September 26th

  Today`s lesson got me thinking about what the "win-win" situation that we were always seeking for actually was. Because in the business world, I would think that people opt more for a win on their own situation  rather than a win-win one. For them money, making a profit is everything. So is the case for the majority of the people living in fact; money is without doubt a big factor in our life. Therefore, people generally probably would have a WIN paradigm, or if not at least a win-win one where there is essentially more win on your side. It is hard to get an equal balance of wins, if there was one anyway, in real life I think. If there were a near equal win-win terms, there would be definitely a less win factor on your part compared to if you have just won completely-so I think. As I have said, people want to win, they need to win especially when money is involved.
  Again though maybe the situation would be a little different if the people you were negotiating with were those that you feel you need to have strong ties with. Whether be it family, neighbours, or possible business partners, if they were you allies, if they could help you out in the future someday( being business minded here-doesn`t mean that keeping good relations with friends mean that you want something our of them:o), or the very opposite if you don`t want to get in trouble with them, it would be a good idea to keep them happy with the results of the negotiations. In maximizing the satisfaction on both sides, there is a chance of getting a  higher return in the long run . A important point to note  here I think is for both sides to not  achieve a win win situation based on a  compromise. As Johnny pointed out, coming to a compromise is a lower level of a win-win situation, it does not necessarily boost your satisfaction level, it just stumps it on both sides to a certain degree. In the end, I guess the point I would like to make is that in real life, trying to achieve a win-win situation is mostly actually trying to create a win situation for yourself. You either try to win more, even on the seemingly balanced equation, or you get your `win` way, by strengthening ties with the opposing negotiator in making them happy.
I hope I don`t seem too cynical.
We have been doing a lot of class work based on this term, and out of curiosity I wonder what others think about these win-win situations?

Leading At The Edge #1

  The first chapter discusses a good  leaders quality of visionizing the long term goals but at the same time focusing also on the short term goals and limited resources. Frankly speaking, I don`t think I did a very good job with this when I was in the position of a leader when I was in High school. I was captain of my sports team, but I would not say that I had a very clear ultimate goal. I believe I too, focused more on the short term ones, such as winning the next competition, or exceeding a level in the examination and so on. However, when I think about it carefully, maybe I had a better eye for looking at things in the longer span than the rest of my team mates, short term as they may seem by others. So while keeping in mind the ultimate goal, in my case the next competition, the next examination, in a way I let the others concentrate on even smaller scale goals. By steering their attention to perfecting a move, or increasing their speed of movement, I see now that maybe that has contributed to diverting their worries or uneasiness toward the bigger goal and instead charging their energy toward something more visible, achievable. By creating the step to step measures, in the end we were systematically able to reach our goal successfully. I also think that another important reason to why our team ended in  success was because the depth of my ambition was in parr with theirs. In not being overly ambitious, as ambitious as what everyone could keep pace with, each member could play  their part fully, without the pressure that may have brought them down.
  I certainly believe that  showing symbolic gestures and setting personal examples are important factors of being a good leader. The act that dramatises the situation is what diffrienciates the leader from the rest I think. At least, it would be a signal to the rest in showing the capacity of what he/she is capable of and thus lead others to look up to he/she in some way. What makes these acts most memorable though I think, is timing. No matter how chivalrous, or courageous, or thoughtful  the gesture you made has been, if it weren`t  done in the appropriate timing it may not create such an impact. Worse, it could even have the very opposite effect, people thinking negatively of you, of what you meant it to be.

JCK #4

  Overall I would say this Japan Korea China Trilateral Youth Forum has been a great experience. The people I met, including the participants from the three countries, student staffs were just the most wonderful people. They were super motivated, talented people who had  the drive to lead our generation to create a better future. I could see that they had faced many failures but through hardship have emerged as a figure stronger ever than before. 
  The actual planned discussion platforms were very fruitful,  despite the  rather strict time constraint, but what was most meaningful I believe were the personal interactions outside those frames, such as the late night talks, the clapping on the back after the performances from each country, the tasting of the Hokkaido delicacies in the food festivals. They were sincere interactions, personal gestures and thoughts that were shown to anyone who you wished to have good relations with. These one on one interactions are what you don`t see when you talk about the relations between Japan, China, Korea. I personally was able to talk about some sensitive issues such as the perception of war, information regulations in China, plastic surgery and so on. The issues that surround us are so deeply rooted that they are indeed no where near being resolved, but watching these friendly exchanges where one was really caring, listening to the others with all ears showed me that the reality proved wrong from the image that the media has instilled in us. It certainly gave me hope for the partnership of the  future East Asia.
 It gave me a lot of faith learning that there were so many young individuals out there trying to do their vey best in whatever they do, but at the same time never forgetting that what is most important is to not keep them for oneself  but to share their hard work and benefit others. There are countless lessons the Korean, Chinese, Japanese students have taught me this time. I hope I can repay them someday, motivate or inspire  people the way they did. 

  Life comes with so many opportunities. I have realised that with constant hard work, enough faith for what you do, and compassion for others these opportunities do come around. And each time they come around you would have more competence to make most out of it . I hope not to  leave this experience as just a one time excursion, but to absorb all I have learnt throughout this five days and project it to a stepping stone for the future.

