Keindahan Islam

Saturday 20 June 2009. I was invited to talk about "Keindahan Islam" for 1 hour and a half. Finding the camp in Gombak was challenging enough but I thought I was going to talk to Management and Science University (MSU) students. It turned out that the audience were 85 PTPL students. I surprised everybody by conducting the whole thing in Malay. My Malay is okay but I normally only use it with family members or close friends. This is the first time I actually do a training in Malay. As the topic has the potential to be "boring", I decided to turn the session into a game. I asked two questions and wrote the answers on two pieces of paper. I then divided the group into smaller groups and they had to guess the answers. I then went to group to group and discussed their ideas. I think it worked quite well.

5 STARS leadership

Friday, 19th June 2009. I did a one day leadership skills training for 20 students at Management and Science University (MSU) in Shah Alam. I was very impressed with the group (they even wore ties). We covered the Big Five skills: Communication, Counselling, Goal setting, Circles of influence and Shaping skills. I have no doubt that these students have a bright future with their commitment and positive attitude.

Developing Operational Excellence (2nd edition)

On Saturday 13th June 2009, I facilitated the 2nd workshop in the series of "Developing Operational Excellence". About 22 managers attended. I am now using the Theory of Constraint (TOC) to identify core problems in organizations. TOC assumes that the organization is like a chain. As a consequence, all problems are interrelated. There exist a core problem and everything is a direct or indirect consequence of that core problem. The great thing about TOC is that it is based on understanding "cause and effect". The only real trick is that participants need to think backwards (we go from the symptoms to the core problem). That's all. We focused on two skills: developing CRTs and ECs. These two techniques really help operational people to distinguish the core problem from the many symptoms. One of the groups was particularly interesting. This was an entrepreneur who was trying to develop his business without having to spend extra capital. By mapping his problem, we were able to identify a leverage point. I attach some photos.