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How To Enjoy Your Mondays

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They call it Monday Blues. Do you know that feeling of tiredness you have when you wake up on Monday morning wondering why there should ever be a Monday? Do you remember that feeling that makes you wonder, for some minutes, if Garfield was right to ban Mondays in his kingdom, and declare that every Monday should be called Tuesday (lol)? Well, that’s what they call Monday Blues.

Don’t feel uneasy, it doesn’t happen to only you. Even I sometimes wish my alarm clock should just shut up and let me sleep for some minutes. But time waits for no one. And we got bills to pay. So, we have to get up and get ready for work, prepare the children for school, or leave for our various businesses. You know how we say it here, “man must chop”.

The truth is that Mondays are always hectic. You start feeling the rush that comes with it once you leave home. It always feels as if everyone is trying to make up for the lost days (that is the weekend). Traffics also seem much on Mondays. So, when you think of all you will encounter on this very day that marks the beginning of new week (at least week days), you’ll wish your office and clients will just let you sleep off half of the day.

I can’t really say why people experience this negative feeling on Mondays. I believe it has something to do with relaxing on Saturdays and Sundays. It could also be because Mondays are usually seen as days for new beginnings. Or maybe we have already programmed our minds that Monday mornings should be part of the weekends. Whatever the cause is, we have to make it stop.

Well, here are some tips to help you get up the bed excited to face this very day.

a. Look your best on Mondays. This may sound vain but it helps. The thought of wearing that beautiful clothe can make your Monday exciting. And you must have noticed that people usually look their best on Mondays. I think it’s the mind trying to make us feel happy about the day. So, try to make your Mondays special by looking gorgeous, it will make you look forward to the day. Besides, when you start off the week well, every other day falls in place.

b. Permit Fridays to bring in Mondays. I believe why we look forward to other days, like Tuesdays to Thursdays, is because we left unfinished works we wanted to tidy up. Well, you can also do that for Monday. The best way to do this is to leave some crucial assignments undone on Friday. This way, you can’t wait for Monday to come so you can finish it up (before your superiors or clients find out). But you need to be smart here so you don’t allow work pressure to spoil your weekend.

c. Create something exciting for Mondays. You can choose your Mondays for some exciting activities in the office. For example, you may decide to use Mondays to pay courtesy visits to clients, set time tables for the week, or have special brunch with your colleagues on that day. Just find anything that will make that day different and do it. This will make you never want to miss office on Mondays.

d. Wake up at the same time everyday of the week. This trick works for me. I noticed that if I let my alarm wake me up at the same time everyday, even on weekends, I rarely feel the Monday Blues. In fact I don’t feel it at all. If you are wondering what to do on Saturdays and Sundays when you wake up early, I’ll suggest that you mediate on your prayer, watch television, read a book, listen to music or go to social media. Or you can just get up and do some house chores.

e. Make friends with your colleagues. You know, you actually spend more time with your colleagues than you spend at home with your family. This means that you need to have friends among your colleagues. You can also belong to an informal group that will create room for you to relax and chat your colleagues. The logic behind this is that when you think of the chats and laughter you will enjoy in the office, you wouldn’t feel so bad waking up.

f. Don’t keep late nights on Sundays. Yes we know that Sunday is still weekend, but we also remember that it ushers in Monday. So, don’t let your mind tell you that you still have time to socialise till late hours on Sunday because it’s weekend. You will wake up on Monday wondering what hit you. So, retire early on Sunday and wake up early on Monday.

g. Create special activities for Monday evenings. Mondays shouldn’t be all about works. You can also create funs on that day. Try to reward yourself every Monday evenings. You may decide to eat out, watch a special TV programme or write that book you’ve been thinking of.

Anyway, Monday Blues won’t stop you from going to work, but it can make you unhappy. And when you are not happy, your productivity at work reduces. So, get rid of those nagging feelings when your alarm sounds and get up happy.

Every Company Needs A Jurgen Klopp

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Your company needs a Jurgen Klopp!

A Liverpool team without a Jurgen Klopp would have been a club with a bunch of average players, but the Klopp-Esque has got everyone buzzing around the world. Liverpool now looks like a team that can compete for major trophies.

Of course, they are the current European champion. They were runner-up in the domestic league and they have played two champions league final in space of two years. That’s a staggering stats.

Jurgen Klopp has been the mastermind behind this success. After inheriting a young team full of potential from Brendan Rodgers, he shaped and made them a team to beat.

