“Lost in the rush towards technical innovation are the human dimensions of the relationship between people.”

On Being a therapist, Kottler J A, 1993

“Integrity is something of fuzzy word. People with integrity tell the truth, and they keep their word. They take responsibility for past actions, admit mistakes, and fix them. They know the laws of their country, industry, and company - both in letter and spirit - and abide by them. They play to win the right way, by the rules.” Jack Welch in his book Winning.

Worth pondering.

I hate dealing with People Telecom. Hate it.

Trying to speak to anyone on the phone has taken up to two hours of waiting (no exaggeration) on more than two occasions in the past. And they make promises they don’t or are not interested in keeping.

Recently, I got a new credit card (a new expiry date to be precise). As I am on an automated payment with People Telecom, …

Sharing information openly with customers empowers them to engage with your product or service in a more intimate way. It gives them more options such as self-service. It helps them understand your product and service. Consider this: the more secrets you keep, the more you alienate other people.

Lenovo is a great example. For every product they make, Lenovo freely provides a highly comprehensive Hardware Maintenance Manual. The …

Many of (most of? ALL of?) us maintain multiple facades. We are one person at work, a different person when with our friends, parents, partners; and yet another person when on the Internet. And it even varies depending on where on the Internet!

Imagine if we could harness and channel the energy we spend on maintaining these façades towards something more constructive!

The same situation exists for businesses too. We …

A new approach to information management may very well be sharing as much of it around as possible. The more information we make available to the world (accounting for relevant privacy and security concerns of course), the more opportunities there are for us all, as a global community, to make meaning of it all.

Read Andrew Boyd’s full post The Permaculture Approach to Information

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A man without a smiling face must not open a shop. (Or more literally: Don’t leave home without a smile on your face.)

This is a commonly-quoted Chinese proverb especially in relation to sales.

It also has definite impact on relationship-building. Being nice makes a difference. So is listening (letting the other do most of the talking), being empathic (able to see the other point of view), and respecting …