Copy Exactly!

First of all, this blog is not about the Copy Exactly factory strategy adopted by Intel.

A friend told me this story a couple of days ago. A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, there lived a highly respected chief priest. He had a lovely golden retriever that roamed around the temple freely. The love and bond between the chief priest and his dog grew stronger day after day. At certain time of the day, the priest had to perform some religious rituals together with his followers. His canine would like to participate but it would not be so appropriate. So, they left the dog outside while they performed their duties to god. Feeling left out, the dog would ran around wildly, knocking down flower pots, annoying other people, and barked and barked and barked.

The priest told himself that he had to do something. One day, before starting the routine rituals, he tied his best friend next to a god statue in the garden, next to the main hall. He served him some vegetarian food from the alms they collected in the morning. The rituals went on smoothly without any disturbance at all. They repeated the same procedures from that day onwards.

Many years went by. Some of the chief priest's followers had gone to another planet to open new branches. Some had retired, some had decided to worship other gods, while some had gone closer to god. One day, the time for the chief priest to enter heaven had come. Although, his golden retriever had become senile, he was so sad that he decided to follow his master. All the followers threw the chief priest a grand funeral wishing him all the best in afterlife.

After things settled down, the most senior guy was elected to take the helm. Due to many years of training, it was just a piece of cake for the new chief priest to recite the mantras.

But wait! There is no dog there!

Go and catch one and tie it next to the god statue in the garden!

Dress Rehearsal

We played the game and won big time!!! But this is not the point.
We participated in this game as a team, learned a lot from the game and from each other.
We discovered our true self, what each of us is good at and what are the areas of improvement.
We learned that in a team, everyone is equally important no matter what role you are playing.
We found that trust and empowerment is something you need in a performing team.
We understood that everyone is unique and respecting others earns you even more respect.
The list is almost endless.
Something we will not deny, we really enjoyed being in a team, had fun, and will never forget!

That was the copyrighted simulation game by Marin County based American Consulting & Training - Dress Rehearsal.

As the saying goes, you mileage may vary. So, everyone will experience the game differently. Some like it very much and want to go for the fourth round, while some think that is the mother of all tortures. After all, it is designed to simulate complex and matriced situation in life. Strike a balance, do your best and on the other hand, not too serious to the point that you want to throw punches.

No one gets out of life alive!

Kampai at the Cool Bananas

In the beginning of this month, which was just 2 weeks ago, we were "imprisoned" at the luxury Grand Plaza Parkroyal hotel for the whole week. We were required by the company to attend a "very important" training for supervisors / managers. The hotel was not new to me as I used to go there now and then, be it on my own for dinner, or some team building events sponsored by the company. However, this was my first time staying there for a few nights.

On the first day, everybody was trying to get to know each other, building relationships, "forming" teams, making ourselves comfortable with each other. Not much on the first day, anyway. It was a pain in the ass on the first night having dinner together with the assigned team members, cracking our heads to start conversations and share something in common as well. While trying our best to feel comfortable with each other, we were also required to come out with the team name and logo. A very good experience on "forming" as in the Tuckman model of team development.

Being "sworn to secrecy", I have to keep my promise, and therefore I am not going to blog on the activities taken place during the "boot camp". There was one night that it was optional for us to get together and sing karaoke, sort of a team building event at the Cool Bananas. It was great, beer was good, people were trying their best to entertain and have fun at the same time.

As first, it was a bit awkward for me to go out and sing. So, I waited for a while. Hey! How to sing without filling my tummy with beer???
Hmm... couldn't stand it anymore, went straight to the bartender with a friend and got a few tumblers. Got to know more and more friends.

Locals: Yam seng! (obviously a Cantonese word)
Taiwanese: Sui yi! Ganbei!
Japanese: Kampai! Ikki! Ikki! Ikki!
Koreans: Konbae!
Lain-lain: Cheers!

After many kampai, I got my engine started, sang many songs, including a Japanese song too.

There was a song sung by some Japanese friends which I had forgotten for quite some time. It reminded me of the old days when I was with my previous company. I used to sing "Kampai" with Japanese counterparts, vendors, customers, etc. I didn't sing it that night as I was lacking of confidence for this one. Well, we really had fun that night. Here is the lyric.

Katai kizu na ni, omoi o yosete
Katari tsukusenu seishun no hibi
Toki ni wa kizutsuki, toki ni wa yorokobi
Kata o tataki atta, ano hi...

Are kara dore kurai, tatta no darou
Shizumu yuuhi o, ikutsu kazoetarou
Furusato no tomo wa, ima demo kimi no
Kokoro no naka ni imasu ka...

Kampai ima kimi wa jinsei no
Ookina, ookina butai ni tachi
Haruka nagai michinori o aruki hajimeta
Kimi ni shiawase are

Kyandoru raito (candle light) no, naka no futari o
Ima koushite me o hosometeru
Ookina yorokobi to, sukoshi no sabishi sa o
Namida no kotoba de, utaitai...

Asu no hikari o, karada ni abite
Furi kaerazu ni sono mama yukeba yoi
Kaze ni fukarete mo, ame ni utarete mo
Shinjita ai ni, se o mukeru na...

Kampai ima kimi wa jinsei no
Ookina, ookina butai ni tachi
Haruka nagai michinori o aruki hajimeta
Kimi ni shiawase are

Kampai ima kimi wa jinsei no
Ookina, ookina butai ni tachi
Haruka nagai michinori o aruki hajimeta
Kimi ni shiawase are
Kimi ni shiawase are

Everyone enjoyed themselves very much. The most important thing, everyone knew each other much better. I am sure a little kampai here will definitely lead to some life long friendships.

Saiko! Sasuga!