Organisational Development
By Dean Martin

1. First step, for everyone in the organization to respect one another
   2. Good attitude should be rewarded, bad attitude questioned or punished
   3. Persevere to do whatever it takes to better your environment and your current circumstance despite discouragement from others
   4. One person struggles, we all struggle! One person triumphs, we all triumph!
   5. We need to have a shared vision
   6. Working in this company could be the highlight of our lives, but that’s the problem, it can only be a highlight if we make it happen through the decisions we make and the action we take
   7. Stay focused on the outcome
   8. Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate our deepest fear is that we are powerful measure
   9. Just because you deserve something it doesn’t mean they will give it to you, sometimes you need to take what is yours
   10. Failure is the first step towards success
   11. Play like champions and hold your head high

Dear all!
I’m truly sorry for writing this extremely long email, but I think it is high time we address certain issues that plague us and have been affecting us for some time now. I write this after receiving inspiration from a movie I watched together with LTA yesterday and once again, this email like all the others I have sent out may offend certain people and may cause a divide before it can bring us together, but it’s something I need to say. If I had to say this in any other company, I am sure I would be fired, but I truly believe there is something special in this company which allows us to take criticism and feedback constructively and develop from it. This actually could also be used as an article which is related to our everyday lives and the circumstances I feel we face in the office on a daily basis.

The movie I watched was actually a small snippet of Coach Carter which is one of the most motivational and inspirational movie of all times. And I think this video could actually be used to replace the Shackleton Story which we currently use to show leadership, perseverance, resilience and teamwork. The few lessons I learnt through the movie have been listed above and this message is about how I relate the lessons to Focus Adventure itself.

The first point as per the movie is that everyone in the company needs to start respecting each other. Not that we don’t already respect each other, but I believe that we could start doing it a little more, maybe not in terms of calling each other “Sir” but we need to appreciate the fact that we all contribute to the company development in our own ways. Some people write articles, some people set waypoints that everyone else can use, some people take up initiative to clean up the store or arrange equipment.

In relation to the current situation about articles, I don’t believe that writing articles should be the basis on which we should promote or demote people. And I honestly don’t think it should be enforced until it becomes a culture. Let us compare this to “Arranged Marriages” something which we would all feel so strongly about. Enforcing the use of articles is like forcing people to commit to something they are not yet accustomed to, like how a bride and groom are married even if they do
not love each other. Next, the hope that in time they will learn to love each other, or in our context “until it becomes a culture”, can never be understood or guaranteed. And finally we may end up despising each other or the system like how sometimes people involved in an arranged marriage hate each other a few months or years into the relationship. I think
enforcing anything without gaining the understanding of everyone involved is foolishness. Which is why, Boss’ message about writing articles is so much more inspiring since it aims to explain the reason and purpose behind writing articles, whereas, the other email is directive and simply enforces something without reinforcing the purpose behind it.

The next point from the movie, good attitude should be rewarded while bad attitude should be questioned or punished. The point here is that we should define clearly what attitude is, then determine whether it is good or bad, rather than basing it on the feelings and emotions of people involved. All big companies have directives which state which attitude is rewarded and which is not and I believe it is time we do so to.

The third point speaks about persevering to improve the situation despite discouragement from others, like I mentioned early in this email, I could well be fired for writing something like this, but let me once again emphasize that I do this to improve our current situation and to minimize the arguments and grudges that exist in the office. I have been discouraged in the past about writing or saying whatever is on my mind, but it is time to bring it out in the open which is also why I took the role as the Manager of Organization Development. I believe these matters need to be discussed openly, which was the goal behind the survey I had created for all the facilitators just that we have not had the chance to discuss anything as yet. Well the survey at least did show
which of our colleagues we appreciate in the office and which we don’t. It also showed us the points we could improve on if we chose to take the initiative to change. The fourth point is the essence of teamwork where if one person struggles we all struggle and if one person triumphs we all triumph. This is the kind of mentality we need to develop in order for the
company to be successful! We tell our participants everyday about teamwork, about how it is important to communicate on a face to face level rather than through emails, but the fact is that we do not practice what we preach among ourselves! This is the worst thing an organization like ours should face, because I believe if we ourselves cannot discuss and face the issues that affect us, we have no right to tell our participants to do it either! Let us remove the planks from our own eyes before we look at the splinters in those of others!

The next point is about having a shared vision. I personally believe that we all need to share a vision or at least be informed about the pros and cons about the vision before can even think of enforcing it. This is the only way we can actually make our time here in Focus Adventure worth it otherwise, I think we are all just here at the end of the day to get a salary and there is no meaning to the job itself. The current system we have in place may not be the most ideal but I believe it offers us an avenue towards success, but then there are some of us who are putting obstacles in our own path. I agree with boss’ recommendation of having at least one good article a year and not about a minimum or maximum number of articles every month.

The other points can all be summarized together, and it basically tells us that we all need to keep each other in check on the way to achieving our true potential! And that we should play like champions so that one day we may finally be able to hold our heads up high and effectively bring across our message to our participants and clients!

Thanks for taking the time to read all this! Hope we can move in the “right direction” from here!