled with numerous jobs to complete, having many deadlines to meet, he (or she) would find it difficult to squeeze out time for planning. This is typical for a busy person. The culture of our society also seems to support such behaviour; a busy executive is often considered to be an effective executive.

But efficiency is not effectiveness. A person lost in a forest can be very efficient (fast) in running, but very non-effective in getting out from it. He needs to plan first before acting. He needs to know the destination (objective), the method (strategy) and direction first before moving. Planning increases the chance of success and reduces the chance of failure.

In this era of changes, the only constant is change. Just repeating what was done in the past without anticipating change will almost certainly see failure.

Decisions made in team planning become references for behaviour; conflicts can thus be minimised; agreed objectives and strategies become a source of motivation. A ship navigating in the ocean needs tools --a compass and a map— for steering (control) in order to reach its destination. Planning, operations (action) and control are the three basic stages in management.

After planning, individuals or teams gain experiences through action. Through reflection on experiences and anticipation of future changes, better planning can be made for the next cycle. This is ‘action learning’ that is important for personal and organisational growth.

沒有空閒時間，仍要計劃？

1. 環境改變應要反應（變幻原是永恆）
2. 行動之前先確定目標, 方向
3. 增加成功的機會 , 減少失敗的機會
4. 有好指引，矛盾會較少
5. 增強激勵、恢復動力
6. 自我成長

Life management? Why and what to think about?

- why make a personal plan, when I am so busy already ?
- managing uncertainties and challenges: avoiding or confronting?
- understanding planning-- vision, mission, objectives, motivation, constraints, barriers, choice of strategies, risks, support, control
- analyzing external environments relevant to me--changes and impacts, opportunities and threats; filtering complexities
- understanding and empowering myself--assessing my philosophy, belief and values; identifying, balancing and capitalising on my roles and networks; hard and soft strengths and weaknesses, gaps to bridge, the importance of rest
- tailor-making a life path for myself-- overcoming external and internal challenges and barriers, assessing costs, benefits and impacts, drawing a life-path diagram, managing life assets; action learning; knowledge management; Free Agent approach; contingency planning and controls

I plan to write on these issues in future postings.