One man's journal

Educate your kids to pay attention to public service announcement!

noreply@blogger.com (Edwin Chung) — Sun, 28 Feb 2016 06:25:00 +0000

Last night, my wife and I went to Sunway Pyramid (rank 97th in the top 100 largest shopping mall in the world at the time of writing) with our teenage daughter. My wife and I wanted to go to the Home Living Exhibition while our daughter wanted to shop for something. When we left the exhibition hall, we called our daughter and it seems that her mobile was out of battery/coverage! We went to a few of her favourite outlets but she wasn't there. I then went to the information counter and requested that they help us make an announcement for our daughter to come to the information counter immediately! I then stood at a location near the information counter where I could view all areas leading to the information counter as well as the floor below. Some minutes past when I saw her just a floor below and that was that!

Talking to our daughter after that, we learned that she didn't hear the announcement. She just happen to be walking pass the area when I saw her! This reminded me of my trip to Japan in June 2015. A friend took me to Asakusa and as we were walking along the stalls, there was this announcement of a lost little boy. It was followed by this lady speaking in a Malaysian/Singaporean accent calling to her son to go to the information counter!

There are many things we teach our kids. Don't talk to stranger. Always put on your seat belt. Look left, then right and left again (or the other way round) before you cross the road etc. I think we need to also advise our kids to listen to public service announcement! I also learned from last night incident the importance of having a contingency plan.

Usage of title and adjective you give yourself and your work

noreply@blogger.com (Edwin Chung) — Fri, 26 Feb 2016 08:58:00 +0000

I recently received an email from a colleague from another department and noticed that he carries the title of an "eSpecialist Learning Innovator!" This reminded me of an incident years ago when I was embedded with a team in a multinational company. We came up with an design that we thought was clever enough to deserve a presentation to their Intellectual Property Department. During our presentation someone in the panel raised his hand and asked a question. Interestingly, he chose to introduce himself before his question with the statement and I quote "I am also an inventor. ..." That got one of my team member so confused he scratched his forehead using only his middle finger!

See personally, I think the title of an innovator and the adjective of being innovative is one that ought to command a lot of respect and is not one we would use simply. From a communication perspective, calling oneself an innovator/inventor can be perceived as condescending and may not do anything to improve communication. Unless, of course, if that is exactly what is needed at the time.

An equivalent of this is the title of Master. Calling oneself an innovator/inventor is like a martial artist calling himself/herself a Master. This potentially open oneself to be challenged or have a challenge accepted as the following Wushupedia video illustrates. I am actually very impressed with how respectful the MMA fighter is.

David Bao, a Wushu and Tai Chi instructor from China now living in Malaysia, seems to be someone who also subscribes to this philosophy. He has, on many occasions, when his students call him master, would say that he is only a teacher and not to address him as master. From our conversation with him, it gives me the impression that to him the title of Master is not a title you give yourself!

Keep your mouth shut if you are warm and happy even if you are in a pile of shit ...

noreply@blogger.com (Edwin Chung) — Mon, 08 Feb 2016 04:54:00 +0000

My older brother told me this story when we were probably in our secondary school and though I have found several versions of this story online, I thought it may be worthwhile to include it here as the version my brother told me has a slightly different conclusion.

A non-conforming bird started its migration south for winter after everyone else have left and the weather was starting to turn cold. Flying alone in the frigid cold one night, this bird found its wings frozen and fell to the ground near a barn. A passing cow dropped some dunk on it warming it back to life. Warm and happy the bird started to chirp/sing happily. That got the attention of a cat nearby. The cat took the bird clean it up and promptly ate it.

The moral of the story are as follows:

He who shits on you may not mean you harm.
He who helps you may not mean you good.
If you are warm and happy, keep your mouth shut!

The people you think you know is not as good or as bad as you think they are

noreply@blogger.com (Edwin Chung) — Mon, 08 Feb 2016 04:29:00 +0000

As with all articles in this blog, the following are based on real events. Some details are however altered to hide the identity of those involved as it is not the person I am talking about (be it good or bad) but the lesson(s) to be gained from these events.

Case 1: The Director for Security of a multinational company was fired and within weeks the Managing Director of the same company was replaced. Rumour has it that these senior management staff was caught colluding to falsify some data when reporting to HQ. About a year letter, I happen to meet this Managing Director and our conversation lead to an opportunity for me to ask about the event that lead to him leaving that multinational company. His story makes sense and very believable. From what I know of him, his story is very creditable. Turns out the way security personal search an operator suspected of stealing inappropriately and that caused the Director of Security his job. Taking responsibility of the whole sorry sequence of events the Managing Director left his job. So he is really not as bad as many of us thought he was. Or is he?

Case 2: A head of a department (HOD) was the project manager of a very successful project. This project team has made many breakthrough and won numerous awards. It is also very clear that the success of this team is very much due to this HOD. So successful, a video was made of this team. When the production team talked to the founding pioneers of this team it seems that this team's initial project was approved not by this HOD but by a somewhat gung-ho staff of the department. It was also learned that back at the time this project team started, this HOD was fairly upset that the project which costs at least 25 times the usual costs of a similar project was approved without first consulting him. Though this HOD never openly blame this staff, his action at the time did suggest that he was not happy and that he wanted this staff to continue to taking charge of the project. Which he did. This staff personally paid for the purchase and claimed it from the company upon completion of the project. In a way, transferring the risk of the project to himself personally. As the project was a success, this became the HOD's project and the staff backed off. The official story from the HOD is that he has always been supportive of the whole thing from day one. So the facade we see can hide the mess behind it.

