Day / 26 Feb 2012

by sheilasingapore

National Article 12: Maybe the name ‘football’ is misleading

Striker Ilja Venäläinen (#10, in yellow) of Ku...

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Because one foot really cannot make a difference to the game till the team is willing to work as a team but more importantly works to defend for its nation.  Yet we all relish that one foot that kicks “the dream goal” to reality!  It is what glues us all to the set and the field, is it not? It is what inspires the “next Pele”.  It is because of that special moment that football clubs around the world hope to attract millions of dollar to its doors: http://www.flickr.com/photos/the_missing_graph/4606501458/lightbox/

Heads of States are no exceptions either.  They play into the notion too.  They load promises of pomp and glory to the boys that bring the cup back home or scores the most hits into the opponent’s net.  We even have special awards just for the best player.  More often than not, it goes to the striker!  For that magic foot – ball.

Yet football cannot be won by strikers alone.  This is especially so when the defence is weak.  And it is not difficult to see that the quality of the defence can bring the best striker and even the team down.

Association football (soccer), Bloomington, In...

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What makes a team strong in its defence?  Is it the promise of rewards of winning?  That’s for the striker!  It is easy for a striker to connect a reward with a strike into the net.  The more strikes that are in the more are the rewards.  That’s easy to figure.

But what about the defence?  The defence does not strike in.  It defends or strikes a ball  out!  What moves one to fight for that?  What do you think?

What stops the defence from leaving the defence wide open?  Without  a strategy?  We can’t use rewards to motivate something we do not want.

So then what else will?

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by sheilasingapore

National Article 11: A Case of Productivity! Really?

It is classic!

Perhaps we are working longer number of hours but we are also not the most productive.

How is that possible?

Data extracted on 25 Feb 2012 16:34 UTC (GMT) from OECD.Stat
Data from 1979: http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/34/42/35205504.pdf
Frequency Annual
Time 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010
Sort ascendingSort descending Sort ascendingSort descending Sort ascendingSort descending Sort ascendingSort descending Sort ascendingSort descending Sort ascendingSort descending Sort ascendingSort descending Sort ascendingSort descending Sort ascendingSort descending Sort ascendingSort descending Sort ascendingSort descending
Country
AustraliaInformation on item 1 780 1 739 1 732 1 737 1 732 1 727 1 719 1 712 1 717 1 690 1 686
AustriaInformation on item 1 658 1 657 1 652 1 658 1 663 1 652 1 642 1 632 1 620 1 581 1 587
BelgiumInformation on item 1 545 1 577 1 580 1 575 1 549 1 565 1 566 1 560 1 568 1 550 1 551
CanadaInformation on item 1 775 1 768 1 747 1 736 1 754 1 739 1 738 1 738 1 728 1 700 1 702
ChileInformation on item 2 263 2 242 2 250 2 235 2 232 2 157 2 165 2 128 2 095 2 074 2 068
Czech RepublicInformation on item Information on cell 2 092 2 000 1 980 1 972 1 986 2 002 1 997 1 985 1 992 1 942 1 947
DenmarkInformation on item Information on row 1 581 1 587 1 579 1 577 1 579 1 579 1 586 1 570 1 570 1 559 ..
Estonia 1 987 1 978 1 983 1 985 1 996 2 010 2 001 1 999 1 969 1 831 1 879
FinlandInformation on item Information on cell 1 751 1 733 1 726 1 719 1 723 1 716 1 709 1 706 1 704 1 673 1 697
FranceInformation on item Information on row 1 591 1 579 1 537 1 533 1 561 1 557 1 536 1 556 1 560 1 554 ..
GermanyInformation on item 1 473 1 458 1 445 1 439 1 442 1 434 1 430 1 430 1 426 1 390 1 419
GreeceInformation on item Information on row 2 121 2 121 2 109 2 103 2 082 2 086 2 148 2 115 2 116 2 119 2 109
HungaryInformation on item Information on row 2 057 2 011 2 019 1 990 1 993 1 993 1 989 1 985 1 986 1 968 1 961
IcelandInformation on item Information on row 1 885 1 847 1 812 1 807 1 810 1 794 1 795 1 807 1 807 1 716 1 697
IrelandInformation on item 1 719 1 713 1 698 1 671 1 668 1 654 1 645 1 634 1 601 1 549 1 664
IsraelInformation on item .. .. .. .. 1 905 1 989 1 887 1 921 1 898 1 889 ..
ItalyInformation on item 1 861 1 843 1 831 1 826 1 826 1 819 1 815 1 816 1 803 1 772 1 778
JapanInformation on item 1 821 1 809 1 798 1 799 1 787 1 775 1 784 1 785 1 771 1 714 1 733
KoreaInformation on item 2 512 2 499 2 464 2 424 2 392 2 351 2 346 2 306 2 246 2 232 2 193
LuxembourgInformation on item 1 662 1 646 1 635 1 630 1 586 1 570 1 580 1 515 1 555 1 601 1 616
MexicoInformation on item 1 888 1 864 1 888 1 857 1 849 1 909 1 883 1 871 1 893 1 857 1 866
NetherlandsInformation on item 1 435 1 424 1 408 1 401 1 399 1 393 1 392 1 388 1 379 1 378 1 377
New ZealandInformation on item 1 828 1 817 1 817 1 813 1 828 1 811 1 788 1 766 1 750 1 738 1 758
NorwayInformation on item 1 455 1 429 1 414 1 399 1 417 1 420 1 414 1 419 1 423 1 407 1 414
PolandInformation on item 1 988 1 974 1 979 1 984 1 983 1 994 1 985 1 976 1 969 1 948 1 939
PortugalInformation on item 1 765 1 769 1 767 1 742 1 763 1 752 1 757 1 727 1 745 1 719 1 714
Slovak RepublicInformation on item 1 844 Information on cell 1 833 1 780 1 734 1 774 1 785 1 779 1 793 1 790 1 738 1 786
SpainInformation on item Information on row 1 731 1 727 1 721 1 706 1 690 1 668 1 656 1 636 1 647 1 653 1 663
SwedenInformation on item 1 642 1 618 1 595 1 582 1 605 1 605 1 599 1 618 1 617 1 602 1 624
SwitzerlandInformation on item 1 688 1 650 1 630 1 643 1 673 1 667 1 652 1 643 1 640 .. ..
TurkeyInformation on item 1 937 1 942 1 943 1 943 1 918 1 936 1 944 1 911 1 900 1 881 1 877
United KingdomInformation on item 1 700 1 705 1 684 1 674 1 674 Information on cell 1 673 1 668 1 670 1 665 1 643 1 647
West GermanyInformation on item 1 451 1 439 1 428 1 422 1 426 1 419 1 416 1 420 1 417 1 379 1 409
United StatesInformation on item 1 836 1 814 1 810 1 800 1 802 1 799 1 800 1 798 1 792 1 768 1 778
Russian FederationInformation on item 1 982 1 980 1 982 1 994 1 994 1 990 1 999 2 000 1 997 1 973 1 976
OECD countriesInformation on item 1 818 1 802 1 794 1 785 1 783 1 782 1 779 1 773 1 767 1 741 1 749

