The Reader

See-feel-change

Let me share with you this interesting article.It applies to a 300lb lady who felt ugly and humilated,but it also applies to organization and nation as well.The principle was articulated by Prof John Kotter from HBS.Below is one comment of the mentioned article:

Spot on! We decide with our emotions, not our neo-cortex. We all KNOW we should stop smoking, lose weight, exercise more, stay in school, avoid drugs, etc, etc., but knowledge alone is not enough. when we FEEL the effects of our decisions, then we can change. 

David Kaiser, Ph.D. 
Executive Coach and CEO
www.DarkMatterConsulting.com

 

My personal experience confirmed the above 'combo process'.It is as simple as our 3 in 1 Nescafe-where I can make my own morning drink;-)

Malaysia is embarking on many transformation programs.Let us see,feel and we shall embrace the change,insyaAllah.

What is your passion?

Do you know what is your passion? if you donot know,please read this article.

In my case,I only discover only after eight years or working as a civil engineer at JKR.When I was the chief structural engineer for hospital projects I found out that I did not much interest in the engineering part but more in the management of the projects.From JKR,I opted to join Kumpulan Perangsang Selangor as a project manager.Later I joined a construction company and later joined my relative property development company.

As the years went by,my engineering interest faded away and I ended becoming the CEO of  a listed company on KLSE-mainly corporate management. From my personal experience,I noticed that my 'passion' changed over the 20 years from engineering to management.In the last 10 years, my 'passion' moved from management to seeking higher knowledge in Islam studies.However, to foot my bills(earning my living),I have to work and use my core competencies in project/general management which I have acquired over the last three decades.

To younger men and women out there, please take some time to comtemplate as early as possible to identify your passion(work or play) so that you have more time to become experts and enjoy your lives.By the way,I discovered mountain biking more than 10 years ago but only became active last year.As they say,it is better late than never..similarly about photography.

Looking for an old Telekom phone

First,let me clarify that I am not a collector of old or antique phones.The reason I wanted an old Telekom Malaysia phone is because when I terminated my house phone line yesterday,I was told by the officer that I had to return the old phone given by Jabatan Telekom to me 25 years ago.I can't remember how the phone looked like.When I told my 21 years son whether he has seen a phone with a Telekom logo,he jokingly said to me that he was not born yet at the time!

Over the last 25 years,I think I have changed my phone three times.Only God knows where I kept or threw away the old Jabatan Telekom.When I told the officer who processed my application to terminate the service that I can't locate my phone,she told me a fine of RM66 will be deducted from my deposit.Considering the old phone has no book value at all by now and I have been a customer for the past 25 years,why not Telekom waive the fine for old time sake?Anyway, no body wants that type of phone anymore and it will cost Telekom storage cost for no benefits at all.

By the way,if you happen to have an old Telokom phone to give away or to sell for less than RM20,please let me know so that I could save RM66.

PS: Now, my problem is solved when MHI has offered to give me his old Telekom phone.Thank you my friend.

Book:Do It Tomorrow

Just came back yesterday from Hari Raya Puasa holidays.I am back to KL today.

The book as mentioned above is a time management book written by Mark Forster.I bought it for RM64.80 on 12th September and finished reading it a few days ago.You can read the summary and comments here.

IMHO,it is worth reading it and I am giving it a try to improve my time management.To execute the system,I am using using my paper based monologue dairy and a unicorn colour notebook(that looks almost like a molekine A6 notebook but costs RM12.90) to write my daily task lists(closed,open,current initiatives).

Everyone of us has our own 'system' and style but lately I am straying away from my goals and objectives.That was the main reason why I am testing this new rationale and methodology.I hope it works for me and for you if you wish to improve your time management system.As for me growing older and more and more of my friends pass away,I have to do what really matters to me and my stakeholders(family and friends).

Below is a photo I snapped at chabang 4 Panji on the way to Airport to pick up my son on the first day of Eidil Fitri at Tanah Rendah Sekebun Bunga..

Subject,verb and object

Below is an excerpt of an interesting interview of CEO of Delta Air.For complete write-up, click here. Two things that caught my attention.First,Mr Richard Anderson uses moleskine.Second,he emphasized the the importance of effective communication. According to him,a thought could only be complete if you have all the three-subject,verb and object.

In my profession of project management, communication is critical.I remember reading the introduction to a project management book and the author wrote that if you have got time to read one chapter from this book,then read Communication managment.Period.

Q. Are you a list keeper?

A. I use Moleskines. It’s just lists of things. Sometimes I’ll just sit down and write what I’m thinking about things, because I’m not a PowerPoint person. I’ll start at the upper left corner of the page and start writing, in complete thoughts, what I think. I have a long paper that I’m writing about our marketing strategy.

