Month: December 2021

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How to Prepare Yourself for Rapid Changes

I genuinely believe that we live in an exciting era of rapid change. I still remember when the internet first became available to ordinary people. In the 90’s I heard of internet technology used for military communication. By the 90 late ’90s, we could play first shooter games such as Team Fortress. It took us hours to download a simple picture. Now, we can send a High-quality photos through our mobile devices. When I was a child, it took me a long to research anything. By the time I was at the university, I could pull academic papers online. It was common to collaborate on our school projects during my university era over the internet. Who would believe that virtual meetings will become standard at our work?

 

The rapid environmental change excited me greatly, and my personality contributed to my reaction to some degree. I was not as resilient toward rapid changes when I was young. For the most part, I gained resilience toward rapid changes from training in handling differences and experience. To prepare yourself for rapid changes, you must recognize any threats or opportunities you can gain from the change.

 

Before going further, I want you to understand that it is common for people to feel stress from the rapid changes. Also, not everyone gets excited about changes, and some may feel great anxiety over the changes. Any changes are stressful to many people, and the change-related stress is due to our survival. According to Taylor (2012, June 12), our “fight or flight” reaction is activated via our sympathetic nervous system when we encounter a change. The rapid emotional, psychological, and physical change caused by our sympathetic nervous system releases adrenaline, making us aware of our environment and reacting to the environmental changes by quick decision-making.  Thus, this is an essential survival function for increasing our survivability. Unfortunately, the perceived “severity” of change can have too many negative impacts for some, resulting in anxiety. Thus, you may need to consult your physicians if you experience great anxiety from change.

 

Don’t spend your energy on changes that you cannot control. If you want to be resilient and prepared to change, you need to focus on things you can control by prioritizing the changes or mitigating and reducing the threats. That is how I deal with stress resulting from changes.

 

SWOT analysis is an excellent strategic planning tool to evaluate your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. SWOT analysis is a situational assessment used to reveal your strategic position. Business organizations often use this analysis to make strategic decision-making processes. Strengths and Weaknesses are internal attributes, while opportunities and threats are external attributes. Strengths and Opportunities are helpful attributes to achieving the objectives, while weaknesses and threats are harmful attributes to attaining the goals.

Figure 1SWOT Analysis

We will never have time to analyze all changes. Therefore, you need to focus on changes that will turn into a trend, general changes in situations or behaviors, potentially impacting you.

I learned about robotic process automation (RPA) technology in the early 2000s. I spent many hours preparing analyses or reports for management or auditors, and I was pretty annoyed that we had too many manual processes. I thought any automation could eliminate human errors and preparation time. At the same time, this technology can eliminate some of our work as accountants. I should understand the technology to capitalize on the benefits from the technologies, and I could avoid any threats resulting from the technologies. When I learned about robotic process automation technology, I decided to learn about it.

 

Quick & Dirty Analysis

Strengths

–       I know a few programming languages (SQL, Visual Basic)

–       I have financial modeling & Accounting Skills

 

Opportunities

–       RPA is a potential trend to solve some of the existing problems I have

 

Weakness

–       Lack of knowledge

–       I do not have other programming languages such as Java or Python.

 

Threats

–       RPA can eliminate my work

Considering any change that can solve existing problems, we must turn to a trend to find excellent opportunities. To identify a trend with potential prospects, we must be aware of our existing problems, and you can find such issues by contemplating them.

 

I CONDUCT A QUICK PROBLEM-SOLVING ANALYSIS when I see an issue bothering me. For example, I do not have enough time to analyze the reports. I take a piece of letter-size paper to organize my thought on the issue. I think about the root cause of the problems. Then, I need to find potential solutions to the problem, and I spend only 1-2 minutes on them. This process helps to develop solutions to many existing problems. Sometimes, I may not have an exact answer to the issues; however, I am prepared for any opportunities to solve the problem. In some cases, you may find a potential technology, but you may not have an exact use for the technology.  I create mind maps for the new information for their possible usages.

You can find the issues that need to be solved online. I often like to read people’s reviews or questions online. For example, you can find technical questions by asking how to do things. Extreme users often complain about the missing functions from existing products. These reviews help us to identify unrecognized market needs. I keep some of those reviews because I may find solutions for the issues in the future.

 

In this era of rapid changes, we should prepare ourselves by analyzing and controlling everything we can control. Despite the stress from these changes, they can turn into great opportunities by identifying your strategic position through SWOT analyses. Finally, we must keep our antennae up to sense the existing issues to capitalize on opportunities from changes.

