Something amazing and out-of-the blue happened, and still unfurling! Just over a couple of days ago, an email originally sent by one of my cousins snow-balled into more than 30 other emails, a google group being created, a family tree being drawn, a google site being developped, and a big picnic being planned.
Well, families originally from the "Attan" side (my dad side), which now include the Cheng Kai On, the Ah Kai Mun, the Hung Tim San (and a couple others, which i could not find out at writing time), are coming back together and getting re-acquainted. Don't get me wrong. There was nothing bad. It's just that over the 2 generations (my generation) since popoAttan and kungkungAttan landed in Mauritius, we have kind of grown apart; even among the still-around Attan side (that's me).
I myself (and my side of the family) was not that super duper close with most of other cousins, save for a couple few, probably because of the age gap (>10 years?). No wonder we (myself and 2 sisters) landed in Singapore and married here and would probably be back only for my parents' sake (if we can't convince them to stay put in Singapore that is).
But I am very excited about this reunion of sort. We have to get this done else the next generation will simply lose touch with each other. And this time round, I am "grown up" and can contribute :) I remembered I was the shy one (yea yea, don't chuckled and choked) and generally quite ignorant when it came to family ties/issues/stories. Was probably closer to 1-3 cousins, in the sense that we spent time playing and sharing etc.. always thought it was generation gap.
So, here we are again trying to ensure that the next generation won't become unknowns to each other.. and I am looking forward for the outcome!
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Monday, July 6, 2009
Execution is tough!
Started to wake up early... well, because schools resumes and my wife teaches @ 8am every single day of the week!
Anyway, went to Shan office, bought a new erm, got some tau-sa-pia, got a new radio for the smurf (our van) and back to work.
Over late lunch, I "munched" through the list of tasks and things that have been documented ever since we started 2 new web-page-post on our Twiki (our Unit Trust wiki). Essentially, these document meetings or discussions that require action, or execution.
Realised that while some of the tasks were executed, a number was not. It's really tough to get our priorities right. People have been bombarding us with the "important' and the "urgent". We know the drill; do the most important and most urgent (well, sometimes we ought to do the most important and least urgent! Cos we tend to make more errors when tackling the urgent stuffs). Anyway, it's all true but I truly believe that one can only learn through experience on how to differentiate between those 2. I keep struggling with this when it comes to (a) long term aims and (b) short terms! My long term goals is to build the team because without people, I can only achieve a multiple of my own capabilities but with others, I can achieve much more, on a geometric scale! The short terms? Well, these are the things that our boss wants! Want this, want that, why not this, why do that!
There is probably no solution but this calls for the right balance. And today, I think that it is about time to start focussing more on what management wants, leveraging on the team that has been built.
There's gonna be a new monthly meeting that will focus on our UT business, and involving the front, back and maybe even IT. That's great but well, challenging too. It's time to put to test what we have been building over the past 2 years. Can we get things done within the month in-between the meetings. Whatever else it might be, it surely is my own personal test to myself! I will know if the right things were done over the past 2 years. When the team shines, I will shine. If the team fails, so would I doubly.
Anyway, went to Shan office, bought a new erm, got some tau-sa-pia, got a new radio for the smurf (our van) and back to work.
Over late lunch, I "munched" through the list of tasks and things that have been documented ever since we started 2 new web-page-post on our Twiki (our Unit Trust wiki). Essentially, these document meetings or discussions that require action, or execution.
Realised that while some of the tasks were executed, a number was not. It's really tough to get our priorities right. People have been bombarding us with the "important' and the "urgent". We know the drill; do the most important and most urgent (well, sometimes we ought to do the most important and least urgent! Cos we tend to make more errors when tackling the urgent stuffs). Anyway, it's all true but I truly believe that one can only learn through experience on how to differentiate between those 2. I keep struggling with this when it comes to (a) long term aims and (b) short terms! My long term goals is to build the team because without people, I can only achieve a multiple of my own capabilities but with others, I can achieve much more, on a geometric scale! The short terms? Well, these are the things that our boss wants! Want this, want that, why not this, why do that!
There is probably no solution but this calls for the right balance. And today, I think that it is about time to start focussing more on what management wants, leveraging on the team that has been built.
