 You may have heard the proverb: “To go fast, go alone. To go far, go together.”
Personally, I believe this is true. Recently, I attended a sharing session at the National Library, where Singaporean Farid MN, CEO of Walletku (based in Indonesia) shared his life’s journey. One of the things he shared was on how he got to where he is, was because of the connections he had made throughout the years in business. Through those connections, which what he termed as ‘Social Capital’, helped him and his team (as well as the people he got connected) to move forward. Everyone succeeded. The challenge is, not everyone is ‘ready’ to meet with new people. Making that first move to connect with someone may be a challenge for some, especially if you are an introvert. In this article, I share ‘3 Ways to Creatively Connect with Anyone (Almost) Instantly”: Step 1: Have a ‘YES, AND’ Mindset The ‘Yes, And’ principle originated from theatre improvisation, where it functions as a catalyst to help improvisers connect with each other and performed on stage without having any SCRIPT! This principle is highly applicable beyond the arts too. I have succcessfully implemented this principle in my creativity workshops and speaking engagements. In a ‘Yes, And’ mindset, at least two elements are present: (a) the willingnesss to explore possibilities and (b) the willingness to eliminate negativity When these two elements are present, even when you are introvert, you are mentally ready to take the unknown next steps - i.e. to attend event and connect with new people Step 2: Be ‘In the Moment’ At the networking event, remember to stay focus and be in the state of ‘present’. Being ‘present’ or ‘in the moment’ is when you are completely at peace with the surrounding, your mind is clear and your reflexes are fast. This is the moment when you are performing at your best - in sports, presentation, performing on stage etc. The last thing you want to do (of in fact, avoid this thing), is when someone at the networking event asked you about your work, and you answered about last night’s World Cup match. Clearly your mind is wandering and not ‘In the Moment’. That will definitely affect your credibility and your ability to get connected with people Step 3: Build Rapport The moment you have prepared yourself with Steps 1 and 2, Step 3 is fairly easy. Whenever you are being approached, or when you approach someone, do these: (a) Say ‘Hi’ and Smile: This is to show your visibility and sincerity in approaching others (b) Offer handshake: This is important because human touch affects the emotions of the other person. This is also an opportunity to ‘test out’ the other person’s personality types. However, do note on cultural differences, especially in the Muslims countries or among Muslims; no touching is allowed unless they are family members (c) Introduce your name and ask for theirs: Nothing sounds more important for the other person than uttering his/ her name correctly. This also shows the effort you put in to know their names. You will feel appreciated (d) Remember to look into their eyes: Just like smiles and handshakes, eyes play at important role to connect human at emotions level (e) Communicate: Start speaking and connecting with them. Don’t know what to talk about? Start by asking about their work or current projects they are in. Once both of you get comfortable, you can start asking about his/ her thoughts on current issues and just go with the flow. Hope these pointers help. If you need more assistance on connecting with people, do keep yourself available on Saturday 21 July 2018. Together with my business associate, Mervin Yeo, we will be conducting a half-day seminar to help shy people overcome their shyness and start get connecting with other people and build your social capital. This interactive session is held in conjunction with the on-going SkillsFuture Festival 2018. To find out more, click the link: “How to Get Over From Being Shy” Towards your continued success, Hazriq
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 I had an amazing experience in 2017, working with the students from Anderson Secondary School, coaching them for a nationals debate competition which they took part, organised by the Malay Youth Literary Association. The students were very forthcoming, eager to learn and fun-loving. We had fun during coaching and rehearsal sessions, where I was using my acting experiences and techniques to help the students “perform” on stage. The school and teachers were very supportive of the learning process. As a results, we emerged champions in 2017! It was a feat to remember both for the students, and school, and definitely for yours sincerely. For the 2018 season, the school approached me again to work with their new batch of students taking part in the same competition. I need to value-add my knowledge and was looking for suitable reading materials. Alex Ferguson, the award-winning manager of Manchester United came into my mind. I may not be a Manchester United fan, but having seeing this person led the club for 26 years and won numerous, and sometimes successive, trophies said a lot about this man. So I picked up the book, “How to Think Like Sir Alex Ferguson: The Business of Winning & Managing Success”, by Professor Damian Hughes.  This book is about leading and managing change. In this article, I summarised some of the key learning points:
1) Character for Change The book started with a young Irish footballer from Manchester United, Robbie Brady, queueing for lunch at the canteen. When he saw “star player” Christiano Ronaldo emerged from the shower and moved towards the queue, Robbie invited Christiano to join the queue in front of him. Alex Ferguson saw that incident. As Robbie left the canteen, he asked Robbie why did he do that. Robbie replied that he was just being polite. Alex Ferguson’s response was “I want you to think you are better than him. I want you to believe you can his place in the team….Don’t do that again.” This is attitude, beliefs and character. When we have the tight attitude and beliefs, we will be able to translate that into our character - thus our ability to embrace change when the time comes. 2) Change Your Focus Author Damian Hughes cited psychologist Dr Philip Zimbardo’s works where we can focus in three different directions: Past We can focus our past failures and dwell on it; or use our past successes as a motivation to move forward. Alex Ferguson invited Sir Bobby Charlton, the survivor of the 1958 Munich crash which took the lives of 23 people. The intention was not to put the pressure on the current crops of players, rather to inspire them that it was the then manager, Sir Matt Busby who pioneered English clubs to take part in regional competitins; and could have done well if not for the tragedy. That set the standard for Manchester United for regional competitions. Present For athletes, this is the present state of mind, or “the zone”. To do that, become intensely aware of your breathing. Once you can count your breathing, means you are in the zone. Paula Radcliffe, the women’s world marathon said that she counted “100 - three times”; that’s her 1 mile. That’s keeps her focus on the present moment. When we see changes happening all around us, we can embrace them by being fully present. Future I would like to share the story of three mosque builders, which was inspired by Manchester United sports psychologist, Bill Beswick’s tale in the book. Once there were three mosque builders. When each was asked what was he doing, the first builder said that “I am working by laying and cementing the bricks”. The second builder replied, “I am earning S$10 per hour.” The third builder responded with a bigger vision. “I was building a mosque, and one day, I’ll bring my kids to see this and tell them that their dad contributed to this mosque”. How would you respond if someone were to ask you about your occupation? 3) Control The Winds of Change When you are faced with a situation change, especially on a situation that makes you feel stressful, you will start to realise that you are getting short of breath, or in some instances, choking. This happened because of our natural response to a perceived threat. And when there is lack of oxygen, it lacks energy. Oxygen is energy; and is needed to to help relax the muscles and clears the mind. In order to control the stressful situation, is to control the breathing. Deep breathing helps to bring your mind and body to the present present state. A good example is going into a cold shower of cold swimming pool. The cold takes your breath away. Instead if you breathe and stay focus, the body will slowly accustom to the temperature. These are some of the learning points from the book. The book is available at the libraries with the Call Number 650.1 HUG. Which of the three I mentioned above resonated with you most? Would like to hear from you. Towards your continued success, Hazriq Idrus Applied Creativity & Public Speaking Strategist Author of 5 books, including "The Stage Fright Antidote" Hazriq Idrus is a professional speaker on Applied Creativity and a Public Speaking Strategist. Using techniques from the theatre he picked up as a stage actor, Hazriq delivers keynote talks and training programmes that are interactive and experiential in nature. He founded The Speaking Factory Pte Ltd with a mission to help professionals & entrepreneurs to innovate and communicate with impact by finding their inner creativity. Hazriq is contactable at [email protected].  "Symbols R’ Us". One of the activities I frequently use as ice-breakers in my workshops. And when this question came, “Symbols and visuals; how important are they in conveying your message to the audience?” The answer resonated with me: “Very Important!” I was very fortunate to attend a session by international speaker, Mia Liljeberg, who was in town as part of her world tour. Hosted at Fredrik Haren’s residence, here are three main takeaways:: 1) While stories captured audience’s attention to listen, visuals helped to convey the message succinctly. Bonus advice: Simple visuals inspired audience to draw similar ones on a napkin and that becomes the audience’s takeaway; and that would stay in the audience’s minds for a long time. 2) Mia demonstrated by asking “Who drew the 3 circles on the topic Why-What-How in a TED presentation?” Almost everyone answered “Robert Sinek!”; but no one could remember which companies did Simon Sinek share in his presentation.