The story behind the split between Adolf and Rudolf Dassler forming Adidas and Puma overnight is yet another example. We really do not know what is the real reason for the split. If Rolf-herbert Peters' book "The Puma Story: The Remarkable Turnaround of an Endangered Species into One of the World's Hottest Sportlifestyle Brands" is credible, then the good guy may not really be the good guy and the bad guy may not really be the bad guy and someone else may be the cause of it after all.

What I am trying to say is this. I was once informed of the background story related to some people movement involving a number of organisations. As it was the talk everyone was talking about I noticed that one person, let's call him Greg, was fairly quiet! Not only quiet, Greg would avoid any discussion anywhere near the topic - awkwardly at times. Later, after the dust has settled, I learned from Greg the other side of the story. Withholding some key information, a story can make someone a hero and another a villain. When the whole information is put together the hero is not quiet the hero you think he/she is and the villain is not the villain you think he/she is. Accordingly, whenever you are told a behind the scene story, don't be a gullible fool like me. Take it with a pinch of salt and remind yourself that the other side of the coin could be very different.

Anchor memories

noreply@blogger.com (Edwin Chung) — Thu, 04 Feb 2016 05:09:00 +0000

Have you noticed that there are certain things or past events you can remember very vividly and some of these memories hold significant meaning and may even cause you to be emotional just to recall them? These are some examples. As usual, these are based on real cases/events but without revealing the identity of the individuals in these stories.

Ravi is someone I was introduced to back in 1995. I noticed that Ravi is someone who would do anything for his oldest sister. He would joke around his other siblings but listens to his older sister and never say no to her requests. I happen to be in the car with him one day and our conversation turned to the very topic of his relationship with his oldest sister. To the shock of my life this big hero of a man was in tears when he recalled the day his oldest sister gave him a T-shit when he was very little. See Ravi came from a big family and shall we say not too far from the poverty line. Life was difficult and his oldest sister went out to work early on in life to bring some income for the family. He was so trilled by his oldest sister's gift he still have that T-shirt today.

I too have a very similar experience. I didn't realised it until one evening when I was invited by a fellow postgraduate student at Monash Uni., to his home for dinner. He was from Hong Kong and some 15 or so years older than I. To set the mood, he play a CD of a very old Chinese song. Song my mother would listen to when I was little. It triggered an image of my mother smiling and singing along with that very song at the house I grew up in and I just cannot control the tear and the emotions that was following through me. My mother worked and scarified a lot for the family and even though it was an image of her smiling and singing I felt the pain of her scarifies. So emotional in fact I had to asked my friend to switch it off.

There is yet another image of an event involving my mother. I think it was at a kindergarten. A classmate was eating something I have never seen before and I was very interested. Don't know how my mother realised I was interested, she asked this classmate and pass her (I think it was a girl) some money and I had the luxury of tasting it the following day! I also recall the countless time I lose my pen and she would give me money to buy new one. One of those Chinese Hero pens!

As a little kid, every now and then, my father would come home with some delicious food and we would gather round to enjoy it. Often enough that there are images of these still firmly stuck in my head.

I call these anchor memories. Memories that has so much impact on me that my view of a person changed. My view and my world are filled with these anchored memories. Having kids, I realised that they too refer to some past evernts where they have learned something or has changed their views. I think creating anchor memories is an "amazing tool" that allow us to shape/create the world of those around us. Whenever possible, create anchor memories in those close and dear to you. Not to manipulate them but to create meaningful memories to fill their world.

Speak and write as though it is to be made public!

noreply@blogger.com (Edwin Chung) — Sun, 16 Aug 2015 14:48:00 +0000

There was an occasion, when I was a young graduate just starting work in 1995, I received an email containing a project plan from my project lead. I just assumed that the project plan was from our boss and felt that the project plan is very unrealistic. Unhappy about it but unsure how to go about it I expressed my dissatisfaction to my project lead saying that our boss is disconnected from our work. With a shocked expression, my project lead told me that the project plan was from him not the boss! I had essentially told my project lead that I think he is disconnected from the project and his plan is unrealistic!

At another job, I responded to an email where I was asked my opinion how best to deal with a specific situation and unfortunately my response in that email kinda indicate that another colleague has not been as detail in her work as she could have. She was subsequently added into the email thread where what I wrote was available to her. Like the above case, I ended up telling the person what I think in a manner that I would not have had I expressed my opinion or responded to what I was asked in the presence of or directly to the person involved.

What I have learned from these and other similar incidences is that always say/write as thought what you say/write is going to be made public or at least to the people concerned. If you have to say something concerning someone, say it in a way where you would say it directly to that person even if that person is not present at the time.

Taking this a step further, at Intel, we were all expected to make decision and act in a manner such that we expect our decision and action will be made public! In other words, if we are in the position where we have a choice, we are expected to make a decision thinking that our action will be made public. The thought that everything we do is transparent help guide us in our action. You will not dare do anything illegal or unethical or is against company policy etc.

