Zoom Cannot Help Your Team If You Don’t Know Brainstorming Anyway! Edward De Bono’s Po Technique Is Best

Above, you are looking at the image that accompanies the article “Technology And Fresh Thinking Will Help Us Reinvent Teamwork[1]” by ANN (Author Not Named, 22 October 2020, Wired.co.uk). ANN says the article was written “in partnership with Dell Technologies and Intel.” Now I say Dell and Intel understand little creative team thinking! 
(Teamwork image[2] from CanStockPhoto)

Today, workers in the office have become workers scattered here and there, with interactions now virtual. Given the individual isolation of team members, ANN asks how can the team be more cohesive and effective:

“Can teamwork and team culture be preserved, and even reinvented, in the midst of the coronavirus emergency?”

Good question!

“Fresh thinking” in the title refers mainly to brainstorming.

“Red tape and paperwork are being slashed to the minimum and year-long problems solved swiftly out of sheer necessity,” ANN says. Now, Rana el Kaliouby, CEO of AI company Affective, asks, “How can some emerging AI-powered tools… improve the cohesiveness and harmony of a team working from home?” Her answer:

While on a video conference call, these tools can monitor each participant’s engagement and response throughout the conversation, helping to gauge how well the team is working together. “Our technology is able to track every person's expression [while on a call].

AI technology tracking expressions of each person on video, I am sure it can do that, and more. But:

The point of brainstorming is not whether everyone is paying serious attention, but whether the team as a whole is thinking creatively!

And creativity can only be measured by verbal or visual output, not “how many members of the team are paying attention” or how many talking, reacting.

Brainstorming is an art that is yet to be cultivated by digital nomads, and I don’t know anyone from Apple, Dell, Google, Intel.

Not even Tony Buzan with his Mind Mapping – there should be no map until the very end of brainstorming!

For excellent, cohesive, enjoyable and productive brainstormings, the best mentor is Edward De Bono with his Po Technique. I came across Po in 1975 in De Bono’s book Mechanism Of Mind, published 1968, which showed me how a fruitful brainstorming can result from a group or individual act – no idea is rejected, no matter that it sounds absurd or insane! Each idea is to be innocently examined, explored, investigated like crazy.

How good has the Po technique been to me, a creative blogger since 2005? My digital output should convince you:

In 100+ blogs, I have uploaded at least 4,000 long essays of 1,000 plus words each in the last 15 years!

A single blog, A Magazine Called Love, has at least 2,200 essays published.
https://amagazinecalledlove.blogspot.com

You are reading this essay in my latest blog, BraveNewWorld@PH, https://bravenewworldph.blogspot.com
If you check, this year alone, I have been blogging every single day since January 2020 –  now 80 years old, not running out of ideas?

Po brainstorming, what else? There is no brainstorming technique that can rival De Bono’s brainchild!@517

 

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[1]https://www.wired.co.uk/article/reinventing-teamwork-technology?utm_source=Paid_Social&utm_medium=Facebook&utm_campaign=Wired+Dell+Traffic+October+2020+&fbclid=IwAR2veirS73WW7Qg-lU8j_NVFbpKByyOxRDA19UG4lLpgA7Zt0I9sBDf6kW0

[2]https://www.canstockphoto.com/teamwork-people-group-20551444.html

Excellent Sweet Potato Research By Mariano Marcos State University – Science Without A Human Phase!?

Above, a Facebook sharing by a common friend, Nestor Maniebo Pestelos: “Very Good Research Result Gone To Waste! – zac b. sarian.”
(Research image from[1] Victoria University of Wellington)

Zac Sarian sees failure on the part of the management of Mariano Marcos State University, MMSU, the institution that sponsored the sweet potato research – MMSU did not pursue the sweet results of a sweet potato study to its sweet conclusion:

Make the sweet potato results known to farmers so that they can profit from them – and the public can savor that success.

Based on personal knowledge, I say: “Zac, not only MMSU failed to bring the good news from research to farmers in this regard – among the SCUs, the biggest failure is UP Los Baños!”

A failure of leadership? No, it has been an institutional design failure.

