Management with Humor Lect. 1

Hey, it's been sometime since I last updated.
Been busy with school.
Well, I realized before I post about the Dayang trip, I can actually shared this.
This post and a few more to come are actually part of my project for my module, Management with Humor. We are required to write a 300 word learning journal after every lecture for the first 5 lectures as part of our project work which is worth 60% of our results of this module.
As I was writing, I thought, ,my learning out come might be useful to some of you guys interested in leadership stuff. So here it is.


The lecture started with the lecturer telling us about how his book, “Management with Humor”, was turned in to a course by “chance”. This reminded me that in life, you need that little bit of luck for success. Also, many things we do/create for a certain cause, may result in something unexpected. Just like when the Internet was first “invented”, no one knew it can do so much and cause so much impact.


Many of the things I've learn from the lecture can actually related to my experiences and an adventure camp instructor.

Different places have different management systems. The style of management largely depends on the work culture of the place and the character and personality of the people in the system directly affects how the systems functions. This is why when we enter a new environment, be it work, school or society, very often we need time to get use to the culture and they way things work.

It's just like how you can find your things in you “untidy” room initially but not after your mother tidy it.

Different people have different ways of working and thus managing different groups of people would also require different styles. Just like how every camp is different.
I can never use the same style to interact and handle campers from different schools and age groups.

The manager needs to be able to bring his point across accurately in order to be efficient and effective. “Fear” may be able to people work more efficiently, but coupled with unclear instructions, it will still result in ineffectiveness. (just like example of cleaning toilet in the lecture) A manager asked the cleaner to clean the toilet and make sure anytime he checked the toilet is spotless. The cleaner worked very hard to make sure it is spotless. To make sure it's stays that way all the time, he locks the toilet.
The task is completed.
But this is not effective.
It has totally defeated the point of having a toilet and cleaning it!

Humans are emotional beings. How we feel directly affect our productivity. Everyone likes to feel recognized and valued. And when we feel recognized and valued, we are more driven to work because we do not want to be a let down and thus increase in productivity. The opposite is also true.
Just like when campers feel that instructors really cares and believe in them, they show improvement and perform better.

All, if not most of us always choose the conventional way of doing things. It's human nature. We choose the safest way—the one that many have used and proved to be the best.
However, with the ever changing world today, what works today may not work tomorrow. Managers have to be innovative, to be able to stop, think and come up with new ways to solve problems.