being a leader

yesterday I had a chance to join a quality meeting chaired by one Project Manager. don't get me wrong. this project manager is managing a USD billions worth of project. his style of conducting a meeting, commanding respect and solving problems reminded me to someone else. she's a president who headed a yet another multi billion investment & development company. I worked in the company previously.

their style are strikingly similar. their focus are cannot be shattered. their skill of solving a problem is above others. they think out of the box. they trust their people. they both have a very clear direction of the way a project to be drove. and so on...

now I started to understand why my first boss, who's believed his 'on an auto-pilot mode of motivation' is a flawed leader.

teachers' corruption II

uh, there was a corruption case involving a university lecturer. basically, if you want to increase your marks, then just pay! it was just an old story.

I've wrote in this blog how a senior civil servant proudly and innocently announced that his son received government sponsorship. he claim that it was his right since he's a civil servant. how corrupt was that statement! it was so corrupt.

lies

Ok, one man lied to me. he said something about another man. I felt he's cheating. but he has a deformed face that will always show a smiling face, under any circumstances. so today I confronted this man he had lied about. outright, he denied it. he asked who drummed up the story. but, stupidly, I declined to reveal the name. my response was "from an acquaintance". that was stupid. really.

I was amused by the way the man lied to me. didn't he ever think that the truth will finally prevail.

there you go. he's as stupid I am!

teachers' corruption

sometimes I wander that teacher has a very low possibility in fall into the trap of corruption. isn't it? well, after 5 Feb 2012, it is not. a teacher submits himself to corruption if he does not fulfill his duty. his duty is an utmost one: as a 'mould' for the next generation. in our society, teacher used to have a special position. but slowly teaching becomes only a way of earn a living: to drive fancy car and to wear expensive cloth. they no longer guide a son or a daughter about life, but just 'teach' them numbers and facts. they systematically chose pupils who are already excel (academically), to be excellent (academically). leaving the more needy to, I don't know where. when these kids revolt, they will be known as criminals.

negligence is corruption but not a crime. because a legal system says so.

deja vu engineer

today I made the same mistake! I tried to be perfect, correcting wrong things. and I might fall in the same trap. I've denounced ethic not long ago and may be I should stick to that. let the works belong to others be forever theirs! don't be an ethical engineer. forget it and live with it!

engineers and engineers

today there was a meeting in which all participants were engineers. everything started when an engineer kept on sending e-mail about an issue he didn't really understand. it was in the meeting that he admitted that he didn't understand the problem. so the whole bunch of engineers argued on a wrong premise. what a joke! in addition to that one of the managers even admitted he too didn't understand the problem. it's such a happy life of engineers!

a doctor and an engineer

last two weeks my family and I went for a holiday at my uncle's place. he's an obstetrics and gynaecology (O&G) consultant. we talked about everything. at one point he told about his IVF's lab. one thing that I really understood was when he's telling that the lab lack of air pressure control system. I explained to him that the system is not so complicated. but his replied really showed his professionalism: he believed that the engineering department knows better. 


but I wonder if that's the case, why the engineering team didn't start to do something? perhaps it's because of money. but that's the case, what is engineering is for?

revolving world

it has been a week since I reported duty for this new job. this is my sixth work place but the environment is still the same. in any of this place, I can find a 'play-safe' personality, care-less, super self-motivated, want-to-be-leader-but-minus-accountability etc. all are the same. perhaps other people see me the same as I observed them. the world is certainly revolving. I just love to watch people!

new or used?

one of my responsibility is to check whether the material used in a new construction is new (it is always must be new due to contract's condition). two days ago I did exactly that. the picture above shows the material exhibits sign of being 'used material'. it is quite obvious, isn't it?

why in the world the constructor ever wanted to do this? is everybody else is blind? really I was disappointed. had the material had been installed, I would asked them to remove everything and redo it again. it was a foolish attempt of doing thing. foolish.

"we're not colonised", historian

today, yet another 'prominent' historian denies that this country had ever been colonised. "we were put under the 'protection' (protectorate) of the British Empire", or so he said.

history is not belong to him. it is a fact that the British controlled all aspect of life while they were here. they plundered the wealth of this land. they killed the local people who opposed them. they interfered with appointment of local rulers. they depressed the people voices. they ... what evident more this idiot professor wants to show that we're colonised. this professor was colonised down to his spine!

I don't know what was his motive. political? money? truth? stupidity? did our independent fighters died because they were opposing themselves?

conflict

one of our media men was shot dead in Somalia few days ago. certainly, during a conflict everybody is in danger. virtually everybody. look back what had happened in Ivory Coast when one of the warlords was killed. the warlord sided the victorious president. in Libya, one of top men in opposition front line was killed. he was one of Muaamar Ghadaffi's men who defected.

there you go.

'Dealing With People You Can't Stand - How to bring Out the Best in People at Their Worst', book by Rick Brinkman, Rick Kirschner

in 'Dealing With People You Can't Stand - How to bring Out the Best in People at Their Worst', book by Rick Brinkman, Rick Kirschner, difficult people can be divided into several classes.

