Tech support guys are great :)

Posted on January 27, 2012 by mateen

Tech support guys are great. I must commend them for not only bearing our attitude but also hearing out our zany stories regarding the crash of our systems. Prior to their visit, in our hearts and minds, we are highly tech savvy. But upon their visit and couple of questions from them, oops…..our euphoria evaporates and it becomes quite obvious that our kids know more than us.

So here is my suggestion. In your next meet up with the IT guy or any other colleague, please upload genuine praise for them and in case your wavelength doesn’t match with him or her, make sure you power off your frequency and bandwidth for downloading anger simply by SMILING Alternatively, if you have a good sense of humor you can even say CTRL+ALT+DEL, as commented by my friend Hammad Siddiqui.

Effective use of humor in your presentations. A live example :)

Posted on January 18, 2012 by mateen

On 14 January 2012, when a female hostess started the second event of Mera Passion Pakistan at Royal Rodale Club, Karachi, the audience, which comprised mainly our youth, thought it was just another presentation. But they were mistaken.

When Mr. Irfan Mustafa , the man behind Mera Passion Pakistan , took the stage, immediately he went in for a kill and jolts up the jam packed auditorium into laughter. Throughout the 2 to 3 hour session, the audience fully enjoyed the show.

How come he hypnotized the youth so successfully?

Was it his power point presentation? No, it can’t be. Because it had only one slide, the title slide.

Here is the secret. Irfan, skillfully managed to establish a rapport with us by effectively using humor throughout the presentation. Though the event started late, but his humor eased the tension and helped in reducing the barrier between him and his audience right in the beginning.

Irfan kept interacting with us by leaving the stage and asking direct questions. During the show he maintained the dialogue backed by utilizing humor, sharing jokes and telling useful information about positive sides of Pakistan.

Irfan is not a comedian but his sense of humor kept the audience on toes. The audience not only shared their view points but enjoyed his filling up the empty glass with water just to prove that the “glass is half full and not half empty”. His humor was understandable and relevant to the audience and to the topic.

In the end, one of his team member showed videos and introduced 3 heroes of our country who have achieved personal glory single handedly in the remote and far flung areas of Pakistan. You can read and see the videos by clicking here.

I personally have seen very few of such performances where the speaker has effectively utilized humor while delivering a presentation.

Moral: It is not the technical side (power point slides, hi-tech animations, serious information, handouts, videos) of the presentation that makes it successful, but it’s effectively using your sense of humor in liaison that will make it a hit.

Asma Inayat (@DonDonu) has written an excellent summary of the event, click here to read it.

Who is your Motivational Guru :)

Posted on January 11, 2012 by mateen

Have you ever thought: who is your motivational guru?

In simple words, who do you think is Anthony Robbins of your dreams? Is he the tall and handsome colleague of yours who never works but keep impressing his boss by latest Armani suits? May be he’s the tea boy who you think one day will become the Management celebrity just like the one about which you read in the Fortune Magazine. Or, she might be your favorite trainer, who is always dishing out latest motivational philosophies and brand new management buzzwords.

For a moment, I am sure you might be thinking about the heavily guarded CEO who wants to see you as a daring and a bold individual and never misses an opportunity to lecture you on taking risks to become the top salesman of the year. Or is she the charming lady in the customer service department who keeps you motivated to remain ever ready whenever the company needs you.

Well, I have no problems with your choice of motivational guru, but moral of the story is, WHENEVER YOU SEE YOUR BOSS, simply get back to work. Oops here comes my boss……Check out my wisdumb #4 pasted above.

By the way don’t forget to write your choice of motivational guru in the comments section of this blog post. Thanks

100% growth rate at workplace despite recession :)

Posted on January 3, 2012 by mateen

Despite doom and gloom worldwide, there is a good news at least for the corporate world. I am sure you will agree with me, tough times like recession, definitely affects workplace activities like GOSSIP, ABSENTEEISM, CORPORATE ROMANCE and BOSS BASHING positively. The cartoon depicts what i mean:

What so funny about diabetes?

Posted on December 29, 2011 by mateen

[For this blog post, i am thankful to Karyn Buxman for allowing me to share some images and information from her website]

Since my birth I have been hearing “Laughter is the best medicine”. As a kid I never believed it. Whenever I got ill, instead of convincing me to laugh, my parents made me drink all sort of crazy syrups.

Now that I have my own kids, I do the same to the kids, but at the same time encourage them to develop a strong sense of humor. Of course by laughing or smiling your fever won’t go away but it will make your suffering bearable.

Studies have shown positive results of smile / laughter on your health. By laughing, we manage to reduce a stress harmone in our bodies called “Cortisol”, while the level of “Endorphins” increases which creates a chemical rush that fights negative feeling and stress. It also eases muscle tension which is good for rheumatism and so on. I think those days are not far away when your doctor will be prescribing a heavy dose of daily laughter and smile along with the pills for most of the diseases.

Take for example diabetes. Karyn Buxman, full time professional speaker, writer, consultant and the publisher of the renowned Journal of Nursing Jocularity, has written the first in a series of books for patients with chronic illness: What’s So Funny About Diabetes? A Creative Approach to Coping With Your Disease

There is nothing funny about this serious disease. According to a recent report the number of diabetic patients worldwide has skyrocketed to 230 million. In Pakistan there are 7.1 million people suffering from diabetes whereas this figure could go up to 11.5 Million by 2025. In US, currently one in 10 adults has diabetes, but those numbers could go as high as 1 in 3 by the year 2050.

