💡 Brilliant Class Activity - The Debate: “In order to improve the retention of what we have learnt, we should..”

This was hands down my favorite class activity throughout the recent Managerial Excellence training, occuring towards the end of the course. It was an exercise in quick brainstorming, elevator pitch presentation, team upskilling, active listening, and a mega plot twist we didn’t see coming, that totally subverted our expectations and challenge our ways of thinking. 

The premise of the activity was built upon The Forgetting Curve, conceptualized by the 19th century German psychologist, Hermann Ebbinghaus: information is lost over time when you don’t try to retain it. 

In other words, whatever you learnt throughout this course, if you don’t put in any deliberate effort, you will most likely forget everything. All that money the company has invested in you to be here would have gone to waste. We’re not talking about months or weeks - we’re talking DAYS, here. 

So, what would you do to retain it? 

There were 5 tools: 

1. Recruit an Accountability Partner - recruit a mentor or coach figure to “pressure” you, give some general direction. Think of this person of a bootcamp instructor or gym coach. 

2. Coaching Conversations - setup 1:1 conversations with your superior to plan out your leadership approach, goals and future plans

3. Learning Club - setup a “community of practice” within our course groups to share ideas, best practices and lessons learnt

4. On-the-Job Actions - walk the talk, immediately put those teachings into action at work

5. Teach Back - schedule a knowledge sharing session(s) with your team to convey what you’ve learnt

So here was the class activity: 

Step #1: Each team was assigned one tool. Our team was assigned #5: Teach Back. Now, what you have to do is brainstorm within the team a “poster” and 1-minute elevator pitch about why your team’s retention tool is the BEST. 

To prepare yourself for step #2, we need to make sure everyone within the group understood and was fully committed to it, because every single person will be doing the elevator pitch to other groups. 

Step #2: Present your elevator pitch with the rest. One member from each team will form a small group to present to each other. Each of our team members did the pitching to other teams, listen to others and provide feedback: “what went well” (appreciative feedback), and “even better if” (constructive feedback)

Now that we’ve given the best elevator pitch we can muster up, and listening to other group’s ideas, we get back to our own teams.

Step #3: Plot twist! Now that you’ve heard other teams, discus why OTHER team’s tools and proposals are potentially better than ours, and look for the value of the other ideas. And don’t cling to your own ideas!

This was a brilliant twist and subversion, pulling the rug under us that forced us to undergo a complete paradigm shift:  challenging our own previous thinking (despite the initial zealous effort in pushing the idea why ours was the best), forcing us to see things differently of the advantages of other ideas, by putting our egos aside to look for faults and flaws in our ideas. In the end, we could see the pros and cons of all ideas, and come up with a strategic approach on which one we should prioritize, and understand the potential shortcomings.

After giving it much thought, what’s so awesome about thie exercise is the additional “life lesson” takeaway - This scenario is that it simulates scenarios that can totally happen in real life: Having the tables turned completely. 

We might be in one department, face “problems” with another department - only to then transfer to that very same problematic department! We might be putting so much passionate effort in one project, only to be transferred out or have that project delegated to others. We might be frustrated with certain leaders, only to be promoted to their position and suddenly now experience first-hand why that job was so challenging, and made us empathize why they may have behaved in a certain way. We might be having brutal confrontational negotiations with a contractor, only to have that person resign, then join our organization and become our boss!

The Life Lesson here? Be humble. Yes, be passionate about your ideas, give it your best, and make the best of what you have. But don’t cling stubbornly to your past, don’t burn your bridges along the way, and be ready to move on, empathize with other perspectives and correct yourselves - the tables might turn at any moment. 

Genius exercise 👏🏼. Bookmarked for future ideas 😄

Being a Leader: Managerial Excellence (ME) Training Cohort #7, 25-27 July 2023 Le Meridien, Putrajaya

 

Alhamdulillah, am grateful for the opportunity to join this training, which provided a nice jolt of motivation, multiple “a-ha!” moments, sparked lots of practical ideas and a newfound ambition to play our part in becoming drivers to make our organizations a better place.

