I was asked the other day by one of the product managers at my work to help to create “battlecards” for the account managers to use when they are selling a new product. After spending half of the morning getting up to speed on the branding guidelines, out came Illustrator (I really regret not ever getting InDesign) and away I went… Loving each and every tedious part of aligning text, spacing out the page according to the grid and logo size, and selecting the “right” colours. Sigh.

So much more interesting than the Masters of Commerce degree I’m currently working my way towards. I look at the post graduate degrees some of my friends are doing in Fine Arts and Design, and I feel so envious. I spend my weekend with my head buried in books and articles about business strategy and the “global economy” and they get to paint, design products, and in general get their hands dirty.

Anyway… I must get back to writing my “short” essay on “an example of an area or areas in which your organisation is experiencing tensions and decision making challenges in relation to strategy”.

Boo

~~~

Despite the fact that it is a public holiday in Malaysia today, I just spent the last hour in a phone conference with some of the other regional managers to discuss some go-to-market strategies.

Today’s discussion reminded me of when my old boss told me that while it seemed like I didn’t say much in meetings, when I did say something it changed the whole outcome of the discussion. I told him the reason why I was often quiet during meetings was that I wanted to listen, understand, form an opinion, and then make an intelligent input into the conversation. It’s a strategy that has always worked for me when I’m in meetings with highly opinionated and outspoken people because I personally am a bit of an introvert. Since I don’t like to talk over people, I make sure that when I say something (depending on  the type of discussion) that it packs a punch or in the least, makes an impact and forces people to listen.

I’ve seen a lot of people take my less extroverted approach as a sign of weakness, and I’ve been amused countless times when they’ve realised that while I’m not overtly aggressive it doesn’t mean I can’t get my own way.

Lots of people have told me over the years that I need to be more extroverted in my approach to my job – also interpreting my approach as less effective. While I agree that the advice has been useful on countless occasions, today’s meeting has been a pertinent reminder that my own approach works as well – and in at lot of instances, gives me a lot more satisfaction. After all, there is nothing as satisfying at work as not only being able to get around a roadblock but watching it have to tear itself down as well.

The message in this? It’s always good to take on board other peoples advice as it helps to expand your area of influence However, if you find a technique that works well for you, recognise when its useful and use it. Just because someone else has a different approach doesn’t mean their approach will always work for you.

It has been a while since I last posted. I haven’t really had that much time for anything except a series of assignments, deadlines at work, friends around, and wait for it… a weekend in Cambodia! Above is one of my favourite photos from the weekend. We spent two and a half days exploring Angkor Wat, eating food, and trying to watch the sunrise and the sunset. We also did a sunset quad bike tour through the rice paddy fields, which was stunning.

But right now I need to turn my attention to (yet another) research paper. Hopefully in two weeks time I will have a more substantial post for you!

One of the things I love about Holly Berry is that she’s got such beautiful colours in her coat. The white sprinkled all through it makes it seem like she’s going grey prematurely, but she has the funniest little kitten face and these really pretty tans and browns. Also, she has these cute little white paws (which won’t be appearing in this drawing) and one solid black leg (the others are a patchwork of colours).

So the reason why this irritates me is two-fold. First of all, my name is clearly “Skye”. I don’t see or hear a “P” anywhere!

Secondly (and this is why this is one of my biggest office pet peeves), I think it’s the absolute height of unprofessionalism and disrespect to spell someones name incorrectly in correspondence. Particularly when their email (which you have) and email signature (which you also have) and business card (which again, you also have) and all other instances of their name (available to you) are clearly spelled in a different way. To me, a mistake such as spelling someone’s name incorrectly shows that you don’t care about the impression you make and leave on other people – and the service driven world that I work in, this is an absolute no.

Now I concede that occasionally there are genuine mistakes. I’ve seen a colleague email another colleague using a completely different name, and I’ve had the odd email where people have genuinely made a typo because they have been in a rush (or emailing from their Blackberry). But when you have the extra 5 seconds that it takes to check your email for spelling errors, and you have a nice, clear monitor in front of you… And again I return to how unprofessional I think it is.

I will call out my team members if I see them doing this to other people, and if need be, I will lecture them because I want my team to be seen as a highly professional, service driven team.

Am I being too harsh?

And in the process of being sick and reflecting on my experiences as a child, I’ve been thinking about those cool things I used to do in infant (grades k-2) and primary (grades 3-6) school around arts and crafts. Things such a lino printing, screen printing, potato stamps… finger painting…

