I don’t believe that for an effective collaboration to exist that everyone will have the same high level of commitment to every decision or action.  Yet, I do believe that as people work together there are times when a individual will hold a high commitment to an idea and there will be other times when the same individual will hold a medium or low commitment to an idea.  In all of those situations this individual can be part of an effective collaboration.

For a collaboration to exists, it is my experience, that there needs to be enough people with high commitment and few or none in the group in disagreement at a level where they would want to “block” the idea – then a consensus has formed.

As people work together and build new consensus ideas, it is likely that any individual will play different roles in the support of the new consensus ideas.

For my experience, ideas that are strongly supported by over 65% of the people are ideas that can be considered to be a reasonable consensus.   And again, as long as members of the group are not going to block the implementation of the idea, the idea can move forward and come to life.

Over the last 45 yours I’ve been involved with groups that have used a “fist to five” approach to checking for consensus.  What you see below is a description of what a “fist of five” approach might look like.  In the example below, the zero or the “fist” is not set to be a “block”.  If you want to uses same concept and have the zero be a “block”, that would be more than acceptable as well.

For a strong consensus to be formed at least 65% of the group would need to be a “4” or a “5”.  And there would need to be some, maybe 20% to 30% as “3’s”.

I strongly believe that today’s and tomorrow’s challenges are and will be complex and thus will require people who can and will think interdependently.  And that tomorrow will belong to those that can collaborate and create in concert.

summary (reviewed in brackets)

mag1= 2 [0], mag2= 17 [3], mag3= 7 [4]
mag4= 0 [0], mag5= 0 [0], mag6= 0 [0]
total= 26 [7]
total energy released= 12.853 TTNT

Rising 167ft. In half a mile the partly restored Flight of Fourteen Locks is still    an “engineering wonder” of the Industrial Revolution.

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summary (reviewed in brackets)

mag1= 1 [0], mag2= 20 [3], mag3= 3 []
mag4= 1 [1], mag5= 0 [0], mag6= 0 [0]
total= 25 [5]
total energy released= 39.057 TTNT

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Extract from Bring It On.

Popular. The sought after title in school everyone wants to have. Being popular means that everyone either wants you or wants to be you, and they’re going to hate you for that. Ah yes, the glory. Well, think again.

I may not be the popular kid or I may be popular for all the wrong reasons when I was in school. But in truth, there is not so much interest on my part towards the adolescent social hierarchy. Like any other high school, mine too was infested with the endless bitchfights, backstabbings, social climbings, popular kids downgrading non-popular kids, dramas and rumors you could ever imagine. It was even tiring to keep up with those things more than trying to keep up with the TV3 Sinetron slot.

At 21, it has now been years since my high school days are over. It’s now clear and obvious how being popular and running after popularity in school is not significant at all later in life. What’s really significant is your achievement and making a name for yourself out of your own success (not dwelling on others’ – parents/ influential last names included).

After high school, the real life starts and that’s when people will really look past the superficial things and see you for who you really are and what you really got to offer. It’s when people don’t really give a shit how popular you were or how many hot chicks you ever banged.

Nobody cares about YOUR popularity in your good ol school days. You may think you’ve left the school as a legend but actually once you left the school, nobody knows you anymore. That will happen when you only depend on superficial popularity alone. People are not impressed by superficial popularity because there are greater people out there that obviously is more awesome than you are. Without achievement and success and brains, you’ll be just left with nothing.

It is always a pride and joy when you are able to boast on the success that you earned from your hard work, tears, sweat and blood that you shed to achieve it. Because you know that nobody can take away that fact from you. While you bathe in your success, at the same time, you can actually say “In yo face,” to those popular kids who are used to condescending you while they are now at a standstill in life with nothing in front of them. While you’re at it, shove that awesome award or certificate of graduation that you have achieved and show them that you can stand above all of them.

