So I haven't been able to update my learning days for a while now. Last week was super hectic at work but some beautiful gems came my way as a result.
An intense school certification visit ended on a great deal of learning. Not only did I learn more about my work, I learnt more about myself, how I behave under pressure, how it affects my physical being and how it affects me mentally. It was funny how this 100 days of learning made me look at myself with a lens, from a separate plain as I was going through the daily motions. I realised that I need to eat extra healthy, keep extra reminders to keep breathing normally as my breathing becomes shallow when I am under stress. It was good to have my work friends and colleagues drop into my office to keep checking on me........ relationships matter.... a lot, more so in times of absolute busy-ness!
Some of the major learning during this visit was the technical vocabulary used by other departments. I had heard the terms scheduled, preventive and predictive maintenance before; however, this was the first time they made some sort of sense to me. (Esp, after having googled them!) I quote from wikipedia!
- An individual bought an incandescent light bulb. The manufacturing company mentioned that the life span of the bulb is 3 years. Just before the 3 years, the individual decided to replace the bulb with a new one. This is called preventive maintenance.
- On the other hand, the individual has the opportunity to observe the bulb operation daily. After two years, the bulb starts flickering. The individual predicts at that time that the bulb is going to fail very soon and decides to change it for a new one. This is called predictive maintenance.
- The individual ignores the flickering bulb and only goes out to buy another replacement light bulb when the current one fails. This is called corrective maintenance.
Wow!
This week I met an interesting guy. He reminded me of myself because he was bursting with ideas, had loads of energy (which his continuous cans of coke added to!) and was ready to take on the world..... then and there! I also realised the effect he was having on people around him. It reminded me again of the need to keep a reign on ideas and read the group which is to implement the change and the ideas. The pace of change needs to be in sync with the understanding as well as the energy levels of the group the change is going to be applied on. It will be interesting to see how we lead the change.
The mooncake festival at school was another reminder of the cultural diversity I have the privilege of experiencing at very close quarters. While the Hofstede's cultural dimensions have opened my eyes to the possibilities, the habit of constant reflection and analysis now helps me to see beyond these dimensions. I am particularly intrigued at the changing facets of these dimensions with the changing demographics, education, English proficiency and the third culture seeping in. This needs a deeper reflection, observation, more reading and perhaps a PhD! If only it wasn't this expensive!
The most enjoyable learning I had this week was through my professional development course on mathematics. I have always been interested in maths but this session was absolutely brilliant. The workshop leader provided us with some amazing maths challenges and I particularly fell in love with Pascal's triangle! I also loved the website http://nrich.maths.org/frontpage which provides excellent open-ended maths inquiries for learners. My colleague and I started a particular activity and we just couldn't let go. This is going to be Micky and my favourite site for a while now, knowing his love for maths!
Happy with the very productive week in terms of work and learning. :)
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