 

Reference

 

Taylor, J. June 12, 2012. Is Our Survival Instinct Failing Us? | Psychology Today. Retrieved December 20, 2021, from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-power-prime/201206/is-our-survival-instinct-failing-us

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How to Spend Time Between Busy Seasons

I had a hectic autumn phase since I was simultaneously involved in too many projects. We completed the 3rd quarter and interim audits, which ended my last busy phase. I managed to win the best award for Kaizen (continuous Improvement) for the group in 2021. We completed and sent out our Management representative letters a week before our due date. It was challenging; however, I felt accomplished having met all the requirements. My next busy season starts once the fiscal year-end is over. Since there are only two weeks left until our year-end, I intend to rest as much as possible. At the same time, I want to prepare for the upcoming year-end. I want to write about how I spend my time between my busy seasons.

 

Take Time to Reflect on My Last project.

 

Whenever I complete a project, I reflect on the project, and I am most interested in the parts where I can improve the process. I try not to forget the details I did well because I want to continue good operations.

 

When I find something I need to improve, I list them separately. I use an app called Notion to track the things required to improve to contemplate them in the future. I incubated these ideas for a while, and I thought about any possible solutions, which would end up on my quick notes for the day. Once I have more thoughts on improving the process, they become a sprint backlog for future projects. Some items are easy to complete as I need to document the change of the process. Some sprint logs can take a few weeks to complete, so I may have to make a schedule to tackle them.

 

It is essential to be careful of a few things when reviewing your work. To avoid biases, I try to create some quantifiable—measurement tools—for example, the percentage of the tasks completed on time.

 

Unfortunately, I also need to look at qualitative measurements. Sometimes, they can be obvious such as getting an award. Not all qualitative measures are apparent, and If I am not careful, I will end up in a trap of self-review biases. To acquire better qualitative feedback, I seek feedback from other people. Since self-review, it will be a good idea to seek input from various people. There is 360-degree feedback, a performance review tool where you obtain feedback from your superiors and colleagues, customers, or vendors. Internal and external auditors are good reviewers for past projects, and they often provide feedback on something I did not notice.

 

I recommend you write down feedback or things that bother you as soon as you think about them at any moment. Otherwise, you will forget most of them. When you spontaneously have many projects as I did for the past three months, you do not have time to contemplate those items right after completing a task. However, you have items to work on later. The most important thing is to reflect on what is good and bad about the last project to organize my thoughts about them.

 

The Best Time to Fill GAPS

 

A designated professional must complete some continuous education. Between projects is a good time for meeting continuing education requirements. I work on achieving them throughout all seasons, but I found it ineffective to try to learn while under great stress. Whenever I know something new, I think about how to apply it. For example, I took an Inventory audit class recently. I improved our accounting process and documentation process from what I learned. Whenever I am under tremendous stress, I cannot do the application process very well. So, I try to get more learning done between the busy seasons.

 

 

An excellent time for writing Business Cases or Seeding

 

I wrote a proposal or a business case for the next Kaizen (Continuous Project). If the project has a cost associated with it, the best time to submit a proposal for our organization is in July or August since we do the budget for the following year in October. Some projects require approvals from head office or the board, and I may need to spend some time to obtain the authorizations. In some cases, I will need to spend several months or a few years to convince them. Next time, I will talk about initiating these projects or business cases. I call the initiation of any projects “seeding.” If you want to implement a change in an organization, you will need to seed as much as possible.

 

Preparation of The Next Busy Season

 

The best time to prepare for the next busy season is between the busy seasons. I had only three weeks to spare this time, and I spent time planning for our upcoming year-end and the year-end audit. For example, I updated the contact information for audit confirmation letters since I knew we would send out audit confirmation letters to the group companies. I also arranged who would be responsible for checking and signing these confirmation letters internally.

 

I communicate with my external auditors and key personnel to ensure the due dates for each task for our upcoming year-end and financial audit. Working in finance management for years, I realized my priorities are not necessarily the same. The Japanese may call this “nemawashi,” which helps others be aware of their responsibilities to eliminate unnecessary confusion.

 

I also updated audit working paper files and internal to-do list for financial audit and year-end for the upcoming audit. We need to submit some analyses, and we can complete some before the actual fiscal year-end. I also updated our internal to-do list for the Financial Audit, and I decided when each task on the to-do list could be completed. I will need to send out reminders to people in some cases.

 

Take Vacation Time 

 

I take a vacation during my slow phase, and I plan to take a week’s break this Christmas to refresh and spend with my family. I could not spend the last couple of years with family, so this will be an excellent opportunity to do so.

