…kelvin lui
I am a graduate of of the Division of Engineering Science at the University of Toronto, specializing in Manufacturing Systems Engineering (Nsci 0T9+PEY).
Originally from Vancouver, I enjoy the fast-paced lifestyle of Toronto, yet reminisce about the beaches and ski slopes of the West Coast. I miss using the mountains in Vancouver as a natural compass (the mountains are always indicate North there), but have found a substitute in the CN tower (the tower is always South of you here, unless you live in some parts of Downtown…).
I enjoy playing the piano and cooking. Should I ever win the lottery, I will spend the rest of my life serving my stomach.
On my occasional free time, I like to spend them with non-profit organizations; more about them can be found in the “passion” section.
…this website
This website is a result of a commitment I made with myself to develop one trait and one habit.
During my winter semester in 2009, I had the opportunity to enroll in a very memorable course, (APS1010 – Cognitive and Psychological Foundations of Effective Leadership). Our instructor, Robin Sacks, challenged us to reflect on our own leadership styles, and pinpoint specific things we will like to improve to enable further personal growth.
In my first paper for the course, I reflected on one trait and one habits I will like to develop:
1) Reflect – the habit of internalizing thoughts and ideas
A flip through my personal notebooks throughout university reveals a sad state. That is not due to the nature of the content (In fact, the books are filled with wonderful new ideas I have heard from conferences or friends), but because I can’t remember any of them. This sadly demonstrates that I have not taken the time to reflect and internalize the ideas; it remains on a piece of paper rather than in my mind where it can influence my future thought process.
To combat this, I am committing to reflect after each particularly memorable experience (whether it is a conversation, or a lecture…etc), and internalize the key messages. This website will hopefully hold me accountable to this commitment.
2) Future-looking – the ability to spot, aggregate and leverage societal trends to drive social change.
I was fortunate enough to attend a seminar at the Center for Social Innovation hosted by Uffe, the founder of the KaosPilot School – a radical, degree-granting higher-education institute in Denmark for aspiring social entrepreneur. Titled “Innovative Leadership in Uncertain Times”, Uffe’s talk centered on how organizations must notice the faintest trends in society (whether they be social, political or otherwise), analyze their potential, and use them to drive social innovation in uncertain time periods.
He used a wonderful surfing metaphor to bring this all home:
| Surfing | Leading a Social Innovation |
| Where are the waves? | What are the next big trends in society? How do you separate the trends from the background noise? |
| What kind of surf board will you use to ride the wave? | What type of organization, what kind of leadership structure, what kind of vision will the organization carry, to allow it to leverage the up-coming trends to initiative social change? |
| How do you balance on your board? | Where to find, or how to develop the competency and qualifications required for the organization to be prepared to ride this wave and succeed in bringing sustainable change? |
That exactly is what I want to develop. The ability to notice the slightest trends, and use them to understand and influence some (hopefully beneficial) changes.
By creating this website, I am encouraging myself to be more attentive to my surroundings, and hopefully develop this sorely-lacking trait along the way.
..conversation
So this is the origin of this website in a nutshell. It is intended to be a platform where I can reflect on my ideas, but more importantly, where I can hear other opinions regarding the topics I post about. If you stumble across anything here you disagree with or will like to add to, please leave your thoughts! Where else can I start looking for the next big idea?