Soft Skills Malaysia

The Happy in Islam project

2012-03-04T16:54:00.003-08:00

I have updated the data & background on the Happy in Islam project.

One of the things we know is that happy leaders make better leaders. They are more motivating to work for, they handle stress better, and they make better decisions. The idea behind the Happy in Islam is to identify intervention techniques that allow Muslims to improve their levels of happiness.
For more details. go to: http://happyinislam.blogspot.com

Excellent speakers

2012-02-28T01:11:00.004-08:00

In the past, the most popular speaker by IIUM students who did the Internet assignment was Bilal Philips. Unfortunately, his old website was pulled down and replaced by a "new" website ..... which is not as good as the old one. You can still find some of his talks on-line - his talk "Searching for Inner Peace" is very good. Any tafsir by him generally works.

The new up and coming speaker is of course Suhaib Webb. His tafsir tends to be more detailed and long. I would advise all students to search for his old videos on his website. One talk is entitled "The role of Muslim students". This is absolutely excellent and a must talk to listen to because it is very relevant in a multicultural society like Malaysia.

Another speaker is called Yassir Fazaqa. You can find his talk on Audio-Islam under taqwa. His talk is entitled Self Image Psychology. I personally felt it was the best talk on Islamic psychology that I have heard on the Internet

Writing a great CV

2012-02-24T03:21:00.006-08:00

I recently completed a leadership workshop with some of my ex-students from MGT2010 last sem. The logic is always the same. The purpose of coming to UIAM is NOT getting a degree but getting a degree that will give you the job you want. To get the job you want, you need a CV that will stand-out. For this, it is necessary to a) get reasonable grades and b) get involved in as many clubs, workshops, events ..... and document them in your CV. For this reason, I conducted a 2h workshop on "Leadership: Managing complexity". We essentially played a game for 1 1/2 h and then discussed the practical implications for 1h. It was a small investment in time, but it always makes you CV nicer......

Leadership training: Friday 24/2, 10am, LR 4.05

2012-02-20T19:04:00.000-08:00

To all those ex-MGT2010, the leadership session will be organised as follows

- Venue: LR 4.05
- Date: Friday 24th February 2012
- Time: 10am to 12pm
- Bring pen and calculator
- Style: activity-based (1h 1/2) followed by debriefing (30 minutes)

Certificates of attendance will be issued the following weeks. ONLY THOSE PEOPLE WHO HAVE REGISTERED OUTSIDE MY OFFICE CAN COME (in order to avoid chaos).

MGT6610: Mid semester exam on 22/02/2012

2012-02-07T22:09:00.000-08:00

Salam to all,

Mid-semester exam will be held in class on 22/02/2012, from 8pm to 10pm. Venues will be confirmed later.

Exam format: 3 essay questions, answer 2

Scope of exam: Week 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5

Week 1: OB Understanding, Predicting and Modifying
Week 2: Goal-setting, time management and DULD (part 1)
Week 3; DULD (part 2 - brainstorming and creativity) - NOTHING ON PROCESS MAPPING
Week 4: Personality, perception and attitude
Week 5: Motivation (definition, background & Porter-Lawler model)

Expectation: High - Answers must demonstrate a knowledge of the topic plus critical thinking. This critical thinking can reflect personal experiences or situations we discussed in class. Answers don't necessarily have to be long but the quality of the thinking has to be there.

Structure of answers:
- Intro (define terms, outline answer)

- Main body (start with key concepts and build on them). Don't simply state words (e.g. 'perception is important) but explain the processes behind the words (e.g. 'Perception is important. Perception is the way people filter the massive amount of information our senses sends to our brain....'). Give answers that are comprehensive without going off on another topic. For example, if the topic is about motivation, it does make sense to briefly explain that people's level of motivation is influenced by their perception of their ability. That is probably enough. If you start explaining everything you know about perception, you fall off topic

Conclusion: Summarise your arguments and provide a clear answer to the question asked

Good luck!

Feedback and leadership training for MGT2010

2012-01-25T22:53:00.000-08:00

Salam to all,

I have spent the whole day re-reading your reports and keying the results into the computer. I hope to publish the overall results on happyinislam.blogspot.com next week. Generally, I was touched by the sincerity in doing your reports. I smiled when I saw the comment of Muhammad Aiman. Anyway, well done. The overall marks for the class reflect your hard work.

I still owe you a leadership training. Due to various constraints, it will probably be in the 3rd week. I will put up a notice outside my door so that people who are still interested can sign up. I will ask one volunteer to collect rm 10 per person. All the money collected will be given to a charity that feeds homeless people in KL. If anybody wants to accompany to visit this charity, let me know in advance. If anybody is joining my MGT4410 class, please see me before the class starts.

Book review: Mind over mood

2012-01-20T20:05:00.001-08:00

This is a fantastic book. It gives you a step-by-step guide at how to turn negative moods into positive moods. Based on the most up-to-date theory in cognitive psychology, it helps you to identify moods, identify behaviour, identify automatic thoughts and discover alternative thoughts that are more constructive.

More importantly, this is not about simply 'thinking positive'. Thinking positive often means lying to yourself. This is a very different approach. You don't lie to yourself but you realise that there is more than one way of seeing things.

Book review: How God changes your brain

2012-01-20T18:55:00.000-08:00

What happens to your brain when you pray? This books discusses how becoming more spirituality enhances connections between neurons in your brain. When people associate spirituality with positive emotions, becoming more spiritual enhances our brain functions, our memory, slows down the aging process, reduces stress and makes us more cooperative. When people associate spirituality with bad things (which can happen), becoming more spiritual leads to anxiety and stress. This book reflects 15 years of research. Typically, researchers would take a brain scan, inject a die into the boy, ask a volunteer to do spiritual exercises and - at the end - take another brain scan to identify which areas of the brains were stimulated by the spiritual exercise. The authors' opinion is - from a purely physiological and scientific point of view - becoming more spiritual might the best thing for anybody's long-term mental and physical health. The book sometimes focuses too much on spirituality and dismisses religion as almost secondary. Nonetheless, the basic message of this book remains true, interesting and scientifically valid.

Feedback on the assignment of al qadar

2011-12-29T06:31:00.000-08:00

Generally, everybody did this assignment well. Many of you learnt how to flip problems and seem to enjoy the process. Believe me, when you do it for the first time, you can only manage to flip small problems. When a really big problem hits you, you go back to a state of anger and frustration. However, if you practice flipping small problems, you become better and better. I had one of my master students flip a really big problem. Her mother had died of cancer some years back and she found that very difficult to closure. After doing the assignment on al qadar, she was able to see the good side of what happened and complete the grieving process.

I was quite interested in your ratios of good things to bad things that happen to you. I didn't have time to count but the majority of the class (maybe 80%) had ratios that were 2 to 1, 3 to 1 and 10 to 1. Some students had 15 to 1. Other students had 1,000 to 1. I need to do some more research in this area but I assume that people who have a ratio of 15 to 1 will be much better at flipping problems that students who have a ratio of 2 to 1. I like one student who said, "We only have one problem in life, that is perception". Another student said that they could only count the material things but not the spiritual ones ..... but aren't the spiritual things more important.
Consider this. Each and every one of you is luckier than Bill gates..... That is amazing, isn't it?

Feedback on the Happiness assignment

2011-12-29T06:14:00.000-08:00

Generally, the class seemed to have enjoyed doing the assignment (although everybody said it was hard work). About 90% said that they benefited from the assignment and 10% said that it made no difference.

I spotted 4 assignments that were copied. Unfortunately, these people will have to face the consequences of their actions.

When I started this assignment, my assumption was that Muslims needed to seek knowledge all the time. I have changed that assumption. Even I get bored listening to Islamic talks every week. I think that when things are good, you don't need to do this kind of activity too often. However, when things get bad (break-up with a friend, car accident, divorce, somebody in the family dies ,....), I believe you do need a spiritual boost to avoid falling into depression. Now, I believe that people should be able to monitor their physical / psychological / spiritual well-being. When things start to get bad, that is when it is time to boost your eeman.

Two comments:
a) Some people said that they felt frustrated because they were still unsure about their direction in life. According to Erik Erikson, people go through 8 stages in their life. In their youth, it is normal for people to be still exploring their identity of their own self. Their identity only becomes complete after they complete their studies and start working. So don't worry.
b) Some people said that they felt guilty because by doing this assignment they realised that they committed a lot of sins in the past. My comment is that you should not feel guilty for being a human being. Only angels never make sins. The nature of a human-being is that we make sins every day (whether small sins or major sins). But a human-being who is aware of his mistakes returns sincerely to Allah on a daily basis. He realises that Allah's Love and Mercy is without limits so as long as we are trying our best, we hope for the best.

