土曜日, 12月 10, 2005

Dare To Dream The Right Dream

I dropped by my friend Oggie's blog and read about the recent success of the Philippines in the last SEA GAMES. As I was reading through and chanced upon the thought that life goes on even without basketball, I suddenly remember a training I had been to. In that training, we were made to play the Trading Game. The rules of the game were fairly simple:
  1. 7 countries - Phils, Laos, UK, US,Japan, China and India were identified as teams and were given 2 to 3 human resources (team members) to begin with.
  2. UK had the most balanced scissors, papers, pencils, protractors, right triangle, regular triangle, cutter.
  3. US and Japan had obviously the most $ but didn't have bond papers.
  4. India had the most sheets of papers, scissors, cutter, protractors, some $ and a green sticker.
  5. Phils. had some money, a green sticker and a bond paper, a broken pencil.
  6. Laos had nothing but 2 sheets of bond papers.
  7. China had 4 members, 5 sheets of papers, scisssors and a chinese paint brush.

Every 5 set of right triangle, a regular 30deg triangle, a half-circle, a full-circle, a square could be sold to the bank at trading rate.

The United Nations influence the market and could sanction countries, ban them from trading, or even nullify the transaction.

Each country could either sell the goods for cash or put it in the bank. The bank earns 25% interest every 25 minutes.

The object of the game is to get the most money at the end.

I belonged to the Laos team and there were two of us. At first we didn't really understand how the game goes. So when I received the envelop containing the materials that we received, I was surprised to see 2 sheets of bond paper and a pencil. Beside our table was UK which had bundles of them. So instantly, me and my partner Yong from Singapore went to the other table. We tried to borrow their materials but they wouldn't let us. We tried to convince them but to no avail, and so I transferred to other tables and thus the begin of a chaotic trading day.

I guess I never thought about winning because we had nothing to begin with. We had practically nothing at the start. At the end of the game, Laos wasn't the poorest country anymore. It was Philippines. Me and my partner were able to get money and worked efficiently so we were both happy.

During the debrief, I started to ponder about a couple of things.

  1. The facilitator showed us that Laos had won the trading game. She showed us the strategies that team did to win. It was an eye-opener. Attitude really dictates how much you'll reach in life. Creativity, innovation and open-mindedness are critical success factors. And finally, no man is an island...that I learned. In order to be successful you don't have to fight your environment, you don't have to do everything on your own, instead use them, co-work with them.
  2. The green stickers had a special purpose. Once you stick it on a set of 5, it automatically quadruple the amount. That information was given only to US and Japan. The Philippines used the sticker as a ruler. India was swindled by China & Japan over a sheet of paper. It made me really think hard. Those green stickers were precious resources, and yet we don't know that they're precious. In relation to Laos' previous win, one strategy they used was to acquire the green stickers. They formed good relations with US and found out the value of the green stickers. They also formed good relations with Phils and in the process benefit from all those connections. Looking at this from a different perspective and reflecting back upon the recent SEA Games success, the Philippines has so much precious resources and talents but we don't fully utilize them. Sadly, most of the time we are unaware, because we never bother to read the signs of time, or perhaps we are content with ourselves. This whole thing can be a hundred different arguments, but the facts are evident ~ if we only channel our energies into those that are worth pursuing, if we only follow the right dreams, then we could rise again from economic slumber.

# posted by Unknown : 3:09 午後

木曜日, 12月 08, 2005

A Walk On The Clouds


I can't say that my first British Airline experience has a place in my tops. For one it took me 12.5 hours just to get to London Heaththrow (not in my list of tops as well hehehe). I was seated beside a whining toddler. Food was so-so. There were few lavatories. There was a pleasant steward who actually managed to balance it out for me.
Anyway the flight was a daytime flight to Europe so all the time I could see clear skies. But when we finally reached London I looked out the window and was astounded at the sight. We were flying way way up high, higher than the clouds. I couldn't see anything below except these massive clouds which actually looked like snow. For a moment I wished I could jump out and snowboard hahaha! I remember when I was young and I used to watch this Filipino gag show TODAS, they'd sometimes feature San Pedro (St. Peter) and heaven with the scene as close to this one. The funny scenes suddenly flashed in my mind and I couldn't help but let out a laugh.
When we were finally descending to London Heaththrow I began to wonder whether the Captain would overcalculate or not. There was zero visibility below. I'm not an aviation expert but based on observations I've learned that the marks on the runway are actually anchor for every touch down. So I wonder how things will turn out.
We passed through about 4 layers of thick clouds. It felt amazing although I couldn't help but wonder how much radiation (and skin ageing) that have caused me. Sometimes I wonder if the effect of all these trips are really worth it! But that's beside the point. ..Anyway, we passed by 4 layers of thick white clouds which amazingly were really just vaporized dusts (yeah, nothing was solid) and finally I saw the buildings. Because we were descending slowly I dozed off.
I had to wait for 4 more hours for the flight to Cork. And when I arrived, I ordered room service and fell asleep like a baby for 7 hours.

# posted by Unknown : 3:36 午後

火曜日, 12月 06, 2005

Toxic week

  1. Project initiation phase is probably one of the most politically motivated phase of project management. Who dare disagree???!!! It's sooooo toxic. I hate it when I have to deal with politics, it burns me out..Oooppss..PMI prefers to call it 'negotiation skills' . But still.
  2. New boss, new organization, new report line, new project sponsor, everything's new. There's nothing constant here in this world except change, really.
  3. Tons of follow-ups from the weeklong meetings. I'm so out of it. Have no time for review. And it keeps on piling up. OLR bug found. Cost estimation for another project's not yet done...Ooohhh, I'm doomed.
  4. New BP manager doesn't care about his committed meetings. I don't like it. So unprofessional. I don't have time for a fair display of my wrath, so I'll let it go this time.
  5. New Biz boss doesn't speak English..Me oh my! My head's spinning already...
  6. So toxic that I forgot my passport and ticket at the office. I'm flying at 11am today. Whew, rough week, indeed.
  7. Heartbreaking news from HB. The gloomiest ever.
  8. Transcripts not due til Feb 06 means that my class not gonna start til Mar 06...(i'm taking master's in global management).
  9. Not the most yummy luncheon meeting yesterday. Worse, my hands are still full, it's like my responsibilities doubled!
  10. Pimples all over my face. I guess more than toxic, I'm super stressed, under paid, deprived of good sleep, losing focus, and tired...I need some Christmas spirit here~

# posted by Unknown : 4:59 午前

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