It is my duty to inform you that you are about to make a mistake!

noreply@blogger.com (Edwin Chung) — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 14:53:00 +0000

A few years ago, I was involved in a project for the design and construction of a machine that is an information kiosk come vending machine. The design team went through various concepts and selected what was the coolest concept to be presented to the client. I felt that the design was too big for its purpose and I could see technical and operational issues with the design. But the team indicated that my concern is not valid without going into the details and I didn't push it beyond raising my concerns. So we went ahead with the presentation to the client. To my surprise, the client approved the design! I still remember being puzzled and was asking myself why did the client accept this?! Anyhow, the team build it. As expected, the team ultimately face those technical difficulties I thought they would and this design did not fly.

This event has been troubling me for a long time and more because of my inaction at various occasions of the project than anything else. I could have put myself in the client's shoe and insist that the team answered everything to the n^th degree before we present it to the client or the other extreme of not challenging anything. Or somewhere in between these two extremes. Now, I am sure, one who questions everything to the n^th degree will be seen by his/her teammates as being difficult and the one who ask nothing as one who does not add value to the team! I believe most of us will raise questions/concerns as we become aware of them and the difference between all of us is probably the degree or depth we pursue answers to our concerns. I also believe that most of us will at least perform what we believe is our duty - i.e, what we believe is expected of us.

What would be the proper thing to do and what is its principle? Recently, I saw this in my sister-in-law facebook update. This is rather poignant and clear.

"The important thing is, you must like it. Because chances are if you don't, the clients won't. Make it something you like to see and don't give a damn about everyone else." - Old, rejected, psychotic man without a lunch partner.

Consider this. We all work for someone or have a client/customer. Even when we are self-employed, someone is paying us to do a job. This may be to design a product, a poster, a video etc etc. For everything we do, there is our own standard as well as our preferences. There is also the client's standard and the client's preferences. Independent to all these are constraints. Time constraints, budget, scope etc. Ultimately, it is to satisfy a well-informed customer/client. Allow me to elaborate.

If you know your client and understand his/her standard and preference, meet and exceed it. If you do not yet know your client's standard and preferences, perform your duty to your own standard and learn your client's standard and preferences as you work with him/her. In either of these cases, keep your client informed of areas of concerns so that he/she can make an informed decision as he/she will have constraints to balance as well. Informed here includes informing and explaining to your client that he/she is about to make a mistake - tactfully of course.

[This is based on true events. Certain details have been changed to protect the identity of those involved without changing the essence of the story.]

Be humble when reacting to a rejection

noreply@blogger.com (Edwin Chung) — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 08:10:00 +0000

A student, having achieved a pre-university (i.e., high school) results that would rank him amongst the brightest academically in the country, applied for a scholarship and after the scholarship interview was unhappy that he was not awarded one. This is a scholarship awarded by a university to attract top students to study at that university and this university would have the prerogative to select who they would want as their scholars. Amazingly, the father of this student appealed against the decision! Even more amazing is that this university even has a process to allow for such an appeal and the manager of the Bursary and Financial Aids department had to answer to the Appeal Board. This is like someone, having not received a slice of cake from you, appeal against your decision who you shared your cake with and you have to answer to someone how and why you shared your cake the way you did! I suppose this university has a transparent process to allow any hanky-panky to be expose easily. The mindset of this parent is very similar to a story I once read (unfortunately I cannot remember where I read this anymore) and is certainly something I would like my kids to be mindful of. I have forgotten the details of the story and had to make it up. The essence of the story is however unchanged.

A senior position at a factory became vacant when the incumbent retires and two managers from that factory applied for the post. After being interviewed by the CEO, one of the two applicants was selected. The applicant who was not offered the position felt that he should have been selected. Unhappy he went to see the CEO wanting to know why! So the CEO asked him, "What product is the factory currently running?" He asked the CEO to wait for a minute, step out and came back in with the answer. The CEO than asked "For which customer is this for?" and again he step out and came back with the answer. The CEO than asked "When is this shipment due?" He again went out to get the answer. When he came back, the CEO asked if they are on schedule and again the same thing happen. The CEO than asked him to wait quietly at an adjoining room until he is called. At that point, the CEO picked up the phone and asked the candidate he had selected for the post to come to his office. When he arrived the CEO asked "What product is the factory currently running?" and he got his reply on the spot. The CEO than asked about the customer, shipment date and if they are on schedule and he again got all these answered on the spot. The CEO thank him for the answers and congratulated him for his promotion. When the second person has left the CEO's office, the other candidate stepped into the CEO office and said I now understand.

In the scholarship case above, as usual there is a limited budget and not all applicants can be awarded. Accordingly, the panel interviewed and ranked these applicants. All these applicants are amongst the brightest in the country academically. The top 5 are so mature they behaved like graduates. The best of these has the maturity equivalent of a junior manager. All those applicants who fail to meet the criteria or did not perform well at the interview were rejected. I understand that it would be very difficult to accept how one of the brightest in the country could be rejected for a scholarship. However, in a properly executed selection process, a rejection would mean that the candidate may be lacking something that disadvantaged him/her in the ranking process. It would be better to ask what this is and how to improve instead.

