====This Blog was written 4 years ago. December 1, 2010====

So here I am again in the blogging business. I decided that I should give my self a break from the Penis Enlargement articles and just revel myself on writing a blog.LOL

It has been a long time, and my past blogs we’re really just impulsive and sometimes histrionic.

“Histrionic” not just a personality, also used as an adjective meaning overly dramatic”

So it is December 1, 24 days before Christmas and it is scorching hot outside. Oh tasty and savory irony, how I long to see you once in awhile.

In the past I would never get tired of writing blogs. I would visit the nearest internet cafe and enjoy ranting all my sentiments while keeping the tradition of allegories in blogs. Now that I have internet connection at home and got some new items, I thought I was gonna blog big time. Then again, it took me almost 6months to post a new blog. IRONY i tell you. She lurks around the corner.

Maybe its the exclusivity of posting online that fueled me to post and post and feel happy about it. I was really dedicated with my Friendster Blog and I almost got about 200 plus entries most of them trash and some of them trashier.

Then again, we meet Irony. I write for myself, and I write for people who want to read it.

“I ain’t gonna force yoh to waste em time on my blog.”

The best thing about irony is that it forces you to expose the truth no matter how it will hurt or even destroy you. Irony in life is the way for us to reveal but hide.

Word Web defines it as
“A trope that involves incongruity between what is expected and what occurs.”

What do we expect? Irony maybe sometimes a soft voice or a boisterous laugh telling us, life is a surprise. You expect and you get frustrated. These days frustration gets a long way, its gets you to lie, pretend and even write a BLOG. 😀

Ebony and Irony.

Nothing is permanent in this world, except change. This is the concept behind Lean Six Sigma. Lean Six Sigma is a process improvement program that combines two ideas – Lean, which is a collection of techniques for reducing the time needed to provide products or services, and Six Sigma, a collection of techniques for improving the quality of products and services, substantially contributing to increased customer satisfaction.

By combining the two, Lean Six Sigma is a proven business management strategy that helps organizations operate more efficiently. According to many business analysts and quality improvement experts, Lean Six Sigma is the most popular business performance methodology in the history of corporate development.

In a nutshell, the key principles of Lean Six Sigma are as follows:
• Focus on the customer
• Identify and understand how the work gets done
• Manage, improve and smooth the process flow
• Remove non-value added steps and waste
• Manage by fact and reduce variation
• Involve and equip the people in the process; and
• Undertake improvement activity in a systematic way

In order to find out what needs to be improved in business processes through Lean Six Sigma, the DMAIC framework has to be employed. The DMAIC framework means:

• Define: Lean Six Sigma projects start with a problem that needs a solution. Make sure that everyone involved in the process knows their role, why the project is being undertaken and what is to be achieved with the project.
• Measure: The work accomplished in the Define stage is based on what the problem is. During the Measure stage, things have to be clarified by seeing how the work gets done and how well it is done.
• Analyse: With the problem defined and clarified, this is the time to find out why. Check out the possible causes of the problem and get to the root cause.
• Improve: The Improve stage is where you find solutions to address the root cause of the problem. Come up with several possible solutions and choose and test the best one.
• Control: Once a possible solution has been found, it is important that the achievements made are sustainable. Putting a control plan in place is vital to ensure that the process I carried out consistently.

Why undertake such a tedious project just to improve business processes? That’s because of the customer. Lean Six Sigma will help improve value for customers, or what the customer is willing to pay for. The customer is willing to pay for the right product and services provided for at the right time, right price and with the right quality.

It is important to evaluate the processes undertaken to provide the good or service as this will determine the price of the product. If there are steps that are unnecessary, they should be eliminated so that the value of the product is increased and improved.

