Upgrading Self

Find Your Place of Celebration: Chidimma Adetshina's Inspiring Choice

Congratulations to Chidimma Vanessa Onwe Adetshina on being crowned Miss Universe Nigeria 2024! Her victory comes less than a month after having to withdraw from the Miss South Africa 2024 pageant due to concerns for her safety and that of her family.

Chidimma, affectionately known as "Chichi," faced unjust challenges in South Africa when her citizenship was questioned with unfounded allegations. Instead of wasting energy on an environment that was unwilling to be inclusive, Chichi made a bold decision to seek opportunities where she would be celebrated rather than merely tolerated.

Following her withdrawal, the Silverbird Group in Nigeria invited the 23 year old to compete in Miss Universe Nigeria, embracing her diverse background and providing her the chance she was denied in South Africa.

Chichi's story serves as a reminder that sometimes it’s best to move away from spaces that refuse to see our value and instead, invest in those that welcome and uplift us. Why spend time proving yourself in places that don't appreciate you? Go where you’re celebrated!

Many of us have felt the weight of trying to earn acceptance from those who never truly see us. Chichi’s experience shows that life is too precious to waste on proving our worth to those who will never fully embrace us.

Take a page from Chichi's book: seek environments where you are not only seen but celebrated for who you are.

New Certified Businesses - June 2024 June 2024 – OMWBE certified 72 minority- and women-owned businesses in a variety of different industries. These businesses, along with many others, can be found in our Certified Business Directory. Download the list here: June 2024 - New Certified Businesses Use the tabs in Excel to view both Stat...

SOLVING PROBLEMS SUCCESSFULLY

My people, the Igbos say: "Onye ajụjụ anaghị efu ụzọ."

This literally means that the one who asks questions doesn't miss the way.

*Types of Questions
Speaking of questions, there are productive and unproductive questions.

While productive questions are clarifying, open-ended, problem-solving, reflective and follow-up oriented, unproductive questions are closed-ended, leading, vague, loaded and usually multiple.

Productive questions foster understanding, stimulate thought, encourage discussion, and promote problem-solving and reflection.

Unproductive questions often limit responses, introduce bias, create confusion, or put respondents on the defensive, hindering effective communication and progress.

*The Problem-Solving Skill
I might not know so much about the past world, but in our current diverse world, the problem-solving skill is a must-have—especially in a culturally diverse workforce or space.

Unfortunately, some of us resort to our instincts or subconscious when faced with problems involving others. This usually leads to a flawed and biased "solution" to the assumed problem.

For the past couple of months, one of my favorite sayings which I coined up is: "You can't reset a system that you don't understand."

In other words, you cannot successfully solve a problem that you have not taken time to truly understand without any form of bias.

One of the simplest yet complex problem-solving methods out there is the Five Whys (5 Whys). It is a problem-solving technique that investigates the underlying cause-and-effect relationships of specific issues.

For 5 Whys and any other problem-solving technique to be successful, it must be assertively collaborative.

Let me quickly stress that, to successfully solve problems without short-changing any party involved, the healthiest communication style—the assertive communication style, should be encouraged during the collaboration.

*Assertive Communication
According to VeryWellMind.com, assertive communication involves stating your feelings and needs clearly and directly while being respectful of others. Being assertive ensures that your feelings are clearly communicated, but it also avoids belittling or dismissing other people's thoughts or opinions.

The assertive communication style is usually data-driven and human-centered. In other words, it is detailed and empathetic.

Challenge yourself to start being intentional about solving problems with collaborative tools, assertion and empathy.

If you found this post informative and would love to learn more, contact Upgrading Self at https://upgradingself.com/contact

IMPROVISING TO SAVE THE DAY

According to Dictionary.com, improvisation or improv is the art or act of composing, uttering, executing, or arranging anything without previous preparation.

Around 1pm PST yesterday July 23, 2024, I decided to "restart and update" the really reliable Upgrading Self business Asus ExpertBook which, for many reasons, hadn't been shut down since the morning of Thursday, July 18, 2024. This device runs on a Windows 11 operating system.