Leaving the training, here are some takeaway thoughts:

1. Walk the talk - What’s Knowledge without action? Don’t just become content hoarders. “Information becomes KNOWLEDGE - personal, embodied, verified - only when we put it to use. You gain confidence in what you know only when you know that it works. Until you do, it’s just a theory” (Tiago Forte, “Building a Second Brain”) It’s only when we implement these stuff, try them out, that it becomes genuine piece of knowledge. And it’s only when we apply them consistently, make mistakes and learn from them, that we accumulate WISDOM.

2. Make time - We get it, everyone’s busy. We’re too busy reacting with day to day challenges. How are we supposed to find the time to implement this stuff? After all, some of these As Tim Ferriss said, i*f you “don’t have time”, you don’t have “priorities”*. If these frameworks and tools are important for us, we have to prioritize and make time.

3. It’s going to be Difficult. You will need courage - This will all seem intimidating: Consistently giving and seeking for feedback; learning to entrust our team, let go of our control to let them flourish, opening up and being vulnerable; coming to terms with how our “good intentions” might have accidentally sabotaged our team’s productivity and intellectual capacity. It’s scary stuff, and our tendency is to be overthinking it, until it paralyzes it from taking action. So we “not-so-accidentally” drown ourselves in the “busy”-ness of our work to give ourselves an excuse. We need COURAGE to step up.
   
And here’s the thing about courage, as Nelson Mandela said: “I learned that courage was not the ABSENCE of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who CONQUERS that fear”.
   
4. Be the leader your organization needs - Perhaps there are some of us who haven’t had good role models of a “great leader” in the past. Maybe we’ve never had a leader who instilled a good culture of feedback, and preferred isolating himself. Perhaps we’ve always had bosses who had poor psychological safety. Perhaps it’s difficult to imagine what it’s like to have a high-performing leader who ALSO implements psychological safety, when bosses seem so micromanaging and hawking your mistakes without setting clear goals and directions. Fine. We get it. Let’s cast that aside, and now that some of us are in the driver’s seat, let’s be the leader that our organization needs. Let’s be that role model that we’ve always wanted. Let’s aspire to leave behind a legacy of an inspired workforce.

5. You will be criticized: So learn to Fail fast  - as a leader, any decision you make will have room to be misinterpreted and misunderstood. When you leave ideas open for the team to brainstorm and propose solutions, there will be some who think you are just “taichi” and not do any thinking. When you provide direction and guidance, there will be critics who will say you are micromanaging. When you challenge the team, there will always be naysayers who will say you are being unrealistically demanding.
Aristotle said something interesting: “there is only one way to avoid criticism: Do nothing, say nothing & BE nothing”
   
You can never please everyone, so don’t try. What you DO want to do is have the humility to listen and always be flexible for improvement.
To me, it boils down to this cycle:
Be clear in your intentions and goals, be transparent with the team what you are trying to achieve (don’t just keep those intentions to yourself), always practice active listening, seek feedback, pivot and re-adjust where you need to, then go back to step 1 with intentions.
   
6. Bonus: Apply them with your kids, too! - I’ve always been fascinated how parenting has so many similarities with leadership. Turns out that, all the tools, mindsets, and approaches of a successful leader at the workplace, are also the same tools, mindsets and approach of good parenting. From identifying (and capitalising) their strengths, to acting listening & providing psychological safety, to having a more mindful approach to giving and seeking feedback - so many useful tools that can also help make out the best in our little ones 😊

👀 Are you always on your phone or laptop during meetings?

I'm noticing a very troubling (and frankly, annoying) habit during physical meetings, trainings and even face to face conversations: people constantly staring into their phones, and on their laptops  checking emails and Teams. 

The problem is that there is almost a demand for this behavior. People want to be seen as someone who's responsive and always contactable. No matter the circumstances, you can count on me to respond. 

The flipside, thought is that habits like these that destroy meeting productivity and render them a "waste of time" - habits that create distrust and doubt that people are truly present, let alone actively participating.  And for face to face interactions and conversations, habitually staring into screens are just straight up disrespectful. 