All of us at one time or another would have been rejected for one thing or another. A job application, a promotion, a scholarship, a place at a university, a contract etc etc. When there is more demand than supply, someone will have to lose out. I have to admit that not all selection process and criteria are fair or perfect and whatever the outcome, it is much better to be humble, learn from it and move on.

Keeping everyone focused on the target

noreply@blogger.com (Edwin Chung) — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 15:11:00 +0000

A conversation over lunch with a colleague on Friday reminded me of this and I feel it is something worth sharing.

In 1997, I was invited to participate in starting an IC (integrated circuit) design company. It was one of the earlier and possibly the first attempt by a non-government organisation to start such a design company in Malaysia. Being the first employee of that company, I was tasked with getting the operation going. Setting up of policies, procedures, hiring, acquisition of equipment etc etc. Not too long after we had hired a few design engineers, a managing director was also appointed. I was reporting to this newly hired managing director who sat at an office located in a northern state in west Malaysia while I was sitting at another office fairly close to Kuala Lumpur. I was also the design manager responsible for the team of engineers at my office. Somewhat isolated from the operation of the northern office, I formulated a strategy for my team and I talked to my colleagues about this strategy regularly. I can see that everyone bought into the strategy and could even put it in their own words whenever they need to explain this to someone else. Very happy that I had aligned everyone I stop talking about it. What I noticed is that over time, everyone seems to have lost this alignment and hence it effectiveness as a team.

The key learning I gained from this experience are as follows. Set strategy that is not too complex. I would even suggest that you have only one main/key target! Even what you need to do to achieve this target should not be too complex. In other words, it should be easy to understand and remember. Next, keep talking about it. Make sure it remains at the top of everyone's mind. This is like programming everyone with one and only one target and constantly reprogramming them to ensure the target reminds at the top of everyone's head.

I think, too many of us don't have a single target and may have a plan/strategy that is not easy to understand/remember. Or have one that changes too regularly creating confusion in everyone's mind. Or it was not discussed/talked about regularly to remind in everyone's mind. Without aligning everyone to the same goal, achieving it could be accidental!

A product in a customer's hand is still yours if it carries your logo

noreply@blogger.com (Edwin Chung) — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 15:33:00 +0000

My wife and I bought a Honda City in early 2007 (slightly over 4 years ago at the time of writing) and the experience I had with the car and Honda Malaysia taught me a rather interesting lesson about the importance of corporate values and how these values affect and link the company to their customers.

Let me start with the car. The fourth generation facelift version Honda City is a beautify car. Its gives an amazing silky smooth ride even as it shift through the 7 speed Multimatic continuous variable transmission (CVT) gearbox. We had the i-VTEC version and an incredible 14km/L was something achievable for city driving. All in all, you have to say that this is an very nice car.

About a year ago, I was advised by someone at the Honda service center I frequented to "Get rid of the car. It has a gear box problem!" Curious, I asked more and was informed that he kept seeing that generation Honda City and another Jazz model frequently having had to have their gearbox repaired/replaced. Well, we were still within the 3 years warranty period and so I thought nothing of it. Slightly after 3 years and still way within 100,000 km, I noticed that something was wrong. I was advised by the service adviser that we need to change the starter clutch to fix it and if we want to keep the car, it would be best we change the whole gearbox and that will costs slightly over RM20,000! Not satisfied, I called Honda Malaysia and was told, there is no issue with the design and that the damage could be due to many factors such as the way I drove the car etc! Interestingly, the current and fifth generation Honda City no longer use the troublesome CVT gearbox!

Now, compare such a response to what Toyota did with their Prius. In June 2011, Toyota annoused that it will recall 105,784 Pius to fix a fault in the model gearbox and steering (http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/01/us-toyota-recalls-idUSTRE7500S320110601). This recall includes the first generation Prius launch in 1997 some 14 years earlier.

Honda Malaysia's response gave me the impression that they considered my Honda City mine not theirs. While the way Toyota has responded to the Prius gearbox and steering fault as though it is still theirs! Accordingly, I firmly believed that a product, even when it is owned by someone else, is still yours if it carries your logo.

Guess what I am driving now? A Toyota! Not only have I become a Toyota fan, I am sharing this rather unpleasant experience with anyone whenever the opportunity arises.

(The above photo is by http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Two_hundred_percent and the link to the photo is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Honda_City_(fourth_generation,_second_facelift)_(front),_Serdang.jpg)

Opportunity to earn loyalty, trust & respect

noreply@blogger.com (Edwin Chung) — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 15:32:00 +0000

I believe most of us will agree that true respect, loyalty, trust and the like are not something we can demand even by force but instead they have to be earned. I also believed most of us will agree that one earns these by the way we conduct ourselves. What about opportunity to earn these? All the time whenever there is an interaction or are there certain occasion that's more favorable? A chance meeting with a friend recently prompted this entry. He worked for a company known generally to be a good employer yet an event with his manager ended up with his departure from that company. Though this is yet another good example of a case that people join great company, leaves bad manager, it also highlight another important aspect about opportunity to earn loyalty, trust and respect. Let me start with a story I heard from my father years ago. He told us that he was told it is a true story but his facial expression at the time he told us this story seems to suggest that he is not totally convinced that it is though. Anyhow, this is the story.

