Entries Tagged 'People' ↓

Aujourd’hui le 25 Aout, c’est la fête de Saint Louis, le saint Patron de l’église de Maurice et de la capitale du pays. En grande pompe la cite de Port Louis fête chaque année cette événement. J’ai en mémoire un statut de Saint Louis qui est placé sur les parvis de la place de la CATHEDRALE, à présent reconvertis en espace vert. Je pense qu’il est opportun pour moi en ce jour de parfaire mes connaissances sur ce roi France. Pourquoi son nom était choisi pour être le nom de Port Louis ? Qui était ce Louis et qu’a-t-il laissé en héritage pour que son nom transcende les siècles ? C’est également mon Saint Patron, tout comme mon Père, Louis France, Louis est un de mes noms et pour continuer la tradition, Louis est egalement un des noms de mon fils. Est-ce par rapport au  père Louis Souci, le prête canadien, que mon père estimé énormément ?

Je vous livre mes notes de lecture de ce jour sur mon Saint Patron:

Des nombreuses villes ont êtes nommes en mémoire de Saint Louis IX notamment au Québec, aux états unis d’Amérique, Haïti et au Sénégal.

J’ai souvent lu l’expression française : paiement en Louis d’or. C’est bien pendant son règne que les louis d’or ont pris de l’essor.

L’ordonnance de 1263 assure une bonne monnaie. Il installe au Temple une commission financière chargée du contrôle des comptes royaux, renforçant la structure mise en place en 1190 par son grand-père Philippe Auguste, dessinant la future Cour des Comptes. Louis IX connut un rayonnement au delà de son royaume. Le XIIIe siècle reste dans l’histoire comme “le siècle d’or de saint Louis”. La France, centre des arts et de la vie intellectuelle grâce, entre autres, à la Sorbonne, y atteint son apogée aussi bien économiquement que politiquement. Louis IX commande la plus grande armée et dirige le plus grand royaume d’Europe. Sa réputation de sainteté et de justice est déjà bien établie de son vivant et on le choisit régulièrement comme arbitre pour régler les querelles entre grands d’Europe. Le roi est considéré comme le primus inter pares (le premier parmi ses pairs).

L’architecte Eugene Viollet le Duc par exemple, avance l’hypothèse qu’il était un homme politique rusé et habile pour consolider son pouvoir et agrandir son royaume. À l’époque, les grands féodaux (barons, ducs), comme la dynastie des Coucy opposaient une concurrence farouche au roi de France. Ils se querellaient constamment et manigançaient parfois contre la personne même du roi. Louis IX sut, en se montrant comme un saint, utiliser l’appât du gain de ses barons pour les inciter à participer aux croisades. Peu des grands féodaux qui y participèrent revinrent en France, et Louis IX put mettre la main sur leurs terres et leurs possessions. Ceux qui avaient survécu furent ruinés par l’expédition, si bien qu’il devinrent alors plus dépendants du roi pour leur sécurité.

Ses mesures contre les « péchés » démontrent une ferveur religieuse, mais elles démontrent aussi un fin esprit politique. Tout en se gagnant les faveurs de l’Église, il gagnait aussi la faveur des gens très pieux de l’époque. Il en gardait ainsi un meilleur contrôle sur son royaume, et une légitimité accrue.

Sa modernisation de l’administration, et son renforcement de la justice du roi étaient les dernières pièces de l’architecture politique qu’il s’était bâtie afin d’accroître ses pouvoirs et ceux de ses descendants sur le trône des Capétiens.

Louis IX réussit ainsi à poser les fondations d’un royaume de France, uni sous un roi de droit divin. Il y parvint par une subtile politique qui était beaucoup plus efficace que de se quereller avec ses vassaux et essayer de les soumettre par la force.

Cependant, Louis IX fidèle à la mission d’évangélisation garde, en son for intérieur, l’espoir de les convertir. En bon croyant il les protège donc de toute exaction.

Ce matin, ma grasse matinée au lit, je regardais les dernières informations sur Telematin. Et voila que mon attention était dirigée à un petit documentaire sur Raymond Peynet. A priori le nom de Raymond Peynet ne m’invoqué rien de particulier.

