Uni and Beyond

2010-10-30T07:19:00.001-07:00

â€œSave Money on Everythingâ€¦But not on peopleâ€, Timoty Tiah â€“ Nuffnang. http://bit.ly/aGkG6D

2010-10-17T07:02:00.001-07:00

Designing Your Education Syllabus http://bit.ly/aILQD7

2010-10-12T01:00:00.001-07:00

â€œTo punish me for my contempt for authority, fate made me an authority myself.â€ â€“ Albert Einstein http://bit.ly/917Cnl

2010-10-11T06:36:00.001-07:00

Identifying Your Clubâ€™s Member Development Needs http://bit.ly/9KJzVE

2010-10-11T06:32:00.001-07:00

When a club have no idea how to develop their members, they are wasting all the talent and passion that exist within their members http://ping.fm/LhQyg

2010-10-01T18:21:00.001-07:00

The meaning of life is to give life meaning...

2010-09-30T23:35:00.001-07:00

â€œBooks won't stay banned. They won't burn. Ideas won't go to jail. In the long run of history, the censor and the inquisitor have always lost. The only sure weapon against bad ideas is better ideas.â€- Alfred Whitney Griswold

2010-09-30T08:28:00.001-07:00

It's all about empowerment and giving the trust to others, children or otherwise does not matter...
http://ping.fm/unyfj

2010-09-25T02:44:00.001-07:00

6 Steps In Creating An Education Syllabus For Your Club http://ping.fm/ClAJX

2010-09-22T03:07:00.001-07:00

A leader shouldn't be too optimistic at the expense of his team mates... http://ping.fm/KX2TG

2010-09-15T07:52:00.001-07:00

How can you expect to see your organization running if you're not willing to listen to your member's needs?
http://ping.fm/id4NH

2010-09-05T23:57:00.001-07:00

â€˜when the people lead, the government will followâ€™

2010-09-05T04:15:00.001-07:00

Something I must remind myself to do!
http://ping.fm/lTd3Z

2010-09-05T00:08:00.001-07:00

What should be my tagline for my blog? http://beyonduni.com/

This blog has moved to BEYONDUNI.COM

2010-02-28T07:18:00.000-08:00

This blog has moved to

BEYONDUNI.COM

Thanks for coming to my blogspot blog and follow me to the blog's latest evolution...

Respect The Equilibrium

2010-02-23T22:38:00.000-08:00

Equilibrium is the condition off a system in which competing influences are balanced. Balanced.

Everything has an equilibrium, even in life. A cheap-skate vs a person who splurges. A strict person vs a lenient person. It's just that most things in life, you don't know or cannot measure the equilibrium. How do you know how cheap is cheap? Having McD for lunch is being cheap if you're a CEO but expensive for a uni student.

Anyway, if something or someone is not at equilibrium there will always be external & internal forces to rectify the imbalances. If you are being too cheap, friends will start complain or your health will deteriorate because you skip meals and etc.

So these signs is an indication to which extreme we are leaning against. Thus, would be a good indicator to which 'direction' you must go to reach the equilibrium. Because everybody wants a 'balanced' life, right?

On a more serious note. All issues have 2 extremes. For example, conservativeness vs liberalism. Race Based Supremacy Vs Equality. Religious Piety Vs lack of piety.

Between the 2 extremes of each issue lies the 'equilibrium'. It's just that we don't really know where it is. Our job is to look for signs that help us identify where we on the spectrum in relation to 'equilibrium'.

For example, I am quite a liberal person in ideology, politics and religion. I would say that I am on the side that lacks religious strength. With that confession, I see that I my 'direction' is to become a more pious person by committing good acts as outlined by my religion.

Will I go to the other extreme? Not in one day. And even if it did, there would also be 'signs' that tell me to go back and relax my religious extremism . Bottom line: Look of out for the signs that tell where is the 'equilibrium'.

Try to find the 'equilibrium' in all issues. In life, in politics and etc. Start by asking yourself, "The Bookworm Or Co-curricular Student?" Find where is the 'equilibrium'; and which side you are on.

Try to answer many more issues by using this mental technique.

Be.You.

Entrepreneurship Issues Among Malaysian Youths

2010-02-20T19:53:00.000-08:00

This a survey done by my friends, Sabrie. Fun fact: This survey so far found that 74% respondents categorized themselves as "social entrepreneur. Shows that youths are not only money minded! Help him out with the survey, ok? If you have any problem with the survey just go here.

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Be. You.

Now Everyone Can Be A Politician

2010-02-11T17:53:00.000-08:00

With the recent church attacks by religious extremist who pose as arsonist, damaging as many as 8 churches in Malaysia to create chaos, there has been a rise of many politicians within the community, or i shall term them as the "local champions of the society". Everyone wants to voice out their views these days, everyone wants to be the champion of their cause in society and everyone seems to be becoming just another empty vessel in this already crowded political arena. May it be via social media or websites, to columns in newspapers or via word of mouth - it seems never-ending to me.

These irresponsible acts by some extremist had one main goal - which was to create chaos and more instability within the government by reducing the peoples support. An instable government may lead to many things such as the decline in investors confidence in the stock market, the rate of FDI and lesser progress as more and more government projects and policies cannot be implemented and the governments mandate to the people in the previous general elections cannot be fulfilled.. All this will ultimately lead to a sluggish progress in terms of our economy and our GDP rate and subsequently affect the people (who in the first place want to adhere to all this politics). The world is watching as we speak and the impression we leave behind by all these politicking only creates more negativity rather than an impact.

Hence why give face anyway, let this politicians focus on their own politics and let us the people focus on our own work. Opportunities are everywhere, so work hard to make every bit of opportunity a possibility. To me, politics prevents progress! Malaysians of all age and races love to be the speakerbox of the society championing their views based on local politics. IF only they spend that same amount of time working hard and striving for excellence, i feel Malaysia would be as par as Singapore, or even better China. (Note in China communism style rule has removed every aspect of politics from the general society leaving it citizens to work work work and improve their standard of living. We can see the progress so far...)

Written By,

HJH

Corrupt Leaders - A Bad Influence On Future Leaders

2010-02-06T17:48:00.000-08:00

Every time a politician, a administrator has abused their power 0r position, people will lose trust in that person. However, if the didn't get caught, if has a far more worse effect. It will influence future leaders into thinking that doing so is acceptable.

There have been numerous cases where we see politicians abuse their power. We see university administrators misuse funds. And the worst thing about this is that the students see this. The same students that one day will become the rulers of the country. Does these actions is a good influence on us students?

After these misconducts happen and the perpetrators get away with it, slowly but surely, the students begin to think that we students can do the same. And finally, it becomes apart of their mentality, altering their outlook of integrity for the rest of their life.

Let me share you a story. A few college administrators have purchased a car almost at the same time. And the group of students you most clearly see & understand this situation are the student leaders. These student leaders know what is going on, but they cannot do anything. The cultural makeup of the country and the absence of systems to protect the students prevents anyone from reporting it. Finally, the worst of these leaders will learn these dubious techniques to be applied by them. Their integrity suffers. And when they graduate and become leaders, they will carry on this habit, and the society he leads will suffer.

Already we have seen our generation talks about political parties as a place to get contracts, make money, political favors. No one talks about it as leadership, visionaries, patriotism and etc.Already youths preparing themselves of office politics rather than being competent at work. The best proof is, we have student who join MPP just to get close to ministers and etc. Sigh...

To politicians and administrators, please understand that you guys have a big influence on future leaders. And if you are a visionary leader, and someone who loves the country. Please act well, so we can follow the good conducts you've done in your tenure, because if you act the opposite, it will surely have an effect.

To students, if you see these can of things, please I beg you, do not get influence by them and their conducts. Stand your ground and protect your integrity. Imagine, if all our generation, do bad, no trust each other what will happen?

Some of us are going to replace the leaders of the country. So make sure they're not sucky.

Be. You.

Driving It Out, Doing the Extreme

2010-02-04T00:43:00.000-08:00

I've heard a lot of Leaderonomics for quite some time now, and I must say that I like the passion that they have for developing leaders from a young age. They do it by organizing programmes for youths to learn about leadership among many other things. So I like to share with you guys a write up they did for me, so you can see how leaders are made. Maybe you can even join the camp, too...Enjoy reading it...

REALISING the need for youth development in the country and to groom potential leaders among the next generation, Leaderonomics Youth has initiated a programme to develop an intense hands-on learning experience for youths aged between 12 and 18 years.

“The programme is called DIODE (Driving It Out, Doing the Extreme) Leadership Camp, because it combines elements of discovery and extreme leadership module for the younger generation to discover their leadership potential,” said Leaderonomics strategic project analyst Geraldine Sebastian.

Leaderonomics HR & finance lead Ang Hui Ming said the leaders who were invited to the programme came from various backgrounds like media, web, finance, performing arts and multinational corporations.

"We get leaders from a broad range of ages and experiences — from young entrepreneurs to CEOs — to share their experiences and values. In a way, It’s a win-win situation because the leaders are often impressed by how much potential the youth have and learn something in return,” said Ang.

Diode camps are open to youths of all backgrounds to promote peer-sharing, whether those from privileged backgrounds or underprivileged homes.

DIODE’s leadership series for 2010 comprises the DIODE School Leavers Camp, DIODE Youth Leadership Camp and DIODE Tweens Camp.

While each camp has its respective modules, all of them focus on developing leadership skills for youth.

The DIODE School Leavers Camp is catered to those who are leaving secondary school for university or to work. This is the stage where values are formed and we teach them about networking and survival skills.

The DIODE Youth Leadership Camp is for those aged between 14 and 17 years and focuses on leadership.We expose them to entrepreneurial programmes based on business simulation and activities.

The DIODE Tweens Camp is targeted at those who are stepping into their teenage years. It addresses the transitional mindset for those aged between 12 and13. We teach them about survival skills in school and expressing themselves in a positive manner. They learn values like respect, honesty, hard work, and how to deal when feeling rebellious.

Registration is open for the DIODE School Leavers Camp 20th March to 25th March 2010 and 14th December to 19th December 2010, DIODE Youth Leadership Camp 7thJune to 12th June 2010 and 29th November to 4th December and DIODE Tweens Camp 15th June to 18th June 2010 and 20th November to 23rd November 2010 .
For details, call 03-7957 5809 or visit www.diodecamp.com.

To Self-Motivate Requires Optimism

2010-01-30T18:37:00.000-08:00

Last week I posted a video titled, "Wear Sunscreen". For me it was a very motivating video as it reminds me what are the things that are most important to us.

But I'm sure some of you were wondering what's with the 'wear sunscreen'?

For me, the whole video was about looking at the brighter side of life. It was about optimism. Like a sunscreen. It blocks the bad cancer causing UV rays of the sun so you can get the benefits the sun has to offer.

Optimism vs pessimism. Basically, I believe it's always better to be optimistic then pessimistic. To be pessimistic means to do nothing, and to do nothing is a sure-way, foolproof 100% certain that nothing good will come from it, because you're doing nothing! But if you do something, you might get positive outcomes. It might be small or a lot, now or later on, but trust me it will. Life has a funny way of giving back what you give to society or the people around you. All you need is sincerity & the right mentaltiy.

There will be many challenges & struggles we will face in the future. How we are able to survive it will depend on how we handle those situations. It is in our hardest times that we Will define ourselves that the easy times.

In that situation, whether we will give up or continue will depend on our ability to motivate ourselves regardless of the external situation. And that depends on how optimistic we are in life.

Be.You.

The Prisoner's Dilemma Of Life

2010-01-27T06:51:00.000-08:00

Have you heard of the Prisoner's dilemma? In wikipedia it refers to:

the theory that demonstrates why two people might not cooperate even if it is in both their best interests to do so.

The classical prisoner's dilemma can be summarized thus:

Two prisoner's or robbers are interrogated because of the crime they committed together. In order to get at least one of them to confess. The police/interrogator gives an incentive to confess in the form letting the confessor free. A matrix below shows all possible outcome:

	Prisoner B Stays Silent	Prisoner B Betrays
Prisoner A Stays Silent	Each serves 6 months	Prisoner A: 10 years Prisoner B: goes free
Prisoner A Betrays	Prisoner A: goes free Prisoner B: 10 years	Each serves 5 years

In this game, regardless of what the opponent chooses, each player always receives a higher payoff (lesser sentence) by betraying; that is to say that betraying is the strictly dominant strategy. For instance, Prisoner A can accurately say, "No matter what Prisoner B does, I personally am better off betraying than staying silent. Therefore, for my own sake, I should betray." However, if the other player acts similarly, then they both betray and both get a lower payoff than they would get by staying silent. Rational self-interested decisions result in each prisoner being worse off than if each chose to lessen the sentence of the accomplice at the cost of staying a little longer in jail himself (hence the seeming dilemma).

Conclusion: If both prisoners betray each other, they're stupid. If they both keep quite, they're smart.

In life, we are also in a prisoner's dilemma. Have you heard of people saying, "If our corrupted politicians misuse funds & abuse power, why can't I do the same?!", "If everybody doing this bad stuff, why not me?". These are people who I describe as the 'stupid prisoners'.

Allow me to illustrate. Imagine you have a choice to do good or evil. For the sake of this example, to do good means to do things fairly, ethically, legally and morally right. And to do evil is the opposite.

And other people in the world also has that choice: To do Good or Evil. Here is the outcome matrix of the situation:

As you can see above, regardless who chose to do evil, it only brings short term advantage. After all, when you're 'evil' activities are known then people won't trust you. When that happens, no one will want to work with you or support you anymore, whether in business, politics or any other stuff as well. There is a Malay proverb that literally translates, "No matter how high the squirrel jumps, it will eventually fall onto the ground." Which means no matter skillful you are at jumping away in risky business, you always end up back on the ground.

But if everybody do good, everybody trusts each other, everybody respects each other and there will be no paranoia. The world will be at peace.

Conclusion: Our ability to trust each other and do good to each other regardless of who the 'other' person is, will make our world a better place.

I know that sometimes being good is not appreciated by others, you'll end up being exploited and pushed over. But understand that the reason you are doing this is not because of these as$h*les but it is for the other people who are good but became 'evil' because he/she have lost trust in the goodness from others.

Show kindness, love, trust and goodness, to all...

Be. You.

Wear Sunscreen!

2010-01-24T06:51:00.000-08:00

A video with a very deep meaning, hope you enjoy it and understand it's message.

How Leaders Should Think Critically

2010-01-20T17:34:00.000-08:00

Critical thinking is the purposeful and reflective judgement about what to believe or what to do in response to observations, experience, verbal or written expressions, or arguments.

Now, we always hear people complain university students don't have critical thinking skills. But what is it? And how do we get it. Do our country leaders have thinking skills? Would all our country's problem would be solved if this generation's leader's critical thinking skills is better? The fact is everyone says we must have the skill, but no one knows how or really want to.

Look at our yourselves, do you join co-curriculum? If you don't you're not going to get that skill. You're taking strategic management lecture? That's not enough. You think reading text book, doing presentations & do exams will ensure that you can manage a company or a country? Even if you do Arts &Culture, you need to have managerial & leadership roles to expose yourself to this skill. Don't get me wrong, if you're the director, stage manager & etc that's good you're leading people & making decisions as long you don't limit yourself to just dancing & acting. Unless, you want to be a professional dancer 0r singer, that's another story.

I found this blog post from the Harvard Business Review Blog, Read it and continue reading my comparison with Malaysia's current reality.
http://blogs.hbr.org/baldoni/2010/01/how_leaders_should_think_criti.html
The post tells us how we can do critical thinking, They are:

Question assumptions

I see very little of this in Malaysia. It is our culture to follow the status quo, never go against it. Always follow the leader even if it's not the best thing to do. Critical thinking is often associated with criticizing. Which is not necessarily so. You're not trying to hurt some one's ego or reputation, we just want to do the right thing so we can reach or objective. But that is what Malaysians think. Unless we throw away this culture than it useless.

See potential

We see potential for the wrong reasons, most of it because of greed. Other times we don't see potential because of laziness. Imagine a friend in your club suggest a great idea, but because you see a lot of effort is needed, you say No to the idea because you're lazy.

Managing ambiguity

Many hard problems in life are ambiguous. Nothing in life is as easy as black & white. It requires knowledge & wisdom to navigate these issues. If you as a leader cannot have the skill to question the status quo, the calm mind to see issues objectively, how can you handle these ambiguous problems successfully?

Like leadership, critical thinking (which I think is a subset of leadership) cannot be learned by reading, only by doing. So be active in good student organizations.

Be.You.

Strategy Versus Tactic

2010-01-15T20:32:00.000-08:00

Strategy and Tactics. Not many Student Leaders understand this, thus that's why their planning & their implementation will have an enormous gap.

I was reading a few articles about YES2009 in the Marketing Magazine. In one of them is about Garry Kasparov a chess legend. He was there at the event to talk about strategy and decision making. Two things he said interests me.
Strategy is what to do when there is nothing
Tactics is what to do when there is something

Strategy is what to do when there is nothing

When you do not see anything in front of you, no patterns or trends in you or your competitor’s actions then you should strategize. In other words you prepare for things you cannot foresee or for something that is further down the road.

Tactics is what to do when there is something

But when you do see something happening around you, you need to react accordingly, that, is a tactic. The tactic can be different to the original plan but it must be able to fit with your grand strategy. Tactics change but strategies don’t.

Understand what can you change in your planning and what cannot change. All the planning & the strategizing tools I have thought you is to help you understand this.

The decisions that you make will determine your club’s future. The more long term or visionary you’re thinking the higher the probability of your club’s success. An average person reacts to changes, leaders act before it happens.

Thank you for following my strategy series of articles. I hope it helps you in managing your organization. Look for my next series of articles.
Be.You.

The Man Who Closest Matches The Vision I Have For My Blog

2010-01-13T17:22:00.000-08:00

Create the leader in you, and you can create change for yourself!

TED.com

The man who closest matches the ideals I have for what I'm trying to do with my blog. A few quotes to share:

"These institutions were lead by people I call leaders.And those leaders did not appear spontaneously. Somebody trained them..."

Unfortunately, in Malaysia our trainings of leadership is ineffective, unstructured & heavily politicized.

"...I became a parent,I realized the state of the African continent would matter to my children and their children."

Realize the extent of your actions or in-actions towards the future generations. To corrupted leaders, hoarding the wealth of the country will not make the lives of your children better. To students, your inaction to develop yourself will deprive Malaysia of quality leaders to protect Malaysia. Then, don't blame the current leaders when your needs are not met.

"And what Ashesi University is trying to do is to train a new generation of ethical, entrepreneurial leaders. We're trying to train leaders of exceptional integrity, who have the ability to confront complex problems, ask the right questions, and come up with workable solutions."

Ethical, integrity leaders in Malaysia? Jet Engines
Ability to confront complex problems? Uni have E-undi, the student leaders agree to admin only, don't know how to even try to debate...
Ask the right questions? Heck, even knowing right issue also epic fail. When, we're talking about e-undi, we're not talking about efficiency, simplicity, technology, environmental friendliness! We're talking about the validity of the results! Wtf!
Come up with Solutions? pfft...

Understand that by instilling yourself with leadership you are giving yourself the power to change the world, or at least the country.

So, if you are so passionate about politics, the country or making change, develop your leadership skills first. If not, shut up and stop whining.

Be. You.

How Do You Know You're In Control?

2010-01-08T20:38:00.000-08:00

With so many external factors threatening your student project, how do you make sure you’re in control? Which means you’re project is reaching its deadline. Your people are doing their job correctly. Your finances are in check & etc?

As a leader in the organization, to know that you are in control is these three things below, they are:

You Understand
You Make Decisions
You Solve Problems

You Understand

As a leader you don’t need to know all the small details of your project but you need to at least understand the big picture. But you need to understand the specifics, enough for you to be able to see how the small things work together. Imagine that if a subordinate came up to you and report to you about a problem. If you cannot understand the significance of this problem to other parts of your project, then you can’t make good effective decisions. This brings to my next point:

You Make Decisions

If you can’t make decisions, you’re not in control. It’s maybe because you do not have enough information. It’s maybe because you don’t have enough resources (time, manpower & money). It’s also maybe because you’re not decisive and want to delay your decision because you’re too afraid you’re decision would be wrong. (Like politicians ;P) But the fact is the same, if you can’t make good decisions, regardless the reason; it means you’re not in control. If you have all the things you need to make good decision, you would do it, right? You would solve it...

You Solve problems

Yes, if you really are in control you would be able to solve problems. At the end of the day, if you could, you would want to finish your project as soon as possible. Unless, you’re the lazy a$*h*le*s who do projects just to get merit. Ranting aside, as a leader you want to make sure things is happening so that you have ample time to check and also improve the project compared to its original plan.

So what do you do if you’re not in control?

Relax. Analyse what are things that you’re not in control off, and what are the reasons, whether it’s because you don’t have information or you’re too hesitant. If you don’t understand or do not have enough information, find information. If you’re too indecisive, refer to you planning timeline, can you afford to delay some more? If not, just take the action you think best. People would understand. Only bad team mates don’t understand. Just take one problem at a time. Take it slow. Remember to delegate where you can. The worst thing you can do it’s to panic.

Be.You.

Strategic tools: Strategy Formulation

2010-01-04T23:14:00.000-08:00

You’ve done with all the strategic analysis. Now, it’s time for you to choose the right strategy. There are four strategies you can choose from: Aggressive, Defensive, Diversify/Differentiate & Niche/Focus.In the previous article, you should have finished doing your SWOT analysis.