Years ago, there was a man who worked as an accountant for an employer where he would only have the opportunity to go home once a year during the lunar new year. On one occasion he had a bet with his employer and when asked how much he would place on the bet, this man said his entire year salary! It turns out that this man lost the bet and when it came time to prepare for his journey home that year, he was rather depressed. When his employer asked him why he is so depressed, he said now that he has lost that bet, he has nothing to bring home. His employer told him that he should at least bring a basket of food, already prepared for him, back to his family for the new year. As there is nothing more he could do, he went home with the basket of food. When he arrived home, he was still rather depressed and when his wife asked him why, he apologized to his wife saying that he has lost the whole year's income on a bet with his employer and he could only bring a basket of food that year. Having already unpacked the basket, his wife said, what are you talking about, the money is at the bottom of the basket. This man rushed to count the money and there was his whole years income. Not a cent short. This man then rushed back to his employer immediately and when he arrived his employer was concerned why this man is back before the new year celebration and asked if everything was alright. His response to that was "Sir, I shall work for you for the rest of my life even if I don't get paid."

I have always took this story to convey the message that you win/earn loyalty, trust and respect when you perform an incredibly good deed for someone when it is not expected. This is certainly not a law that holds true all the time though. It is highly unlikely that an ungrateful selfish person would reciprocate anything done for them. But what is interesting is that this story also tell us that there are occasions where we could earn loyalty, trust and respect by showing other our true color.

The case of my friend above was is follows. He was working on the other side of the world from his home country and he has some family matters back in his home country that requires him to be there for an extended period. His request for an unpaid leaves was rejected. I am sure this company must have a good reason why his request is rejected. And from the information I gathered from this friend, it sure sounded like his manager does not see him as someone worth retaining. Something I have difficulties understanding as this friend is a fairly smart and capable person and received offers from various international firms (listed in Fortune list of Best Companies to work for) the moment he tendered his resignation. Perhaps, his manager was reluctant to deal with the complications of allowing him off on an unpaid leave, but my feeling is this. If this manager is genuinely caring and help him out with whatever arrangement possible in one way or another, even if not exactly to how my friend has requested, I am sure it will show my friend how caring a person his manager is thereby earning his respect/loyalty and he will surely reciprocate.

Giving encouragement/advise with limited information!

noreply@blogger.com (Edwin Chung) — Sat, 25 Dec 2010 03:19:00 +0000

From Oct 8th to 10th, 2010, 7 students from the school where I teach participated in a student racing event known as Formula Varsity. A few months prior to the event, these students studied the rules, secured sponsorship from Red Bull, designed, built and race a car against other students from around the nation. Their story can be found in the team's Facebook page. As this is a wheel-to-wheel race I was very worried about the safety of these students, especially the driver. Though I was not at the event a few of my colleagues were and I kept calling them for status. I even spoke with the driver a couple of time reminding him not to take risk. See this student is so focused on winning we were all concern he may take chances. I even told the driver the story of how Boris Becker once came from behind to win at the Australian Open back in the 90s to encourage him to take one position at a time etc etc.

Our students won the race. Won the most outstanding team award and the overall title. They, however, lost one other award due to a blown engine during pre qualifying and was not able to compete in the qualification race. How they worked overnight to fixed the engine and to win the race laps ahead of the closest team is one amazing human story. I really over estimated the competition! This team was so good they don't need reminder to play safe but encouragement and motivational words to charge them up when they are confronted with the uphill task of having to fix a broken engine overnight.

Pieces of information then surfaced days following the event that allowed me to piece together what happened over the 3 days. It made me so embarrassed of myself. Even with all the information I got calling my colleagues who were at the event and them calling me, it was still not sufficient. My advise were not timely nor appropriate! I was not there, how would I know what they need at the time when I spoke to them.

How often have we advised others or others us from a position of incomplete information. Yet these advise may have been "prescribed" as though from a position of authority. I have done that and have also received them. If we care enough about someone, perhaps we should first seek to understand how we can be of help to them before we offer our words of "wisdom." Then deliver it in a way most effective to them.

Creating a safe working environment where people can freely talk about their mistakes

noreply@blogger.com (Edwin Chung) — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 15:02:00 +0000

Several years ago, when I was just an engineer, I found myself being assigned the task to run some 640 tests to verify a design. As I recall, I had the Friday and the weekend to do this and we had a release dateline to meet come the following Monday. These 640 tests will need a good part of the weekend to complete and we are not expecting any problem. Come the following Monday, we had a clean results (i.e., it passed all the 640 tests) but i realized when I checked everything just to be sure, I had ran some tests with incorrect parameters. Worried that this mistake may delay the release and not wanting to be the person to cause the delay, I lied and declared that all was fine and that we are good to go. While my colleagues prepare to release the design, I worked franticly to re-run those affected tests with the correct parameters. I was very lucky that the design did pass all the 640 tests passed when ran against the correct parameter settings.

About a year after that, I became the project leader for a very similar work but at another company. In the first meeting I had with my team, I told everyone that it is absolutely OK to declare their mistake(s) in my team. Everyone were either puzzled and/or poking fun at what I said. I explained that only by doing so, will the team have the necessary information to know how best to channel resources when something goes wrong and that will allow the team to meet it datelines in the most effective way without impact on quality. The idea here is as follows. If you are the project leader/manager, you will want to know if there is anything that can have an impact on the project. And the easiest most effective way to know about it is to make it safe for your colleagues to tell you about it. It is better to know about these problem(s) earlier where you can channel your resources to rectify them than to allow them to stay hidden where they can bite you at the most embarrassing moment.

