We're into the 4th week of the course and the relentless schedule is beginning to take its toll. The amount of reading we have to go through, the discussions we have to prepare and the weekly 1000/3000 word essays we have to complete meant that time management is very important.
We have been introduced to Organisational Learning, Security Studies, Leadership Development, the Conceptual Reframing Methodology and Sun Zi Bingfa. We have gone through psychology tests like the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI) personality inventory and Belbin® self-perception inventory and gotten to know ourselves as well as our syndicate-mates better.
My day usually starts at about 0300hrs in the morning where I will spend about 4 hours reading up and preparing for my lessons, followed by lectures and discussions from 0830hrs till 1730hrs with a short 1 hour lunch in between. Monday and Thursday evenings are occupied by Physical Training and Sports. Tuesday evenings are reserved for the Distinguished Speakers Programme and Friday evenings are for the weekly Officers' Mess Happy Hour. Our only reprieve is on Wednesdays where we get the whole of the afternoon for 'self study'. However, this is usually occuppied by 'other' commitments like the committees we have to participate in e.g. Magazine Committee, Social Committee, Dining-In Committee, Graduation Ball Committee, etc.
Through all this, I have discovered more about myself in such a short time. I went through the exercise on Personal Visioning again and strengthened it, rediscovered the power of vision, was re-inspired by Robert K Cooper's "Uncommon reminders to bring out the best in you" and fell in love with photography all over again after watching DeWitt Jones' "Everyday Creativity" and "Celebrating What's Right with this World" for the umpteenth time. I have become more self-reflective, I don't leap up the 'Ladder of Inference' as quickly as most of us are akin to do, I read more critically now after having gone through the Critical Reframing Methodology training where we 'painfully' went through Samuel Huntington's article on "Officership as a Profession" and Thomas Kuhn's synopsis on "Scientific Revolutions" and linking them together to form new concepts and came up with a paradigm shift.
Just today we were introduced to Sun Zi Binga by Prof Wee Chow Hou. It was a very interesting and enlightening lecture peppered with anecdotes from the business world as well as ancient China. I am certainly looking forward to more of his lectures in the coming weeks.
Well, my first paper up is the one on Security Studies due in 2 weeks time...something about whether ASEAN is becoming a security community....hmm, maybe I'll solicit some views and opinions from a certain Associate Professor from USM who is coming down this weekend for Buang's wedding...boleh kan Abang Zam? ;)
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