But wait!  Read between the lines.  It tells us something more that is not obvious immediately!

Pascal Marianna, who is a labour markets statistician at the OECD says: “The Greek labour market is  composed of a large number of people who are self-employed, meaning farmers and shop-keepers who are working long hours.” Self-employed workers tend to work more than those who have specified hours in an employment contract.

The second reason Mr Marianna points to is the different number of part-time workers in each country. “In Germany, the share of employees working part-time is quite high. This represents something like one in four,” he says.  As these annual hours figures are for all workers, the large proportion who work part-time in Germany is bringing down the overall average.

In Greece, far fewer people work part-time. If you account for these factors by stripping away part-time and self-employed people and look only at full-time salaried workers, the Greeks are still working almost 10% more hours than the Germans.

What do you notice?
Question:
  1. Which of the two countries do you notice has people who are willing to work for and with others.  Which one is not as willing to do so?  Would that be Germany or would it be Greece?
  2. Which country do you think is more likely to go into debts.  Those whose people could work with each other or those who prefer to work alone?
  3. So, is the story of debts in Greece a surprise or had it all along been ‘a bomb waiting to go off!’?  But the world did not know better?
  4. Which countries in your view would see their revenues far exceeding their costs?  Which ones would not?
  5. What is the price we are paying as a nation?  As the world with the Greece bailouts!

26 February 2012 Last updated at 01:05 GMT Are Greeks the hardest workers in Europe?

By  Charlotte McDonaldBBC News

Europe’s top 10 and bottom 10
Most hours worked Most productive Least hours worked Least productive
1 Greece Luxembourg Netherlands Poland
2 Hungary Norway Germany Hungary
3 Poland Ireland Norway Turkey
4 Estonia Belgium France Estonia
5 Turkey Netherlands Denmark Czech Rep
6 Czech Rep France Ireland Portugal
7 Italy Germany Belgium Slovakia
8 Slovakia Denmark Austria Greece
9 Portugal Sweden Luxembourg Slovenia
10 Iceland Austria Sweden Iceland
The UK ranks 14th both in terms of hours worked and in terms of productivity
Source: OECD
English: OECD member states. Founding member s...

Image via Wikipedia

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by sheilasingapore

National Article 10: Do we have “systems” to measure performance because we have lost beliefs in ourselves and others and we cannot talk about the loss?

Without  a belief in oneself and others can we really expect to see performance by oneself, the organization and the country (what about the region, the world) improve over time?

Should, let us say for the sake of argument, that we do not believe in ourselves and others, is there a price that we would end up paying?  What is that?

Should we first :

  1. Setup a system to measure performance?
  2. Wonder what is eroding the beliefs in ourselves and others, what caused it and then work on recovering those beliefs?

Let’s assume we do share  those beliefs with each other.  Would it then become easier for us to set up performance management systems for ourselves and others?  What would they look like then?

Which should come first?

Measurement C

What do you think?