That is all for the JCK posts.

Thanks for reading:))

JCK #3

  Today we had an MUN conference. I represented Indonesia, along with two other delegates from China and Korea. Before coming to this Forum we had written our position papers on " Education and Culture" and "Employment and Decent Work". I was more interested in education and culture so I joined the  committee which discussed about them in the actual MUN conference. It was my second time participating in the MUN, I had only done it once before at the forum pre-camp with just the Japanese participants in August. I was not very sure yet what the MUN was about, what the procedure was and what sort of things were going to be discussed but I tried to participate as much as I could by giving the voluntary opening speeches (A short speech talking about the situation of your country/remarks related to the topic)  and so on. What was most difficult I realised was where the end point of discussion was. I was not sure  about what the outcome of the conference was going to be , I knew as much that we had to submit a report to the main board on the goals and targets we would like to achieve,  but I didn`t have any idea of how specific we had to be or what kind of goals, targets and boundaries that came along with them were to be recorded in the final. On the other hand, all the Korean delegates were students who were awarded at the previous National MUN Conference so they had an clear image of what had to be done. Honestly they took the show; on top of them being vocal they had a vivid idea of what their country`s MUN was about, which led them to efficient back and forth conversation and speedy negotiations. I think often times discussions are a lot about compatibility of the ones engaged in it and the flow of the conversation. I`m not talking about people having the same ideas on an issue, rather they can be opposing but I feel that discussions flow so much more smoothly and fruitfully when they have similar views on what should be  prioritised or what details could be left untouched. I had the same feeling of slight unease of the way the conversation was turning when I was casually discussing something with a Korean boy the night before. It isn`t the language barrier only I think, it`s just the natural sense of communication that you have fostered in the environment you have been in, whether it be your country, region, family or school. 

  The MUN conference that lasted for approximately 4 hours was finally drafted and handed into the main council. Again I was amazed at how efficient the experienced Korean students who mainly had a hand in this were. With the short time given , they managed to address various issue and collaborate them with their original ideas of how to tackle them. The skill to be able to look at the bigger picture, the impediments of education and the necessary steps that were needed to overcome them were well spotted I believe and and I would have never been able to do that alone.  

  Although I can`t deny some of the benefits that MUN can foster, such as negotiation, public speaking skills or being able to look at the bigger picture and efficient leading of the discussions, personally I was left with some mixed feelings about it. It seemed a bit to superficial to me, a lot of talk but less knowledge and first hand experience on what the real issue was about. In the end, maybe only what matters is how good one`s presentation skills are, but that can easily lead to what is really important being overlooked. It may have be due to the time constraint but I feel the issue was too big and sensitive to be wrapped up in just a few hours.  Since students were gathered all the way from Korea, China I would rather have talked about issues that were actually related to us. Something that was more real and we had some thoughts about, rather than about things that we had simply researched about beforehand. 

JCK #2

  Second day, a symposium was held  to discuss the three different topics presented yesterday, " Western Culture and Eastern Culture""Representation Of  Youth and Women" and "Digital Divide". We were divided in to groups of 15 to talk about these topics in the time constraint of 2 hours. Sensing that there was hardly enough time to talk about such broad topics in such a short time, the night before we gathered up to discuss the outline of what we would be focusing on during the symposium. Because the topic was so abstract, we really had to decide what we wanted to debate about and although a few had already made a general agenda, there were many things that people wished to be added or deleted feeling that they weren`t worth talking about. Again, I was made to see how difficult it was just to set course of a discussion. There were so many things that were worth focusing on but at the same time, before getting into any details we had to clarify among all of us the perception on certain terms or ideologies . At times it seemed like  we were in the midst of discussing the topic itself rather than about what we were going to discuss; it all became very confusing, due probably to it being one am after a very long day.

  During the actual discussion, we divided further into groups of 5, 20minutes to discuss each topic in the group than 10 minutes to share our ideas. The time constraint was intense and we were practically firing out one idea after another. What I found particularly interesting was about " Digital Divide", as I had never really thought about it but was actually, if you think about it a very relevant issue to our generation and very current in that the Chinese students had limited access to information on the internet, such as constraints on Facebook. It was not about Facebook though that I was especially engaged in,  but about the digital divide between the old and the young. I always vaguely imagined that when we talked about the digital divide between the young and old, it meant simply that the old did not have the benefits that the young gained through the ICTs. However, thinking a little more in depth this time, I came to realise that maybe it was not as clear cut as that. What actually would they benefit from using all the devices?  The benefits from the ICTs are largely opportunities for business, education and such but were the elderly really in need of them? No one I believe is in position to make them use the ICTs just for the sake of  bridging the digital divide. I think the issue here is the elderly feeling the social pressure of having to use these devices. It is the feeling of feeling left behind, that is what we need to draw our attention to and must resolve. Of course it is different for those who wish to learn how to utilise the ICTs, we have to give them full support as a community but I feel that there is a must for us to create a society where it is ok for the elderlies who wish not to use them , not be able to function them. Many other different new perspectives  were brought up during the session. I wish we had a longer time so that we could leisurely engage in conversation about whatever that interested us in the topics. Due to the planning the night before though, I think we were able to hold a very effective and fruitful conversation.

