My first full-time job after completing my tertiary degree was with Intel's Penang Design Center in 1995. The first meeting I had with my then manager was lunch! After that I was introduced to the "family" and was shocked when I was given a one person team to lead! Even though I had to manage only one person I had no prior people/project management experience and I was given a "though nut." It was a pretty frightening experience to say the least. Things got worst when my manager got me to conduct interviews. I can still remember very vividly that I was more frighten than the interviewee during the first interview I conducted! I was really out of my league and the whole non-technical experience was very daunting.
As you would expect of a PhD, I started to learn as much as I could about people management. New to Penang (an island on the north-western corner of peninsular Malaysia) and unfamiliar where the libraries are, I hit the bookstore. I would go to a bookstore almost every weekend while I wait for my wife to finish her shopping. I would browse around the management section looking for any thing that has the word "nut" in the title! I was, after all, looking for a way to crack a though nut in the office! Interestingly, I did find a book about managing though nut or something to that effect but that was not a good book. I read a lot of management books that year and that was how my interest in people and project management got started.
During the early phase, it felt as though there would be a set of management principles that would make me a good manager if I were to master them. Over time, I realized that I was not able to find any! Not that I did not observe any good management principles but that each of them seems to be valid conditionally. In other words, there seems to be no universal management principle, or set of principles, that holds true all the time regardless. Which gives me the impression of a rule base system. In other words, a management principle comes with boundary condition when it is applicable and you need to be aware of these boundary conditions.
A real life example is as follows. An associate once read a book about the Chicago Bull and he was telling me how the team don't seem to have a specific leader. He was applying that principle to a young organisation he was starting up and didn't understand why it was not working despite the fact that he has been telling all his guys that the Chicago Bull, a very successful team, is not always lead by one person! This person's team is not matured enough to have his organisation operate at the level of the Chicago Bull and he didn't understand it.
Another was this principle of being open and transparent with your people. I once met this very successful operation manager at an American MNC in Malaysia. Curious what her secret was I asked her to share what makes her such a successful operation manager. One of the things she shared was this. She said, if you are grooming someone for a more senior position, keep that to yourself. She was telling me how having an open and transparent policy regarding such topic backfired on her.
In summing, management principles and many learnings in life are rule based. You need to know the condition upon which a particular principle is applicable. Now at this point, I am very conscious of the previous post in this blog and may someday produce a list of principles I just said don't exists!
Tuesday, 24 July 2007
Monday, 23 July 2007
Stages of learning
Whenever we embark on a journey to learn something, we go through a series of progression as our understanding matures. The best description of this that I have come across was from a book about Bruce Lee where there was this one paragraph describing how Bruce interprets a punch at different stages of his mastery of the martial art. It goes something like this. During the early stages when he first started to learn martial art, he viewed a punch as just a punch. But as he gains insight into the art, he viewed a punch as more than just a punch. Finally, when he mastered the art, he said a punch is just a punch!
This may explain why some novice think too highly of themselves and those with moderate level of knowledge disregard advice of experts!
This may explain why some novice think too highly of themselves and those with moderate level of knowledge disregard advice of experts!
Tuesday, 17 July 2007
The purpose of a tertiary degree
This ought to have been the 2nd posting for this blog!
I went to Monash University in 1984 to do a combined B.Sc./B.E. degree majoring in Computer Science and Electrical & Computer Systems Engineering. During my first year, I went about my studies the way typical of most Malaysian. I was, after all, a product of the Malaysian education system at that point. About mid way through my second year, it struck me that the assignments for computer science seems to get a lot more complex each time. Not only that, I learned that tutors for first and second year where PhD and Masters degree students respectively. You are very much left to work out your own problem during your final year! In other words, you will be given more complex problem over time with less help/assistance. This is a very well structured system that prepare students to be ready to handle complex real world problem after graduation. I felt that each assignment gives us an opportunity to learn/practise problem solving skills and I grow/progress by me learning how to get my head around these problems.
I went to Monash University in 1984 to do a combined B.Sc./B.E. degree majoring in Computer Science and Electrical & Computer Systems Engineering. During my first year, I went about my studies the way typical of most Malaysian. I was, after all, a product of the Malaysian education system at that point. About mid way through my second year, it struck me that the assignments for computer science seems to get a lot more complex each time. Not only that, I learned that tutors for first and second year where PhD and Masters degree students respectively. You are very much left to work out your own problem during your final year! In other words, you will be given more complex problem over time with less help/assistance. This is a very well structured system that prepare students to be ready to handle complex real world problem after graduation. I felt that each assignment gives us an opportunity to learn/practise problem solving skills and I grow/progress by me learning how to get my head around these problems.
