Category Archives: Cartes Blanches

My brain instantly felt motivated as I entered the Singtel Innovation and Development department. What a treat! All the last technologies made by the ICT giant for healthcare and education available right in front of me.

I reached heaven when I got to try the new headset that analyzes your brain waves and will power to make a strawberry fly on the screen in front of you. What a great tools to help children with ADD to focus and learn better!

They understood that people today need to become savvy by themselves but to also be connected to the world. They look for every positive impact possible of technology on peoples lives. They work with the Singaporean governments to improve their interfaces with its citizens. They work with banks to develop highly secured services. They work with universities to enable students to map opportunities on the job market.

Thanks to Singtel, Singapore wants to become a smart nation. Sounds like paradise right? Wondering if it has a price… Surely, by submitting your own ideas and proposals to use Singtel’s technology you could contribute to make sure this race goes the right way. If you idea is good you will even be able to join their great incubator Innov8. Try their « Future-Back » approach, start from your dream back to reality and pave the way. Big names are also behind you and somehow, that’s comforting!

http://innov8.singtel.com/

Design is now fully part of our lives. Why? Because some people make it great. And some of these incredible people can now be found at the MAD school of design in Singapore.

Brought to you by the Chatsworth Mediart Academy, MAD is short for Marketing, Advertising, Design and helmed by award-winning practitioners. The MAD formula as they call it. 

Their moto: thinkers first, creative second. Students are taught to be thinking creative. Even more, what students realize there is that « to teach is to learn » and they have a very empowering relationship with their teachers. They get the opportunity to build an award wining portfolio – not only based on paper but on life.

Surely something to awake your passion!

http://www.cma-academy.edu.sg/

« The Founder Institute is the world’s largest entrepreneur training and startup launch program, helping aspiring founders across the globe build enduring technology companies. Based in Silicon Valley and with chapters across 33 countries, the Founder Institute has helped launch over 1,129 companies in 5 years. The company’s mission is to « Globalize Silicon Valley » and build sustainable startup ecosystems that will create one million new jobs worldwide. »

What is there to add to this self-description? Nothing. Check it out, it’s available (almost) everywhere, and see for yourself – always good tips online too.

http://fi.co/#

Professionals, students, educators can all unleash their leadership potential through the challenge developed for them by Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner. Should you want to develop your leading skills or the potential of others, the Leadership Challenges provides you with a solution.

First, you can take your Leadership Practice Inventory, a 360° assessment, and start your journey. Authors made it available in 6 languages, including Mongolian! Then, you will learn about the 5 practices of exemplary leadership. You will be able to self-pace your learning experience and find e-learning resources as well as offline ones to match you needs.

A specific program and learning community is available to students, and we understand from the repeated messages from schools, employers and peers how leadership is one of the fundamental skills of the future.

So let’s get to it and here is an example of tool to start being the leader you can be: http://www.leadershipchallenge.com/

Meeting Timothy Low, I got very lucky as he taught me that in Singapore there are about 4000 companies giving leadership training ! Thanks to the government for giving to schools the budget (10 000$ /school /year) to externalize such trainings and making sure Singaporean students are familiar with the needs of their community.

Problem is, as often, that quality doesn’t necessarily meet quantity. And Timothy is precisely on the bright side developing a high quality service learning program called QZI, for Quartz Initiative. Their vision is:’Redefine the way we impact the world’.

They create the Metamorphism training for teenagers (15-17) to rediscover that leadership is also about passion and social engagement. Empathy gives you direction. The good thing is, the process also works with employees in companies looking at making their CSR policy really impactful for people inside and outside the corporation.

Find it in your heart and put your first stone down in the social world.

http://qzi.sg/

Spotted by Anthony Tige, Project Consultant FLIP @ PSE – Cambodia

=> A new article directly from Harvard on talent spotting in the 21st century

« Basically, the key idea of the article is that the world (and therefore what is expected of employees) is changing so fast and becoming so complex that “having the potential to learn new skills and to adapt to changes and new situations is even more important, for a manager, than having the right skills for his current position as it is now ». It gives some clues about how one can spot people with such “adaptation qualities and ability to fit in ever changing roles” (potential as they say) and nurture these people so that they can grow and express their talent. »

If you don’t want to get stuck in the 20th century, read it quick : http://hbr.org/2014/06/21st-century-talent-spotting/ar/1 

We know that nowadays it is more and more frequent to have a computer scan your curriculum before any human eye. Feels a bit scary to be judged upfront by a machine isn’t it?

What if this time the computer could help us get a job?

Check out interview simulator websites and improve your skills!

An example here used by students in Phnom Penh: http://myinterviewsimulator.com/

Playmeo is the world’s largest online database of group games & activities specifically designed to equip teachers, corporate trainers, camp leaders, youth workers, outdoor educators and many others with outrageously fun and interactive group activities.

The website provides hundreds of activities such as ice-breakers, energizers, problem-solving and teamwork exercises. You can even enjoy some video tutorial and help in adapting the game to your specific context.

What is keeping you from getting to know yourself and others better, all through playing?!

http://www.playmeo.com/

C-BED stands for community based enterprise development, and that is exactly what it does.

In situation of extreme poverty, far away from schools, technology and open markets, communities live and grow, individuals start businesses and try to find their way out of misery. Too often, they only need a small push to scale up the opportunities and good models. The difference with C-BED is that the push comes from within.

Created by the International Labor Organization, the program enables aspiring entrepreneurs, small and small-medium enterprises to be created and to develop. How? Associated with local partners they empower community leaders to take responsibility for enhancing the entrepreneurial drive and skills of their peers. And it works! Action-based group learning goes on and strengthens the abilities of members of these vulnerable and marginalized communities. Far from formal training, solutions exists for self-learning.

This model could maybe apply to many other richer and more developed parts of the world ? As we ask ourselves about how to motivate students? How to impulse self motivation? How to mix online, offline, peer to peer, teacher based models efficiently? Maybe a solution can come from the Global South, once again!

Check out more on: http://cb-tools.org/

This zone looks very empty, officy, industrially to me.. Ah there is the Insead building there – something familiar.

I continue walking until I arrive in front of a big grey building with many people going in and out, up and down, wondering if this is what everybody calls the Silicon Valley of Asia – or at least the Singaporean one. And then I look at the signs on the doors. This building is a conglomerate of incubators, startups, hubs,… it’s amazing and so vibrant. I’m headed to the open house of the JFDI hub, standing for the Joyful Frog Digital Incubator, and I am not disappointed. Indeed we are all jumping up and down with joy of sharing this passion for change and waiting for the next big opportunity. There is also the Singtel Innov8 lab welcoming companies identified by the powerful telecom giant as the most promising services to continue pushing the limits of their vision.

If you visit Singapore, make sure you visit 71 – Clearly more than numbers