Latest Update - Twitter

I am on twitter and you can follow me here: bhutanblog

Friday, 11 December 2009

Climate Change series 3

Weekend Links -

Trump, Ego, CSR... - Weekend readings

Wednesday, 9 December 2009

Why our Lyonpos, MPs and Leaders should try Twitter?

I hate communication which are verbose and full of jargon. To make matters worse they rarely answer the questions asked and even confuse the listeners. And this seems to be exactly what our Lyonpos, MPs and leaders within the Civil service and the private sector seem to be doing -

To a question on FDI asked by the Opposition Leader to Lyonpo Khandu,  he writes:

"Lyonpo Khandu Wangchuk’s reply was long. He talked the House through the history of FDI in Bhutan, economic growth, economic policies, employment, tourism, foreign currency, domestic airports, helicopter services, seasonal tourists, conference centers, infrastructure, credit cards, TAB, tourist visas, and hotels. He even mentioned McKinsey and Brazil!"

Not clear if he was satisfied with the response -

In another post he summarises the response of our finance minister to a question posed by another MP as

" The Finance Minister’s response was long and detailed, but confirmed that the MP was correct in asserting that, “…till date not much has been delivered.” 

Here the DHI Chairman completely misses the question - 

He says “The assembly members should know that we are functioning within the legal framework and they should understand the position of the royal charter,”

From the chairman of an organisation which looks to improve governance and performances of many of our corporations, this looks lame.

There are many such instances - I was once chided and ridiculed for asking a question during a gathering by a senior official. Of course I didn't get any answer. We can also attribute the failure of embedding GNH within our society partly to our inability in communicating it in a way that our people can understand.

There is clearly a need for our leaders to communicate effectively and in this - I find the rule based on which Twitter works very useful - "Deliver value (your messages) using no more than 140 characters".  It is very challenging but I have found remembering this one very useful.

There you go - Honourable Lyonpos, MPs and leaders - If you need to discipline your responses - try twitter. You will also get to know how popular you are or how much value you offer through your messages by the number of followers you have.

Bold and Wrong - Salary Increases for our Parliamentarians


Now this is bold!

Not the Opposition Leader's update but the salary increase for our Parliamentarians especially at a time when:
  • The Government rely heavily on foreign aid to fund our development activities
  • Our national debt is close to 60% of our GDP
  • Many families have lost much of what they have in the recent disasters and are still rebuilding their lives
  • The Lyonnchoen talks of a change in our "consciousness and lifestyle" from one of "greed, materialism and consumerist fallacy" to that of GNH
  • The unemployment is at an all time high of 4%
  • The Government talks of transparency, efficiency, cost reduction and service to the people
For all of the above and for want of a rational justification, this is wrong. I hope this is a mistake.

By the way - this isn't even in the agenda for this session of the National Assembly.

Tuesday, 8 December 2009

Climate Change Series 2

Links 10/12/2009
Links 09/12/2009
Links 08/12/2009

    Monday, 7 December 2009

    WTO, Trash, Loneliness, etc. - Readings

    1. WTO: Group Mulls - talks continue (FT)
    2. Three myths about trash (Ludwig von Mises Institute)
    3. Feeling Lonely, don't come near me: Loneliness is contagious (Washington Post)
    4. Manage your time like Jim Collins (Harvard Business Publishing)
    5. Giving Feedback to a high performer (Harvard Business Publishing)

    Sunday, 6 December 2009

    Focus - Climate Change Series: Only Links (1)

    The UN Climate Change Conference begins in Copenhagen from 7th Dec till the 18th of Dec. I will update this post by adding links to my readings (interesting ones) daily leading upto and till the end of the conference on 18/12/2009. This post will go top as I add more links daily.

    Links 07/12/2009

    The conference kicks off today and you can follow it live on their website through podcasts and articles. Anywat here follows some links for the day -

    Links 04/12/2009
    Links 03/12/2009
    And Closer Home -
      Links 02/12/2009

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