Au fil du reportage, un sentiment de nostalgie m’envahi. Les illustrations et gravures de Raymond Peynet montrées à l’écran me faisait revivre des moments joyeux de ma vie où quarante ans de cela, je me trouvais pour la première fois visitant les quais de Paris.

1968. Je flânais dans Paris et faisais la découverte de cette grande capitale Française, ville de l’amour. Voila, je retrouve les cartes postales que j’avais achetés pour affranchir à mes amis et parents.

Aujourd’hui quarante ans après, je découvre l’auteur des gravures des ces cartes postales, d’un gout quelque peu coquin et apprend que Raymond Peynet était mondialement connu et qui avait plusieurs musées dissimulés en France, Japon, et Chine pour faire valoir ses œuvres.

Quelque bonheur d’avoir vu beaucoup d’eau passé sous les ponts et de pouvoir revivre les souvenirs.

How do you know that you do not know when you do not know?

Thanks to Mind tools I can now share this literature which I was aware of many years back. Excellent tools to use to build up confidence and self esteem.

Creating Better Understanding Between Individuals and Groups

The Johari Window is a communication model that can be used to improve understanding between individuals within a team or in a group setting. Based on disclosure, self-disclosure and feedback, the Johari Window can also be used to improve a group’s relationship with other groups

Developed by Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham (the word “Johari” comes from Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham), there are two key ideas behind the tool:

1. That individuals can build trust between themselves by disclosing information about themselves; and
2. That they can learn about themselves and come to terms with personal issues with the help of feedback from others.

By explaining the idea of the Johari Window to your team, you can help team members understand the value of self-disclosure, and gently encourage people to give and accept feedback. Done sensitively, this can help people build more-trusting relationships with one another, solve issues and work more effectively as a team.

Explaining the Johari Window:

The Johari Window model consists of a foursquare grid (think of taking a piece of paper and dividing it into four parts by drawing one line down the middle of the paper from top to bottom, and another line through the middle of the paper from side-to-side). This is shown in the diagram below:

Using the Johari model, each person is represented by their own four-quadrant, or four-pane, window. Each of these contains and represents personal information – feelings, motivation – about the person, and shows whether the information is known or not known by themselves or other people.

The four quadrants are:

Quadrant 1: Open Area

What is known by the person about him/herself and is also known by others.

Quadrant 2: Blind Area, or “Blind Spot”

What is unknown by the person about him/herself but which others know. This can be simple information, or can involve deep issues (for example, feelings of inadequacy, incompetence, unworthiness, rejection) which are difficult for individuals to face directly, and yet can be seen by others.

Quadrant 3: Hidden or Avoided Area

What the person knows about him/herself that others do not.

Quadrant 4: Unknown Area

What is unknown by the person about him/herself and is also unknown by others.

The process of enlarging the open quadrant vertically is called self-disclosure, a give and take process between the person and the people he/she interacts with.

As information is shared, the boundary with the hidden quadrant moves downwards. And as other people reciprocate, trust tends to build between them.

Using the Tool:

The process of enlarging the open quadrant horizontally is one of feedback. Here the individual learns things about him- or her-self that others can see, but he or she can’t.

If anyone is interested in learning more about this individual, they reciprocate by disclosing information in their hidden quadrant.

For example, the first participant may disclose that he/she is a runner. The other participant may respond by adding that he/she works out regularly at the local gym, and may then disclose that the gym has recently added an indoor jogging track for winter runners.

As your levels of confidence and self-esteem rises, it is easier to invite others to comment on your blind spots. Obviously, active and empathic listening skills are useful in this exercise.

The Johari Window in a Team Context

Keep in mind that established team members will have larger open areas than new team members. New team members start with smaller open areas because little knowledge about the new team member has yet been shared. The size of the Open Area can be expanded horizontally into the blind space, by seeking and actively listening to feedback from other group members.

Group members should strive to assist a team member in expanding their Open Area by offering constructive feedback. The size of the Open Area can also be expanded vertically downwards into the hidden or avoided space by the sender’s disclosure of information, feelings, etc about himself/herself to the group and group members.

Also, group members can help a person expand their Open Area into the hidden area by asking the sender about himself/herself. Managers and team leaders play a key role here, facilitating feedback and disclosure among group members, and by providing constructive feedback to individuals about their own blind areas.