Here's an interesting and refreshing excerpt I picked up from the book “15 Secrets successful People Know About Time Management” by Kevin Kruse:

“Do you check your phone for text messages or emails during business meetings? 

If you answered yes, research from the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business suggests you are annoying your boss and colleagues. Their study found: 

✅ 86 percent think it’s inappropriate to answer phone calls during formal meetings.

✅ 84 percent think it’s inappropriate to write texts or emails during formal meetings.

✅ 75 percent think it’s inappropriate to read texts or emails during formal meetings.

✅ 66 percent think it’s inappropriate to write texts or emails during any meetings.

✅ At least 22 percent think it’s inappropriate to use phones during any meetings.

Why do so many people—especially more successful people—find smartphone use in meetings to be inappropriate? It’s because when you access your phone, it shows: 

1. Lack of respect. You consider the information on your phone to be more important than the conversation in the meeting; you view people outside of the meeting to be more important than those sitting in front of you. 

2. Lack of attention. You are unable to stay focused on more than one item at a time; the ability to multitask is a myth. Lack of listening. You aren’t demonstrating the attention and focus that is required of truly active listening. 

3. Lack of power. You are like a modern day Pavlovian dog who responds to the beck and call of others through the buzz of your phone.

To make the most of valuable time spent in meetings, participants should mute and pocket their devices and leave them in their pockets."

(End Quote)

Be Present. In body, heart, mind and soul. Regain your respect, attention and power. Play your part to make that session flourish and make the best of it. 

Productivity Strategy - Getting used to being messy?

 

“The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.” —William James

I remember reading this surprising productivity tip from the book “The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results” by Gary Keller - One of the greatest “thieves of productivity” is Fear of Chaos. A fear of being so perfectionist, & cannot cope living with messiness.

“One of the greatest thieves of productivity is the unwillingness to allow for chaos or the lack of creativity in dealing with it.

Messes are inevitable when you focus on just one thing. While you whittle away on your most important work, the world doesn’t sit and wait. It stays on fast forward and things just rack up and stack up while you bear down on a singular priority. Unfortunately, there’s no pause or stop button. You can’t run life in slow motion. Wishing you could will just make you miserable and disappointed.

The truth is, it’s a package deal. When you strive for greatness, chaos is guaranteed to show up. In fact, other areas of your life may experience chaos in direct proportion to the time you put in on your ONE Thing. It’s important for you to accept this instead of fighting it. Oscar-winning filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola warns us that “anything you build on a large scale or with intense passion invites chaos.”
In other words, get used to it and get over it."
(End quote)

In practice, what this means is that we must learn to be less of a perfectionist. Accept that we cannot 100% achieve everything. We have to train ourselves to adapt to the chaos and live with the messiness, as we try to achieve our main goals. Or else we will be constantly “firefighting”, responding to problems and constantly be unhappy with ourselves as we live with matters being unresolved.

In our interview with Ustaz Shareef El-Arbi on The Barakah Effect, we ask him about his “secret” of time management: How does he balance between between his full-time career, managing his family, regularly conducting multiple islamic classes, giving da’wah, as well as continuously seeking knowledge?

His first response: “you will always fall short in one area or another because everything has to be at the expense of something else. The more you pursue dunya, the more you will neglect the akhirah. And the most you pursue akhirah, the more you will neglect your dunya”

What an enlightening and unexpetected response! In a few words, he demonstrates, in practice what is meant by the words of the Prophet ﷺ:

مَنْ أَحَبَّ دُنْيَاهُ أَضَرَّ بِآخِرَتِهِ وَمَنْ أَحَبَّ آخِرَتَهُ أَضَرَّ بِدُنْيَاهُ فَآثِرُوا مَا يَبْقَى عَلَى مَا يَفْنَى

“Whoever loves his worldly life will harm his Hereafter, and whoever loves his Hereafter will harm his worldly life. Thus, prefer what is everlasting over what will vanish.” (Sahih Ibn Hibban #709)

It’s all about making a deliberate conscious choice of what you can strategically afford to “let go”, and what you need to focus your efforts in, where you can add the highest value and the best impact.

