You always enjoy intellectual discussions with your OD head on change management. Perhaps it helps when both of you are new to the organisation with no baggage and are able to see things with a fresh pair of lens.

It also helps as you learnt from her vast experiences on talent management, OD and change management. As both of you are working on the organisation's talent development program, you have learnt more about the organisation's culture and the dinosaurs / fixed assets people. In the candid discussions with your OD head, you both acknowledge that this journey is going to be a long and arduous one.

It's particularly difficult when your own organisation is undergoing restructuring to streamline and optimise processes.When you reflected back on the GDHRM lecture on OD, you knew that you have work cut out for you. How do you convince and cajole the organisation that change is for the better? As the 3 day work plan seminar concluded today, you hoped that some of the enlightened employees would be able to see the need for change and be open to the change.

Ultimately, you don't want the organisation to end up like another Nokia or Kodak who failed to evolve to meet the rapidly changing environment.

As with every citizen soldier, one has to contend with the annual military refresher training and the much dreaded physical fitness proficiency test. Comparing the active days where getting a Silver award for the proficiency test was a breeze, you are just glad to just pass it as a citizen soldier.

Even though the format has changed to one with lesser stations (push-ups and  sit-ups plus the 2.4km run)  and somewhat easier, no one will ever tell you that it's any easier. As your age slides to the right and the body parts gracefully degrades, staying fit is challenging as one balance between both work and family commitments. 

But as with all physical proficiency tests you have gone through, you just do your best, gaining as much points as possible. At the final station (running), you just kept running, hoping that you can just get it over and done with. By the third lap, you were feeling faint and weak from a lack of breakfast. You felt like giving up. But a familiar voice within kept you going, lap after lap until the end-point.

With the run completed, you were relieved that you have passed the annual requirement. Your body ached from the torture you have wrecked on it and the stomach is growling from hunger. As you set off to the school canteen next door with your buddy to refuel, you felt ashamed.

You weren't satisfied to have just passed. The pride within you wants to maintain the Silver standard of your active days. After deliberating about it over the weekly gym and swimming routine, you decided to re-attempt for the Silver award this coming Saturday.

Hopefully, you will not fail.

   

It's only through death that a person's legacy and deeds are made known. While you never had the opportunity to interact with him, you were always impressed by his "wayward boy made good" background. The story of how he circumvent all odds to hold the highest office was an inspiration to civil service officers like you.

As you hear the little things he have done for people from all walks of life (from posing in someone's pre-wedding shoot at ECP to the inspection of Officer Cadets in the rain), he was the epitome of  the Civil Service; country above self, integrity, empathy and the ability to work under pressure. 

His following quote would be added to the one by the founding PM which is pasted on your office cubicle;

  

"I’ve done the best I can. If it’s good enough for some people, fine. If it’s not good enough for some people, and there will always be noise in the environment, you can’t stop it. You don’t do it because you want to leave a legacy. You do the best you can."

Rest In Peace, sir.

One can infer to the movie, Courage Under Fire. Such is the dilemma facing one of your ex-colleagues in the organisation. While it's not convenient to divulge the facts, this issue has garnered the attention of the past and present members of the organisation. It has caused the affected colleague to question the values which have been inculcated in all members since organisation's formation.

What has become of the organisation which has been the bedrock of your life? Why has it become this way? As you breached your own discipline and drank too much beer this afternoon, you felt saddened by the organisation's decaying values. All the members felt that what he has done was correct and have backed him up totally. 

Well, how this situation will pan out depends on how he would want to escalate this issue. All you know is that the junior members are watching it and any cover-ups will greatly demoralise them. No one would be able to hold their heads up high.  

Afternote: The incident was covered up at the working level. It was a disappointing moment as the active members shared the news in the chat group. This episode would go down into the organisation's annals as a black mark. 

The past few days have seen you undergoing talent identification, assessment and development training at the corporate headquarters. It was interesting to have undergone both the Occupational Personality & Motivational assessments and,  knowing your developmental gaps and whether you are a HiPo.

Given the scientific and objectivity of this approach, it removes the human bias. It's interesting Having the ability to interpret your own report, chart out your own development plan and also to address the skepticism which the bosses would have. But the skill which you have learnt will greatly aid you in the identification and development of talents.