1. the tank
2. the sniper
3. the grenade
4. the know-it-all
5. the they-think-they-know-it-all
6. the yes person
7. the may be
8. the nothing person
9. the no person
10. the whiner

in this book, the authors write about the character of each class of difficult person, the skills and strategy to defuse such attitude. yea read it and practice it. but from my experience the most class of people that I faced was from the 'the they-think-they-know-it-all'. may be from my culture, they need to do that to disguise their incompetency or low-esteem. you figure.

heaven and hell

the story I'm going to tell you was told by one of end user of a large construction project I involved about ten years ago. he was a pious person and this Ph.D on his name. the story may be an old one. but at the time I heard it, it was my first time. and I've never heard that kind of story again after that.

"after a while, people in the heaven decided to pay a visit to their friends or relatives who had been thrown to the hell. but of course, they cannot cross into the hell. so they decided to built a bridge from heaven to hell and meet each other at the boundary of the two places. so they communicated this idea to the hell's inhabitants and they agreed to do it together. but after a while, the idea of having the bridge did not materialised fully. only bridge's on the hell part was finished. there was none from the heaven side. the reason: 'all contractors live in the hell, none of them live in heaven. so who are going to build the bridge for the heaven residents?'".

I was shocked when I heard the story particularly when it came from the mouth of such person. I don't know what his attention or whether he booked a place in the hell as well. but why can't he respect others?

nuclear fuel Japan - underestimate the risk

so there was report from United Nation saying that Japan has underestimate the risk of hazard by tsunami to nuclear power station. however the praised the Japanese response as 'exemplary'.

I hope I can learn that 'exemplary' steps. such an effort towards such a serious event can be easily adopted into solving other lesser problem. and about for the last one or two days senior citizen of Japan are volunteering themselves in fighting the radiation. they gave their reason but saying their mission is no 'kamikaze'. kamikaze, according to them is a weird strategy where 'people go and never comeback'. but their effort is 'go and will come back'.

I should go to Japan, work there and learn.

GREENHOUSE GAS RELEASED: negligible

project management

picture above is a product of a public project. even though it's not big but still it need some project management.

I worked in a large organisation for more than 10 years. my department managing both the facility and project for the organisation. a year after joined the organisation I had the opportunity to get involved in a hundred million facility development. the next two years was like a crash course in project management for me. I was proud. then I grew up and learnt...

two years ago I switched to other large organisation specialising in project management. here I had my proud shredded into pieces when I really 'exposed' what was project management. I spent my life there more then a year and I felt like going to an open university. I started to thinking why my previous organisation was lacked in understanding the concept and implementation of project management. this was despite the department was headed by an all-know director and assisted by an all-know deputy. and we also had two of the engineers with Master degree in Project Management, one with MBA and a score of certified professionals.

may be I can enroll into project management post grad course and make a study on the issue.

GREENHOUSE GAS RELEASED: 0.117 kg

listening, '8 Barriers to Communication & How to Overcome Them' by Kevin Hogan and Ron Stubbs

above is a picture of a cassette player courtesy by getty image. once I had that kind of player. my friends and I love to listen to it. we listened to all sort of music from death metal to richard marx. we also listened to political and sports event broadcast by radio station. yea, we listened.

right now I'm reading a book by Kevin Hogan and Ron Stubbs, '8 Barriers to Communication & How to Overcome Them'. one of the chapters, 'the forgotten art of listening', they write about the different of 'listening' and 'hear' and about 'already always know' person: the person who always cut in while we're talking and they give their own version of OUR ideas/ stories.

frankly though I developed a love to read books for the past a decade or two, I never like to read about communication, psychology, motivational and the likes. not until recently. if only I read those books earlier... ok, back to the topic. 

we had this deputy director whose style of communication exactly resembles the 'already always know'. try give out ideas and all you get is "we've already think about it" before you can finish you words. at one time (during a discussion on legal electrical matters) I was so sick of his style I had to say "look, I'm a professional  electrical engineer and I'm also doing an exam in legal-related for electrical engineer. and if you don't trust me let me get a copy of the (Electrical) Act now". I felt disgusted. at the other point of time when he expressed his demoralise due to lack of participation from other meeting members, I stood up and said "it's only once and you feel to back down. we've been all the while have to talk to you with your ...... style of communicating". it's really bad. I wish I read books on communication earlier...