Although I was aware that an update patch by CrowdStrike had caused some Windows workstations to display the “blue screen of death” (BSD) on Friday, July 19, 2024, it didn't cross my mind that the "update" I was about to do was, in fact, that BSD update.

I had a Google Meet meeting with a Senior Administrative Specialist at Tabor 100 slated for 2pm. I had anticipated that some documents would be shared during this meeting, so, using the business Samsung S24 Ultra phone for the meeting was not an option.

After struggling from 1pm to about 2:45pm, I remembered that I had a foldable ultra-thin mini wireless Bluetooth keyboard laying on the work desk.

Without giving it so much thought, I disconnected the Thunderbolt cable meant for projecting to the Samsung monitor from the ExpertBook, and reconnected it to my phone, and voila!

Thanks to my reactive improv, I was able to seamlessly navigate through my phone platform, finally log into the meeting before 2pm, have a great meeting, and navigate the Google Meet window like nothing happened.

As for the BCD, I was able to finally get it resolved after 5 hours 30 minutes.

Have you ever had to improvise and things turned out to be just as good?

Would you like to increase your profit without increasing current production cost or compromising quality?

Are you looking to improve the speed and quality of your product and service deliveries, thus enhancing your organization 's financial performance?

Are you interested in identifying areas of improvement through analyzed data to make informed decisions that will boost your revenue?

Contact US today!
Check bio for preferred contact details.

Would you like to increase your profit without increasing current production cost or compromising quality?

Are you looking to improve the speed and quality of your product and service deliveries, thus enhancing your organization 's financial performance?

Are you interested in identifying areas of improvement through analyzed data to make informed decisions that will boost your revenue?

Contact US today!
https://upgradingself.com/index.php/contact

We are a third-culture and a minority-owned continuous improvement consulting company.

At TOECM LLC dba Upgrading Self, we help entities and organizations boost their profit by inclusively improving their efficiency.

Guided by our core values of Tenability, Optimization, Empathy, Collaboration, and Measurability, our mission is to inclusively strengthen organizations' capacities to increase profits through optimized operations, streamlined workflows, and enhanced team efficiency. We offer both short- and long-term service options.

We strive to be the go-to resource for organizations seeking to enhance business agility and efficiency.

We partner with decision makers and organizations to adopt, and adapt to:
• Mindset/culture improvement
• Process improvement
• Performance improvement
• Delivery improvement
• Agility improvement
• Cross-cultural collaboration improvement
• Psychological safety improvement, and more

CORE COMPETENCIES
We inclusively provide the following services:
• Operations & Workflow Efficiency
• Team Performance Improvement
• Improvement Needs Analysis

DIFFERENTIATORS
• Third-culture/cross-cultural competence
• Inclusive & scientific team development
• Psychological safety/people first thinking
• Stakeholder capitalism/IAS thinking
• Lean, agile, systems and design thinking

Contact us today!
Link in bio.

Would you like to increase your profit without increasing cost or reducing quality?

Contact US today!
https://upgradingself.com/index.php/contact

We are a third-culture and a minority-owned continuous improvement consulting company.

At TOECM LLC dba Upgrading Self, we help entities and organizations boost their profit by inclusively improving their efficiency.

Guided by our core values of Tenability, Optimization, Empathy, Collaboration, and Measurability, our mission is to inclusively strengthen organizations' capacities to increase profits through optimized operations, streamlined workflows, and enhanced team efficiency. We offer both short- and long-term service options.

We strive to be the go-to resource for organizations seeking to enhance business agility and efficiency.

We partner with decision makers and organizations to adopt, and adapt to:
• Mindset/culture improvement
• Process improvement
• Performance improvement
• Delivery improvement
• Agility improvement
• Cross-cultural collaboration improvement
• Psychological safety improvement, and more

CORE COMPETENCIES
We inclusively provide the following services:
• Operations & Workflow Efficiency
• Team Performance Improvement
• Improvement Needs Analysis

DIFFERENTIATORS
• Third-culture/cross-cultural competence
• Inclusive & scientific team development
• Psychological safety/people first thinking
• Stakeholder capitalism/IAS thinking
• Lean, agile, systems and design thinking

While having a textual conversation with Kate Ebhodaghe over the past two days, I suddenly realized that I might not actually be a multimodal learner as I had previously thought.