Tuesday 27 December: The day to submit all assignments

2011-12-24T03:12:00.000-08:00

Just to confirm what I said in class before going on holiday.

On Tuesday 27th December, my door will be open from 9am to 5pm. I will have a big box and everybody is responsible for submitting their assignments on the 27th.

I will only have 3 days to mark everything and key it into the IIUM system. I will be operating on a first come, first marked basis. Any last minute assignments automatically goes to the bottom of the marking pile. If you have not finished yet, do so as quickly as possible. Arigato

Format for MGT2010 exam

2011-12-08T23:19:00.000-08:00

Part A: MCQ (40 marks)
Answer all questions
Chapters 10, 13, 14, 15, 16 17 & 18

Part B: Essays (30 marks)
Answer 2 out of 3 questions
Chapters 14, 15 & 16

Part C: Case study (30 marks)
Answer all questions
Chapter 18

Complexity and Management

2011-12-05T05:04:00.001-08:00

For the last few months, I have been working on Complexity and Management with Hussein at Taylor's University. Complexity has become the single most critical issue in management and it will dominate the 21st century.
Complexity means that almost everything to do with management has to be updated. The best books on management over the last few years always relate to the management of complexity. Not surprisingly, the focus of my research now is how complexity will transform Islamic management ..... and how Islamic management can help in managing complexity.

Finishing the semester in style

2011-11-28T00:24:00.001-08:00

We are only a few weeks ago from the final exam period. The question now is whether you will finish all your assignments in a hurry or take the time to reflect on all of them to make a perfect assignment.
If you think about it, assignment 1 and assignment 2 are linked. After all, we are in control of our fate. We have the power and the free-will to listen to beneficial talks .... In many ways, the assignment on functional analysis, rewards and punishment and cognitive are also part of our Islamic knowledge because we need to know how to deal with others effectively if we are going to build a community of believers.
So rather than rushing to finish your assignment, please reflect very carefully. In your conclusion, please make sure to read the instructions of the assignment. By the way, this assignment is for me because I need a copy for my records. But it is also for you. You should keep a record in your files. Who knows? In 10 or 15 years from now, when your life is becoming a bit too crazy for you to handle, you may take out this assignment, read it again and then realise the way out of the craziness in your life.....

Mid semester results for MGT2010

2011-11-10T18:47:00.000-08:00

No - The results are not our yet so don't ask. I am still marking.....anyway, some of the results are good but some are not so good. To limit the damage, those who get a low mark (i.e. less than 65% in the mid semester exam) are allowed to submit an extra assignment.

This assignment is worth 2 bonus marks. Here is what you have to do;
a) Watch ONE video taken from http://www.youtube.com/HarvardBusiness .
b) Write a one page report about what you have learned from watching the video.

If you have any questions, please raise them in class.

Leadership training

2011-10-27T19:55:00.000-07:00

This is an open invitation to all my students. I am interested in putting together a leadership porgramme for students at the end of the semester. This is the process I propose we follow:
a) Students sign up for the programme
b) We brainstorm the specific aims of the programme (skills, knowledge, building attitude,...) & discuss constraints (time, financial,....)
c) I will then develop the details of the programme
d) Students who are no longer interested can pull out. Students who are interested commit themselves fully.
e) We do the programme
f) At the end of the programme, I issue every participant with a certificate issued by HC Solutions Sdn Bhd [my wife's company]. This will go towards building your CVs as per our discussion in class.

Visit by Mr. Adam Said

2011-10-11T19:14:00.000-07:00

Mr. Adam Said, CEO of Irshad (www.irshad.com.my) will visit us either on Tuesdat 18th October (main plan) or on Thursday 20th October (back-up plan). This session is compolsary for students taking MGT2010 and it is open to students taking MGT6600. The details are

Venue: LT 1
Time: 10am to 11.20am (Tuesday)

Mr. Adam Said is a multimillionaire, owner of 3 companies and rubb shoulders with top people in the corporate world and the government. More importantly, his approach is 100% Islamic, which shows that you can be a good Muslim and very rich because of your brains and your hrad work. He has kindly agree to talk about how HR managers recruit new graduates. He plans to talk for about 20 minutes. The rest will be Q&A

Dress code: formal (i.e. no slippers, no jeans, no T short - slacks and proper shoes for the guys)

Take notes during his talk

Everybody has to have a least one question prepared. If there are not enough questions to sustain the 1h Q&A, I will be very upset! It is VERY difficult to get a speaker like this. To give you some ideas on the type of questions, I am listing some of the questions that I have,

1. What are the expectations of industry when it comes to fresh graduates?
2. How do HR staff identify good candidates?
3. What do people look for when it comes reviewing a CV / resume?
4. Are there clubs / societies that recruiters really like on a students' CV / resume?
5. How important is the CGPA for recruiters?
6. Which are the industries in which corruption is a major problem?
7. Which are the industries in which corruption is not a problem?
8. What are the common mistakes graduates make when preparing a CV?
9. What are the common mistakes garduates make when they attend an interview?
10. Should you lie during an interview?
11. Should you negotiate for a higher salary during the interview?
12. Some companies offer less salary but more learning opportunities. Would you recommend such companies?

The questions above are related to HR issues but you are allowed to widen the scope - if you want to know what it is like to start a company, feel free to ask.

Harvard Business School videos on You Tube

2011-10-01T08:08:00.000-07:00

Everybody wants to score right? Yet many students seem to believe that their job is limited to attending classes and reading the textbook. Although these activities are very important, the truth is that there are hundreds of good videos on You Tube that relate to management. You want to know about leadership? Teamwork? motivation? Strategy. It's all there for you to watch. In many cases, they add insights that are not in the textbook. Here is a video from Michael Porter. Watch it carefully and compare it with the explanation in the textbook. It is the same but it is different........

Surfing Islamic web sites

2011-08-17T05:07:00.000-07:00

Well, Ramadhan is coming to a close and the semester will start in a few weeks. My students will thus start their assignments that will require them to surf Islamic websites. But how to choose which website is the best?

For people wanting simple and more entertaining material, the Deen Show is pretty good.

For people wanting a variety of speakers on different topics, Audio Islam, Islaam.com, Islam way and Islam web are good

For good explanations of the meaning of the Qur'an, Bilal Philips site is good. The talks are short enough not be a burden but with enough detail to make you appreciate the meaning.

For a more detailed explanation, Yasir Qahdi's explanation of Surah Yusuf on Sunnah on Line is excellent ... but it is in 8 parts!

Currently, the most detailed and comprehensive explanation of Qur'an, Hadith and many other aspects of Islam is on Understand Islam. For example, there is a very detailed tafsir of surah Ya Sin. However, he talks for 1h just about two or three ayat. That level of detail is not suitable for everybody.

In short, different people are interested in different things. Once you have found the Islamic web site for you, make the most of it!

Psychological Capital

2011-06-13T08:00:00.000-07:00

Based on the work in the field of positive Organizational Behaviour (POB), Psychological Capital (PsyCap) are all the positive factors that influences people's perception of happiness. Again, PsyCap is composed of four inter-related constructs. This has been supported by research over the last 20 years or so. These are:

Hope: Not simply the hope for a better future but hope creates a very strong will (willpower) and there is a clear idea of how to achieve that goal (way-power).

Optimism: Based on the work of Seligman, we know that optimism is how we deal with negative events. Specifically, we see such events as temporary and specific.

Resilience: This is the ability to bounce back.

Self-efficacy: This is the belief that we can do specific things (like drive a car or manage people). Self-efficacy often occurs because in the past, we have done something before or we have watched other people do something before.

From an Islamic perspective, my understanding is that a correct understanding of Islam precedes PsyCap. The Islamic belief system and the correct knowledge of Islam allows Muslims to be hopeful, optimistic, resilient and able to get things done. Specific skills (like goals setting, time management, ABCD,....) can help but the core has to be Islamic. That would mean that a correct Islamic core belief systems leads to PsyCap which in turn leads to happiness.

How to become more intelligent

2011-06-11T20:29:00.000-07:00

I have finished reading two books related to strengthening our brain. The first book is by Norman Doidge and is called "The Brain that changes itself". The second book is called "Brain school" by Howard Eaton.