Co-written with Salveo Healthcare Solutions. Looking for a new Healthcare career visit www.salveony.com

I am not a veritable leader like the head of a big company or a president of the Philippines so I may not be the most esteemed in saying the statement that comes next but I tell you there are so many learning gems that we can get from Game of Thrones specifically in the broad and enigmatic field of leadership. Even if they are in a different era or “dimension”, termed middle earth in LOTR,  we can all still relate to the characters. Almost everybody loves this series and we can basically all sympathise to the stories that revolve around each character even if they may be literally out of this world. I am sure dragons are still mythical, but the personas we see there surely resemble some earthlings that we meet here in our daily muggle lives. So without any cliffhangers or next episode revelations like the mid episodes of GOT, here are some of them.

Picture Source: http://igetpaidonline.biz/favorite-game-of-thrones-character/

Warning: Possible Spoiler Alerts

1. A Leader Influences; Does Not Beg To Please Everybody

Remember the last episode when Daenerys Targaryen tried her best to please all her subjects. She wanted to provide everybody freedom; but it ended up that some people did not want it and they actually loved being a slave, they found contentment in their jobs. She also found out that one of her Dragons victimised a child, so she locked up her reptile-scaled fire breathing babies and shed a tear hearing their cacophony of loud roars for freedom while she turned her back away from the dungeons. At the end of the day, your decision will not please everyone.  The good thing about it is that when someone reacts, it does not mean that what you did is incorrect, it might even prove otherwise. As a leader your decision should be based on what is good for all, not for the few or for one for that instance. 

2. Overestimate Your Competitors

The battle of Black Water was one of the biggest revelations of the past seasons, who would have though that with the Stannis’ fleet of warships and myriad of soldiers he would fail with a magic trick from good ole’ Tyrion. This is also important when leading a team on a mission to achieve a goal and you have some anticipated heavy competition . Keep your eye on your goals but remember to always be at your best and guard your posts, you will never know how things will end up. Leadership is about being a forward thinker; being pro-active will bring you places, well hopefully not in King’s Landing for a defeat though. 

3. Obsession Can Be A Pain in The Ass

Human as we are, we all have our obsessions. We can be obsessed with a job or a task, but what is really the hardest thing to handle is an obsessed employee. Much in the sense that when something is too much it becomes counter-productive. If you are the boss of you have someone under you, take note of this very obsessed employee. They can become a great advantage but because their obsession can wear off the moment they seem to be unhappy with how you respond to them, they can basically be of lesser value and would end up being loyal to you not to the institution. Remember when Daenerys got rid of Jorah because he actually became one with the clan because of his obsessive friend-zoned love. Be cautious about these obsessed employees, they love you as the boss but they at a level could become fleeting. 

4. Never Let Your Guards Down; Trusted Officemates are Hard To Find

The classic scene where you are actually taking a bowel movement and someone shoots you with an arrow is unlikely, but well apply it to the present time. Although a red wedding for you would be unlikely, the only simple thing you need to know is to really, really be deliberate in choosing people who you will trust. You have no choice but to trust a few people, and develop something very profound that this sort of trust cannot be broken. This gets very tricky, but remember to profile the person and see for yourself how he/she reacts to all sorts of things in the office. When you feel that you can basically establish a good relationship put her/his name on your trust list, sort of like the people who would never stab you in the back. Ironically the best way to determine this, is to find people who are very frank and straight from the shoulder, these are the people that to speak up rather than speak down and create a grapevine communication also known as gossip that may be against you. You might not have an untimely death with multiple stabs, but trust me… you will appreciate it because you raised your guards. 

5. Lead by Principle not by Fear

This learning also came form the Planet of the Apes that I watched last night but it is also prevalent in the story. Even when you are dead people will always respect you as leader because of your principles, consistency and practice is very important. Sometimes some of the leaders their lead by fear, like in King’s Landing. Even if Winterfell has fallen, many of the citizens still look up to Ned Stark because he was a man with principle. He was a man with a solid foundation being just and fair among everyone.

These are just some of the things that I wanted to share. If you think you have other learnings, feel free to comment below! 