By now, you should have finished listing down the solutions for the four combinations between strength, weakness, opportunity & threats. One of the four inner squares should contain more solutions then others. Refer to example below:

In the example above the combination of Strength & Opportunity have the most solutions compared to the other 4 inner boxes.

This should indicate which kind of strategy you will adopt.

Strength + Opportunity = Aggressive
Strength + Threat = Diversify/Differentiate
Weakness + Opportunity = Niche/Focus
Weakness + Threat = Defensive

Aggressive

This strategy means that you can go all out and use your resources to the max. In the student club context do your activities as big and as flashy as you can. Promote your club and it’s activities without worrying too much of your competitors. However, this rarely happen in the student club’s community.

Diversify/Differentiate

In the corporate context, a company should diversify it’s product offerings. In the student club context, it means you must offer more activities/events or conduct those activities in a unique & different way. For example, if everyone does an entrepreneurship carnival for their club, would you want to do it too? Why don’t you do an investment competition by collaborating with the business faculty?

Niche/Focus

Find the most compelling, unique aspect of your club and pool ALL your resources to make it as good as possible. This is so that your ‘customers’ (students) will remember you for that compelling reason. In business, there is a term called “Unique Selling Point, (USP)”, that ‘reason’ you want people to remember you for. Forget everything else, just focus on your USPs.

Defensive

This is the opposite of the Aggressive strategy. Be careful in using your resources. Don’t try to compare your club with other club. Don’t try to start a fight. Just make sure at least this year you are doing as god as last year. Your goal should be to build the foundation for next year so that your successor would be in a better situation to adopt a more aggressive strategy by building your club’s strength.

Find the most suitable strategy for your club's situation and resources. As a student, I feel we are not in a position to stretch our resources so much. Putting to much pressure on students is not wise since we have studies & etc. Next article, I would close the strategic thinking series with a summary and conclusion.

Be.You.

Siapa kata ko tak perlu bentuk kemahiran kepimpinan di universiti?

2010-01-03T05:09:00.000-08:00

Be.You.

6 Tips For Effective Negotiations

2009-12-30T07:15:00.001-08:00

"Know what you want, and what you're willing to let go", - Dr.Bob.

Sorry for those offended with the sexual suggestion in the vid. That's just his style. Make sure you get the REAL points...

Be.You.

Strategic Tools: SWOT Analysis

2009-12-26T18:29:00.000-08:00

SWOT Analysis is a strategic planning method used to evaluate the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats of an organization.

Many student clubs do SWOT analysis, many fail to use it effectively. The reason, the analysis was done wrong.

SWOT Analysis is a strategic planning method used to evaluate the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. Many student clubs do SWOT analysis, many fail to use it effectively. The reason, the analysis was done wrong.

The Challenges, Constraints & Promoters helps you to understand what factors are positive & negative factors. From my experience, if we start at SWOT analysis immediately we would be easily confused as which are positive (strength & opportunity) and which are negative factors (weakness & threat). My previous model would make it easier to understand the differences.

Challenges: Everything you can think of, that is in the way of your organization.
Promoters: Challenges you can overcome, or you are confident can be overcome.
Constraints: Challengers you cannot overcome or not sure how to overcome.

But first, let me explain the basics of the SWOT Analysis. There are 3 parts:

Arranging Promoters & Challenges into S, W, O, T
Analyzing & Matching Factors Appropriately in the SWOT Matrix
Strategy Formulation for each Matrix – SO, ST, WO, WT

Arranging Promoters & Challenges into S, W, O, T

In the previous models, you should know your promoters & challenges.

Promoters = Strengths (internal) + Opportunities (external).
Constraints = Weakness (internal) + Threat (external)
Internal = something within your organization, something the organization can control.
External = something outside your organization, something the organization cannot control.

With the explanation above, arrange the entire problem above accordingly, and put them in the matrix as the picture below.

Analysing & Matching Factors Appropriately in the SWOT Matrix

Some of the problems you list down are related. Example:

Threat: College Administration Bureaucracy makes project application takes too long to get approved
Opportunity: My father is the college’s admin’s boss.
Strategy: Go get my father to sign it during dinner time for me.

This is a lame example but I hope you get the point. There are four possibilities where Strength, Weakness, Opportunity & Threat can be related. They are:

Strength – Opportunity
Strength – Threat
Weakness– Opportunity
Weakness – Threat

You shall relate the factors according to the possibilities mentioned above.

Strategy Formulation for each Matrix – SO, ST, WO, WT

Then, try to find solutions for each ‘match’ you made. If you can (e.g.: Strategy: Go get my father to sign it during dinner time for me), put them in the corresponding boxes, like the example below.

Continue until you cannot think anymore. At the end, you should see which part of the four matrixes is most filled with solutions. So you should have an idea what you would be facing & how to solve them. The next part would be...

Picking the overall generic strategy you would want to take.

But that’s for another article. See you later.

Be.You.

Perceived Value: Your life is only about what YOU think, not others...

2009-12-24T03:18:00.000-08:00

Guys & girls, every time you want to buy that expensive shirt or car, please understand the reason why. If you want to show off. No need la. If you want to reward yourself, can.

From the video: "Research shows that there is no correlation between price of wine & enjoyment, unless the price is disclosed"

In other words, you will only enjoy the wine when you know your friends know the wine is expensive. LOL

Be.You.

Strategic Tools: Challenges, Promoters, Constraints Model

2009-12-19T19:28:00.000-08:00

In order to create your strategy, you need to understand your surroundings. It's challenges, constraints and it's promoting factors.

To use this tool well, student leaders need to be experienced. Unfortunately, a lot of student leaders are always inexperienced because they always do 'easy' projects, and also because they do not have vision for their club. A person who does not take initiative to more cannot 'see' more.

Let's continue on how to use this tool. First, list down all the challenges and problems you think you will face in the upcoming term/year. You can get ideas by referring to last year's problems or from the problems faced by other student organizations. Please be resourceful and creative, that's the least you can do if you're not 'experienced'.

Some of the problems you listed might be small & easy to solve, some might be irrelevant or not in our control. But that does not matter, as long as you think it might happen to the club, just list it down.

The next step is to filter the challenges into Promoters & Constraints. Refer to 'Challenges' list and brainstorm solutions to them. It does not need to be so specific, detailed or effective. Just enough for you to have a rough idea how to solve it. The important thing is for you to realize what & who can help you in helping your organization reach it's goals. List these solutions as 'Promoters'.

If you still can't think of the solutions, take all the unsolved 'challenges' and put them under 'Constraints'. Constraints are now problems that will pose a major problem to your organization. No matter how good is your organization in doing something, there is always some part of the organization that will be held up this bottleneck, this constraint.

This stage is relatively easy. It's just that when I was in AIESEC, I felt that the usual SWOT analysis wasn't done effective enough. So I added this tool before SWOT analysis.You'll see why later. Lastly, remember that when you are using the other strategic tools like SWOT Analysis for example, please refer to this part again if you are lost.

Be.You.

5 Signs Of True Leadership

2009-12-18T00:16:00.000-08:00

Everyone is talking about leadership, but still not everyone wants to or able to rise up as a leader. I think it's because of the mentality & attitudes one have in life. Anyway these 5 signs below will help you identify true leaders.

Leadership Is To Create Positive Change.

If you are somebody with power and you abuse it to do something selfish, then you are not a leader. Because we don't need people to create negative changes, it can happen by itself. It's so easy to destroy but takes a lot effort to build. Leaders build, Leader's who don't build are not really leaders. Even if you are a CEO, you are expected to grow the company, a positive change.

You Are Always Your Own Leader.

You may not be able to become a CEO but at least at some point in time, you are leading someone or some group of people. I'm sure at one point you are a leader of your family. I'm really sure that everyone is the leader of your own life. The choices you makes, only you are responsible for it. To me, that's make you a leader. A person who understands this, understands that leadership is not position but an attitude towards life. Which means they already have the right attitude.

Leadership Is People Skill Plus Being Competent At Working.

You need to be smart and also smart in working with people. As you know people have feelings & emotions, different personalities and attitudes. Also, in work there can be so many kinds of problems with different solutions. People skills are about communicating well with team mates, understanding of their situations and etc. Work competencies is about management, technical skills & etc. Being a successful leader requires us to be good at both. Imagine, would Vision 2020 happen if Dr.M does not know how to communicate his vision to Malaysia? Also, would you be happy if a teammate is all talk but no action?

You Can Only Learn Leadership By Doing.

You cannot learn leadership from a book and seminar, nuff said.

Leaders Do Things For The Right Reasons.

If a leader does something out of self-interest he is not a leader. Similar to my points in "Leaders Create Positive Change", we don't need 'leaders' who destroy by being corrupt, the destruction can happen without them. A leader is not motivated solely by fame or money, because those are easily attained when you are a leader. They are motivated to improve the community because they also are a part of the community. They want to change the world into a better place. Idealistic or not is up to themselves to think, but doubt never help ideals become reality. You can read more here.

For me personally, I want to make a change in my life and to the community around me. Because how I lead myself and my community would affect the quality of life I'm living in and the people I love. I'm not so noble to bring change to the whole world, but as long I can protect me & the people around it would be good enough. And I need leadership qualities in me to do that.

Be.You.

Strategic Thinking Tools

2009-12-12T06:24:00.000-08:00

There are many strategic models and tools that are available and event taught. However, the problem is which one is suitable and effective to be used by Student Organisation.

Below are the tools that student leaders can start with:

List Challenges, Constraints & Promoters
SWOT Analysis
SWOT Strategy Formulation
Goals Grid

List Challenges, Constraints & Promoters

List down everything that you think is a challenge in your organization. Brainstorm of ways to overcome them. If you can group them under 'promoters', if not, group them under 'constraints'

SWOT Analysis

Identify your organization's strength & weaknesses and your external surroundings threats and opportunites. Group & list them accordingly so you can analye your organization's standing.

Strategy Formulation

Once you understand the position of your organization you can choose a strategy that fits your current situation based on the matrix above.

Goals Grid

This is an effective tool in comparing what you want for the organization & whether you have the resources to achieve it.

So now, you have some tools to help you in your strategic planning. Play around with these tools first. Even better, find your own and implement it. Further explanations will be available in my future posts so hang on, k?

Be.You.

MyLDS Visualtweets!

2009-12-07T00:44:00.000-08:00

Hi, guys, sorry for the late post. Currently, at Malaysian Leadership Development Seminar '09 (MyLDS). Very busy.

Anyway, I'd like to introduce you guys to this new web application I found. Thanks to Brandon. It allows tweets with similar hashtags (#) to appear in a very flashy and beautiful manner. Check it out in the link below.

http://visibletweets.com/#query=%23mylds&animation=1

Be.You.

Read It Later

2009-12-02T06:00:00.000-08:00

Ever found a cool website but don't have the time to read it now? Use Read It Later. Unlike a bookmark, it's much easier for websites that you just want to read once only but a later time.

With just one click, you can record it for you to read later by pressing it's icon. A clean and simple to use menu will appear. Try it out and give your comments.

Be.You.

4 Rules of Effective Brainstorming

2009-11-29T17:09:00.000-08:00

Brainstorming is a necessary skill leaders must have in order to promote creativity & innovation in the organization.

A brainstorming session is relatively easy to do, but to make it an effective one requires some knowledge. An effective session means a lot of ideas are brainstormed. Anyway, to do one, you at least need to know the 4 rules of effective brainstorming.

Focus On Quantity

No, need to care about the quality of it. You can filter the good and bad ideas later. No use filtering ideas when you have only a small amount of ideas. But when you have a lot of ideas, that's another story.

No Criticism

Don't try to show you're so smart. If you're really smart, give ideas la. When you criticize another person's idea (no matter how 'polite' you are), the person won't be so eager to share more ideas because he's afraid or shy that he might make more mistakes. Also, understand that every idea can lead to another idea. Do not shoot down the idea so soon, maybe some parts of it can used. If you reject the whole idea so easily, you may lose the chance to use a portion of the idea, and will have less ideas to modify or to think about.

Unusual Ideas Are Welcome

We are conditioned in our mind to play safe, never challenge the status quo, follow the herd mentality. This does not create new ideas or innovation. So be brave and give unusual ideas. Something unusual at first can somehow be re-made into something practical but still innovative. Again, your objective for the brainstorming session is quantity not quality.

Combine and Improve Ideas

I said before that ideas can change as long as people openly communicate, how? Because as more people give input, ideas tend to mix around, modified and change. I have stated before that editing & modifying is the 2nd stage of creativity. So, don't limit yourself. If the idea is not good enough, use parts of it that you think you can use.

Please apply the rules strictly, as ideas by nature are hard to come by. Ideas needs the right culture and atmosphere for it to materialize itself. A culture of insecurity or inconfidence does not promote innovation & creativity. As a leader you are the person to create this atmosphere or otherwise.

Be.You

Your bosses/teammates keep changing what they say? Here's the Solution!

2009-11-24T17:33:00.000-08:00

Always have arguments with your team mates? Buy this!

Well, in the video it's says to solve arguments between married couple but can also apply in teams rite? :D

Be.You

Why Student Leadership Lacks Strategic Thinking

2009-11-21T19:33:00.000-08:00

University Student's All Study, No Co-curricular Mentality limits their experience in managing real life problems ultimate limits their strategic thinking abilities.

A lot of student organizations lack strategic thinking skills. The proof, the same issues have been going on for ages and no improvement can be seen. If the students don't see any improvement, it's enough for me to say you are not making any improvements. Imagine if you are a leader in a business, in politics or in public services. Remember the problems when you were a leader in university? You will face them again. What makes you can handle them better this time in the future? But I don't blame it all on the student organizations, because they are not taught to equip themselves with managerial skills. Here are some reasons this situations prevail:

Unnecessary Politics In Student Leadership

Political ideologies has no place in student politics. Students just want our food affordable, clean and healthy. Our college safe to live in and our toilets clean. Anything else is irrelevant. You can read a more detailed discussion here. Malaysia has a bad culture of politicizing everything. And when that happens, the 'talkers' will always talk too much BS about the problem, but NOTHING about the solution; which is what strategic thinking is. Creating strategies, Solving problems. This bad habit is then picked up by the young generation. Shame on you politicians.

Lack of Education Syllabus

Student Leadership are best to be headed by experienced students and is not a place to 'learn'. By design or by negligence, these organizations do not have a structured education plan. Every time you see a student club's performance fluctuate it is because of the club's leadership. This fluctuation is a sign of an absence in the club's initiative to continuously develop leaders. No education plan means no platform for students to develop their leadership skills which include strategic thinking skills.

Lack of Foresight

Strategic thinking is basically the ability to foresee problems and formulate strategies to solve them. However, not all student leader can anticipate problem well. This comes with experience in doing challenging projects. But many students love doing lame and easy projects. You can read my classification of such students, here. Also, some student leaders are not sincere, they are just power hungry, want to show off, want to get close to ministers and etc. So 'strategic thinking' for the student clubs is not their priority, but 'strategic thinking' for themselves, yes la.

At the end of the day, student leaders must focus on developing their managerial skills. Their 'talking' skills is perfect already. I see a lot of students are confused what are the role of student leadership and also they are too focused on the politics and not the solutions. Read here, where I shoot a few people, give your comments, ok?

Be.You.

Malaysia Leadership Development Seminar 2009 (MyLDS'09)

2009-11-18T06:17:00.000-08:00

I'll be facilitating for a AIESEC's national level conference in UUM. Come and join me! I think all student leaders should come and see a different approach to student leadership...

Malaysia Leadership Development Seminar (MyLDS) is a national conference held annually by AIESEC in Malaysia. This year, Malaysia will be held in Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM). Gathering 500 youths mainly from AIESEC local chapters in Malaysia, expansion LCs and AIESECers from all around the world participate in MyLDS 2009.This most anticipated national conference – Malaysia Leadership Development Seminar 2009 will expose youth to its intense learning experience, social networking, leadership skill enhancement and thus leading them to become potential leaders of tomorrow.Malaysia Leadership Development Seminar 2009 will be held on 6th - 11th December 2009. A not-to-be missed of 6-days-5-nights event is awaiting for young leaders to color the journey of self discovery and explore their hidden potentials!
The CLOSING DATE for registration is on 20th NOVEMBER 2009! Register now!
INFORMATION :

Date: 6th - 11th December 2009
Opening date for registration : 8th Oct 2009
Closing date for registration : 20th Nov 2009, 2359 hour (GMT +8)
Conference Fee: RM 120 (not included transportation and Pre-MyLDS)
Due date for payment: 23rd Nov 2009 (Those who fail to pay by 23rd Nov will be fined RM 20)
For more information, please visit http://www.aiesecuum.org/MyLDS09.htm or contact:

Wei Mun

Organizing Committee President of MyLDS'09

Mobile: +60(12)539 7739

Email: lauweimun@gmail.com

Also visit our facebook at http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=129806647234

Facebook Manners And You

2009-11-17T17:41:00.000-08:00

You all are using facebook right? Well, it's time to learn some good manners in using it! I'm not saying my manners are good though ;)

Be.You.

Why strategic thinking is important?

2009-11-14T17:53:00.000-08:00

Strategic thinking is a must for every student leader, especially to those who are ambitious in becoming politicians. Why are there so many crappy politicians today? Because when they were student leaders, they have no one to teach them strategic thinking.

Thinking Long-Term

I see a lot president of student clubs never plan long term or even worse they never care about the future consequences of his or her actions. A typical example is human resource issues. Every year, a college student committee would be having many projects. Most of it requires people with multimedia & graphical skills. A long term thinking student committee president would utilize the colleges's already existing Graphics & Multimedia Club to recruit and train its members to become a pool of students skilled in graphics & multimedia. The reality is the club is a dead club with no activities and members, and every year the student projects faces constraints of man power skilled in graphics. I know that there will be problems regardless of what happens but...

Life Is About Using the Best Way of Using What You Have

In business you would learn the term Return on Investment (ROI) it shows how much you would get back for each dollar you invested in something. Although in the student club context you would not need to face such things, but you would also still face constraints especially time and manpower, because the biggest limitations in life is time & knowledge. Strategic thinking starts with knowing what you want and understanding your constraints. Constraints are everywhere but achievers manage those constraints. How? By...

Aligning All Your Efforts

Like I said, constraints are everywhere. Strategic thinking forces us to think of a way of using our resources effectively and efficiently. Planning is the first step. Without planning you wouldn't know where to allocate your resources. The result would be poor coordination, a lot of last minute jobs which no one wants. Plan and align every action to your ultimate goal. Plan it in small steps. If you cannot do sudden large chunks of work, make it smaller, simpler and at a consistently interval points in time. Identify redundant work or work that can easily be duplicated. By doing all this you wouldn't waste on doing things that's not important. No wasting equals having more of the things you need to reach your objective.

Be You.

4 things you MUST do in unversity

2009-11-11T17:16:00.000-08:00

Behind every opportunity is a person. People make miracles happen. It doesn't happen by themselves. Find people who can help each other to achieve our goals in life. You can start by joining student clubs. Even to find work, knowing a few people is necessary. More friends, equals more knowledge can be shared in between of you. But for that to happen, you need to learn how to communicate well. Again, you can learn this in GOOD student organization. In university co-curricular, your strategy MUST be quality over quantity!

Thx Brandon,

Be.You.

What Is Strategic Thinking?

2009-11-06T19:41:00.000-08:00

Strategic thinking is a way of thinking strategically, Duh! ;) Strategic thinking focuses on IDENTIFYING opportunities in developing their organization into a better one. The problem with student leaders is because they are not thought to develop their thinking process, making their mind sharper. Their always been taught to DO stuff (just do projects, no thinking) and TALK stuff (be like politicians, "Salam Muhibah, Salam itu, Salam ini")

A good thinking process to start thinking strategically is to think according to these Elements:

Competencies and Skills
Products and Offerings
Environment and Industry
Markets and Customers
Competitors and Substitutes

Obviously, there some of the elements that cannot be applied in the student leadership context but we can modify it.

Competencies and Skills: In other words, your members. What are your members are capable of doing. Every club desires do a fancy and big projects but they always forget to consider the capability of their organizing committee.

Products and Offerings: In this case, the club's activities. A Karate club would offer Karate Classes right? What does your club want to offer?

Environment and Industry: This I won't say much, but maybe you can consider the economical and political surrounding. It might affect your club.

Markets and Customers: This is much more important. Your customers are the students who might want to join your club. Do you really know what they want? Entrepreneurship Club! Are you sure your members want to open stall and sell dadih or they want to learn about personal finance and investing?

Competitors and Substitutes: Do I need to explain this?

Ask questions pertaining to these 5 elements so you can see the opportunities and threats that exist. Create plans to overcome. Bottom line, Strategic thinking is about solving problems before it happens. Something a lot of student leaders don't have, the ability to solve problem and the ability of foresight.

Be.You.

Cone Pizza

2009-11-02T17:17:00.000-08:00

Got this new outlet near my house which sells cone pizza. Yes, pizza in the shape of a cone like an ice cream. The restaurant is called:

A few pics from it's website and some from my camera. Sorry la bad quality pics, I just wanted to share this new kind of food.

The set above includes the cone pizza, mushroom soup, Pepsi and garlic bread costs about RM14.90

I like it. Had it once a week for the previous 2 weeks.

If you're around Selayang, call me and I show you the place. It's at Selayang Mall actually, just google map it. You can find more info at their website here.

Be.You.