JCK #1

Over the Course of five days, I participated in the Fourth Japan, China, Korea Youth Trilateral Youth Forum held in Hokkaido. This forum was sponsored by the UN association and in addition to the main event MUN, we engaged in many other different activities such as the symposiums, discussion sessions, social events, introduction of Hokkaido through tea ceremonies, performance by the Ainu, so forth. 
It was a really enriching experience and the effort we put in to this forum before hand, the pre-camp, the communications to research and come up with a paper with the participants from respective countries ,  all contributed I think to better the quality of this short forum.
First day of the Japan, China, Korea youth forum!! I was scheduled for a flight the day before to Hokkaido, but due to the typhoon it was chaos. All of the flights , not to mention all the transportation to get to the airport, were cancelled and everyone had no idea what to do. Eventually we were ordered to rebook any available flights but that was a not an easy task considering most flights were booked all the way to those flying in the evening the next day. Fortunately enough for me though, after many tries I was able to squeeze my self in a reservation at 6 pm that very day and without further adoI set off immediately to the airport. The atmosphere in the airport was pretty dire with everyone simply waiting for their planes to fly. In a way I found it rather strange that no one was complaining out right though, I would have imagined a very different attitude if I was in an airport in a different country. Though my plane was delayed, miraculously I was able to reach Hokkaido within that day, which was around 9:30pm. It must have been a tough day for everybody, even for the students from ICU who commuted to school without knowing that classes were cancelled. 

  The day`s main event was a symposium on three topics" Western Culture and Eastern Culture, Synergy of the two""Representation Of  Youth and Women""Digital Divide" discussed also in the real UN conference held in June. The procedure was two representatives from each country giving a presentation on each of the topics, following up with questions from the floor. The culture topic I was most skeptical about. Skeptical as in, I was not sure of what we had to discuss about there. The topic was so abstract, what did they mean exactly by culture? How can one divide the East Asian from the West, especially now when most concepts are influenced by one or another, or,  even by some other. What is it that  we call culture, and what is it that we need to preserve? One presentation for instance, was talking about cultural synergy using the example of a working atmosphere. They emphasised protecting one`s traditions, culture while integrating certain traits to produce better benefits. How about "enryo" culture then, I wonder. The culture where people do not suggest anything that may infringes other`s boudaries, acts unassumingly as a way to show politeness. This particular culture i`m sure in the business world would not come in handy, rather it would create a minus effect by losing out on your chance for being heard.  Each time answers were answered it raised a different question, and at some point it became a little frustrating. I suppose what counts though is to be aware of these issue and giving thought to them. It was really interesting to hear the views from the Korean and Chinese students, not only because of the cultural differences but because they all as individuals had a very unique personal view on things.

September 11th

   First blog for RW!! I`m pretty excited about this term because I personally am interested in the things that we will be covering this term such as leadership, interpersonal communications, self development and so on. I have read quite a few books on related topics in both Japanese, and English. At one point it seemed to me that the more I looked in to them though , the more confused I got about what is a good leader, or,  how we should compose oneself. So many different theories and advices, but then I came to see that it isn`t about searching for one right answer. I like being exposed to new ideas, and I think learning about these sort of topics is about processing the information to see how you can apply them to your own life.
    In the Harvard Business Review on " Social Intelligence and the Biology of Leadership", they stressed on good leader`s having the quality of showing positive emotions so as to influence other`s in the same way. Though I agree with what they said about good leaders fostering positive feelings in the people whose cooperation and support they need, I do not believe that what successful leaders are all open and friendly. I have seen many good leaders, my high school teacher for one, (in a sense you could say that teachers are leaders I think) and he did not necessarily have that out front positive attitude. Instead, he was quite the opposite with a hard expression on his face, a firm ground on things and always had high expectations of his students. He was hard to please but when we were successful the rare smiles we got were definitely rewarding. In that way he fostered positive emotions in us, to strive for something better, to work hard to achieve our goals.
  During class we discussed the about the spindle cells, oscillators and many argued that the cells were something un significant when dealing with good social skills. That cells were just there, and there was nothing we could do about to it to affect our  behaviour or interactions with others. Though they do have a point, I personally was just fascinated by how there were biological aspects that influences us. It`s an aspect I had never thought about and somehow it brought me comfort in knowing these particular cells that help us process the over flowing information around us. There was a lot didn`t understand about the cells because it was a brief text and it left me with many questions, especially about how they relate to experiences. I hope I can come across them again to clarify some of my questions.
  Oh, and Ken the book Steven Covey`s son wrote that I was talking to you about is called "The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective Teens". This book has a lot of good tips about self motivation, peer pressure and is easy to connect with because it is written in a really quirky, fun way. Although I know that many of us would be graduating from our teens pretty soon, I think it is a book that is worth taking a look in to (maybe for your future kids?haha)