2010

Happy holidays and Best wishes for the New Year!


The glance back @ 2009:

Wow – what a zoom ride that was… In superstitious ways of the Far East, I’ll be hopping the 2009 will set the long-lasting foundations for the next 100 or some to come…

• TRYING START

- A year ago I wished to all lots of luck in the wake of the economical crisis, and especially applicable to my/stupid/self after making the difficult situation worse by failing the very last hurdle towards the masters degree. I hope the wish came true for you as it had for me:

- Thanks to Ninja for smacking me silly and reminding me that I’m one very lucky f …ellow. I relaxed, embraced the essence and enjoyed few uncertain months of the year as happily unemployed. I bunked with friends in Singapore (thanks Timo and Peteri) while waiting to hear from The Melbourne Uni if they’ll give me yet another life line to complete the degree. They did.

• MELBOURNE

- From March till May I was in Melbourne, attended the Knowledge Management lectures and with it finally completed the degree.

- One weekend in May I flew back to Singapore to evaluate the surprise job offer - 6 months after the last contact with the company.

- Roza visited for few days and met the family in the April. Observation: The love of (same) foods and drinks creates the foundation on which common ground and mutual appreciation between people from varied backgrounds can develop quickly.

• EUROPE

- May till July I’ve spend in Croatia, and then two weeks in Budapest at Roza’s new address.

- In the mean time the contract negotiation for a Singapore IT job came to the conclusion.

• BACK TO SINGAPORE

- On the 10th of July I started the new job. Finally, after first looking for a real job back in 2001 I got one.

- Initially, the plan was to stay with Dr Love only until I find my own accommodation. Before I got something suitable (thanks Aunty Susan), Love and I got engaged (for the technical reasons) and are happily living in the open relationship under the same roof - Much love, Love.

• GRADUATE

- One weekend in August I flew back to Melbourne for the graduation ceremony.

• REAL ESTATE

- On the 30th November the settlement was completed for the two bedroom investment property. When I first started looking for a real job in 2001 I've decided that I'd get into real estate - 10 years later I got there. Appreciation to parents and Roza for helping out.

• HOLIDAYS WITH FAMILIES

The coming Thursday (24th) Roza and I are flying to Perth where we’ll spend Christmas with my family. Then, via a day in Macao, we’ll get to Hong Kong to be with hers during the New Year's celebrations.


Look forward @ 2010:

- Back on the 4th of January I’ll be at the work, hoping to extend my contract, that expires in the mid-January, in spite of the company's current struggles – I can forget about realising any negotiation dreams this time around - next time...

- Work more actively on the on-line identity.

- Give the relationship with Roza a real test by sharing the same mailing address without any pre-booked flying-away tickets between us.

Cheers...!

60th wedding anniversary

On the 10th December 1949, my grandparents (Dad's parents) got married, both of them at the time being at the tender age of 16. Four kids, 7 grandchildren and 4 great-grandchildren later they happily live in the same place where it all stared.

Congrats...!

Hot Technology 2010

Aussie Rules interviews Michael Chanter - IT General Manager at Frontline - where he explains in layman’s terms the five technologies of the moment:

1. Utility storage: growing at 30%p.a.
2. Application virtualisation: one copy of the application per enterprise. Kept at the data server, pushed onto the client per need
   
3. Cloud computing: applications, storage, processing provided as an on-line service (examples)
   
4. Unified communication: an application that combines variety of communication modes (e.g. Google Voice)
5. Green IT: save power expense required for running storage and application servers

Here's the extended list, The top 10 for 2010, by Gartner.

...!

WebFuture

"What I love about the Internet is that it's an innovation engine. You see things come out of nowhere and they'll just catch fire."

Leonard Kleinrock

It was 40 years ago, when the Internet 1st was formed by establishing data connection between the two computers at UCLA. Things have moved along a fare bit since those days, where the current web space is dominated by SaaS news. What is the next big wave to come?

Web3.0

View more presentations from Johannes Bhakdi.

Whichever direction future developments end up taking, the Semantic Web will likely be the part of it. Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, talks about it in The future of the Web as seen by its creator. The excerpt is via Coleman:

So, for example, if you are looking at a Web page, you find a talk that you want to take, an event that you want to go to. The event has a place and has a time and it has some people associated with it. But you have to read the Web page and separately open your calendar to put the information on it. And if you want to find the page on the Web you have to type the address again until the page turns back. If you want the corporate details about people, you have to cut and paste the information from a Web page into your address book, because your address book file and your original data files are not integrated together. And they are not integrated with the data on the Web. So the Semantic Web is about data integration.

When you use an application, you should be able to put data there so that you could configure that data. I should be able to inform my computer: “I’m going to that event.” And when I say that, the machine will understand the data. The Semantic Web is about putting data files on the Web. It’s not just a Web of documents but also of data. The Semantic Web of data would have many applications to connect together. For the first time there is a common data format for all applications, for databases and Web pages.