This last point is so obvious yet it caused a paradigm shift in me. From that point on, I see a tertiary degree not where one learn to become an architect, a doctor. an engineer, a lawyer or whatever it is that you are studying to be. But a program where one learn:
- how to learn new things
- how to think
- how to solve problem
It is not that you will not learn these skills if you do not know this while doing your degree. You do. Just that I believe one would missed opportunities to purposely sharpen these skills further during that time. Why do I see these to be so important? Well, I see that we all have to solve problem everyday. Even factory operators will need to solve problems. That is what differentiate us from a machine including those with artificial intelligence!
Monday, 16 July 2007
Baker feeds the world
I love bread. I love bread so much I marry a baker's daughter! And as bakers it was of no surprise to me when I heard my in-laws saying "bakers feed their community!" I paid no attention to this until one morning when I couldn't find anything for breakfast!
Between early 1997 to late 1999, I was involved with a start up in Shah Alam (the capital city of Selangor situated some 25 kilometer west of Kuala Lumpur). After sometime, I became fairly familiar with that area near my office and would normally stop by this shop on my way to work for a pau (Chinese style bun) or two. There was this one morning; I was very hungry and of all mornings this store was closed that morning. Being the only store in that vicinity that is normally open for breakfast I had to go hungry that morning. The value of the service this little store provides is very much felt around the tummy that morning! Pau-maker, or baker for that matter, do feed the community!
Actually, be it a baker, a hair stylist, an auto repairer, sparky, plumber or a garbologist, the contribution of all honest citizen in whatever role they play in their community should be valued.
Between early 1997 to late 1999, I was involved with a start up in Shah Alam (the capital city of Selangor situated some 25 kilometer west of Kuala Lumpur). After sometime, I became fairly familiar with that area near my office and would normally stop by this shop on my way to work for a pau (Chinese style bun) or two. There was this one morning; I was very hungry and of all mornings this store was closed that morning. Being the only store in that vicinity that is normally open for breakfast I had to go hungry that morning. The value of the service this little store provides is very much felt around the tummy that morning! Pau-maker, or baker for that matter, do feed the community!
Actually, be it a baker, a hair stylist, an auto repairer, sparky, plumber or a garbologist, the contribution of all honest citizen in whatever role they play in their community should be valued.
Wednesday, 4 July 2007
Asking about someone's family
Recently when I was facilitating a brainstorming session for a sister organisation, they were comparing the closeness of their team in Malaysia with their counterpart in Costa Rica. It was mentioned during the discussion that their Costa Rican counterpart are such a tight team they will ask about their colleague's family member by name. In other words, knowing someone family member and asking about them is taken to show closeness and caring.
I know of this businessman in Malaysia who would almost always ask you how you are and your family after the customary greetings. He was in San Jose for to meet someone he had been communication via email and phone up to that point and he did his usual and asked "How is your family?" To his surprise, he was asked "Which one?!" It turns out that this person has a few!
Now here comes a burnt finger! Most parents love to talk about their kids or ask if you have kids. I was at a birthday party sometime last year and there was this man carrying a little child. I have met this man a few times before but don't really know him. I assumed that it is his kid he is carrying and was trying see if the kid does look like this man and was about to make the remark that the kid looks like him when he frantically waved his hand and said, "This is not my child. We are not related!" It turns out that the child was his wife's nephew! I would be implying an affair had I said it! Very awkward and embarrassing. I was very lucky this man just laugh at the whole situation. It could have been worst than a burnt finger. I shouldn't have made the assumption and could have just ask if that is his child!
I know of this businessman in Malaysia who would almost always ask you how you are and your family after the customary greetings. He was in San Jose for to meet someone he had been communication via email and phone up to that point and he did his usual and asked "How is your family?" To his surprise, he was asked "Which one?!" It turns out that this person has a few!
Now here comes a burnt finger! Most parents love to talk about their kids or ask if you have kids. I was at a birthday party sometime last year and there was this man carrying a little child. I have met this man a few times before but don't really know him. I assumed that it is his kid he is carrying and was trying see if the kid does look like this man and was about to make the remark that the kid looks like him when he frantically waved his hand and said, "This is not my child. We are not related!" It turns out that the child was his wife's nephew! I would be implying an affair had I said it! Very awkward and embarrassing. I was very lucky this man just laugh at the whole situation. It could have been worst than a burnt finger. I shouldn't have made the assumption and could have just ask if that is his child!
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