So kids, what I’m trying to say here (after much rants that are really are just rants. May be irrelevant or off topic. But then again, that’s why they’re called rants) is don’t try so hard to be popular. Don’t be too obsessed about it. Focus on what’s important in life, the thing that will surely assure that you would survive and succeed later in life. Being popular superficially gets you nowhere (unless you’re Brad Pitt) while being popular because you’re smart, you’re good at doing something and is able to achieve something assures a bright future.

Don’t be fooled by the glitz and glam of a short stint in the hall of fame of the school days when you can be in the hall of fame of the world. Because someday, you could rule a country even if you’re not popular just because you’re not good looking or you don’t go around showing off stuff bought off of your parents hard-earned money (not yours, ahem). Because someday, being care-less of superficial popularity could make you into a very important person with huge influence. Why be popular in a tiny social circle when you can become popular among the masses? Popular to the whole world?

Remember, you’re not measured by how popular you are but through your achievement in life. That’s sustainability of REAL popularity. Eventually, you can become a real legend.

Yearp. Of course you need to have Barney Stinson to say legendary!

The cause of the achievement gap is poverty and segregation, and an absence of resources. Wherever you find that toxic combination of high poverty and racial segregation, you will find low test scores. And so what’s happening today is that we – first, we have No Child Left Behind, which I believe is a failed policy. I mean, Secretary Duncan said it’s broken. It’s broken and it’s failed. We have many, many children left behind. They’re the same children who were left behind when the law was passed over 10 years ago.

But No Child Left Behind set an unreasonable goal. It said 100 percent of the children would be proficient, and then, when the 100 percent are not proficient, it’s unreasonable because no nation in the world has 100 percent of the children proficient.

We label those schools failing schools. We fire the teachers. We close the schools and then they’re set up for privatization. So I think this is a terrible process that has been set into motion that is doing tremendous damage to public education.

Millions of teachers understand it. Many superintendents and principals understand it. They know that testing is not going to close gaps, it’s simply going to reflect gaps.

The other thing you should know – and I think it’s really important in this conversation to say this. The NAEP scores – that is, the federal testing scores today – are the highest they’ve ever been in history.

The scores for white students, black students, Hispanic students and Asian students are the highest they’ve ever been since federal testing began 40 years ago. We also have the highest high school graduation rate in history for the people in the age group 18 to 24. We also have the lowest dropout rate in history for that age group, 18 to 24. Only eight percent of them don’t have a high school diploma.

She gets me thinking.

But sometimes the world is not like that. Sometimes your or her or his world is just a place full of loudness, confined spaces, too many people too close, sorrows.
See the woman on the left with her jittery boy, he´s shortly becoming  8, and her beautiful daughter, 3 years old. She´s totally exhausted, afraid of bad things that could happen to her familiy, her unborn. And now take a look at the woman on the right. She´s the best interieur designer I´ve ever met. Because in this rush-hour-crowded-like-hell Manhattan subway she just created the most perfect space for this little familiy:    a sacred niche. They never met before. She simply leaned over. Told Mum, daughter and son to close their eyes. And than, with a calm, low, soft but confident voice, she began to speak a meditational prayer. Shine on everybody. thx

I have been after getting myself a new lens for a while. So a visit to the Camera Centre in Morgans Arcade in Cardiff was a must! This is the first image taken with my new 10-24mm Tamron. I love the arcades in this city. They used to be houses open to the elements. This one is named after the benefactor that purchased the houses and turned them into shops.

summary (reviewed in brackets)

mag1= 3 [0], mag2= 18 [1], mag3= 12 [6]
mag4= 1 [1], mag5= 1 [1], mag6= 0 []
total= 35 [9]
total energy released= 3261.312 TTNT

summary (reviewed in brackets)

mag1= 7 [0], mag2= 15 [1], mag3= 2 [0]
mag4= 0 [0], mag5= 1 [1], mag6= 0 []
total= 25 [2]
total energy released= 1097.213 TTNT

The Acer Grove at Westonbirt Arboretum.