What is Strategy?

2009-10-31T20:05:00.000-07:00

Previously, I have shared why student representative councils lack strategic thinking skills. Hope you didn't feel offended but please thoroughly consider my points. Anyway, today I want to share about strategy and its context in student organizations.

When you guys see a football match or a chess game you would see some people take the defensive game plan, and others would be very aggressive in trying to score goals and etc. That is strategy.
Strategy concerns more with 'why'. It concerns with making the smaller action steps come together to help you achieve with your ultimate goal. For example, a football team would take an aggressive strategy when the opponents defences seems tired or weakened.

Strategy differs from tactics, tactics is action steps. It concerns with how and what you do. A football team with an aggressive attacking strategy would change their positions with more players becoming strikers and etc.

"a strategy is the pattern or plan that integrates an organization's major goals, policies, and action sequences into a cohesive whole." As James Brian Quinn indicated in The Strategy Process: Concepts and Contexts,

If you don't have a strategy, you will waste your resources on things that don't really help you on achieving your ultimate goal.

If your strategy does not help you in:

planning effectively
helps you allocate resources (man power) wisely

...then that strategy of yours is useless.

Strategy is long term. When I say long term I mean 3 to 5 Years. That's why I have problem believing the competency of the MPP when they have a new vision and mission every year. That's why they have no progress. They change their goal, when their supposed to be building on the foundation of their seniors.

For other student leaders, strategy at its best details 3 - 5years of the club's future direction. Any less than that is just normal planning which doesn't make you special. I even doubt the ability of student councils to plan a year ahead. I know of many student councils that use funds to go holiday at a resort to think of a 'strategy'. Yeah, right...

Thinking long term is an important factor in becoming a leader. Imagine what would happen if our previous Prime Ministers didn't think of investing in the citizen's education, setting up long term policies, creating business through GLCs and etc. What would Malaysia be without PETRONAS, Proton, and FELDA? You might complain stuff, but without them how would Malaysia's economy be like? Leaders for tomorrow have a big responsibility. We are those leaders.

Be.You.

Seeds of Success: Why what people want is not what they REALLY want?

2009-10-28T01:53:00.000-07:00

A lot of people say they know what they want, but actually they do not. Only way a drastic event would lead them to make a drastic realization that life is too precious to spend on trivial things. Below are why they get it wrong.

Strong Consumerism Sentiments

Have you heard of the term 'retail therapy'? Have you seen MLM commercial with a guy posing next to a Mercedes? Today, society puts so much pressure on us to have branded clothes, expensive cars and fancy hangout places (star bucks). All of these are things we don't need. But they have shaped our lifestyle. These are all done through advertising to convince you that you 'need' these products. But is that important to you? Is there nothing more important?

Peer Pressure

When you buy a new fancy phone, what would you do afterwards? A lot of you show it to your friends. Once you finish showing off to all your friends, you get bored with it. And then your friend goes buy a better hand phone, and shows off too. So, what is the point of all this.

"Don't compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about."-anon

What you REALLY want is not what others want, and because of that the journey would be different. If your friend's life involves showing off his new hand phone, does that mean you have to do the same?

They don’t know why they want and never stop to know it

I explained this in an earlier article here. But basically it's just that these people never really take the initiative to invest some time to think about what they really want in their life. If they do not do so, then, their life would control them, and not they themselves who are controlling life.

Above is Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. This is taught in basic management lectures, but almost all do not understand its significance. Let me put all the three points into the Maslow’s hierarchy context.

Peer Pressure: Belonging And Love Needs - You want to be accepted by your group of friends. Don't worry, real friends won't care what hand phone you have.

Consumerism: Esteem Needs - Buying a Gucci bag does not make you a better person. You're image or reputation is not necessarily better nor do people really care. If you really achieved something, it speaks for itself.

Observe the top most section of the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Self-actualization: Personal Growth and Fulfillment. That is the answer. We just need to focus our time and efforts in developing ourselves. Don’t care about having no friends. I’m sure you will find great people as your friends, on your journey on self-improvement. You don’t need to care about recognition, getting ‘apex university’ title or a ‘datukship’, just focus on growing.

Anyway, I’m sure you get titles and recognition along the way (My father's friend threw it away because he says it makes him feel old, do we really need it?). This is the noblest cause. This is what I mean as ‘Doing Things for right reasons’ not money, not status, not shallow friends but the lifelong pursuit of knowledge and wisdom.

Be.You.

Vlog Pertamaku!

2009-10-25T23:35:00.000-07:00

The Firdaus Agenda

2009-10-22T03:27:00.001-07:00

Everybody wants to change the world. Everybody always criticize other people. Everybody blames somebody. Most of the time, it would be the government. But by blaming only, nothing happens. A lot of people complain but not many are willing to help to solve.

I also want things to be better in life. But I put less hope in politicians. At best, I believe when the politicians and people's interest are aligned, then, something would happen. I guess that's how the world is. There's no free lunch. Either way, what can we do? The Small People.

Let me explain, point by point:

You Can Create Change Without Politics: A lot of people I know would sigh, "sigh...politics, what can I do? I don't have power...". Wrong! We all have power. Even without elections we have power to make changes. Think like an entrepreneur, innovate and solve problems. Do you think Tony Fernandes gave up when AirAsia was a subsidiary of MAS which was a GLC? He went to Mahathir himself to clear the issues. Your weak mentalities are at fault when bad politicians take advantage of the system.

You Need To Be Competent, Competence: Attitude + Knowledge + Skills: When you have the managerial skill & experience, then, you can make a change. Do you see all the NGOs? How can they survive and still promote their cause? They're not doing it to get profit, ok?

Politics Focuses On The Problem And Not The Solution:Sometimes they need to focus on the problem. Ever feel like the politicians purposely fan racial issues?

Malaysians Don’t Have The Right Attitude: Remember I said about you having the weak "I don't have power" mentality. Read more here.

Learning Just For The Sake Of Learning: You just want to get cert, then grad, then get job, then work like robot. If you think your job as a way to contribute to society or country or as something that is noble, then you would like your job more. How can you create change if you're not passionate in doing what you do for a living?

It's not what you do, but how you do it: Doing a club activity, does not make your club a good one, it's how good you do the club activities. The intention to do PPSMI is not enough, it's HOW you implement that determines it's success.

The Right People Are Not At The Right Places:There are many capable intelligent people don't get to hold important posts merely because their opinions differ from the boss. WHO is saying is much more important than WHAT is being said (points of the debate)... All because of petty office politics and etc. We must eliminate these unproductive cultures.

Malaysia Have No Leaders, Only Politician:Leaders Are Different Than Politicians...Politicians can be leaders, only if they can contribute to positive change.

Solve Problems By Being Competent:If it doesn't get better than you're not doing it right. No BS is needed.

Do Things For The Right Reasons:Be sincere la.

More explanations coming. Not in the near future though.

Be.You.

17 Questions You Must Ask Your Team before You Start

2009-10-18T03:10:00.000-07:00

For the past few posts I have discussed the extensively of team dynamics and what are the potential problems that can happen. To avoid them, you can do an expectation setting session. In my version, you need to ask your team 17 questions and discuss with the team what is the expected performance of the team. What are these 17 questions?

Find out in my latest e-book!

Click here to download.

Hope it helps in making your team synergy better.

Be you.

Why Do You Need Teamwork and Leadership skills?

2009-10-17T09:14:00.000-07:00

“If it's technical challenge, you can always resort to the formulas, but if it's human, there is no formulation to predict them. Managing people is the toughest” - Anonymous

The quote above illustrates the difficulties in dealing with other human beings. But it is something you cannot avoid. When your work in the real world, your boss will be people too, you colleagues will be people too, who have emotions and feelings. Your clients, suppliers, competitors are humans just like you with their own motivations and problems.

You are just one person with only 24 hours to use each day. With that limit, you cannot do much. If you want to achieve more in life, you must work together with other people. There are only two greatest limitations in life: Time and Knowledge. Everyone will face a deadline, that’s why we look for other people to help us. Sometimes we don’t have the skill or knowledge so we have to find someone who does have the knowledge. But then you still have to communicate the idea or plan to that person. You cannot copy paste your ideas or feelings like copy pasting your university assignments.

Everyone will have responsibilities at least at one point in life. At least as a parent. And as a parent you still would have to lead your family. You would still need to be a leader…

In conclusion, learn teamwork & leadership skills, and learn it now while you’re still young and still can afford to make mistakes.

3 Causes of Conflict In a Team

2009-10-16T19:31:00.000-07:00

You want to know the causes of conflict in a team? Actually we discussed all of it in my previous articles.

Goals
Decision Making
Work Division

These 3 core issues contribute to conflicts in a team. As a leader you must learn how to organize the operation of these issues and deal with it objectively.

But no matter how good you plan or organize, conflicts would still happen. It's human nature. Some people have no sense of consideration towards other, and keep being selfish. When this happens, the 4th issue of a team will step in. Conflict Resolution. Resolving conflict in a manner that makes sure everybody reaches a mutually beneficial agreement. That means all parties get something, not all but somewhere in the middle where both parties agrees.

There are many methods to resolve conflicts. The easiest yet effective method for student leaders is to do an expectation setting. I'll discuss it in my next article.

Be.You.

4 Malaysian Culture That Prevents Effective Conflict Resolution

2009-10-16T08:09:00.000-07:00

Conflict and arguments are a fact of life. Sooner or later you are going to face it, especially if you are in a team or a leader. The only way you can avoid conflict is to isolate yourself from the world. Do you want that? You will face more problems as you strive to achieve more in life. But understand that conflicts are not an enemy or a monster. It is a challenge to be overcome. It is the world's way of determining who is worthy to be successful in life. Where others stop when they see the 'wall', you climb over it. Like I said, one aspect of 'the right attitude' depends on how people react to challenges, conflict and adversity.

So, you should all learn how to handle conflicts well. Remember, the outcome of a conflict resolution is so that a mutually beneficial outcome is reached. You don't want that only you win the argument, but both of you must 'win'. If you keep winning, even if you shouldn't, do you think everyone would continue to support you? There are many reasons people do not handle conflict properly. But today I want the to share the 4 most damaging culture in Malaysians that disrupts effective conflict resolution.

It's WHO is saying is much more important than WHAT is being said...
You avoid DIRECT confrontation but complain and criticize INDIRECTLY
Everything is a personal attack
Blame Game

WHO is saying is much more important than WHAT is being said...

Do you see politicians fight? Do you see people fight because of office politics? Do you see people trying to get close to high ranking officials so that they can influence their decisions. Do you see people totally closing their minds to a person's debate just because he is from another political affiliation. The truth does not depend on who is saying it, facts never change but their interpretations of it does. You must base your judgment on objectivity in resolving conflicts. Don't let position/rank or emotions cloud your decision.

You avoid DIRECT confrontation but complain and criticize INDIRECTLY

This always happen in every student club. In meetings you keep keep quite. The student leader gives work, you nod and accept. But then behind the person's back you badmouth him/her. If you don't tell your boss up front, how do you expect him/her to know? Malaysians always try to be harmonious and try to avoid conflicts. But in actuality, you are only postponing the problem. Imagine this. You are unhappy that your boss always gives hints that he isn't satisfied with your work. You don't want to create trouble and try to improve your work, but still not good enough. One day, things blew up and a fight ensues. Only then, you knew that your boss wanted something different then what you thought. If you had earlier chose to confront him immediately and clarify things in the beginning, this would not have happened. When I say confront, that doesn't mean to aggressively foght with him. I'll share how in the next articles.

Everything is a personal attack

In Malaysia, leaders are so sensitive and egoistic. Just because your opinion is different than theirs, it's as if we want to overthrow them. Then, we are branded as the 'evil opponents'. So many high potential individuals are neglected because of this. Separate the person from the issue. We don't care about you, we just want to make things better by giving a fresh opinion. Heh, You say that Malaysian don't have creativity.We do. Just that too many of it is restrained by seniority mentality and office politics by Malaysian leaders. To them, it becomes a matter of ego and pride which they must uphold. In worst cases, the use unethical methods to silence opposition.

In student clubs it is also similar. I have a story from an ex-MPP, he made a mistake of scolding a subordinate in front of her friends. That subordinate would then have her revenge by spreading bad rumors about him and engineer his isolation from his team. This has no positive effect on the boss, the subordinate or the team. Just the pure emotion of revenge. Don't take everything personally and don't take it to heart easily. Be professional. Separate work and emotion. Aware of the emotional pressures in the team. Be forgiving.

Blame Game

When people cannot answer a question in a n argument, they will make excuses. When they can't, they start to blame each other when a problem appears. The problem might not be the person. But it's always easier to blame and push the responsibility to someone else. And the blame game continues, just like Malaysian politics. Then, the problems never gets resolved.
Stop Blaming. Control emotions. Keep it objective. Find Solutions.

There are many cultures that I see in today's politicians that I see are happening to university students. The Blame Game. Unintelligent debates. Empty propaganda mongering. Biased Arguments and etc. You are going to face the same thing in real life, why don't start practicing now. If we can have have the right attitude in solving our conflicts. Then, Malaysia would be a better place.

Be.You

Qualities Women Despise In A Man

2009-10-15T18:03:00.000-07:00

These are the qualities women are thought to despise, according to some survey I found:

1. He has no opinion, is just carried along by others.
2. He always has someone to blame.
3. He can never be decisive at the moment of truth.
4. He’s always giving up (never puts in the work).
5. He’s always relying on his parents somehow.
6. He keeps quiet on the train even when he’s bunched up against some weirdo.
7. Though he’s timid around other people, he only acts firm in front of me.
8. He flip-flops around with what foods he likes and dislikes.
9. He splits the cost of meals (with me) exactly, even in increments of RM0.10.
10. He asks to be treated.
11. He always whines about his work.
12. His mails are too long.
13. He does nothing but complain.
14. He checks his appearance in front of the mirror too much.
15. He uses hygiene products too much.
16. His body is frail and weak.

See that guys? You have to be opinionated, a strong mind. Small2 stuff like choosing where to eat for dinner, no need to be so strict la. But it's important that you can stand your ground in the face of conflict and disputes. Many of you avoid conflict or become too aggressive and emotional in a conflict. This is because:

You don't know your 'limit', Don't say you know it, because if you did you would handle ALL conflicts well. Read this to know why.

And also, don't give up easily, just keep trying. Don't stop. Just do it. Doubting yourselves doesn't bring you anywhere.

Don't whine and complain. Grow up. Be accountable for the choices you make. Have a positive outlook of life.

What separates successful Men (and women) is in the way they react towards:

Their life goals
Their problems and challenges in life
Knowledge, Education and Wisdom.

Click here for a better explanation.

Be a Man. Do the right thing!

...and...

Be.You.

How To Tell Someone You Love Them

2009-10-12T18:28:00.000-07:00

Another random post this time. I remember posting a video titled, "How To Be The Perfect Boyfriend". but before you can become the perfect boyfriend/girlfriend you need to have one, right? But you got to express your feelings to your target right? Here's how! Just click on the pic above...

Sorry that havent updated much this week, been busy. A shift is happening in my life. Haha. Anyway...

Be.You.
and show me some love...

Solutions To Effective Decision Working

2009-10-07T02:48:00.000-07:00

In the previous article I shared about the limitations in effective decision making. Which are:

• Time
• Resources
• Type of Decision
• Environment

So referring to these limitations I am going to share the tools you can use to do effective decision making.

Time & Resources

Planning. Yes, planning. A good planning would give you an idea of the tine constraint that you would face. Then, you could plan things ahead and not when you are under pressure because of lack of time. Also planning in advance would help you identify the limited resources you have and the type of decisions you would have to do in advanced, so you can make the decisions now. You won't make a good decision under pressure, right? I know I have said planning as a solution many times, but this shows how important is planning. You can download a copy of my planning guide here.

Type of Decision

Like I said in my previous article, time and resources is a big limitation. So for now, I will discuss a method that decides a decision making that is suitable to the decision making in context of differences in importance and urgency in making the decision.

Decision Making Matrix

I have modified this matrix from the time management matrix to suit the context of decision making.

Important - If you don't do, then the project/work you are doing won't be complete
Urgent - If you don't do it now, you won't finish before deadline. (Some people don't want to make their own deadline, that's why their time management sucks) Or other parts of the project cannot or other people cannot finish before their deadline until you have done your part of the project/work.

Autocratic - You don't have much time. Don't be a wuss and make a decision now!
Democratic - You have time. Gather as much as accurate information as you can. Get a team consensus. There are many methods to do this. Try Google decision making or visit this website I found, here.
Delegate - You've got to trust your team. You can't do everything alone.
Forget It - Do I need to explain this?

Remember that you need ALL your team mates to agree with a decision so all of them will do the work properly. If they don't agree, they don't trust, and ultimately they won't do. However, time is your biggest enemy in getting everyone in your team agreeing to the same decision. So as a leader you must know when to be democratic and when you must be a dictator.

Be.You.

Limitations in Effective Decision Making

2009-10-06T19:37:00.000-07:00

Like I said before in a previous article, in life the biggest limitations are time and knowledge. Even in decision making you will see the effects of these two limitations. They will manifest themselves as these limitations in effective decision making.

• Time
• Resources
• Type of Decision
• Environment

So when trying to make a decision in your team please consider these limitations before taking choosing a decision making method.

Time

When deadlines comes closer, the pressure increases. You don't have time to wait to get more information or discuss with the team. I always see leaders postponing important decisions because they are afraid to make the wrong decisions. "Tell me yes, Tell me no...But tell me now!" so that the team can go on and start making preparations.

Resources

Unfortunately, humans cannot clone an infinite number of themselves; there's only one of you in the world. And as such, that's why you have team mates. But still, you have a limited number of them. Depending on the different size of the team would require a different approach to decision making. The bigger the size, the harder it is to take consideration everybody's opinion.

Competency

It is the combination of skills, attitude and knowledge. Unfortunately, not everybody have the same level of competency. Also, you cannot simply 'transfer' competency to another person just like transferring a Microsoft word file through a thumb drive. This difference makes it hard for ideas, suggestion, and opinions hard to get through to other members. This takes time and effort. After all, we are all different in our own special way.

Type of Decisions

Differing degrees of Time, Resources available and competency makes our decision different in terms of importance and urgency. Depending on importance, a more important decision would require a more autocratic decision making by the leader.

Environment

In my previous article, I mentioned about how the work environment can influence the quality of decision making. As a leader, it is in your interest that the decision making method you use would promote work synergy, healthy working environment and etc.

Consider these before choosing a decision making style. I would share some of the methods you can use in me next article.

Be. You.

3 Problems In Decision Making

2009-10-03T19:43:00.000-07:00

Decision making is an important process that everyone will go through, whether in uni or in the working life. So better start learning about it now. When making a decision, it's important to get the right information as also to discuss from as many aspects as possible. This is why all opinions and healthy debate is welcomed. Unfortunately, Malaysians always try to avoid conflict and give no feed back at all. Avoiding conflict will bring a bigger problem later on, trust me. Sometimes, the debate becomes too heated, emotional and personal that it destroys the team’s synergy.

There are 3 things that cause ineffective decision making:
• The Environment
• The People
• The Decision Making Method

Environment

As you may know everything in Malaysia is very politicized. There are so many cases where good & intelligent people are disregarded because having an opposing opinion to their superior. This kind of mentality of environment cannot help in promoting information sharing and healthy debate. Debate is necessary so that we are able to access all possibilities and outcomes. A leader can create the right environment by encouraging open discussions and stressing that making the right decision is more important than saving face.

People

People are the most unpredictable factor. There are people who talk too much but don't give relevant information or solutions, and there are those who say nothing at all. Like I said earlier, you need to know as much as you can before you can make a decision. You need your team mates to help you give information. Get them into the discussion and the debate. People are sometime shy and sometimes lose focus of the debate. There are many methods to overcome this which I will prepare later on.

Decision Making Method

The problem with student leaders these days, is that they lack technical managerial skills. So the result will be they are too dictator-like and harsh on the team and would not accept any other opinion. Or the leader becomes too soft and the team have too many opinions and the leader cannot make a decision because that person is not decisive and a people pleaser.

Environment is the external factor, and the people are the internal factor. There are managerial methods to help you do decision making in the most effective manner. These methods can easily be found on the internet and also learned as easily. Unfortunately, this is not taught to student leaders. Student leaders prefer navigating through the politics of student leadership. I will share these methods in upcoming posts.

By understanding the usual problems that cause ineffective decision making, we know what to avoid when we do our decision making. The next step is to know what to do in making the right decision.

Be.You

Solutions To Distribute Work Effectively

2009-09-30T07:08:00.000-07:00

I'm sure all you who had experience in student projects have seen problems in dividing, allocating and delegating the jobs to your team members. If there is imbalance in distributing the work then there will be dissatisfaction in the team. Gossiping and complaining behind the team leaders back would soon follow. And that's not good right? Below are some of the things you must consider in making your work distribution as effective as possible.

Planning

In my previous article, "3 Limitations In Dividing Work Effectively" I discussed that human resource is a major constraint. It is important that:

Everybody knows their own work well (so they can do the work well)
Everybody knows each other's works (so no one will say they have more work than others)
Everybody knows the overall collective work that needs to be done (so they are prepared to take some additional work)
Everybody aware of the changes and problems that might occur throughout the project (so that they are ok with last minute changes)

The basis behind these points is further detailed in "Laws of Teamworking". You can achieve all this by doing proper planning. I have mentioned the importance of planning so many times. You can download my free planning guidebook here. I have mentioned previously the importance of having the same goal. This is not some fancy-fancy rhetoric like singing one world, one goal, 1Malaysia and etc. This has managerial significances because a team that does not work towards the same objective is not efficient and is under-utilized. That's why I stressed the importance to have ALL team members to be a part of the planning process. When EVERYBODY knows the objective CLEARLY, team members are able to align themselves and their work closer to the team's objective.

