Anticipating Changes
Got this story from my Big Boss [He's a philospher by nature so perhaps thats why I'm always impressed by his perspectives of Company Policies and Personnel Matters]
Winter is approaching so a geologist was asked to estimate how long it would take for the lake to be half frozen. He was told on the first day a small portion of the lake but on the second day the area frozen would always be twice the area of the first day. The estimated approximation was for the lake to be completely frozen within 60 days.
He estimated the lake would be half frozen on the 30th day.
He was wrong.
Come on now, tell the truth. How many of you thought of that day as the initial answer?
Ok, the real answer is on the 59th day. Can you understand the maths behind the logic? Take your time.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Many times when we look at a situation we tend to apply what is known as "surface logic" into handling problems. A more common explanation is we offer solutions only when problems occurs or we offer solutions only based on the analysis of the problem alone.
But we have to anticipate what similar situations might be encountered and offer preventive measures as well.
I have just finished watching a Ch5 movie titled Evolution. It was crappy, the story was weak but the final scene did get me thinking. The General was offering the direct solution of using napalm explosions on the alien life form - incinerate the damn alien. David Duchnovy [the supposed hero of the story who's also a scientist] realised however by using fire however it would result in an acceleration of the evolution of the life form. The life form was held in limbo in outer space, only started evolving when it crashed onto earth. With the fire from the crash explosion initializing the starting catalyst for evolution so by using napalm it would actually ehance the evolution by unimaginable speed instead.
So the main point is - How many times have we been in the same situation as the General? So anxious to offer a 'direct solution' that we fail to see the consequences of our actions? We wanted to cut costs by restricting resources on everything but ended in staff being demoralised and productions level dropping, quality control level decreased and even distribution channels slowing down. Overall the Company actually fared much worse than the initial problem.
Sometimes in order to reach a sensible decision we should complement our bosses instead of just 'trying to be like them'
Case study - A secretary complained of her boss giving her "stress" every single day. He was full of vision but impulsive. He was a natural persuasive talker but lacked the patience to follow up on his decisions before moving on to a new decision. And the secretary while understanding his visions did not bother to advise the Boss on his lack of follow-ups resulting in the Boss often scolding her for not helping him to collate the list of business transactions done previously. The secretary however was stubborn and refused to change her ways as she feels that her initial jobscope did not specify such tasks which could have been easily done by any admin clerk thus resulting in two of them often at loggerheads.
Analysis - Obviously the two of them belong to the stubborn characters. While the Boss is an opportunist the secretary belongs to the category of "defensive by nature' perhaps. That would explain in the unwillingness of the secretary in doing all the 'little things' for her Boss.
Proposed solution - The secretary could have simply played the role of advisor. While the collating of transactions might not have been part of her jobscope, she could have raised the request of 'outsourcing' this responsibility to an admin clerk and request this admin clerk to report to her thus ensuring the request gets administered at the same giving the Boss a good impression that she understands the concept of delegation and shared effectiveness.
Possible Benefits - Documentation of the past transactions would enable a future analysis to be conducted as well for references should the Boss be unsure abt any other transactions. The Secretary should tap on this knowledge as an additional measure to understand the Boss better and perhaps even complement the Boss by reminding him about certain transactions which may have succeeded or even done better should he had been armed earlier with the past knowledge and experience he accumulated with previous clients.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This had been a really really wonderful weekend, although extremely tiring. Continous training for Friday nites, Saturday mornings and afternoons and the whole of Sunday has resulted in me being more flexible, my techniques are polished to a higher level and I actually lost 3 kg over 2 days. Even Head Chereographer [HC] was slightly impressed by my sharpness of style shown in dance classes today, something I had not been able to achieve before. Hmmm.. I really should go for more conditioning classes. Definitely effective.
I'll be attending a one-day Dance Workshop this Wednesday - Conditioning, Theory of Chereography, Techniques and Fundamentals of Jazz. It's gonna start at 7am and ends at 11:30pm. I'll be damned.