Key Points:

In most cases, the aim in groups should be to develop the Open Area for every person.

Working in this area with others usually allows for enhanced individual and team effectiveness and productivity. The Open Area is the ‘space’ where good communications and cooperation occur, free from confusion, conflict and misunderstanding.

Self-disclosure is the process by which people expand the Open Area vertically. Feedback is the process by which people expand this area horizontally.

By encouraging healthy self-disclosure and sensitive feedback, you can build a stronger and more effective team.

Feed back

What did I enjoy?

What I learned today?

having experienced today what do I need to change for the next session?

Lilian Berthelot signe un magnifique livre sur Sir Jean Etienne Moi Lin Ah Chuen. Ce document a été présenté lors une réception la semaine dernière le 12 aout 2009, a l’occasion de la transformation de sa demeure au 5 Rue Révérend Lebrun, Rose-Hill en une maison de souvenir pour sa famille et le public.

Par des interviews des différentes personnes qui ont été proches de Sir Jean E. M. L. Ah Chuen, et par le recueil des photographies et autres documents, Lilian Berthelot retrace la riche carrière de ce grand tribun Mauricien qui a marqué l’histoire de Maurice.

Dès ma jeunesse, je connaissais Sir Jean, car il était un ami de la famille. Par ailleurs les commerces de chaque famille étaient contigües sur la Rue La Reine à Port Louis. Nos familles étaient très proches.

Adolescent je fréquentais la rue Révérend Lebrun et m’y trouvait souvent avec le fils Marc et Vincent pour des escapades du Collège St Mary’s. Leur maison de Rose Hill été un havre pour quelques copains de classe pour notre détente quand nous étions accordés du temps libre. Nous passions des bons moments en écoutant et en fredonnant les chansons de Ricky Nelson jouées sur leur gramophone.

J’etais meme present pour le mariage de son fils aine Raymond au Plaza. Ce mariage dans un sens, etait signe d’une evolution de la mentalite. Mariage d’un Hakka a une Cantonnaise.

Ce document vient encore une fois de plus, enrichir la mémoire et histoire de notre nation.

Have you heard of Micheal Pritchard’s water filter?

Why you should listen to him:

During the twin tragedies of the Asian tsunami and Hurricane Katrina, Ipswich water-treatment expert Michael Pritchard winced helplessly at televised coverage of throngs of refugees waiting for days for a simple drink of clean water. Stricken by the chronic failure of aid agencies to surmount this basic challenge, Pritchard decided to do something about it.

Using a non-chemical nano-filtration hollow fiber membrane with 15 nanometer pores (it is designed to block viruses), the Lifesaver bottle can make the most revolting swamp water drinkable in seconds. Better still, a single long-lasting filter can clean 6,000 liters of water. Given the astronomical cost of shipping water to disaster areas, Pritchard’s Lifesaver bottle could turn traditional aid models on their heads.

“On the outside, it looks like an ordinary sports bottle. On the inside, there’s a miracle: an extremely advanced filtration system that makes murky water filled with deadly viruses and bacteria completely clean in just seconds.”

Allison Barrie, FoxNews.com

He featured on the TED global 2009and I take great pleasure in spreading the ideas.

During the cyclone season it would be handy to have a water filter bottle in store for use to ward of the germs coming in the water system. We yet have to evaluate the landed price of the filters from life saver system in comparison with bottled water.

Je suis pris depuis ce matin dans l’univers de Robert Tatin.

Qui est-il ?

Robert Tatin tente de jeter un pont entre l’homme et l’homme, de marier le ciel et la terre. Sculpteur, peintre, céramiste, il peuple la vieille ferme de la Frênouse, à Cossé-le-Vivien, de statues polychromes qui figurent son aventure intérieure : c’est le domptage-de-la-bête ; qui illustrent les grands principes vitaux : porte-du-soleil, porte-de-la-lune ; qui dressent un ensemble monumental en l’honneur de tout le monde : c’est Notre-dame-tout-le-monde. Depuis peu, la Frênouse est devenue musée. La place manque ? il prolonge son Å“uvre par un chemin de statues qui rejoint la route et peut-être ira jusqu’à la mer. Ce livre de dessins et poésie tend un nouveau bras. Alain Barré.