The first book talks about 'neuroplasticity'. This complicated word simply means that the brain has got the ability to re-organize itself. Scientists know that certain parts of the brain relate to specific skills and abilities. One part of the brain is for speech, another part of the brain is for thinking and so forth. The assumption was that if that part of the brain was damage, the damage was permanent and the skill / ability would be lost forever. By using MRIs and studying patients with a damaged brain but WHO RECOVERED their skills and abilities, scientists realised that the specific skills and abilities were being processed by different (and unexpected) parts of the brain. In other words, to overcome the damage to one part of the brain, the functions of the brain were re-organized.

At first, scientists did not understand why this happened. Now, researchers know how to stimulate specific parts of the brain with specific exercises. They can use these exercises to 'change' the area of the brain that processes skills and abilities. If an area of the brain is not damage but is simply weak, they can strengthen these areas. It should be noted that these exercises takes a lot of time and a lot of concentration. I am talking about one or two hours everyday for several months. However, they do work.

The second book talks about how this new knowledge about the brain has helped educators in Canada develop a whole range of exercises to help children with learning disabilities and even social problems. Children that are considered "slow learners" can become normal or above average after extensive coaching for several years. It should be noted that there is a difference between 'cognition' (the brain) and 'achievement' (the academic result). Traditional approaches to help 'slow learners' means that they get coaching to achieve better academic results. But their 'weak' cognition is not developed. Now, the approach is to strengthen the cognition first so that academic achievement improves without any need for special tutoring.

But why should we use these 'brain exercises' only with children with learning disabilities. Why not help 'normal' children become better by allowing them to practice on their own. One interesting website is called "www.luminosity.com'. I am thinking of subscribing to it for my own children. Generally though, we can be pro=active in life or we can be reactive. Obviously, the whole philosophy of this blog is to empower my students and my readers. Before you try anything, do some reading and figure things out for yourself :)

Human Capital

2011-06-01T03:55:00.000-07:00

A few days ago, I was listening to BFM 89.90, which is a radio station that focuses on business. Every morning at 8am, they have interviews with Malaysian and non-Malaysian CEOs. This particular day, they interviewed the CEO of Booz & Co, a leading US consultant.

One part of the interview attracted me. They were discussing what Malaysia needs to do to be competitive in the global economy. This CEO replied that the only way forward in the medium term is to develop Human Capital. Only 28% of Malaysians continue their education after SPM. It is only by continuously developing their knowledge and skills that Malaysians can hope to compete. If not, Vision 2020 will stay a dream.

This CEO explained that Malaysia is now in what is known as the "middle income trap". That is to say that the Malaysian economy is more sophisticated that poor countries like Vietnam or the Philippines. But it cannot compete yet with more successful countries like Taiwan, South Korea or Singapore. The only way for Malaysia to get out of this middle-of-the-road situation is to embrace high-value added business models. This means that Malaysians have to compete based on knowledge and creativity, not simply low salaries and hard-work.

This brings me to the purpose of the internet-assignments that I give. There is so much information on the Net that nobody has any excuse anymore. The only thing is that you need to feel that updating yourself is your personal responsibility and you allocate some time every week to do just that. If you are not willing to discipline yourself....well, that is your problem.

PORNOGRAPHY

2011-05-28T20:26:00.000-07:00

I am currently reading a book called "The Brain that Changes Itself" by Norman Doidge. This book talks about the recent discoveries regarding the brain and how it functions. In the old days, the assumption was that the brain did not change after it childhood. Any brain damage was permanent. Recent discoveries shows that, on the contrary, the brain can and does re-organize itself. The book describes the experiences of various people who suffered personal tragedies - such as brain damage - and how they have been able to overcome their tragedies by exploiting the brain's ability to re-organize itself. One of the most interesting chapters concerns the damage of watching pornography on the Internet. To understand the paragraph below (which I took from the book), you simply need to know that "neuroplasticity" refers to the brain's ability to re-organize itself.

"During the 1990s, when the Internet was growing quickly and pornography was exploding, I treated a number of men who had acquired a taste of a kind of pornography that troubled and disgusted them. These were normal men that simply started watching pornography on the Internet. They soon became addicted. This addiction not only meant that they were spending more time watching pornography on the internet - 5 hours a day was normal - but the sites they watched became more and more obscene. They started with 'normal pornography' and then progressed to 'abnormal pornography'. An addict experiences desires because his plastic brain has become sensitive to the experience. Putting it another way, the brain re-organized itself first around pornography and then when that was not enough, it reorganized itself around abnormal pornography" (pp. 102 to 110 - I edited the quote to make it shorter and easier to understand).

The moral of the story - don't watch pornography on-line. Apart from the Islamic consideration, if you do watch pornography, you run the risk of becoming addicted and the brain re-organizing itself in such a way that you cannot have a normal relationship anymore.

Purposes of this blog

2011-05-02T20:28:00.000-07:00

I have been reviewing the statistics on people accessing my blog. They fall into two groups: my students and 'visitors'. So far, I have had visitors from the USA, India, Singapore, Indonesia, UK, South Korea, France, Latvia, Russia, the Palestinian territories, Netherlands and Saudi Arabia! Welcome to all.

This blog is primarily a resource for my students. Although I will give them hand outs in class, I encourage them to view the following postings:
- Class project: Tips on accessing Islamic websites (12/06/2010)
- Why do we fail to develop ourselves? (7/2/2011)
- Self efficacy (15/1/2011)

I rarely do religious / spiritual postings. The two postings which are the exception are one regarding Palestine (13/10/2010) and one picture from Bandar Aceh in which the whole town is destroyed except the Mosque.

I have linked a couple of management videos (virtual tour of DELL factory and a few videos concerning Deming). I believe these videos help students but they tend to slow down the blog so I don't do that anymore. Generally, if you go to YOU TUBE, you can download anything. Every topic that is taught in class can be found on YOU TUBE. In particular, if you type 'Harvard Business videos', you can find a lot of excellent business / management videos.

A secondary purpose of this blog is to benefit everybody - whether Muslims or non-Muslims - across the world. I believe that too many talk about the facts that Muslims need to be good people. Not enough people explain HOW someone becomes a better person. That's is the thing that interests me. What are the practical steps we need to take into becoming better people.

MGT4110 photo

2011-04-24T21:55:00.000-07:00

One student asked me why I don't put more pictures from UIA students on my blog .... The reason of course is that we keep taking pictures but people forget to email me the softcopy...... so do email them to me :) Here is one exception to the rule....

Welcome to the new batch .....

2011-04-21T07:44:00.000-07:00

My wife keeps telling me that my blog is so boring because there are not enough pictures.... This is a picture of me being a manager :)

Dealing with fear

2011-04-17T02:21:00.001-07:00

A few weeks ago, I attended a public seminar given by a leading Malaysian psychologists. We discussed the problem of why people lie and cheat. He argued that people only lie and cheat because they are afraid. They might be afraid of their parents, their teachers, their peers or even of themselves. In a previous posting, I have already discussed why people fail to learn, fail to develop themselves. They are afraid.

The next question is: why are people afraid? Maybe, one of the reasons is that they are busy trying to meet other people's high expectations. Ultimately, Muslims should understand that trying to meet other people's expectations is a waste of them. If meeting your parents' expectations is discouraged if that spoils your pure niat. The only thing worth doing is trying to please Allah SWT. Allah SWT does not expect us to be perfect. He simply wants us to see whether we are trying to improve or whether we have given up and we are only following the crowd ... like the sheep going to the slaughterhouse.

It might seem corny but I have been trying to establish a few principles of life. So far, I have come up with four golden rules. As long as anything you do does not contradict one of these rules, you are okay.

1. To worship Allah to the best of our ability (after all, that is why we were created,...)
2. To be grateful for what Allah has given us and not to complain for what Allah has not given us
3. To make a contribution to the society, if only by smiling to others
4. To have fun

Coursework marks are out!

2011-03-30T00:24:00.000-07:00

I have just posted the coursework marks for MGT2010 and MGT4110 outside my office.
Please note that some students have yet to submit their assignment. You have until Monday 12pm to do so.

What students said about assignment 1

2011-03-27T19:31:00.000-07:00

As I mark your assignments, I have seen many comments that are both insightful and touching. Some of the comments are to personal to share but some of my favorite general comments are,

"I learned a lot from the tafsir of the surah. Even I recite the surah in my prayers but I do not even know the meaning. Then I realise that it is so pathetic , as a Muslim, if we don't know the translation in our own language. From now on, I wish to read one page of translation of al quran a day"

"There are certain things that I always wondered before and now, I feel satisfied as if one of the puzzles is placed at its right place and where it is supposed to be"

"There is no doubt that the gaining of greater knowledge has made it easier for me to be a better Muslim. The only difficulty lies in the first step, which is the independent search for knowledge."