I noticed I have to make this “trade-off” choice in multiple different day-to-day circumstances at the workplace and at home. For example, if we’re focusing on being fully present and participative in physical meetings or trainings, then the necessary trade-off is that we aren’t “always on” our laptops to be responding to emails and virtual messages. We don’t get to be that responsive guy who’s always available. The other trade-off: we have to Brace ourselves with potential overwhelming list of unread messages, emails and surprise "urgent" requests that came in when our laptops were left unattended 😂.

Also, Office hours are limited. When you choose to spend time in one area, then the trade-off is that you have less hours in other areas. For example, in my role as a manager in the workplace, I have to juggle multiple different tasks: Setting goals, coaching and mentoring others, measuring performance, attending conferences and seminars to explore new solutions and ideas, engaging clients, exchanging feedback, reviewing and approving your team deliverables, performance reporting with our superiors, getting to know your team, hiring new staff, and your own personal competency development.
It’s the art of juggling between “where should I put more emphasis and priorities”, “what can I afford to miss?”, and “what is best for my team and I in the long term?”

It happens for parenting, too. For example, If we want to allow our children with the freedom of creativity with their toys, or to learn being independent, such as eating by themselves, then in the meantime, we have to learn to accept that the household will be in a complete mess as they try, learn, and make mistakes. And as parents, it's about knowing “when” and “how” to strategize the cleanup afterwards.

It’s okay to be messy. Let them judge. You do you.

Do you struggle with perfectionism in handling multiple responsibilities? What trade-offs do you have to make? How do you decide?

"Best Male participant" award for Hello! Top Talent Onboarding Program - 13 July 2023, PLC Bangi

Wow, that was unexpected, Masha Allah. I received award as Best participant for this course today at the beautiful campus of PETRONAS leadership center in Bangi, getting a copy of the book "Originals" by Adam Grant. I've enjoyed listening Adam Grant's podcast channels "Work Life" & "Re-thinking" and am looking forward to read his work here: "A great idea is a great start. But it's what you do next that counts - how to make change happen, champion originality and encourage others to think differently, and get new ideas to stick". 

Alhamdulillah, am also grateful for the privilege to have been nominated for this program and to connect with other identified Top Talents across the organization. 

Love the message inserted here, too. Being "top talent" isn't a brand. It's not an entitlement or a right. It's a journey we need to continue building on. We have a responsibility to drive our teams together, develop others so they can excel beyond us, and be the change the organization needs towards a sustainable future.

Looking forward for exciting challenges ahead! 

Strategizing the Human element in innovation & change

 

Upstream Energy Efficiency Management Workshop - Double Tree, KL (5-6 July 2023)

As we set higher aspirations to move our organizations towards innovation, progress, and change, especially towards ambitious goals such as Digitalization and Sustainability targets such as the Net Zero Carbon Emmissions (NZCE) by 2050, I feel that the most important - and often overlooked - strategy, is the human element.

Throughout attending various conferences, discussions, and reading up the subject matter, I started seeing some common patterns, and this is what I’ve learnt so far. Here are 9 perspectives of how we can strategies the human element towards steering change:

1. Understand and Empathize the Resistance to Change - it’s natural. People will always fear the unknown and have a tendency to stick to what’s familiar: Even if the familiar isn’t particularly good, or the alternative proposal is objectively better.

2. Key: Building Trust - Don’t just bark orders and expect an overnight revolution. Take the time to listen, understand their pain points, and let your actions demonstrate respect & care. Trust will make people go the extra mile.

3. Tailoring your Communication - Adjust your language & style to meet the audience. Technicians relate better when things are simple. Management loves facts and figures. Engineers want to understand "why" & "how". Tapping of wisdom from Ali bin Abi Talib: “Speak to people according to their understanding and level of knowledge” (Al-Bukhari).