Le Jardin des Méditations

Comme la maison de Robert Tatin, l’Å“uvre est orientée est-ouest, la Porte du Soleil au levant et la Porte de la Lune au couchant. Ces dernières encadrent un bassin central en forme de croix d’où émerge Notre-Dame-Tout-le-Monde (6,50 m de haut), qui se dresse vers le ciel étoilé comme la promesse d’un cosmos à notre portée. Les petits personnages sculptés autour du bassin représentent les activités humaines et les grands événements de la nature, propres à chaque mois de l’année. Le visiteur est invité à découvrir ce patio en respectant le sens de rotation de la Terre.

De cet espace intérieur habité d’innombrables personnages à la polychromie éclatante, s’élèvent deux escaliers attirant une nouvelle fois le regard vers le ciel. Autour de l’ensemble, un déambulatoire nous conduit à découvrir les salles d’expositions…

A travers des images pourvus par internet et les sites web j’ai pris plaisir non seulement de connaitre l’homme mais également de puiser à travers des ses œuvres sa pensée. Pas une tarte je dirai !

Je retrouve ici, une parole de ma grand-mère, qui par tradition disait qu’il fallait toujours orienter son lit sur l’axe est-ouest pour bien se reposer. Bien plus tard, j’ai compris que notre corps situant dans cette position été moins exposé aux champs magnétiques de la terre !

C’est bien un voyage en Mayenne que j’ai entrepris aujourd’hui.

Six months over, since  President Obama took over as the head of the state, is his tenure going to have the same effect that his predecessors Carter of Clinton?

The real danger may be that Obama and the Democrats, particularly in the Senate, will get weak-kneed in the face of the Republican-business coalition and settle—either for health care legislation that increases subsidies, but doesn’t rein in the insurance companies (which is what Clinton and the Democrats did after 1994), or for financial regulation that ostensibly imposes new rules, but doesn’t strengthen the public’s ability to enforce them.

Let us hope that Obama and his team will learned from the past. The conditions are always different as one never sees the same water going through the river.

John Judis  from the National Public Radio attempts to analyze the point.

Were the athletes of the older days better than today’s?

At the Rome event last week, only in swimming out of 32 events, 20 new world records we established. Is the physical competence of the athletes that made the difference? How much of the progress may be attributed to the improvement of the equipments and technology?

On the New York Times issue of this week, I read with great interest the debate on these issues and the ban of high tech material by the various Olympics commissions.

To my opinion, the events do not in any way minimised the performance of the great Micheal Phelps who I had the great pleasure in watching at the last Olympics in Beijing. It is normal that Phelps is out performed by others.

The technology race started with full-body suits in 2000 and progressed to the polyurethane-laced suits that helped Mr. Phelps at the 2008 Olympics. This year’s models are made almost entirely of polyurethane to reduce drag; they add buoyancy, and they squeeze the body into a streamlined shape.

Paul Biedermann, the German, swam with the latest swimwear; Mr. Phelps, with last year’s model. Mr. Biedermann didn’t just beat the American in the 200-meter freestyle, he annihilated him, finishing a body length ahead and lowering the world record, set by Mr. Phelps last year, by almost a second, an eternity in pool times.

I am almost  through with Kishore Mahbabani’s book Beyond the age of Innocence. This book is a call to the Americans to rebuild their trust to the world. Kishore’s reading of the actions of America post the fall of the Berlin’s wall and the conduct of its foreign policies –or should I call non action in some areas-is most insightful.

The book structured in chapters treating topics as:

How America benefits the world

How America has harmed the world

America and Islam

America and China

The nature of American Power

Managing American Power

The Way Ahead

Adam Luck of The Standard in Hong Kong in his book review wrote:

I n the early hours of May 8, 1999 a B-2 stealth bomber from the Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri dropped five 910-kilogram satellite-guided bombs on the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, killing three journalists and wounding 20 others.

If the explosion was heard across the capital of the former Yugoslavia, the reverberations were felt across China as anti-American marches and riots paralysed Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou. In Chengdu the residence of the United States consul general was stormed and set alight.