Job Description Expectation

It is important that every team member have a clear expectation of what they need to do in the team, and what other team members need to do also. It's important that they have this expectation BEFORE you start work. The reason? So that they won't suddenly complain and give excuse that they didn't know that they need to do so much work in the project. I will share with you a set of questions you must ask your team in the future. Make sure you ask these questions before the team starts working.

Job Description by Objective/Event/Process

When you want to make a team, it is most efficient to create the team with the objective to finish one event/process from start to finish, from A to Z. Organizing work according to a specific job limits that person to that job only. That won’t be good when you need to shift man power to other sections of the project if necessary. It also creates a mental barrier that prevents information sharing between departments. Also, when you give a broad objective you are telling them what is the big picture and the bottom line.

Here are some examples of department names and their objective which I made for an entrepreneurship club I founded:

Education Department: To Educate member about entrepreneurship and create education syllabus for the members
Operations Department: To create impactful and meaningful projects for the club, club’s members and the UPM community
Publicity & Promotions: To advertise and promote the club and it's projects

After this is understood clearly by the team, then you can go into the details. I would like to share with you the document I have created that contains the specific details. But right now I do not want to go so deep in that because I want to focus on basic team managerial skills.

Organize and Streamline Work

Work together with your team to identify and brainstorm ways to increase work efficiency. Like in my previous article, I mentioned about the three departments that should be one department. Read that article as a guideline and use the principles discussed to identify the limitations in the team and think of a better way to group them together.

I hope as a leader and as a team player you can distribute work in a better way.

Be.You.

3 Limitations In Dividing Work Effectively

2009-09-30T02:56:00.000-07:00

There was once a student project that was responsible to organize a national level symposium. They divided the team as below:
Mr. E's team = to find speakers only (external)
Miss. S's team = to find sponsors (external)
Mr. X's team = find press (external)

All of these must be grouped into one department. Why? Because:
1. They need to have the same proposal to show to all externals. Which were in an on-going process throughout the project. Different Proposal = Different Expectation=A lot of Problems
2. They need to coordinate the time slot of the project to juggle allocate time slot for speakers, press and sponsors.
3. Leveraging on the combined pool of team members to average out the workload.

These things happen when a leader does not understand the issues and limitations when people work together in a team. When you are creating a team or designing an organizational structure of a project, please consider these 3 limitations when comes the time to divide and distribute the jobs.

• Human Resource
• Information Sharing
• Bureaucracy

Human Resource

It is important to remember we have a limited amount of committee members on this project. Additionally, all of you are uni students, who have exams and assignments to think about. When deadlines are coming closer, more problems tend to appear and pressure is growing, you need the flexibility to allocate man power as fast and as smoothly as possible according to the needs of the project. If you designed the team or hierarchy in a very rigid way, you will have a hard time convincing a team member to accept additional work or shift priorities. That is why it is important to design a common objective for the team first than create the job description of the team. Give a general objective to the team first, then create the name and job scope of the team. Not like MTP or MPP where they think of the secretariat name first, and then they have no idea what project the secretariat needs to do.

Information Sharing

All project requires the work force to be divided so that we can focus on different aspect of the projects. However, some of these aspects are connected, interlinked and relevant to other parts of the projects. A lot of problems happen because issues are not properly communicated to all relevant parties, then, the misinformation or miscommunication would cause mistakes and lead to conflicts. And students would blame each other and back-stabbing would soon follow. Use ICT to makes sure that all team members are updated with the same information. Different information will create different outcomes. Conflicting information would create confusion and conflicts among team members.

Bureaucracy

When the hierarchy is too complex, it becomes a barrier to information sharing and communication and also a barrier to fully utilize human resource potential. Students Leadership always has so many secretariat and bureaus with fancy name but has not been impactful. One of the reasons is that these smaller organizations create a mentality that cuts them off from collaborating with other clubs or bureaus. For example, every college have their own entrepreneurship secretariat but each of them have received limited success (selling keropok and dadih is not what I define as successful). Why have none of them collaborated with other entrepreneurship clubs to capitalize on their pooled human resource and expertise? The answer is the bureaucratic mentality in Malaysians.

Ultimately, time and human resource is the underlying factors. Utilizing the most of what you have by using effective managerial principles. I will share the methods to do so in upcoming articles.

Be.You.

Student Leaders Planning Guidebook

2009-09-28T20:12:00.000-07:00

Interesting Articles in the e-book:

Why students fail to plan?
Laws of Teamworking
SMART Goal Setting
Designing an Action Plan
3 Ways to Know You Are Realistic or Not

Click Here To Download For Free

MPP/MTP Lacks Strategic Thinking

2009-09-26T07:23:00.000-07:00

Whether the Majlis Perwakilan Pelajar (MPP) at the University level or the Majlis Tertinngi Pelajar (MTP) at the college level, they both lack strategic thinking skills. The proof, the same issues have been going on for ages and no improvement can be seen. If the students don't see any improvement, it's enough for me to say you are not making any improvements. Imagine if you are a leader in a business, politics or in public services. Remember the problems when you were a leader in university? You will face them again. What makes you can handle them better this time in the future? But I don't blame the MPP and MTP because they are not taught to equip themselves with managrial skills. Here are some reasons this situations prevail:

Unnecessary Politics In Student Leadership

Political ideologies has no place in student politics. Students just want our food affordable, clean and healthy. Our college safe to live in and our toilets clean. Anything else is irrelevant. You can read a more detailed discussion here. Malaysia has a bad culture of politicizing everything. And when that happens, the 'talkers' will always talk too much BS about the problem, but NOTHING about the solution; which is what strategic thinking is. Creating strategies, Solving problems. This bad habit is then picked up by the young generation. Shame on you politicians.

Lack of Education Syllabus

MPP and MTP are best to be headed by experienced students and is not a place to 'learn'. By design or by negligence, these organizations do not have a structured education plan. Every time you see a student club's performance fluctuate it is because of the club's leadership. This fluctuation is a sign of an absence in the club's initiative to continuously develop leaders. There are a lot of clubs with good education plans, unfortunately none among MPPs and MTPs. No education plan means no platform for students to develop their leadership skills which include strategic thinking skills.

Lack of Foresight

Strategic thinking is basically the ability to foresee problems and formulate strategies to solve them. However, not all student leader can anticipate problem well. This comes with experience in doing challenging projects. But many students love doing lame and easy projects. You can read my classification of such students, here. Also, some student leaders are not sincere, they are just power hungry, want to show off, want to get close to ministers and etc. So 'strategic thinking' for the student clubs is not their priority, but 'strategic thinking' for themselves, yes la.

At the end of the day, student leaders must focus on developing their managerial skills. Their 'talking' skills is perfect already. I see a lot of students are confused what are the role of MPP and also they are too focused on the politics and not the solutions. Read here, where I shoot a few people, give your comments, ok?

Be.You.

Persepsi pelajar terhadap MTP/MPP E-Report

2009-09-25T06:22:00.000-07:00

Klik sini untuk download

About Beyond Uni

2009-09-25T00:08:00.000-07:00

Hi,

My name is Firdaus and I blog at beyonduni.blogspot.com

If this is the first time you came to my blog please read these two articles of mine:

Who Should Read My Blog?

How to read my blog?

I hope by reading these two articles would make you understand better about my blog and how it can help you in uni: in academics, in your co-curricular and life in general.

After this, you might want to know about the history and the vision of my blog. And also, maybe about me. You can do so by reading these post:

Why beyond uni?

About Me

Enjoy reading my blog and...

Be.You.

How to read my blog?

2009-09-24T23:53:00.000-07:00

Today, I want to share how you can apply what I am teaching in my blog in your life...

Threshold and Direction

Threshold
It means a point/level where a change will happen. Or read here for webster definition...

When I say you are not an entrepreneur when you're selling dadih/keropok that means that is below the level you need to do to become a successful entrepreneur. I would say you need to read books, focus on studies and focus the development of proper entrepreneur mindsets and mentalities. That is the minimum, if you do not focus on developing mindset, you're not going to be successful. Selling dadih at university is below the limit/the threshold so that means you are not making a differences for yourselves. Refer back to why entrepreneurship is needed, I am referring my threshold on the objectives of increasing economic standards for the Malays, creating jobs and attracting foreign investments. Can selling dadih do that?

Direction

I admit I am not so experienced to know what is the threshold exactly, but at least I do know to a certain extent where it lies. Even if I do not know I am experienced enough to know the 'direction' that is needed. When I'm doing the articles like Laws of Teamworking and SMART Goal Setting I am giving you a direction. I am telling you this is the way, the focus you must put effort into if you want to achieve success in your project and etc. If you aren't able to achieve it, it's okay. Better than investing your time and effort on the wrong things.

The thing is, there are people who say other people's analysis is 'general'. Fine, but how specific can you be, practically? So I wrote this as a guide to read my guide to the issues I talk about in my blog.

Use It Against Your Enemies

I know all my readers are decent good people but your lives are made miserable by those %$%^& people. Here offer you my help. Use the articles, and e-book that I have to made. When you are debating, refer back to my articles. Show them the principles, concepts and tools I made. To make it more effective, position me as some industry expert. I'm not saying that I am but maybe you can help me become one. If you think the things that I say is right, you can tell your friends about my blog. If I'm not, give me some comments to improve myself. Either way, with your help, I will ultimately become the 'industry expert'. And then you can use my articles to expose 'the talkers' of who they really are...

Be.You.

Panduan Hidup Untuk Pelajar Universiti Baru

2009-09-22T06:24:00.000-07:00

Saya baru siapkan e-book pertama saya. Buku ini dalam format pdf. Sesuai untuk dibaca oleh semua komputer.

Baca Buku Ini Untuk:
• Menggunakan Zaman Universiti Anda Dengan Sebaiknya
• Mengenal Pasti Kelab & Persatuan Pelajar Yang Bermasalah
• Mengelakkan Aktiviti/Projek/Perniagaan yang mengeksploitasi Pelajar
• Mempelajari Cara-Cara Menyeimbangkan Masa Pelajar

Nak satu salinan? Hanya Klik Disini.

Be.You.

4 Causes of Ineffective Work Distribution

2009-09-18T21:52:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned before, one of the elements of a team is work division. It's a tough job balancing needs of the project and the needs of your team. I will be discussing methods and techniques you can use to achieve this balance later, but before that I must share the underlying mistakes and problems that student clubs always make or face in the team.

Different expectation of work - amount, frequency, deadline, quality

Everytime someone fights in a team is because that someone is not satisfied with a team member's work. That happens because that 'someone's expectation is not communicated properly. Not long ago I had someone complaining about a team member who were always not satisfied with his work. My suggestion is to meet that unsatisfied team member and clarify what does she (the unsatisfied team member) want, what is her expectation. Normally, if this is not done, both parties will have different interpretation of what needs to be done. When this happen the conflicting views will create an argument. This is why you need to an expectation setting with your team. You must make it clear to all team members about the 4 issues below:

Amount of Work
Quality of Work
Deadline
Work Frequency

Make sure all team members are prepared to face the expected issues discussed above at the agreed magnitude as discussed in the expectation setting session. I will teach more about how to do the expectation setting and what to do if there are differing opinions in the expectation setting in later articles.

Uncommitted People

Even though with all the managerial methods that I discussed, there are always incompetent people in the team. In student clubs they are always the lazy and just for merits students. Be careful with these kind of people. They technically achieved their objective, which is to get merit and they have not much reason to contribute more in the project. The solution is to identify these kind of people in the recruitment interview and the expectation setting session. Then, using your leadership and managerial skills to motivate or pressure them to do a better work.

Different Priorities

Everyone have different objectives and as such, different priorities. Some people put their girlfriend/boyfriend before work responsibility. This is not good. You can have your dates anytime, at worst only your date gets mad at you. But in a student club, a whole project of 20 to30 people can be at risk because you did not do your work. Which one is more important? Some team members also have other responsibilities, like tests & assignments, other club's projects. These other responsibilities can affect their priorities and in turn your project. Again, expectation setting can help to identify potential problems with these people.

Constructing Proper Job Descriptions

Like I said earlier, It's a tough job balancing needs of the project and the needs of your team. A lot of leaders are not trained or knowledgeable how to assign work properly among team members. These are the kind of knowledge that MPP and MTP should be teaching their members regardless of position. Back to the topic, when assigning Job Descriptions (JD) to a team member, these are the basic 3 things you must consider:

Time constraint
Hierarchy
Skill sets

These are a very basic classification of the issues but would be enough for today. I will discuss in further detail later. I just wanted to point out that student clubs don't put much effort in constructing a JD and they don't see the value of taking the time to invest in constructing a proper JD.

I hope you can use these 4 points to help you identify potential problems in your team and take precautionary measures to prevent conflicts in your team.

Selamat Hari Raya, Maaf Zahir Batin and...

Be.You.
and show me some love...

How To Be The Perfect Boyfriend

2009-09-15T05:08:00.000-07:00

Hi,
Today is a busy week. SO a random post this time. I remember posting a video titled, "How To Be The Perfect Girlfriend". This time, it's a video for the guys. Just click the pic above to go watch vid.

Be.You.
and show me some love...

The Truth About Your CGPA Pointer

2009-09-11T18:26:00.000-07:00

CGPA pointer is not everything and here's why:

Don't Take the System For Granted

There are a lot of book worms in university. They're only reason to exist is too study. They're mentality is "Get good pointers - Get good work - Get good life". Nothing can be further from the truth. The CGPA system is to measure your academic performance, but that does not mean the system will necessarily benefit you. You have to out do the system to be better than your peers. Never expect when you follow the system, the system will take care of you. Have you ever realised why politicians always get rich, because they abuse their position and the information they know to abuse the system. That's the ugly truth. I'm not asking you to abuse the system, I just saying don't take any system (CGPA pointers) for granted. Don't just hope getting 4 flat and your life is sure going to be OK. Do your research, prepare for risks, and don't depend everything on CGPA. Why?

CGPA Just Gets You the Interview

These days many company HR utilise a computer software to filter candidates. So if you have a high cgpa, that's good but companies don't just need cgpa. Do you think you can do interviews well? Do you think you can perform well after you get the job compared to your peers to get a promotion? Do you know the reason why they ask so many questions is so that they can analyse your mentality and personality. If you have a weak personality because you never mix-around, experience teamwork, face challenges through co-curricular; do you think they want to hire you? Quality over quantity. I told you before not take stupid jobs in your co-curricular like 'ajk kebersihan', 'ajk makanan' & etc. Some people think, "Need to learn from small-small". Wrong! I think things like that are a waste of time and employers don't value the cert. Read this article to know what you should do in co-curricular.

Co-curricular Experience Can Be Applied Anywhere

Whatever competency that you learned in co-curricular can be applied anywhere in life. Academics, work and in business. CGPA only appliess to the work field or industry that is relevant to the cert. Remember, "competency= skill + knowledge + attitude". A lot of student club say they do leadership and etc, but fail to teach you to be competent. Read here to identify these clubs. And again, small menial labourous task like 'ajk makanan', does not help comptency. Employers want competency. The leadeship and management stuff you need to learn (that a lot of student club don't teach) are the kind of methods and concepts I discuss in my blog.

I wouldn't say CGPA is useless but let me give an idea about the 'balance' between CGPA and co-curricular. Read here to know how to use the equation below:

4.00 CGPA + Great Co-curricular = The best.

You can apply at famous companies like Multi National Companies (MNCs), 'top 4' companies of your field and those famous national GLCs like Petronas and Proton etc.

4.00 CGPA + No Co-curricular = Hard to go far

If the HR people sees any weakness in your mentality and personality that can affect in work, they do not want to hire. But I'm talking about the good companies. If you want typical, not famous, not so high-paying companies; that's another story.

2.00 CGPA + Great Co-curricular = Hard Also. But...

Usually, a lot of your students leaders do a lot of co-curricular so to get close to Datuks and Menteris. Some are lucky and achieve something, but not all. I don't like this strategy. However, even if u get CGPA is low, you would already have experience to apply in the future like starting your own business, maybe? As long the co-curricular you did is not those shitty work la.

2.00 CGPA + No Co-curricular = Very Bad.

I have no idea what you are doing in Uni.

The Balance?

At least get 2nd upper class for your degree pointer. And the strategy you should have with your co-curricular is quality over quantity. Read here how to identify them.

At the end of the day you must realise your degree cert is not a ticket that gets you a job, it's just one 'ingredient' to get the job. If you don't have all the 'ingredients', you won't get the job.

Be.You.
and show me some love ;)

4 Critical Issue Of Every Team

2009-09-07T22:51:00.000-07:00

Every problem faced by a team can be related back to these 4 elements that I am going to share with you today. I will give some light explanations about these elements but I will give you a comprehensive solution in future posts. Please read laws of teamworking after you have read this post so you can have a better understanding of the topic.

The 4 Element of a team are:

Goals
Decision Making
Work Division
Conflict Resolution

Goals
I have taught you the importance of goal setting and planning in some of my previous post. In short, a team without a common goal does not invest their time and effort wisely. When, their labor does not show results, their motivation will drop. And when that happens the team will not work and your objective will not be achieved. That is why proper goal setting and expectation setting is important.

Decision Making
Sooner or later, all teams would have to make a hard decision. In these situations some teams are more democratic, and some are more autocratic. The problem here is how the individual team members respond to their leader's democratic or autocratic behavior. If a leader is too autocratic, then he is bound to make mistakes and incur ill-feelings from the team. If he is too democratic, it will cause too much time to be wasted in getting the right decisions. A proper expectation setting to discover the decision making method that is suitable for the team, would help a lot. Also as a leader, you must be smart to make the right choices at the right time. This requires experience.

Work Division
Not all students are willing to do much work because they just want to get merits. But there are some who are willing to do work. But if we exploit and misuse these productive people too much they will end up being fed up and would leave the team. The solution is to utilize all your members as wisely as possible. Unfortunately, that is not easy. First, you must divide the work as equally as possible and also communicate each other responsibilities clearly to all team members. If some members think that there are some people who are not doing enough work, then they too will be lazy and slack off.

Conflict Resolution
How to resolve a conflict in a team? Our biggest problem is our fear to handle these issues before the conflict happens which is before the team starts work. We should address sensitive issues by asking each other beforehand how should a conflict should be approached and resolved so that no one will keep blaming each other in the future. This is another reason why work division must be properly communicated and defined. So that if something would happen, we would easily know who is at fault. The good thing about it, is that these conflicts will not happen when proper expectation setting is done, everything is properly defined and everybody’s knows each person’s responsibilities. There are no bad people, only bad managers.

All teams must consider these 4 elements before starting a team. Every time you hear of people back stabbing in student organizations is not because they are bad, they are just bad managers. They do not address properly the issues mentioned above in the team. When trouble happens; miscommunication, ego and emotions are added into the equation and your brain will stop working. Their judgment is driven by emotion and not objective facts. Judgement based not in facts is a mistake. Mistakes are building blocks of failure.

Be You.
and show me some love...

Seeds of Success: Why You Don't Know What You Want In Life

2009-09-04T19:36:00.000-07:00

After you have the belief and the optimism thatyou can achieve success in your life you need to focus all your efforts on the things your really want to succeed in. In order to that you need to know what you really want in your life. If you don't focus, you will waste your time and effort on things that you don't really want. But before I share the method to do that, I want to discuss why is it a lot of people don't know what they want in life.

You Let Too Much External Factors Cloud Your Judgment.
When you choose your field in Uni, how was it? Did you follow your friends? You let society determine it for you. You take medicine, engineering, law because it was glamorous. That is not 'Doing the Right Thing For The Right Reasons'. You must do it because you like it, at least to a certain extent. There is nothing wrong with seeking guidance from friends and family. It's wrong when you let external motivation override what you want. But usually this happens because you trust the opinions of others more than yourself. This is because you don't understand yourself enough, you are still young and have a lot to learn about life, the world and you yourself. Which leads to my next point.

You Don't Know Yourself
How many times have you asked yourself what you want in your life, what your role in the world is? There was a time in my life where I was a complete loser and have no direction life. During this period I question my life purpose. I questioned what I really want in life. Money? Cars? Houses? I then questioned what motivates me to do things to the max. I realized there were some subjects and topics that made me significantly more passionate compared to other topics.
I then tried to construct a better understanding of my strengths and weaknesses. With all this information, I was able to confidently 100% the course that I want. Adopt the same method, try to gather as much information from your life experiences to have a better understanding of yourself. Unfortunately, not everyone have good life experiences to rely, which brings to my next point.

You Don't Want to Take New and Diverse Experiences
When you were in High School were you active in co-curricular? Were you always with only your group of friends? Did you mix around in many groups or many activities and clubs. Maybe you're also still active in societies outside of school? The important thing is to acquire more diversity in life. The more different kinds of challenges you face in life the more experience and knowledge of you have of the way you handle those challenges. With this, you would know more about yourself. Unfortunately, not everybody are willing to face challenges and take risks in life.

