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Open-mindedness

Writing is a hard habit to keep up if you have to travel, especially when your laptop is out of order. But it was during one of these forced breaks when I felt I miss blogging most.

I just went to Bangkok for a few days. There was not the slightest hint from the city that the country is going through yet another stage of political turmoil, as recently depicted in the news media. The paradox I feel is that how the citizens of a society (I dare say any one around the world) can be so emotionally affected, if not disturbed, by the political agenda of its ruling class (with or without opposition), and yet, at the same time, can so choose to shut off all noises and go on with their normal life as usual.

But that is beside the point of my experience from the trip, which was for, among other purposes, participating in a program for "coaching". It was not exactly "the" training program which we were going through, but one to prepare us to coach those whom we have nominated to attend the full program. Anyway, there was nothing complicated and, as with any other similar kinds of collective learning experience, it is always ones attitude which determines how much to take away from the occasion. In other words, it is a matter of choice.

More often than not, I choose open-mindedness over cynicism. Especially for this Bangkok occasion, the facilitator is "one of us" - a consultant-turned-employee and after so many years with us, turning back to his old profession, but smartly securing the whole company as his major client. So for all the obvious and cliches about his teaching, it is a welcoming arrangement that the company is investing in people skills after all, particularly in an environment not devoid of a sense of intimidation from the past.

I also appreciate his frankness - that he agreed that once you became a CEO, you probably couldn't care less about asking your subordinates how they thought of you. But the usefulness of all the coaching techniques simply depends on a person's own quest to solicit feedback from others. If you don't want to know, don't ask.

But I cannot imagine my cynical self as readily contained if I had to listen to someone like Marshall Goldsmith, who wrote "what got you here won't get you there". The title itself sounds pompously deterministic ("what got you here won't necessarily get you there" sounds more logical), though beside the point. I read the book because it was given to me free of charge - by our friendly colleague-turned consultant - and out of sheer good faith, inferred from a few pages of browsing that it "seems an useful book to read". Hardly. Despite the author's well intention, I cannot survive the pretension, patronization and insult to people's intelligence, but have to stop half-way.

Yes, I have changed my judgement in a matter of just days. That's indeed how fickle a person's perception and feeling can be. For those who advocate 360 degree feedback, they better not ask me to offer my feedback. Of course I would still do it - if it would ever, unfortunately, become a part of my job. After all, I believe my diplomatic skills will come to my rescue if my open-mindedness gets shut down.

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