Several years back, I was working at a place where apathy amongst the workforce is fairly high. The mindset there can be summarized as "tell me where to stand and where to face!" In other words, there is virtually no initiative; no one wants to think anymore and people will only do what they are asked to. I even find myself behaving in a similar manner after being there for a while! I didn't understand why or what is the cause of such apathetic feelings amongst so many at that time. I didn't until about a year ago, where I noticed the same apathetic feeling arising in me after i was being blamed for something unfairly.
When a manager is not willing to accept responsibility and diverts blame to his/her people when things goes wrong, even when everyone were just following instructions from the manager, his/her people will soon learn that their manager will use them as human shield or punching bags when things goes wrong. I am very certain that such a manager will stand up to accept credits for what the team has accomplished instead of diverting the credit back to the team. Combined this immature self centered behaviour with the tendency to blame others unfairly for everything including such things as not doing something that has just come to light, and his/her people will now feel that their manager is not predictable. Over time, people will come to feel that they are not appreciated and can not win with this manager. At this point, people will start giving up and apathy will set in.
I am very sure that this is not the only cause of apathy amongst workforce. Actions that lead to people not having a sense of belonging will lead to apathy.
Friday, 28 November 2008
Friday, 21 November 2008
Sensitive documents leaked by the printer/photocopier!
Often when a politician is asked how he/she got hold of a confidential document or the damaging information within, he/she will most likely say "it fell off the back of a truck!" I wouldn't be surprised if some of these politician would one day, if not already, say that the document came from the photocopier! And this is why.
Several years back when I was working in Adelaide (South Australia), one of my colleague was very sure he knows how much the GM of our organisation was making. He would speak as though he has seen the payslip of our GM. And it turns out that he has! I was told that this colleague will flip the cover of a photocopier whenever he walked passed one! And on one occasion, he found the payslip of the GM in the photocopier! As this GM is not a very nice person, this colleague could have made many copies of his payslip and distributed it but he didn't.
I am sure you may have come across a document or two in a photocopier or have left a document in a photocopier yourself. Even though I do not flip the cover of photocopiers like my ex-colleague from Adelaide, I have come across a number of sensitive documents left in photocopiers including a cheque for a five digit sum. I have also come across sensitive documents in printers including those that has a secure print feature.
Several years back when I was working in Adelaide (South Australia), one of my colleague was very sure he knows how much the GM of our organisation was making. He would speak as though he has seen the payslip of our GM. And it turns out that he has! I was told that this colleague will flip the cover of a photocopier whenever he walked passed one! And on one occasion, he found the payslip of the GM in the photocopier! As this GM is not a very nice person, this colleague could have made many copies of his payslip and distributed it but he didn't.
I am sure you may have come across a document or two in a photocopier or have left a document in a photocopier yourself. Even though I do not flip the cover of photocopiers like my ex-colleague from Adelaide, I have come across a number of sensitive documents left in photocopiers including a cheque for a five digit sum. I have also come across sensitive documents in printers including those that has a secure print feature.
Friday, 14 November 2008
Finding a suitable balance ...
A friend of mine who is very much into building his own PC and other gadgets bought a PC from a store CKD (complete knock down). In other words, it is a complete PC with Window OS and all but totally unassembled. A few days after he had assembled the PC and added the applications he needed, he realized that the motherboard he selected is incompatible with an application he needed and had to swap it for another. Everything went smoothly with the new setup until he tried re-activating Windows. As the very license key was activated a few days earlier using the previous motherboard, he could not activate Windows in the new setup using the same license key. So he had to call Microsoft and was given a stern warning before being issued a re-activation key.
I think one can understand that Microsoft need to protect their product from being pirated and no one can blame them for putting all the necessary steps in place to look after their interest. But the whole experience left such a bad after taste in this friend, he started to switched his machines to linux! As he is very much a technical geek that friends and relatives consult before buying, I feel that this is a lost for Microsoft! It will be an even bigger lost when he get into the position to influence the platform direction on development work at his workplace in the future.
Someone once told me that "locks are only good for keeping the honest fellow out!" To be fair, it also good at keeping the opportunist thief out as well. The steps needed to re-active a genius Windows license feels like a "complex lock." It seems more stringent than the license key management for EDA tools that costs a few order of magnitude more. Accordingly, I feel that the extend of the complexity of these locks is rather important in that it should not put off the genuine customers and that a good balance be employed.
I think one can understand that Microsoft need to protect their product from being pirated and no one can blame them for putting all the necessary steps in place to look after their interest. But the whole experience left such a bad after taste in this friend, he started to switched his machines to linux! As he is very much a technical geek that friends and relatives consult before buying, I feel that this is a lost for Microsoft! It will be an even bigger lost when he get into the position to influence the platform direction on development work at his workplace in the future.
Someone once told me that "locks are only good for keeping the honest fellow out!" To be fair, it also good at keeping the opportunist thief out as well. The steps needed to re-active a genius Windows license feels like a "complex lock." It seems more stringent than the license key management for EDA tools that costs a few order of magnitude more. Accordingly, I feel that the extend of the complexity of these locks is rather important in that it should not put off the genuine customers and that a good balance be employed.
Tuesday, 11 November 2008
Going beyond maximum return
One of my previous manager once told me the following story. It seems that this is a common story in India. The story goes as follows.
