Category Archives: Careers

Green economy

What is the green economy? It is an entire system of production and consumption that actually acknowledges and properly handle the constraints and boundaries of the environment, nature and ensures sustainability of the system. The blue economy is captured in that. So is circularity in the economy. And so is the notion of nature based solutions.

Greenwashing is not part of the green economy even if the activity is borne out of it. A large part of the green economy is the government; they no longer just ensure monetary stability, enforce the laws and support various other institutional structures. They also have to provide some kind of structure to govern the pricing of carbon, enforce accounting of carbon emissions, invest into the technologies that enhances the sustainability of our economy.

All of these things are not entirely new to the government but they need to get used to being involved, taking responsibility and ownership over this area they used to leave out. Not only this, they need to look upon the transition towards this green economy as ultimately part of the security and future of the jurisdictions they are looking after. It can be difficult; when banks don’t finance baseload coal fired power plants you might think energy security is being undermined. But maybe that’s not the right problem we want to deal with; because energy security can also be about energy efficiency, switching to more decentralised sources of energy, and using more renewables.

So are we electing and choosing leaders who care about the future to lead governments? Are we behind them in their approach and thinking about creating a future that we can exist in?

Meritocratic complex

There are negative feedback loops that ends up self-limiting certain effects. But there are positive feedback loops that amplify certain effects. Meritocracy can be self-reinforcing particularly in the manner merit is defined.

The merit defined at a point in time can become entrenched as those “merited” take on leading roles and define the meaning of merit for subsequent generations. At the same time, those with resources gained through “merit” can likewise use those resources to build up merit for their descendents.

The education system is being challenged and as we look to review our social compact, we need to think this hard. How much should one be rewarded for good luck or penalised by bad? And if merit can be passed on through generations, then is it still merit for an individual?

Improving a system

One of the topics I was really interested in while doing my masters in economics was the impact of institutions on economic development. I looked at it from a few perspectives including the legal system, the existence of various policies or reforms and also studied the economic history of the US to see how the interactions between business and the orthodoxy of the day when it comes to big or small government.

There is no doubt the world operates on a lot of different systems and not one is right or wrong. There are systems better for deriving some outcomes rather than others but it is hard to say if a system is better overall. To begin, we have to agree on the principles; whose welfare to improve more of and what are the priority areas before others.

The market system which has been peddled around is not exactly the complete system. A market directs itself towards outcomes of those in power within the market. The politics and regulation are institutions above the market so they have a huge role in directing the market. While the government cannot be fully culpable of the outcomes of a market, they can help to coordinate the overall goal of the entire market: whether energies are directed towards production or gains diversion, whether one is working for one’s survival or some higher values.

History have proven itself that keeping people fed and with basic needs satisfied unlocks incredible boost to productivity and economic development. We need to enable more of that in all of our systems.

Vocal introverts

I find it funny how people would write articles about telling introverts they are not celebrated in the workplace because of certain norms and conventions, then conclude they need to be more like extroverts to succeed. Most strategies in the article aren’t really anything about leveraging on their introversion but overcoming them. Isn’t it discouraging for most introverts to hear that.

If you really look into the examples of famous introverts that Adrian mentioned in the article, you realise they do things differently. And I’d like to share some real strategies on how to actually leverage on introversion to achieve the kind of credit-taking, self-promotion and visibility Adrian is talking about.

First, when it comes to networking and making connections, introverts are actually extraordinarily good at going deep on common interest and common points. Therefore, they need to be particularly targeted and pick up a few key questions that they can ask almost like a template to new people they mean and use those to either continue the conversation or stay quiet and disappear quickly. This is great because it allows the introvert to steer networking in a very thoughtful and directed way that reduces less useful small talk.

Second, when it comes to self-promotion. It can be subtle so much so that one doesn’t even consider it any promotion. Introverts tend to dive deeply into work and go into details – when determining critical areas where they have worked on, they can set rule-of-thumb for themselves to always be presenting them to bosses and peers. These are subject matter they are intensely passionate about and would be more confident/comfortable to share details in. Start from these areas and allow your expertise/credit to emerge naturally from that intensity.

Finally, on visibility. Introverts can be quite visible when it comes to online platforms and even taking on a different persona. So for zoom meetings where one may prefer to turn off camera, make sure you put your favourite head shot photo of yourself as display. Also, use chat function, Q&A as well as other text-based functions to be vocal if you still find speaking up difficult. Create a rule to make at least 1 comment by text for online meetings or by speaking for face to face ones. Then dial it up.

Notice that my strategies generally suggest small rule-of-thumb that is about developing a practice rather than being motivated by climbing the ladder. The idea is to focus on personal growth and doing things the introvert way rather than bending oneself out of shape.

Skills & certifications

There had been a lot of talk about gamification and most of our social media addictiveness comes from idea of gamification. Where do you think the pull-down gesture for refreshing a page come from? Slot machines of course!

Even with lifelong learning, skillsfuture initiatives, there is a lot of gamification happening with the government trying to encourage people to go for courses. The design of the skills map in the skillsfuture dashboard even looks like a journey in a game, collecting various qualifications, etc.

