NAAAP President, Brad Baldia, visits Seattle members

NAAAP Seattle Summer Picnic (l to r) Claire Ding (Secretary), Lloyd Hara (King County Assessor), Bob Hasegawa (11th District House Representative), Gil Gido, Vanessa Diego (member), Brad Baldia (NAAAP President)

Brad Baldia, NAAAP's President based out of Philadelphia, paid us a visit making a special appearance at our annual member appreciation and membership drive picnic at Lake Boren park. His day-long visit was packfilled with meetings and phone calls including meetings with potential speakers and sponsors. Luckily for him, Seattle showed him alot of sun :).

Being President takes alot of preparation, you know, and from my witnessing of his actions, Brad's qualified. Brad's background includes attending The Hill School, an elite private boarding school in Pottstown, PA; receiving a  BA in English and Biology from Bucknell University and a Masters in Public Health from Temple University. In 1995, Brad served as a White House Intern in the Office of Presidential Personnel.

He currently works as the Director of the Southeast Philadelphia Collaborative. In addition, he works extensively with Asian community organizations on a local and national level, such as the Philadelphia Mayor’s Commission on Asian American Affairs and the National Association of Asian American Professionals (Brad is Founding President of the Philadelphia Chapter and was elected in August, 2006 as Executive Vice President of NAAAP National and National President & Chairman in August, 2008).

At the picnic, Brad spoke to our members on the benefits of being a NAAAP member and showed the bigger vision of NAAAP.  At the end of it all, it was exciting to have him here at least for a day and we wish his return soon.

Read about the event at the NAAAP Seattle Blog: http://naaap-seattle.blogspot.com/2010/07/politicians-presidents-and-butter-miso.html

Regards,
Gil Gido
NAAAP Seattle
President

Pivoting on People, Process, or Tool.

If you're like me, you're probably sitting on a problem right now. They're all around us. It's a natural occurrence in life.  Now what I'd like to offer you is a simple, yet effective means to problem solve and help you start thinking differently about your approach to problem solving.  And I say, "simple," because as you know the answer to the age old question of "how do you eat an elephant?" is not all at once, but rather a "bite at a time."

Once you realize you have a problem, you're going to size it up determining what's the impact to you and others and start thinking about solutions.  You're going to see if you've experienced a similar problem or if this problem is completely new. (Of course, I like the new problems :) )  You'll also start to think about what it'll cost and how much time you need. You'll also ask yourself, "what will it look like when the problem is solved?" Moreover, problem solving requires Creativity, Communication, Commitment, and Critical thinking --- the 4C's as I like to call them.

Starting to solve a problem is I think the most difficult part. At this point, your canvass is usually quite big with so many options to choose from, so what you can do is pivot on three areas: People, Process, or Tool.  This actually narrows your options very quickly. For example, when your problem deals with People, you can immediately take your problem to the person (s) that is (are) the cause of the problem, even if it might be you. Likewise, when your problem deals with Process, you can immediately review it and see if there are opportunities to make improvements. And when your problem deals with a Tool, you can immediately determine whether to fix, improve, eliminate or substitute it.

When you've identified the area you want to focus on, you will want to set goals and create a plan to solve (or resolve) it. I suggest you have many conversations with people to see what they think about your plan, too. You'll soon see your plan take shape building momentum. Continue then to take action on your plan. If you need additional resources, ask for them within your organization. If you hit a barrier (another problem) rethink your plan and again pivot on People, Process, and Tool. Before long, you'll have a resolution to your problem.   (If you want to know more about planning, then I've written about it in an earlier blog called, "Structures For FulFillment." You can read more about it there.)

In summary, I think problems can be difficult, but problems shouldn't necessarily be seen as a bad thing. As we grow and develop, we're likely to take on bigger problems that are matched up with our skills to solve. If you're not solving a problem matching your current skills, then you might consider taking on a bigger, more complex problem. If you've been tackling a problem for awhile now and haven't come up with a solution, give this approach a try.  See for yourself how quickly you can get past a point where you've been stuck.

Regards,
Gil Gido
NAAAP Seattle
President

Asians in Washington State

According to the latest (2008) census data, Asian Americans reporting a single race are 4.5% of the total U.S. population. In Washington State, the number of Asians comprise 8.2% of the state population. These numbers are reported in the latest report compiled by the Comission on Asian Pacific American Affairs (CAPAA) of Washington State. These numbers are very important as governments use them to allocate funds towards services serving Asians. Additional data for Asians in Washington State can be viewed at the CAPAA website.

Click here for the CAPAA report.

Regards,
Gil Gido
NAAAP Seattle
President