For the distinguished Singaporean diplomat and scholar Kishore Mahbubani, reaction to those events should have been a wake-up call for America in its relationship not only with Asia, but the world beyond.

No coincidence then that the cover of his book Beyond the Age of Innocence: Rebuilding Trust Between America and the World sees a face-off between the Asian tiger and the bald eagle, America’s national symbol. But his is no exercise in Washington bashing. Rather Mahbubani is unashamedly pro- American as he seeks to explain the root causes of the antipathy much of the world’s population has toward the superpower, arguing that America must shape up to the challenges of the 21st century – not least China and Islam.

Mahbubani says: “The US is the greatest power of our time.

It affects the whole world so if it manages policies that are good for the world, everyone benefits, but if they are handled badly then the whole world suffers.

“Sadly Americans can never step outside there own skins and see how the rest of the world perceives them.”

On September 11, 2001, little more than two years after the NATO-led attack on Belgrade, designed to force Slobodan Milosevic to withdraw his forces from Kosovo, America was on the receiving end. Mahbubani, who is married to an American, was in Manhattan when the planes struck the World Trade Center towers. It was the critical spark for his book, he says.

“I was shocked at how bewildered Americans were, they were not even aware that the US was doing things that had annoyed the world. The ignorance was amazing,” Mahbubani says.

“I wanted to explain what people in Asia and the rest of the world thought: `How can America promote human rights for everyone except for Muslims?”‘

Mahbubani is quick to add the coda that these sentiments are not his own. Instead he describes the US as the acme of human development, a nation that has “conquered the world with its ideas (and) values.” He believes the merit- based structure of American society has given hope to hundreds of millions from countries where class, religion, ethnicity and gender are constant barriers to people. Such has been America’s success at globalization, he argues, it has helped create a global middle class – or “America’s children.”

However, globalization has shrunk the world and brought its problems to America’s doorstep. Thus, an “age of innocence” is over and the US and the world are in the same boat. Now when it makes a mistake, it is held to account in the court of global public opinion.

Mahbubani says: “The bombing of the embassy in Belgrade was seen as deliberate by the Chinese people. I do not know of one who thinks otherwise. If you have that kind of reaction you have real problems.

“Look at the spy plane incident over Hainan Island. Even in Hong Kong – which is not necessarily seen as sympathetic to Beijing – China was seen as being in the right.”

This is not the only time that Mahbubani refers to the former British colony. In the book he warns America against using Hong Kong democracy and Taiwanese independence as sticks with which to beat Beijing.

He says: “It would be good to see Hong Kong and Taiwan succeed as autonomous entities but it is best if they do not enter into a confrontational position with China. If it is between 1.2 billion people and eight million in Hong Kong there is no doubt who will come first. Hong Kong people will have to be patient when it comes to democracy.”

This utilitarian approach can best be seen in Mahbubani’s barely qualified admiration for Mao Zedong and unqualified praise for Deng Xiaoping, who he calls “one of the world’s greatest leaders” for setting China on the path to capitalism. What will shock readers more perhaps is his evident admiration for the Cultural Revolution.

He says: “We all hope that this could have been achieved with far less destruction but when you are trying to get rid of feudalism it is very difficult.”

His reasoning is unlikely to win support in many Hong Kong households with bitter memories of this passage in China’s history, but Mahbubani is not apologetic: “Yes, I do try and weigh up the benefits and costs. If you looked at the number of people who lived in absolute poverty in China and the China of today you would see that people have real hope now.”

To this end he cites the global institutions that America has helped foster and he believes have helped create a world of comparative peace and stability.

In the immediate aftermath of World War II and with civil war raging in China, America, writes Mahbubani, helped set up many of the multilateral structures that persist to this day, including Asean, which he believes has helped to prevent war across the region.

Some would be tempted to cite Vietnam and, further afield, Korea but it is clear that Mahbubani sees them as America’s justified bid to fight off communism.

The International Monetary Fund and the United Nations Security Council are also cited as proof positive of America’s benevolent intentions throughout the ensuing Cold War, where successive presidents helped keep in check the malign influence of Soviet-sponsored communism.

Born in 1948, Mahbubani, like many of his generation, faced a polarized choice between capitalism rather than communism, and once he had rejected the latter was rewarded with the opportunity to live the American dream.