There's gonna be a new monthly meeting that will focus on our UT business, and involving the front, back and maybe even IT. That's great but well, challenging too. It's time to put to test what we have been building over the past 2 years. Can we get things done within the month in-between the meetings. Whatever else it might be, it surely is my own personal test to myself! I will know if the right things were done over the past 2 years. When the team shines, I will shine. If the team fails, so would I doubly.
Thursday, July 2, 2009
One year on!
Gosh, it's been slightly more than 1 year since I last posted anything! Anyway, nobody's reading :) Not even my dear wife!
Still, it's indeed a good way to "store away" the experiences. Interestingly, I was just sharing with my wife about the fact that I tend to "move" on around 2-3 years! And it's going to be 3 years since I joined UT Ops! For one, my counterpart in Marketing is also moving to a different role. I am even thinking about starting to think about taking a front end role! That would be a great new experience, though I will really want to finish a few things in UT Ops!
So, the great thing about UT Ops right now is that the people has been with me for at least 1 year. The officers are around 2-3 years now and that's great. A lot more things can be accomplished through the people. That was always the most important thing to me since day 1, even sometimes at my own expense!! So, it is like a critical stage where we can really start "testing" whether we can live to our "aspired" core competencies which are "execution, execution and execution" and "IT".
We want to get things done. And we want to leverage on our IT knowledge. I have a few guys who are good at projects and handling such IT stuffs. I myself am quite confident about understand the current system, which is important if we were to make changes! Our system, UTIBO, was like started from scratch and it's like we have deposited layers and layers of functionalities over them. Now, we are thinking of even changing to a new ones. Management keeps harping about having a ledger system, which is great theoretically but execution is key. Sometimes, probably one of the main problem with management is thinking that too much that IT can do anything, anytime. Maybe even to the extent of taking it for granted. Yes, everything is possible but it takes time, and more importantly, nothing gets accomplished without the people :)
That's why I am very proud of the people right now. I think we have a good team.. Well, I've always thought so. Now is truly testing time. Can we get things done fast and efficiently! Can the workload be distributed among all the people nicely!
It sure looks like that! I'm being an optimist for once ;)
Still, it's indeed a good way to "store away" the experiences. Interestingly, I was just sharing with my wife about the fact that I tend to "move" on around 2-3 years! And it's going to be 3 years since I joined UT Ops! For one, my counterpart in Marketing is also moving to a different role. I am even thinking about starting to think about taking a front end role! That would be a great new experience, though I will really want to finish a few things in UT Ops!
So, the great thing about UT Ops right now is that the people has been with me for at least 1 year. The officers are around 2-3 years now and that's great. A lot more things can be accomplished through the people. That was always the most important thing to me since day 1, even sometimes at my own expense!! So, it is like a critical stage where we can really start "testing" whether we can live to our "aspired" core competencies which are "execution, execution and execution" and "IT".
We want to get things done. And we want to leverage on our IT knowledge. I have a few guys who are good at projects and handling such IT stuffs. I myself am quite confident about understand the current system, which is important if we were to make changes! Our system, UTIBO, was like started from scratch and it's like we have deposited layers and layers of functionalities over them. Now, we are thinking of even changing to a new ones. Management keeps harping about having a ledger system, which is great theoretically but execution is key. Sometimes, probably one of the main problem with management is thinking that too much that IT can do anything, anytime. Maybe even to the extent of taking it for granted. Yes, everything is possible but it takes time, and more importantly, nothing gets accomplished without the people :)
That's why I am very proud of the people right now. I think we have a good team.. Well, I've always thought so. Now is truly testing time. Can we get things done fast and efficiently! Can the workload be distributed among all the people nicely!
It sure looks like that! I'm being an optimist for once ;)
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Man Utd Won
Yea!!
Manchester United Football Club is the champion again, for the 10th time. It was a fantastic finish with 2 goals. It was not without missed heartbeat though! Could have a been a penalty against ManU when Rio "shouldered" the ball away in the penalty area, and when Paul Schole hacked down an opponent after he had already received a yellow card.
But it was fantastic to see them win. The team plays well and attacks well. Now for the double in 10 day's time!
Am still exciting and yet will have to sleep, for tomorrow is an exciting day too at work. Our new biz analyst will be joining us and we are also getting a NTU student on attachment for 10 weeks. In about 8 more days, we'll be getting one more staff and that completes our team.
It's exciting because with the low volume, we have to show results in improving efficiency and effectiveness. I have a lot of faith in the current team, from the doing part to the project part. They will support the department in its processes as well as push forward IT enhancements that will increase productivity, reduces errors and promotes more compliance.