To be honest, a strict review or quality gating process to validate the test results of the 640 tests could have done the job as well. However, neither of these approaches on their own is 100% fool proof. I will employ both if I were to find myself in the same position again. Creating a safe environment for people work and even to declare their mistake, free them from having to spend time looking over their shoulder and to focus on doing what adds/creates value.

As usual, this is a real story, but the identity of the person may have been altered and I may not have remembered all the details correctly.

Same goal, different methods and different implications

noreply@blogger.com (Edwin Chung) — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 00:13:00 +0000

A discussion between 2 managers recently gave me this insight. One of this manager has a vacancy to fill and he has made an offer to a very good candidate. This candidate has asked to extended the period she has to response a couple of times indicating that she is interviewing elsewhere and wants to wait for the reply from the other companies. She possibly also has a preference for some other organisation/role. The other manager suggested calling the candidate to find ways to secure her service - a very typical approach for someone from an American MNC! The rationale here is that even if the candidate were to reject the offer, he would go down trying. The hiring manager's opinion is to allow the candidate to make up her own mind. This seems so passive until I was told the rationale behind this inaction! It seems that this hiring manager is of the opinion that if the candidate were to accept the offer, she accepted the job on her own free will and this can give him leverage later. This inaction has a much longer term view of the situation than I first perceived. I am aware at this point that I have left a lot of details out and may not paint the full picture!

The difference between the thinking/philosophy of these 2 managers struck me as a short-term versus long-term or even a western versus eastern management philosophy/strategy. What I learned from this is that a person may do things in a way that disagree with our own belief or philosophy and possibly with a rationale potentially more superior than our own!

Information may be power, but he who holds the money has control

noreply@blogger.com (Edwin Chung) — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 08:39:00 +0000

I once found myself promoted to a fairly senior position at an organisation where I was still fairly new - compared to many of my subordinates. What amazes me very quickly at the time was the information I had privy to allowed me to make sensible decisions while my subordinates were clueless. It really brings home the point that "information is power." As I was fairly new at the time, I was not given access to the budget of the unit yet. I didn't know how much budget we had left and has no signature authority. That really made me feel powerless each time I need access to the budget. I virtually cannot do anything even when I was able to make meaningful decision for the organisation. I can't approve anything that requires money and things just cannot progress until my manager agrees and approves these requests that require money from the budget he controls. So ultimately, even if access to information empowers you, access to money is what gives you control.

Patronizing a restaurant with only a few customer

noreply@blogger.com (Edwin Chung) — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 02:24:00 +0000

Often when given a choice of 2 or more restaurants for a meal I would patronize the one that is less crowded or even the least crowded. The thinking is not about avoid crowded places but more of supporting a struggling business and I have always been disappointed! If a restaurant serves good/great food it will be more likely to be busy than not. I would frequently provide suggestions for improvement for these places and had never made a difference! A typical example is as follows. There is this pie store at a food court where I used to have lunch several years ago. Most of their customers were foreigners as pies are not a Malaysian favorite. A pie lover myself I gave them a try and was not impressed. Like a food critique I spoke to the manager offering him what I belief would make a good pie. His pies were dried and sold without gravy, ketchup or sauce. He thank me for my comments and a minute later he came back with a bowl of chili sauce! This store closed not long after that.

I have given up thinking that I can make a difference to these people. My random support once or twice will have no impact on their bottom line and if they have the ability to improve with a couple of comments from a customer or two they will not be in such a position.

Do not ask a Kurd to do the work of a Jew

noreply@blogger.com (Edwin Chung) — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 12:24:00 +0000

I heard this story from Mushtak Al-Atabi, a colleague from Iraq and Dean of the School of Engineering at Taylor's University College. He was using this as a means to explain how he got the "burnt mark on some of his fingers!" It seems that this is a true story too.

Movie subtitle in Iraq sometime ago was supposedly controlled manually. In other words, it is not part of the movie and someone had to watch the movie and change the subtitle accordingly. The story goes that there was this cinema where a Jew was doing this job. Unhappy about his pay he quits after he was unable to get a pay rise and the owner of the cinema replaced him with a Kurd. For one reason or another this new replacement were not doing his job properly and the subtitle was not in sync with the movie and the audience started hurling abuse at him. Frustrated with the abuse the new subtitle-man started an argument with the audience. It was so bad they had to stop the movie and the owner of the cinema, in his quest to control the situation, apologized to the audience saying that he is to blame as he has given the job of a Jew to a Kurd.

When my family moved to our current residence a few years ago, we redesigned the whole kitchen and had a set of new kitchen cabinets and tops installed. Happy with this vendor's work, we asked them to design and build our shoe cabinet at the entrance. The person told us "we do kitchen cabinets and don't know much about shoe cabinets!" Thinking that it would be cheaper an easier to go with one vendor than to source for another and beside, how different can a shoe cabinet be? We now have a fairly large shoe cabinet where it can't hold shoes. One is in danger of being struck by one of my wife's heel when opening that cabinet. Similar to asking a "Kurd to do the job of a Jew," one should also not ask a kitchen cabinet maker to do the job of a shoe cabinet maker!