Getting ready for the final exam

2011-03-20T22:08:00.000-07:00

Well, it's this time of the semester again. My basic tips are:

a) Revise well what has been discussed in class. Know the key definitions and theories for the MCQ. If you don't know it by heart, you can't score.

b) For essay questions and the case study, you can relax a bit more. As long as you understood our discussions in class, you should be OK.

c) By and large, you should feel confident because most of you have got good carry marks.

Lastly, do think about the whole issue of continously adapting your skills in a knowledge based economy. This was a theme that I discussed in presenting the chapter on strategy, motivation and leadership. There must be a reason why I would repeat that point several times......

Tips for the mid-term (MGT2010 and MGT4110)

2011-02-08T01:49:00.000-08:00

I know that students always want tips. My general policy is not to give any tips. However, I want to reflect on what I have been doing in class.

I am not simply interested in presenting the "facts" about management (MGT2010) or organizational behaviour (MGT4110). I am interested in "empowering" my students. Empowering students means making them realize that they have control of their lives. For example,
- your personality is not fixed, you can change it
- your attitude towards things is not fixed, you can change it
- if you didn't set goals for yourself in the past, you can start setting goals for yourself now
- if you had no strategy in the past to position yourself in regards to future employers, you can start strategizing now
In many of the essay questions, you can expect something that relates what YOU as individuals can do to use the information I gave you in class to change YOUR lives for the better.

Why do we fail to develop ourselves?

2011-02-07T19:36:00.000-08:00

An important question. We attended a great session - whether a training session or a lecture -, we valued the input but we don't change. Why? In my experience, there are two fundamental reasons. The first is fear. The second is ego.

Fear is a very important factor that prevents people from changing. People are afraid to change because change requires taking a risk. Very few people realize that they are afraid of change. Generally though, they rationalize their fear by making statements like, "I am being cautious", "I want to be sure this works before I try it out"....

Ego is a second critical factor. Often, there is a clash between the ego of the instructor and the ego of the participants. That clash of egoes is often subconscious. Neither the instructor nor the participants are aware that their respective egoes are in the way....

So what can we do? Ultimately, everybody is responsible for reflecting. If the participants are not changing, the instructor should reflect on his own attitude / ego that he brings to the learning event. If participants do not learn, they need to decide whether it is out of fear or out of ego. Once people becomes conscious of the reason why things are not happening, it is easier to initiate a positive change.

Self-efficacy

2011-01-15T20:13:00.000-08:00

Over the last few weeks, I have re-discovered the importance of self-efficacy. Self-efficacy is the belief that you can do something specific. It should not be confused with self-confidence, which is more general. For example,

1. I can be a very self-confident person but I may have a low self-efficacy when it comes to public presentations. As such, I will avoid making public presentations.

2. As an individual, I may lack self-confidence but I may have self-efficacy in making public presentations. So, if I need to make a public presentation, I will be okay with it.

The key to self-efficacy is to recognize that is entirely a matter of perception. Self-efficacy can be improved by shaping. Let's say that I am coaching somebody who lacks self-efficacy in giving public presentations. That is probably because he or she imagine talking to a large room with 100 strangers for 1 hour or so. So you make the task less frightening by simplifying it:

a) You train the person to give 5 minute talks to a group of 5 people. They may take 6 months to develop that self-efficacy. Once that person feels okay with doing that, you go to the next stage

b) You train the person to give 10 minutes talks to a group of 10 people. That may take another 6 months to develop that (or one month, or a year - you can only move at the pace of the person you are coaching). Once that person has developed that self-efficacy, you go to the next stage.

c) You train the person to give 20 minute talks to a group of 20 people. Here it gets interesting because 20 minutes is the ideal length for a talk. You should train people to NEVER talk for more than 20 minutes.

The first key to develop people is to understand that self-efficacy is a matter of perception and that by making the task less scary, you can use a shaping strategy to improve people's skills. The second key is to recognize that perception is never logical. You need to move at the pace of the person you are coaching, not at a pace you think is logical. That requires patience and sincere appreciation of the facts that everybody is unique.

Lessons from UTM Skudai

2010-12-28T17:02:00.000-08:00

As some of you know, I attended a conference in UTM, Skudaim, recently. This conference was organized by practitioners and focused on leadership and management in Islamic education. Two interesting things to note:

1. Two private companies (CUCMS in Malaysia, MUIS in Singapore) explained in detail how they successfully implemented Islamic principles in business

2. In both cases, the top management had very good knowledge of Islam and up to date knowledge of management. The good knowledge of Islam - in practice - means that they relate their day to day operations to principles of Fiqh (Qawaid Fiqhiyah). The good knowledge of management means that they keep their knowledge fresh, they are able to unlearn old ideas and re-learn new ideas.

The overall feeling that I had is that Islamic management is currently being practiced. It is just that we don't have a lot of documented case studies, that's all.

Class projects: Tips on accessing Islamic websites

2010-12-06T05:19:00.000-08:00

I have listed several Islamic websites under the heading "Excellent websites". Here are a few tips;

1. Dr Bilal Philips's website is the "mother" of this project - one of the excellent features on his site is that he rates many Islamic websites in English (he also includes deviant Islamic websites and anti-Islamic websites) and provides a decsription of the sites and the links.

2. Some of the websites that he rates (sunnah on line, understand Islam, Islaam.com,...) have been selected as being pretty good. They can be accessed via Bilal's site or seperately. You might want to fool around with other Islamic sites that Bilal Philips rates. Certain websites might not be directly relevant to your class project but may be useful in future. For example, no 14 on his list is "Madinah Arabic". This is a great website to learn Arabic on line.

3. The Deen show is not on Bilal Philips's list. It is quite good for more informal talks, suitable for non-Muslims or Muslims who are looking for more basic information about Islam.

At the beginning, you might need to spend some time identifying the websites that suit your level / your personality / your personal interests. Don't access other sites without permission from me (at least, not for the project).

Improving yourself: Lessons from Singapore

2010-11-14T18:48:00.000-08:00

I came back from an international Aikido seminar that was held in Singapore. It was conducted by Christian Tisser, a 7th Dan and a superstar in the world of Aikido. I started Aikido about 10 months ago and I was surprised that most of the techniques that we were learning in the seminar were techniques that I already knew. So, I asked myself, what is the difference between a beginner and a 7th Dan ? How do you progress in Aikido? I asked the question to Sensei Tissier and his answer was simple: the mindset. Everybody makes mistakes. But if you think that you have mastered the technique, you close your mind and stop learning. You can only progress if you keep your mind open.

I thought about this and I want to relate it to developing soft skills. Everybody has soft skills - we all know how to communicate, we all know how to manage yourself and we all know how to solve problems - so the only real difference is our mindset. Is our minds open or closed? Will we reach a stage where we are so confident with our skills that we close your mind and stop progressing? Consider two students A and B. Both have a potential of 100%. But student A has the wrong mindset. After achieving 70% of his potential, he feels that he knows enough and he closes his mind. He stops improving. Student B keeps his mind open and ends up achieving 98% of his potential. Even at that level, he still sees himself as needing to learn because he realises that he is not yet at 100% of his potential.

Let's relate this to the prayer. The greatest soft skill that we have is our spiritual soft skills. The prayer is our strongest connection to Allah. Yet, two people can approach the prayer in a very different way. One person can learn the proper movement and words to be said, pray with sincerity but have the wrong mindset. He prays but he doesn't care about improving his prayers; maybe because he feels "safe" as he is praying. A second person can know the same thing, say the same thing, have the same sincerity but his mindset is one of openness. He knows that the prayer is his connection with Allah so he always wants to improve the quality of his prayer to get closer to Allah.

The journey to perfection is a never ending journey. The physical discipline of Aikido allows me to develop the positive mindset that I need to fulfill my responsibilities as a Muslim, as a father, as a husband and as a teacher. As a teacher, I still have lots to learn. After all, a teachers who think that he has all the answers has closed his mind....and shown a bad example to his students!

Training in Islamic Management

2010-11-09T04:49:00.000-08:00

I have recently put together three courses in Management from an Islamic Perspective (MIP). These are one day courses for industry. They can be modified and delivered to students. These courses are
- Management principles in the Quran (MIP Level 1)
- Management principles in the Sunnah (MIP Level 2)
- Management in the light of Qada and Qadar (MIP Level 3)
Spread the word!