Web Based Applications

The time is ripe for the SaaS. Sunny's Cinergix, since its early days, is gaining the momentum by getting the recognition in the blogosphere for the recently out of a beta Creately.

They made it to the semi-finals of The Best of Rich Internet Applications 2009.

Other notable lists covering the current cream of web-based applications:

• 50 Most Usable RIAs
• Top 10 Web Collaboration Tools
• Top 10 Underhyped Webapps, 2009 Edition

My favourites:

• Google: Mail, Notebook, Calendar, Docs, blog, Task
• Creately - diagramming
  
• Box - storage
  

Experimenting with different presentation tools:

• MindMeister,
• Prezi,
• 280slides

-trying to figure out what's the best way for me to a) learn and b) communicate during the personal brand (career) development.

• ActionMethod

- Action Method is a more sophisticated tool for managing tasks within projects than Google Task, yet not as complicated as MS Project. It allows for collaboration and delegation of tasks. Highly recommended for students (group projects).

...!

Amasing Numbers - Crazy world

The earlier three episodes are equally impressing,

educational...!

via PZ (the presentation on leadership is inspiring, yet humbling).

Honeymoon no more

I thought it would last longer. After being unemployed and on-and-off searching for a job in the industry since 2001, I really hoped it would last longer, but after 2.5 months the initial excitement of having the new job, the honeymoon period, was abruptly halted.

What do you take as tell-tell signs that a honeymoon period is coming to an end?

To me, an end of the beginning at a new work-place starts with uncovering of 'dirty laundry', which subsequently leads to the gradual loss of the initial 'magic'. And in my case, the big smelly pile showed up within a short period of time:


1) Barking-back at COO (the founder)

It all started 10 days ago, Wednesday the 23rd September. The first encounter with the dirty panties was the little dose of bellowed Singaporean 'scolding' attitude. As mentioned before, the founder is – with justification - sceptical of my technical abilities thanks to the lack of my industry experience. And for whatever reason, he felt the urge to remind me, and others, of this point. To make things even funnier, he is all into leadership BS. Guess, COO wanted to demonstrate how NOT to lead:

In the two meetings across two subsequent days with different set of colleagues attending, the COO directly questioned my competency, and in particular the ability to confidently convey to the client that I can 'walk the talk'. In addition, he communicated the displeasure at the title awarded to me (Technical Lead - as I applied for System Analyst role, the title was a surprise to me as well!) without having the extensive experience and going through the thick and thin of the lower positions. As this was all playing out in front of other team-members, I patiently listed.

You will appreciate the effort required to keep my quick tongue from unleashing the counter-attack. Surprisingly I managed to do so, while keeping myself 'amused' with the responses firing between my ears yet falling short from being verbalised.

During the meeting on the third day, some of the responses got to see the light of a day. COO and I were in the meeting room on our own, and shortly into the meeting he started with the exactly same tune as from the two days before. Though on this occasion, with no need to 'save his face' in front of others, I did not let him gain much momentum. I barked back as true ang moh does. I questioned his actions of criticising my lack of experience for three days in a row... pointed that I wrote my own CV, hence I understand the overreaching gap in my career path. - So what am I to do now? (i.e. where is the constructive value of the feedback, apart of bit of extra motivation from the 1st day of 'shooting'?). Also, I mentioned attitude of the company-wide unity instead of isolating one individual in a corner. The last point I made was considering benefits of positive contribution and strengths each one of us brings to the table instead of focusing on inadequacies. Maybe the best value I can provide is not in my technical powers, but rather through those of the BS kind. - I left out the point that they gave me the title so they can charge the premium for my hour to clients, as I'm sure Boss does not need a reminder on that one, though likely CEO had to persuade him to agree.

Later in the evening after that meeting, we caught up once more, where it seemed that my counter-attack had a short term success. Boss took a step, two back and even seemed apologetic. Then again, you can never win an argument with a boss, nor (easily) change first impressions – as seen with my NUS experience – and thus, the real consequences of my 'barking back' are still to be seen.

2) Senior PM departs

Exactly a week later after the 'dirty laundry' started showing up first, on the 30th of September, I was greeted with a shocking surprise from a collage: his thank-you-farewell email to the company following the resignation. Though, he held to his own, as much as I could gather, he was a busy guy. Apparently he was very busy and unhappy guy.

Speculation has it that similar issues that led to his departure, caused 13 (out of 50) employees to depart in the span of two months before my arrival.

3) Operational Deficit

On the 1st October monthly all-staff meeting, CEO shared the ugly graph showing that the company has been running the loss in earnings for the most part of the year. The related news that surfaced a while back is that few months prior my arrival employees were asked to accept for the percentage of the monthly salary to be payed upon the return of the better days. This has not happened yet.

4) Pre-sales focus

Last week after the positive feedback on my performance from the CEO, the two major pending projects that were to occupy my time got bad hits. One took a big step backwards, and the other – to my big surprise – went to another tender. This means that for a while longer I’ll be fully in the BS area of the IT consulting.