From a poor Hindu family who fled Pakistan in the aftermath of partition, he was plucked from poverty by a Lee Kuan Yew program designed to promote young talent. His distinguished diplomatic career eventually saw him become Singapore’s ambassador to the UN.

From that perch he saw the implosion of the USSR. But Mahbubani believes that America made a catastrophic mistake then by withdrawing into itself. This created a vacuum in regions such as East Africa and states such as Afghanistan and Pakistan in which extremism could breed.

Now Dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, in Singapore, Mahbubani believes this isolationist mindset was also directly responsible for the Asian financial crisis in 1997, which saw the US-controlled IMF refuse to bail out long term allies such as Indonesia and Thailand.

The clear implication is that the ensuing popular discontent, particularly in Indonesia, has helped fuel anti- Americanism, spread Islamic extremism and encouraged the terrorists to ever-baser acts.

Nevertheless, Mahbubani believes all is not lost.

He says: “It matters a lot what dream you buy. If you are a young Pakistani or Bangladeshi and if you are given the choice between Osama Bin Laden and the American dream – your choice makes a huge difference to the world we live in. The fact that many still want to buy the American dream cannot be denied. But if they start choosing Bin Laden then we are in huge trouble.”

From Kyoto to Iraq, however, Mahbubani believes America is now making the wrong choices, even if they are well- intentioned.

Instead it must face up to the consequences of its policies, take heed of the world community and lead by positive example in all spheres.

Nowhere is this more important than in relation to China.

Mahbubani is in no doubt that China is shaping up to be the next global superpower and America’s attitude towards this challenge will help shape the 21st century.

How Asia will change the world is partly the subject of his next book, he says.

“We are at a crossroads: if China believes the US will not block its way then it will become a responsible stakeholder in the future. But if the US is perceived as trying to stop it, China will become embittered.

“The US must get the policy right and right now because if they get it wrong we will all suffer for decades to come.”

The above document though written in 2006 still holds…however let us see the new policy of America with President Obama as well as the evolution of the relationship of America with the world.

I spent some time today reading the ‘heart of coaching’ introduced to me by my very good friend Rita from Kuala Lumpur Malaysia to whom I spoke today on Skype. Her company based in Malaysia covering the Fareast regularly runs training seminars and certifies trainers. Thomas G Crane the author of the bestseller ‘Heart of Coaching’ is one of her regular speakers and trainers.

Three chapters of the book are offered by the Author, free of charge as a teaser, which are just enough to get you excited to read on.

Book Description

This is the 10th year and the 4th version of this book being a vital resource for those who are willing to develop coaching as a contemporary leadership skill. It presents the powerful process called Transformational Coaching as a comprehensive and systematic way to plan, organize, and conduct coaching conversations. It de-mystifies into easy to understand and follow steps, thus making it a communication tool for leaders and their teams to coach in all directions – Up toward one’s Boss, Down toward one’s Direct Reports, and Laterally to one’s Peers. Huge benefits accrue to the organizations where this becomes a cultural norm…and a true “coaching culture.”

In the spirit of keeping “The Heart of Coaching” a vibrant and contemporary resource for our readers, we offer this Third Edition where we do several important things. We have deepened the connections between Emotional Intelligence and the art and practice of coaching. We added “setting organizational context” to the expectation-setting portion of the conversation so that coach and coachee both clearly address the “big picture” framework of Vision, Mission , Strategy, Key Objectives, and Core Values.

We added more effective ways for both coach and coachee to explore their individual roles as “co-creators” of the situation they are discussing. We added the powerful step of clarifying the “vision for success” as framing for the contemplated action planning. We also remind the coach to acknowledge overall progress of the coachee as they support them in enhancing their effectiveness over the long haul.

Lastly, we have (in chapter 9) clarified the distinctions between the two primary coaching genres – Executive Coaching and Collegial Coaching. It is important to clearly understand how external coaching relationships and processes are different than the internal coaching relationships and processes between people working side-by-side as colleagues.

As coaching is yet another of my favorite subject, looks like I shall purchase the book soon; if I have the permission from my wife as she has been complaining about the storage of the numerous books I have. May be I shall have to purchase a ‘kindle‘ the e-book soon.