You're Afraid to Take Risks or Face Challenges
Now, I already explained this with some extent in the previous post titled, "Seed of Success: Knowing That You Can". Like I said in the post, "At the end of the day, these excuses you made - only you will accept it, everyone else doesn't give a sh*t". I hope you understood the post, that you need to believe in yourself first, then, you can embrace challenges. I'm not saying it will be easier that way. I am saying only good things will come from it. "What cannot kill you, makes you stronger"

"The greatest glory in living lies not in NEVER falling, but in RISING every time we fall"
- Nelson Mandela

Hopefully, now you can reflect on your past experience and properly analyze who you are as a person. But remember, you need to this honestly and sincerely with yourself. The truth hurts, and if you are not honest in doing this, there is only one person who will suffer - You.

Be.You.

I got my blog post published!

2009-08-31T21:49:00.000-07:00

Yes! I contributed a post to this cool leadership blog.
It's called LiaV: Leadership is a verb.
Go check it out and read my post there too!

Here's a random video because I'm quite busy for today. Sorry...

Be.You
And as usual,
pls click the microsoft ad below...

Muhibah Wujud Apabila Kita Tidak Perlu Fikir Pasal Muhibah

2009-08-28T18:28:00.000-07:00

Masa uni, dulu ada satu pertandingan menyanyi lagu patriotik kat kolej. Saya dapat tahu ada satu peserta menang kerana hakim nak tunjuk muhibah la. Saya tak setuju dengan tindakan ini. Kenapa? Kerana "Muhibah wujud apabila kita tidak perlu fikir pasal muhibah".

Muhibah. Perpaduan. Kebersamaan. Kesamarataan. Apabila kita mahu semua ideal ini dicapai, persoalan kaum tidak akan, tidak perlu menjadi isu di dalam sebarang pertimbangan. Di dalam kes pertandingan tadi, memilih peserta itu untuk nampak muhibah merupakan satu kelakuan yang sebaliknya dari membentuk muhibah. Kalau peserta tadi tahu, pasti dia tidak gemar. Sebab dia tidak dipilih kerana kemahirannya, dia tidak menang kerana dia sememangnya layak.

Lagi, satu. Kalau nak ada pun soal kaum perlu dipertimbangkan, tidak perlu didalam pertandingan kecil dan hal remeh-temeh seperti pertandingan menyanyi. Lebih baik kita tunjukkan muhibah dalam pemikiran kita apabila berdepan topik sensitif seperti topik ekonomi, agama, budaya, perundangan, polisi kerajaan dan sebagainya. Disitulah pertimbangan kaum akan membentuk muhibah.

Setiap kali kita nampak poster muhibah, aktiviti yang nak tunjukkan kemuhibahan; adalah satu peringatan bahawa kita semua muhibah. Perlu ke kita diingatkan kalau kita betul-betul muhibah? Betulkah kita muhibah? Macam saya katakan di atas "Muhibah wujud apabila kita tidak perlu fikir pasal muhibah". So betulkah? Saya rasa ada harapan untuk Malaysia.

Tapi muhibah tidak berlaku dengan kempen dan aktivti yang ditunjukkan kemuhibahannya. Ia tidak berlaku apabila pelajar pelbagai kaum dipaksa melakukan aktiviti pelajar bersama-sama. Ia tidak berlaku apabila pelajar pelbagai kaum melakukan projek bersama-sam untuk merit semata-mata dan bukan untuk berinteraksi. Malah, yang sebaliknya perlu berlaku!

Muhibah berlaku apabila semua berkerjasama ke satu arah, satu visi yang tidak ada kaitan dengan muhibah. Saya sangat bertuah kerana saya dapat berkerjasama dengan pelbagai jenis manusia semasa di universiti. Apabila suatu pasukan tidak kira bangsa bersatu dan berkerjasama apabila telah komited untuk mencapai visi yang telah dibentuk maka persoalan kaum menjadi tidak relevan. Dan apabila interaksi sebegini berlaku, maka terbentuknya peluang untuk lebih memahami diri masing-masing. Interaksi ikhlas dan terbuka memainkan peranan bukannya kempen-kempen yang gah.

"Muhibah Adalah Kesan/Simptom Daripada Perhubungan Telus dan Terbuka"

"Segregation brings ignorance. Which brings stereotypes. Which brings distrust. Which brings disunity. Which brings hatred. And Destruction"

"Diversity shields you from extremism and shallow mindedness. Segregation breeds them"- Me

Be.You.
Jgn lupa klik iklan microsoft. 10Q

The Truth About 'Balance' in life

2009-08-25T04:17:00.000-07:00

It was a normal morning, stuck in a traffic jam. Rude drivers cutting through traffic and I let them pass. A friend of mine who was carpooling to work with me asked "Why do you let that happen?". I replied "Are we in a hurry? We always leave for work at this time and we reach the office with time to spare". "But you cannot let just people walk over you", he answered.

"I'm not". And I explained further. The Taipei 101 skyscraper was built to withstand earthquakes and storms. How? By being flexible where it can afford to, and being tough and stern where is must be. It also applies to our lives. In the case of my argument with my car pooling friend, I know I can afford to let some cars go by, because I have spare time to reach the office. But if it was a matter of life and death, then I wouldn't react in the same way. In a conflict you must know when to compromise and when to stand your ground. Sounds obvious right?

A lot of people would talk about 'balance' as far as how they navigate conflict but it is these same people are the ones not being able to uphold this balance. More often than not, they themselves are the ones who get mistreated in conflicts. There is no perfect 'balance', it is not practical.

The 'balance' can be attempted, which ultimately brings us to an acceptable range. However, people fail to do this for two reasons:

Lack of objective
Lack of defining their thresholds
Lack of self-awareness

When you do not know what you want in life, then you will not know what do you need to achieve it. If you do not know that, you will not know which aspects of your life that you should prioritize on and what you cannot compromise on. You would know your boundaries. All this wouldn't be a problem if you are honest and sincere with yourself, having a better understanding of who you are and what you want to be.

How do you balance your life?

Be. You.
PS: Pls click the microsoft ad below, if it's still there..tq

4 Stages Of Creativity

2009-08-22T19:50:00.000-07:00

I have seen many clubs that try to think of new ideas for projects in their club activities. The typical replies would be "Don't know", "No idea", "Cannot think of anything" and etc. They would say they have no creativity. Those are excuses. Everyone can achieve or train their themselves to be creative. All you need is to have the right attitude and know the steps and techniques that makes it easier for you to get ideas. These are the 4 steps of creativity.

Plagiarism (copy & paste)
Edit, modify, adapt
Inspire, Explore and Diversify (knowing how to find inspiration)
Pure creativity

Plagiarism
Yes, just copy and paste only. From other people's work (with permission, better la). From books and magazines. From the internet and many more. For me, Internet is enough to help me get ideas. Just use Google and try to see what concepts that would come. This is the era where information is free and very accessible. If we can copy paste work into our assignments, why cannot we do the same for our student clubs. There are so many topics of leadership, management and etc on the web. In fact, you can find the session templates that also teaches you how to conduct the session by YOURSELF! But unfortunately, student leadership does not know about this, or not even try to do it. The reason? It's not in their work culture to think outside the box, I wonder what are they doing in all the camps they go to? Anyway, this is the least you can do to get new ideas, which is by doing research. If you just say you don't have any ideas it means your lazy. Yes, Lazy.

Edit, modify, adapt
Plagiarism is not the most honourable thing to do, but it is a good way to start. The next level is to edit, modify and adapt the idea/information you obtained. How to edit and modify. There are a lot of techniques but the principle is you put a new element into an original idea and see how things change, hopefully a good idea will come out of it. I suggest using the SCAMPER technique. Finding a solution depends on how many different ways of looking at the problem,and that is what this technique does. Doing a brainstorming session is also something a student leader must learn (which obviously they do not), hopefully I can post an article how to do it at some later time. But at least I will share with you the 4 basic rules of brainstorming:

Focus On Quantity (No need to get good ideas all the time, get the momentum and the mood so the brainstorming will continue smoothly)
No Criticism (Don't try to show you're smart, a bad idea can lead to a good idea)
Unusual Ideas Are Welcome (Malaysians are always afraid to voice out, because they're afraid other people say their ideas are stupid, change this mindset!)
Combine And Improve Ideas (Be brave and mix and match ideas. Play around. See what happens, it's like playing cooking when you were small)

Inspire, Explore and Diversify
Watch those interviews with musicians and directors, what do they answer when asked "How do you get inspiration?". Do they answer "I squeeze my brain in group meetings, forcing other meeting attendants to give ideas"?, No!. They will say they will walk around, find inspiration from nature, listen to music, do anything and everything except sit in a meeting and and stare blankly at the table in front of him. You need to know how to get inspired by life, and your surroundings and get ideas from it. Observe how the late Yasmin Ahmad's work, it's so relate-able to us. She finds inspiration just by looking at the people around her. Ask yourself what inspires you in life?

Pure Creativity
Not many people have this talent. But I like to think I have it, but so far the creativity I have are mostly the first 3 steps of creativity I have. I don't think I have pure creative ideas yet. But I still believe I can. Why? Because when you believe you can, you will push yourself to what you believe you can do. Having that mindset is good to achieve pure creativity.
Also, pure creativty is a revolution and hard to come by. How many products and services are so new and innovative you can see aroung you. Walkman handphone= walkman + handphones. Handphones = phones + mobility. And many more examples. But they do happen. Great ideas are like diamonds waiting to be found. You just need to improve your creativity techniques until that 2 billion dollar idea pops in your mind.

Understand this. Ideas don't come to those who don't try to think of finding ideas. The people who don't give ideas in your club, cannot give ideas because they don't want to think about the idea or do not try to find ideas hard enough, or do not know how to find ideas. Ideas do not come to those who never try to make a difference for themselves. Ideas do not come for those who don't want to change or improve themselves.

Necessity, who is the mother of invention.
Plato, The Republic
Greek author & philosopher in Athens (427 BC - 347 BC)

Be.You.
Ps: Pls click the ad below, k?

How To Give Me Some Blog Love

2009-08-21T01:04:00.000-07:00

So do you like my blog? If you do, please show me some love, some blog love...How? You can:

Leave A Comment
Subscribe My Newsletter
Click My Ads

Leave A Comment
Yes, please leave me some comments. You'll be helping me make my blog look lively, and would make others comment too. If you want me to leave a comment at your blog, sure. Just leave a link in your comment and I'll go there to leave a comment.

Subscribe My Newsletter
By doing so, I can send you e-books, special exclusive posts and many extras. Don't worry I'll use the newsletter to send stuff once a month. I don't have that much time.

Use My Banner
Just copy paste the html of my banner (I put it below my banner in my blog) into your blog. Help me promote my blog, k?

Click My Ads
Do I need to explain this? Just click any ads around my blog especially the google ads. Think of it as a way to let me know whether you like my posts or not. ; P

Anyway, thanks for coming to my blog. Now, show me some love.

4 Elements of the Right Attitude

2009-08-20T00:57:00.000-07:00

Not long ago, I have written a draft of what is needed to make a person successful. But, I would like to simplify and call it 'The Right Attitude". The draft is very long but for today I wan to share with you the 4 basic observation that I made which became the basis of the draft I made. They are:

Action Towards Life's dreams/goals
Reaction Towards Challenges/hardships/failure
Ability to Gather Knowledge and Wisdom
Ability to Control Your Emotion

Action Towards Life's dreams/goals

I see that there several ways people react to what they want to achieve in life. Some will believe and put maximum effort to achieve their goals. Most, don't have a dream or goal in life at all. Being ignorant, and having the que sera sera attitude. A large portion, say they have a goal, but not doing anything or doing the wrong things which does not contribute to their goals. For example, they would have subsidies and grants for their business but they misuse them for short term benefits. I also see pessimist, people who say they cannot even before trying. I'm frustrated with these kind of people the most, because if only they took a little more effort they will see oppurtonities open up for them.

Reaction Towards Challenges/Hardships/Failure

I also see that there are many people who respond differently to challenges/failures and hardships. A lot would stop and become paralyzed after a failure. Even worse, there are people who avoid them altogether. If you ever thought "That person is so good and clever, I will never do that, it's too hard..." Then, you are that kind of person. A challenge is to be overcome. Others will see a wall, and turn back. But you will overcome that barrier and reap the rewards of it, because you're the only one who overcame the wall, while others give up and turn back.

Ability to Gather Knowledge and Wisdom

If you're reading this and thinking, "Ah...this blog is full of fancy quotes and stuff. All Bull Sh**" That shows that you don't have the mentality, attitude and skill to collect knowledge, intelligence and wisdom. You don't appreciate the many forms of wisdom available. Learn how to gather wisdom and intelligence. If you have no wisdom, you are not smart. And if you are not smart, you cannot become successful. How do you get wisdom? You can start by reading this blog, or at least reading this post: 3 ways you can receive wisdom

Ability to Control Your Emotion

And lastly, the ability to control our emotion. Our emotion is a double-edged sword. It can hurt you, and others. But controlled, it would help you a lot in life. In life, conflict is certain. Avoiding conflict will make the problem bigger, trust me. In this case, you must learn how to communicate and find solutions. And this requires you to negotiate a lot. To do this well, you need to make sure your emotion is in check. If you are angry when you navigate a conflict, you will not have a sound mind to reflect your judgment and decisions, and would be biased in your analysis. Because of that, you will not take the right choices. I suggest reading this book to help you: How To Win Any Arguments

When all these elements come together, then, you have the necessary mindsets that makes sure you can achieve your success regardless what happens. Not other stuff like passion, or hard work and etc. Hard work is a symptom, an effect, of having the first and/or second element as part of your mindset/mentality.

At the end of the day, it is up to you to make a difference for yourself.

Be. You.

Merdeka '09 Tshirt is out!

2009-08-16T06:39:00.000-07:00

Get your hands on these Merdeka '09 T-shirts...

Front

Back

Log on to http://acetshirt.blogspot.com/ for more details
Price : RM20

For people around UPM Contact: Hishamuddin Bin Hamzah
No. HP: 0129054678

For those who are not, leave your contacts at the comments below so that i can contact you.

3 Ways To Know You Are Realistic Or Not

2009-08-12T19:07:00.000-07:00

In a planning meeting have you encountered a situation where there is a disagreement whether the goal for the project is too high or too low. For example, you think getting 1000 people attending your carnival is too high...but your boss thinks it's possible. Well, today I'm going to share 3 ways you can know whether you are realistic or delusional.

Growth Rates
Supply & Demand
Benchmark

These 3 steps are to give a realistic goal so that:

It's not so low that its waste your full potential
It's not so high that it will demotivate the team during preparation and implementation
It's not so high that it will disappoint the team and destroy team synergy for future projects

Before I go on, please get as much information about the project you want to do from your senior (previous committee), and from competing clubs that are doing similar projects. Get information like the duration of the project (preparation and actual implementation of the project), number of committee members and etc.

Growth Rates

I work in a marketing research firm now. We measure the 'health' of an industry. One way we do it is to measure the growth rate. We find the industries' market revenue of last year and this year, and then calculate it's percentage growth. We then classify the growth rate as below:

5-10% growth Low
10-15% growth Medium
25-75% growth High
>75% growth Explosive Growth

So, you should apply this your project also. Remember, this is what an MNC use as it's standard, OK. Anyway, if last year, your project only get 300 people coming, you cannot say suddenly that the current project you want to get 1000 people, that's unlikely. You can say shoot for the star, land on the moon and whatever but this is the accepted standard among professionals so use it. A 300% increase is an explosive growth unless...you plan to do something special to get the 1000 people, which brings me to my next point...

Supply & Demand

So you say you can get 1000 people because you want to do something extra, right? What is it? If you want the people coming to your project increase 300% you must make sure something the committee is doing also increases 300% also. What is it? 300% more committee members? 300% more funds/money? 300% more hours per day spent on the project (very unlikely). These are some examples, make sure they are measurable, because if you say 3oo% 'work harder' or 'work smarter', 'be more creative', 'be passionate', 'we work together' and etc. Most probably it won't happen, it's subjective so people don't care. Read Laws of Teamwork.

Benchmark
So now you know whether your growth is realistic or not, and you considered whether your supply matches your demand. But let's say you don't have data of previous years. Now, what you can do is to take your competitor's data (who are doing similar projects), and redo the first two techniques I shared earlier.

Warning!
Of Course, there are several things that is not considered in this analysis that might contribute to the success of our project compared to others, especially things outside of our power but as leaders we focus on things we can control, our circle of influence.

Once you have a clear mind, the team agrees and sincerely commits to your goal (no use, if you're the only one in the team who is positive thinking), then the rest depends on having a positive outlook, hard work and luck.

Be.You.

Children Learn What They Live

2009-08-11T04:03:00.000-07:00

Children Learn What They Live (1998)

by Dorothy Law Nolte (1924 - 2005)

If children live with criticism, they learn to condemn.
If children live with hostility, they learn to fight.
If children live with fear, they learn to be apprehensive.
If children live with pity, they learn to feel sorry for themselves.
If children live with ridicule, they learn to feel shy.
If children live with jealousy, they learn to feel envy.
If children live with shame, they learn to feel guilty.
If children live with encouragement, they learn confidence.
If children live with tolerance, they learn patience.
If children live with praise, they learn appreciation.
If children live with acceptance, they learn to love.
If children live with approval, they learn to like themselves.
If children live with recognition, they learn it is good to have a goal.
If children live with sharing, they learn generosity.
If children live with honesty, they learn truthfulness.
If children live with fairness, they learn justice.
If children live with kindness and consideration, they learn respect.
If children live with security, they learn to have faith in themselves and in those about them.
If children live with friendliness, they learn the world is a nice place in which to live.

Excerpted from the book CHILDREN LEARN WHAT THEY LIVE
©1998 by Dorothy Law Nolte and Rachel Harris
The poem "Children Learn What They Live"
©Dorothy Law Nolte
All Rights Reserved

Taken from http://www.noogenesis.com/pineapple/Kristone.html

PS: What did you learn when you grew up? Just had convo...my own post sunday...

Seeds of Success: Knowing That You Can

2009-08-07T11:28:00.000-07:00

You Can, It's Just That You Don't Believe You Can

NLP or Neurolinguistic programming describes the importance of believing in what you say. If you were to say you are a success, than you will become a success. And you will not, if you keep saying otherwise. Now, don't just suddenly start saying to yourself, you’re successful again and again. It only works if you BELIEVE that you can. NLP says that when you say, you believe. When you believe, you do. Sounds easy and very obvious, right? But people still don't do it. They doubt themselves. When you doubt yourself, NLP still works. If you doubt whether you are successful or not, then you will become unsuccessful. For me, I choose to believe I can be successful, regardless of the situation. Because when you believe (even in a problematic situation), you then start finding solutions to the problem.

But I am Human too, I have doubts too. But fear and doubt is there for you to be careful, it’s not there to prevent you from succeeding. Having doubts easily decrease 50% motivation to 0% but it takes so hard to change 50% motivation to 100% motivation. Why? I have been writing so many times about being confident and believing in yourself but have you seen anybody who gets so motivated by it? Why is it so easy to de-motivate? I choose to learn how to motivate myself regardless of my situation.
Anyway, you are worrying too much, like I said, if there is a problem you overcome it. It’s as easy as that. Below is an excerpt on how to deal with fear:

87% never happen
7% actually occur
6% you will have some influence over the outcome
This means that most things in life that you worry about won’t happen and that you have little to control over the few things that do happen/ So it doesn’t pay to worry about the things you fear.

"Poor People Avoid Risk. Rich People Manage Risk."

My father told me this. If you see then believe, it's normal. But if you believe first, then you see...it belongs to you. For example, when you believe the potential in a business idea of yours, and you manage to turn it into reality, it's yours. So believe in yourself.

Don't say, "I have no talent as a leader", "I'm not smart like you" and etc. That kind of thinking brings no good to you. We are young. We should never be afraid. You should read "Think And Grow Rich" to see how damaging that kind of thinking is. Talent is irrelevant. Even if it is, that is not in your control but intentions and effort is always in our hands.

Have the desire. Not following your desire and giving excuses shows that you really don't desire it so much. Don't make excuses. Understand what you really want. Commit to it. Find solutions to overcome it. Doubt is there to stop you from making mistakes not to stop you from achieving more.

Understand at the end of the day, these excuses you made - only you will accept it, everyone else doesn't give a sh*t. At the end of the day, the conflict is between you and yourself. At the end of the day, you and only you are responsible for the actions that you do or don't do.

Just Do It! Be.You.

How to read my blog?

2009-08-07T10:02:00.000-07:00

Today, I want to share how you can apply what I am teaching in my blog in your life...

Threshold and Direction

Threshold
It means a point/level where a change will happen. Or read here for webster definition...

When I say you are not an entrepreneur when you're selling dadih/keropok that means that is below the level you need to do to become a successful entrepreneur. I would say you need to read books, focus on studies and focus the development of proper entrepreneur mindsets and mentalities. That is the minimum, if you do not focus on developing mindset, you're not going to be successful. Selling dadih at university is below the limit/the threshold so that means you are not making a differences for yourselves. Refer back to why entrepreneurship is needed, I am referring my threshold on the objectives of increasing economic standards for the Malays, creating jobs and attracting foreign investments. Can selling dadih do that?

Direction
I admit I am not s experienced to know what is the threshold exactly but at least I do know to a certain extent where it lies. Even if I do not know I am experienced enough to know the 'direction' that is needed. When I'm doing the articles like Laws of Teamworking and SMART Goal Setting I am giving you a direction. I am telling you this is the way, the focus you must put effort into if you want to achieve success in your project and etc. If you aren't able to achieve it, it's okay. Better than investing your time and effort on the wrong things.