So, it is going to be an exciting day tomorrow (or rather later on) though it will be tiring. As my director said, I will have to focus more on management and to do that, to be able to delegate, I must coach the current crop of officers into becoming effective supervisors themselves. I have set the medium and longer term Organisation chart with 1 AM and 2 supervisors as recommended by management and will now be looking towards proper coaching and guiding them so that they can rise to the expectation.
On top of that, we will implement our wiki initiative as well as using BPMN as part and parcel of normal ops life! There are important projects to be achieved and we have only 6 months left. It's going to be a blast and I feel that this team will do it. I cannot wait for the next round of performance review in 2009.
Manchester United Football Club is the champion again, for the 10th time. It was a fantastic finish with 2 goals. It was not without missed heartbeat though! Could have a been a penalty against ManU when Rio "shouldered" the ball away in the penalty area, and when Paul Schole hacked down an opponent after he had already received a yellow card.
But it was fantastic to see them win. The team plays well and attacks well. Now for the double in 10 day's time!
Am still exciting and yet will have to sleep, for tomorrow is an exciting day too at work. Our new biz analyst will be joining us and we are also getting a NTU student on attachment for 10 weeks. In about 8 more days, we'll be getting one more staff and that completes our team.
It's exciting because with the low volume, we have to show results in improving efficiency and effectiveness. I have a lot of faith in the current team, from the doing part to the project part. They will support the department in its processes as well as push forward IT enhancements that will increase productivity, reduces errors and promotes more compliance.
So, it is going to be an exciting day tomorrow (or rather later on) though it will be tiring. As my director said, I will have to focus more on management and to do that, to be able to delegate, I must coach the current crop of officers into becoming effective supervisors themselves. I have set the medium and longer term Organisation chart with 1 AM and 2 supervisors as recommended by management and will now be looking towards proper coaching and guiding them so that they can rise to the expectation.
On top of that, we will implement our wiki initiative as well as using BPMN as part and parcel of normal ops life! There are important projects to be achieved and we have only 6 months left. It's going to be a blast and I feel that this team will do it. I cannot wait for the next round of performance review in 2009.
Friday, May 9, 2008
Bonus Time Soon
Yea, it's been a long time since I last blogged. I guess the novelty is wearing a little bit. And well, it's starting to dawn on me that I am writing this blog for myself, to remind myself!
Anyway, it has been an interesting monthly, yet again. I did all the performance reviews and even submitted the performance bonus allocation. Was revised by management and we have since re-submitted our final allocation, which I hoped will be accepted. Year 2007 was a good year, the best that I've seen so far in my 8 years at Phillip. Yea. That's 8 years in 2nd May 2008. While rewarding based on performance is key, years of service did have some good weighing in. I doubt it's a matter of years of service. I believe it's more of a "cut off". That's why we believe that a 2 year period is a bare minimum. 1 year for learning and 1 year to start producing, I'd say.
Anyway, 2008 does not look good. You ask me and I'll tell you that indeed we are in for a recession cycle. Maybe it'll take another 3-5 years before we see any boom of the 2007 magnitude.
Anyway. My own performance review was done over 3 hours or so, from a scheduled 30minunes. I mean, frankly speaking, I doubt that 30minutes is sufficient, especially in the early years when someone just joined a certain position. More is required. So, it went ok. There were some debates and I kind of concluded this: the bad can be seen but the good is taken for granted. Well, at least that's how I felt. And I was telling myself this is probably not something I'd like to subject my own staff.
The feedback portion was great though. I am just hoping that the discussion was more geared towards 2008 because if that's for 2007, it pretty much means that I did not meet quite a number of objectives. If you have access to my personal story, then you'd know how it was in that first year in the department. I think I did a good job, given the circumstances. But as I mentioned during the review, let's forget about 2007 and set it as a base and look forward to 2008.
Well, we'll say how much the bonus is!
Other than that, all's well. My darling is getting used to lecturing at SP, though as usual, there will always be kids who are kids and act like so! She's taking a night class and that's on a tough Monday night. Guess it's worth the effort!
I lost the family camera, a SGD600 Panasonic. I felt so bad and numb at the same time. Did not realise that I lost it for 4 days. I probably left it in a cab.