4. Demonstrate Cohesiveness, collaboration & Collective responsibility - One excellent example we heard was when a leader gave assurance to his team by openly declaring: “If anything goes wrong, it’s on me. I will take responsibility”.

5. Embrace "failure" as a part of a learning journey, not something to penalize or demonize others!

6. Keep things simple: Progress, not perfection - It’s more important to make iterative, strategic changes than revamp everything. Something I learnt: “Standardization” isn’t necessarily a great thing if it slows everyone down, or forces other teams to ascribe to things which aren’t applicable for them!

7. Don't get too distracted by the novelties of “new” innovative frontiers. Focus on Value and Prioritize with the big picture in mind: Don't allow "nice-to-haves" override the priority of our core jobs and the need to strengthen fundamentals first!

8. Determination, perseverance - Change is difficult; we will be facing a lot of pushback and resistance. That’s life. These are times when organizations need us to step up with the courage to act & be steadfast.
Bruce Lee once said, “Do not pray for an easy life. Pray for the strength to endure a difficult one”.
   
9. Think Sustainability: Set up systems, not just individuals - People will change. How will you set up solid working systems that continue to thrive, even if core team members change?

#innovation #humanbehavior #leadership

🐝 The Believer is Like A Bee

The Prophet ﷺ said, 

وَالَّذِي نَفْسُ مُحَمَّدٍ بِيَدِهِ إِنَّ مَثَلَ الْمُؤْمِنِ لَكَمَثَلِ النَّحْلَةِ أَكَلَتْ طَيِّبًا وَوَضَعَتْ طَيِّبًا وَوَقَعَتْ فَلَمْ تُكْسَرْ وَلَمْ تَفْسُدْ

“I Swear By the One in whose hand is the soul of Muhammad, the parable of the believer is that of a bee:

It consumes and produces what is pure and good.

When it lands on a branch, it never breaks or spoils (it).”

(Narrated in Musnad Aḥmad 6872; graded Sahih li ghayrihi according to Al-Arna’ut)

Amazing Hadith! I recently heard this hadith for the first time, and there’s so much deep insights defining the Muslim identity:

1. 🌺 Consumes what is pure - 

Bees knows what they want, and are very selective to extract exactly from the flowers they stop by: nectar and pollen. They know what to filter out, and don’t take “additional souvenirs” beyond their needs. Likewise, a believer sees with insight, using their values and principles defined by the Quran & sunnah to selectively extract the goodness out of their environment: the people they meet, the places they go, the content they consume, the sights and sounds they experience - and they filter out the unnecessary, bad stuff. 

    

2. 🍯 Produces what is pure - 

From the nectar they extract from the flowers, their stomachs partially process the nectar with some enzymes, where they regurgitate it back out back at their hives as honey. It’s this processing that give honey the natural healthy remedies. Likewise, a believer takes from the environment, “processes” it through the lens of iman, and therefore through his words & deeds, produce that which is pure and beneficial for others around them - a blessed presence (mubarak)! 

Interesting fact: The European honeybee pollinates three-fourths (75%) of the fruits, veggies & nuts that we eat!

Furthermore, what’s so interesting about bees is that they have a somewhat ‘subconscious’ symbiotic relationship with the flowers: They help spread out the pollen and pollinate the flowers. They don’t do this consciously, but it’s a byproduct of them effectively being so nimble as they travel from flower to flower. Likewise, believers, through their positive conduct - adab and akhlaq - always leave a positive beneficial trail in their wake, inspiring optimism and productivity whether they realize it or not. 

    

3. 🍃 When it lands on a branch, it never breaks of spoils it -  

Unlike parasites which leech of their hosts, bees are quick and nimble and leave their hosts completely unharmed; they extract what they need and they go. In fact, through their pollination, actually bring MORE benefit their hosts in the long run, more than what they actually receive for themselves.   

As believers, we should strive to meet this standard: When we interact with others, don’t burn your bridges, sever your ties, or cause harm to others. Even if you can’t improve or enhance, then at least don’t cause harm to those around you!