For the 2000/2001 and 2001/2002 academic sessions, Kate was the overall best-performing student in the Accounting department, while I was the top student in the Computer Science department at Benson Idahosa University.

The VARK model suggests four main types of learners: visual, auditory, reading/writing, and kinesthetic. A multimodal learner engages multiple senses during learning, such as visual, auditory, and kinesthetic, to enhance understanding and memory retention.

Recent studies and theories from experts and psychologists suggest there are anywhere from 3 to 170 different types of learning styles. Some lesser-known styles based on the senses and social aspects include social/linguistic, solitary, nature, and logical/analytical learners.

Logical/analytical learners rely on logic and analytical skills to understand subjects. They search for connections, causes, patterns, and results in their learning. Over the past few years, I have embraced my pattern recognition intelligence.

According to Oculyze (https://www.oculyze.net/what-is-high-pattern-recognition), pattern recognition intelligence (PRI) is the ability to identify, understand, and leverage patterns in ways that lead to successful outcomes.

Neil deGrasse Tyson highlighted this, stating, "The best thing we have going for us is our intelligence, especially pattern recognition, sharpened over eons of evolution."

Similarly, Kurzweil (2012) noted that pattern recognition is a key determinant of a person’s potential to think logically, verbally, numerically, and spatially.

Miemis (2010) emphasized that the ability to spot patterns is critical in decision-making, though we often do it unconsciously.

As we continue to collaborate in a diverse world and workforce, let us remain open to the lesser-known ways of learning and doing things.

If you found this post insightful, informative and helpful, kindly show your support by reacting to the post. You can also leave a comment.

If you a decision maker and would like to boost your team's and/or organization's operational and workflow efficiency, contact Upgrading Self using this link: https://upgradingself.com/index.php/contact-us/

To schedule a free 30-minute consultation session, use this link: https://calendly.com/upgrading-self/consulting

Chat with us today to increase your business efficiency without increasing your effort or expenses.

Today, many US and global organizations invest in continuously improving their processes with Agile, Lean and/or Six Sigma methodologies.

The interesting thing about all 3 is that they either originated from or were inspired by Japan's Toyota Production System (TPS).

The good thing about The Toyota Way is that philosophy lays the foundation for the rest. In other words, their culture lays the foundation for their success.

At Upgrading Self, we understand that the culture of your organization might be the difference between your long-term success or struggle.

We also understand that your employees would undergo various stages of culture shock or change curve every time there is a change in the way things are done or an addition of a new human capital.

Fortunately, we are culturally responsive and competent to support you to build and/or maintain a company culture that embraces continuous process improvement.

If you are interested in learning more or moving forward, you can visit our website at https://www.upgradingself.com, or contact us via the link below:

https://upgradingself.com/index.php/contact-us/

I was just thinking about the energy and time it takes to build a distant relationship.
I then recalled some that I had attempted having in the past and how they seemed to fail when we were finally together.

With what I know now, I see why they never worked.

The thing is, relationships are like groups. Every time there is a change in or addition to the usual flow or processes, if the parties involved do not consider the option of treating the group as a new group, chances are that, sooner or later, they would no longer be together or happy together.

How did I come to this conclusion?

It is my application of the Bruce Tuckman's stages of group development.

Whenever there is a change in routine with you and others, no matter how little, the fact is that you are a whole new group of people and should consider reducing your expectations.

If you are interested in getting some assistance with your group development today, contact us using the link below.

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Lean Agile Consulting - Upgrading Self Lean Agile can help you increase your revenue. We can achieve this by continuously improving your existing processes through inclusive and proven Agile best practices. This particular kind of continuous improvement is also known as the Agile transformation journey. Below are the values you will rece...

Lean Agile Coaching & Consulting - Upgrading Self Let us coach your teams and executives to have the lean agile mindset, agile toolset, and scrum skill set needed to increase your revenue.

The post is about gratitude.

I finally got TOECM registered as an LLC, with Upgrading Self as trade name.

