ThiNkerTiNkeR

The day started normally. I was preparing some training material today. PowerPoint presentation. Yup, one of those day at work where you actually put your brain to work. This is where you ask question like, “WiLL tHey unDerStanD iF i aRranGe it ThiS waY…..or ShOuLd i Just sTand thEre anD sTarT tALkinG?“. You see, other tasks you just already know what you need to do and most of the time you’ll be rushing for it. If there are complications, you’ll figure it out somehow.

But this, oh boy this…really put your brain to work. I can of course, show them slides after slides and talk and pretend they will listen and understand. But that’s not good enough for me. I need to get their attention first. So I put my brain to work again and ask myself, “HoW do I capTuRe their ImaGiNatiOn?“. If I can do this, then they will not fall asleep and make me look like I’m rehearsing the training session alone while in the shower.

“WhAt HavE I LearNeD PreviousLy?“. I start to linger and put myself in the attendee’s seat to try and see what are the issues. I suddenly warped myself into my own training session and see myself giving the training….and I felt sleepy. So much for effective training. I thought my good looks and witty character would liven up the croud. But then it hit me. It’s the slides. They’re boring. I need to capture their creativity. I need to get them involved. I’m thinking, “HoW dO I GeT ThesE pEoPLe to TraiN tHemSeLves?“. Whoa. What a revelation. Can it be done? Has it ever been done before?

Right. So re-inventing the wHeeL will never be the smart thing to do. But I’m toying with the idea that re-introducing the wHeeL might work. So I’m not gonna redo all the presentation slides that’s already available. Because that’s the part that made me sleepy. So the slides will be like flashcards to the trainees. Giving ideas and workarounds during Q&A might spark their interest and perhaps even spur some solutions to any current issues. Hey, they are the guys that’s dealing with what they do on a daily basis. So they should know what is the best way for them to solve it. I’ve spoken to some representatives and found out that they know a wHeeL is needed to get the whole thing going. They just don’t know which type to use. But plenty in the team don’t even know that there’s a wHeeL!

The case is, they are already in bad shape. On one side, you have a guy who is supposed to get the whole team together and fix it. Coming from deep technical environment, he’s still on ReAcTiVe mode. On another side, there’s the BiG GuNs who are ready to fire. But there are no BuLLeTs. So the guys working on the floor gets the “Oh YoU KnoW wHaT“.The re-branding phase is still ongoing….apparently. The name has changed. But the mindset has not. With the reference to my post “Maturity VS Knowledge“, I start to tell myself that BoNuS is just an imaginary friend.

But I’m keen on getting the first step the right step. Things are already in bad shape. Jumping and scrambling to every single issue won’t make things any better any soon. So why not have a strategic and objevtive approach. Keyword here is, PrOaCTiVe. The guys working the floor should tell us what’s the problem. The guys should suggest to us how this can be done. Of course, I need to be involved to referee them. In the end the plan for the solution will not be ideal to everyone, but it will be the best way for now. The BiG GuNs will have the right BuLLeT to shoot at the right ‘CUSTOMER‘, for being such a, “Oh YoU KnoW wHat“.

Now which wHeeL am I going to suggest to them? Flywheel? Windmill wheel? Grinding wheel? Or merry-go-round wheel? How about The Wheel of Fortune?

WHAT…….a great weekend!!!!

My department in where I work had an arrangement for some weekend FUN. So we went to the TheMe ParK. I missed the Photo Session because I was driving on my own so I can send my wife and kid to my parents place. The rest of the guys rendevous at the office and went on a chartered bus. So I got there a bit late. By the time I got there they were getting ready to go for the first activity. I quickly went up to my room 2103 to slip on somthing for comfortable and rejoin the group at the lobby.

First stop, the AniMaL SaFari. It was ok, we saw….not too many animals. Zebra’s, Goat’s, Antelopes, Deer, some really HORNY bulls, Tigers, Giraffe and crocodiles. It could be better, but I’m not complaining either. Then off to our buffet lunch. It was….ok…I guess. I’m the kind of guy who go for the salads first before the main course. The sour button mushroom is nice. The main course was a choice of white rice, fried noodle ‘mamak’ style, tofu, mutton curry, roasted chicken and some other stuff that I don’t remember. Maybe because I don’t like it. Ha-ha.

The TeleMatCh…

After lunch we were just strolling around freely to wait for our next scheduled activity. The TeleMatCh. we split up into five groups of 5’s & 6’s. Proudly naming ourselves ThunDeRcaTs, X-MeN, SpiDeRMaN, IceMAN, and TransForMeRs. The games were FuN indeed. but coming froma group of detailes professionals we couldn’t help ourselves from being very detail about the rules and who sat down first. If I’m not mistaken, everyone was smiling and giggling looking like they’re having FuN and OKAY with it, but there’s something in the eyes…..sending out an unwritten message like….IT’S WAR…!!! Yeah it was FuN. I like it. My team the ThunDeRcaTs came third. The rest I don’t wana talk about.