Note to self:
- put more effort into entrepreneurship
- apply for PR or business visa
- don’t expect 22% monthly-pay bonus due this month to simply show up in your bank account

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UPDATED: 12th Oct 09

Tonight I had a 2nd chat with CEO. As expected, due the the fact that the major project I was working on has not materialised (as of yet), my bonuses will not happen at the first trimester. I played the understanding card, and suggested that instead of cash paid bonus we could possibly look into win-win training opportunities where they pay for the (part of) training that fills the company's need and yet satisfies my curiosity. Upon which I could give a seminar to share the knowledge acquired with the team-members. BI anyone?

Chit-chat with CEO

Feedback on the 1st 2.5 months:

• General

Doing very well across all accounts:
-presence with clients
-relationship with colleagues
-positively taking in the feedback and daily developments
-maturity

• Room for improvement

1. Understanding clients better
Relationship - develop understanding, rapport, trust
Reliability - anticipate client's needs
Response - monitor client's response, adjust the relationship management accordingly

2. Proactively seek for more exposure/interaction with a client

3. When presenting give tangible examples related to the client's context (less theoretical)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The prep, before the chat:

• All is great.
• It’s exciting
• Appreciating the opportunity
• I want to tackle the pending project like a bull by the horns
• I enjoy the early stages of the development process
• The best value in the analysis and the design
• Appreciate the confidence, but at the same time well aware of the fact that I am fresh in the real world, thus need someone to bounce the ideas of, to do the ‘sanity/reality check’ with.

Side notes:

• Whatever he (CEO) says, request more elaboration...
• Expect that they expect more, and might explicitly communicate dissatisfaction.
• Listen, listen, listen.... and then listen some more.
• No complaints, winging, negativity... nothing, zero, zilch...!

Technical Lead - Solutions Architect

Here's the scoop after the 1st 2.5 months:

THE GOOD

Actually doing what I've been training to do for the past 10 years - pure joy!

Variety:
I have changed number of roles, and have been exposed to different industries:

• System Analyst is the role I was initially interviewed for.
• Presales Consultant was the title under which I gave the first presentation presentation to my first client - it happened on my fifth day at work.
• Senior Consultant was a fancy title I held only during the 6-day mini-project for the major telco.
• Technical Solution Architect is the latest role for the big government project we are bidding for in consortium with the creative agency.

Potential:
The company is SME that is looking to grow. I am given the position, responsibility and trust not on my experience but on my potential (and (different) looks?). I am immensely grateful (not forgetting the current economy), and appreciate the exciting opportunity it represents. If we successfully help each other grow, the rewards should will be sweet for all.

Fun:
The average age in the company is 27. The management (seniors) is on the level 8, which lovers the average of the production space on the 4th floor to something more like 23 y.o. This separation across the floors, roles and generations makes the atmosphere on the level 4 not unlike a uni lab. Needless to say, much more to my liking.


THE NOT SO GOOD

Small Company:
Is the other point of view on the 'Potential' mentioned above. Being an SME, there are only few people with extensive industry experience I could potentially learn a lot from. Though, they are constantly busy with their daily chores, making it hard for me to catch them for chit-chats, let alone some regular type of mentoring. This leaves me to focus on learning from the grandmaster of all teachers, experience. I am putting in the effort to back up the experience with relevant readings.

Culture:
Yes, it's mainly fun, but also the few bumps on the road I have encountered to date relate to attitude of me vs them. There is bit too much power-tripping and finger-pointing instead of looking at it as we - as in one company - and trying to move on by focusing on solutions and helping each other cover inadequacies every individual brings to the table. Today during the meeting, COO, the founder who expressed his scepticism regarding my lack of the industry experience during the interview last year, could not help himself but allow it to resurface. (Seems that) COO has old school mentality that to get to a role you have to go through the thin and thick of lower ranks. Ideally, yes I agree that would be the case, but it also seems the he doesn't take into consideration that being good at one role doesn't imply success at the next. The appreciation of the notion that 'every rule has an exception (which in turn proves the rule)' might be too much to expect in this environment. Luckily, thanks to my Asian-(business)-Culture-101 (e.g.) during the teaching days in Singapore, I held my usually quick tongue between the teeth, and let the boss be a boss.

On the bright side they are saying that they are trying to improve across the board, and there sure is plenty of scope to do so, though I doubt anyone expects a reward for the employer of choice any time in the near future.


THE EXPECTATION:

Two years...!

Info Addict

Whereas, I pride myself of (relatively) easily adapting to new situations, and thus not holding onto old habits too rigidly but rather finding ways to modify them and/or embrace new, the craving for the new information has been ever present one. My Google Reader feeds span many different topics and too many subscriptions that require some organisation and direction through filtering in order to acquire more focused knowledge. Than again, variety is the space of life where creativity brews readily.

This article, nicely explains our constant desire for 'more (...)' fuelled by curiosity and envy. It cites number of psychology studies to explain the information addiction. Though, it can equally help with better understanding of any other over/consumption.