The thing is there are people who say other people's analysis is 'general'. Fine, but how specific can you be, practically? So I wrote this as a guide to read my guide to the issues I talk about in my blog.

Be.You.

Who Should Read My Blog?

2009-08-07T08:51:00.000-07:00

Student Leaders
Students
Youths
People who like to talk about philosophy, life, politics and career.

Student Leaders Who Want To Lead
Leaders and passionate contributing members of their respective student clubs and organizations. Here I share management techniques and principles that will help these people to run the organization and it's members effectively. I personally think these kind of education is seriously lacking in student clubs, where most clubs say they are teaching leadership but end up exploiting members to do highschool level projects and/or force members to join endless ineffective camps with 'games' that are not practical in real life. See more here.

Students Who Want To Excel
Studies is Important but that doesn't there's only one way to do it. Explore, Learn, and Share new ways to excel in uni life and in life after that. How to do your final year project's survey online?
Youth
There is more to life than CGPA pointers, work and etc. We should think about the word we live in. Have integrity and character in your personality, learn philosphy and have a curios nature towards your surrounding.

People who like to talk about philosophy, life, politics and career
I like to talk about these topics, because it's important to questions these things so we can have the proper mindset and mentality to ensure our success. I'm sure I'm not the only one. Even if you are not uni students or youths, you can still read my blog and give comments and etc.

Whoever you are, I'm sure you can benefit from reading my blog it's just that when I write the posts in these blogs...I meant it for youths, specifically universiti students.

How To Win Any Arguments

2009-08-04T06:25:00.000-07:00

Today, I want to suggest to you this book titled "How to win any arguments". I want to say that most of you might know that I like to shoot/criticize people in this blog. But I never do this if I'm talking one-to-one confrontation. The reason being is that an emotion fuelled debate is not healthy especially if you're meeting face-to-face. If you end up fighting you're not going to solve the issue. How did I know this? From this book I'm going to share with you...

The good thing about this book is that's it's very well planned. The chapters, articles and points are separated into easy to understand chunks of information. I'll give you snippet of the book with my own take of it

Construct A Consent Zone
People won't listen if the atmosphere/mood of the argument is negative and aggressive so consent zone refers to the mood where all parties are able to discuss objectively. Winning an argument is not about winning a fight, it's about making your opponent understand yur point of view and agreeing to your suggestion or a compromise. Example, if you win an argument with your customer, but the customer don't want to buy from you, did you really won the argument?

6 Mistakes That Destroys The 'Consent Zone'

Complain: Don't say "You're Unfair", "You're Unreasonable"
Look Back (Mengungkit): People look back just to critisize
Judging the other's person action/thoughts: Don't use words like wrong, stupid, crazy & etc
Say "What is your problem?"
Ask "Why can't you be reasonable?"
Corner a person by revealing his/her wrong doing:That's an invitation to fight

Sorry, cannot write more, don't want want to breach copyrights, anyhow this one of the things discussed inside. Not only does it help you to win arguments but also teaches you the attitude and mentality that you must have when facing conflicts and challenges in life. I highly recommend.

Price:29.90
Place:MPH

New Layout, New Year- Renewed Passion

2009-07-31T23:11:00.000-07:00

Hi,

Noticed the new layout and the new logo.

It's been about a year I start blogging and it that time I learned a lot about blogging, about branding my blog and how to promote it. There's still a lot to do.

The first post of this blog is made on August the 4th last year, but I guess I count from the date I registered the blog which might be earlier. Actually, I just can't wait to celebrate the anniversary and the new layout...hehe

I have now seen such clarity about my life and it's future and I think blogging helped me to achieve it. It allows me to express myself, to see myself from another angle and also from your point of views.

I might have been harsh and very opinionated in my posts but that is because I think no one will listen on care about posts with mediocre and mundane analysis. Read this post to see why.

So share with me what you think about the new layout or what you like about my blog. Ok?

Be.You.

Planning Is One Thing But Implementation Is Another

2009-07-28T07:53:00.000-07:00

Previously, I had a few post about planning in student organization but I need to share a few things that you must understand.

SHIT Happens
I always see student clubs do so many meetings, fancy plans and etc but fail when we implement. From my experience, things never go 100% according to plan. Trouble always happens regardless of how good is your planning. There is so much uncertainty. You are one small person against the world. So why would you do planning then?

Prepare for the Worst, Hope fore the Best
This is the mentality you should have when you are doing planning. The reason why students abandon their plans because their plans are not good enough. A good plan is not what a project should be, but a good plan tells you what to do when your project is not what it should be. Do you know that the Boeing747 is designed to break off it's wing if necessary?

Get Your Team Together
Another reason, students fail to follow plan because they don't understand the plan. When, you're doing the plan, were you autocratic?, did other members give suggestions and contribute? If your team is not in the planning process, they will not understand what are the issues. If they do not understand the issues, they do not know what is allowed and what is allowed to change in the plan. And instead they become like statues and do nothing, hoping someone will do something. Even worse, they would just push responsibility to somebody. I know there are a lot of Sampah Masyarakat in Uni who don't focus, join project just for merit and etc but that's not an excuse. Read Laws of Team Working.

The Harder I Work, The Luckier I Get
I forgot where I got this quote but it means that when you have done so much (planning), the implementation will some how fall into place (into your planning la) because you have done the proper preparations. Try to think from all possible angles, predict the worst case scenario and and prepare solutions for it. What will happen if there is a technical failure, the speaker is late or something? Answer these questions so you don't need to think of the answers at a critical time so you won't panic.

Doing planning is good because:
It uncovers any weaknesses or problem in your project, so solve for it...
You know what to Expect, so prepare for it...
It gives experience for the future, so learn from it...

So how do you know when to stop planning?

When everybody has nothing else to discuss (usually typical students always has nothing to discuss..sigh...)
When all alternatives/arguments are even in merit in the discussion, so take charge as a leader and choose one
You cannot prove either one alternative/solution is the best or not, again leader be dictator, and choose one and move on...all argument from both side are full of people saying "I think...", "I feel...", but no proof.
The problems discussed only happens when too many 'IF's of bad things happen (example: caterer didn't bring food, then we give them cookies from store, then the cookies are actually radioactive, then all participant turn into monsters, then the monsters wreck stage, then TNC cannot have speech...something like that, if that is discussed, no need discuss that problem anymore)

Seeds of Success: Definition of Success

2009-07-24T18:24:00.000-07:00

Like Randall has pointed out in the seeds of success draft post. I need to define what success is. To me, success is easily define as "to achieve what you want to achieve". Duh...Haha Sounds easy right? But I want to highlight to problems that not everyone achieves this.

Knowing What You Want
The first problem is that a lot of people don't know what they want to achieve. They might say they know what they they want to achieve but actually they only know what the society expects them to achieve. I was listening to flyfm the other day, where they were discussing what would you like to do if you get the chance to go through school again. Amazingly, a lot of them wished they haven't taken biology stream and wouldn't eventually go medic. What probably happened that their parents and adult neigbours would harp around comparing their children's result, boasting about where the child is going to study and etc. Naturally, the mindset that engineering, medial and law is 'best' jobs. Ultimately, students will choose according to these external pressures and do not consider what they themselves want in life.

As for me, I was pushed into engineering, again my intrests were not taken into account, butduring matriculation something happen, I dont remember the exact sequence of events, but I had a paradigm shift, "I would do what I wanted,What I like as my career, only in that way I can excel" So from that moment on I strived to find 'what I like'. At least, know I'm sure I'm going in the right direction.

Knowing That You Can
I was talking with friends about co-curricular, and somehow came up the topic of presentation skills. One friend said, "You can la, Firdaus, You're talented...I cannot". That statement does no good to anyone. You are saying you cannot even before you tried. Read "The Secret", "Law of Attraction" or Neuro-Linguistics Programming Books to know how damaging this kind of mentality hurts your chances of success. You MUST...you must believe that you can, if you do want something, you will find a way to achievet it. Where there's a will, there's a way. If right now, you're thinking "Talk can la, easy only" or "So much risk and uncertanties before you succeed", the you are a lost cause. Stop reading and just continue your pathetic lives.

I know for a fact that when my goal is clear I need to believe I can do it. I dont need to think what risk or problems I will face, yet. When I am committed to the goal, then I can begin the process of doing research and thinking of solutions for the problems. You need to understand that the more you do something the more you learn, the more peole you meet, and the more oppurtunities you will find.

Knowing How To Achieve Your Success
A lot of people say they want to get rich, but have no idea how to get rich. To do this, you need knowedge but if you don't know what you want and you dont believe that you can, then you would never put enough effort in finding the information you need to succeed. With information, then you can plan how you want to achieve success, but even planning is something you need to learn.

All these problems relate to why we dont achieve what we want or success. Success depends on what we want, and as subjective as it sounds, it's because success really depends just on you. No one else, but you. Anything you say is an excuse. Be.You.

Malay Supremacy - Ketuanan Melayu

2009-07-22T05:23:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I read a post by Dr M and came upon a comment that caught my intention. It said something that I felt was true yet, but as a Malay I 'terasa' a bit. I'll be sharing my view later on but I need both Malays and Non-Malays to read these articles/blogs below so we can have a better understanding of those who oppose (there are Malays who also oppose) and support this concept of Malay Supremacy.

This is the comment that I was saying earlier,

Dr.M,

My comments might sound racial but I am not to provoke or condemn any body here.

But basically this is the result you will get if "you teach the people to earn without working."
Those who protest are mostly are Malay community, they set a standard to themselves and they don't want to move up from there but then hoping for others to come down to their standard.

Because they have been taught, train, educate and even grown such a way.
I still remember you were telling to us during your last week as PM that your major failure is upholding and strengthening the DEB.
Malays become too lazy and don't want to fight for the glory, but depending too much on Government.

1. Provoking to learn something new. (Science and mathematics)
2. Provoking to compete. (UiTM to all races)
3. Provoking for open tenders.
And the list might go on and on….

But I hope DPM (hopefully he is the future PM), can think wisely and revert back the decision.
Or at least Chinese and Tamil schools are allowed to teach in English.
Let’s Bumiputra’s stick with DEB concept till 2020.

Other sites you must go:

http://chedet.co.cc/chedetblog/2009/07/kaki-dalam-kasut.html

http://www.usj.com.my/bulletin/upload/archive/index.php/t-8724.html

http://sabrie.wordpress.com/2008/12/14/malay-supremacy-ketuanan-melayu/

http://syedsoutsidethebox.blogspot.com/2009/07/the-first-bungle-jaga-bahasa-biar.html

What do I say?

Excuses Don't Last Forever

Whatever the excuse (Lack of experience, Lack of Money, Lack Economical Power and Lack of opportunities and etc), it cannot last forever and we will have to someday face the music. Because all those talks about 'pendatang' (they have invested and helped built the nation, you cannot deny that, even the indonesia pendatang have helped build our infrastructure, harvested our oil palms and etc, and in turn build the foundation of our economy), generosity of Malay founders (would you think that people nowadays would care an act of generosity that happened 50 years ago) are based an abstract points. Have you used the same excuse for 50 years? Even considering non-malay Malaysians are the most considerable, respectful and tolerate people in the world we cannot assume or even take for granted the fact that they will continue to tolerate these excuses that the Malay use. I'm sorry for calling them excuses but if it was a valid reason this issue wont be such a ruccus, and politicians cannot play this issue because a valid reason would be so clear cut that no one can debate it anymore. Rights are not inherited, they are earned and born out of respect. Would womankind have their rights if men never gave them respect? No respect, No Rights

Distribution of wealth

I think the difference in economical power is real, look down every row of shops how many of them are Malay-owned. You can talk about GLCs and politician-owned...oops, malay owned companies (elite few who put emphasis on personal wealth building, maybe?) all you want. But that fact aside, we cannot ignore the opportunities that the government have given the Malays (NEP, Mara Scholarships and etc). I have no idea what to say to defend the Malays, because whatever I say are excuses. In fact, I might have an idea why the NEP has not yet reached the target which is my next points.

Overdependance and Misuse of Benefits

Everytime you see an officer misuse public funds, an 'entrepreneur' running away with loans or grants (students with PTPTN also for that matter, lol) or a Malay contractor sub-contracting to Chinese contractors to get...what you call it...'untung atas angin'? These are major flaws in the mentality of ...of anyone, for that matter. Which brings us to the next point.

A Whole List of Wrong Mindsets and Mentalities

There are a lot of wrong mindsets in some (filter a bit, must not be too harsh rite ;P) of the Malays:

Overpoliticking: Everything must depends on who's the boss and what he says, not what's right and best for the community. Bickering and fighting on political issues and not the real issues. Believing in the 'talkers' rather than the 'thinkers'

Entrepreneurship Delusions: Wrong mentality about business and money. It's not about networking with VIPs to get contracts you know, it's more than that.

Much of entrepreneurial success relies on an individual’s ability to be self-motivated, to develop systems, methods, think and work creatively. — Julia Davis

Read more of what I think entrepreneurship really is here.

That's why I am so angry when Malays join MLM, sell Dadih and keropok etc. Got one UPM MTM critisize me that it's okay to do stuff like that because everyone has to start from somewhere, has to start small2. &^%** la....You tell me whether doing those S**t while in Uni can help get job or not? Can help increase the percentage holding of companies by Malay to 30%? Can help make sustainable business that can feed your family? Can you build a business where you can create job opportunities? Can get loan from bank?

Bank Manager: Do you have any previous experience managing a business?

You: Got...I jual Dadih and Keropok at my hostel corridor and student entreprenurship carnival

WTF? If you can do that with only experience from those 'business' I stop work and I come learn business from you la...I do also trying to sell stuff but I dont think I'm at a level where I'm proud to call myself an entrepreneur. I'm just saying...just read the link of what I have to say what entrepreneurship really is, la...

What Am I doing?

So what am I doing about it? Politics aside,

I will not try to exploit government aid and will give my all when given the opportunity. Every opportunity given is an opportunity to learn and not solely to get money.

I will focus on my personal and financial growth so hopefully one day I can develop my community regardless of race.

I support thinkers not talkers (in politics or in work) that would focus on 'making the cake larger' than focus on getting their slice bigger compared to others.

I aim to become an entrepreneur, I define that being able to sustain me and my family and to be able to create job opportunities. How? I still have a lot to learn how to do so, even with my experiences thus far, I know I have a lot to learn, How much can you learn from selling Dadih?

I focus on learning the right mentality and set of skills that makes me a go business person and not rely on aid or whether I know some Datuk or not...

I have said little about Malay Supremacy, maybe because I don't know the exact issues concerning it or maybe it has lost relevance to me, I just don't think the excuses have merit anymore and I can only blame myself for the state of my race and no one else. To end on a more lighter note, I would like to say I am a racist cos...

everyone's a little bit racist!

PS: I actually wanted to know what would be said by my Malay friends....

Seeds of success draft

2009-07-19T00:41:00.000-07:00

I'm only 21 years old but i'm very interested in finding out what makes a person a successful person. And thus from my experiences I drafted all the things that I think would form a succesfull person, and I also made it into an analogy of some sorts. So read it and tell me what you think? Give some more points that my draft lacks.

Seed of success: Understanding what it takes to succeed

Seed of success

Knowing you can: bukan org buat alasan kenapa tak boleh
Knowing what you want
... and why do you want it?
Knowing yourself (maslow hierarchy of needs)

Earth of Strength

• Attitude towards Challenges (don’t be afraid)
• Attitude when facing failures (get back up)
• Attitude towards making mistakes (don’t blame others)
• Attitudes toward the painful truth (KPI, bravery to look elsewhere or compare with others)
• Attitude towards diversity/differences (Different opinions or different races and etc)

Rain of knowledge

• Attitude towards knowledge
• Ability to find knowledge
• Bravery to compare/benchmark yourself against others or reflect on yourself
• Thinking objective and in unbiased way
• Ability to respect others views
• Empathy: ability to put oneself in each other’s shoe
• Thinker vs talker

Sunlight of faith and ethics

• Ethics
• Moral
• Principles that guide through life
• Needs vs wants
• Understanding what is most important

Air of ties

• Friends/Families
• Priorities toward these things

Actually I don't have much time to write a new article, just got back from Ipoh. Sp I thought i'll share some random stuff i've been thinking about lately.

Merdeka Center poll: Youth well informed but politically disconnected

2009-07-14T23:02:00.001-07:00

Merdeka Center poll: Youth well informed but politically disconnected

Shared via AddThis

Read the report here.

Interesting Facts

79% of students don't join any club or societies,
Political Bickering one of the top reason respondents say the country is not on the right track...
Confidence in Elections drops 16%...

How To Be The Perfect Girlfriend

2009-07-13T20:16:00.000-07:00

Hi, not feeling well so no complex stuff, here's an amusing vid. Approved by yours truly... ; P

Sorry, the vid cannot be embedded her, so click the picture or clik the link below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqzcF7zxZNE

Learn to blame yourself first...

2009-07-10T18:25:00.000-07:00

Please make sure that you read the whole post, cause at the end is the most crucial part you need to learn.

When in a conflict and in an argument dont forget to stop and admit your mistakes. Even if you think it's not your fault, i'm sure there would be something you can do to prevent the conflict from happening.

Example:
You called a friend and asked him whether he finished his work for a club. He says he haven't finished. Then, naturally, you would ask why and the discussion may get heated. Regardless, you should stop before things get bad and discuss a solution. After you reached a solution with him, think back what YOU can do to prevent it in the first place. Yes, it's his fault for not finishing, but that does not mean you should leave everything to him and 'lepas tangan', you're a team.

Maybe if you always follow-up the work with that friend of yours, maybe he would have more initiative, also your friend would also know that you are also doing your part of the work. You did not manage your team well enough. Maybe if you clarify how important it is to complete the work before the deadline than your friend would manage his time in a better way. Maybe you forgot to consider holiday's effect, it's hard when semester break to work with your team who are scattered all over Malaysia.

There are three reasons learning to blame yourself first is good...

Learning to control Ego
Lot of people in Mlaysia are egoistic. They see people who are questioning their work as people who want to take their position, damage their stature in society and what not. But acually, we just wan to do our job well, and that depends oo the work done by these egoistical people. It's just the culture here. To prevent you from becoming these kind of people, blame yourself first. And by doing you wont see yourself as high and might, and you would not get cocky.

Practise Patience and Humility.
Being patient and humble is a very good thing, so in a conflict and when you're getting angry, stop and find solution. Don't avoid the conflict, solve it. People grow when conflicts are solved.
When you learn not to be cocky, you learn to become humble. And when your humble, people are more comfortable to share opinions with you and wrk better with you.

See that are always ways you can do better..
Like I said, when your humble, people are more comfortable to share opinions with you and wrk better with you. You will experience and accelerated growth of experience and knowledge. And you are aready on the track to self-actualization. Self-actualization is the ONLY goal you should have in life.

Be.You

learn to cnrtol ego, and accept that things mitght be wrong or can improve

Nak buat sesuatu mestilah betul niatnya!

2009-07-07T06:33:00.000-07:00

Tahniah saya ucapkan kepada Brandon, Szeelooi dan William kerana berjaya ke Paris untuk mewakili Malaysia didalam pertandingan Loreal Brandstorm. Korang boleh nampak muka diorang pada 2:20.

Saya amat cemburukan mereka, dapat melancong ke Eropah, dapat menimba banyak pengalaman dan berinteraksi dengan belia yang bijak-bijak (bukan bijak berkata-kata aja ye) dari seluruh dunia. Sepatutnya mahasiswa kena banyakkan lagi buat aktiviti macam nih. Daripada buat aktiviti jual dadih atau keropok kan? Cuba korang bandingkan keusahwanan yang selalu dilakukan oleh kolej korang ngan keusahawanan kat dalam pertandingan ni. Banyakkan? Oh ya, merekakesemuanya ahli AIESEC, setiap tahun mestia ada ahli AIESEC join (Promote AIESEC sekejap ;P)

Aku tak bermaksud semua orang kena join pertandingan dan buat gila-gila sampai tahap antarabangsa, tapi sekurang-kurangnya kena pasang matlamat tinggi-tinggi sikit ar. Jangan setakat nak menang peringkat kolej jer. Kalau nak suka2 tak kisah ar, tapi kalau boleh, cuba fokus kepada sesuatu yang bersifat jangka panjang.

Jangan sertai pertandingan semata-mata nak dapat merit untuk stay kolej atau nak kumpul sijil supaya dapat anugerah canselor ke apa...kita sertai pertandingan/aktiviti untuk belajar...tu je patut fikir. Tak payah kehadiran korang digunakan semata-mata untuk tunjuk ada aktiviti dapat dilakukan oleh sesuatu persatuan itu.

Kumpul merit untuk stay kolej buat apa...lebih2 lagi kalau dapat merit dari aktiviti yang sampah2. Korang paling tinggi pun duduk uni empat tahun. Nak dapat anugerah bila ko grad? Tak payah, kalau majikan dapat tahu apa yang korang telah buat semasa uni sebenarnya, diorang tak hairan lah sangat. Nama aktiviti je hebat-hebat, tak payah ar.

Bukannya apa, pelajar fakulti saya iaitu Fakulti Ekonomi Pengurusan pun tak banyak nak join pertandingan Loreal ni. Alasannya? Aku tak tau lah tapi aku tak hairan jika salah satu daripadanya ialah tak pandai bahasa Inggeris. Untuk yang tidak tahu, pertandingan ini juga melibatkan pembentukan konsep, kemahiran menganalisa dan akhir sekali pembentangan. Oleh itu, janganlah takut, bukan semua bahagian terdiri daripada presentation, lagipun kita nak belajar kan?

