生活物语 之 "Operational Balance"

Completed a bi-annual organisational survey today. It's an avenue where everyone voices their comments. As a never-go-wrong rule of thumb, it is always good to maintain an appropriate level of diplomacy to avoid writing too much comments within an Asian organisation. In any case, I believe that the spirit of conducting a survey should be sincere and truly making use of this survey as an indicator to fill the gaps within the organisation.

Another perspective of interpreting the big word - 'survey' is probably beyond words on a sheet of paper... the management should put on a 'stethoscope' and observe the organisation in order to understand the root causes and devise ways to solve them. One of the best ways is through daily human interaction at all levels. For example, through the complaints from the cleaning lady, I can understand certain aspects of the behaviour of people within the organisation.

In the comments section, I decided to address only one most critical issue although there are much more to write about the organisation. Workload is the keyword and I tried to bring my points across by the popular processes in the industry, such as lean six-sigma, operational excellence, operations research, etc. It is essentially 'Management Engineering', where the organisation needs to assess gaps and ways to improve critical areas such as efficiency, workflow enhancement, etc. These optimization exercises should be jointly driven from top-down and will eventually lead to the achievement of operational balance.

生活物语 之 "Bearings from Readings"

Had a long conversation today with a good friend across the globe. Our talk focused on his recent consultation with a 'fortune-telling specialist'.

Some people believed in seeking advice from 'specialist' who can see the past, present and future. I used to believe in that too, hence I understood the mental processes.

There are many ways of analysing someone's character, fortune, etc... through traditional means such as astrology, palmistry, facial features, hypnosis, and the list goes on. From my friend's description, the specialist could be a psychic.

It was somewhat amazing to hear information which seemed highly accurate and personalised. Even past lives are mentioned but there's no way to verify it...Believe it or not! Somehow, the process of seeking such consultation helps an individual forms the picture, filled up the 'unknowns' gaps, and created bearings to follow in life.

The bottomline is...I cannot agree totally with fortune-telling although some advice can be taken as a reference. What I believe is our own will-power of directing our destiny through the course of decisions and actions.

Destiny is in your hands!