More than helping with the addiction, my interest in the article is in understanding how a good advertisement makes a product insanely desirable.

Interesting...!


Credit: 'insanely' great => Apple 1984.
Article: Aaron via Twitter.

Employer of Choice

The best university to study at, the best employer to work for... there are numerous rankings out there, but what difference does it really make for people working/studying at an organisation?

For some reason I have always been attracted to this (BS) discourse, and it was no different this morning when I've seen Duncan Smith's post at LinkedIn on Employer of Choice:

Employee feedback sessions I've run have been much more effective when we start with "what's good about working here?", then go to "what are the challenges?" and finish with "what could you do to improve things?". Needless to say, people have more to say about the problems, and sometimes struggle to take ownership of solutions -- it's easier to blame "management", or someone else, than to figure out how to take responsibility. To me, part of being a real EOC would be fostering an environment in which employees were encouraged to contribute improvements as a matter of course. What's the trade-off between real engagement and management control?

MY RESPONSE:
Unfortunately seems it's quite common that rhetoric which echoes in the media and/or upper echelons of a management is hardly reflected in opinions of majority who work in an organisation (what they say, and what they do are rarely the same). In my experience, even true for SME - which is truly a shame.

Duncan, I love your definition of a 'real' EOC: "fostering an environment in which employees were encouraged to contribute improvements as a matter of course". And to answer your question directly: I don't see it as a trade of (at all?).

A scenario for a 'real' EOC:

Management asks the type of questions Duncan suggested (i.e. "what's good about working here?", then go to "what are the challenges?" and finish with "what could you/WE do to improve things?") – Furthermore, management requests for ANONYMOUS answers in order to improve the richness of information provided, and to help eliminate biases during the feedback evaluation.

1. The exercise is conducted periodicity; Say once a year to collect the feedback (if big organisation, it might be more useful at department/region level)
2. The feedback is communicated back to employees
3. Management acts upon the feedback

Through this exercise, the management would actually have the chance to improve the control while simultaneously enhancing employee engagement.

-Out of so many people providing (independent) feedback a common themes will surface (experienced employees), and even some unique gems might be highlighted (likely from newbies).

-Management will know exactly what to do in order to improve employees’ satisfaction; where, satisfaction => commitment => productivity => revenue.

(On this note: don't you find it funny when few lock themselves behind the closed door and brainstorm for days on what many on the other side of the door want. Here's an idea: how bout just ask for a change? - Alas, seems Voltaire was not kidding when he said that "Common sense is not so common.")

-Employees will feel engaged, and will be much more likely to commit to the subsequent decisions made, as they will feel the ownership of the decisions (i.e. ( not all) decisions were simply 'forced' top-down).

- Management can even use the method to (deceivingly) piggy-back their own directive that they wanted to push through, and say (lie) that it came from the feedback.

This exact approach worked fabulously in a teacher-students relationship. Please tell me why similar couldn't work in a commercial setting?

As the bottom line in this discussion (where salary and many other aspects are ignored), what really matters is the involvement: everybody likes to be asked, to have the opportunity to express themselves (their opinion). And in today's society of on-line social networks that's true more than ever. More and more of today's employees not just have the habit of expressing their opinion, but they need/demand the opportunity to do so.

And if that wasn't enough: two heads - in big majority of circumstances - are better than one. As nicely elaborated in 'The Wisdom of Crowds' by James Surowiecki.

Hope to see more 'real' EOC candidates out there.

Cheers...!

Ps: Duncan, two follow up questions for you, and anyone else willing to share their opinion:

a) In your definition of a real EOC you say: "To me, PART of being a real EOC..." What other ‘parts’ would you like to see in a real EOC?

b) What's your answer to your own question: "What's the trade-off between real engagement and management control?"

Much Appreciated.

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UPDATED, 5th October 09.

According to this article (based on a Corporate Executive Board study of employee engagement survey results) employees at the best companies rated each of the following characteristics at least 20% higher than any other category, compared to employees at other organizations:

1. Belief in Leadership
2. Personal Connection to Company Strategy
3. Innovative Culture
4. Accountability
5. Emphasis on Achievement

By: Dianne Jacobs

Inbox count: Zero

This has been my - in a day-and-age of powerful search engines and huge storage spaces - pointless ‘down-time-task’ during the last week or so. While deleting, labelling and archiving messages in my three (personal/career/fun) consolidated email addresses I have come across some interesting stuff that GMail remembered, and I long since forgot. In spite of risks, and unlike what Viktor Mayer-Schonberger believes, I’m all for the digital remembrance in a pursuit of ‘global consciences’, which - as the Internet matures - is obtainable.

The cool find is the Photoshop work by Monkey from 2005; whereas a surprising one was the apparent finding of the measurable change in my personality.

...!