On record, UP Los Baños has 3 major roles: Instruction, Research, Extension. The results of Good Research are supposed to be Extended to the people. As our Secretary of Agriculture William Dar put it when he was Director General of ICRISAT based in India:

“Science with a human face.”
What we have now is
Science with a human phase.
Juan Tamad phase!

And this is a continuing failure of the state colleges & universities, SCUs, with the leading example of neglect by UP Los Baños, which is now 112 years old.

I am now 80 years old; when I was about 40 working at the campus of UPCA, now UP Los Baños, the project “Social Lab” was on everyone’s lips. UPCA was doing Extension in one of the towns of Laguna. It turns out that the Social Lab was a World Bank project[2] (Worldbank.org).

UPCA’s Social Lab died a natural death.
UPLB has not resurrected it.
Or done any institutional extension program.

So, Zac, please do not single out MMSU – even the model University of the SCUs has failed the Filipino people!

Yes, MMSU and UPLB, sweet potato is not sweet potato if you withhold the better science of it.

Zac writes sadly:

WHILE GOING over articles that we have written in the past, one that dismayed us no end was about the research on lowland potatoes undertaken at the Mariano Marcos State University in Batac City, ilocos Norte. ¶ 10 VARIETIES IDENTIFIED – The research team headed by Beatriz Malab found that 10 potato varieties that had produced an average of 21 tons per hectare in farmers’ fields had been identified and ready for commercial planting.

But there have been no planting materials available! The MMSU research occurred in 1991. UP Los Baños was born in 1972, and nobody has been minding UPLB Extension either.

An agriculturist myself, I know UPLB and MMSU have failed to reproduce results of research into new and improved knowledge applicable by farmers because of the design of those institutions themselves – “Extension” is recorded but there is no separate office to primarily conduct extension.

With the state colleges & universities in the Philippines, historically Extension has failed because there is none!@

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[1]https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/library/research

[2]http://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/805031468758959378/text/multi0page.txt

MMFFA Showing Good Way To Farmer Association – It Could Be Better!

Personally, as a crusading communicator in agriculture, I want to congratulate the Mina Municipal Federation of Farmers Association, MMFFA, in Iloilo Province, for having advanced farm mechanization starting 06 May 2010 when it was formed (Sheila Mae H Toreno, 07 November 2020, “Reaping The Gains Of Mechanized Farming,” Facebook sharing). Miss Sheila says the MMFFA since the beginning has sought to “shift the traditional farmers into a highly mechanized rice farming community, driven to optimize every government aid to counter the drawbacks present in the sector.” She says:

They sought support from the Department of Agriculture (DA) to ease their burdens caused by the spiking prices of inputs, high labor costs, changing climate, and postharvest losses leading to low income of farmers.

Registered with the Department of Labor and Employment, DOLE, on 10 September 2013, the MMFFA covers all 22 barangay associations in Mina with 989 initlal farmer members whose average landholding was less than 1 ha. Helen S Bolivar, founding and current President of MMFFA, says:

We wanted that (all farmers) in our municipality, particularly those who struggle to buy even a few kilograms of palay seeds to sow, can avail of the different projects and services of the DA.

Now then, Miss Sheila says:

The majority of the farmers in Mina (have been) able to access various interventions from the (DA), ranging from certified and hybrid seeds to fertilizer, machinery, extension services, and market linkages.

So, member farmers of the MMFFA have been patronizing its Farm Service Provider Program since its launching in 2013. The MMFFA now has the following, among other machinery and equipment:

Second-hand pick-up service
Elf truck
Two units of Four-wheel drive tractor
Two units of rice combine harvester
Five hand tractors
One floating tiller
One granule applicator
Two mobile dryers
One double-pass rice mill
One riding-type transplanter
Four mechanical sowers.

Those are altogether worth several millions of pesos that no single farmer association can acquire on its own. Using those, Sheila says:

MMFFA (speeded) up the land preparation and harvesting activities of farmers in Mina and other adjacent areas. Farmer-clients saved on their labor expenses and lessened their postharvest losses, thus, increasing their take-home earnings.