Did you see what he did against Newcastle United last Saturday?

Liverpool was trailing Newcastle United by one goal, and the whole Anfield was quiet. Klopp stood up and jeered the fans. They responded by cheering the players and the whole Anfield was lighted. Five to eight minutes after, Liverpool leveled back. They took the lead in a few minutes later and won the match as well.

The scenario is a clear example of how electrifying Klopp factor could light up the whole arena. Klopp is not just a football coach, he’s a man manager. His relationship with the squad, fans and the staff of the club says a lot about his management style.

So I conclude, your company needs a Jurgen Klopp.

Here’s why you need a Klopp-Esque factor:

  • Transforms your resources into a profitable material. Phil Coutinho is an example of this. Liverpool made profits on him after buying him for £13 million.
  • Resuscitate your worker’s career. Roberto Firminho was lost under Rodgers. He (Rodgers) had no idea how best to utilize him, but Jurgen has made him a superstar.
  • Mend broken relationships in your team. Klopp has brought unity and peace amongst the players and staff. Sadio Mane and Mo Salah spat was enough to break down a team, but how he’s handled it says a lot.
  • Makes everyone dreams. Liverpool fans and players now believe they can win any trophy, thanks to the Klopp-Esque mentality in them. Imagine if your company has a manager like that, you stand a chance of having a team of ”yes, we can achieve it.”
  • Identification of talent and successful negotiations as well. Klopp personality makes every player wants to play for him. He won the Van Dijk transfer battle against Manchester City because Dijk made it clear that he wants to play under him. You also need a good recruiter that can spot talent and negotiate successfully.

Indeed, everything is possible and achievable with Jurgen Klopp.

Six Sigma and MVQ

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I provided this feedback on a LinkedIn comment on the six sigma post.

The Comment:

…Six Sigma has evolved over the years from manufacturing to different domains. It is adequately applied in software development projects.

Six Sigma is not about literal perfection but more about meeting customers’ specifications. In the digital world, customer specification is difficult to appraise hence market feedback is vital to value creation. Rushing an MVP to the market does not always mean customer adoption, hence tweaks are necessary to meet what the customer wants.

The nature of developing conventional digital products may require speed, but speed without adequately satisfying the customer (Six Sigma) is a market failure.

Case1: Browser adoption: Firefox vs. Chrome
Case2: Social Network: Hi5 vs, Facebook
Case3: Chatting platform: BB Messenger vs. Whatsapp
Case4: Search Engine: Yahoo vs. Google

My Response:

If you tell me that in manufacturing that you need to have products solidly perfected to avoid recall, I will agree that six sigma is critical. But in digital systems, the users are part of the products and that means “perfection” and rigorous statistical modeling to remove defects are not immensely catalytic.

Amazon launched Alexa knowing that it will use customers to improve Alexa. Under six sigma, that construct is not evident. Yet, you must still have to meet MVQ (minimum viable quality) but that can be attained without six sigma in digital solutions. If you got to Amazon, Facebook, Google and the top leading digital companies, six sigma is not a core philosophy.

You can satisfy customers on quality without applying six sigma as a digital platform. It is called MVQ. All the products you cited did not fail because of perfection miss, rather lack of innovation. It turns out that using six sigma, you will likely fail in digital systems. Today, it is innovation over perfection. Facebook which you cited is an enemy of six sigma with its mantra of “Move fast and break things.” You simply made my point.

You wrote “but speed without adequately satisfying the customer (Six Sigma) is a market failure.”. It is key to understand that the #1 factor on satisfying customers is SPEED.  If you miss that, then, everything fails.

Facebook has won with its “Move fast and break things.” That means, it pursues speed and digital innovation over “perfection”. For putting FB in your list, I do agree that you made my point. The key is MOVE fast, learn and update.

You cannot do that in manufacturing but in digital platforms that is the mantra. That speed of innovation is the reason you have satisfied customers. Who cares if Firefox is doing in 3 months what Chrome did last week even though it may do it better?

Six Sigma and MVQ

Quality is important but you should not blindly pursue the six sigma near absolute-perfection without a consideration of product cost. You must understand your product MVQ (minimum viable quality). China as a nation has mastered that construct. Visit a low-end store, you will see a toy car for $10; take another trip to a high-end store, you can also get a toy car for $500. If you check, they might have been made by the same company in China. But $500 will price many parents out for toys for their kids, while the $10 ones do the job even for six hours before they break. But the kids have received and used toys – they do not care!