Global Hypnosis

It was back during the Japan trip when Pere and I talked about the globalisation aspect that influences human minds, where everyone eats, reads, watches, thinks, does, wants, ..., the same things. He then shared with me some of the Chomisy's materials on how a few control many in the post WWII world. Not unlike it was the case in ancient times when the most popular book was the medium, a desired mind-state for masses is still achieved through the control of the media. This time though, books got replaced by 'gloving rectangles'. The article cites 'imagines' the research by Stanford University which "suggests that Americans spend the vast majority of each day staring at, interacting with, and deriving satisfaction from glowing rectangles." And what seems like a staggering number, "Researchers were able to identify nearly 30 varieties of glowing rectangles that play some role throughout the course of each day."

With every new rectangle in our world Thinking outside of the box gets harder and harder.

...!

Credit: Image source.

UPDATED: not that it makes any difference to the point made in this post, it is worth 'knowing' that Onion is not a legitimate news site. Reading their interview with Neil Armstrong where he allegedly proclaimed: "I suppose it really was one small step for man, one giant lie for mankind." prompted me to search for an explanation that justifies the popular belief. So just as the majority (under global hypnosis) I have 'no doubt' that BBC article is true, and Onion one false.

On Career

Think about it: out of the 24 hours at your disposal each day, most of your waking hours are spend at doing what?

For someone who (feels like he) just started his carrier at the first (real) job after the graduation, I sure am not a person to be giving carrier advice. Nevertheless, considering I went through quite a few eventful situations during the interesting – to say the least – path that led to this particular departure point, inevitably, I learned few things on the topic. Most of these lessons, could not be better summarised nor presented than by Garr Reynolds cute presentation on Daniel Pink’s The Adventures of Johnny Bunko:

1. There is no plan
2. Think strengths, not weaknesses
3. It’s not about you
4. Persistence trumps talent
5. Make excellent mistakes
6. Leave an imprint

Career Advice '08

View more documents from garr.

Few more points to add on to it:

• Flexible Strategy

Whereas, goals/plans do not work for me - at all (for now); I tried, and I tried harder - still, somewhere along prolonged, and at times painful lessons, I "...found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable" (Dwight D. Eisenhower).

More important than planning are values that like a lighthouse provide guidance pointing towards your target (overall objective) when decisions are to be made. And to be moving in your desired direction in the most efficient manner, it's good to have a strategy. Ideally, the strategy employed would be evaluated and modified as necessary after each step.

It was one of the conversation on job-search with Raoul when he shared with me importance of being strategic yet flexible about it. At the time I wanted to go straight through the wall; head first, naturally.

• When to jump the ship

Equally important is to recognise the signs indicating that it is a time to make a next career move; in this case, it's more like a leap than a mare step. If the fire inside is not burning as brightly as it should, if there is no more hunger, curiosity, contribution, progress, recognition, satisfaction... it’s time to move on. And when the time comes ‘it’s not what you know, it’s who you know’. This article, elaborates eight alarming signs to lookout for:

1. Your role has become marginalised
2. You've stopped growing
3. You're missing from the big picture
4. You're being excluded
5. Your level of influence is waning
6. You no longer enjoy the work
7. Continuous improvement isn't part of the mantra
8. Greener pastures truly are greener

It was the tostmaters's session where I learned about the psychology study which found that happiness at work requires one to be satisfied with at least two out of the three aspects:

1. what you do
2. who you work with
3. your pay

Well, I had 2/3 when I left teaching at NP. The first one outweighed the sum of last two.


And if your 'lighthouse' demands serious corporate ladder climbing, then consider that it's easier to climb in a zig-zag pattern than straight up.

• Not/Every/thing matters

Regardless of which steps end up being chosen, it really doesn't matter how one feels of an outcome afterwards. As in reality - when a little bit wider (link to dir po svemiru) scope of things is considered than seen from a current vantage point - the level of control one has is insignificant. And moreover, one is completely clueless to what kind of circumstances and accompanying feelings a step taken will lead to next. Though, WHEN shit happens, laugh it off and keep rolling with - hopefully - a new lesson learned.

On this note: one of the criteria that has mostly been there for me when making a next step was to put my self in a position with more choices, the logic was that more choices one has the more free one is; and freedom is very important in my kingdom as without it there's no happiness. Loved Daniel Gilbert's presentation which completly thows this thinking upside down.

• Embrace Insanity

Last, but definitely not the least, make sure that the journey is crazily enjoyable. Fitting bottom line is Murray’s advice for the ages: “Keep your sense of humour”.

hvFun...!

Credit for reference:
Patrice for PresentationZen,
Alvin for ComputerWorld,
Chao for TED
Lighthouse analogy: The Monk who sold his Ferrari, Robin Sharma

Credit for the title inspiration: Prophet, by Khail Gibran

The comedy of errors: software development

I have first seen the cartoon some time early in my Singapore teaching days. Back then, I only thought of it as a funny cartoon, nothing more. In my 2nd month in the industry, I can already tell that (unfortunately) the joke is much more than just the funny cartoon. As Murray said during the introduction to my Spora teaching stint, equally applies here as well: keep your sense of humour!