The SliDes…

Oh boy. BigBoSS was the first to take his clothes off and flexing his muscles all ready for action. Some water action. Everyone got into it. Well the boys at least. The girls won’t take their clothes off. I wonder why? But enough of that. We went on to play at the waterpark. Some how some of the things weren’t as tame and some of them were not as fierce as when iwas last here some 4, maybe 5 years ago. Maybe because, this time I went with some of the slides with 3 other heavy weights. and the first ride almost threw us off the slide! What a great way to awaken your adrenalin that was asleep for a few years now, eh? Then i went with BigBoSS to the big boy slide. Get on. And pray to GoD. I can’t do this again. The last time was the killer. But BigBoSS said to me “…let’s go, just don’t think…”. Ha-ha. I’m Ajae The THinKeR. But that moment I switched of my ’survival’ mode and left on the ‘Cow-A-buNGGA’ mode. Up I went the many steps….and down I came…and I got up and said, “…let’s go again!”. I’m a TeenaGeR again, WoHoOoOo…!!!

The WaVeS…..

Yup. You guessed it. BigBoSS was the first one in. Being a GermaN in office he showed us that he also knows how to have FuN. On the waves with the double boey and the music playing we all got in and splashin’ around, floatin’ and swimmin’….BUT. Oh yeah you betcha there’s a ‘BUT’. Again, BigBoss did what I think no one else had done before. He got up the big yellow boey and stood. With the waves splashing he was shakin’ his GermaN booty! I thaught to myself, “…HoLLy ButTcraCk, That’s my boss!”. This guy really knows how to up the ante. Then I went on doing the MaCareNa, some girls (really young hot mama’s), did the belly dancing while standing on the boey. Everybody was looking. It’s like we owned the waterpark. I Never had this much FuN even during my school days. Not even during my college days. DANG!

The DiNnER…..

TImes up and we went back to our rooms and freshen up for DiNnER. It was at a really nice place beside the golf course. It’s actually a bungalow with a private pool tricked out to look like a fancy restaurant. Food was great. The BBQ was not. Well not for me at least. Socialising with great companies to catch up a bit on each other was really nice. That’s about it.

The GamEs.

What happens in the resort…stays in the resort. But I’ll fill you guys in a little bit. There was DanCinG…and stripping. Ok, then there was Da LiMbO. Which was more FuN than the stripping. BisBoSS suggested it. Then we all queued up and LiMbO to the music. BigBoSS again, shakin’ his GermaN booty and doin’ the Cha-chA while getting down on Da LiMbO. Oh he showed us all how to do it. I tried to out do him but I fell flat on my back. ANd LiMbO’d no more. But the rest continued untill a tiny girl won. Even though it was obvious from the start, we had great FuN.

Oh did I mention that he has a BlaCk Belt  for both Karate and Brazillian JuJiTsU…?!!? Yeah, he does. As well as he jogs during lunch time and then only had sandwich for lunch. I wonder who can keep up with him?

If there’s one thing I’d learn from this GermaN BigBoss of mine is…Work Hard & PLaY HARDER…!!!!

Today was interesting. Of the many things that happened I wish to write about the ‘most’ interesting one.

Here goes…

A supposedly process expert, came into the meeting with his laptop and all the print outs of flowcharts and presentation slides and a bunch of other documents. So one of the discussion was the maturity of a working group. and he went on saying….

…..If i go to the operation people, and ask them to draw me a full process flow end to end….I don’t think they can provide me with the accurate info….

Maybe it’s just me, who thinks this. But if I would have asked a question to someone and that person is not able to answer, it would make it that that person does not have enough ‘maturity’? this is coming froma person who is certified in almost everything that is anything. Whatever.

Let’s say I have a question:

…what year was it when Ferrari launched the first prototype of the GTB model and what was the codename during it’s testing in Monza…?

Whatever your answers are, I’d still say “WhateveR”. If it’s a question, then it relates to knowledge and never to maturity. Pertty stright forward isn’t it? Just the very thought of it, there couldn’t be any other answer.

But for the heck of it let’s digress. This is,  a blog after all.