 

 

Each item I wrote maybe a trivial thing; however, I consider it critical to prepare for busy seasons. When I was young, I did not consider reflecting on my last project, and I bet I lost many opportunities to improve my process. The slow phase is an excellent time to complete an impressive sprint list or complete the backlog before initiating a new project. Finally, do not forget to take a vacation because a block of time from work helps you replenish your energy. So, these are things I do in my slow phase, and I hope this blog helps some of you.

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How to Prepare Yourself to Find Opportunities

When I was in my early 20’s, I saw something amazing. I was assigned to calculate whether we met a covenant with a bank. A banker showed me an impressive excel worksheet. When the banker clicked a button icon, multiple tasks were automatically performed by the excel sheet. I was fascinated because I realized we could do many things with an excel sheet. On the day, I determined to learn not only using excel but also learn to program macros within excel. Few people could operate excel back then, so it allowed me to seek future possibilities. This event pushed me to research technology. I started studying programming, which led me to specialize in digital transformation within the finance field. Fortunately, I had many friends in the IT field to help me get into this field. I saw many potential opportunities in the area, and identifying the opportunities made me who I am now.

There are so many opportunities around us. I think a successful entrepreneur, company, and inventor actively seek potential opportunities from available information. For example, Mark Zuckerberg saw the opportunity to create social ties over the internet. Hiroyuki Nishimura, the founder of 2channel in 1999 (text board), saw the options to create a media platform to interact with anonymous users online.

Finding opportunities improves our lives in many ways. Entrepreneurs like Mark Zuckerberg created an online social network platform. Finding a job is essential, but finding an opportunity helps you get into a specific position as I did. You may be able to solve potential problems. So, I see finding opportunities as a necessary factor to succeed.

 

Reading and Researching About a Potential Opportunity

To utilize potential opportunities, you must obtain information or knowledge about the possibilities. Without understanding the opportunities, you will not be able to use them properly. Thus, you must be willing to read and research the new information you obtained. I created a note on A4 (letter size) printing paper whenever I saw an interesting piece of new information. Then, I start digging into the details of the information.

There are many ways to gather information. I generally seek more information from books, technical magazines, online journals, blogs, or other online sources. I may take online courses from Coursera, Udemy, etc. There are so many online sources you can collect information and knowledge of new information.

When I create a note about new information, I write down what I want to know. Now you have a purpose for seeking the info. Then, I read and researched the further information I wanted to know.

 

See the Big Picture from an Opportunity

When I find new information, I list the potential opportunities from the new information. I create a mind map to identify possible options from the technology. If you find out the technology about the internet back in the ’90s, you list the items that come from the internet. The internet made many changes to our life. I imagined that Mark Zuckerberg saw social networks on the internet, and Jeff Bezos created an online store over the internet. Write down any possible future outcome from the new information you obtained. Then, you start to see some big picture from the new opportunities. Some further information can lead to multiple possibilities.

 

If you do not Act, you do not benefit from an Opportunity.

Many complain about losing opportunities because they did not grab them. I am no exemption for this case. I recognized I had let go of some opportunities because I acted too slow or disregarded potential opportunities. Many of us notice opportunities; however, we lose them by failing to act upon them. You have to be active to capitalize on the opportunities.

 

Make Yourself Ready for An Opportunity

My definition of opportunity is something that will solve my problems. Instead of looking for an opportunity to make me successful, I look to solve my potential issues or desires. Over 15 years ago, I saw my colleagues in the finance department working 60-70 hours per week to complete their reports. So, I developed an integrated excel template to solve that problem. Later, we introduced a Business Intelligence (BI) tool to replace the excel templates.

Every day, I create ten pages of notes. I write about issues I want to solve, new information, etc. Sometimes I sit with the problems for a while. The critical part of these notes is to organize your thoughts. So, I will be prepared when I see an opportunity to solve existing problems. It does not necessarily have to be new technology. Sometimes, I found a sudden contact to solve the current issue – I still call this finding my great opportunity. Please see the Zero thinking Memo Skill blog to learn about the notes I create.

I also think people perceived as successful often have a common trait. These successful people seek opportunities themselves, while many seek a job opportunity to get them somewhere.

 

I think an opportunity does not necessarily have to be an event that brings you a lot of money or things like that. Like I found 20 years ago, a little opportunity was an opportunity that I developed into something useful. If we actively look for opportunities, they can be found anywhere around us. The important thing is that you must prepare yourself to grab those opportunities and capitalize on the benefits from the opportunities.

To prepare yourself for potential opportunities, I highly recommend you make notes to organize your thoughts every day. This little exercise helps you see your existing issues that need to be solved and identify the new information you may use to solve your problems. Finally, you have to prepare to understand the new opportunities if you will grab and use them.