Granting all that, I do not see why the MMFFA has not transformed itself into a multi-purpose cooperative?

A coop is governed by a democratic board always, while an association may be headed by a dictator. Much more than those, if the MMFFA were a cooperative, members could borrow cash for farming and family needs, as well as share in the earnings of the group at the end of each year.

As of now, the MMFFA is merely a common service facility. As a coop, the MMFFA will be fully supportive of its members, assisting with affordable farm & family loans, inputs, and additional equipment.

Eliminating the merchants, the MMFFA as a coop directly carries out marketing of the farmers’ produce, so that members receive well-deserved incomes. What can be better than that?!@517

 

How Do You Teach From Agriculture To Music To Research To Zamboanga? Teach How To Learn!

“The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery” – Mark Van Doren, American poet, writer & critic[1].

(art image[2] from The Quotable Quote)

This Teacher & Writer agrees! I am a graduate of a BS Agriculture degree major in Ag Education, obtained from the University of the Philippines’ College of Agriculture, now UP Los Baños, in 1965, or 55 years ago. I passed the very first Teacher’s Exam given in the Philippines the year before that, with a grade of 80.6%, not bad for a first-timer and without attending any review classes whatsoever, not even reviewing by oneself. Mostly an exam, Civil Service or not, is recall – mechanical, repetitive, and boring.

The right way to teach never changed. Teaching is Teaching, whether you are in Agriculture, Dancing, Forestry, Kinetics, Music, Ophthalmology, Painting, Research, Ultra Numbers (I have just invented this one), Watershed, or Zamboanga.

I Teacher say that in Science or in Art, the best learning is how you discover for yourself, not what you are told or shown or made to understand.

The best learning is intuiting – that is how Albert Einstein “discovered” what became the Theory of Relativity:

E = mc²
(Energy equals mass times the speed of light squared.)

Einstein said he Intuited that Theory. It appeared as an inspired thought from out of the blue.

The above main image is from a Facebook sharing by Maria De Los Reyes; when I saw it, this was my comment:

The art of teaching. This must be the best definition-non-definition of teaching that I have come across with! At 80, I have been a wide reader & creative thinker in the last 50 years.

In the learning, there must be personal joy of discovery. Gardner’s multiple intelligences, MI, invites the art of discovering for oneself which one is smart at:

(1) bodily-kinesthetic (body smart)?
(2) existential (life smart)?
(3) interpersonal (people smart)?
(4) intrapersonal (self smart)?
(5) linguistic (word smart)?
(6) logical-mathematical (number/reasoning smart)?
(7) musical-rhythmic (music smart)?
(8) naturalistic (nature smart)?
(9) visual-spatial (picture smart)?

How does one discover which intelligence one has? Once you realize it, today, the art of discovering one’s “smart” or intelligence is via

unlimited explorations and journeys
into the unknown via the Internet!
Undictated upon:

Unceremoniously, an athlete at heart will explore one way or another the world of sports. How exciting!

Unconsciously, the philosopher at heart will explore life’s questions even without realizing it.

Unknowingly, the friend at heart will explore people relationships.

Unplanned, the loner will explore that which allows oneself some peace or independence.

Unthinking, the word lover will explore stories and poems.

Unguided, the argumentative at heart will explore numbers and debates.

Unaccompanied, the musical at heart will explore the world of rhythm.

Undirected, the nature lover will explore the woods or the stars.

Unnoticed, the picture lover will explore photographs or paintings.

Given all that understanding without understanding, not to mention complexity in untutored thinking by students, as teacher: Indeed, how lucky can you get?!@517

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[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Van_Doren

[2]https://www.thequotablecoach.com/the-art-of-teaching/

Virtual Mangroves Seen 360 Degrees – Nipa Palms & Pigs In The View! Would You Believe?

With my browser Vivaldi, on a Facebook page I captured the above image of a visual cum intellectual cum digital display by 360 PH: Virtual Tours Philippines, and you can download the paper, which I just did. Before that, I moved my mouse in a 360-degree turn left to right, right to left, top to bottom, and bottom to top – I fell in love with it!