But when it comes to handling diabetes, there is after all something funny about it. No wonder based on its therapeutic value, laughter is indeed the best medicine even for diabetes. Humor and laughter have been shown scientifically to have positive benefits for diabetic patients. Laughter has been shown to lower blood glucose in diabetics, as well as decrease hormones that can be harmful.

Karyn’s book shows how you can incorporate humor in your daily life to better manage your diabetes. The books provide useful information not only for diabetic patients but also for the ones who are taking care of them.To read more about the book, please visit Karyn’s own page

To learn more about diabetes in Pakistan you can also join National Association of Diabetes Educators of Pakistan.

To learn more about Karyn Barynx click here

Thinking Outside The Box :)

Posted on December 18, 2011 by mateen

Thinking outside the box (TOTB) has always been a crucial thing to do. If you want to come up with funky, creative or innovative ideas you need to do TOTB.

However, there is a pre-requisite for an excellent TOTB. You should have started thinking outside the womb the moment you were born. Well if you haven’t done so far, you are not the right stuff for TOTB.

But then, there are some risks involved in TOTB (higher the risks, higher the rewards). I have summed up that risk in my following wisdumb for you :

Missing in Action – Humor

Posted on December 5, 2011 by mateen

Our sense of humor gives us the strength to survive difficult times. Humor not only brightens our day during normal course of events but also act as a survival agent by keeping thing in proper perspective even at a time of loss or difficult times.

Couple of months ago, one of my relative lost his wife in a tragic snatching at gun point activity. When we visited his house second time after few days of the event, his spirits were high when he said that, “look it at this way, she died but only after living her life to the fullest by enjoying each day while she was alive”.

William Arthur Ward, once said,” A well developed sense of humor is the pole that adds balance to your steps as you walk the tightrope of life”.

Similarly Max Eastman believes, “Humor is the instinct for taking pain playfully”.

These days, our country, Pakistan is going through the toughest times since Independence. I agree these are the toughest times in the history of our country. Most of our complaints are 100% legitimate. But at the same time our response is 0% correct. Most of my country men are found complaining all across the social media, in bazaars, offices, factories, at homes, schools etc. Complaints, Pakistan bashing, ill words, bad language are quite common, be it loadshedding, security issue, political scenario or economic hardships.

To survive, we need to keep things in their proper perspective. And one of the appropriate mechanism to face these hardships is our sense of humor. Instead of shouting or getting short tempered at the onslaught of trouble time, we need to see the lighter side of it. By seeing the lighter side, quite often we start to smile or laugh. This simple act of smile or laugh changes our mood from gloom to bloom.

Setting Goals :)

Posted on November 29, 2011 by mateen

In order to achieve something in life, we need to set goals for ourselves. But most often we do not sit and set goals. Setting goals is a serious business but not so serious that you procrastinate it to do it either in heavens or hell. Just to tickle your imagination, how about sharing some of your goals in life. To start with, here is my goal, ” i want to be the desi dilbert of Pakistan within next one year and as a first step following is my first wisdumb”. Start setting your goals now….

Do You Have What It Takes To Be A Leader

Posted on November 15, 2011 by mateen

Yesterday, my friend asked me, “Do i have what it takes to be a leader”. Without hesitance, I instantly said, “i do have a face book and a twitter account and by virtue of these two accounts i enjoy a fairly large followership. Hence i am a leader.”

My friend after giving me a whimsical look, said, “never mind”.

Later on, i realized how dumb i was, maybe my friend was referring to the making of our political leaders. This thought triggered a brainstorming session within my grey matter. The logical end result was a list of qualities like Communication Skills, Integrity, Foresight, Determination etc required in a leader. No matter how hard i tried to cross check these qualities in our politicians, but after unable to find these qualities, i felt ashamed as the sound that echoed in my brain was,” dealers, instead of leaders”.

With a bad taste in my mouth, i changed my perspective and started thinking about what it takes to be a business leader. Well one easy way is Re-engineering. You pick up the best things or technology from competitors product and incorporate it in your own. I am sure the above cartoon will explain the rest.

Disposable Directors :)

Posted on September 27, 2011 by mateen

Boredom is one of the rarest phenomenon of which psychologists have yet to find a cure.

It is very easy to get bored with our IT gadgets, books, cars, pens, clothes, hairstyles, clothes etc. The best part is, you can even get bored with your spouse and find a new one.

Remedy is simple. Pick the bored stuff and keep it outside your house, trash it or sell it to someone or may even get a good exchange. Thus it can be established that all boring stuff is disposable but it does not mean that all disposable items are boring.

Take for example, politicians. Like diapers they are disposable but yet they are not boring. Every time you hear them they will say the same thing but with a new twist.

But the case with the directors of a company is different.With the passage of each Annual General Meeting, they become boring for the higher ups. Infact there is a whole board of directors with whom their masters get bored and disposes them with new ones.

Mateen Hamza

The Lighter Side Of The Workplace