One day a man took a piece of leather to a cobbler and asked if he could make him a pair of shoes. So the cobbler measured the man's feet and said it will be ready in 2 weeks. Before the man leave, he asked the cobbler if he can make 2 pairs of shoes out of that piece of leather and the cobbler said yes but will need an extra week. Taken by how quickly the cobbler responded, this man thought that there must be a lot more leather than just the 2 pairs and not wanting to be cheated he asked the cobbler if he can make 3 pairs! Again, the cobbler said yes! So the man asked if he can make 4 pairs and again the cobbler said yes! The man finally stop asking after the cobbler responded positively to half a dozen pairs as he felt that 6 pairs of shoes from the piece of leather he provided is really good value for money. Weeks later when the man came to collect his shoes, the cobbler presented to him half a dozen pairs of tiny little shoes! Rather than getting a single pair of hand crafted shoes he can use, this man now have half a dozen pairs of hand crafted shoes none of which are of any use to him!
It seems that this story is not unrealistic. After leaving my previous employer, I joined a few of my friends in a start up and tried starting a training and consultancy service for this organization. As we were from the innovation centre for an American multinational company, we wanted to continue providing training and consultancy in the area of innovation. We approached many companies big and small, local and multinational with various results. The most amazing result we have thus far was with a Malaysian company listed on the main board of KLSE that has presence globally. Even though we were relatively unknown outside the innovation centre we came from, we were selected to be the consultant for their innovation initiative. Over a 3 months period, we trained a team of 4 executives seconded from various operations and it is so rewarding to see them transformed to a level where they could provide valuable and meaningful advice to their creative agencies! At the time of this posting, this team is also in the process of filing the first patent for their company.
The other extreme we have encountered, as you would expect, are people who flatly don't believe in us and said no. Then we have the following. The people we talked to are interested but they are either not willing to pay for the service we provide or only very little. An example of this is another listed Malaysian company also with presence overseas. We had many discussions with them and finally agreed on a compressed session where we discard and/or shorten a few modules to pack a 2 day workshop into 1 day. They were unwilling to pay the normal fees and so we only asked for a nominal fee in the hope that there will be continuing business. Within that limited time, we showed all we could on the techniques we normally cover in our workshops but was not able to go in depth into the intricacies of any of them. These are techniques I spent 18 plus months training myself. They were very happy with what they learned and called us back for more discussions and it all suddenly stop. We heard from one of their ex-employee that they were able to generate a few good ideas using the techniques they learned from us but could not turn these ideas into something tangible. In other words, they were still unable to innovate. And with that they discredit our method. This is a little like the man in the above story saying that the cobbler does not make good shoes.
Another way of viewing this comes from an English friend. He built his own house in England before migrating to Australia and would frequently tell us interesting stories about the building of this house. There is one of these stories where he related how he negotiated with a contractor and he would stop pressing the contractor for more discount. His explanation is that the contractor may say yes but the quality and workmanship of the work after that may be questionable.
One day a man took a piece of leather to a cobbler and asked if he could make him a pair of shoes. So the cobbler measured the man's feet and said it will be ready in 2 weeks. Before the man leave, he asked the cobbler if he can make 2 pairs of shoes out of that piece of leather and the cobbler said yes but will need an extra week. Taken by how quickly the cobbler responded, this man thought that there must be a lot more leather than just the 2 pairs and not wanting to be cheated he asked the cobbler if he can make 3 pairs! Again, the cobbler said yes! So the man asked if he can make 4 pairs and again the cobbler said yes! The man finally stop asking after the cobbler responded positively to half a dozen pairs as he felt that 6 pairs of shoes from the piece of leather he provided is really good value for money. Weeks later when the man came to collect his shoes, the cobbler presented to him half a dozen pairs of tiny little shoes! Rather than getting a single pair of hand crafted shoes he can use, this man now have half a dozen pairs of hand crafted shoes none of which are of any use to him!
It seems that this story is not unrealistic. After leaving my previous employer, I joined a few of my friends in a start up and tried starting a training and consultancy service for this organization. As we were from the innovation centre for an American multinational company, we wanted to continue providing training and consultancy in the area of innovation. We approached many companies big and small, local and multinational with various results. The most amazing result we have thus far was with a Malaysian company listed on the main board of KLSE that has presence globally. Even though we were relatively unknown outside the innovation centre we came from, we were selected to be the consultant for their innovation initiative. Over a 3 months period, we trained a team of 4 executives seconded from various operations and it is so rewarding to see them transformed to a level where they could provide valuable and meaningful advice to their creative agencies! At the time of this posting, this team is also in the process of filing the first patent for their company.
The other extreme we have encountered, as you would expect, are people who flatly don't believe in us and said no. Then we have the following. The people we talked to are interested but they are either not willing to pay for the service we provide or only very little. An example of this is another listed Malaysian company also with presence overseas. We had many discussions with them and finally agreed on a compressed session where we discard and/or shorten a few modules to pack a 2 day workshop into 1 day. They were unwilling to pay the normal fees and so we only asked for a nominal fee in the hope that there will be continuing business. Within that limited time, we showed all we could on the techniques we normally cover in our workshops but was not able to go in depth into the intricacies of any of them. These are techniques I spent 18 plus months training myself. They were very happy with what they learned and called us back for more discussions and it all suddenly stop. We heard from one of their ex-employee that they were able to generate a few good ideas using the techniques they learned from us but could not turn these ideas into something tangible. In other words, they were still unable to innovate. And with that they discredit our method. This is a little like the man in the above story saying that the cobbler does not make good shoes.
Another way of viewing this comes from an English friend. He built his own house in England before migrating to Australia and would frequently tell us interesting stories about the building of this house. There is one of these stories where he related how he negotiated with a contractor and he would stop pressing the contractor for more discount. His explanation is that the contractor may say yes but the quality and workmanship of the work after that may be questionable.
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