Winter is approaching so a geologist was asked to estimate how long it would take for the lake to be half frozen. He was told on the first day a small portion of the lake but on the second day the area frozen would always be twice the area of the first day. The estimated approximation was for the lake to be completely frozen within 60 days.
He estimated the lake would be half frozen on the 30th day.
He was wrong.
Come on now, tell the truth. How many of you thought of that day as the initial answer?
Ok, the real answer is on the 59th day. Can you understand the maths behind the logic? Take your time.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Many times when we look at a situation we tend to apply what is known as "surface logic" into handling problems. A more common explanation is we offer solutions only when problems occurs or we offer solutions only based on the analysis of the problem alone.
But we have to anticipate what similar situations might be encountered and offer preventive measures as well.
I have just finished watching a Ch5 movie titled Evolution. It was crappy, the story was weak but the final scene did get me thinking. The General was offering the direct solution of using napalm explosions on the alien life form - incinerate the damn alien. David Duchnovy [the supposed hero of the story who's also a scientist] realised however by using fire however it would result in an acceleration of the evolution of the life form. The life form was held in limbo in outer space, only started evolving when it crashed onto earth. With the fire from the crash explosion initializing the starting catalyst for evolution so by using napalm it would actually ehance the evolution by unimaginable speed instead.
So the main point is - How many times have we been in the same situation as the General? So anxious to offer a 'direct solution' that we fail to see the consequences of our actions? We wanted to cut costs by restricting resources on everything but ended in staff being demoralised and productions level dropping, quality control level decreased and even distribution channels slowing down. Overall the Company actually fared much worse than the initial problem.
Sometimes in order to reach a sensible decision we should complement our bosses instead of just 'trying to be like them'
Case study - A secretary complained of her boss giving her "stress" every single day. He was full of vision but impulsive. He was a natural persuasive talker but lacked the patience to follow up on his decisions before moving on to a new decision. And the secretary while understanding his visions did not bother to advise the Boss on his lack of follow-ups resulting in the Boss often scolding her for not helping him to collate the list of business transactions done previously. The secretary however was stubborn and refused to change her ways as she feels that her initial jobscope did not specify such tasks which could have been easily done by any admin clerk thus resulting in two of them often at loggerheads.
Analysis - Obviously the two of them belong to the stubborn characters. While the Boss is an opportunist the secretary belongs to the category of "defensive by nature' perhaps. That would explain in the unwillingness of the secretary in doing all the 'little things' for her Boss.
Proposed solution - The secretary could have simply played the role of advisor. While the collating of transactions might not have been part of her jobscope, she could have raised the request of 'outsourcing' this responsibility to an admin clerk and request this admin clerk to report to her thus ensuring the request gets administered at the same giving the Boss a good impression that she understands the concept of delegation and shared effectiveness.
Possible Benefits - Documentation of the past transactions would enable a future analysis to be conducted as well for references should the Boss be unsure abt any other transactions. The Secretary should tap on this knowledge as an additional measure to understand the Boss better and perhaps even complement the Boss by reminding him about certain transactions which may have succeeded or even done better should he had been armed earlier with the past knowledge and experience he accumulated with previous clients.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This had been a really really wonderful weekend, although extremely tiring. Continous training for Friday nites, Saturday mornings and afternoons and the whole of Sunday has resulted in me being more flexible, my techniques are polished to a higher level and I actually lost 3 kg over 2 days. Even Head Chereographer [HC] was slightly impressed by my sharpness of style shown in dance classes today, something I had not been able to achieve before. Hmmm.. I really should go for more conditioning classes. Definitely effective.
I'll be attending a one-day Dance Workshop this Wednesday - Conditioning, Theory of Chereography, Techniques and Fundamentals of Jazz. It's gonna start at 7am and ends at 11:30pm. I'll be damned.
posted by Inarticulate at 9:33 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home