WHY TOECM?
This is a brand I adopted since I was about 9 years old.
I had just enrolled at Government Secondary School, Owerri, and was in class JSS 1A (Junior Secondary School) when I had to write out my names officially.

FYI, when you are born into an Igbo Anglican home, you will get names from the entire village. JK, but rest assured, you will be named by your grannies and parents.
So, turns out, I was given 4 names apart from my last name (US) or surname (UK).

I ended up as Onyedikachukwu Tochukwu Chuwkuemeka Chukwuma Mba.
And I quickly embraced Emeka, the later part of Chukwuemeka.

Back then, I would officially write my name as Mba Onyedikachukwu T.C.E., but due to the length of my first name, I eventually had to improvise for non-official cases.
As a result, sometimes, I found that I wrote Mba T.O.E.C., or T.O.E.C Mba all over the covers of my notebooks, textbooks and other school materials.

As long as the TOE stayed together, it didn't matter if M came before C or vice versa. It has always been between TOECM and MC TOE.

TOECM is pronounced Toe CM (as in centimeters), like when your toes are measured in centimeters.
MC TOE is pronounced M C toe, like MCs who host a party but who also have toes.

In a turn of events, during adolescence, I somehow found my elder brother's file and mine in my mom's closet and realized that we both bore Chukwuemeka, so I quickly started looking for names that started with E.

Coincidentally, during the same adolescence, when we were practicing jews, my dad gave my brother and me the names Joseph gave his sons - Manasseh and Ephraim. I quickly adopted Ephraim as the E and discarded Emeka.

Later on, dad said that since Joseph crossed his hands while blessing his sons, my brother and I were to switch names. Bummer!
I still held onto TOECM and had to find a replacement for E.

As a teenager, after I became a born again Christian on April 12, 1997, I loved the idea of being God's elect. And since I wasn't sure if I was Manasseh or Ephraim, I qu**ky adopted Eklektos the latter part of Greek translation for God's elect as the E just to keep TOECM alive. :D

Throughout all the evolutions of E, my buddies back then - those from my inner videogaming circle like Jordan Nwachukwu, and Anyanwu Obinna Obrien, adapted to TOE - the brand I had adopted for myself. They still use any of the variations when referring to me today.

As a teenager, I had dreamt about having a huge business conglomerate named TOECM Ventures by the time I turned 25.
However, life has showed me that dreams have to be realistic, and that I can also achieve the realistic ones I fight for no matter how long they take.

TOECM AS A CORE CREDO
TOECM, as a brand, is also an acronym for my core credo like for when I ran Live Dots Digital in the mid 2010s.

Today, TOECM remains the acronym for Upgrading Self's core credo/values, as well as a registered brand.

UPGRADING SELF'S CORE VALUES:
Tenability
Optimization
Empathy
Collaboration
Measurability

One more thing, I also applied for the TOECM trademark and should be hearing back from USPTO,gov in a few months.

The attached TOECM logo was first sketched in 1991 and was digitalized sometime in the early 2010s.

I am thankful for the milestones!

Celebrating my new certification from REii Academy!
Thankful and excited for this business milestone!

CONFRONT YOUR BIAS
Just a reminder that from this first day of the second quarter of 2024, committing to a continuous improvement culture somewhat implies that you can start opting to confront, rather than confirm your implicit and/or explicit bias.
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Let me introduce us to the TOECM Model.

Yup! There's a model to my name. 🤓

According to this model, in every system, there are 5 categories of people:
1. Elite
2. Misinformed Activated
3. Uniformed Asleep
4. Informed Awakened
5. Informed Misleading

Cat. 1 would be elite or vamp depending on whether the system is inclusive or not.
This is the minute few who actually do own a chunk of the system.

Cat. 2 are easily weaponized by cat. 1 and are intentionally kept misinformed for that very reason.

Cat. 3 have no idea what's going on in the system to which they belong, but just go on their daily lives while dealing with the system on a surface level. They can be easily swayed by any of the other categories.

Cat. 4 used to be cat. 2 or 3, but have evolved to understanding the soul of the system and how it actually works beyond the surface.

Cat. 5 are cat. 4 who mislead others.
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