Work as a Team

I used to find myself doing my man's job. Especially when it's relating to some of businesses that I manage. Magazine, Video Production and such stuffs. Designing this and that. Calculating this and that and such. There are 10 people working for the business. Yet, sometime it's me doing all the work. What's the point? This is what I found from Brad Sugars' article.

Firstly, let’s get back to basics. Most people in business will understand how important systems are. Systems are usually responsible for having a business that runs smoothly (and profitably). With systems in place, it’s simply a matter of employing people to run those systems.

Jadi, seketika bisnis berhenti bergerak atau sepertinya roda organisasi berhenti berputar, take a look at the systems within. Lihat seluruh sistem dari yang paling dasar seperti bagaimana produser menjawab telepon yang masuk hingga bagaimana sebuah produk dihasilkan. Jika sistem yang ada tidak terdefinisi dan terkomunikasikan dengan baik, bagaimana bisa diharapkan sistem tersebut bisa dimengerti, apalagi dijalankan? Definisikan, lalu tuliskan dan breakdown it into check list niscaya bisa jauh lebih efisien.

Seketika sistem telah dibentuk dan diketahui, yang perlu dilakukan adalah get the right man in the right place to run those systems. Yet, the real challenge lies ahead; it's not just about a matter of having people who come in, run the system and get the job done. In this stage, what we're looking for is SYNERGY.

Synergy comes from having people who are committed to a ‘common goal’. If people are involved in setting the ‘common goal’, they are generally more likely to commit. If you , as the business owner are dictating to your team ‘this is the goal’, don’t expect much commitment. If your team has ownership, they are much more likely to achieve. Ownership is also very useful when designing and building your systems, let alone setting goals. Keep asking the team this question…’I’m looking for [certain outcome], how do you think we should go about achieving that?’ The successful business owner has team members that say ‘I think we should do like this’. An unsuccessful business owner has team members that say ‘I don’t know, you’re the boss’.

Finally, be aware of what you are teaching your team. By this I mean, if a baby cries and it's mother comes running. What will the baby lean to do after a while? Exactly, let out a cry and in rushes Mum. All I ask is for you to be very aware of what you are teaching your team. If you’re saying to yourself ‘no-one can do it like me’ and you jump in and do it, your team is learning from that.

Ageing Population

I met one of my Chevening friends yesterday in Plaza Semanggi. It was lunch time n I miss that Bebek Peking in one of Chinese muslim restaurant in Bristol. Rice Bowl was our choice then. It was my fifth time to go to Mall since the last six months.

Sitting there in one of the most centrally located Mall in Jakarta, we realized there was quite different atmosphere from most UK Shopping Centres. Something missing from our shopping centres. And it's an eldery people! ya! orang tua!

kakek2 ompong, nenek2 bungkuk berambut putih, kakek nenek pengendara mobil batere nan imut, mereka mandiri, ramah senyum dan biasanya tak segan mengajak ngobrol dimana ada kesempatan persis Ibu Nenek Gendut Soraya, nenek gw tercinta.


Gw inget banget soalnya setiap hari berangkat ke kampus jam 10 pagi, itu bis yang gw tumpangin pastinya penuh dengan manusia lanjut usia~pensioners. Tinggal menunjukkan kartu Pensioner mereka n simsalabim, mereka bebas kemana saja. Sekumpulan nenek2 biasanya menuju city centre buat berburu barang2 murah di Charity shops dan bazar2 murah.

Lalu, kemana mereka dalam kasus Indonesia? Yaaa pengajian laahhhh... Maulid boo.. Malu sama cucuuu..

No, I mean, it's far more serious than that. It's describing how horrible and unfriendly really our transportation system is. Ga kebayang kan nenek2 bungkuk naek Kopaja di Jakarta? Bisa2 tewas jantungan ngeliat copet beraksi di depan mata mereka, atau tumbang ketika mengejar ngejar Metro Mini yang zig-zag.