Aku tengok aktiviti-aktiviti pelajar kurang memaksa/menggalakkan pelajar berfikir. Aktiviti yang ada, hanya memerlukan pelajar buat kerja macam robot, kerja-kerja operasi. Contohnya, bengkel menangani stress, pelajar hanya perlu buat proposal, panngil VIP, sediakan makanan dan benda-benda remeh macam tu.

Yang bagusnya AIESEC ni, dia punya aktiviti dalam kem dan persidangan mereka, ia menggalakkan ahlinya berfikir untuk kemajuan kelab. Salah satu faktor ialah penggunaan konsep-konsep pengurusan yang terbukti keberkesanannya seperti matlamat yang jelas (sehingga tiada siapa boleh memberi alasan seperti 'the talkers' yang selalu ada dikalangan pemimpin pelajar), KPI, kaedah sesi perancangan (semua orang kata mereka ada buat perancangan, tapi kalau tak dapat ikut, maksudnya ko buat salah la tu) dan sebagainya.

Budaya Malaysia banyak sangat budaya berpolitik, menunjuk-nunjuk dan kurang penekanan ke atas isi kandungan dan keikhlasan. Sama-sama kita cuba buang budaya-budaya negatif ni...

Sekian, terima kasih...

Laws of Teamworking

2009-07-03T19:11:00.000-07:00

Many students end up fighting with each other because they did not do their work properly. And for those who are not professional, they will keep the grudge towards the leader and has revenge through bad-mouthing the leader. Whatever the circumstances, these situations can be avoided when the leader understands the laws of team working so that the subordinate will do the work properly the first time.

I know there are a lot of team working books and etc, but what I'm gonna share is the basic things that can help you a lot in avoiding conflicts with your team mates.

Have a common goal
If your team mates have no idea what you want to do, they cannot help you in the way you want. When they can understand or imagine what you want, they have a better picture of what you want and can do their work properly the first time. To do this you need to learn proper goal setting with all your team members. But if you are a president of a club I suggest starting the planning from the creating the vision/mission stage.

Make Your Instructions Specific
Have you heard the excuse "You didn't tell me ma..." That happens a lot, it happens when you forget to give a specific instruction or when your team mates takes advantage of it to cover him/herself. So be specific as possible, use examples, guidelines, draw it, list it, ask to refer to last year or whatever possible. As long as there is minimum possibility of the work being insufficiently explained. If your team does not do it's work properly then your team have to do the work again and again to satisfy you, and when that happens they will start to complain and you won't want that.I'm not saying your team cannot be trusted, but sometimes even with the best relationships in the team, miscommunication can happen and it will hurt team synergy. Never assume your team mates know exactly what you want.

Objectivity
Ever heard of your members complaining "I have done so much work...," That's BS. You're amount of work is only a lot to you and not to anyone else. State your objectives in measurable terms. Eg: Collecting RM100 donations for each person and etc. If it cannot be measured, list down the work needed to be done in advance so they would know what to expect. It's important that everybody know clearly how much work is enough and how much is not enouogh.

If you're not objective in evaluating their performance. They would not feel responsible. But what is most important is that when a conflict happens, you can easily refer to an agreed discussion earlier. This is where doing an expectation setiing is important. You can say "We agreed that everybody would collect minimum RM100 for each person, and there would be no excuse for it" A person who cannot agree with a previously made group decision is not a team player. After all, when team members know everybody is doing work, they wouldnt want to be the only one not doing work. Never assume that your team members are considerate enough to understand and accept each other's work load and responsibilty.

Responsibilty and Accountability
With a good planning and expectation setting, the team should know what they need to do as a team. The next step is too delegate the job to individuals or smaller groups. When the job delegated to each person is specific and objective they would know that they are responsible because they know that if they didnt do their work it would affect other members. If this does not make them feel responsible that means they are the scum of society and should be treated like dirt for being inconsiderate.

The team members would also feel accountable because the job has been specifically delegated to him/her. Giving theam little space for an excuse or doing a lowsy job without being known by other team members. Never assume your team mates will 100% do what they're suppsoed to.

Deadline
Give a final deadline, as a leader you must think ahead and give deadline that has ample time for changes in case of any trouble. Pressuring your subordinates with the deadlines is not good considering we have exams and studies to do. It's better to break the work into smaller part and make deadlines for them. This reduces stress and allow a lot of space for bad things to happen. Never expect your team mates will come up with a perfect work at the final deadline. If your want a team member to do a video, split the work into smaller parts like drafting ideas, first draft and final product or something like that. At each of these parts give a deadline so you know what is going on. You dont want on the last possible day your team is doing something totally opposite from what you want. Never assume your team mates can follow your deadlines.

Of course, even when these laws are applied there are still a**holes who still do a lousy job, but these people cannot be helped. But these laws will help you to KEEP the people who CAN and WANT to help the project/activity, even the half-hearted, not-sincere, just-for-merit students would be able to stay with your team if you keep this up.

I suggest downloading this e-book about teamwork. Way better than my post. It's called 5 Dysfunctions of a Team: http://bookfiesta4u.com/?p=2348
Simple and easy to understand, but very effective and practical. Check it out.

Be.You.

Time Management Matrix

2009-06-30T07:59:00.000-07:00

Everybody would complain that they never have enough time. However, it is possible that you can utilize your time in a better way. To give an idea how to utilize your time in a better way, I introduce to you the Time Management Matrix.

Very easy to understand. You just need to know which of your work is more urgent or more important. Before I go on need to explain, what is Important and what is Urgent.

Important - If you don't do, then the project/work you are doing won't be complete
Urgent - If you don't do it now, you wont finish before deadline. (Some people don't want to make their own deadline, that's why their time management sucks) Or other parts of the project cannot or other people cannot finish before their deadline until you have done your part of the project/work.

High Importance - High Urgency
Do it. Do the work now and focus on it until you are finish. Don't think of anything else.

High Importance - Low Urgency
Postpone it and plan when you want to do it. This is when having a schedule or organizer will make a difference.

Low Importance - High Urgency
Delegate it. Times like these you should learn to delegate. Your team are there to help you in time of need. As the leader you should be able to ask your team for favors in times of need. If not, that's because you are abusing your position. A leader's job is hard, and if you are doing that job well, your team mates would see it and understand.

Low Importance - Low Urgency
Forget It. Just for forget it. Usually, when deadline are getting closer, you cannot do everything and that means your work/project cannot be perfect. Sometimes you need to accept that. As long as you do things for the right reasons and that you had tried your best, you deserve a pat on the back.

I'm not saying I'm good with time management, but at least to me it helps. This tool is not my creation, Just google "time management matrix" . So, hope you can manage your time better with this tool. Show me what you think by dropping me a comment, ok?

Kemahiran komunikasi dan pembentangan lemah?

2009-06-27T02:39:00.001-07:00

Didalam hidup seseorang mahasiswa akan pasti sekurang-kurangnya sekali dalam zaman universitinya akan tiba masanya untuk mahasiswa tersebut membentangkan sesuatu topik di dalam kelas dihadapan rakan-rakan sekelasnya. Oleh, itu hari ini saya akan kongsikan beberapa mentaliti yang pelajar ada yang menyebabkan pembentangan mereka lemah serta cadangan mengatasinya.

Orang itu begitu pandai dan berkarisma...saya tak boleh...
Orang itu, orang itu la. Pemikiran macam tu tak membantu kamu. Kamu tak boleh buat, bukan sebab takde karisma atau apa. Sebab korang tidak berani mencabar diri dan keluar dari 'zon selesa' korang. Taknak mencabar diri dengan menggunakan pelbagai alasan untuk sentiasa kekal melakukan perkara yang ko dah biasa buat. Ingat, semua orang kenat buat pembentangan dan ko tak terkecuali, lagi tinggi ko pergi dalam dunia, lagi penting kemahiran komunikasi. Buang mentaliti sedemikian, dan berinisiatif untuk memperbaiki kemahiran ini dengan membaca atau memerhati orang lain.

Saya takut orang gelak saya...
Pergi mamposla dengan orang nak gelak. Selalu sangat saya tengok mahasiswa gementar tak tentu pasal. Ubah pemikiran bahawa di universiti MEMANGLAH tempat kamu untuk lakukan kesilapan dan bukannya apabila di dunia kerjaya kelak, jangan takut untuk melakukan kesalahan, ambil sebagai pengalaman. Jangan guna alasan bidang kamu tak perlu latih benda nih, jangan tipu diri sendiri.

Kena hafal isi pembentangan, kalau tidak tak jadi...
Salah. Ko dah pulak gementar, takut terbuat salah, otak ko sure hang punyalah. Jangan Hafal Faham. Kalau aku tanya korang sekarang, "Cerita sedikit pasal sejarah pendidikan korang dari tadika sampai uni?" Aku pasti korang boleh jawab. Sebab korang dah tahu dalam hati, petik jari dapat cari balik maklumat yang aku tanya. Itulah menunjukkan ko sudah 'faham'. Kalau ko kena rujuk balik nota, maksudnya ko tak faham, ko hafal. Ye la, korangkan ulat buku, selama ni belajar untuk dapat A semata-mata dan tidak faham kepentingan ilmu tu dalam hidup. Aku cadangkan, korang letakkan kata kunci di atas nota-nota kecil. Kalau ko tak mampu nak mengembangkan isi dari kata kunci tuh, memang sah ko menghafal dan tak memahami kandungan, baca lagi. Bila aku kata baca, maksudnya baca balik sebagai persediaan bukan bila masa ko buat pembentungan ko baca bulat-bulat dari slide atau nota. Ish...budak zaman sekarang...

Tatabahasa kena betul....
Banyak dari korang, bila nak membentang dalam bahasa inggeris akan gila-gila hafal seluruh pembentangan, last-last sekali, korang baca dari nota atau slide bulat-bulat. Aku dah kata jangan hafal, bila present, sure kepala jam punya lah. Grammar inggeris korang tak perlu tepat, ko agak rakan-rakan korang dapat kesan kesilapan ko, kalo kesan pun diorang tak kisah ar beb. Yang paling penting isi, dan kemampuan ko menyampaikannya. Grammar boleh berterabur tapi kalo penonton ko dapat faham, tahniah. Oleh itu rujuk balik perenggan sebelumnya, faham isi dan jangan hafal.

Bahasa Badan...
atau 'body language'. Semasa pembentangan, jangan memeluk diri sendiri, ia adalah suatu 'defensive posture'. Jangan asyik memegang tangan sendiri, tanda ko sedang cuba meyedapkan hati sendiri, tiada keyakinan. Jangan bermain-main dengan kad matrik atau apa-apa barang, tanda ko sedang gementar. Semua benda ni boleh belajar dan latih. Pergilah kedai buku, ada macam-macam buku pasal topik ni, siap ada buku penuh dengan alasan-alasan yang korang boleh guna jika ada masalah semasa pembentangan atau sesi soal jawab. Yang korang sume tengok kat TV semuanye belajar dan berlatih dengan profesional dalam bidang komunikasi dan pembahasan. Tak banyak pasal bakat.

Tak tahu macam mana nak berlatih...takde keyakinan...
Ko nak berjaya ke tak? Nak perbaiki, samada ko hilangkan perasaan malu, atau tingkatkan keberanian korang. Aku dulu, aku hikangkan perasaan malu. Aku tak kisah kalau aku tersilap, asalkan aku belajar. Kalau harga diri korang tinggi sangat, berlatih sorang-sorang depan cermin. Tapi jangan henti kat situ. Join aktiviti-aktiviti yang memerlukan ko di depan orang ramai. Ingat dalam soal melatih diri, kuantiti adalah penting.

Akhir sekali saya nak katakan semua benda dalam hidup boleh dipelajari...
Kalau orang boleh fikir dan latih macam mana nak siap pergi kerja selepas bangun pagi dalam 5 minit. Mesti korang boleh belajar benda komunikasi nih, korang hanya perlu tukar mindset korang serta pemikiran korang tehadapap cabaran-cabaran yang korang perlu lalui dalam hidup. Bakat tidak relevan, kalau relevan pun...apa yang korang boleh buat? Itu ketentuan illahi, tapi niat dan usaha adalah dalam kuasa setiap manusia.

PS: aku ada jumpa laman web alih bahasa inggeris ke melayu yang agak bagus...bacalah

Change Or Stay The Same

2009-06-22T05:09:00.000-07:00

There are always two forces that are in conflict in the world. The forces of changes and the forces that wants to stay the same, the status quo.

Everytime, everywhere and everyone will face these two conflicts.

When you think that your current job sux, and you want to do something different, like start your own business, wou will start to doubt yourself. Your dreams forces you to change, but doubt comes in and that is the force that wants the status quo to remain.

PPSMI? To be competitive in the world today we must be up to date in terms of knowledge. To have that we must have a good mastery of English. After all, it's a fact nowadays most of academics studies is published in english. But at the same time we dont want to lose our language and culture. We just want things to stay the same.

Everytime we encounter something new or challenge our mindsets, we will have to make a decision. To let it change you with the good and the bad, or you can choose to ignore it and stay the same.

Understand that isolation and segregration brings no good to anyone. Look at China and Japan a few hundred years ago when they had closed door policies. Nothing good came of it, and they finally open up and had reaped the rewards. Look at North Korea, isolated, delusional and ignorant.

Change and improve is the only way to succesd. Survival of the fittest. When Darwin said that he didn't mean survival of the strongest but he meant survival of the most 'fit', survival of those who are able to adapt to surroundings good and fast enough. So are we adapting to changed well enough?

To those who are against change and never give solutions, I say "Go to H*ll!" You're not contributing. Help us to avoid making the wrong changes (Not just let us stay the same only) if not just go away.

Change is good. We just need to make sure the right changes are made.

No Man Yes Man

2009-06-17T01:40:00.000-07:00

Before I go on, I want to say that if you want be good at something you must not doubt or give excuses why you cannot do a good presentation. I see people saying "I'm not cut out for these kinda thing..." You haven't even really tried, but you say that so easily. Trying is when you have done everything that you can until not much you can do anymore. In Islam, we are familiar with Niat-Usaha-Tawakkal. Niat means intention. Usaha means effort. Tawakkal is a situation when you leave everything to god's hands. Understand that in this context, after you have done everything in your power, THEN you can say I have done everything I can, and will put my fate in god's hand. And to have to make such effort you focused intention not excuses. So, when we say submission to our god it does not mean muslims do nothing and leave everything to god and merely say tragedies are the 'god's doing'. Yet we see among muslims being weak minded and easily controlled, using excuses for not trying to excel. In every of Islam's religious obligations it must start with a niat. We say our intentions before we begin the prayer and etc. I might not be able to explain this well in English or in my blog. Feel free to ask your muslim friends. See, the importance of having the intention, the desire to do something.

NLP or Neurolinguistic programming describes the importance of believing in what you say. If you were to say you are a success, than you will become a success. And not, if you keep saying otherwise. Now, don't just suddenly start saying to yourself, your are successful again and again. It only works if you BELIEVE that you can. NLP says that when you say, you believe. When you believe, you do. Sounds easy and very obvious. But people still don't do it. They doubt themselves. When you doubt yourself, NLP still works. If you doubt you are unsuccessful, then you become unsuccessful. For me, I choose to believe I can, regardless of the situation. Because when you believe (even in a problematic situation), you then start finding solutions to the problem.

My father told me this. If you see, then believe it's normal. But if you believe first, then you see...it belongs to you. For example, when you believe the potential in a business idea of yours, and you managed to turn it into reality, it's yours.

Don't say, "I have no talent as a leader", "I'm not smart like you" and etc. That kind of thinking brings no good to you. We are young. We should never be afraid.

THIS IS NOT THE TIME I SHOULD DOUBT MYSELF! I CAN DO THAT WHEN I'M DEAD!!!

(can also replace 'dead' with 'older' ; )

Have the desire. Not following your desire and giving excuses shows that you really don't desire it so much. Don't make excuses. Understand what you really want. Commit to it. Find solutions to get it. Doubt is there to stop you from making mistakes not to stop you from achieving more.

Just Do It!

Persepsi pelajar terhadap MTP/MPP

2009-06-12T23:41:00.000-07:00

Pada suatu hari, MPP (Majlis Perwakilan Pelajar) telah mengadakan ‘Majlis Ramah Mesra MPP’. Didalam majlis tersebut peserta-peserta dibenarkan untuk mengajukan beberapa soalan kepada ahli-ahli MPP. Salah-satu soalan yang diajukan adalah berkenaan persepsi pelajar terhadap MPP. Rasanya, mahasisiwi yang mengutarakan isu tersebut ingin menyampaikan bahawa pelajar-pelajar sudah tidak lagi percaya akan keberkesanan MPP melaksanakan tanggungjawabnya. Jawapan yang diberikan adalah berbunyi lebih kurang bahawa persepsi tidak boleh dinilai atau di ukur kerana ia bersifat dalaman, ia berada di dalam hati dan minda. Lebih kurang macam itulah. Saya tidak bersetuju. Didalam kursus Penyelidikan Pemasaran MGM4264, saya mempelajari perspesi boleh diukur, ditentukan. Sekurang-kurangnya ia boleh dianalisa dan dibentukkan suatu kesimpulan yang mungkin dapat membantu MPP. Oleh itu, saya telah membuat keputusan untuk membuat kajian saya sendiri ke atas isu ini. Tajuk kajian ini adalah “Persepsi Pelajar Terhadap MTP/MPP” Bagi yang tidak mengetahui, MTP bermaksud Majlis Tertinggi Pelajar, adakalanya disebut MTM (Majlis Tertinggi Mahasiswa). MTP selalunya badan perwakilan pelajar di kolej-kolej kediaman. MPP pula bermaksud Majlis Perwakilan Pelajar, yang mewakili pelajar di peringkat universiti.

Kelemahan

Kajian saya ini mempunyai banyak kelemahan. Kalau pensyarah MGM4264 melihat kajian ini, saya pasti markah ujian saya untuk kursus tersebut akan dinilai semula dengan gred yang lebih rendah. Soal selidik dijalankan melalui internet menggunakan Google survey form. Anda boleh melihat keputusan kajian didalam bentuk asalnya di sini. Saya pasti persampelan yang saya gunakan akan menyebabkan keputusan kajian ini dipersoalkan. Akan pasti ada individu yang mempersoalkan kajian ini dari pelbagai segi. Nanti keluarlah istilah-istilah seperti question bias, central tendancy bias, double barreled question dan sebagainya. Saya harap para pembaca dapat melihat kajian saya dengan minda yang terbuka, dan membuat kesimpulan sendiri. Jangan pula, berdebat dengan saya akan metodologi yang telah saya gunakan. Saya akan pasti kalah. Sebaliknya, sila beri komen akan analisa atau soalan-soalan saya supaya kajian ini dapat diperbaiki. Anda boleh meninggalkan komen anda di blog saya. Saya mahukan kajian seperti ini dilakukan setiap tahun. Tidak kira ia dilakukan saya ataupun persatuan pelajar yang berminat. Jika anda berminat membantu saya dalam inisiatif berkenaan, anda boleh hubungi saya di sini.

Objektif

Sebenarnya, saya ingin menguji beberapa teori saya mengenai hubungan diantara pelajar biasa dan MPP/MTP. Teori saya ini akan saya kongsikan bersama dengan keputusan soalan-soalan yang ditanya dalam kajian saya. Saya tegaskan bahawa apa yang akan disebut adalah pendapat saya sahaja dan keputusan yang dikumpul tidak boleh digunakan sebagai bukti untuk dijadikan fakta atau sebaliknya. Sebaik-baiknya, kajian ini dapat memberi sedikit pendedahan dan penjelasan akan masalah yang dihadapi pelajar.

Tidak ada apa-apa ang perlu disebut. Rasanya, ada laman web UPM yang menunjukkan statsitik yang lebih tepat mengenai peratusan menguni dikalangan pelajar. Malah, dikategorikan mengikut fakulti dan kolej. Cari sendirilah, kalau berminat. Anda boleh membaca suatu artikel saya mengenai pendapat saya berkenaan pilihan raya di universiti.

Saya rasa isu mengenai ketelusan pilihanraya tidak akan henti diperdebatkan. Pendapat saya? Saya tidak percaya akan sistem e-undi. Saya tidak terima pelaksanaanya di pilihanraya umum. Tetapi memandangkan ini hanyalah pilihanraya kampus, maka saya sanggup menerimanya.

66% responden mengatakan pilihanraya adalah suatu yang tidak relevan dengan diri mereka, sedangkan peratus yang mengundi adalah tinggi. Mereka pergi mengundi kenapa? Sebab dipaksa dan disuruh. Bukankah pilihanraya suatu proses demokrasi. Bukankah Demokrasi adalah untuk memastikan kepentingan masyarakat bersama? Adakah para pelajar ini tidak mahu kepentingan mereka dijaga?

Melalui artikel mengenai pengalaman pilihan raya saya, saya mempersoalkan kenapa perlu dilarang calon-calon daripada berkempen. Supaya tidak mengganggu pelajaran? Macam itu, bagaimana saya nak tahu siapa yang patut saya undi? Kalau tidak mahu menganggu pembelajaran pelajar lebih baik tidak dibuat pilihanraya kampus. Soalan yang sebelumnya menunjukkan pelajar mengangap pilihanraya kampus tidak relevan bagi mereka.