Bandar Aceh

2010-11-06T06:55:00.000-07:00

This photo was taken after the Tsunami in Aceh on 26th December 2004. If you think in terms of logic and science, it is absolutely impossible for every building to be destroyed except a masjid.....As Allah says in the Qur'an, only the people of understanding will recognise Allah's Signs.

New links

2010-10-21T16:09:00.001-07:00

I have added two new links to my "Excellent websites". Kaizen consultants is the site of a consultanting company that specializes in quality improvement, Kaizen and lean manufacturing. 12manage.com is a website that serves as an encyclopedia of management concepts.

Palestine and Gaza

2010-10-13T22:56:00.000-07:00

Everytime I think of what is happening in Palestine in general, and Gaza in particular, I remember this hadith recorded by Muslim

The Messenger of Allah stated that the person of the inhabitants of the Hell fire who received the most bounties of the people of this world will be brought on the Day of Judgment and dipped once into Hell. It will be said to him "O Son of Adam, have you seen any good in your life? Did you enjoy any blessings at all?" He will answer, "No, by Allah." And the person of the inhabitants of Paradise who faced the greatest hardships of the people of this world will be brought and dipped once into Paradise. It will be said, "O son of Adam, did you every see any hardship in your life? Did you every face any difficulty?" He will say, "No by Allah. O Lord, I never experienced any hardships at all and I never say any difficulty at all."

May Allah show Mercy to Muslims, the people of Palestine and Gaza, in this world and the Next. Ameen

Repentance: a management's perspective

2010-08-29T14:16:00.000-07:00

Its Ramadhan, 30 minutes before Subuh and I am thinking about repentance. I guess that many people do not appreciate religion because they see it as 'irrational'. But when you look at Islamic concepts and you trace them back to psychology, you find that they make a lot of sense. Fasting, for example, is not just about 'cutting food'. It is about changing your behaviour. When you have fasted and you start praying, it's normal to start thinking about repentance. Repentance is about analysing yourself, identifying the good and the bad and throwing away the bad. Although people repent after the prayer, I believe that analysing yourself is much easier before the prayer. If you are serious about repentance, a good technique is to have a little notebook. Spend a few minutes answering the following questions:

1. Why am I Muslim? Is it simply because I was born in a Muslim family?

2. If I were to die today, would I be able to justify all my behaviour to Allah?

3. If the answer is no, which behaviour would I have problems justifying?

4. Which aspect of my character would I like to improve?

I personally find that reading religious books is a good way to trigger ideas. For the last 10 days of Ramadhan, I plan to read a series of books about Aqidah - specifically about the Day of Judgment, the questionning in the grave, the descriptions of Paradise and Hell, what happens at death and so forth - to stimulate my thinking.

Management from an Islamic perspective (MGT4820)

2010-08-18T03:35:00.000-07:00

The date for the mid-semester exam for MGT4820 has been set on Monday 20th September. Date and venue will be confirmed. There will be three essay questions, you need to answer 2.

The USA is the poorest country in the world

2010-08-16T04:00:00.000-07:00

Here is website that should make Muslims think. The USA is so poor that it cannot afford to pay for its military campaign around the world. So how does the USA do it?

Well, every week, the US government sells US Treasury bonds to finance its budget deficit. All interest-based banks in Malaysia buy US Treasury bonds as part of their investment portfolio. If you have RM 100 in a non-Islamic bank in Malaysia, a portion of that is invested in US Treasury bond ... which is then used to pay for the American war effort. Only by having an account in an Islamic bank do you avoid this trap of financing the US government. Go to: http://www.usdebtclock.org/

Red bead experiment (part 5 & 6)

2010-08-14T01:26:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned before, the final video is excellent because you understand the whole point to the series of videos

Red bead experiment (part 3 & 4)

2010-08-14T01:17:00.000-07:00

Continue watching, the facilitators make fun of many management practices ....

Red Bead Experiment (part 1 and part 2)

2010-08-05T03:07:00.000-07:00

Watch carefully. If you fully understand this experiment, you will understand a lot about management. Feel free to discuss this experiment in any essay questions on the exam.....

Red Bead Experiment (Introduction)

2010-07-23T19:44:00.000-07:00

Before I link the Red Bead Experiment to this blog, let me give some background information. Dr. Deming used the Red Bead experiment to demonstrate a number of points about management, namely variation, systems and ranking of employees.

By variation, Dr. Deming means that the time that it takes to do any task is not exactly predictable. It is possible to calculate an average with an upper limit and a lower limit. Imagine that you are in a tele-marketing department. You have 5 employees whose job is to call people and ask them 30 questions about your product. You realise that on average each call is 10 minutes. The upper limit is 15 minutes and the lower limit is 5 minutes.

By system, Deming means that people are working within a system. As employees, they are powerless to change the system. Only management can change the system by changing the rules. Continuing with the example of a tele-marketing department, if it takes on average 10 minutes to ask customers 30 questions; we can imagine that a person calls 30 people per day (on average). However, let say that the manager decides to change the rules. Instead of asking 30 questions, employees only have to ask 10 questions. Let's say that because of this new rule, the average duration of a call goes from 10 minutes to 5 minutes. As a consequence, the number of calls that employees make in one day jumps from 30 to 60. In effect, the productivity of the department has doubled. Clearly, employees are not working two times harder. Their output simply depends on the constraint of the system that they are working with.

Deming raises an important issues. If people are working in a system that has variation, it is not logical to rank them. The performance of the employee does not depend on their effort alone but the effort of the employee within a system. For example - sticking with the tele-marketing department - if I have 5 employees (A, B, C, D and E). If they all average calls of 10 minutes and if nobody has calls less than 5 minutes and nobody has calls of more than 15 minutes, then they are all performing within the norms determined by the management. If on Monday, employee A makes more phone calls than the rest, that does not mean that employee A was working harder than the rest. It simply means that on Monday, A was lucky. He had a few customers who answered the questions more quickly than normal. But on Tuesday, the same employee might make fewer calls than anybody else. Why? because he might have had a few customers that spent more time answering the questions than normal.

Deming argued that:
a) looking at individual performance does not matter as long as they are within the norms set by management
b) to reward some employees for "working hard" demotivates the rest becasue they know that the 'extra' performance was due to luck. They perceive this to be unfair as they worked just as hard as the person who got the reward.
c) to improve productivity, management has to change something in the system. Employees, by themselves, are powerless to change the rules.
d) many managers make the mistake of ranking employees because they have a very poor understanding of statistics. Once you understand statistics, think in terms of averages, upper limits and lower limits, your ability to manage people improves substantially.

Lastly, one warning. There are several links and - all together - the videos are quite long. The first video is OK but it gets a bit boring after a while. The last video - where the audience is told the lessons behind the experiment - is very important and very interesting. You need to be patient, warch the boring bits in order to appreciate the most important bit at the end.

Deming (part 3)

2010-07-19T14:39:00.000-07:00

Take a virtual tour of a DELL factory

2010-07-18T03:39:00.000-07:00

There are lots of interesting videos on you tube that allows you to better understand how organisations work. I found this particular segment very good.

Learning how to learn: The key to academic success

2010-07-04T00:49:00.000-07:00

A few days ago, somebody posted a comment on the blog, asking "what were the softskills."

Rather than simply list the softskills that everybody needs, I prefer to look at a skill that is key to everybody's success: learning how to learn.

Consider the following fact. In the 1980s, what you learnt at university would serve you a lifetime. Today, what you learn at university will be out of date within 5 years of leaving university. The most important skill anybody can develop is learning how to learn.

When I was doing my PhD research, a professor gave me the following advice, He said, "Find the best academic journal, go back ten years and read everything that relates to your field." For all my students (undergrad and postgrad), I recommend the Harvard Business Review.

1. Go to IIUM website.
2. Click on "On Line Databases"
3. Click on "List of A to Z journals"
4. Type "Harvard Business Review"

If you are interested in business, you will find everything that you need to know in the HBR. You can download articles that are of particular interest. Aaprt from the HBR, another good journal is the "Academy of Management Executive" although I still prefer the HBR.

You might ask: what is so special about the HBR? Well, many people make a distinction between management and marketing. Yet, the successful organisation has to be customer-driven and customer-focused. I like the HBR because it has very good articles on management AND very good articles on marketing in the same issues..... As a student, that knowledge will complement your lectures in class. After you leave UIA, you will find that by reading the Harvard Business Review once a month, your knowledge will never be out of date.

Everybody knows that "knowledge is power." It seems shameful that once people leave university, they stop learning. Rather, you should consider that the most important skill you can learn from university is how to learn how to learn. With the one skill, you will find that the rest of your life is very easy.