Negotiation Dreaming

Here is some preparation in advance for the anticipated future events to take place, probably on multiple occasions, during what is shaping to be the very successful professional career.

Two of them, Boss and Z were sitting in the meeting room on Level 8 behind the closed doors. Z is not a big fan of the office space on Level 8, much more preferring his comfy corner cubical on the 4th floor. There are quite a few reasons why he finds Level 4 much more comfortable, but considering Z’s strong dislike of air-conditioners, the least of them is definitely not the room temperature that is kept at rather low levels on the 8th floor. And with just two people sitting in a modestly sized meeting room, yet the one with the two outlets vigorously pumping in the air-conditioned air, and having closed door, for Z, it gets cold really quickly in there.

As the conversation already took quite a few minutes, and Z, in addition to feeling the air-conditioned breeze slowly crawling trough his nicely ironed shit and chilling out his body almost as though from the inside, felt that the negotiation process is getting him nowhere. So next, he decisively said: ‘Yes, it is a team effort, it always is. Though, the main, 0iginal idea on top of which everything else is build upon is usually generated by one person only. And, in the regards to BlubberyPie revamp – our biggest project to date, EVER – the person who came up with the most of those ideas has been me. Most of the time I was responsible not just for the ideas but for all of the content provided as well, starting back with the business case proposal, all the way through the analysis and design work until today. Yes, the team did try to help, but I have to say, I’m only grateful for their trying effort, but not for the resulting contribution provided. Most of the time, pardon the programming, whatever they did was not even close up to the standards, leaving me to rework their portion by myself. I am sorry that you haven’t seen this – it is my responsibility and my fault that you haven’t seen it yet – and hence, that you don’t appreciate the difference that my contribution has been consistently making. Also, I don’t think there is much point at this time to get into conversation about the positive effect my ‘happy go lucky’ attitude has on the overall staff morale. If you don’t mind sir, I will move back to my cubicle now to continue the work. At any point in time, should you wish to resume this negotiation process you know where you’ll find me. Thanks for your time.’

a)
Z, then slowly gets up and walks out from what will turn out to be the last meeting of that particular type, in that particular meeting room. Two more weeks that he still had left on the current contract will pass by quickly, very quickly. For the next two weeks, Z will work even harder then ever, exercising his professional range on the pursuit of the perfection at everything he did.

Or, the most preferable but definitely less likely scenario:

b)
The Boss smiles, and says: ‘I am well familiar with your contribution, both tangible and intangible, but I must admit that I definitely didn’t know about your negotiation skills. That’s something we can definitely utilise a lot better from now on. Sure, you can have the 50% increase on your base salary.’ At this point Z fleshes his big bright smile and enthusiastically gets up - more like jumps up - from his chair to shake Boss’s hand, and Boss reciprocates ... And just then, right in the moment of Z’s utter feelings of satisfaction, Boss throws him a surprise. While shaking hands, he says: ‘and to really show you just how much your contribution is appreciated around here, we’ll double your bonuses. I’ll get HR-Flirt to prepare the new contract.’

c)
Something between the two extremes would be just fine – also can, lah...!

The Graduate

The flight which I boarded straight from the office was delayed for an hour. It landed at 8:40am. I was in the car at 9:05, on the way from the airport to the uni . Picked up my dress at 9:25 - the official cut off time for gown dressing was set at 9:30am. The ceremony started at 10:00am and finished at 12:30pm. With it my extended journey towards Masters in Information System was officially completed, and so has the university education that started in 1998 - at least for now. As expected, Mum was ecstatic throughout the ceremony (3rd point in the letter). Surprisingly, both Dad and Sister had fun during the proceedings... And me, well most of the time I was bored, tired and falling asleep - as expected. But also - in strike contrast to nine months ago - feeling the immense amount of gratitude, accomplishment, happiness, pride...!

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Rethinking the Graduation Plans

UPDATED: I will attend the graduation proceedings. As of 11:30am this morning, my request (see below) has been approved, the airline ticket bought (Emirates for SGD630), and the gown rental paid for. All set. Mum will be ecstatic, the rest of us will be bored :)

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Yesterday's post on my 'Phoenix Degree' got me to rethink the plan to graduate in absence for the third straight time. Current thinking says this likely will not be the last degree for me, but still the chances are quite high that it might as well be. This led to some phoning and writing (below) after the run this morning in order to secure my seat at the ceremony. The RSVP was due three days ago on the 30th July, last Friday at 5pm - being late, business as usual...!

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Singapore, 3rd August 2009

Attention: Graduation Office; The University of Melbourne

To Whom it may concern,

I would appreciate if I can still attend the graduation ceremony on the 8th of Aug 09.

I apologise for the late notice, but please take the following points into your compassionate consideration:

- Even before the official end of the semester I had to leave Melbourne for a visit to my home country (Croatia, Europe). In the mean time, after the departure, I have managed to secure a job in Singapore. Considering the current economic situation, there was no much room for deliberation, and I had to alter my travel. Instead of coming back to Melbourne, I flew directly to Singapore to start the work on the 13th of July 2009.

