Open to adventures!

As a young boy, I was the last person anyone would think to be adventurous. A nerd-to-be, I was even scared to cross the street…

But situations helped to open something in the soul. First, due to a lack of finances, I had to go walking to school every day. It was about half an hour, a long time for a little boy, and that time helped me to develop some physical resilience and even mental as at some point, I was attacked on my way back, which was during the night… Nothing bad happened, but I developed some sense of how to deal with the world around me without running away or isolating myself.

Years later, because I wanted an education my family would not provide, I’ve enrolled into a military school. Those three years at the Air Force were a big adventure and they opened my taste for the different and the risk.

My first life outside my birthplace, Brazil, was in Chile. Learning Spanish was very complicated and getting a job without speaking the local language, at a time when Portuguese was not a fashion as it is today in Latin America… The only position I got was as a salesman, but I was such a bad salesman that I ended being the boss.

That is the reward of risking and the adventure: you learn, a lot. It is much more valuable than any course or anything other people may formally teach you, because you are embedded in the environment like a weird rock at a beach, being molded by others and circumstances.

Every time there is a challenge, I know it is an opportunity to experience something that is there, just waiting for me…

Come on; let’s embrace our next adventure together!

The soft side of a technical person

Many years ago, whilst taking a very important course that eventually would change my life, someone mocked of engineers in general due to their lack of communication skills and general sensitivity to other people.

As I identify myself as a technical person, I felt… It was fair, but not a nice thing to hear.

I understand what this person has meant as it is very common a technical person using logic instead of feelings while taking a decision or talking to other people, and although it works well, it doesn’t cover all dimensions.

A good example for me was when I was a programmer. My aim was to create good effective software for users, to save their time and to help the organization, but I really didn’t take in account their difficulties or issues at the time of implementation. One of the features of a particular application was a command that would display the present time (yes, I am talking about long, long time ago, when computers did not display the present time). The user struggled with that function and eventually, to save memory, I planned to eliminate it completely, and of course, I’ve blamed the user! Today, I see the problem was not the lack of effort by him, but my lack of proper communication and effort to training the user.

Many years later, an auditor shared a story. The company was going through SAP implementation, something that is costly in terms of money and energy, and many times have resistance from the part of users.

His company used to produce and sold beers. In this particular case, they were dealing with the delivery: a truck would come, present a sheet with all the order details, the person in charge would input that into the system, receive the proper authorization; then the truck would load the boxes of beer and leave.

However, the computer was far from the gate, about 100 meters, so the employee used to take time to reach there… due to that, he started to get slack in relation to the system, giving the beers and later inputting the information. Eventually, the company was robbed – it was only when the young man introduced the details realized the order was fake, which was too late, as the truck had left already. My surprise was that the auditor did not blame the employee and worked hard to fix the situation. Technical people do understand others…

A few years later, I had the opportunity to work with a very technical team. When we were planning the workshop, as a surprise, one of our meetings took place at the general manager’s home as he was still on vacation. He opened his house and the hearts of the family to us and it was beautiful to see a very human interaction. I was inspired and the workshop with them started by identifying their dreams…

Nobody is uni-dimensional. We are very complex people, with many layers and many levels. If you are a technical person, enjoy that soft side; if you have a friend or relative who is technical, enjoy their soft side. It is always there…

A riddle in our lives…

Who am I?

This question is probably the easiest one, for which we give our names, profession or status, depending on who is asking. Besides the truth, we can even lie or tell half-truths as a response. So, it is an easy question, right? Easy answer…

In fact, all we do, all we have and all our different states depend on the response, mostly the answer we give ourselves, because it is our identification that is our awareness, and according to the awareness the rest happens.

For instance, if your response is that you are a very talented person, it will be probably easier for you to look for a good job as you will have enough self-confidence to do that. However, if you think of yourself as someone without training or education, result will be different.

A reflected answer of this question may solve the biggest problems in the world and your biggest difficulties too. Who am I? Think about it, then decide and act.

Do we need politicians?

Brazil had a long dictatorship that lasted for around 25 years. I was born and brought up around that time and I was unable to see their impact until I was much older, capable of understanding my own environment. One of the impacts was take the political spirit out of people like me.

I consider myself as apolitical while living in a very political country – Colombia had civil wars provoked by this. It is often difficult to relate to others in that area.

A person with no political mindset will see things as they are, not because of some ideology that proposed it or a party that is trying to block it.

And as a non-political person, I do question: why do we still have politicians? Yes, there was a time population was small and isolated, so a few people could rule over the others – after all, these others were their relatives, neighbors and friends, so it was easy to keep some level of observation on them and propose needed changes in the environment.

I’m not talking of Romans, whose democracy was restricted to a small group of people. Switzerland was the place where politics became a solution for coexistence and size was a definite factor, it seems, as the failure of politicians in most places is related to the growth of our numbers and also our complexity as a society.

I would like to go beyond advocating the end of politicians: it is time each of us to take over our role as leaders of our own selves. This would help the present structure to work better as people will act more consciously and with less influence from other people. Decisions will be made according to needs and resources, not interests and influence.

At a time of sunset for politicians, self-leadership is the best possible replacement, generating a silent resolution for a better world.

Teamwork: the secret…

I remember a scene where my mother tried to make me get a few friends. Her strategy was practically throwing me out in a group of other boys and girls, while she was talking with her own friends. Sometime later, a crying boy went to her, begging to leave the place and going back home, which was quite nearby.

Years later, that same boy is still amazed on his ability of getting involved in groups or teams in general. Many years have passed by and it helped to study at a military school where he had to share a room with two hundred other guys and to move out from my original city and country.

We are human beings and social relationships should be natural, but it is not always the case. That is why companies spend lots of money (or they should…) to train people to work and live together.

In my experience, both as a person and as a consultant who train people to work in teams, I could summarize the main need as the need of bonding with others. In other words, it is just a question of helping people to understand why and how to link with other people at some level.

Many years ago, when I was trying to leave India, I had problems with the airline as they did not consent me to carry more than the allowance. It was a big deal at that time and I had to leave around 10 kilos at the airport…

When the plane landed in Moscow, before getting an international connection to my final destination, I was feeling the need of being with other people I could talk and relate. I realized there was a Chilean guy in the plane, so I’ve approached him and we started talking. Soon, we were around 8 Latinos enjoying ourselves in a very cold night at the airport.

Bonding comes from finding a common ground, solid enough you and others can step on. The second important element is sharing what is valuable for others and accepting what is valuable for you.

One of the companies I have worked more in Colombia was in a very nice city called Barranquilla. I used to travel quite often to that part of the country, near the Caribbean Sea. My job specialty is mainly outdoor games as they open people for possibilities and it is very funny.

The Human Resources manager of that time came at the end of the day, after many games. She was surprised when saw two people bonded – literally, bonded by a rope. They were working with the rest of the team, looking for accomplishing something and she told me they had serious problems between themselves and they could not work together…

As bonding is not natural, if it is not happening it is important to stimulate it. Challenges help that to happen, if you follow this simple formula: big enough to create interest, but small enough to be conquered.

When bond is there, team work will be a natural consequence.