Lifting the coconut shell

2010-06-16T05:29:00.000-07:00

Well, I am back from my holidays. I started teaching at UIA in January 2010, about six months ago. So what do I want to do with this blog in the future? Here are my thoughts

1. Softskills are still important because they form a key aspect of the Knowledge - Skills - Attitude that makes people employable

2. The 'hard part' of softskills (understanding processes, mapping processes, developing a systems perspective) is still a major focus. That can only be mastered once the basic softskills have been acquired

3. The ultimate aim though is to make UIA students feel optimistic about their future by helping them remove the cocunut shell that some people are trying to hide under. That is why I have included some news items about some of the economic problems in Europe. We are so used to seeing problems in our own countries that we forget that the problems in other countries - countries that look like they are more successful - are sometimes worse.

During my holiday, I met some old friends. One of them asked me why I left Europe and moved to Malaysia. I explained that, in my opinion, Europe is in a process of decay. Things are 'falling apart' whether politically, economically or socially. Malaysia, on the other hand, is a society that is in the process of being built. Yes, there are many things that are lacking. But there is a big difference between lacking something because your house is falling down and lacking something because your house is not yet completely finished. There was no disagreement from my friends about my opinion.

Subsidies in France

2010-06-12T00:53:00.000-07:00

Throughout this blog, I make the point that management problems are complex. If we fail to understand that complexity, we will make decisions that have side effects. My father, who lives in France, told me the following story a few days ago. In order to develop green energy in France, the French government now gives subsidies that reduce the cost of installing sun panels by 50%. Before the subsidy; sun panels cost about Euros 3,000. After the subsidy started, the price of installing solar panels jumped to Euros 5,600 !

Creativity, communication and holistic a perspective

2010-06-02T04:55:00.000-07:00

Leaders, as all my students know, focus on changing organisations. First, they need to 'see' the situation differently. Second, they need to communicate that new perspective to their followers. Third, they need to see how all the different parts of the organisation interact (dependency). I attach an old photo of an exercise in creativity. I gave my students one newspaper, one roll of tape and one brick. They had to build the tallest structure in order to support a brick. The group in the photo managed 1 m 35 cm. After the exercise, I asked them if they thought they could complete the task. They said that they didn't think it was possible..... so challenge your perception and you will become a good leader.

Meeting deadlines

2010-05-22T16:18:00.000-07:00

Management can be complicated but the basics are easy to understand. The most fundamental skill that anybody can enforce is getting subordinates to meet deadlines. I was speaking to a manager the other day. He used to work for a multinational in Malaysia and he switched to a small, local company. He described his current organisation as one in where "everybody seems to be working in slow motion." When I asked what he meant, he explained that in a multinational, deadlines were respected. By hook or by crook, you had to finish your work on time.... so people started working on projects early. In his new job, deadlines keep moving. There is no incentive to start working on something now because you already know that the deadline willl change ..... The moral of the story is that good managers set realistic deadlines and stick to them. If people don't meet the deadlines, they scream, shout and rave to male people understand that dead;ones are important. If not, your message to your people is, "don't bother meeting deadlines because I don't really care anyway."

Leader of a group vs. manager in a company

2010-05-14T02:33:00.000-07:00

A few days ago, the question was asked, is it more difficult to be the leader of a group or a manager in a company?

Personally, I have been both. I never enjoyed being a manager because you have a lot of responsibility but no real power. At the end of the day, your boss is telling you what to do. Many times, I was told to do things that I believe was not really good for my company .... but you still have to follow the orders.

At university, you have more freedom. However, it is true that it is difficu;t to be a leader when you are all "peers." It comes back to the role of a leader. A leader has two main roles:

a) Task roles: to achieve the task that has been given

b) Maintenance role: To maintain a good relationship between the members of a team

I suspect that some team leaders are having problems because they have not spent enough time developing a team spirit. Often, people do not invest in developing a relationship. You know one another's name but that is about it. To develop a real time spirit, everybody has to share things about themselves. That sharing is a way of telling everybody that you trust one another.

Why do you think I tell stories about Anas, Adam or Ammar? Why do you think I show pictures of my kids in class? Even my blog tells you some personal ideas or my experiences with MBA students? By sharing things that are personal (but not too personal), I am simply trying to build a sense of trust between me and the rest of the class. Everybody talks about "breaking the ice". That is misleading. People break the ice and then forget to build relationships. Everything in management is about relationships. Building relationships and (when necessary) destroying relationships.

The lesson which I take from the question is that you are finding the simulation difficult. Good. That means that you are learning something important..... :)

Contingency school

2010-05-13T06:07:00.000-07:00

I had a question related to the contingency school. The idea behind the contingency school is that there is no best way to solve a management problem. Depending on the situation, people who subscribe to the contingency will change their approach. In other words, this chool promotes two things:

a) an awareness that adapting to a changing business environment is very important

b) a flexible mindset

For example, imagine a company that is involved in on-line advertising. Maybe, their approach is very process-orientated. However, as the company grows bigger, the CEO realises that there is less and less communication between the workers. This new situation (a bigger company) requires the CEO to use a new approach (for example, more team building activities) that the company never did in the past.

Schools of management (example)

2010-05-11T05:23:00.000-07:00

Let's take IIUm as an example. You are the new rector and you are not happy with the overall performance of the university. How would the different schools of management apply to the management of this university?

1. If you believe in the administrative school, you will re-arrange some of the policies and procedures to make the administration stronger.

2. If you believe in the scientific management school, you will do a study of how long it takes to do certain jobs. You will then find ways to shorten the time to do these jobs.

3. If you believe in the bureaucratic school, you will re-arrange the structure of the university so that the chain of command is clear.

4. If you believe in the behavioural school, you will find ways to motivate your staff because you assume that if people are more motivated, they will produce more

5. If you believe in the systems school, you will look at the university overall. You might realise that the university is very dependent on the support from the Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) so your energy will be focused on improving the relationship with MOHE.

6. If you believe in the process school, you will look at how different parts of the university work together. For example, for centralised examinations, you might find that the cooperation between different parts of the university is lacking and that effects the students' performance during the examination.

7. If you believe in the learning organisation school, you will ask the senior professors to share their knowledge of management wiht younger lecturers (for example, by doing joint teaching) so that the younger lecturers becoem more experienced more quickly.

In other words, your perception of management will determine how you look at management problems. A good manager will be able to look at a problem from different perspectives in order to identify the best solution.

Schools of management (theory)

2010-05-11T05:13:00.000-07:00

The idea is simple. Over the last one hundred years, different experts in management have proposed different ways to manage effectively.

Henrie Fayol was one of the earliest and he said that managers need to develop a good administration based on a few key principles (i.e. unity of command, scalar principle, ....)

Frederick Taylor said that the key was 'schientific management.' In other words, you need to study people's jobs and simplify the steps so that the job can be done more quickly

Max Weber argued that you had to develop a bureaucracy that was transparent, logical and orderly

The various experts in the behaviour school argued that if you engage people (i.e. challenge them, make their job interesting,....), your organisation will be more effective

After the 1950s, the systems, the process and the learning schools added more knowledge about management. In all of these three schools, the important thing is to understand that people depend on other people to do their job. To manage well, you need to see the "big picture." For the systems school, that means that you need to focus on the system as a whole. For the process school, you need to see how to coordinate the work between departments . For the learning school, you need to get the experts in the organisation to share their knowledge with members in the organisation that are less knowledgeable.

Photos from the camp on the 17th

2010-04-17T16:57:00.001-07:00

Leadership camp on 17 April 2010

2010-04-17T04:56:00.000-07:00

I am exhausted. I spent the whole day doing a leadership camp near Sungai Congkak for 25 participants. I changed the format somehwat from previous camps. First,we looked at the problem of "fire fighting" inside organisations. Second, we looked at why people keep silent in organisations, even when they can see major problems. We then looked at a number of concepts taken from Goldratt's book called "The Goal". To finish off, we did a 1 h 1/2 Aikido session. We linked the Aikido concepts of blending, off balancing and developing ki to the discussions in the morning. In one word, a busy day!

The reality in "rich countries"

2010-04-13T04:18:00.000-07:00

In a lecture for MGT2010 a few weeks ago, I described the reasons that made me leave Europe and come to Malaysia. As I tried to explain in a few words, Europe is dying and the future lies in Asia. Many of my students were surprised by this lecture, probably because many do not follow what has been happening in "rich countries" like the US, UK and so forth. Today (Tuesday 13th April), I found the following article on the BBC website. I found it very relevant....

