Tag Archives: Humanification

Malaysia Airlines Flight 370

Malaysian Airlines Flight 370Well, this will be more of a common blog post from a blogger than an inspirational post from Inspiration for Success. As because I am interested more than average in airplanes and the aircraft industry I am following the news, or actually the non-news about Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 quite closely, although I guess many people do as it has been the top story on CNN and I guess in many other news channels and programs.

But next to just being interested in flying and the aircraft industry I am writing because still some things that I see on the news right now just don’t add up. As yes, I can imagine an airplane not being found straight away, especially when lost over sea and after probably having changed course. And yes, I know many places, especially over sea, are not covered by radar or something. and yes, I know planes are not communicating continuously with the outside world.

But no, I can’t imagine a plane just flying somewhere towards land or over land without being detected, either by military or civil radar or whatever equipment there is to check planes or other flying objects crossing some kind of border, especially if their transponder is turned off. So somehow the images I see in the news don’t make sense, as they cover large land areas. And also the flight path towards the Indian Ocean goes over land, presumably Thailand and I can’t imagine no one saw some unidentified object, probably a plane, crossing borders.

And no, I don’t blame the Malaysian government for anything. I disagree strongly with all the criticism they get about how they handle the situation. As in the first place as far as I know they never or hardly ever dealt with something like a plane crash or plane incident, so of course they don’t have anything in place to deal with something like that. And secondly this is the weirdest airplane incident that ever happened as as far as I know there is no case of any plane just disappearing without leaving any (clear) message or trace like debris. So how would anybody know how to handle a case like this? You just wouldn’t expect a plane just go missing without leaving any trace. So you would just start a search where it was last seen and normally just find debris or something. But apparently that didn’t happen.

And yes, if there would be anyone or anything to blame it would be the news channels. As they keep on emphasizing there is no information and that the government or Malaysia Airlines should provide that. But presumably there is no information and I presume Malaysia Airlines and the Malaysian government are trying to organize the search and are trying to get the right experts to process all the information that could give answers to what happened. And I can imagine that takes time, especially in this very weird situation where you would need satellite images and radar information from all kinds of places to try to figure out the flight path the plane followed. And I guess Malaysia Airlines and the Malaysian government also want to know what happened, just like everybody else.

And why focus on angry family members? Why would people be angry with Malaysia Airlines and the Malaysian government? Yes, of course I can imagine they are frustrated as it is very hard not to know where your loved ones are or what happened to them. But I doubt they would be angry with Malaysia Airlines and the Malaysian government. Yes, maybe from frustration or because information comes out slowly. But I guess everybody can understand that Malaysia Airlines and the Malaysian government and people involved in the investigation have to be very careful what information to release, although maybe, just maybe, releasing some more might help people calm down a bit. As all this speculation that is going on my do more damage than solve things.

But yes, it’s news and especially in situations like this, where there is no real information, you still have to make a story, an exciting story. And yes, I am watching it. And yes, I would also like to know more about the facts, about those radar images and this ping and the satellite images that may hold information. And why the plane was never detect while presumably flying over land, into the airspace of e.g. Malaysia itself or Thailand.

So yes, there is something very, very strange in everything I hear and see in the news. But is it the news or is it reality? And I just see the CNN site has more in-depth information than what I see on TV: http://edition.cnn.com/2014/03/14/world/asia/malaysia-airlines-plane/.

And I just see the statement of Saturday, March 15, 05:45 PM MYT +0800 on the page MH Flight Incident of Malaysia Airlines, which confirmes several things.

Time will tell.

Ah, and one thing comes in my mind about the CEO of Malaysia Airlines, Mr..Ahmad Jauhari Yahya. He confirmed to me that people in that type of position apply the Principles of Success as he seemed very determined to find the plane, no matter what.

Being a writer

Today the post of Leo Babauta stuck kind of in my mind. As he states something like ‘write every day’. And ‘create a blog’. And in my mind is now something that I’m not really a writer as Leo states that he started writing when he was seven or so. And right now I was reading I should not just write about myself, as I mostly do. I should have a purpose. And that’s what lately has been missing a bit. Where lately I guess means quite some time already.

But yes, let’s not forget that no matter what I have been writing every day. And I am writing now, even though it’s late, my back aches, I’m coughing and I just want to rest. And I don’t know what to write. Or at least I don’t know what to write that would be of use. But again, I guess I’m too hard on myself, as I want to inspire people, before for success as I thought what success was. But now more inspire people to achieve their goals. Or their main goal in life.

And yes, I am writing to improve the world. And that’s also why I have been writing so much about my internet problems and such. As I want people to read it and have some influence. And yes, I’m good in search engine optimization, so consciously or unconsciously I have been and am building some kind of internet structure to do something about what Globe and Smart could improve, should improve. And through them I want to reach other companies to improve, to make the world for humans again, not for organizations.