I read that World War I was a product of, among others, miscommunication! http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/database/article_display.cfm?HHID=524

GREENHOUSE GAS RELEASED: 0.2 kg

work

the picture above is very refreshing, isn't it?

story I
about 12 years ago, I was a junior electrical engineer. despite that, I was ordered to handle a procurement of 'furniture' at the tune of millions dollar. so being junior, I took the responsibility. with me to finish off the job was a clerk. and only him. I worked very hard. one day before I was forced to send the document to the headquarter, I worked very late. about at 5 a.m. the next morning I was already at the office. finally it was noon and I started my car and drove for a 200 km journey to the HQ. but less than 50 km, I got very tired and my hands were shocking. it was impossible for me to drive. I went back to my office, called HQ and continued to work. I drove to HQ that evening.

story II
six years I was again experience the same thing. this time it was a technical tender but still not in my field. and I'm still alone doing the job because my assistants weren't familiar with the scope. two days before I was supposed to send the tender document to finance department, I was told to prepare several copies. I believe the number was around 20. to save budget, I was told to go to HQ and get the documents printed. upon reached there I was told that their printers were out of toners. to procure the toners, a procurement officer must do that and that officer was on leave. what a mess. so I went back to my office and was told to get a printer to print it. I sent the document on the same evening. early in the next morning I went to the printer but the documents weren't ready. the very same morning I need to send my wife for a job interview but I need to wait for the documents. I finally got my documents later that day and sent them to the finance department at the HQ. my wife missed the interview.

story III
I was transferred to the HQ 8 years ago. within few months there was a big project scheduled to be handed over to us. one day we had a site meeting with all the technical consultants i.e. architect and engineers. I had a bad day that day and I refused to shake hand with any of them. I told them that I want the buildings to be perfect in safety, security and basic needs in addition to what ever the contract wants. and I got my lesson. few weeks after that, I went to the site just to found that buildings' fire panels were 'switch on' yet.

story IV
no job.

GREENHOUSE GAS RELEASED: 0.3 kg

engineer, 'The Existential Pleasure of Engineering, 2nd Edition' by Samuel C Florman

as a member of an engineer society, I receives a magazine on monthly basis. recently, there was an article by the title of 'trends in professional engineering practice'. inside the article, one of the interviewee said "we must be willing to admit that the profession is not where it should be ...". I believe one of the reasons of this admission is told earlier in the article by the same person "the problem arises when the original engineer chooses to sacrifice his professional integrity for the sake of job and the money that comes with it".

I've been in such a moment when, 3 or 4 years ago, my professionalism is at stake. at that time I declined to oversee a job which was 'wrongly' designed by party beyond my organisation. please be careful that the word 'wrongly' doesn't only mean 'wrong design' but also some other administrative meanings. I did complain but in returned I was labelled as 'negative person'. it was a complete surprised considering the person I that I complaint to was also a professional engineer. the irony was that the same person was the one who strongly urged me to go for professional title.

Three years ago I bought a book entitle 'The Existential Pleasure of Engineering, 2nd Edition' by Samuel C Florman. the author himself is an engineer. for me it was a heavy book, quite difficult to comprehend. in one of the chapters, the author noted that "it should be apparent that engineering's Golden Age ended abruptly about 1950, and that the profession, for all its continuing technical achievements, finds itself at the present time in a Dark Age of the spirit". so it was 1950... if the scenario was globally true, than in my country the engineering society has never been in a Golden Age!

in my country there was a joke: "here, a finished building collapsed, building during construction collapsed and even (old) building which is in the process of demolition collapsed". the joke burst when an old building under demolition collapsed, allegedly because of human mistake, and killed few persons.

I want to close this writing with a speech in 1902 by president of American Society of Civil Engineers.

"and in the future, even more that in the present, will the secrets of power be in his keeping, and more and more will he be a leader and benefactor of men. that his place in the esteem of his fellows and of the world will keep pace with growing capacity and widening achievement is as certain as that effect will follow cause"

GREENHOUSE GAS RELEASED: 0.14 kg

professional duty of care

four years ago, on the way to be a certified professional engineer, or PE, i was introduced to the word liability, negligence. then there was a concept of duty of care. now i'm in trouble. i've never heard any of those words during my study years nor before i decided to get a PE. i mean, i've never heard in the context that i'm now facing.

luckily, by that time i've developed interest in law (i've even finished several books on constitutional law, e.g. a book written by Michael Allen, Brian Thompson and Bernadette Walsh). but i'm not going to be some kind of lawyer or what but it really an eye opener. an engineer must be careful in discharging his role as, an engineer. it says when i offer my service, i owes duty of care to the man on the street. if i fails to discharge that duty (or they called it, breaches the duty) reasonably & that man suffers, so i may be in trouble. and all this can arise even if there's no formal contract between me and that man. and i may even liable if a third party suffers because my conduct. and this conduct may in in term of my action or inaction (or omission, they said). i'm not offering any advice here, and any law man out there please help me if i'm wrong.

in order to refresh my mind the following cases have great influence on what ever things that i've wrote.

• Donoghue v Stevenson [1932] AC 562 - duty of care and who is your neighbour test
• Bolam v Friern Hospital Management Committee [1957] 1 WLR 582 - duty breached and the standard of care test
• Hedley Byrne and Co. Ltd. v Heller and Partners [1963] 2 All ER 575 - damages

all those cases were laid well before i was born and i believe they are now have stand the test of time.

i wonder is it good if all those concepts and what the history behind them be taught during the study years? i don't really know but i'm really glad if i had the opportunity to learn them during my study. those things should be able to prepare the undergraduate to be kind of 'prepared'.

so for those undergraduates, please dig deeper in what ever your field of studies. ask people around you. some say asking correct question is sometimes more important than answering correctly. i've already had my lesson for not thinking out of the box.