Left the beautiful Snowdonia and now in Tredegar Park in Newport.  Not much time to grab the daily so got this one of the lake before it got too dark. Love this site as we get to roam the park after it has closed to the public.  Hope to get some early morning mist and also a little run into Cardiff – the camera shop has a lovely lens I am after!

summary (reviewed in brackets)

mag1= 3 [0], mag2= 31 [5], mag3= 5 [0]
mag4= 2 [1], mag5= 0 [0], mag6= 0 [0]
total= 41 [6]
total energy released= 267.872 TTNT

 Criccieth, Cardigan Bay and its Castle.

Both photos taken with a Sigma DP2 and Circular Polariser.

summary (reviewed in brackets)

mag1= 1 [0], mag2= 10 [0], mag3= 4 [1]
mag4= 0 [0], mag5= 0 [0], mag6= 0 [0]
total= 15 [1]
total energy released= 14.849 TTNT

Visited Shell Island to gather props for my 366 during the winter months! It is privately owned and used by campers with tents and motorhomes. You can park anywhere on the 300 acres. Unfortunately they don’t have a licence for touring caravans.  The views are lovely, this is looking across towards Harlech and the Snowdonian mountains in the distance.

summary (reviewed in brackets)

mag1= 16 [0], mag2= 30 [1], mag3= 4 [0]
mag4= 0 [0], mag5= 0 [0], mag6= 0 [0]
total= 50 [1]
total energy released= 9.835 TTNT

Had to capture this beautiful rainbow over the slate mining village of Blaenau Ffestiniog on our way to Conwy.

We crossed the river Conwy on the bridge which is next to Thomas Telford road bridge which is now used for walkers and the Stevenson railway bridge.

This tiny town has some amazing places to visit. Conwy Castle was built by Edward 1st in 1256.

The tudor house of Robert Wynn was really interesting. Many of the rooms have original furniture.  This is the view from the attic window towards the castle.

Down on the quay is the smallest house in the UK.  It measures 10′ x 4’2″. The last owner was 6’3”!

I know I have been going MIA. Truth is, life is being soooooo hectic and with the ups and downs, I just don’t even bother to blog anything. Because I’m too busy like that and I decided I have to go and waste my time doing something else that is worth my time.

But anyway, update in life so far:

1. Worked as a sales associate in Esprit The Spring for about three months (May to August) because I feel I have been going on a post-diploma holiday for too long. Got sick and tired of staying at home. Therefore finding a job is the most logical thing to do. Plus for experience and at least I got something to put into my resume already. After working there what I got was not only experience but also knowledge on the retailing business, how to tolerate annoying people (I’m now less impatient than before), legs are no more grasshopper legs (my legs used to be damn tiny. Now thanks to all those standing and running like crazy I have toned legs. And high tolerance for long-distance walking/standing) also LOTTTSSSSS of esprit shirt and shoes and bags. Haha. I won’t lie when I say I work there because I want to shop everyday (is a chronic shopaholic. Spent all my salary buying stuff in esprit. Plus has this weird addiction of new-stuff-smell). I am an Esprit fan anyway. So now, if I were to do my laundry, it will be like I’m at the shop again. Yay.
2. Oh. Completed my studies. YAYYY! Oh. Blogged about it before. Anyway, I will be having my convocation ceremony on the 4th of December. Can’t wait. That feeling of wearing those robes and the square hat….always priceless.
3. Now continuing my studies. Taking up Bachelor in Commerece, majoring in International Business in Swinburne Sarawak. Yes, my boyfriend  is studying there too. But that was NOT the sole reason I chose to study there.
4. My phone has just decided to admit itself into the ICU. I is sad. Currently experiencing smartphone-withdrawal syndrome. But glad because I haven’t need to endure the low battery alert constantly. Using a simple phone…haven’t had the need to charge it for five days already. Dang it’s been long since I experienced that. So, there’s a pros and cons to everything.

Hence, that’s the summary of my life so far. I promise to write another tale later. My mid-semester break has just started and I figured out that why not start blogging again? :)