So well, maybe this post is part of all that. Of me trying to improve the world, trying to reach out, trying to find readers. So I would have some influence. As I’m sure Leo has.

Why not make customers happy

I was on my way to an internet cafe, pondering what I just heard in a phone call from Smart. And the thing that finally stuck with me was, why don’t Smart and Globe and all those other big companies just make you, me, humans, their customers happy, even if it would take some extra effort in specific cases like mine. And I think that’s even what Napoleon Hill basically states: if you just serve your customers, other people, you will be successful. And from my point of view, in my case, the solution of the issues that annoy me so much my Smart internet connection is very simple:

  1. Put someone in charge to solve the problem. And put him or her in charge until the problem is solved and I have my unlimited internet access at certain speed back OR until I’m satisfied with whatever solution is offered or found.
  2. Solve the technical problem, just install some other technology or figure out what’s causing the deterioration of the signal. My location is a bit remote and it seems that for whatever reason the device that is installed does not fit its purpose anymore.
  3. Get rid of the Fair Usage Policy the way it is phrased and stated. Just make it a real Fair Usage Policy like users sharing available bandwidth. Nobody will have any problem with that as long as Smart keeps their network capacity.

And while I was on my way to the city I was pondering what Mr. Napoleon L. Nazareno, the CEO of Smart Communications, Inc., who I wrote this letter to, would think or would want to happen if he knew the whole story. Would he really want me to apply for disconnection as his support staff suggested to me this morning? I doubt, unless he and the whole industry in 2014 are only about greed and not about serving customers, not about serving humans.

So I am still thinking of what to do next, as I don’t want to lose my Smart internet and I guess in the end Smart would not want to lose me as a customer.

And no, I don’t know what it is to be the CEO of a big company like Smart or Globe. And I’m quite sure he has many challenges and is certainly not interested, and should not be, in a specific technical problem with a specific simple standard connection for just one customer only paying PHP 999.00 a month. But yes, somehow he is responsible and somehow he should find ways to solve this problem, presuming I’m not the only one in this kind of situation. But again, if I were the only one, the problem would be easily solved: just install something that makes my internet connection work again and you’ll never ever hear any complaint from me again. On the contrary.

And that’s part of what annoys me very much, as I have always been very happy with the SmartBro solution. So I have always recommended Smart to my friends and other people who needed internet or had complaints about their current internet provider. And now Smart let’s me down, one of their biggest fans, always telling people the Smart network is or was better than the Globe network, at least related to internet.

And yes, I am very annoyed and tired as it’s not easy to serve my customers without proper internet, running an internet business partly from an internet cafe. But I’m trying to see the opportunity or opportunities who are certainly there, as e.g. this whole thing brought me into contact with the CEO’s of Smart and Globe and it’s also a very good example of my concerns related to big companies and humanity, treating humans as humans and not as customers of service representatives.

So looking forward to your help of making those large organizations human again. And I mean things like serving customers as human beings and not as profit centers or complaints to handle. And giving employees more freedom and authority to solve problems and talk to customers as human to human and not just passing on company policies and procedures.

Looking forward to your help and support!

Sort this from that

So here I found myself, after a visit from the local installer from Smart who were able to get my Smart internet connection going again. And it seems the main problem with our Smart connection right now is a weak signal, possibly caused by trees growing or something like that.

And i felt a bit embarrassed because it seems Smart as an organization and the people within Smart have been doing their best to help me, even when I got more and more confused and annoyed and even angry inside, the last i didn’t show. And I still feel a bit embarrassed, but I don’t think I should be, because the problem with the Fair Usage Policy is still there. And the choice of implementing that policy, as a policy and technically, has made everything around problems with our internet connection very confusing and annoying, for me as I guess for the staff within Smart. And I don’t need to be embarrassed about that and everything around it and my complaints and cause around it. But being me I still am, and if I’m a bit like you, like other humans, I guess you can understand that.

And I guess another presumption is still somehow valid. And that is that a company like Smart, with increasing internet demand and improving technology, should still be able to serve me as a customer on a certain plan, no matter whether there are trees growing or not. And the same applies with Globe, who just disconnected me because, as far as I know, technically they can’t serve me properly at the moment. But to me disconnection a business account from an internet company this way is just ‘not done’, from a business as well as a human perspective.

But actually I am kind of happy with all that happened, as it made me think that what I want for humanity is not as simple as i thought. And that organizations like Smart and Globe still work and that there are indeed humans within those organizations trying to help customers, people. And that indeed there were people visiting me today trying to give me back internet access, even though our connection is kind of beyond what the system is capable, of is designed for. And they did and I am writing this from home and I was able to connect our computers to the internet, so all the things that i need updated and such did happen and is happening right now.

So this whole thing around being fully without internet while having two connections because of our location and expected problems with that, brought about a lot of thoughts. And it also brought me back to one of the ideas of Kim Cooper: “Sort this from that”. As there are many things going on.

