Kindness and Compassion in Business

 

The two-day conference titled "企业精英生命成长营" which focused on how to grow your inner-self gave me a rare insight into the application of kindness and compassion as business values. The conference attracted thousands of businessmen and industry leaders with a small delegation from Singapore. 

They did not come to talk about business but to learn and share how the values of kindness and compassion not only enriched their personal lives but how employing these same values in their businesses helped them reap even greater returns (福报). 

There was sharing by 3 panels of speakers over the 2 day period and many in the audience, including men who own listed companies, were moved to tears when the speakers spoke of their personal tragedies in their lives and how major transformations took place after they learned to be more kind and compassionate towards others. 

One CEO spoke of her management issues that led to her factory workers in China going on strikes and complaints to the labour authorities for being overworked and underpaid. Another spoke of how her bitter relationship with her father made a dramatic change after 40 years. Yet another shared how she overcame her long depression and raised her daughter suffering from down's syndrome. 

The message was simple enough. Kindness begets kindness and many of us are so fixated on judging others and not knowing how to feel gratitude. And I will be sharing their stories with you.

Profile of Tan Lam Siong 陈南松

Mr Tan Lam Siong (陈南松) is a practicing lawyer. He was born in Singapore on 24 November 1960 (age 54) and received his education at Pearls’ Hill School (1967 – 1972), Bukit Ho Swee Secondary School (1973 – 1976) and St. Andrew’s School (1977-1978). He completed his national service as a tank commander in 40 SAR and graduated with a law degree from the National University of Singapore in 1985. He is married with three children. His hobbies include reading and acting in television dramas. He is also a qualified clinical hypnotherapist, licensed tourist guide and museum docent. 

[Lawyer and Mediator] 

Mr Tan holds academic qualifications in law, education, psychology and clinical hypnotherapy. He has been in continuous legal practice in Singapore since 1986 and has experience in a wide field of legal work which includes arbitration, civil, commercial, corporate, criminal, intellectual, property and family law. He has been in continuous legal practice for the last 30 years and runs his own partnership law firm, Temple Counsel LLP. 

He is an accredited mediator with the Singapore Mediation Centre and an Associate Mediator at the State Courts. He is also a Community Mediator with the Community Mediation Centre, Consumers' Association and a member of the Inquiry Panel of the Law Society. He is effectively bilingual in English and Mandarin and conversant in the major local Chinese dialects. 

[Committee Member and Personality] 

Mr Tan has been involved in community services and social work since his undergraduate days. Over the years, he has dedicated his time to a number of organizations, including counselling at the Samaritans of Singapore and mediating at the Community Mediation Centre, Consumers’ Association of Singapore and State Courts. He also sits in the Consumers' Association's Education Sub-com and has given free talks on mediation and consumer laws. He was an active parents’ support group chairman for many years, MOE Parent Ambassador and a member of a school advisory committee. In 2011, he received a Service to Education Award from the Ministry of Education for his volunteer services in education. 

He has also contributed his time to music groups and sports associations and has held appointments as volunteer director and honorary secretary. He has given free radio talks on legal matters and appeared on television talk shows. He has a strong passion for life-long learning, especially in the area of human thinking and behavior and earned his BSc (Psych) when he was 48 years old, his DipHyp in clinical hypnotherapy at 50 years old and his MEd (Tesol) when he was 52 years old. 

[Politician and Volunteer] 

Mr Tan became more intensely involved in volunteer work in 2012 and joined National Solidarity Party (NSP) in the same year. He became Secretary-General of NSP on 27 February 2015 and stepped down from the post on 15 June 2015. He quit NSP on 14 July 2015 to become an independent candidate. 

He is currently a volunteer legal adviser for several organizations, including Project Awareness and Happy People where he provides pro-bono legal services to the low-income families and needy people. He also promotes kindness and volunteerism, animal care and go green initiatives through his write-ups and videos.

[Social Media and Digital Platform]

Blog: http://tanlamsiong.blogspot.sg/
YouTube: http://goo.gl/Yqh2Te
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TanLamSiong
Hashtag: #TanLamSiong #陈南松 #TLS #Politician #LifestylePersonality

My Days As A Museum Docent

Having lived in Singapore from the day I was born, I did not know how much I knew about my country's architecture, places of worship, landmarks and historical sites. 

In 2008, I decided to embark on a re-discovery of Singapore by setting myself the goal of obtaining a tourist guide licence from the Singapore Tourism Board ("STB"). Borrowing materials from a friend who had been through the tourist guide training course conducted by TMIS (Tourist Management Institute of Singapore), I set out on an intensive self-study of all the relevant materials and spent time visiting many interesting sites to familiarise myself with their history and importance.

When I thought I was ready, I booked a test date and succeeded in clearing the theory and practical tests set by TMIS at first attempt. I then went on to pass STB's practical test as a first-time candidate. This self-study pathway to a tourist guide licence was not commonly undertaken and I do not know of anyone else who has done so. I attributed my success to my deep personal interest in history and culture, a lot of hard work and of course, the useful tips that my tourist guide friend kindly provided me.

After obtaining my STB Tourist Guide Licence in 2008, I became inquisitive about the history and culture of the civilisations in Asia. I went on to sign up as a trainee docent with the Friends of the Museums ("FOM") and attended regular weekly classes, lectures and gallery visits for a few months. My fellow trainees were expatriate housewives and there were hardly any men. I had to pay for the training course but it brought me immense satisfaction. The course provided detailed information about archaeology, history and all the major cultural practices and beliefs in Asia. I finally completed the course to become a volunteer museum docent at the Asian Civilisations Museum (ACM). In my batch, I happened to be the only thorn among the roses.

I guided at least twice a month, bringing visitors to all the galleries in ACM. I advanced to join the training team to mentor and assess new museum docents who were still mostly expatriate housewives. I participated in research work on new exhibitions and contributed an article to The Passion magazine in 2011 published by FOM (Friends of the Museums). I gave talks to trainee docents and did a two hour presentation on Chinese Ceramics which was open to public at the ACM.

I later decided to expand my knowledge of Malay history and their progress in Singapore. Joining the MHC (Malay Heritage Centre) gave me a deep insight into the history and lives of early Malays and I graduated as a MHC docent. I guided for a while in MHC and continued to do so in ACM as well until I finally stopped my docent activities in 2013.

There is no end to learning and we should never stop doing so. Learning is a source of life and life is about learning. Let's live to learn and learn to live.