While the training was intense, the joy came during meal times. Meals were at at the string of eating outlets (Equilibrium - Italian, Naughty Nuri - Indonesia) with your colleagues, courtesy of the training provider. Co-incidentally, you noticed that J had the annual birthday get-today with her ex-colleagues at the Japanese restaurant next to it. 

Talk about twist of fate. 

It just passes by you without you knowing.

While many cheered Joseph Schooling on his remarkable Olympic Gold medal win, you were inspired by the tenacity and perseverance - It was a long 7-year journey of hard work which brought him to where he is today.

In the same vein, as you reflect on his achievement, you asked yourself how far you have gone towards the attainment of your dream. Those lonely nights where you doubted your choice, the terrifying moments when you nearly ran out of fuel while flying against headwinds so strong that the plane was flying backwards or narrowly missing a flock of birds as you lifted off the runway.

2 years on, you came back and couldn't get hired by the local carriers as your Airbus rating isn't recognised by the local authorities. It doesn't help that there's a perceived bias towards American-trained pilots even though the licence is awarded by their authorities. You even went for 2 interviews but didn't make the grade without even knowing why. 

But you have learnt to take it in your stride. Failures are part and parcel of any dream. As Randy Pausch once said; “The brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough. They’re there to stop the other people.” 

You know that very well. 

And as a promise to yourself, you started the ATPL journey last Saturday. You opened the first of the fourteen e-textbooks and closed it after realising that each book is at least 600 pages thick. You can't read an e-textbook without highlighting and making notes on them. This week you are going to print out the first few books and hunker down in the school library to prepare for the long haul. But, first, you need to get yourself a new inspirational A4-sized ring-bound notebook similar to what J gave you previously. 

You cannot understand why people are going crazy over the Pokemon Go game. It irks you when people are chasing them all over Singapore and sometimes at the risk of their personal safety. Maybe you are just an old soul at heart; one who would rather read a book over coffee/beer, see the stars or cruise down your favourite stretch of expressway with the sea breeze wafting through your hair..

But you have no energy to look at such idiocy at play. You are fighting so much fires these days that a friend quipped that you are going to get burnt out at this rate. You can't agree more. You need to keep that personal promise of a quarterly vacation/stay-cation to recuperate.

Time to start looking for a short getaway to that quaint little island again.  .

After a long day at work, some of the things you forward to is hug from the significant other (not going to happen), a long hot shower and a glass of wine. 

Indeed, the month of August is shaping up to be a long one as you split yourself into 3 parts; Writing the workplan paper, Slowly taking over the reins of running the department and, Running the entire organisation's succession planning exercise. Time is never enough as you do your utmost to stay ahead of the power curve.

In fact, as you are writing this, you should be in Beijing with your big boss, meeting up with the government officials. But luckily for you, the trip has been deferred to September. While August is shaping up to be a busy one, September is one filled with travels. In a span of one month, you would be flying to Beijing, Germany and up north for business trips.

While you love travelling, going with the bosses meant that you are also the trip officer, preparing the itinerary, arranging the air tickets and accommodations. Well, at least it will be a reward trip of sorts for all the "hard" work you have done.. 

You just love the ability of being able to have a free ride by tapping out before 0745H. It's a privilege reserved for those working within the town area which you have sorely missed. Your love-hate relationship with public transport is something which many commuters can relate to.

From packed trains to frequent breakdowns, its only the free rides before 0745H which makes the ride more bearable. Notwithstanding that, driving to town for meetings and paying exorbitant parking rates (even though its claimable) goes against your principle of saving money for the company. While the car remains a necessity due to the need to visit the various work locations and out-of-way journeys, public transport still remains the choice if you are heading to town.

You can catch up on your reading, daydream or "enjoy the scenery" as you commute to work. In fact, the public transport can be faster than driving your own car at times. Take for  example your commute back to the office this afternoon after your work in Corporate HQ. It just took you 30 mins to reach office compared to driving. Not to add that you don' have to battle idiotic drivers, traffic jams and the ERP. As one of the authorities' advertisement has said; "I can daydream because someone is driving".

Well, like you said, the love-hate relationship with the public transport continues and you will still keep the car.