So some facts or thoughts:

  • the wireless signal for our Smart internet connection is very weak;
  • the environment, like growing trees or something, probably makes the signal even go weaker over time;
  • I don’t trust Smart anymore, as before my complaints in my experience improved the connection;
  • many or most people within large organizations do want to help people, but are often just limited, either by knowledge or by being limited by their management;
  • (large) organizations are (still) driven by money, by greed, as that’s just how we built our world;
  • I and you are part of the system. I often see myself switch roles from demanding customer to helpless human to not willing or not being able to pay business man or consumer;
  • there is a lot of complicated technology involved in making things, making the internet work and that technology is progressing, changing fast;
  • we are all part of driving the changes, even though it has consequences like not being able to serve existing customers, people anymore;
  • I am not sure if my case, my experiences with large organizations are common or not;
  • I would love to pay more for my internet, but as of the moment business wise and private that’s not really an option. And this whole thing goes back to the fact that the money flow in the world is not working properly as of the moment;
  • etc.

Well, enough for now, but one of my last thoughts was that there must be better ways to make companies more human again, but that the whole thing is a system, where we as customers are  part of the system as well as the organizations and the people within our organizations. So we help keep the system into place with our demands, which may just be wrong based on wrong presumptions or may just be unreasonable.

Looking forward to your thoughts on this whole thing, either from within those organizations or as a customer, a human with needs an organization could deliver.

Robot or human?

Well, just got a good sample about organization to human communication. This was an e-mail of me to Smart and I was hoping for a little bit more than the reply I got: But nobody said it would be easy.

Attn. Ms. Rome

Dear Ms. Rome,

This morning, without any internet, I was thinking what to do next
related to the problems with my internet connectivity. And that large
organizations like Smart are not always easy to deal with when things go
really wrong.

Often you end up talking to different people where no one has the full
picture of what is going on.

Then I realized that related to this feedback reference number you have
been replying to my e-mails, so I do have a contact person. Then I
realized that I haven’t made life easier for the people within Smart
either as I have sent quite some complaints, recently not even giving
proper reference numbers and such.

So here I found myself this morning, without internet. And then I
realized that you have been trying to help me very well, probably
talking to your boss or other people within Smart to find solutions for
me. And that I had been e-mailing with one person, so I do have a
contact person, a human being, within Smart. And then I realized that
wanting to make organizations like Smart more human again, serve people
again, my behavior has not served that cause very well, that I have not
been a good example as I partly have just behaved like a complaining
customer instead of a human being needing help.

And then I realized that if I want large organizations to be more human
again, serve humans in a human way, that I would need to change the
customer side as well, meaning I also would have act as a human and
introduce myself properly for example. And while writing this just maybe
tell you that I am desperate as I don”t know where to go or what to do
to have proper internet again, as I depend so heavily upon it. And that
it wouldn’t be easy to move my computers as I have setup quite some
stuff like e-mail accounts and ftp accounts that I can”t just move to
another computer without an awful lot of hassle and time. And that I now
have to go down to the city to do my work and some private things in an
internet cafe. And that yesterday I forgot to put some important files
to my USB so I couldn’t finish my work, my promises to people while
using the internet in an internet cafe.

So well, what I actually wanted to do with this e-mail is to tell you
that I am Guus Ellenkamp, fifty years old, of Dutch origin, that I moved
around ten years ago to The Philippines as my partner is from here. So
that I am a human being and not only, not just just a customer. And
maybe tell you that I am kind of a computer and internet person and
depend very much on the internet. And that many Filipinos tell me that I
am complaining a lot and that that may be true, but that my intentions,
just as the intentions of every human being, are good. And that I seem
to talk a lot and write a lot, as this e-mail is now much longer than I
intended. And much more to tell, but I guess this is not the right time
and place.

Maybe you can tell me a bit about you, about your side?

And yes, of course it would be nice if Smart or actually the people
within Smart, can provide me proper internet again. But that’s not my
point with this e-mail right now.

Looking forward to your reply,

Guus

And some information related to my account which will hopefully make
your life easier:
Account number: 0124554160
Service Reference Number: 1010128432
Address: “The Malasag House”, Malasag, Cugman, 9000 Cagayan de Oro City
Phone: 0917 596 14 55
FeedbackReferenceNo. 000041306

And this was the reply:

Dear Guus,

We appreciate you for taking the time to let us know of your situation.

Please be assured that we are continuously coordinating with our support
group to expedite handling of your concern.

Thank you for your kind understanding.

Sincerely,

Rome/llp
Customer Care

Sounds like an organizational reply, not a human reply. This means that Ms. Rome didn’t get my point or can’t bypass the procedures and policies of Smart. Or maybe this is just how she thinks, but I doubt it.

Is this kind of communication really what we want?