Work Hard, Work Smart

Dear2 did the DISC personality profiling again the other day, one and a half years after I did the previous one.  On one hand, I am glad to find myself still of a Systematic personality, but on the other hand, I am beginning to worry that I may work hard, but not smart enough.

Briefly, the DISC Profiling groups individuals broadly into four main catergories: Domineering, Influential, Systematic and Compliance, and the main purpose is to maximise the individual’s potential by his role in a team.  The Domineering person is a good leader who wants results fast and knows how to bring the team to scale greater heights.  The Influential is the ‘people person’ who really does public relations within and outside the group through his interpersonal skills.  The Systematic is a worker who just does work and renders support to the team.  Lastly, the Compliance is a technician cum specialist who knows all details inside out to solve all technical problems.  Amongst everyone, the Compliance is really the person who knows the specifications of the task.

Dear2 did the DISC profiling one and a half years ago, and after doing it recently, am glad that I am still a Systematic.  The relief stems from knowing that Dear2 has not lost herself in the course of work this past year.  However, being systematic, we often linger in the comfort zone and just studiously perform the things that we are familiiar with.  If the process is good, you get the desired results.  But if the process is somewhat flawed, you are basically not moving anywhere.  This is what people termed “work hard but not work smart”.   Oh dear.

“Awareness before change”  This is so necessary for improvement, cos if you don’t know what the problem is, than basically you will be making wild guesses.  So, sit down, evaluate the situation and make some action plan. But if you are stuck inside the box, than maybe it is high time you seek SOS from someone outside the box.  Thank you Dear1, for always being outside my box ready to be my emergency lifeline.

– Dear2

Third time to Vivo City

A quick search on the internet revealed that it is in fact VivoCity as a whole word and not Vivo City, I’ll try to keep that in mind. Yesterday, Dear1 and Dear2 were at VivoCity shopping. It’s the third time that we’re there so I thot I can write a short review on it.

The first time we went was when everything is still under major renovations. Then, only Tangs, Best Denki, Giant and a few others were officially opened. Even Challenger is still in a mess although its doors were opened to consumers. Second time there, we went directly to Golden Village for a movie. More shops are operating by that time and there were still alot of ppl there as the novelty had not wore off yet. Third time, yesterday, I would say VivoCity is certainly near completion as the whole place looked brighter and I only spotted one renovation notice the whole evening.

Impressions: VivoCity is really really spacious, especially the first level. The walkways on the first floor is very wide. However, the walkways on the second floor are pretty narrow and I’d say that’s where most of the people congestion occurs, especially along the path to Golden Village. The floor tiles are *bling bling* sparkling, really suits the classy feel to the place. We had actually wanted to lay some *bling bling* tiles in our new house, but it’s really expensive. It’s hard to imagine the cost of laying the whole VivoCity with that *bling bling* tiles, I’d say the tiles alone costs at least a few hundred thousand dollars. There are some chairs for the shoppers but I’d think that isn’t enough for a weekend crowd. A shopping complex as big as this should cater enough seats for alot of tired shoppers.

Shopping: Well… this is one aspect that I think is lacking. Sure, there are many many shops there. But somehow, it feels like there isn’t much to see. I attribute that to poor space planning by the interior designers. With the numerous wide walkways and high ceilings, it gives the shopper a slight sense of disorientation or loss of focus. When I walked into Tangs, the overall layout and choice of colour themes doesn’t draw my attention nor capture my shopping mood. The feeling I get is that I’m still walking along the walkway and I just feel like continuing to walk. It does not feel like I’m in this departmental store and I should buy something from there. Same thing happens for Giant. It just doesn’t capture the retail mood of a shopper. I think one of the shops that did well in terms of creating the right mood is Best Denki. I hope more shops can do the same in the near future. Now, Daiso seems abit out of place in VivoCity. Remember that Daiso IMM is this big megastore with tons of household items in a pretty comfortably spaced store layout. However, Daiso VivoCity is small, and cramped. It doesn’t live up to the name of VivoCity in that sense, so yet again it doesn’t provide a good shopping experience. There’s some sense of discontinuity going from shop to shop.

Haha… I seemed full of complains about the place hor. Let me summarize. Mainly, I think VivoCity is a novelty and it stops at that. The interior design does have a majestic feel to it but the space planner failed to create a shopping mood in the mind of the shopper. I feel like VivoCity is a big place to shop but nothing much that I can buy. It just doesn’t feel like a one-stop shopping mall that I can get everything that I want. Simply, if I want to buy my Chinese New Year clothes, I wouldn’t think if going to VivoCity simply becos I dun think I’ll be able to get anything there. I dunno… maybe that’s the feel that the management wish to achieve for their shopping mall.

-Dear1