I remember it was late 2009, we we’re fresh from getting the board exams and I was with my friend Joanna Alvaro and Kristal Adoracion. We were so hot on the tracks to find employment, just to make the days count before we can get our licences and volunteer at a hospital somewhere. They suggested that I was the most experienced with job applications, and maybe at some point I was, so they decided to tag along. Before graduating college I was already honed with working part-time at call centers and online Korean Tutorials. You could say that I was the jack of all trades in the field of students looking for extra jobs. I wanted the thrill and the extra cash. I really don’t know how I pulled it off but I made it to finish Nursing School.

We applied to this company, and I was very fortunate to be accepted as a trainee. We we’re the first few  hirees and I was amazed how the training went. I discovered that there was really more to the internet. That was 2009 and Facebook was unheard of, at that time we were already being trained for Social Media management and it even included Plurk; not sure if people still use it.  I was able to learn more about backlinking, SEO and and even a little finance; maintaining the clients assets and liabilities through the use of Power Books. After painstakingly undergoing the training, paid at very low per day wage, I was handed off to a graphic artist as my first client. I already had a warning that this client is not your ordinary average joe. He was at first very nice and we got a long very fine, after spending time with him for almost a month I was typically so stressed that I lost so much weight; that included the stressor night shift that I had to endure. Everyday was a battle, and I was basically trying to be awake every time. I even missed my post oath taking celebration.

One gloomy night I went to have a nap on lunch break when suddenly I woke up realising that I was asleep for more than 30 minutes inside the office pantry. I was devastated to look at my watch and realise that I overslept. I went back to my office table and saw that I had missed calls from my client. He finally got hold of me and said on the phone, “Irvin you better get your head out of your ass!”. After that shift, I was called by our American supervisor and told me that they were letting me go. It was a moment that I actually was ready to accept; on that day I received my ID and office uniform, and on that exact same day as well, I had to let go and realise that I was not going to have my first day of work wearing them.

I went home and told my mom about it, and she just quipped, “you will find another job”. Of course I wanted to earn and applying to be a nurse volunteer was not my current cup of tea. I painstakingly provided all the necessary documents for the release of my separation pay and asked help from my mom. I purchased an old worn down PC from a local surplus Korean Shop. It was a Compaq that had 512MB Ram and 250GB of hard disk memory, it also had  a very slow Pentium 4 Processor. With that set I wen to Globe and applied for a broadband line. I was literally taking a risk; unsure if I will get a client, I searched online and on that day maybe sent over 50 applications from different job posts in www.onlinejobs.ph.

Olivia Henken’s debut album The Ride

I then was able to work as a content writer and social media manager. I also worked at a CD Manufacturing Company in Chicago; I was one of the Graphic Artists and I remembered designing and Album Art for Olivia Henken. I found out just this afternoon that she was actually a part of the top 12 for The Voice USA, that is pretty cool if you ask me.

It pretty much took off from there; my career that is. I was so passionate to do a good job for my clients, to prove that I had something in me, that well my head is not really in my ass, that I just needed the time. I grew up and realised that everything had to start at some point, and even if you get to be fired on your first real job you will realise that it should not define your whole career. I think that is also a lesson you can basically apply to life in general; if you fall down, you don’t stop and sulk about it. Instead you rise up and pick yourself up, and even if the getting up is very hard, it pays off very well and it will mean a lot more to you than those who have not really failed at all. The journey becomes more than just an experience, it sort of becomes your fuel for passion.

So after a day of getting off work because I decided to start on my personal site, I realised that I wanted to share my thoughts once again and revive my old self who used to blog a lot on Friendster. I guess if I was given the chance to go back four years from now, I would have not wanted to have not been fired, my life would have been so different.

Kintsugi is an art form where broken ceramics are joined together by gold. This amazing way of appreciating one’s brokenness is a noble art form. This way of expression is very important for everyone to know, at some point in your life you have to expose your scars, your struggles because then you will realise that your brokenness does not only make you look stronger, but will also inspire other people to realise that when there is hope, when there is courage, there is always triumph.

To end this entry my friend who was with me during the job application was our top notcher. That company I worked for closed down almost a year ago. And yes, I have not been fired again.