If I’d ask a question and the other person knows the answer, say, “What planet are we living on now?”. And the other person answers, say, “I’m sorry, I guess I don’t know”. Then is could be a knowledge issue. However if the answer is, say, “We’re living on planet earth. What are you, E.T.?”. Then this is maturity issue. Deffinitely not knowledge issue due to the corect answer given, albeit the comment we could do without. Then, if the answer is “I don’t know”. There’s no question mark. It could be both maturity and knowledge issue. But the intonation deffinitely suggest a following comment, which could be, “…and I don’t care”. This is of course a maturity issue. Refuse to respond in an honest manner confirms it. So what if the answer is, say, “I’m sorry, I don’t know. Shall we find out about this?”. Then is is not maturity issue. Even if there is a knowledge issue, there’s also interest to fill that gap.

During the discussion with the person in question, i somewhat get a sense of ignorance and egoist. Ignorance due to not willing to go directly to the operation to get the answers. Egoist when insisting that he is not wrong, and somewhat giving small clues that I’m not right on my arguments. If you want accurate date accumulation you should study the root cause. Not get answers from representatives that are already process experts. We are no the ones who’s going to get yelled at by their clients. The Frontline Operations Team are. If they are not involved in this, then we wil never know what process will work and what wil not. and if the process is slowing down the Frontline Ops, then they would respond with maturity issue. In the end, if they follow this process, we owe them one final thing. “What’s in it for me?”.

I’m going to compile these issues and bring forth to the Management Team that their improvement project is only going to conjure up process documents, but will never achieve the desired results. Process Experts always thin of the perfect process but not the most practical one. As fo me, if the process exists but no one is following it. It’d throw it out the wondow.

And the answer to my first question above is……I HavE No iDea MySelF!

What’s the BiG idea?

This time TheTHinker is blogging on economy. I’m no economist, but I’ll share with what I feel about the current economy.

Speculation of OiL Prices
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I don’t know if anyone noticed it. The OiL Price started to hike when the 2008 Olympics was drawing closer. China was opening their market and millionaires were created. Then they won the bid to host the Olympic Games. Even more multi-million projects are waiting to kick-off.

When the US and UK was ‘trying’ to boycott China’s clothing lines, the energy crisis was already at the alert stage. China was consuming a major share of the world’s OiL indeed. This tells the FutuRe TraDers that China will need even more OiL to make dead lines for the Olympic Games, and SPECULATED the future price of OiL will be at an all time high. Here’s the choking bit. They start to trade current OiL production at the future price. So we start to sigh about it, without even knowing what was the cause of the price hike.

Rumours go arond saying that we are short of OiL supply. Enter India, the next ’speculated’ top economic power and main consumer of OiL. More OiL price hike. Enter the Arab countries, turning their focus to tourism and hospitality business. FutuRe TraDers again ’speculate’ that OiL reserve is deffinitely running low.

But what is happening now? The OiL price fell. From 140USD a barrel to the 50’sUSD per barrel. Have they stop caring about the OiL reserve? Where are the FutuRe TraDers now? Are they speculating on something else? Or allow TheTHinker to speculate……

THEY ARE ON A VACATION!

Money PrintinG
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The IMF (you know what it means), is the biggest money lender ever existed. They set their strategies on being powerfull on having cash and not assets. Here’s the thing, money is paper. How’d we know if they have any money to lend in the first place? Here’s how it works. You want to borrow money. They go and print it. And lend it to you. With ‘interesting interest rates’. So where’s the value? Sounds like the credit card system to me. It’s ‘make belief’ money. It never existed. Then one of their giants fell down and oh boy did it fell down hard. It went bankrupt. This is what hapens if you do trading with ‘make belief’ money. When you buy something with nothing, you’re already in debt to start with. Seems to me they bite their own dust. So what’s a government bailout going to do? Minimize the purchasing power of their citizen. And lower the quality of living.

It’s what one of the Asian countries did back in the late 70’s. The president just prints paper money like nobody’s business, and put it on the market. Now they are weighing their paper money by kilo’s, and not by value.

The BiG idea
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When the citizen have money to spend. Business will look good. The charts will be pretty. The investors will come in. This will generate more money. It’s called LIQUIDITY. When everybody stops spending, economic growth will halt. The banks shuold promote liquidity in the market. The banks shuold be proactive about the economy. But the banks are stopping loans, increasing interests and a whole bunch of other things.

So what’s the news on India now? What’s the news on Arab’s tourism business? Heck, where’s China’s spotlight gone to?!?

I mean, I dunno. Maybe I’m making absolutely no sense. But for every event that occured, there have to be a trigger that leads to the chain of events in our world.

So what’s the BiG idea?

What? it’s already gonna be next year in less than 2 months?!?! I’ve always heard about blogging. But never got myself to get into it. So I’m blogging now. I have Facebook. I guess that’s the latest trend on the Net. So this blogging business is considered yesterday. Hey, if you want to understand TheFuture, you have to understand ThePast, and decide what you’re doing in TheNow. Ain’t that right.