Use them or loose them: failure due to lack of usage

noreply@blogger.com (Edwin Chung) — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 04:26:00 +0000

A mechanic friend of mine was telling me that he recently replaced a few customers' ABS solenoid and encourages me to give mine a workout once every 3 to 4 months. He said ABS solenoid can become completely stuck if it is not "used regularly." This is very similar to ELCB (earth leak circuit breaker), the electrical safety device that disconnects whenever it detects leakage current. It too need to be tested regularly just to prevent the mechanism from becoming stuck together.

That advice reminded me of my fountain pen collection and that I have not been rotating my pens! By rotating, I mean using the pens in my collection in rotation. Unfortunately, when I checked them after having kept them in their boxes for almost a year, some pens with this smooth rubber like surfaces have "melted!" They have gone soft and sticky! The good part of this is that these are the more commonly available pens. The sad part is that these are mainly gifts from friends with sentimental values.

A vacant parking slot in a busy area

noreply@blogger.com (Edwin Chung) — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 14:20:00 +0000

I once worked for a local Malaysian company where one of our associated company has international trading as it core business. The MD of that company is a good friend and always had trading partners visiting him from all over the world. He had a visitor from Ghana at one time and as was often the case back then, I went to dinner with him and his guest that day. I was the designated driver for that occasion and as it is a very popular dinning area, we couldn't find any parking. However after some time we found a very nice shady parking bay under a huge tree and without hesitation I parked as quickly as I could.

Dinner was fantastic. Authentic Northern Indian cuisine. I was however horrified when i returned to my car to find it completely covered in birds dropping. My green car has virtually turns white in a few hours! It was a lot worst than the Subaru in the photo by ptpgrad below. Since that time, i always check the surrounding area where I park for bird's dropping and learned that there may be a reason why people do not take up something seemingly valuable.

Caught out by intentional mistakes

noreply@blogger.com (Edwin Chung) — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 01:39:00 +0000

In a recent conversation with Prof. Sudhanshu Shekhar Jamuar, a DLP speaker for IEEE Circuits and System Society 2008/9, he said he sometimes inject mistakes into his lecture to determine if his students are following and who are the better students. I asked if there is any chance that students may end up learning the wrong thing and Prof. Jamuar said no as he will not let the mistakes continue too far.

It would be hilarious if an intentional mistake is allowed to continue beyond its intented purpose. An example of this is claim 9 of US patent Pub. No. 20040161257. An excerpt of the claim is as follows. This patent is listed as one of the crazy patent at freepatentsonline.

I think most inventors will read what their patent attorney prepares for them very carefully. It took me more than a year to draft and review revisions with the patent attorney for my very first patent. However, a recent patent filing had a dateline and the time between the first draft to filing was only a few weeks. I was so tired mentally when I received the final writeup (having gone through a few revisions over a few nights) that I virtually skim through the final document prior to filing! Considering the above example, I don't think I will ever skim any patent document again!

High pressure washer loosen ...

noreply@blogger.com (Edwin Chung) — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 07:30:00 +0000

It seems that domestic high pressure washer are these days as common as lawnmower. It is so easy to blast dirt and grime on all kind of surfaces with one of these high pressure washer as compared to brushing with elbow grease. When we redeemed a unit from points from our credit card our neighbour was telling us that a friend of his was using one of these washer to clean dirt and grime along mortar joints and that the pressure was so great that it removed grouting and cement along these joints. Some much so that he now have loose tiles!

Apathy amongst workforce

noreply@blogger.com (Edwin Chung) — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 03:23:00 +0000

Several years back, I was working at a place where apathy amongst the workforce is fairly high. The mindset there can be summarized as "tell me where to stand and where to face!" In other words, there is virtually no initiative; no one wants to think anymore and people will only do what they are asked to. I even find myself behaving in a similar manner after being there for a while! I didn't understand why or what is the cause of such apathetic feelings amongst so many at that time. I didn't until about a year ago, where I noticed the same apathetic feeling arising in me after i was being blamed for something unfairly.

When a manager is not willing to accept responsibility and diverts blame to his/her people when things goes wrong, even when everyone were just following instructions from the manager, his/her people will soon learn that their manager will use them as human shield or punching bags when things goes wrong. I am very certain that such a manager will stand up to accept credits for what the team has accomplished instead of diverting the credit back to the team. Combined this immature self centered behaviour with the tendency to blame others unfairly for everything including such things as not doing something that has just come to light, and his/her people will now feel that their manager is not predictable. Over time, people will come to feel that they are not appreciated and can not win with this manager. At this point, people will start giving up and apathy will set in.

I am very sure that this is not the only cause of apathy amongst workforce. Actions that lead to people not having a sense of belonging will lead to apathy.

Sensitive documents leaked by the printer/photocopier!

noreply@blogger.com (Edwin Chung) — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 00:51:00 +0000

Often when a politician is asked how he/she got hold of a confidential document or the damaging information within, he/she will most likely say "it fell off the back of a truck!" I wouldn't be surprised if some of these politician would one day, if not already, say that the document came from the photocopier! And this is why.

