It's Tuesday and basically I don't have any class from morning till evening. But then, when I checked my iCal, there's an entry stated:
'Leadership class, 8 p.m.'... But, there was a small note written under the entry:
'Final session'... I smile a bit.
Though I'm feeling so lazy to get up and ready for class, I quickly took my shower and off to campus around 7 p.m. Got some time to online so I updated my blogs and Facebook-ing for about 5 minutes.
Though it's unbelievable, ALT 2 was occupied by other class. As a result, we need to find other place and ended up in the classroom nearby ALT3. After settling down, and when the first group was ready, the presentations started right away.
The first topic for today was Thinking Skills. The presentation circled around Edward de Bono's 6 Thinking Hats. They made a short movie which introduce the group member - with their hats. There was a part when the whole group was having a discussion regarding their presentation for Leadership class - which was what they were doing that time, and there was a part when they play another movie which is Tan Sri P. Ramlee's Ali Baba and 40 Thieves. In the movie, they point out some of the type of thinking such as visual, wishful, reflective, positive, and hypothetical thinking. After the movie, they discussed about the type of thinking skills and proceeded on how they are going to present the topic.
There were some points that I took from their presentations. The first point, we need to arrange our thoughts before implementing something, consider the consequences before doing something - rush decisions should be avoided, and how we should be able to cope with different way of thinking among ourselves as we need to consider other people thoughts especially when we need to decide upon something that involve other people as well.
Regrading the presentation, I think that the method in conveying the message is quite okay. Though the same method was used by Azli's group before but when it comes to Edward de Bono, it's a new thing for me. My group members think that there are better way of presenting the topic, but as they want the presentation not to be time-consuming, that's how it was presented. An international friend of mine was having difficulty to understand the whole movie - especially it was cut here and there, so I think the group supposedly have to come up with something global.
Throughout the presentation, I was thinking about some people whose actions not reflecting their thinkings or what they said. As for me, you better not saying anything if you can't do it. In essence, do not make promises if you can't make it.
The second point, Western thinking versus Islamic thinking. Well, as for me, I've been living all my life Western and Eastern-ly. I have to admit, when it comes to religion, I'm lack in terms of that. Therefore, of course I need to brush up my knowledge in religion field to be able to think in Islamic way.
Moved on to the second presentation which was on Stress Management. The group was portraying a male student who is a good student in his class, has good interpersonal skills, but because of being overwhelmed with studies, tasks given as the president of student bodies, he ended being stressed. It was an acting in their class, where his friends told him that he is in stressed condition by pointing out the symptoms of being stressed and how to overcome them. The 'lecturer' also advised him through the Islamic perspective on how to relax and nourish your heart, mind, and soul with the Words of Allah - al-Quran, and do a lot of zikir.
From Br. Said, I also found out that because of stress, someone could end up having hallucinations, delusions, illusions, and thus he or she need to be prescribed certain medications to ease the stress.
All in all, it was a good presentation. I think we also need some reminder on this topic as the finals are just around the corner.
The third presentation, which is the final presentation, was on Strategic Planning. The group came up with some facts on how to make strategic planning like we need to plan carefully and make statement out of it. In order to plan wisely, we need to understand the missions and visions of a project, what's the goal and what's need to be achieved.
They brought a scenario where a company who was making a good business suddenly collapsed and facing bankruptcy therefore the group who was acting as Mr. Plan It has come to the rescue. According to Mr, Plan It, in a company, organizational strategies are needed and there are different strategies for different level of managers. SWOT (strength, weakness, opportunity, and threat) analysis also should be done to analyze the situation face by the company. There were also the Porter's 5 Forces and PEST (political, economical, social, technological) analysis being discussed in order to save the company. That was the first part of the presentation.
The second part of the presentation was about a twins who's attending university but having different attitude towards the life as a university student. One with positive attitude that keeping good habit studying regularly and having some time to relax when exams are approaching while the other one with negative attitude who was cramming before the exam. Well, of course the first one get good results in exam while the other one doesn't. Thus, the moral of the story, plan your studies and prepare early is better than pulling an all-nighter.
All in all, I think for this final presentation, my classmates were having difficulty to focus as they find it more fun and entertaining than informative. Why? Because of the Mr. Plan It, and the part when Tengku played a role as a father who disappointed in his daughter who had failed in exam. Still, I think the overall is quite okay.
At last, the Leadership and Management sessions are over! Honestly, I'm quite relief but at the same time, I feel sad as there won't be any sessions with students from other departments - of course there will be Parenting, but for the moment, yes, I'm sad. I won't be hearing traveling experiences from Br. Said anymore.
Thinking back what we had been through for the last 6 sessions we had, I think it's a good experience. We got to express more about ourselves and what we're thinking. Sharing thoughts with my classmates and also telling others your opinions regarding matters discussed in the class had made me learned some facts that I never knew before. Laughing, surprising, reflecting, thinking, and all those memories I had with my classmates, I will remember them.
In a nutshell, I had a good time spending with my classmates and Br. Said as our guide in these Leadership and Management sessions. Indeed, after all these self-discovery sessions, all of us had become better than before.
The End.
p.s.: To Br. Said, thanks for making me writing a journal. It is a good experience indeed.