The problem, as I pointed out in a previous blog post, is that we conflate certification with skills. So are you looking to acquire skills or certification? Are you keeping the skills you acquired by exercising them? Or busy collecting badges but actually discarding the skills as soon as you get the badge?

Commitments and backtracking

What happens when you make a commitment and then realise it’s too painful to fulfill it? You rethink your priorities and determine whether the commitment is still that. But isn’t every choice that way? So every choice is actually a commitment. Then public pledges and all really is just about increasing the cost of unwinding a commitment rather than making it impossible.

Banks are caught in a bind with republicans states in the US making it illegal for banks to refuse financing coal fired power plants. If this had been the case elsewhere in the world the banks won’t be able to easily defend themselves. But in the US, it somehow becomes a legitimate excuse.

And so GFANZ is looking like its commitments are under threat. But let us remind ourselves that the real work is not limited to the financial world; and if the banks are not financing projects then we are going to have to finance it using other channels and other ways. After all, the world is still flushed with liquidity even though central banks are trying to tighten. Redirecting them to climate efforts is more worthwhile in the long run for humanity than funding more random tech solutions that merely optimise a small area of life.

Mandate to learn

We mostly grow up in the national education system; and through even our work life when people talk about life long learning, they talk about certifications and all. But the bulk of learning took place first before school, when we were babies observing the world, and actually at work. It would be such a huge waste to forget all that.

So why is it that we feel we learn only when in structured environments? Why have we not recognised the radical amount of learning and growth that takes place at personal and private level? I’d argue that we have over-relied on testing and certification, gradually lost our ability to properly assess people.

This provides an opportunity in the talent market to companies who can leverage strongly on underappreciated talents and partner them to generate value. It starts from losing all our requirements in terms of experience, qualifications and focusing on skills brought to the table, both tangible and intangible. And sharpening our abilities to sharpen those intangible ones.

Seasons & cycles II

Spring brings new energy and life from the harshness of winter, and transits towards the sunny summer time where we start thinking of going on breaks and to the beach. We return in late summer into autumn where we start prospecting for work again, and then working on them towards winter where we enter into a brief year-end break before looking forward to springtime again.

And there are proper working hours – sensible ones that works with our daylight: 8am to 6pm. Rest day on Sunday.

There are costs to these cycles. Days are shorter in winter, and maybe a bit too long in summer. There are times when you want to grab some food while feeling still awake late in the day in summer but then shops are going to be closed. At the same time, you can’t ski in summer; while being at the beach in winter would be really miserable. It means that different business activities in different parts of the economy would be in lull versus thriving at different times of the cycle.

Yet these costs doesn’t have to be mitigated; they can be leveraged into strength. In Singapore, what we pride upon – being almost on 24/7, having a strong nightlife while keeping streets really safe, yet continuing to be productive through the day, and keeping all of these on through the week, through the months and through the year. During festivals, even Chinese New Year when supermarkets now choose to close only for a few hours or half a day at the most. We leveraged on the fact we have people of different ethnic and cultural backgrounds hence allowing staff of different ethnic group to keep activities on.

All of these were thought of as ways to mitigate the costs of cycles. But did we ever had to do that? Or it’s too much?

Recruitment emails

I’ve been receiving emails from recruiters. The sustainability and energy industry is in need of talents. Those who are keen to enter the industry and need some directions on how might like to search some of my past blog posts, as well as my coaching hub materials.

Meanwhile, one of the recruiters who reached out to me with a really poor linkedin mail to solicit interest in a job role which inspired this post. For recruiters to be do a good job as they reach out to targeted prospects, they should be including the following details into their initial messages rather than to just connect broadly:

  • Prospective employer background (industry, products/services, target clientele served)
  • Exact name of role or at least describe the role to indicate if this is a leadership or individual contributor role
  • Ballpark range of remuneration (even a broad range like 80-150k gives a clear sense whether a prospect should invest time in the conversation)
  • How a targeted prospect’s profile may potentially work for the prospective client

I thought the 4 points above were pretty basic and part of the work that has to be done by a recruiter. For junior entry roles, perhaps it is not really necessary to do all that because the prospect who is probably an entrant into the industry may not have much history to align with the job role. If the expectation for the job role is to identify mid-career candidates however, then the recruiter must be expected to take on all that work to initiate conversations.

Going purpose

Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia has just announced that he is giving the full stakes in the company to trust entities that are committed to addressing climate change challenges. The company is valued at about $3 billion according to New York Times but I imagine the value that it is going to have in terms of making a difference for the world will be way more than that.

Instead of “going public,” you could say we’re “going purpose.” Instead of extracting value from nature and transforming it into wealth for investors, we’ll use the wealth Patagonia creates to protect the source of all wealth.

Yvon Chouinard

Patagonia has always been leading the way in terms of its focus on sustainability and profit for a purpose. To a large extent we need to recognise that Earth and our existence on it is not just the source of all wealth but also all the income stream and values we can generate. It thus serve also as the greatest possible investment we can make in our lifetimes for both our own and our descendants’ future.

The continued fragmentation of the world, driven both by political interests, the self-interest driven nature of capitalism, and the sheer inability to coordinate climate action beyond lip service is frustrating. But Patagonia gives us a clear example of how meaningful drastic actions can be taken that flips the switch on our incentives.

And aligns us to the better angels of our nature.