3) Mia also demystify the myth that no one can draw. She said that “If you can write letters in the alphabet, you can definitely draw symbols!” Mia highlighted 5 basic symbols which we can use in our presentations:
Stroke - which can be used to differentiate two different items Circle - can be used when explain inclusivity Square - Can be used in explaining models; usually on decision-making announcements/ already fixed. Triangle - Can be used to explain information on hierarchical order Cloud - Can be used to explain an idea Simple and useful tips. I’m currently preparing for my upcoming talk at LLibrary on 8 February 2018. And you’ll definitely see some of those symbols in my slides. Which of the symbols will you be using in your next presentation? Towards your continued success, Hazriq Idrus Applied Creativity & Public Speaking Strategist Author of 5 books, including "The Stage Fright Antidote" Hazriq Idrus is a professional speaker on Applied Creativity and a Public Speaking Strategist. Using techniques from the theatre he learnt as a stage actor, Hazriq delivers keynote talks and training programmes that are interactive and experiential in nature. He founded The Speaking Factory Pte Ltd with a mission to help professionals & entrepreneurs find their inner creativity to cultivate innovative team culture, productivity and communicate with impact. Hazriq is contactable at [email protected].  When someone asked me this question, "Why would we want to learn creativity for?" That question triggered me to share this particular topic. Join me on Thursday 8 Feb 2018 at The LLibrary, Level 3, Lifelong Learning Institute, 12.30-1.30pm. Register here: http://bit.ly/UnlockCreativity8Feb If you have any questions in the meantime, feel free to contact me and I could possibly address it during the talk.   During my National Service days (I served in the military), my sergeant would make us drink plenty of water before our route marches. This was important to prepare and hydrate our bodies before the strenuous activity.
At that time, while I understood the need of water intake, I was not the sort who liked to drink so much water; and to drink 1 Litre of plain water every hour, was really a big challenge for me. Recently, I came across an article by Dr Oz, on how we could drink more water creatively. Here are my 5 favourite ways from the article: 1) Drink a glass in the morning: Not only this will re-hydrate your body after your long-sleeping period, it will also reboot your digestive system for the day. 2) Have more veggies and fruit: Drinking water is not just about drinking that 1 litre of water, but consuming fruits and vegetables is another option; because water melon & cucumber have high water content to hydrate your body. 3) Set goals to drink more: We have heard the phrase that a successful person is one who sets goals and achieve them. Similarly, you can set goals to drink more water. For example, for lunch, set a goal to drink a glass of water. For the next meal, set it to one and a half glass instead. And work your way up from there. 4) Set timer: If you are too busy with your schedules; set timers intermittently to remind you to drink water. 5) Label Your Water Bottle: Use a marker to section off the different times of the day on your water bottle (for example, 8am, 10 am, 12pm etc), and when the time strikes, make sure you drink the water based on the amount labelled. Hope this short article makes drinking a joy for you while keeping yourself rehydrate (I wished I had known this during my NS days!). Towards your continued success, Hazriq Idrus Applied Creativity & Public Speaking Strategist Author of 5 books, including "The Stage Fright Antidote"  Had an interesting experience the other day as I were to make payment for my breakfast....
Cashier: Table? Me: Table 13 Cashier: (after checking in the system) $5.50 Me: (Puzzled) Hmm cannot be...coz i ordered more than that Cashier: But it stated here .... Prata & Teh O... Table 14 Me: Mistaken....its 13, & we didnt order that Cashier: No orders on Table 13 ....blank .... Did you move to another table? Me: Nope...we sat there all along.... how come there are no orders at the table? Cashier: (sigh) some times the system is like this.... blank.... got magic... your orders were not Prata & Teh O? Me: No...it's more than that ... and at Table 13 Cashier: Aiyah..... i think they (the ground staff) didnt key in the orders....what's your order? Me: Prata Cheese, Thosai, Teh Tarik x2, Plain water x3 Cashier: Ok noted....its $12.50 Me: Ahh...it's more like it.... Processing Transactions ... Cashier: Here's the change ..... but there is no receipt, ya? Me: it's okay.... Thank you.... & I'm still wondering about the orders..... if the orders were not keyed in earlier, how come the correct orders were sent to our table?....hmmm.....unless someone else mistakenly paid for our table? Cashier: Errr....yup, someone else paid for your table... they said they sat at 13.... but actually sat at 30.... Me: I see.... (i didnt pursue further.....) ========= I found this experience had so much learning points here. A very good case study on human behaviour. The main learning points I derived : the mindset of about "Blaming others" - 1) Cashier: No orders on Table 13 ....blank .... Did you move to another table? <Blaming Customer> 2) Cashier: (sigh) some times the system is like this.... blank <Blaming System> 3) Cashier: Aiyah..... i think they (the ground staff) didnt key in the orders.. <Blaming Ground Staff> 4) Cashier: Errr....yup, someone