lala @ Wednesday, May 07, 2008
AGD Staff Meeting (ASM)
Today I attended my first ASM and it wasn’t what I expected at all. Initially I imagined it to be a sharing session attended by all staff to report on what they have done for the past month, important issues to update everyone. It turned out to be presentations by different people about just anything under the sun. Something like case studies in which lessons can be drawn from the cases and applied to our organisation. I feel like I’m back in sch where the AG asks for comments and questions after each presentation. A couple of times I felt like saying something, but I’m not sure I am in any position to make a comment, so I thought I’ll just wait until she calls upon me. I initially thought that I am not permitted/ not required to attend the ASM because I’m not a permanent staff there and I thought they were going to talk about serious and confidential stuff. Until Weiqiang came to ask me to join them.
There were quite a number of presentations today. Here’s a brief summary for each ppt.
Information handling and disclosure issues
There has been great public outcry about the loss of public data in the UK and this has brought our attention to the importance of how data is handled and disseminated to the intended end user. Also, in the case of data loss, who should be responsible? The data sender or the company relied upon to make the delivery? Law issues like due diligence and contractual relationships come into play. We also discussed how such cases are applicable to us in that in our daily working lives, do we take care in the information we have, how are important doc transmitted within and outside of this building etc? AG calls some people by names to ask for their comments, and it’s pretty evident that most of them are taken aback. Sounds like smu eh?
WOG-SO (Whole of government – strategic outcomes) based budgeting
Currently, the annual budget is based on each M’s budget for the year compiled and submitted to Parliament. In the near future, prolly in a year or two, such a system will be abolished. In place would be WOG-SO based budgeting, in which different Ms would be allocated a certain strategic outcome and as a team, they come up with a budget for that particular SO. I can’t remember the exact names of the SOs, but I recall them to be along the lines of higher productivity, stronger families, racial harmony etc.
Creativity
The presenter shared with us about the myths of creativity eg time pressure fuels creativity, money motivates creativity, creative comes from creative types etc. Then AG asked for our opinions on the myths, whether we agree or not. Stories about Japanese innovation and culture came up, as well as comparisons between Japan and US etc. AG also asked if accountants are boring people, whether we can be creative, not in the Enron sense, but do the right things creatively. She also brought up an important point about passion. We need to be passionate about the work we do, take things in our stride. The work may be mundane and filled with obstacles, but if we have the passion and determined to achieve the ultimate goal, failures should not deter us from trying again.
The ASM forces people to read up on the articles and slides prior to the presentations to facilitate discussions. Once again, smu style ;) I find the discussions very thought provoking and necessary to make work more interesting and more productive, which I’m sure the private sector simply has no time to conduct. Such is the culture distinct from the private sector. I’m not sure how my other colleagues think about the ASM, but I personally felt empowered and enlightened about life and about my work. I’m not sure if I’ll appreciate such sessions again after I enter the workforce, when there’s piles and piles of work for me to finish, but at this instant, I’m absorbing the information put forth with much enthusiasm and intensity.
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