It's also describing the social structure of family in two different cultures. Cucu dan bahkan anak bukanlah milik mereka orang tua yang hidup dibudaya barat. Orang tua hanyalah media yang melahirkan mereka. Tidak ada kewajiban mengurus orang tua seperti konsep yang kita kenal dalam budaya barat dan Islam. Tidak ada kewajiban membalas kebaikan mereka. Tempat orangtua ketika mereka tidak berdaya adalah Panti Jompo. That's it. They're just like a baby. Fragile, spoil, burden, tak berdaya. Nyusahin!

Tetapi justru disitulah salah satu kelemahan terbesar masyarakat dengan budaya yang mereka anggap Modern. Budaya barat. Budaya sex bebas. Budaya individualis. Budaya yang sebagian dari kita menganggapnya budaya paling superior.

Seketika mereka sadar bahwa konsep menikah dan memiliki anak adalah sebuah beban dan tidak memperdulikan mereka sesaat mereka lulus SMA, kenapa repot susah2 membesarkan anak? who cares anyway? cuma bikin susah! mahal pula.. lebih baik duitnya dipakai buat seneng2. Plesiran, expedisi, touring.

Kebayang kan suatu hari nanti mereka akan bingung bahwa generasi mereka berkurang? dan itulah kenapa terjadi fenomena "ageing population". Populasi yang menua. Kekurangan generasi produktif karena setiap dari mereka tidak menginginkan anak terlalu banyak. SEBALIKNYA, orang2 imigran yang masuk, yang notabene berasal dari negara2 timur tengah dan Afrika, beragama Islam, berlomba2 membuat anak yang banyak sesuai anjuran agama mereka. Nah loh!

sudah tergambar skenario besar Tuhan kan? it's only a matter of time brother...

Trouble with Islam Today

Perasaan gamang yang hinggap dikepalaku begitu mengusikku sehari kemarin ketika aku mendapati kenyataan bahwa aku duduk sebagai seorang interpreter dari Irshad Manji, pengarang buku "the trouble with Islam Today" di acara launching buku terjemahannya "Beriman Tanpa Rasa Takut" di Perpustakaan Nasional.

Kenyataan minor pertama adalah bahwa aku bukanlah seorang interpreter yang baik. Aku mungkin telah hidup lebih dari 2 tahun di negeri biangnya bahasa ini dan lumayan fasih memahami dan berbicara dalam bahasa Inggris. Tapi, untuk menginterpretasi dan lalu menyampaikannya langsung didepan khalayak ramai it's totally different matter. Perlu kecerdasan Linguistik yang tinggi dan kusadari memang sejak duduk dibangku sekolah menengah kalau kecerdasan Linguistik bukanlah bakatku. Keberadaanku disana hanyalah kesediaanku membantu temanku sebagai penyelenggara. Ini kesempatan kedua aku menjadi interpreter di level nasional dan aku nyaris menghancurkan keduanya. Ditambah bidang yang dibahas adalah bidang yang sebenarnya asing dan tidak menarik bagiku, Gender equality. And the silly thing is, I haven't even read the speaker's book! Gosh! it was really hard day for me. Since then, my head keep telling me, that's enough for interpreting business. And anyway, I think I'm not supposed to be interpreter but it is Me (an Inspiring leader to be, Amieeeeeen...) the one whom supposed to be a speaker and be interpreted! (well, of course in the field I master in)

But more important thing is the content of the talkshow it self. One of the most important issues in the forum is Ijtihad. Surely it's very significant aspect of Islam. Islam was mastering highest position in knowledge lead by Ijtihad. Peradaban-peradaban Islam paling membanggakan ketika kaum muslim di masa kejayaannya menguasai lebih dari setengah daratan dunia dihasilkan dari proses ijtihad para pemikir dan intelek muslim. Hampir seluruh bidang karya tertinggi, science masterpieces, best Legal principles, dihasilkan oleh Ummat melalui proses Ijtihad. Ibnu Rusyd, Ibn Sina, Imam 4 Mahzab adalah beberapa contoh. Eropa dan dunia barat mendapat pencerahan pada era renaissance setelah menikmati hasil proses ijtihad pemikir2 muslim abad pertengahan melalui transormasi pengetahuan kepada mahasiswa2 mereka di universitas2 Islam di pesisir selatan Eropa.