And then of course, the activity that inspired the 60 minute sketch… coloured paper, black oil pastels and a stick!

I decided venture down the path to find the colours in my life by reflecting on the things I used to find really enjoyable when I was younger and applying them in the digital space. So for the above image was created in Photoshop (and using my trusty webcam), with a mix of brushes, filters, and colour filters.

I feel like I’m a teenager just discovering Photoshop for the first time, but how excellent is that feeling?

Ugh. I feel so tired right now, and I have a proposal to write for tomorrow to sell something I do not understand, with a scope that I’m struggling to define. Where did the colours go in my life?

• Penang laksa = awesome
• Penang loh mee = double awesome
• Last minute business trip = tiring
• Last minute business trip combined with assignment due dates = no sleep
• Shanghai subway @ peak hour = not as bad as KL monorail @ peak hour
• Travel delays = inevitable, frustrating, and please can I shove the woman who just pushed in front of the queue out of the way?
• More travel delays = tears
• Langkawi = relief to get off the freaking plane. Now if only I had had time to go home and pack clothes for a holiday.
• Langkawi seafood = I don’t eat it, but ohmigod, is that really a prawn? How huge is that??
• Flight home = more delays? Thank God this time I’m with family
• Home = hot shower. Clean clothes. Heaven.

So to sum it up, I’ve been busy. My parent-in-laws have been here for the past couple of weeks, and we have been actively entertaining them. In the middle of all this, work organised a hurried trip to Shanghai for me. Shanghai would have been absolutely amazing, had it not been for the fact that I had an assignment to do. So rather than enjoying the city after the work day was over, I had to stay locked up in my hotel room slaving away over “The Global Knowledge Economy”. Sigh.

On the way out of Shanghai, Pudong International Airport presented itself as the most amazing, efficient, and secure airport I’ve been to. Unfortunately having boarded the plane on time we were then informed the flight would be delayed indefinitely. 1 hour and 15 minutes later I was wondering whether or not I would have time to return home, re-pack my bags and head back to the airport in time for my next flight.

Upon landing back in KL, there appeared to be just enough time to get out of the airport, jump onto the KLIA Express and get home in time to re-pack my bags (“weekend here I come!”) and head back to the airport. Unfortunately the experience at KL was a major fail… a 1 hour wait in line at immigration and a hideous search for my bag in baggage claim trashed that plan completely.

Instead I found myself with my laptop and other work stuff in tow, on the bus heading towards the low cost carrier terminal, arriving with only 5 minutes to spare before check-in for my flight to Langkawi closed. I breathed a sigh of relief that my weekend would be starting shortly, only to find myself almost in tears upon hearing the announcement that my flight would be delayed for 40 minutes.

Thankfully Vincent and his parents who were already in Langkawi were able to adjust to my new arrival time and came to pick me up, with an awesome serving of Singapore noodles with them!

Fast forward through a pretty nice trip (which included the buying of an emergency change of clothes and shoes for me as I refused to wear the same jeans and heels I had been wearing for the past 3 days), back to the airport… And another 40 minute flight delay.

Despite the fact that the actual time spent in Langkawi and not at the airport was wonderful, I have never been more relieved to return home. A hot shower and a clean change of clothes made the weekend seem less frantic and more enjoyable.

So that has been my life lately. Multiple trips to the airport, and extensive delays. I hope that the next few weeks are more sedate!

Anyway, next week I’m hosting a “team meeting” using Adobe Connect and apparently I need to prepare a 5 minute piece to introduce myself. First things first, I love Connect. I really wanted my team in my previous company to start using it, but for some reason they weren’t so keen. But on the other hand… this task feels like homework! Lol. My manager said “do something quirky”. What on earth is quirky?

I think the problem is that because of my background (in creating interactive learning presentations) I may be overreaching. A 5 minute quirky, online presentation, all about me? Theoretically speaking, there is scope to do SOOO much. I can imagine it now – a bouncy, quirky, not-powerpoint-driven presentation. Practically speaking… unless I do it after hours, it’s going to be a little more bland

I realise I need to find a compromise. Any ideas?

Those are my cats, Holly Berry (the majority black one on the left) and Karamello (the more white and ginger one). Then it’s a photo of Vincent and I being silly on our engagement shoot (before our wedding). The photographer told us our silhouettes would make a really good photo, so we decided to make shadow puppets. The little inset up the top right hand corner is of the part of the grounds of the Château de Versaille, above which Vincent proposed. The bird and the foliage vectors are what were used on our wedding invitations. The colours used are also the colours I used for my wedding!

There are three quotations. One from James Gleeson, one of my favourite Australian artists. One from the lyrics of the Lifehouse song, “Storm”. And the third is from Martin Luther King Jr.

I did an extremely bad job superimposing this picture onto the wall, but I imagine this is what it would look like.

I could waste hours and hours of my day doing this for each room in my apartment.