- I speak to my parents couple of times per week over the phone, and just during our conversation on the last Saturday (two days ago) they have told me about the later that I received from The Graduation Office. Hence, I am responding to you in the earliest time possible. Considering that the official deadline was on the last Friday (30th July at 5pm), only the weekend had passed since the time when I had the right to reserve the seat for the graduation ceremony and now when I am asking for your favour to arrange the spot for me.

- This is all about my Mum, a lady who grew up in poverty. As a kid working on other people's fields in order to be fed, she made the oath to herself that her kids will have an opportunity for a decent education which will give them choices and prosperity in life. In 1995, after the civil war ended in our home county, my Mother convinced my Father that in order to give their kids this desired education they would have to move. Thereafter, we migrated first to New Zealand in 1996, and three years later they settled in Melbourne - I stayed in Auckland, NZ two additional years to complete my undergraduate degree. As I graduated in absence from The Auckland University, and have been living - on and off - in Singapore since 2006, my parents never had a chance to see me graduate. This is the point I have taken for-granted, and was thinking from my perspective only - having no desire to go through the ceremony proceedings myself - not considering how my parents would feel to experience it. Again, this became apparent only this last Saturday after the conversation with my Mum regarding the latter from your office.

- As I have just started my current job, in this competitive job market, I am not in the position to take an annual lave at my convenience. It just happens that Singapore celebrates the National Day on the 9th of August, and everyone is given a holiday on the following Monday, the 10th of August. This gives me perfect opportunity to fly for the ceremony on this particular occasion.

I hope my justification is adequate, and in time, to still secure my seat for the upcoming graduation.

I thank you for your understanding, and apologise for the inconvenience cased.

Sincerely,

ZB
(Id: )

Email:
Phone:

Pragmatism

Think before you act!

This old cliché, is simply explained by Peter Bregman in this post which might help you to put it into practice more often.

In summary:

...is the natural way to react. We react reflexively - before thinking (back in a day when humans were facing a 'hungry tiger' on a daily basis, there was no (much) time left for deliberation) - to the event and face the consequences - be it good or bad - of this automatic reaction as an outcome.

The better - and the more appropriate for today's day and age - approach, instead of reacting directly to the past event, is to take a moment to think about the future outcome that we desire following the event that just took place and then react accordingly:

This small change in the activity chain yields big results. I first learned it a while back as the SOCS principle (easy to remember by thinking of socks) when reading Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman:

Situation - what is it that you are facing
Option - which reaction options are available to you in this situation
Consequences - what are the consequences of the each reaction
Solution - chose the option that has consequences most aligned with the desired outcome

“You can’t escape the consequences of your actions.” - Steve Pavlina

gdLuck...!

The Phoenix Degree

As February 2009 was coming to an end, so was the unpaid holiday, and two choices were left standing as the possible next step:

• go back to Melbourne, should the uni approve my request to continue the study for one more semester and complete the degree; otherwise
• get to Zadar from Singapore without the use of the aeroplane transportation in time for Puhi's wedding on the 30th of May. I gladly accepted Puhi's ultimate compliment to be his best man a few years earlier.

Luckily, I passed the two out of three subjects while studying during the August-December 2008 semester at NUS. Thus, providing the proof to the UniMelb that my leave of absence has not gone beyond 2 years - one of the sticky points - and more importantly, a justification to resurrect my degree from the ashes.

I enrolled into Knowledge Management class. Landed in Melbourne on the 5th of March 2009, just in time to make it to my 1st class of the semester. Taking all the events that took place prior this into consideration, it's needless to say that I enjoyed the study like never before. For a change, I did the work as it was suppose to be done - to the best of my ability, and on time. The subject did not have the final exam - a lucky coincidence, as I choose it quickly based on the 'sexy title' (as Ray might say) - so I managed to arrange to make it to Puhi's wedding and stay for half a year - if not more - away from Melbourne. After the wedding, there was two more weeks of school work that I did remotely while in Zadar. Gratitude goes to the KM teaching team and my project group who OK-ed my contribution to be provided remotely. When it came to the last bit of work, the individual component, I did well, but not as well as I could have. At the end of the day, the grade did not matter so I compromised my effort on the final component in favour of enjoying the time being back home-home. The main objective was just to pick up few more credit points and close the chapter on the formal education (at least for now). In addition, being a teacher for a while, I knew that the work done for the group project was by itself already adequate for a decent final grade. After the final submission - the individual component - the feeling of contentment/happiness/pride was making me do the triple-backward-flips - in my head that is. On the outside, I just had a slight grin. Actually, thinking about I grin now as well. In the end, I ended up with 83% for the finial subject mark, and with it successfully completed the journey that started back in February 2002.

On the 8th of August 2009, they will call out my name - in the absence for the third ceremony of this kind (plan changed) - during the graduation for The Master of Information Systems...!