This is a virtual tug of the heart and mind – which every webinar should go after. There have been no invigorating download offers this year. Now, I am a science journalist, and I could have written on any presentation if I had gotten hold of a copy of the pertinent digital file. The way I look at it, with the above show of a virtual exhibit, 360 PH has changed the history of webinars in at least 2 ways:

1.   Can read & may attend – Download a paper and read it at leisure. We may thus be convinced to attend.

2.  Can read & may write – 360 PH has now changed the rules of the game and made available the papers or presentations even before the webinar itself. So now we can write.

So, I go back to the content of the above image – The gentleman on the right is Jim Leandro P Cano, a UP Los Baños professor, He is co-author of the technical paper “Mangrove Palms: Sustainable Feed Source for Swine” published  in the Journal of Environmental Science and Management Special Issue No 1 (2016), with Rheynalyn R Trivino & Craig B Jamieson, all of Next Generation Consultancy based in Los Baños, Laguna, Philippines.

Innovations: The 1^stinnovation I see is this visual & moving presentation of a virtual event displayed on Facebook. The 2^nd innovation is the new use of the mangrove or nipa palm (Nypa fruticans). The paper authors say that to avoid deforestation of areas for growing corn, “One solution is to cultivate trees and perennials for livestock feed.” They recommend the mangrove palm (Nypa fruticans), endemic in the Philippines, as “a game-changer in the swine industry” with its sap as swine feed. The calorific yield per hectare is 400% higher than that of maize, the common energy source for swine.

Now then, if the great many swine raisers switched from corn to the nipa sap as feed, they will greatly help control climate change by helping reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and methane.

May I add that there are 3 things that can happen when the nipa palm is tapped for its sap, that this will also encourage people to preserve current mangrove forests from which they can tap the nipa sap for sale, as well as entice people to reforest denuded mangrove swamps to grow the nipa palms in.

Citing Eufemio Rasco, the authors mention that nipa can thrive even in fresh and brackish waters. That means the nipa sap for pigs can be produced anywhere where there is a river or stream. How lucky can swine raisers get!?@517 

Two Boys – Work-From-Home Jomar And Work-For-Whom Frank A Hilario

Surprise! A Manila paper today, 08 November 2020, comes out with a feature story by Carla Bianca Ravanes-Higham about my son Jomar Reynoso Hilario (shown above with his mother Amparo sharing dessert): “Jomar Hilario Helps Filipinos Adapt To The New World Of Work[1]” (08 November 2020, Manila Times). It’s 0930 hours Sunday as I write, and I’m eating a bar of Cloud9 doing this, thinking and typing at the same time. in my own room.

Separately, Son works from home, WFH; Father works for whom, W4W. Jomar’s WFH is for Filipinos who work for others here and/or Internet-miles abroad; my W4W is for Filipinos who work for farmers anywhere in the Philippines.

Jomar Hilario, Work From Home (WFH)

Working from home, WFH, for more than 10 years now, Jomar is a Virtual Career adviser to would-be Virtual Assistants, VAs.

Jomar looks for any number of people to mentor as VAs working for individuals or institutions away from home, producing daily, weekly, or monthly outputs for offices.

Miss Carla says Jomar advises dual-tasking, not multi-tasking, while doing your WFH. And you should have a duly designated & recognized & respected workspace at home. She says he says the pandemic lockdown has transformed jobs so that now nearly 80% of the office staff actually work from home!

Jomar notes the family stress coming from working from home. “The pandemic has forced this new setup, which can be quite stressful. I do understand where they’re coming from, especially since kids are doing virtual learning too.” The children are now work-from-homers too! Jomar has 4: Sean, Lucia, Earl, Alexa. So, expect interruptions in “your” work. “They’re not nuisances; they’re the people you choose to live with,” he says. And if you have a workplace, your children should have a study place themselves, separate from your workspace.

A work-from-homer? You are blessed! “It’s important to remind yourself of how fortunate you are to be freed from waking up too early, to be surrounded by the people you love.” And not have to deal with the office intrigues.

