Chrysalising

Project Connect started because of what COVID-19 triggered for a friend, Lyna.

In Singapore, when we first went into DORSCON Orange, the situation of panic-buying hit the nation, as people went to supermarkets to buy the basic necessities. Lyna wondered empathetically, how this situation may or may not have impacted those who might have lesser access to the news, and also the physical and financial ability to purchase their necessities.

The initial intention was for us to go visit these households (one-room rental flats as well as the elderly who live alone), and have conversations with them, and provide them with the necessities. Before we could go into action, Circuit Breaker (Singapore's version of lockdown / movement control order) kicked in, and we shelved the idea for a while.

Skilio came along, and requested for support for their Skilio Industry Immersion Programme (SIIP), and we thought that it will be meaningful for the University students to get involved in this project. Even though they will still not be able to go door-to-door to speak with the initial target audience, they can now reach out to more diverse stratas in the population to learn about their experiences during this COVID-19 pandemic.

This project was borne out of the pandemic, because there seemed to be deeper issues that surfaced from the challenges that we saw through the behaviour of people around us. Like, what are people truly feeling, when they panicked bought from supermarkets? Like, how does the policies and announcements that government made, impacted people, in general? How were people truly coping?

The intention is to have such voices from the ground heard, rather than just be a statistic.

This particular episode might sound like it is spoken a lot slower, and with a lot more deliberation, as we were blessed and honoured to have a deaf participant on the "live" stream with us! So the slowing down of the speech is to allow for time for the translation to take place.

Thank you for your patience, to continue to listen to this podcast episode. It might sound a bit uncomfortable, and we appreciate you spending time with us, and learning together!

The Happiness Project is a passion project that was borne through a particularly difficult period of time.

This year, due to the pandemic, we have the blessing of 3 groups of University students, on the Skilio Industry Immersion Programme (SIIP), coming on board to do some ground-up research on what happiness means to Singaporeans.

This series is in honouring these students and their hard work in being a part of this project, and have done such amazing jobs in listening, asking effective questions and being present in conversations. It is heartening to also know that their perspectives and definitions of happiness have been enhanced, and that it has been a reflective process for both the interviewees and the interviewers through the process!

Project Connect started because of what COVID-19 triggered for a friend, Lyna.

In Singapore, when we first went into DORSCON Orange, the situation of panic-buying hit the nation, as people went to supermarkets to buy the basic necessities. Lyna wondered empathetically, how this situation may or may not have impacted those who might have lesser access to the news, and also the physical and financial ability to purchase their necessities.

The initial intention was for us to go visit these households (one-room rental flats as well as the elderly who live alone), and have conversations with them, and provide them with the necessities. Before we could go into action, Circuit Breaker (Singapore's version of lockdown / movement control order) kicked in, and we shelved the idea for a while.

Skilio came along, and requested for support for their Skilio Industry Immersion Programme (SIIP), and we thought that it will be meaningful for the University students to get involved in this project. Even though they will still not be able to go door-to-door to speak with the initial target audience, they can now reach out to more diverse stratas in the population to learn about their experiences during this COVID-19 pandemic.

This project was borne out of the pandemic, because there seemed to be deeper issues that surfaced from the challenges that we saw through the behaviour of people around us. Like, what are people truly feeling, when they panicked bought from supermarkets? Like, how does the policies and announcements that government made, impacted people, in general? How were people truly coping?

The intention is to have such voices from the ground heard, rather than just be a statistic.

Project Connect started because of what COVID-19 triggered for a friend, Lyna. 

In Singapore, when we first went into DORSCON Orange, the situation of panic-buying hit the nation, as people went to supermarkets to buy the basic necessities. Lyna wondered empathetically, how this situation may or may not have impacted those who might have lesser access to the news, and also the physical and financial ability to purchase their necessities. 

The initial intention was for us to go visit these households (one-room rental flats as well as the elderly who live alone), and have conversations with them, and provide them with the necessities. Before we could go into action, Circuit Breaker (Singapore's version of lockdown / movement control order) kicked in, and we shelved the idea for a while.