else paid for your table... they said they sat at 13.... but actually sat at 30.... <Blaming that someone else; i didnt pursue further at this point, but there's a possibility she could have heard incorrectly on the table number, and keyed in 13 for payment instead (if that's the case, it was her who was to be blamed....evil laugh!) > In this scenario, the cashier blamed others on three (maybe four) occasions. While initially I thought maybe there could be a mistake on the groundstaff part for not keying on the orders, but as the conversation went on, it showed so much of her character. When faced with a problem, or situation like this, it is ALWAYS easy to 'taichi' and pass on the blame onto others. Sometimes (or rather Most of the Times!) we need to learn to take ownership on the things we do, and take responsibilities for things that had gone wrong. It's okay to admit mistake mistake (I covered why we must 'Celebrate Failure' in my workshop) & learn from it. People are cool with it. Humans are forgiving creatures actually. We need to remember, when our index finger is pointing others, the other fingers are pointing back at us. What other learning points have you got from this experience?  Are you still having difficulties in overcoming your presentation fears? When I was gathering information and data to write “The Stage Fright Antidote!”, I found out that among the reasons why people were still having fears in making presentations: Fear of not getting audience attention Fear of being criticised Fear of being looked at If we are to look at these three elements of fears, they have got nothing to do about you as a presenter/speaker. They are more of what people think of you. I would categorised these fears as the “lack of confidence”. The lack of confidence, whether directly or indirectly, is the results of not meeting other people’s expectations of you. In order to overcome this fear, developing self-confidence is the key. For a start, let’s look at what Self-Confidence is. I would define Self-Confidence as the belief in yourself and in your abilities. If we believe in our own ability, we will not fear what other people will say about us. The good news is, Self-Confidence can be learned. It will take time and energy; and will require breaking of old habits but it will be highly useful trait to have. Here are possible solutions that you can do to develop self-confidence: Forgive yourself and other people. The moment you forgive yourself and other people, you will let go of past mistakes and grudges which might have stopped you from being productive and a more confident person. Have a paradigm shift. When you start thinking of self-criticism or negative thoughts, take a pause and shift that thoughts into positive ones. Believe in your message. Recently, I had the opportunity to coach one of the secondary schools in a national debate competition. The first thing I did as a coach was to ask the debaters to not to focus on the results (winning each match); but instead focus and believe in the messages they were about to deliver. Once we believe in our messages, we will deliver it with passion. The results (winning) will come, i told them. With God’s grace, we won the annual national competition for the first time. Same thing in your presentation, believe in the message that you are going to present. The belief will overcome the fear. If you’d like to take a deeper dive into these areas, I would like to invite you to my upcoming workshop: The Stage Fright Antidote! workshop: Ninja Techniques to Present with Confidence, Connection & Conviction Thursday 9 Nov 2017 9.30am - 1.30pm Venue: tbc Click the button below for the programme information & registration. Article by Hazriq Idrus, Applied Creativity & Speaking Strategist; Author, The Stage Fright Antidote!; Founder, The Speaking Factory Pte Ltd "The change of question from 'Can it Be Done?' to 'How can it be done?' is all you need to change your mindset..." ~ Karen Leong Wonderful words by Karen Leong.
In this sixth episode, our invited guest is Karen Leong. Karen is an Influence Thought Leader, and Professional Speaker. She co-founded Influence Solutions Pte Ltd. In this vlog, Karen will share on how she uses creative techniques to overcome her initial entrepreneurial struggle; which led her starting her second business. cheers Hazriq Idrus Applied Creativity & Speaking Strategist Among the takeaways I got from this episode's interview was when Sujimy shared on how he applied the technique he learnt in media (& dance! Yes! He was a breakdancer!) to win over his teenage daughter's attention so he could offer her relevant advice, especially during her teenage growing up years.
In this tenth episode of "Creative Fridays!", our invited guest is Sujimy Mohamad. Sujimy is a media personality, content creator and founder of Screenbox Pte Ltd - an award winning firm in the creative industry. cheers Hazriq Idrus Applied Creativity & Speaking Strategist "Initially I thought creativity is 'exnihilo' ... " ~ Hijazi Md.
Among the takeaways I got from this episode's interview was when Hijazi shared on how he got the job; by answering the questions unconventionally during a job interview! In this ninth episode of "Creative Fridays!", our invited guest is Hijazi Md. Hijazi is the founder of Success Guild, a training firm focusing on communications and leadership. He is the founding president of the Jauhari Bilingual Toastmaster Club; the only bilingual club in Singapore. cheers Hazriq Idrus Applied Creativity & Speaking Strategist |