"In the places worst affected by Europe's economic crisis, unemployment and cuts in pay and public services are hitting the headlines. But the crisis is also having another effect with profound long-term consequences - the return of emigration.

Filippos Katampouris says it was a "horrible mistake" to leave the UK
Places like Greece and Ireland thought the good times of the last decade or two had finally ended the cycle of emigration, with the brightest and best youngsters no longer feeling they had to move away. No-one believes that any more. In the fish market in Athens is Filippos Katampouris, one of the best-qualified assistant fishmongers you'll ever meet. He has a degree from a Greek university, and a masters degree in technology management from the UK.

When he gave up his British job to return to Greece a few years ago, he could have been a symbol of a newly prosperous country offering good prospects to young professionals. "I wanted to live in my country, didn't want to spend the rest of my life in a foreign country," he said. With hindsight, he thinks he made "a horrible mistake" coming back. As the economic crisis began to hit Greece he lost his job in a market research agency. All he can do now is join his father and "work in the fish market to make ends meet". "It's a very dark future for me," he adds gloomily. "I'm thinking of going back to the UK, but my wife won't come with me so I'm going to stay here and hope for the best."

Thousands of Greeks are facing this dilemma - do they stay and suffer austerity and unemployment, or become the next generation of large exiled Greek communities in Australia, Britain or the US?

Future emigrants are among those queuing for passports in Dublin. In Ireland, the resumption of emigration is already well underway. During the Celtic Tiger boom, there was Irish huge pride in the fact that jobs in new industries were keeping locals at home. Ireland was even attracting its own immigrants in large numbers from elsewhere in Europe to work in everything from building to financial services.

But that boom - which became a property bubble - has come to a catastrophic end. Unemployment has risen sharply, and the Irish government has had to introduce harsh austerity measures. Among the public sector workers taking industrial action against the measures are the staff at the main passport office in Dublin.

Angry queues form outside each morning as people hope to obtain their passports despite the action, some for holidays, but others for possible emigration. "I've an offer now to go to the States and I'm thinking of just getting out of here," one man in the queue told me.

Conan O'Broin is himself seriously considering leaving Ireland. "I definitely don't want to leave the country. But it's a case of being driven out of it at the minute. It's just pay cut after pay cut. And if I do go, I won't be back." A short walk away is the campus of Trinity College Dublin, where the president of the students' union, Conan O'Broin, is equally despondent. "I've said goodbye to five or six very close friends over the last few months, some of whom at least I don't think are going to come back," he said.

"The dreamland is over, we're back to reality with a bang," he adds. It is "the same cycle which hit Ireland in the 1950s and the 1980s, high levels of emigration, used as a safety valve because we can't get our act together to develop a sustainable economy". He is, he admits, seriously considering leaving himself.

There has always been international movement in search of work. And the European single currency was supposed to help create a continent in which people could either enjoy their own country's new prosperity, or move freely around if they felt like a spell abroad.

But now many young Greek and Irish emigrants, despairing at the state of their home economies, feel forced to head for the exit, just as their parents and grandparents might have done. Europe is no longer the newly happy and prosperous economic family they hoped their countries had joined.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Crossing Continents on how the Greeks and Irish are responding to the crisis will be broadcast on the BBC World Service from Thursday 15 April 2010 starting at 1132 GMT.

Aikido event at KDE

2010-04-04T00:11:00.000-07:00

I attach a few photos of a Aikido seminar that was held at Kelab Darul Ehsan (KDE) about 2 weeks ago. The teacher was a British sensei who has been teaching Aikido in Japan for the last 30 years. I am strong believers that successful people need to think differently. Apart from the physical benefits of having regular exercise, Aikido forces you to think differently. Instead of seeing a big opponent wiht a knife, you just see somebody which you can off-balance easily... The bigger they are, the easier they fall.

New leadership programmes planned

2010-03-28T06:45:00.000-07:00

Well, followers of my blog will realise that I have not done a leadership programme for some time. However, there are two camps planned in April and in May. I am experimenting with new ideas. In particular, I am starting to realise to what extent leaders 'see' things differently. In the two camps planned in April and May, I will try to challenge the perception of my participants. I will do that by combining physical activities (in this case Aikido) and group discussions (no surprise, I will use the Theory of Constraint even though we won't have time for mapping exercises).

The other exciting development is that a group of researchers from the Asian Institute of Management in the Philippines will be meeting me next week to talk about the possibility of developing programmes in Islamic Leadership in the Philippines. So,....wait and see. My blog may not be active in terms of posting but things are happening in the background :)

Recent reading

2010-01-30T00:47:00.000-08:00

I was looking at the website www.goldratt.com and I came across the statistics in this table. The more I learn about management, the more I realize we still don't really understand what management is. Our focus is on the "people" instead of focusing on the "people in their environment". Due to that fundamental mistake, we put pressure on "everybody" without understanding what is contraining the organization. Remember: the productivity of the whole organization is determined by the productivity of its weakest link. So for any MGT2010 students out there, make sure you understand the basic idea behind constraint management!

The football analogy

2010-01-16T15:03:00.000-08:00

When teaching the Islamic perspective to management, I like to use the “football analogy”. I created this analogy around a football pitch because a basic principle in Islam is that when it comes to ibadat, everything is haraam unless it is halaal. Outside of acts of ibadat, the principle is that everything is halaal except for a few things that are haraam. Dr Yusuf Qaradawi said, “the sphere of prohibited things is very small, while that of permissible things is extremely vast (…) the principle of natural permissibility is not only limited to things and objects but to all human behaviour not related to acts of worship” The limits that Allah SWT has defined is like the boundaries on a football pitch

If you think about it, the rules of the game of football (the rules of off-side, penalty, free-kicks, and so forth) are like the principles of Islamic Law. People can do whatever they want as long on the football pitch as long as they do not break the rules.
The owner of the Universe appointed a series of referees to explain the game to human beings. The last referee was the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) who explained the rules of the game to the first Muslim players who joined the game. To this effect, Muslim players have two references. One is the Qur’an (whose focus is to explain the objectives of the game) and the other is the Sunnah (whose focus is more on the detailed rules of the game). After that, the last referee left the pitch. When new Muslim players arrived, they learned the rules of the game from the first generation of Muslim players. Some confusion occurred as to how the rules should be understood and applied but the objective of the game – that players had to play the game ethically in order to go into Paradise – was clear.

However, Muslim players then started to play international games. In these international games, foreign players played with a different objective. Their objective was simply to score as many goals as possible. To help them do that, they invented their own rules. As these foreign players seemed to score more goals than Muslim players, some Muslim players forgot the original objective of the game. These Muslim players started to assume that foreign players were able to score more goals because their objective and their rules of the games were “better” than the Muslim players’ objective and rules. In fact, some Muslim players started to assume that the rules that Muslims have to abide to were the main reasons why Muslims could not score many goals.

A careful analysis though seems to indicate that foreign players can score a lot of goals because they work better as a team and they have a better strategy. Muslim players, on the other hand, may have very good individual skills but they do not always work well in a team. Often, they do not have a clear strategy. In most cases, Muslim players are no longer playing according to the Islamic perspective. Many Muslim players today agree that it is important to score more goals than the foreign players but for the purpose of dawah. By scoring many goals, Muslims who are confused can be re-assured and foreign players can be attracted to the objective and the rules that Muslim players need to follow. The key, for Muslim players, is to:
1. Re-develop their confidence in their understanding of the game
2. Re-develop their understanding of the explanations given by the last referee
3. Improve their understanding of strategy
4. Improve their teamwork

Building character through Aikido

2010-01-09T17:56:00.000-08:00

A question some people ask me is how can we develop ourselves? Especially our character?

One approach that I recommend is to do martial arts, especially Aikido. Martial arts is not about learning how to fight. It is more about living a healthy lifestyle through physical exercise and developing self confidence. Indeed, martial arts require a continuous process of training and improving oneself. Attending a few martial arts sessions will not really make a difference to anybody. But if somebody 'stays' with it for two or three years, there will be a significant development of their fitness, self-confidence and self-management skills.

The reason I prefer Aikido is that martial arts are divided into two broad categories: "hard" and "soft" martial arts. Hard martial arts - like silat and taekwando - requires to attack the opponent. As one Taekwando instructor once told me, "there are only two strategies: attack and counter attack". Soft martial arts - like Tai Chi and Aikido - uses the energy of the opponent to immobilize him or her. It's not about strength but about using the other person's momentum to control the situation. Psychologically, when one practices martial arts regularly for a couple of years, one develops the mindset that "nothing is impossible".

