Why we need to Plan, Do, Check, Act (PDCA) -Updated 8/1/2020

Plan, Do, Check, Act (PDCA), a very important practice for everyone at any time doing any task. This is something that we all need to embrace because, without PDCA, we might prone to make silly mistakes. Some minor errors made without proper checking might have a big impact. Think about Pareto's Principle, 80% of consequences come from 20% of the causes.

<Updated: 21st January 2020>

I found this video very interesting on 'Checking'. Look at how effective can PDCA be implemented in "Day in the Life of a Japanese Delivery Worker"

<Updated: 8th January 2020>

Spotted another error made by Malaysia's largest bank, Maybank. This is on their membership rewards web page, Treatpoints. Look at the Samsung Galaxy Tab S6, from 50,000 points, the offer during Chinese New Year is 1,499,500 points. Hmm...really?!

Just to give you an example, The Edge (30 Dec 2019) mixed up the image of the latest GoPro Hero 8 Black (RM1,879) with the new Garmin Marq Commander smartwatch (from RM4,699).

What do you think could be the implication of this error. At a glance, some readers might be excited to see GoPro is finally introducing a smartwatch at RM1,879. Meanwhile, some readers may think that Garmin is now working with GoPro which skimming the price of its joint-development product. When the readers found out about the mistake, it may flatten the curiosity for both new products. All parties do not benefit from this minor error but the implication could be drastic.

Think about the minor errors you have made at work, in your studies and personal life, can it be prevented with better checking? How might it change the results or the impact of our action, only if we check before we act.

What say you?

Research Insight in 3 minute

Research Insight in 3 minute

I find research work is insightful, but not all research topic is inspiring. These are some of the studies that I think are worth mentioning:

Mindfulness vs Motivation (updated on 23/7/2019)

• Professor Hafenbrack interviewed by Havard Business Review in the Jan-Feb 2019 (issue #97 volume 1) concluded that Mindfulness is demotivating. In his research, meditators' motivation level was about 10% lower than the level of the people who had not practiced mindfulness. However, he reported that despite lower motivational level, the samples in the mindful group completed their assigned tasks on par with others, and equally well. 

• Based on the above, can we conclude that less motivated employees may still perform as well as those who are highly motivated, as long as they meditate and practice mindfulness? Does this mean mindfulness is correlated to performance? or perhaps, are mindful people are more effective at work? There are still many unanswered questions on mindfulness but this is enough to put on our thinking cap and start investigating for more insights.

-----------------------------------------------------

Health is Priority

We have always been chasing our dream, working hard for a better career and growing our wealth. At some point of time, we may have forgotten the most important element of success - health!

A Teacher, An Educator

Are you afraid of your teacher? Why? Are they fierce to you and demanding? But why? If you are a student, what type of teacher do you prefer?

Something happen for a reason and there must be one when an educator is demanding. A demanding teacher can be fierce because they have expectation and they are concern with the output of their job. As a teacher myself, I want to see how my student improves over time and be ready to graduate. I belief that if they graduated, they should be 100% ready to take up the challenge at work. They should also be able to perform as a thinker and problem solver to assist the company to achieve targets. Their superiors should should have peace-of-mind when assigning tasks to the graduates who requires minimum supervision.

When others asked me, why would you bother and make yourself so stressful with your job teaching the kids. I always share with them a story of 'what if'.

What if I allow the students to pass a course that they have not achieve the learning outcomes. Meaning, they have not learned and understanding the content of the course. Basically, the students have not achieve the expected objective of student attributes and skills of the course. What if this student graduated with minimum knowledge and skills, this person may still get a job and start working in a company that expect the graduate to have the knowledge and skills to perform the assigned tasks.What if they failed in the job, making mistakes, and worse scenario causing damages to the company. Some errors made could cost a company with huge losses. 

If this happen, it is partly our fault, the failure to make sure our students are ready and minimizing these risks. We need to have quality control for every production we had and students are our output in the production process of education. Hence, if there are so many people talking about quality control and warranty services, as a teacher, an educator, we are the production staffs and also a quality control officer ourselves.

So, why are we so demanding and looks fierce all the time? Take a look at those QC officers, auditors or those victims of your failure in delivering work...I think they looks worse than a teacher like me.

We are just doing our job for a better society. I am glad my teachers were demanding and fierce to me. Thank you my teachers, you all have taught me well.

What is Plane Water?

We all make mistake; there is nothing wrong about it because nobody is perfect. However, we cannot give ourself excuses and accept mistakes. Some mistakes can be drastic and could trigger big problem in some settings. Therefore, we need to always remind ourself to minimise our mistake and to reduce the damage of our carelessness to the lowest; for your work or personal life.

As a student, you may think why your lecturers always ask you to check and check and check your work before submitting it. Well, this is to train you to be more careful and meticulous; and be responsible for your own work. The moment you graduated and started working with any employer, your carelessness may cause severe problems to the organisation performance (directly or indirectly).

See what happen when a Hong Kong style restaurant in Kuala Lumpur charging RM3.00 for a glass of 'PLANE' water! I wonder what is so special with this beverage.

Thanks to Ms Eunice Tai for allowing me to share her first experience of consuming the very special 'Plane' water