75% responden mengatakan calon-calon yang telah mereka pilih tidak membawa kebaikan kepada mereka. Pernah dengar rakan-rakan anda mengutuk seorang pemimpin pelajar bahawa sebelum pilihan raya nampak muka, selepas pilihanraya, batang hidung pun tak namapak? Perlu saya terangkan lebih lanjut? Fikir-fikirlah sendiri kenapa. Tapi ingat, adakah ia suatu fenomena yang menghairankan dimana pelajar tidak menganggap pilihanraya adalah relevan jika calon-calon yang mereka pilih tidak membawa ebarang kebaikan kepada mereka?

Demokrasi adalah suatu proses, suatu pemikiran, suatu falsafah. Mengadakan pilihanraya tidak bermaksud demokrasi telah dicapai. Polisi dan mekanisme perlu mencerminkan ideologi demokrasi. Tanya diri anda, adakah MPP dan MTP mempunyai saluran yang berkesan untuk menyampaikan masalah-masalah pelajar kepada pihak pentadbiran? Sebagai pelajar biasa, saya tidak arif akan hal ini tetapi kepada yang sudi, boleh dikongsi bersama jawapan kepada persoalan-persoalan ini.

Beberapa hari selepas pilihanraya kampus UPM, saya telah membaca KOSMO! Dan di dalamnya terdapat artikel mengenai kemengangan yang diperolehi Pro-universiti atau Aspirasi, dah lupa dah. Tak dapat diikutnya slogan-slogan dan nama-nama gah mereka. Apa sekalipun, yang saya hairan, saya tidak tahu samada calon yang saya telah pilih adalah di pihak mana. Seingat saya yang saya undi, hanya gambar dan nama calon tertera di komputer. Jika ini adalah hakikatnya, kenapa perlu dihebohkan kejayaan ini. Malah saya hairan kenapa berita sedemikian relevan disebrkan di media cetak. Memandangkan tugas MPP menjaga kebajikan pelajar, saya rasakan ahli masyarakat di luar univesiti tidak perlu tahu akan berita ini. Kenapa ya?

Sejak dulu lagi saya lihat sentimen parti politik adalah terlalu kuat, sehingga mengganngu keberkesanan MPP melaksanakan tanggungjawabnya setelah pembentukannya. Seorang bekas YDP MPP ada meneyebut pegangangan parti yang kuat menyebabkan ideologi yang berbeza, dan dari situ muncullah halangan pertama dalam pembentukan pasukan MPP yang cemerlang. Saya mengasihani beliau, saya percaya dia seorang pemimpin yang berkebolehan tetapi...Kalau difirkan masa mula-mula dahulu ada program menyuruh pelajar jangan taksub politik. Tetapi kita lihat pengaruh politik dalam persatuan pelajar sangat besar. Kerana pengaruh politik ada di semua tempat dan akhirnya terasa di pada pelajar, tidak kira dari parti apa-apa pun. Hipokrit sungguh. Sila baca artikel saya berkenaan terlalu banyak budaya berpolitik di dalam persatuan pelajar di sini.

Kalau calon tidak dibenarkan untuk berkempen bagaiman hedak dikatakan telah mempunyai maklumat yang mencukupi untuk memilih calon yang sesuai. Saya ada dengar calon berkempen melalui SMS, mengadakan sesi ramah mesra secara kecil-kecilan di fakulti. Tetapi, saya ingin tahu, adakah itu mencerminkan kaedah berkempen di dunia sebenar. Saya fikir, dibuatnya pilihanraya kampus supaya pelajar dapat dibiasakan diri dengan proses demokrasi ni.
Walaupun jika dibenarkan berkempen secara terbuka, saya berpendapat ia tidak banyak membantu pelajar. Kerana seperti ibubapa kami, kami tidak tahu membeza di antara yang bijak berkata-kata dan yang sememangya bijak. Saya sertakan artikel yang mungkin dapat membantu anda membezakan dua jenis manusia ini.

Terus terang saya katakan saya tidak peduli calon manakah syang telah saya undi. Kerana saya berpendapat tidak akan membawa kebaikan kepada diri saya. Nampaknya bukan saya seorang sahaja yang buat sedemikian. Bolehkah kita begitu berbangga akan sistem demokrasi di kampus sedangkan pelajar mengundi tanpa mengambil berat akan signifikan keputusan mereka?

Pelajar tidak kisah akan isu politik. Pelajar tidak kisah Pro-U atau Pro-Mahasiswa menang. Tidak kisah kan aktiviti-aktiviti persatuan tidak bertauliah. Tidak kisah akan pelbagai skandal pelajar atau pak guard merampas laptop pelajar. Yang pentingnya makana sedap, berkualiti dan murah (belum selesai), kemudahan kolej yang selesa dan lengkap (belum pasti lagi) dan kemudahan bas sentiasa ada dan berfungsi dengan elok (masih sedang diusahakan). Penting sangatkah politik? Bukannya, kami diberi kebebasan untuk berpolitik sangat pun.

Pada pendapat saya AUKU selalu diperdebatkan. Inilah, Itulah tetapi semua artikel yang membincangkannya tidak menyebut secara spesifik bahagian mana yang mermasalah. Yang ada hanyalah kenyataan umum bahawa AUKU tidak bagus untuk sekian, sekian dan sekian. Saya berpendapat ini semua cakap kosong dan hanya permainan politikus sahaja. Malah, saya cuba mencari sendiri dokumen AUKU, saya jumpa edisi yang sudah ketinggalan zaman. Apa-apapun saya harap bagi yang ada membaca AUKU dapat mentafsir dan menggunakan AUKU dengan sebaiknya...untuk kebaikan pelajar lah.

Tak banyak yang ingin saya katan mengenai soalan ini. Kononnya, saya nak kaitkan penglibatan pelajar didalam MTP/MPP dan sokongan mereka terhadap MTP/MPP. Maksudnya lagi aktif di dalam aktiviti MTP, lagi kuat sokongan mereka terhadap MTP. Tetapi soalan-soaln yang saya buat tidak berapa bagus untuk membuat sebarang kesimpulan. Apa-apaun anda mungkin berminat membaca artikel saya bertajuk “Ciri-ciri Pelajar yang telah Membazirkan Zaman Universtiti Mereka”

Berdasarkan dua soalan diatas tadi, adakah kemahuan golongan pelajar dipenuhi oleh MPP? Adakah MPP memahami apakah yang pelajar mahukan? Atau kedua-dua pihak mempunyai ekspektasi, tanggapan dan harapan yang berbeza kepada pihak yang satu lagi. Didalam pengurusan ada satu kaedah “expectation setting”, dimana ia hanyalah suatu mesyuarat atau perbincangan dimana ekspektasi dan kemahuan suatu pihak disampaikan dan diselarikan dengan pihak yang berlawanan.
Disini saya berpendapat bahawa pelajar mahukan suatu perkara tetapi MPP berpendapat pelajar mahukan benda yang lain. Salah faham ini akan menyebabkan segala usaha dan sumber MPP disalurkan untuk aktiviti-aktiviti yang tidak diminta pelajar.
70% mengatakan MTP/MPP menjalankan arahan-arahan pentadbir sedangkan tidak ada responden mahu MTP/MPP menjalankan arahan pentadbir. Apa maksudnya? MTP/MPP mewakili pelajar untuk menyampaikan masalah pelahar. Bukannya untuk diarah melaksanakan projek dan sebagainya. Kalau, sesuatu projek dijalankan dengan ikhlas dan sokongan dari ahli MTP/MPP maka itu cerita lainlah. Saya tidak menyalahkan MTP/MPP kerana fenomena ini. Ia bergantung kepada integriti dan perwatakan pemimpin pelajar tersebut. Saya lebih menyalahkan pihak-pihak yang memaksa MTP/MPP berbuat demikian.

Saya tidak ada apa-apa untuk dikatakan mengenai keputusan bagi soalan ini. Saya pasti ada MTP/MPP yang kuat berusaha untuk memartabatkan kolej atau kelab masing-masing. Seperti yang anda lihat, jawapan paling banyak dipilih oleh responden adalah 3, iaitu jawapan sederhana. Keadaan ini dipanggil central tendency bias. Maksudnya adalah kecenderungan responden untuk memilih jawapan yang se-neutral yang mungkin. Saya biarkan pembaca untuk menfsir sendiri keputusan yang dicapai dari kajian ini. Pada pendapat, saya keputusan ini tidak mampu memberi sebarang kesimpulan yang signifikan. Walaupun bilangan responden ynag bersetuju dengan soalan tersebut, tetapi perbezaan berbanding mereka yang menjawab sebaliknya adalah sedikit.

Saya tidak hairan jika terdapat calon-calon MTP/MPP yang gila kuasa, tidak ikhlas, berniat hendak merapatkan diri dengan menteri-menteri dan sebagainya. Malah, keadaan ini disahkan oleh bekas YDP MPP UPM. Anda boleh membaca luahannya mengenai isu ini di artikelnya bertajuk, “Mistakes In Leadership Practices – My Perspective”
Sebagai seorang pemimpin yang telah diberi kepercayaan dan tanggungjawab oleh pelajar. Kita harus berpegang kepadanya. Lagipun, saya berpendapat kita perlu ikhlas dalam segala pekerjaan kami. Barulah dapat berkat. Kita patut lakukan sesuatu untuk perkara yang betul, dan bukan sebaran niat tersembunyi. Sila baca artikel saya yang berikut, mengenai apakah sepatutnya tujuan sebenar kita melakukan sebarang pekerjaan.

Saya tidak menyalahkan kesemua isu-isu pelajar ke atas MTP dan MPP. Sebenarnya, saya berpendapat terdapat ramai pelajar yang berkaliber dan berkeupayaan tinggi. Namun begitu, potensi atau sumbangan mereka disekat oleh beberapa individu yang bijak berpolitik dan bijak berkata-kata. Mereka selalunya digelar talam dua muka, pakar tikam belakang dan macam-macam lagi. Akhirnya, berlakulah keretakan dan masalah untuk berkerjasama di dalam kelab atau persatuan.

Namun begitu, masalah ini boleh diselesaikan dengan beberapa kaedah pengurusan. Kaedah-kaedah ini boleh anda baca di blog saya di bawah label ‘organizational development’. Malang sungguh pelajar-pelajar Fakulti Ekonomi dan Pengurusan sendiri pun tidak tahu menggunakan kaedah ini kerana tidak pandai mengaplikasikan apa yang telah dipelajari di dunia sebenar. Saya dapat lihat pelbagai kem dijalankan. Kem kepimpinan ini, kem itu, KPO dan sebagainya. Jikalau masalah yang sama selalu berlaku di dalam persatuan pelajar sepatutnya kem-kem sedemikian adalah platform terbaik bagi mencari penyelesaiannya, bukankah sepatutnya begitu?. Tapi masalah yang sama tetap berlaku. Anda boleh baca pendapat saya mengenai aktiviti persatuan pelajar di sini.

Sebenarnya saya berpendapat MTP dan MPP sebenarnya tidak mempunyai banyak kuasa. Seorang rakan telah memberitahu bahawa walaupun mesyuarat diadakan dengan pentadbir kolej dan masalah-masalah pelajar disampaikan tetapi aduan tersebut tidak didengari dan dipandang berat. Jikalau anda lihat AUKU (saya merujuk kepada edisi 2006, jika ada perubahan saya minta maaf) dimana disebutnya tanggungjawab MPP anda akan lihat:
Tujuan dan fungsi MPP ialah untuk:

• memupuk semangat hidup sebagai suatu perbadanan di kalangan pelajar Universiti;
• tertakluk kepada arahan Naib Canselor, menyusun dan menyelia kemudahan kebajikan pelajar di Universiti termasuk kemudahan rekreasi, aktiviti kerohanian dan keagamaan, dan pembekalan makanan dan minuman;
• membuat rayuan kepada Naib Canselor mengenai segala perkara yang berhubungan dengan atau berkenaan dengan keadaan hidup dan kerja pelajar Universiti;
• diwakili dalam mana-mana badan yang boleh, mengikut sesuatu Kaedah yang dibuat oleh Lembaga bagi maksud itu, dilantik untuk menjalankan aktiviti kebajikan pelajar di Universiti;
• menjalankan apa-apa aktiviti lain sebagaimana yang ditetapkan oleh Lembaga dari semasa ke semasa.

Saya bukan pelajar undang-undang, saya tidak tahu bagaiman suatu akta dibentuk, saya tidak mampu menafsir bahawa kenyataan tersebut sudah cukup atau tidak untuk mengukuhkan pengaruh dan tanggungjawab MPP. Tetapi saya tahu ahli MPP mengalami pelbagai kesukaran dalam mendapat kerjasama dari pentadbir. Teori saya adalah AUKU tidak memberikan sebarang peruntukan yang membuatkan pentadbir memandang serius akan MPP dan permintaannya.

Saya ingin tahu bagaimana MPP apakah yang dimaksudkan dengan ‘menyusun dan menyelia kemudahan kebajikan pelajar’? Bagaimana fungsi itu dilaksanakan? Apakah saluran-saluran yang ada pada MPPuntuk menyampaikan masalah pelajar dan adakah slauran tersebut berkesan? Saya dapat tahu bahawa setiap universiti ada mempunyai senate. Dan di dalam kes UPM, hanya YDP dari MPP dibenarkan menyertainya.Saya pasti YDP adalah seseorang yang berkarisma dan mempunyai kemahiran komunikasi yang tinggi tetapi mampukah dia menyampaikan kepentingan pelajar apabila senate tersebut juga terdiri dari dekan-dekan, pensyarah, staff yang lebih berpengalaman? Saya rasa tidak.

Namun begitu, saya faham terdapat satu jawatankuasa yang diberi nama “Jawatankuasa Kebajikan Pelajar” Jika anda klik pada hyperlink itu, anda akan baca penerangannya daripada bekas YDP MPP UPM. Satu usaha yang mulia, tetapi, hanya seorang sahaja ahli merupakan seorang pelajar. Senang cakap pengisian AUKU perlu diolah supaya MPP dihormati dan dipandang berat oleh pentadbit. Jika MPP mengadu bahawa harga makanan adalah mahal maka pegawai-pegawai akan turun bagaikan seorang VIP melakukan sport-check. Bukannya bila VIP turun baru kelam-kabut turun padang.

Daripada mengadu tidak henti-henti, saya cadangkan beberapa penyelesaian. Memandangkan masalah pelajar selalunya benda yang sama, saya cadangkan suatu KPI (Key Performance Indicator) dibentuk untuk mengukur dan menila tahap kebajikan pelajar. Bagi pemimpin pelajar, anda patut tahu tida lama dulu, menteri-menteri telah diberikan KPI dan konsep ini juga dibwa ke Universiti. Jika anda tidak tahu, anda patat rasa malu. Apa itu KPI? Kalau anda tidak tahu, anda tak patut jadi pemimpin pelajar. Contohnya, jika kita mahukan makanan adalah mencukupi bagi pelajar, kita boleh tetapkan untuk bahawa semua kafe pastikan satu hidangan nasi goreng perlu menngunakan jumlah beras/bahan yang tertentu. Jikalau, ada kafe yang melanggar tetapan ini, aduan boleh dibuat secara terus kepada jawatankuasa. Kelebihan kepada sistem ini adalah, tidak ada masa dibuang berdolak-dalih berbincang adakah aduan itu berasa atau tidak. Kita sudah tetapkan adakah suatu aduan berasa atau tidakk awal-awal lagi. Kalau didalam kejuruteraan standard boleh dibentuk, dimana tiang bangunan harus tebalnya adalah sekian-sekian. Kelulusan seorang doktor perlukan ijazah dari universiti sekian dan sekian. Juruterbang harus mempunyai pengalaman beberapa ratus jam sebelum dianggap juruterbang profesional. Kenapa tidak dengan pelajar? Kita tetapkan semua hidangan perlukan hidangan sampingan yang merupakan sayur-sayuran Air kosong tidak boleh dikenakan harga. Mesin filter air wajib diletakkan disetiap kolej, dan di dibersihkan setiap minngu. Apabila standars sudah ada, orang tidak boleh membuat alasan. Perbezaan prestasti pentadbir dan persatuan pelajar boleh dilihat secara objectif dan terus-terang. Kalau dah macam tuh, adakah kamu akan tetap malas melakukan tanggungjawab masing-masing?

Cadangan kedua ialah jika MTP/MPP tidak boleh dipercayai dengan tanggungjawab ataupun kuasa, konnonya kami tidak matang. Biarkanlah. Tetapi pastikan ada seorang pegawai yang bertanggungjawab akan kebajikan pelajar. Dia juga mempunyai KPI dan kerjanya hanyalah untuk memastikan permintaan pelajar dijalankan dan dipenuhi. Gunakan standard yang saya cadangkan tadi untuk memberi panduan apakah keutamaan yang paling mustahak untuk pelajar. Apabila suatu standard tidak dipenuhi, dia bertanggungjawab mencari sumber untuk menanganinya serta memastikan sebarang tindakan yang dipersetujui oleh jawatankuasa kebajikan pelajar dilaksanakan. Sebagai pelajar kita tidak mampu untuk kesana-kemari untuk pastikan sebarang polisi dijalankan. Malah, ada seorang kawan mengadu, apabila kita terlalu kuat menekan para pegawai, naik benci pula mereka. Sedangkan, adalah tanggungjawab mereka. Mungkin jika ada bos, atau pegawai yang lebih tinggi dari mereka datang memaksa mereka menjalankan tugas, mungkin baru akan bergerak suatu polisi itu.

Segala polisi, jawatankuasa, atau mesyuarat tidak akan berubah sehingga pelajar dianggap sebagai ahli yang menyumbang kepada pembangunan universiti. Kami mungkin muda, mentah dan naif. Tetapi itu tidak bermaksud, pandangan kami tidak bernilai. Kami boleh memberikan perspektif yang baru kepada pentadbir dan mampu memberikan pendapat yang bernas.

Kesimpulan

Saya ingin menyimpulkan semua perkara yang telah saya katakan dengan tiga isi dibawah:

Pelajar tidak mahu politik

Kami tidak kisah akan pilihanraya ataupun pergaduhan remeh-temeh diantara pelbagai puak politik di univesitti. Kami hanya mahu belajar dan grad dengan cemerlang. Mungkin juga kumpul kenagan manis. Untuk berbuat demikian, kami hanya perlukan makanan yang sedap, murah da berkualaiti. Kemudahan bas yang konsisten, kolej kediaman yang selesa dan sebagainya.

MPP perlu mepertimbangkan sepenuhnya siapakan merupakan prioriti mereka

Siapakah pihak yang perlu diutamakan? Untuk siapakah MTP/MPP dibentuk? Adakah permintaan pelajar dipenuhi? Adakah apa yang MTP/MPP lakukan sebelum ini merupakan permintaan pelajar ataupun ia adalah apa yang MTP/MPP andaikan adalah permintaan pelajar. Selidiki perkara ini dan pulihkan hubungan MPP-Pelajar. Perbaiki imej diri.

Kaedah yang lebih berkesan untuk MPP menjalankan tugas perlu difikiran

Adakah MPP diberikan cukup saluran untuk menyampaikan masalah-masalh pelajar? Berkesankah saluran tersebut? Adakah dengan membukan meja aduan sudah mencukupi untuk mendapat kerjasama pelajar? Cara sebuah organisasi berinteraksi dengan ‘stakeholder’nya, amat mempengaruhi prestasi organisasi tersebut. Fikir-fikirkanlah.

Sebelum saya akhiri laporan ini, saya ingin katakan bahawa terdapat pelbagai cara untuk menyumbang kepada universiti tidak kira anda seorang ahli MPP ataupun pelajar biasa. Anda tidak perlu menjerit-jerit di tepi jalan memegang sepanduk. Jika anda sudah tawar hati dalam memperjuangkan universiti kerana sumbangan anda tidak dihargai kerana budaya berpolitik yang melampau. Jangan berhenti. Jadi kreatif dalam mencari kaedah baru untuk menyumbang. Rajinkan diri mencari penyelesaian kepada masalah pelajar dengan melakukan kajian di internet, buku-buku dan sebagainya. Carilah perspektif batu denganmerujuk kepada persatuan lain, bentuk organisasi lain, negara atau budaya lain dan sebaginya. Perhatikan bagaimana mereka meneyelesaikan suatu masalah. Setiap tahun MPP akan keluar negara melawat persatuan pelajar negara lain, bukan?

Lihatlah apa yang saya lakukan. Saya mengaplikasikan apa yang telah saya pelajari dalam salah satu subjek yang saya pelajari dalam melakukan kajian ini. Saya berpendapat jika pelajar-pelajar didedahkan dengan beberapa amaran mengenai dinamik sesebuah persatuan pelajar, maka mereka dapat membawa kemajuan kepada kelab mereka. Oleh itu, saya menulis blog saya. Gunakanlah blog saya sebagai pedang yang menghapuskan sampah masyarakat yang menyekat potensi pelajar dijumpai, gunakan ia sebagai perisai untuk melindungi diri anda dari permainan politik mereka. Di dalamnya adalah pengalaman saya, penyelesaian, dan juga kaedah-kaedah pengurusan yang mampu untuk mengelakkan masalah didalam persatuan anda. Semua orang mampu untuk mengubah keadaan merekea, hanya kamu perlu percaya bahawa kamu boleh. Sekian, terima kasih.