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Reading Non-Fiction vs. Fiction Books

I read so many books that one can call me a bookworm. I now read non-fiction and fiction books in various genres because I do not want to miss anything I can learn from books. Over 15 years ago, I chose to read only non-fiction books because I could gain more benefits from non-fiction books – at least that is what I thought. A non-fiction book led me to reread fiction books. So, now I reintroduced fiction books in my life. If someone asks me which one benefits me more, I will not answer it. They serve different purposes, and they are equally valuable to our life. I decided to write how I came to this conclusion and appreciate both books.

 

When I was younger, I read more fiction books. My parents had a room full of books at home. I started reading children’s books such as Anne of Green Gables, Little Princess, and Daddy-Long-Legs.  I stopped reading them when I reached ten years old since they were not exciting. So, I started to read my parent’s classic books at the library. My favorite thing to do was to devour books in my favorite blanket. I spend hours only reading like being sucked into a book. I still remember how I was crushed by reading Tess of the d’Urbervilles. I loved reading “For Whom the Bell Tolls.” I read many Japanese classic books such as “No Longer Human” from Dazai.

By the time I was in 4th grade, I had started reading more non-fiction books. I started reading them because I wanted to acquire knowledge. Instead, I read non-fiction books so that adults around me could have a decent conversation with me as an adult. My father disliked having a dialogue with me if I argued only from sentimentalism. Most books at the library were too tricky for me to understand. Sometimes, I had to check dictionaries and encyclopedias to understand the concepts – this process helped me expand my knowledge in various topics.

Knowledge can significantly improve satisfaction gained from fiction books. In my junior and high school years, I read non-fiction books to understand fiction books. When I read the romance of the Three Kingdoms, historical fiction written about 3rd century China, I read my father’s Chinese history books to understand the period better. If I wanted to know more about the topics, I went to the local library or school library to search for books. Curiosity grown from reading fiction books led me to more non-fiction books. The more knowledge I gained, the more I appreciated fiction books.

At late teens, I moved to Canada to study at a Canadian University. The language barrier prevented me from reading many books. So, I started to seek the most efficient way to acquire knowledge. I stopped reading fiction books altogether because I could not read fiction and non-fiction books. To put it badly, I decided not so much knowledge can be gained from fiction books with my arrogant prejudice. I could count the number of fiction books I read with both hands for the next following 15 years.

 

Ironically, the biggest trigger to get into fiction was non-fiction books about literary analysis. Literary analysis is an exciting discipline – it was like pattern recognition. With intense curiosity, I started rereading fiction books. I read a number of both modern and classic fiction books when I was young. Unfortunately, I forgot the story of the books since I have not read them for so many years. This time, I am reading fiction books, mainly in English. I realized that I barely felt the language barrier at all. During the past 15 years, the knowledge gained gave me different perspectives from books I read when I was younger.

 

At first, I was overwhelmed from reading fiction books. To understand the character better, I tried to profile the characters by their personalities, traits, and biographies. Excellent authors often do not explain the story’s plot from the narrative. To understand the story better, I try to figure out the thoughts and feelings of the character so that I can reveal their hidden agendas. Sometimes, the emotion of those characters I imagined is so intense that I feel like my feelings are shaken from the narrative of the books. This exercise helps me better understand others and see the world from a new perspective.

Fiction books have enriched my creativity. The reintroduction of fiction books to my life helped me interpret music better. I like to imagine what a composer was thinking or feeling while playing the piano. In this way, I am profiling the composer through their music. Then, I tried to carefully make each keystroke express what I imagined and felt from bittersweetness from Chopin’s Nocturnes or even Bach’s devotion toward God.

Fiction books feed me motivation to gain more information by other means. To understand the plot and the worlds the author creates in a book, I often seek more information. Another day, I read “Little Women” and pursued more information about Civil Wars. Every time I take non-fiction books to research, it makes me chuckle a little. I used to do the same thing when I was young.

 

There was a significant language barrier. It was hard for me to read books in a foreign language and synthesize them from Japanese books. I could not read as fast as now back then. I had much less English vocabulary. So, I focused solely on non-fiction books. At least, I did not turn from reading entirely. I will not regret reading only non-fiction books for the last 15 years. There are benefits to reading non-fiction books. I still gained a lot of knowledge from non-fiction books. I gained tons of vocabulary from reading many books. The language barrier may not completely disappear, but I noticed it is much smaller. I sometimes could not tell whether I was reading in English or Japanese.

 

I chose not to read any fiction books over 15 years. When I started rereading fiction books, I realized the benefits of reading fiction books. I realized that reading fiction books helped me gain empathy and different perspectives, which helped me interpret piano music. It motivates me to seek more knowledge. I think non-fiction or fiction books can serve us differently. Thus, I stopped weighing them, and I accepted the difference.