Terraza De Punta Fuego Resort, Batangas

Rainy morning greeted us as we geared up for a 2-day trip. A trip for family bonding!

My sisters (I have three sisters) and their respective families planned for a two-day bonding time with all of us at Terraza De Punta Fuego Resort, Batangas… not too far away from Manila — around 4-hour drive due to heavy traffic (2-hour drive without traffic). They rented a house.

I love road trips and the food stops along the way. It was foggy and rainy.

The first food stop — for lunch on our way to Punta Fuego — was a gastronomic delight! I was not able to take pictures of the food… I forgot… I was so famished.

My first impression of Terraza De Punta Fuego Resort was that of a property that has gone past its hey days — seen better days… but it is still worth the trip.

If I were the owner of Punta Fuego resort, I would do a relentless improvement to it.

The contrast to Punta Fuego vis-a-vis maintenance is Tagaytay highlands. Tagaytay highlands is a well-maintained place that gets better year over year — the owner got the relentless improvement mindset, I surmise.

Another contrast is Anvaya Cove… another well-maintained beach resort.

Both Tagaytay Highlands and Anvaya Cove — both we’ve been to before several times; Punta Fuego was new to us (hence the willingness to experiment on our part)  — are not too far away from Manila as well… so, it is a fair comparison at least vis-à-vis their respective distance from Manila.

At the rented house, my sisters cooked a lot of food served with various fruits!

We had fun – went swimming, grilled pork belly and stuffed milk fish, played cards with prizes, and sang “karaoke” style.

And we visited the beach on both days.

The second food stop — for lunch on our way home from Punta Fuego — was a gastronomic delight , again — in fact, much better than the first! At Balay Dako.

The third food stop — we bought Lanzones.

And Buko Pie (Coconut Pie).

What a memorable and remarkable trip!

Key Ideas:

• Nourish relationships and roots. Do the same with your teammates. Have lots of remarkable and memorable activities together — create that bond. Create that Esprit de corps. Having a sense of unity, common interests and responsibilities is paramount.
• Embrace constant and never-ending improvement. Be relentless! Be a constant gardener taking care of and improving the garden, otherwise, the “weeds” will take over. Punta Fuego could have used — still could use — this constant and never-ending improvement mindset. Apply this relentless improvement mindset — which is one of the four core values of SAFe —  at work and at home.

My succeeding posts are about my family’s travel to the Philippines and Australia… and we are taking SAFe and the Lean Agile Way of Working/Living with us… and see how others outside of the USA are doing with the Lean Agile Way of Working/Living. Each post will have a Key Idea for you to ponder upon if you wish.

There are many other ideas like this — short but sweet ideas —  in my new book, ‘SAFe (6.0) Is like …’ . It is available on Amazon… and it has reached ‘# 1 New Release’ several times! Check it out.