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Thirst for Travel:

As the unpaid holiday was approaching to an end, and with no news from the UniMelb, option of going back to uni was becoming less and less likely, and simultaneously, option b) more and more exciting by the each passing day: to travel lightly - very lightly - from Singapore to Zadar on trains and buses, slowly moving from on place to another... At the end of the February, with the approval to continue the study finally secured, part of me was sad that the option b) will have to stay on the back burner until the next opportunity... maybe to (motor)bike the route.

Hua Hin - carbon copy

In January 2009, just after my return back to Singapore from visiting family (grandparents included - Dad's parents were staying there for 3 months) and friends in Melbourne. I flew to Bangkok where I met Roza on the airport. She flew in from Teheran, Iran.

Upon meeting, we moved straight to the bus station to get a ride down south to Hua Hin.

There, exactly as on our first visit 10 months earlier, we:

• stayed at the same room of the same motel,
• eaten the same dishes at the same restaurants,
• rented the same bike from the same Uncle,
• went to the same beaches,
• took the same photos,
• had the same fun!

tillNextT...!

Unpaid Holiday

The paid holiday came to the end with the end of September 2008. Making it exactly two years since first arriving to Singapore to take on a full time post as a teacher..., and more importantly to travel around.

At the time when the teaching job came to an end, I was already a student again for a month, giving me something to do, and with it, the ever needed feeling of purpose. I was to successfully complete the three subjects during the one semester at NUS, and subsequently my way-overdue-degree. But it wasn't to be. I failed one subject - and since my home university gave me the strict condition to complete ALL the requirements for the degree by the end of the year, or lose it all - I lost it all. Beyond stupidity: Seven years of invested effort, time and money that went towards the degree got flashed down the toilet due to submitting one last assignment, for one last subject, one week too late; all thanks to my old companion, the procrastination. I failed miserably - or so I thought.

About half way through the semester I had some very positive job interviews with the IT consulting company, HC. I was expecting I'll start work in December, just after completing the NUS semester. Eventually, all that happened was that I wrote another letter trying to recapture their attention in order to get yet another interview. I failed. No interviews were to take place any more - or so I thought.

So there I was: degreeless, jobless, ...less, and considering the current economic situation, with no hope of finding an industry job any time soon. Though, luckily it took only few days for me to go from feeling sorry for my (lucky) ass to get back to best enjoy the situation that I was in. It was a conscious switch that took only seconds, but made a world of a difference to my attitude: I went from unemployed, to HAPPILY unemployed.

From then on, it was all about the fun times on the unpaid holiday...!

Indonesia: hop-overs

Back in September 2008, I had two quick weekend trips to Indonesia.

One just a nice resort place that's more like a Singaporean playground. Bintan is about one hour boat ride from Singapore, providing for a nice getaway from the big city routine. I spend few pleasant days there, eating and enjoying the beach with Dr Love, Irene and her mum, Auntie Vicky.

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The next was the trip to Lake Toba with the American boys. That was some crazy fun as we got to enjoy some nice herbal products of the kind that is very hard to find in Spora. The trip would have been even better if I could have gone there as originally planned at the same time as Dan and Greg and climb some volcanoes for few days. Unfortunately Kevin and I had to change our departure date, spending only the weekend on the lake. I had to change my one because Prof Henry of my Globalisation class could not bare me missing yet another session. Of course, I gave him a nice excuse, teaching related, yet he did not budge. Moreover, to make things 'better', later I failed that class (eventually it all turned out for the best - as it always does). None the less, though the trip was short, it was indeed very sweet...!

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Ps: since the Lake Toba trip I stayed in Spora on the social pass (tourist visa) as my Employment Pass expired it was taken by the customs. Three months later, this led to the abrupt departure when I did not get the extension for the social visa approved. I ended up in Iran.

Hope vs Gloom

There is a saying that goes something along the lines of: every hero needs a villain. Judging by the size of the one we created for ourselves, and named global warming, it looks as though we really like to play a hero role.

Al Gore presents gloomy news, whereas hopeful ones are provided by Ray Anderson who's calling for "More happiness with less stuff... It's possible...!"

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Small Planet, Big Problems

It was Earth Day a week ago... - a nice little initiative for me to get a new post up on this blog after a while. On a similar occurrence of lateness, I'd usually say better late than never, but in this case - Earth Day - I think every day seems late, thus one can't be late...

The bleak outlook comes from looking at the problems outlined in this nice-must-see little presentation titled Miniature Earth.

Also, today I watched the movie from 1980, The Secret of Nikola Tesla given to me back when I first started work as a teacher at NP by an ex colleague, Weelian. It's disturbing to see that 100 years ago Tesla was concerned about pollution and the lack of sustainability of then current - and sadly still current - energy resources. He also seem to had been dreaming of transmitting 'everything' - what we call today (wireless) Internet -, and wireless power transmission - what we're still dreaming of...!

Ps: Credit to Murray for pointing to the presentation.

- Bill Clinton's promo for his foundation is another nice presentation on issues.

- Also my posts on water and e-cars.

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