Several years back when I was working in Adelaide (South Australia), one of my colleague was very sure he knows how much the GM of our organisation was making. He would speak as though he has seen the payslip of our GM. And it turns out that he has! I was told that this colleague will flip the cover of a photocopier whenever he walked passed one! And on one occasion, he found the payslip of the GM in the photocopier! As this GM is not a very nice person, this colleague could have made many copies of his payslip and distributed it but he didn't.

I am sure you may have come across a document or two in a photocopier or have left a document in a photocopier yourself. Even though I do not flip the cover of photocopiers like my ex-colleague from Adelaide, I have come across a number of sensitive documents left in photocopiers including a cheque for a five digit sum. I have also come across sensitive documents in printers including those that has a secure print feature.

Finding a suitable balance ...

noreply@blogger.com (Edwin Chung) — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 17:24:00 +0000

A friend of mine who is very much into building his own PC and other gadgets bought a PC from a store CKD (complete knock down). In other words, it is a complete PC with Window OS and all but totally unassembled. A few days after he had assembled the PC and added the applications he needed, he realized that the motherboard he selected is incompatible with an application he needed and had to swap it for another. Everything went smoothly with the new setup until he tried re-activating Windows. As the very license key was activated a few days earlier using the previous motherboard, he could not activate Windows in the new setup using the same license key. So he had to call Microsoft and was given a stern warning before being issued a re-activation key.

I think one can understand that Microsoft need to protect their product from being pirated and no one can blame them for putting all the necessary steps in place to look after their interest. But the whole experience left such a bad after taste in this friend, he started to switched his machines to linux! As he is very much a technical geek that friends and relatives consult before buying, I feel that this is a lost for Microsoft! It will be an even bigger lost when he get into the position to influence the platform direction on development work at his workplace in the future.

Someone once told me that "locks are only good for keeping the honest fellow out!" To be fair, it also good at keeping the opportunist thief out as well. The steps needed to re-active a genius Windows license feels like a "complex lock." It seems more stringent than the license key management for EDA tools that costs a few order of magnitude more. Accordingly, I feel that the extend of the complexity of these locks is rather important in that it should not put off the genuine customers and that a good balance be employed.

Going beyond maximum return

noreply@blogger.com (Edwin Chung) — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 09:24:00 +0000

One of my previous manager once told me the following story. It seems that this is a common story in India. The story goes as follows.

One day a man took a piece of leather to a cobbler and asked if he could make him a pair of shoes. So the cobbler measured the man's feet and said it will be ready in 2 weeks. Before the man leave, he asked the cobbler if he can make 2 pairs of shoes out of that piece of leather and the cobbler said yes but will need an extra week. Taken by how quickly the cobbler responded, this man thought that there must be a lot more leather than just the 2 pairs and not wanting to be cheated he asked the cobbler if he can make 3 pairs! Again, the cobbler said yes! So the man asked if he can make 4 pairs and again the cobbler said yes! The man finally stop asking after the cobbler responded positively to half a dozen pairs as he felt that 6 pairs of shoes from the piece of leather he provided is really good value for money. Weeks later when the man came to collect his shoes, the cobbler presented to him half a dozen pairs of tiny little shoes! Rather than getting a single pair of hand crafted shoes he can use, this man now have half a dozen pairs of hand crafted shoes none of which are of any use to him!

It seems that this story is not unrealistic. After leaving my previous employer, I joined a few of my friends in a start up and tried starting a training and consultancy service for this organization. As we were from the innovation centre for an American multinational company, we wanted to continue providing training and consultancy in the area of innovation. We approached many companies big and small, local and multinational with various results. The most amazing result we have thus far was with a Malaysian company listed on the main board of KLSE that has presence globally. Even though we were relatively unknown outside the innovation centre we came from, we were selected to be the consultant for their innovation initiative. Over a 3 months period, we trained a team of 4 executives seconded from various operations and it is so rewarding to see them transformed to a level where they could provide valuable and meaningful advice to their creative agencies! At the time of this posting, this team is also in the process of filing the first patent for their company.

The other extreme we have encountered, as you would expect, are people who flatly don't believe in us and said no. Then we have the following. The people we talked to are interested but they are either not willing to pay for the service we provide or only very little. An example of this is another listed Malaysian company also with presence overseas. We had many discussions with them and finally agreed on a compressed session where we discard and/or shorten a few modules to pack a 2 day workshop into 1 day. They were unwilling to pay the normal fees and so we only asked for a nominal fee in the hope that there will be continuing business. Within that limited time, we showed all we could on the techniques we normally cover in our workshops but was not able to go in depth into the intricacies of any of them. These are techniques I spent 18 plus months training myself. They were very happy with what they learned and called us back for more discussions and it all suddenly stop. We heard from one of their ex-employee that they were able to generate a few good ideas using the techniques they learned from us but could not turn these ideas into something tangible. In other words, they were still unable to innovate. And with that they discredit our method. This is a little like the man in the above story saying that the cobbler does not make good shoes.

Another way of viewing this comes from an English friend. He built his own house in England before migrating to Australia and would frequently tell us interesting stories about the building of this house. There is one of these stories where he related how he negotiated with a contractor and he would stop pressing the contractor for more discount. His explanation is that the contractor may say yes but the quality and workmanship of the work after that may be questionable.