I am getting my 2 new staff and a NTU student (on attachment) and I'll be full house. I have great plans for the team and I really believe we can achieve much during this time, given the slow down too. At the simplest, my goal is to be able to leave at 6:30pm while enjoying good bonuses. At staff level, my goal is to produce managers or project specialists or operations specialist who are good at execution. I am proud of my current team. Now I'm awaiting to see who can go the next level but flying on their own in a different department.
Half of 2008 is always gone and that does not leave much time to do all things that we want to do. Nevertheless, there is progress and that is important.
Anyway, it has been an interesting monthly, yet again. I did all the performance reviews and even submitted the performance bonus allocation. Was revised by management and we have since re-submitted our final allocation, which I hoped will be accepted. Year 2007 was a good year, the best that I've seen so far in my 8 years at Phillip. Yea. That's 8 years in 2nd May 2008. While rewarding based on performance is key, years of service did have some good weighing in. I doubt it's a matter of years of service. I believe it's more of a "cut off". That's why we believe that a 2 year period is a bare minimum. 1 year for learning and 1 year to start producing, I'd say.
Anyway, 2008 does not look good. You ask me and I'll tell you that indeed we are in for a recession cycle. Maybe it'll take another 3-5 years before we see any boom of the 2007 magnitude.
Anyway. My own performance review was done over 3 hours or so, from a scheduled 30minunes. I mean, frankly speaking, I doubt that 30minutes is sufficient, especially in the early years when someone just joined a certain position. More is required. So, it went ok. There were some debates and I kind of concluded this: the bad can be seen but the good is taken for granted. Well, at least that's how I felt. And I was telling myself this is probably not something I'd like to subject my own staff.
The feedback portion was great though. I am just hoping that the discussion was more geared towards 2008 because if that's for 2007, it pretty much means that I did not meet quite a number of objectives. If you have access to my personal story, then you'd know how it was in that first year in the department. I think I did a good job, given the circumstances. But as I mentioned during the review, let's forget about 2007 and set it as a base and look forward to 2008.
Well, we'll say how much the bonus is!
Other than that, all's well. My darling is getting used to lecturing at SP, though as usual, there will always be kids who are kids and act like so! She's taking a night class and that's on a tough Monday night. Guess it's worth the effort!
I lost the family camera, a SGD600 Panasonic. I felt so bad and numb at the same time. Did not realise that I lost it for 4 days. I probably left it in a cab.
I am getting my 2 new staff and a NTU student (on attachment) and I'll be full house. I have great plans for the team and I really believe we can achieve much during this time, given the slow down too. At the simplest, my goal is to be able to leave at 6:30pm while enjoying good bonuses. At staff level, my goal is to produce managers or project specialists or operations specialist who are good at execution. I am proud of my current team. Now I'm awaiting to see who can go the next level but flying on their own in a different department.
Half of 2008 is always gone and that does not leave much time to do all things that we want to do. Nevertheless, there is progress and that is important.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
My wife's sick
My wife have come down with fever, high fever at around 39.2 degrees. She got a jab, some anti-biotics (doctor insisted) along with some pills for swollen throat and some "cough" mixture. Poor her, she was quite weak, and was trying to rest at each traffic light. Yea, I tell myself that I better call that driving instructor so that I can take the bloody exam soon! Life is short. No matter how hectic work life is, we have to acknowledge that there is more to it that working from morning till night, bringing back work (physical or mental) and sleeping with ideas that keep tormenting the mind. This has been me for the past few weeks. It usually occurs when I have something in mind, something new or radical.
I used to be in that state when I was handling my first project (called the Phillip Financial System). I remember that a certain logic/algorithm, to say compute the outstanding interest, would keep me awake the whole night. I was still too tired to wake up and write some more but not tired enough to sleep!
Indeed, the mental work can be more draining than physical work, especially the more mundane ones. Our brain neurons are hyper active when it comes to mental work. Trying to think of all possibilities, just like a compute is thinking of future moves in a chess game. There are times when nothing seem to come out of it but deep inside the conciousness, I believe that some solutions are formed.
Of late, it has been reading and researching on Business Process Management, especially the use of BPMN. Then it was on wiki and other collaborative tools. Spent many hours writing a paper on BPM and spent even more hours, days even, to build up our wiki (using Google sites, cos well, it seems easier to use and is free). Now, my brain is working on how/what to do to promote active collaboration. It would be useless to have a wiki with only one participants! But hey, start small, build content and then show by example. That's the way I've always fancied. Talk with no action leads to nowhere.