A product Minimum Viable Quality (MVQ) is that version of a new product which allows a team to sell the maximum amount of products to customers with the least effort and at the best optimized price even when delivering value. That is where you need to build as you launch your product, and even at product maturity, do not deviate from it.

Facebook has the mantra of “Move fast and break things” because the cost of breaking things is marginal. Yes, fixing broken things in digital ecosystem is one update away. With that, Facebook launches faster, while meeting the MVQ (but not necessarily going for the rigorous quality that six sigma demands). If speed of innovation is an important factor in domains where the customers are parts of the products (they use your usage history to improve the products), working to be wholly near-perfect on launch is not a winning strategy.

Between six sigma and MVQ, go for MVQ if you are working on digital platforms. If your competitor launches today with MVQ, and in the spirit of using six sigma you launch a month later, you would be in trouble because in digital platforms, the competitor has acquired data that by month end will anchor a product that will beat whatever you have coming.

Simply, if you are working on digital platforms, MVQ on launch is more important than pursuing six sigma legendary near-absolute perfection. In digital, users are part of the products; the insights are more than any rigorous statistical modeling. Quality unbounded by cost is an illusion!

The Fading of Six Sigma

How The Human Situation Shapes Technology

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Technology is almost as old as man himself. From the very beginning, man has been looking for ways to improve his quality of life. We may call it primitive technology, but it advanced to a more complex state from the creation of tools made of wood and later of iron to the structural and architectural wonders of the ancient Egyptians and Aztecs.

It goes without saying that Technology is for man and man is not for technology. So, human needs and desires are responsible for the increasing advancement of technology in our day. Many problems of the human situation are being solved by enterprising young men and women.

Facebook, for instance, arose out of the desire to save and share pictures as precious moments in time. Storing hard copies of pictures has its challenges. Moisture, dust and pests could ruin those pictures and result in a loss of decades-old memories. For instance, I lost pictures of my childhood to mold and just thinking about it gives me pain. I wish I had been able to store them in the cloud. Sadly, that technology was not available at the time.

Another example is Zenvus by Fasmicro Group. After noticing the problem of low agricultural yield, the team invented a way to monitor, and predict yield so as to increase the predictability of commercial farming, and make it easier to make a profit.

Yet another example involves the way search engine optimization has evolved. SEO used to be about putting as many keywords as reasonably possible in any online content so that the bots can pick it up. But now it is more about creating content that is meant for easy human consumption and that adds to the body of knowledge available online. This is where engaging storytelling wins. Brands that will dominate the online space and grow will be ones that take this into consideration and consult experts to do this for them.

What is your current situation? Chances are it is already shaping a technological solution.

Nigeria’s FRSC Needs To Improve

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I love it when the government officials carry out their duties diligently and faithfully. If I break the rule, deal with me. But sometimes I think they need to be taught empathy and emotional intelligence. Most of these government officials lack these things. To make it worse, they are so corrupt.

I wrote about corruption in the country in my previous article, which is something I am going to talk about today after witnessing another corrupt practice from an FRSC official with the official number – 18411 in Ibadan.

I was driving down to church on Sunday, 15th of September, when I was stopped by the FRSC officials along Bodija-UI road, Ibadan. I was charged for a traffic offence which I admitted because the person sitting beside me wasn’t using the seat belt. I asked for the next step, he demanded 2000 naira from me, or else I will be taken to their office where I’ll be booked 8000 naira for my offence.

I tried to explain and even told him that I admitted my wrong. After all, he could see that I was using the seat belt. He wasn’t interested in my plea and his crew never helped the matter.

”Book him!” That was what one of them said.

They were three standing by the roadside and stopping almost every vehicle passing by. They find fault in almost everyone they stopped and demanded a certain sum of money to release them or they’ll be taken to their station where they will get booked.

Although I paid him a sum of 2000 naira, I had no choice at the moment. If I refused to pay, I will be taken to the station, and my car would be seized. Since banks don’t work on Sunday, it means I can’t pay till Monday.

He pocketed the money and gave me my documents.

However, I looked at his chest and picked his official number. The last five digits of his official number are 18411. I couldn’t see his name clearly but I’m very sure of his official number and also he works in Ibadan.

I wish the government would look into this and deal with him and his team.

It makes no sense when government officials intimidate citizens and also cheat on the government. The money should have been credited into the government accounts but they took it. We have many more scenarios like that from these FRSC officials.

Shame on them!!!