Q. What would you like to see business schools teach more?

A. When you’re managing as much change as corporations globally must deal with today, the ability to communicate and communicate effectively is so important that it ought to be a core capability in a business school curriculum. We measure, study, quantify, analyze every single piece of our business. Business schools in the United States have done a phenomenal job of creating that capability. But then you’ve got to be able to take all that data and information and transform it into change in the organization and improvement in the organization and the formulation of the business strategy.

You’ve got to execute, and that human factor part is important. I know it’s intangible and it’s not like finance where 2 plus 2 is 4. I don’t know whether it can be taught, but it can certainly be studied.

Note: Prince2 defines project management is the management of change.

Delayed projects..

One of the reasons why some projects got delayed because some people wanted that way so that they could stay on longer;-) Tugas belum selesai..

Penny wise,Pound foolish..

Last night I got hungry at about 9pm.While waiting for the digital photos to be printed,I used the waiting time  to get a dinner at KLCC.I was alone in the restaurant because it was well passed the dinner time or no one like to eat at  this shop.Anyway,I ordered a glass of warm water,main dish and a soup.After a few minutes, a waiter came and served me the soup.As I was hungry,I immediately took a spoonful of soup.I nearly threw it out.It was as cool as a cucumber! That really made me angry.Hungry man can easily be angry man.When I informed a waiter about it, he came to take it away and apologised.

While waiting for the main dish to arrive, I took my notebook to jot a few personal notes.Even though I ws the only customer,the noise level was like pasar borong! I heard the waiters and waitresses were talking loudly among themselves about 3 metres away from me.It really irritated me as I wanted some quiet and peace while I am having my dinner alone.That really spoilt my appetite and a good recipe  for my dieting.

When the main dish arrived,I quickly ate whatever I can eat and on the way out to pay for the bill,I got another shock-three in a row! The bill was almost double than what I estimated. On checking, I saw someone double added the cost of my main dish!I showed the bill to the manager and isntead of making the chnages,he was looking for a culprit to blame him or her.A few moments later, I was given another bill.After paying for my bill,I gave the manager a piece of my mind and told him I won't be coming to his shop again.

What has Penny Wise,Pound Foolish has got to do with the above episode?

The management spent nothing less than RM500,000 for a food outlet in KLCC.Later, the store  manager was given untrained or low quality staff to serve the customers.The result?

Customers who had bad experience like me won't come back and may not be going to another outlet of the same brand name.Worse,he will go around telling his friend s or writes in his blog;-)

Some of you may be asking what is the name of the restaurant?I am sorry I can't let you know because I prefer to keep it a secret.

PMI Global Congress @ KLCC

Passion of The Mission

Let me share a few points I read from PMI Today from the speech given by General Colin Powell last October at Denver,USA in front of 4100 PMI members.He talked about his leadership experience related to managing projects:

1. The purpose of leadership is to put your followers in the best possible positions.

2. The best leaders get everyone to buy into the passion of the mission,and infectious passion makes it work.Be the example.

3. A leader displays excellence,high standards,moral and physical courage, and integrity.Your word is your honour.

4. You must inspire rather  than motivate.Get your team to be self motivated.

He also urged attendees to take care of their 'troops':"Give them the training,skills and tools to accomplish their mission".

By the way, have you heard your boss saying to you ,"Just  get the job done.I don't care how you do it!".He is the boss and certainly not a leader.

PMI will be organising its regional seminar at KLCC on 9-11 th February,2009.See you there.

By-election is a project!

By definition, a project is a temporary endeavour undertaken to create a unique product or service(result).The coming by-election in Kuala Terengganu meets the definition.Winning is everything!It is hard work all day,right from the nomination day until the end of election day.

My blog shall remain apolitical and here I am not talking about politics but about the project management aspects of this by-election.There are a lot of things we can learn from a by-election.On the nomination day, we can see all the heavy weights or senior leaders of the parties will be with their candidates.They are the project champions of their respective party.Each of the them will act like a project director.They set the guidelines, the rules of engagement and allocate resources.The project managers normally are the candidates themselves.He must set up his election machinery,empower them with adequate resources to get their jobs done.

I got some experience in managing a by-election more than 10 years ago when my brother was selected to contest a parliamentary seat in a general election.It was sleepless nights for me and my family members and friends-very taxing in all aspects-mental,emotional and physical.It is not my intention to write my experience using this posting, but I just want to high light the importance of using project management knowledge and good practice.It will not ensure the candidate will get elected,but it will reduce his chance to fail.In any election,communication is very,very important because there are so many activities,events and decisions being done and made.From project management perspective, the project manager has  to plan,monitor and control on a daily basis.When problems arise, decisions must be made almost immediately.

Another aspect is risk management.Anything can go wrong during the campaign days and on the election day.Just like a wedding,it may take six months of planning, but everything shall be revealed on the wedding day.Just like a wedding, if anything goes wrong,we don't have a second chance to do it again.

By the way, our lives are also projects.It has a start and a finish date,hence temporary,unique and to provide a service.

According to PMI,project management is the application of knowledge,skills,tools and techniques applied to project activities to meet project requirement.