Skilio came along, and requested for support for their Skilio Industry Immersion Programme (SIIP), and we thought that it will be meaningful for the University students to get involved in this project. Even though they will still not be able to go door-to-door to speak with the initial target audience, they can now reach out to more diverse stratas in the population to learn about their experiences during this COVID-19 pandemic.

This project was borne out of the pandemic, because there seemed to be deeper issues that surfaced from the challenges that we saw through the behaviour of people around us. Like, what are people truly feeling, when they panicked bought from supermarkets? Like, how does the policies and announcements that government made, impacted people, in general? How were people truly coping?

The intention is to have such voices from the ground heard, rather than just be a statistic.

This is NOT the actual fireside chat session that we have with Professor Colin Beard, a national fellow with the Sheffield Hallam University in the UK.

This is more an introduction session to the fireside chats that are to follow.

Fireside chats are meant to be intimate sessions of conversations between those who attend, and a safe space for the participants to have conversations and share thoughts and ideas and concerns and questions. And thus, the actual conversations will never be published.

If this is a topic that is close to your heart, and feel that you would like to organise it for your community, you can drop us an email at [email protected] to get in touch! We'll be more than glad to help!

This week, we take a deeper dive into forming engaged and performing teams virtually.

Leveraging on the conversation from the previous weeks, about enhancing communication and engagement within teams, and how trust can be built / developed through the practice of transparency, responsibility and accountability, this week, we are talking about the next step forward : collaboration.

Collaboration is further reinforced during this period of time, as it is important peer to peer, team to team, organisation to organisation. It is the pivoting force, to move us ahead, and beyond this current crisis. If we can iron this aspect out, we are in for a good journey ahead!

An interesting conversation, conducted collaboratively with founders of 3 different companies, located both in Singapore and Malaysia. The pandemic provided opportunities for more cross-border collaborations, and this is the first experiment by us, amongst many more to come!

The Happiness Project is a passion project that was borne through a particularly difficult period of time.

This year, due to the pandemic, we have the blessing of 3 groups of University students, on the Skilio Industry Immersion Programme (SIIP), coming on board to do some ground-up research on what happiness means to Singaporeans.

This series is in honouring these students and their hard work in being a part of this project, and have done such amazing jobs in listening, asking effective questions and being present in conversations. It is heartening to also know that their perspectives and definitions of happiness have been enhanced, and that it has been a reflective process for both the interviewees and the interviewers through the process!

This week, we take a deeper dive into forming engaged and performing teams virtually.

Leveraging on the conversation from the previous week, about enhancing communication and engagement within teams, the importance of trust needs to be spoken about as well.

To develop trust, there needs to be transparency, responsibility and accountability. What does all these terms mean? How does one demonstrate transparency, responsibility and accountability while working virtually? How do team leaders support the team with structure? How do individuals in the teams see themselves, and be willing to be transparent, responsible and accountable?

An interesting conversation, conducted collaboratively with founders of 3 different companies, located both in Singapore and Malaysia. The pandemic provided opportunities for more cross-border collaborations, and this is the first experiment by us, amongst many more to come!

The Happiness Project is a passion project that was borne through a particularly difficult period of time.

This year, due to the pandemic, we have the blessing of 3 groups of University students, on the Skilio Industry Immersion Programme (SIIP), coming on board to do some ground-up research on what happiness means to Singaporeans.

This series is in honouring these students and their hard work in being a part of this project, and have done such amazing jobs in listening, asking effective questions and being present in conversations. It is heartening to also know that their perspectives and definitions of happiness have been enhanced, and that it has been a reflective process for both the interviewees and the interviewers through the process!

The Happiness Project is a passion project that was borne through a particularly difficult period of time.

This year, due to the pandemic, we have the blessing of 3 groups of University students, on the Skilio Industry Immersion Programme (SIIP), coming on board to do some ground-up research on what happiness means to Singaporeans.

This series is in honouring these students and their hard work in being a part of this project, and have done such amazing jobs in listening, asking effective questions and being present in conversations. It is heartening to also know that their perspectives and definitions of happiness have been enhanced, and that it has been a reflective process for both the interviewees and the interviewers through the process!