Good Excuse, Bad Excuse
To continue from yesterday, let's be fair and listen to what our Minister of Transport has to say about the latest fiasco [1]:
In his defense, our beloved Minister of Transport, Hatta Rajasa said that he frequently made mistakes because he is way too tired. There are many accidents lately, he is extremely busy and that led to mistakes [2].
"I am tired and I receive too much information, so sometimes I mentioned things inaccurately", he said. (Or something like that - rough translation from [2]).
All right. Fair enough. Let's help him.What should he do?
So we did a silly experiment: We went to one of our young managers (just promoted recently), and ask her some "what if" questions :
Question no 1:
"What if one of your staff came to you and said that he is too tired doing his job? What would you say to this person?"
Young Manager:
"Does he/she have staff working under him?"
"Well, yes."
Young Manager:
"Three words: delegate, delegate, delegate.
If he had enough people under him, he should delegate some of the work.
If someone came to me saying he/she is too tired, in my opinion it means 3 possibilities:
One: he/she does not have enough people. Two: he/she has enough people but cannot delegate. or Three: he/she is just too unorganized and not up for the job."
Question no 2:
What if this staff said that he receives way too much information. More than he can handle?
Young Manager:
"That's just basic management. He has to set his priority. Organize the information into high, medium, and low priority and respond accordingly.
If he said all are in top priority, that means he has not thought them through. Or simply has no ability to organize himself.
Trust me, even on a burning platform [3], you can always organize issues into different level of priorities.
Question no 3:
What if this staff said, receiving too much information has led to him making mistakes. Inaccurate statements for example. Some even get to the press.
Young Manager:
"For God sake. Who is this guy anyway? That is just inexcusable.
Who is he? One of mine? Because I can assure you I won't tolerate this kind of behaviour."
We could not hold our laughter any longer so we showed her the printout of the news.
Young Manager:
"A minister? You made me criticize a minister?
Get out of here, you bunch of w***ers ! ..."
-------
[1] Our Previous Post
[2] Detik.com - Gara-gara keletihan, Hatta Mengaku Sering Salah Ngomong
[3] Just a typical office jargon, frequently used here. Among us "burning platform" means 'high priority/critical issues" or "crises".
In his defense, our beloved Minister of Transport, Hatta Rajasa said that he frequently made mistakes because he is way too tired. There are many accidents lately, he is extremely busy and that led to mistakes [2].
"I am tired and I receive too much information, so sometimes I mentioned things inaccurately", he said. (Or something like that - rough translation from [2]).
All right. Fair enough. Let's help him.What should he do?
So we did a silly experiment: We went to one of our young managers (just promoted recently), and ask her some "what if" questions :
Question no 1:
"What if one of your staff came to you and said that he is too tired doing his job? What would you say to this person?"
Young Manager:
"Does he/she have staff working under him?"
"Well, yes."
Young Manager:
"Three words: delegate, delegate, delegate.
If he had enough people under him, he should delegate some of the work.
If someone came to me saying he/she is too tired, in my opinion it means 3 possibilities:
One: he/she does not have enough people. Two: he/she has enough people but cannot delegate. or Three: he/she is just too unorganized and not up for the job."
Question no 2:
What if this staff said that he receives way too much information. More than he can handle?
Young Manager:
"That's just basic management. He has to set his priority. Organize the information into high, medium, and low priority and respond accordingly.
If he said all are in top priority, that means he has not thought them through. Or simply has no ability to organize himself.
Trust me, even on a burning platform [3], you can always organize issues into different level of priorities.
Question no 3:
What if this staff said, receiving too much information has led to him making mistakes. Inaccurate statements for example. Some even get to the press.
Young Manager:
"For God sake. Who is this guy anyway? That is just inexcusable.
Who is he? One of mine? Because I can assure you I won't tolerate this kind of behaviour."
We could not hold our laughter any longer so we showed her the printout of the news.
Young Manager:
"A minister? You made me criticize a minister?
Get out of here, you bunch of w***ers ! ..."
-------
[1] Our Previous Post
[2] Detik.com - Gara-gara keletihan, Hatta Mengaku Sering Salah Ngomong
[3] Just a typical office jargon, frequently used here. Among us "burning platform" means 'high priority/critical issues" or "crises".
posted by Indonesia Anonymus | 4:13 PM
7 Comments:
well, maybe he need a 'whispering staff'... just like our former president Gus Dur
I think this is a "normal" phenomena. To become a minister, we don't need a good managerial skill or something like that. If you're a little bit famous, have a good position in a "strong or smart enough" political party, or have a close relation to the president and or vice president families or friends, then you can get the position as minister easily...
My big question is: "how can the president work together --for a long time-- with a minister like this?" is he also too busy and tired so can't see what is going on in his cabinet? oh my poor country...
Roi:
Yes. You're right. He needs a whispering staff who would say to him: "Sir, with all due respect, I don't think this is the right thing to say. Not right now..."
Agusset:
Good point.
About your big question, you are not alone. We've been asking that question for a long time too..
It's all way too obvious to pretend it's not there. And yet, he didn't do anything...
"oh my poor country" indeed.
Hi All,
Surely there is some (one?) minister doing a good job and caring what he/she is doing.. Trouble is with all the trash how do we identify them?
hem....we should understand this because he is a human too but in another side we need a professionalism. We are always surrounded by dilemma
:-)
Talk first, think after. How can a minister spread out such news without confirming its truth first? I think the Indonesian government need to learn the art of planning or thinking beforehand. How many times in the past did you see projects done without planning that ended up being redone over and over? What a waste. I wonder, what do they do when they come to work?
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