What the Quran meant and what it matters - reading notes

What the Quran meant and why it matters

By Garry Willis

This book provides an entrance into understanding what it is really inside the Quran.

The first part of the book deals with how the western world has misinterpreted the message of Islam to promote an agenda.

Many people talk about Islam without having read the quran

The Quran has many parallels with the Torah and the Gospel

The Quran came after Mohammad, that is after the year 632.

The Quran is a more inclusive book than the Torah and the gospel. 

All believers, this includes Christians and Jews are the sons of god. By believers it is understood, those who believe in one good.

The Quran mentions many prophets: Adam, Jesus, Moses, Mary, Abraham, and of course Muhammad. All have equal importance.

Jihad = Zeal = strive for excellence. It some cases it is confused with fanatic.

The book draw some parallels with the crusades and other extrem interpretations of the law of god under the Christian church.

Shari'ah 

It is only mentioned one in the Quran and it means to travel the Right Path.

The Quran down not call for any laws or gives detail of what this mean.

The book critiques how the USA government tries to prohibit "Shar'iah law" without knowing what really means or is.

The Quran also did not indicate anything about the hijab.

The book does indicate that proper attire has to be worn any mean and women. 

Also westerners misinterpreted a verse about attacking infidels. First, infidels are the ones who do not believe I god, these are not the Christians or Jews, but the ones believing in more than one god. There is no mention of Holy war in the Quran.

The Japanese Lover By Isabel Allende

By Isabel Allende

Excellent love story of a Jewish woman, who lived her entire life in love with her Japanese lover, who she met when both were kids.

A love kept in secret by her fear of facing the class differences between both of them.

Alma dedicated her life to her lover, but in doing so, she had to marry her best friend, Ethanael, who is a very successful lawyer, gay, who loved her unconditionally and who dies of Aids. An illness he got as a result of his homosexuality.

The story also has another character, Irina, an immigrant from Romania, who helps at a nursing house, where she met Alma. Irina became excellent friends with Alma and worked as her secretary. By doing so, she learned about Almas's history and passion for his lover Ichimei. Irina has her demons from the past: she was abused when she arrived to The USA by her father in law (child pornography). Irina falls in love with Seth, Almas's grandson.

The story narrates the difficulties   American families of Japanese origin faces during the Second World War. They were discriminated, label as enemies of the state and sent to concentration camps.

Isabel Allende's writting is engaging and this is a good read for anybody 

Quote about wisdom

"books are the ever- burning lamps of accumulated wisdom"

-G. W. Curtis

The 14 key points of the Toyota Way

In the Book the Toyota Way, Jeffery Likers describe the following 14 key point's of the Toyota Management System


1- Do business with a long term philosophy rather than constantly driving short term gains.
2- Grow leaders from inside your organization.
3- Create a “learning organization” that is continuously improving.
4- Drive decisions through consensus.
5- Empower employees to stop production to fix problems.
6- To understand issues, go see them for yourself rather than simply getting reports from others.
7- Respect your suppliers and network of supporters.
8- Create continuous product flow to expose quality problems.
9- Create pull systems to regulate work.
10- Create visual inventory control.
11- Level the work load so groups are equally balanced.
12- Use reliable and stable technology.
13- Employ exceptional people.
14- Standardize processes and tasks.

Please note that from these key points we can identify 6 that relate directly with employee development:


1. Base all operations and activities on fostering the long-term future of the company,
not on achieving short-term profits or immediate stock value. Invest heavily in employees, their careers, their training and their future.

2. Standardize whenever possible. Empower workers to perform as trusted partners so
they continuously perfect all of the company’s production and work processes. This
will increase efficiency and reduce waste.

3. Ensure that all managers and supervisors thoroughly understand their responsibilities
and can capably instruct their subordinates. Being a good teacher is the most important job requirement for individuals in positions of authority.

4. Establish teams of highly trained employees who can work together seamlessly.

5. Understand that suppliers represent a vital link in your production chain. Help your independent contractors develop and train their employees so they can support your overall production mission.

6. Plan and organize everything so that learning and improving are constant processes
for workers, supervisors and executives.

is your company following any of these?

Summary of the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

This book written by Stephen R. Covey is an excellent read for everybody. It does not matter if your are looking for way to improve the way you lead people, or if you are trying to improve your relationships with others, this book is a must read for everybody. The style and applicability of all the habits described in the book put this book very high in the ranking of "must read" books.

This book premise is to choose a solid base of Values that will make your habits.

Values like integrity, dignity, quality, service, patience, perseverance, caring, courage should guide our lives.

The importance of developing your character is a key message of this book. You can develop your character by continuously and consistently conduct yourself by the set of values previously mentioned.

Humans are what we habitually do, therefore we need to adopt productive habits. Covey defines Excellence as a habit not as an aptitude.

In previous post we have talk about the importance of setting up goals, Covey goes a step forward by clarifying the importance of writing a mission statement for your life. This mission statement will help clarify your principles and the set of goals that you are going to set for yourself.

Successfull relations are built upon trust.

Covey also gives great examples and explanations about balancing all the aspects of your life, spirit, mind and body as well as a balance among all your relationships.


The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People are:

1- Be Proactive: This means taking always the initiative.

2- Begin with the end in mind: This refers to focusing on your goals .(you can refer to this post in order to learn more about how to manage your time to accomplish your goals).

3- Put First things first: This refers to setting up priorities.

4- Think Win/Win: We only win when others win.

5- Seek first to understand then to be understood: Probably one of the most important habits (at least in my opinion). In order to have effective communication we need to learn to listen first.

6- Synergize: Cooperation is stronger than individualism.

7- Sharpen the saw: Always keep improving. If you do not have time to sharpen your saw, because you are to busy sawing trees, you will never be able to do a good job.


Next Post I will summarize the first habit. Be proactive

Made-to-Order Lean: Excelling in a High Mix, Low Volume Environment

One of the more important things in being able to judge how effective the lean tools can be, consists in reading and participating in events that talk about this topic.

 

I got this information from a friend that is becoming a lean expert. This book seems to have valuable information for order fulfilling processes. I have not read it yet, so I can not share my opinion right now.

 

John Shook describes the book as :

"Finally, here is a practical guide to simply introduce the Toyota Production System (TPS) in job shop environments...If you own, manage, or work in a job shop and will simply give a try to the ideas, tools and principles described in this book, I predict you will find great success and will refer to this book over and over for years."

So I think I will give it a try,,,,, if you read it, please let me know what you think about the book..

Here the description about the book:

Toyota Production System methods have rendered remarkable results in high-volume manufacturing plants, but they have not been fully understood and correctly applied in high-mix, low-volume environments. While lean principles do apply, the implementation methods and tools must be adapted and alternate methods embraced in a low-volume environment.

Made-to-Order Lean is specifically geared for manufacturers that have hundreds to thousands of active part numbers with few or no ongoing forecasted volumes, and for job shops that build only to order. The primary focus is eliminating nonvalue-added activities and instituting improvements on the most repetitive jobs - a strategy that gives you more time to produce your low-volume work or one-offs.

This workbook is:

• Based on Toyota methodology and explains how to implement critical adaptations to high-mix, low-volume manufacturing.
  
• Fully illustrated with charts and photos from successful applications in low-volume environments.
  
• Comprehensive, including an Implementation Flow Chart that will help you customize for your shop.
  
• Written in a simple, logical fashion by a former Toyota employee with more than 15 years of hands-on experience.