I remember that once, I was not so much of a "documentation" type. But I learnt my lesson in two ways. When taking over a new role, I realise that a lot of the learning is through the hard way, sometimes repeating the same mistakes. Then while handling over my previous portfolio, I realised that the transition can be easier with proper documentation. Worse, I realised that the person taking over is probably cursing and swearing the same way as I would when taking over the new role.
It then dawned upon me that documentation IS ESSENTIAL. Of course, the quality is important too but hey, start small. Ensure processes are documented. Then ensure that the documents are not done to please compliance or the boss... but that they are meant for the department itself. To get someone on board, use the stick and carrot. Anyway, doing good documentation is part of one's job description. Ask someone to learn something new without any help and challenge the person to think what they would have wished to have before doing the job.
Anyway... it's been pretty tiring because the mind cannot rest and since my wife started lecturing, there are some very early days, like today when she starts at 8am. Ends up spending my early morning at Starbucks putting more content into our wiki.
Very tired now. Will hug my wife and ensure that she rests well. Then, I'm going to sleep pretty soon so that I can be refreshed for another day's work... with lots of things to do, lots of projects to look at, lots of processes to improve, and lots of compliance issues to resolve, big or small.
It has been an interesting week so far. My assistant manager has been out of action for 1 week plus and she's probably taking another
I used to be in that state when I was handling my first project (called the Phillip Financial System). I remember that a certain logic/algorithm, to say compute the outstanding interest, would keep me awake the whole night. I was still too tired to wake up and write some more but not tired enough to sleep!
Indeed, the mental work can be more draining than physical work, especially the more mundane ones. Our brain neurons are hyper active when it comes to mental work. Trying to think of all possibilities, just like a compute is thinking of future moves in a chess game. There are times when nothing seem to come out of it but deep inside the conciousness, I believe that some solutions are formed.
Of late, it has been reading and researching on Business Process Management, especially the use of BPMN. Then it was on wiki and other collaborative tools. Spent many hours writing a paper on BPM and spent even more hours, days even, to build up our wiki (using Google sites, cos well, it seems easier to use and is free). Now, my brain is working on how/what to do to promote active collaboration. It would be useless to have a wiki with only one participants! But hey, start small, build content and then show by example. That's the way I've always fancied. Talk with no action leads to nowhere.
I remember that once, I was not so much of a "documentation" type. But I learnt my lesson in two ways. When taking over a new role, I realise that a lot of the learning is through the hard way, sometimes repeating the same mistakes. Then while handling over my previous portfolio, I realised that the transition can be easier with proper documentation. Worse, I realised that the person taking over is probably cursing and swearing the same way as I would when taking over the new role.
It then dawned upon me that documentation IS ESSENTIAL. Of course, the quality is important too but hey, start small. Ensure processes are documented. Then ensure that the documents are not done to please compliance or the boss... but that they are meant for the department itself. To get someone on board, use the stick and carrot. Anyway, doing good documentation is part of one's job description. Ask someone to learn something new without any help and challenge the person to think what they would have wished to have before doing the job.
Anyway... it's been pretty tiring because the mind cannot rest and since my wife started lecturing, there are some very early days, like today when she starts at 8am. Ends up spending my early morning at Starbucks putting more content into our wiki.
Very tired now. Will hug my wife and ensure that she rests well. Then, I'm going to sleep pretty soon so that I can be refreshed for another day's work... with lots of things to do, lots of projects to look at, lots of processes to improve, and lots of compliance issues to resolve, big or small.
It has been an interesting week so far. My assistant manager has been out of action for 1 week plus and she's probably taking another
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Increasing productivity
How do we increase our productivity? Gosh, big topic ya? I do not have a clue. Hahah. Actually, I am watching American Idol and well, I'm too tired to write on such a huge topic!
Americal idol. Ahhh...Who's going out. I think it's going to be Saisha (erm, dunno whether that's how the name's spelt). Mind you, it's still playing now on Channel 5 and no, I haven't peeked at all!
Seriously, it's a very interesting competition that kept its momentum now for over so many years. Well, that's it!
Americal idol. Ahhh...Who's going out. I think it's going to be Saisha (erm, dunno whether that's how the name's spelt). Mind you, it's still playing now on Channel 5 and no, I haven't peeked at all!
Seriously, it's a very interesting competition that kept its momentum now for over so many years. Well, that's it!
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