Why do we need softskills?

2009-10-23T01:26:00.000-07:00

My son, now 9 years old, asked me why I was writing a blog about softskills. The question, as naive as it may be, is actually quite a smart one.

First, many people seem to think that they can secure a job because they have the right academic qualifications. Over the last 10 years of teaching, I have realized that employers look for three things:

a) A positive attitude
b) Good soft skills
c) Decent academic knowledge

The whole concept of "soft skills" is a bit vague. This includes basic speaking and writing skills, grooming and so forth. That is not what I am interested in. My perception is that many people have these "basic skills" but cannot progress because their overall perspective is negative.

Of course, everybody knows the importance of being "positive". My experience is that "being positive" is not enough. People have to learn specific skills (active listening, cloud diagrams, logical diagrams)in order to "break out" of the constraints that they have created for themselves. However, once people manage to "shift" their perspective, their whole behaviour becomes much more positive. Unfortunately, many of the "motivational" programs on TV or Radio are almost useless. They deal with generalities and do not allow individuals to figure out why their perspective is misleading.

Paradigms

2009-10-16T18:19:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, one of my 'blog readers' observed that I did not update my blog very often. That is true and it reflects my personal views about blogs.

First, many blogs are written in a hurry. People make assertions without knowing whether they are true or not. As an academic, I am used to writing papers that are reviewed by my peers. In other words, before writing something. I ask myself, "Is this true or is it false? Can I prove it?" Many times, I realize that my opinions are just that: opinions.

Second, I am a researcher. In May, I wrote that I would be interested in using problem solving skills to help parents and teenagers work out their problems. Although I am not a counselor, I have been interviewing students who have problems at home and I try to figure out ways to advise them. My conclusion is that the root cause of the problem often starts with the parents. The 'problematic attitude' of the students is simply a symptom of a deeper problem. However, as this research is still ongoing, I don't want to write about it in my blog (yet) although I can give a few hints:

- Communication problems between parents and teenagers is not about "communication". It is simply about two people that have a different paradigm of the world. Resolving the "gap" between parents and teenagers is primarily about understanding the differences in core assumptions.

- Differences between paradigms are often based on false assumptions about cause and effect. These assumptions almost always include one "negative fantasy" [I don't make up these words. These are expressions that other researchers use]. A negative fantasy is a fear that unless you control something or somebody, things are going to get "out of control". That fear is irrational but prevents people from growing.

By using mapping techniques (such as ECs and CRTs mentioned in my May posting), you can put on paper the assumptions that people carry in their heads. That allows one party (for example, the parent) to understand the other party (for example, teenagers) perspective. Ironically, people need to start drawing pictures before they can start communicating.

People who are familiar with soft skills - whether communication skills, leadership skills or whatever - will realize that this is the most difficult part of soft skills development. The other stuff is really easy in comparison. But unless Malaysians start understanding the paradigms that limit their personal and professional growth, they will continue to feel frustrated.

Playing with matches

2009-09-08T19:47:00.000-07:00

Thursday 3rd September. I tried an experiment tonight. I wanted to put across some of the challenges associated with complex organizations. Two issues form the core of problems inside organizations: dependency and statistical fluctaution. To avoid an abstract discussion, I divided the participants into two groups. Each group has to "process" matches by using a dice to move matches from one player to another. This shows that playing with matches can be a good way to learn about management!

Developing Strategic Thinking

2009-08-20T21:29:00.000-07:00

Last night, I develivered a series of courses on strategies for MBA students. As strategy is an abstract concept, I used the "Beer Game" to put a few key points across. This is a game that can be used for team-building, appreciating the importance of customer service, developing leadership skills, developing strategic thinking and many more. Like all games used in training, it is the debriefing that matters the most. I attach a few photos of the occasion.

Counselling students

2009-07-26T01:52:00.000-07:00

An interesting night the other day. Five students from KUIZ, who were finishing a Diploma in Business, came to my house looking for advice on furthering their studies. My approach is straightforward:
- Decide whether you want a job that is halaal / haraam
- Decide what is your desired lifestyle (routine, travel a lot,.....)
- Decide whether you prefer to deal with people, paperwork or numbers
- Decide whether to do a degree that is specialized or general
We had a good discussion. I discouraged them to do certain courses that have no longer any future and I discouraged them to go for courses that are "hot potatoes" today but with no job opportunity when they will enter the job market.....

Keindahan Islam

2009-06-19T23:54:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-19T06:44:00.000-07:00

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)

2009-06-13T06:31:00.000-07:00

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.

Up and coming events

2009-05-18T07:24:00.000-07:00

I have two training lined up. One should be on Saturday 13th June. This will be another "Developing Operational Excellence" but with a twist. I will focus on the Thinking Processes popularized by Eli Goldratt. On the 20th of June, I have a program with university students and I will focus on basic leadership skills.

Helping parents deal with conflicts at home

2009-05-12T22:01:00.000-07:00

I have developed an interesting activity based on the Evapourating Cloud concept. This is a simple diagram for parents, when trying to communicate with their children, to present their perspective and their children's perspective. It allows both sides to understand what the other side is thinking and it allows both sides to understand each other's hidden assumptions. I plan to use this technique with managers in a training planned in June but the more I think about it, the more I can see it being used to diffuse conflict at home. Come to think about it, it can also be used to get husband and wife to better understand one another.

When does training work?

2009-04-24T06:11:00.001-07:00

Over the last couple of days, I had a couple of calls from friends. A question that we were all concerned about: when is training effective?

Research in this area shows that the pre-training analysis and post-training assessment is crucial. In one case in the USA, 2 employees attended the same sales training. For one employee (lets call him Mr. A), this training was part of his development program. His manager discussed his lack of performance and they both agreed that attending a sales course would be important. After the sales training, Mr. A found it hard to apply what he had leant during the training. So the sales manager went on sales call with him and demonstrated some of the techniques. After a few weeks, Mr. A could apply what he had learnt and his performance increased substantially. The good thing was that the manager was able to calculate the cost (sending 1 person) and the reward (extra sales), which makes evaluating the effectiveness of training quantifiable.

A second employee - who attended exactly the same event - had a very different mindset. Lets call him Mr. B. The training was originally supposed to be for another employee but he could not make the training at the last minute. As the company had already paid for one person, Mr. B was told to attend. Unfortunately, this totally destroyed his special weekend that he had arranged. However great the trainer, Mr. B never got into the spirit of the training and never applied the concepts afterwards.

My greatest problem is to explain that training needs analysis (TNA) should be done by the trainer, not by the HR department. After the training (say after 3 months), the trainer should be allowed to meet the trainees and conduct a debriefing session. Maybe becuase of that, many organizations feel that their training dollars are being wasted. In most cases, they are right.

Understanding the training and development (T&D) industry in Malaysia

2009-04-17T05:15:00.000-07:00

Here are my views on the T&D industry in Malaysia. There are a few big players and lots of small players who pretend to be big. Everybody I know seems to have their own company and flying solo although they pretend that they have lots of staff on the payroll. Whenever they have a project, they simply call their pals.

Training activities tend to focus on skills. Pretty everybody does the same thing but some try to sell the idea that they know something other trainers don't know. This is of course not true. Everybody pretty much knows the same thing.

Development activities tend to focus on developing knowledge. Lets say that you are a company and one of your key technical managers doesn't know anything about strategy. One solution is to hire somebody (like me) and go through a tailor made course so they develop useful knowledge for the company.

My approach is based on Action Learning. I get people to talk about what they experience at work and we talk about how they can do things differently. It's not "telling them" what to do but it is more about thinking about alternative solutions to try out.

The biggest area for growth in the T&D industry is probably going to be parents. Parents are spending a fortune to send their kids to universities and they end up being unemployed. Their lack of employability generally boils down to insufficient communication skills and insufficient problem solving skills. I have always dreamt of finding 10 rich parents so that I can coach their kinds through university.....

Developing Operational Excellence

2009-04-12T06:16:00.000-07:00

Another training was held in Sungai Congkak on 12th April 2009. The participants included 21 executives and managers. The theme was "Developing Operational Excellence". The group divided into four smaller groups and focused on different operational issues of their choice (branding, market segmentation, matching jobs with skills and managing concurrent projects). The aim was to identify solutions and find ways to communicate these solutions upwards.

As usual, listing problems was easy but quite a lot of digging was necessary to identify possible root causes. An interesting thing happened: in small groups, the discussion was very focused and very specific. But in the group presentation, everything became vague and general. Moral of the story: presentations to the larger group is not always helpful. A few photos tell the story!