Frank A Hilario, Work For Whom (W4W)

With my W4W, I am enjoying what my son says work-from-homers should be enjoying: no commute, no office intrigues. And today I have only one child, graciela/ela at home and, a teacher, she is also into WFH.

Me, my work-for-whomers is defined by Filipino professionals and non-professionals leading, not leading, or misleading farmers in going about their farming, applying the Science of Agriculture. You will be surprised, as I have been, reading negativenews or views related to the cultivators of the soil.

Well, all that has made my work-for-whom exciting!

I have also taken upon myself the W4W teacher’s duty of encouraging journalists who are either non-performing in agriculture and/or not actively supporting Secretary of Agriculture William Dar’s “New Thinking for Agriculture” grounded in those “8 paradigms.” Despite big problems, The New Thinking has been Working Big.

If you ask me more about it, then you are one of those non-performing assets (NPAs) of Philippine Agriculture!@517

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[1]https://www.manilatimes.net/2020/11/08/weekly/the-sunday-times/filipino-champions/jomar-hilario-helps-filipinos-adapt-to-the-new-world-of-work/792761/?fbclid=IwAR1yitK7B3F7QLdkdfiVFA7S9sYMD874aCw-RC_gcVxqxxTwdoToHfSDcjs

Two Boys, SRO & Rene With PhilRice – Here Is A Celebration Of Lives

The background of the image above says: 

SRO Seminar Series –
Research Management & Institution Building.

SRO is Santiago Rigonan Obien, in barong, right, founding Executive Director of the Philippine Rice Research Institute, PhilRice, with headquarters in the Science City of Muñoz, where the seminar series is held during the anniversary celebration of PhilRice on the 5^th of November. Main photo was taken during this year’s 35^th celebration.

Rene is Tito Nato-Kuya Rene; his own effusive Facebook sharing is titled “33 Years of Partnership” – which means Rene came into the lives of SRO and PhilRice 2 years after PhilRice was created in 1985 by Executive Order of President Ferdinand Marcos.

Rene had a full-blown (and lucrative) appointment as architect with “a big firm working for projects in China” and he was “the CEO’s ‘anointed’.” Then SRO called, meaning his country called for him – he answered the call.

He does not say so, but Rene must have been the one who designed the PhilRice headquarters in Muñoz. (building image[1]from Rice Matters)

Rene writes further:

Taking notice maybe of how we scientifically placed our facilities combining integrity and aesthetics, we were sought by allies and (with my contributions), in considerable degree rose facilities of BAR, NDA, ATI. PhilMech and the regional office of BFAR in Iloilo (that) became the “compact model” for a biosafety laboratory in fisheries.

If you are good, people notice. If you are better, more people will notice more of you.

So, with the architecture of Agriculture-related PH government offices, as designer, Rene proved to be very good. Now, in the design of the acquired characteristics and relationships among human elements of the government offices, with SRO at the helm, PhilRice proved to be the best. In time, PhilRice was recognized as world-class.

Thank you, boys!

Now, let us talk about another designer life for PhilRice.

Towards the end of 2003, I was appointed an information consultant of PhilRice, which then was institutionally involved in the crafting of the mechanism and media to make the Open Academy for Philippine Agriculture, OpAPA, come to life. OpAPA was the brainchild of William Dar as Director General of ICRISAT based in India. During my brief second stay at PhilRice, I designed in my mind how to bring to life OpAPA and in fact produced a pdf of an entire book of 200 pages titled The Geography Of Knowledge. I still have a good copy of it.

Now that Mr Dar is Secretary of Agriculture, with direct supervision of PhilRice, I want to resurrect my OpAPA design to bring science to the Filipino farmers and help them directly link to current knowledge on any aspect of their farming, whether in crops or livestock, as well as postharvest handling, processing and marketing. With funds from the DA, today money is no object.

OpAPA must be based in PhilRice. While rice is the staple, there is a need for farmers to engage outside the monoculture of rice, to enrich their farms and families, to lead good, sustainable lives.@517

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[1]https://ricematters.wordpress.com/about/