Lalu pertanyaannya: Kemana hilangnya budaya ijtihad dari ummat Islam? kenapa justru dizaman informasi technology yang menghilangkan batas fisik dunia ini, banyak sebagian ummat Islam yang mundur selangkah kebelakang dengan meninggalkan budaya ijtihad? apa sebenarnya yang terjadi? semakin malaskah ummat?

Aku pribadi setuju bahwa pintu dan budaya ijtihad harus dikembalikan didalam budaya ummat Islam. Reinterpretasi dan dialektika permasalahan2 yang ada diummat in some extent harus kembali dibahas. Banyak permasalahan dunia era teknologi yang masih berada di wilayah abu-abu dan tidak terjamah hukum Islam. Tapi, siapa yang bertanggung jawab akan masalah ini? apakah setiap orang berhak berijtihad? ataukah ada syarat2 tertentu untuk bisa berijtihad? pertanyaan2 ini berujung pada satu pertanyaan yang berkaitan dengan Irshad Manji; siapa yang berhak untuk berijtihad?

Salah satu ketidak setujuan fikiranku dengan Irshad Manji adalah dengan pernyataan bahwa setiap orang berhak untuk berijtihad. Mungkin ia tidak mengatakannya secara explisit, tapi sebagai buktinya, ia sendiri merasa berhak berijtihad dan maka lahirlah buku yang ditulisnya sebagai hasil ijtihad.
Fikiran ini menurutku sangat berbahaya.
Bahkan jika ditinjau dari sisi manapun, akademikkah atau tidak, fikiran ini menurutku tidak logis.
Bayangkan jika pintu ijtihad dibuka untuk siapapun dan semua orang berlomba-lomba untuk berijtihad, bukankah bisa dibayangkan akan timbul kekacauan karena banyak hasil2 ijtihad yang tidak karuan, karena pada dasarnya manusia cenderung kepada hawa nafsunya. Batasan-batasan dan syarat-syarat haruslah terpenuhi sebelum seseorang bisa berijtihad. Kualifikasi akademik maupun kualitas dan integritas personal menjadi syarat mutlak tidak saja bagi mujtahid bahkan pada siapa saja. Hal tersebut terekam baik dalam kisah2 periwayatan hadits Rasul, dimana level validitas hadits bisa berkurang seiring dengan kurangnya integritas para perawi.

Bukankan berlaku juga dinegeri maju, bahwa setiap permasalahan haruslah dikembalikan pada ahlinya, apalagi jika itu menyangkut kemaslahatan banyak orang? bukankah budaya referensi untuk scholar2 mutlak menjadi ukuran di lingkungan universitas barat hingga saat ini? lalu kenapa seorang Irshad Manji yang tidak menguasai bahasa arab sama sekali (bahasa dimana AlQuran diturunkan) dan juga mungkin karena itu tidak mengerti sepenuhnya konteks lingkungan asbabun nuzul ayat2 alQuran berani berijtihad, seperti misalnya menganggap Homosexual diperbolehkan dalam Islam? bukankah ia sendiri salah satu yang mendukung bahwa Al-Quran harus di reinterpretasikan sesuai konteks zamannya? bukankah seharusnya seseorang harus bisa terlebih dahulu menginterpretasi sebelum meng re-interpretasi? (gosh! I really hate this interpretation business!)

Tapi, terlepas dari pertanyaan2 itu, aku sendiri merasa kecewa dengan kualitas pribadiku dan lingkunganku akan budaya critical thinking sebagai salah satu elemen ijtihad itu. Pendapatku justru mengatakan bahwa di critical thinking itulah sumber permasalah ummat Islam saat ini.

Pendidikan yang salah kaprah! dan semua ini berawal dari sistem pendidikan di negeri ini yang terlalu berorientasi pada "HASIL" dan bukan "PROSES"! Hasil UN jauh lebih penting daripada minat membaca. Nilai IPK jauh lebih keramat daripada keahlian berfikir kritis. Menghapal pelajaran jauh lebih mulia daripada berkreasi dengan penuh imajinasi.

padahal bahkan Einstein sendiri berkata bahwa " Imajinasi jauh lebih penting daripada Ilmu pengetahuan itu sendiri"

Perasaan itu terus terang mengusik hidup tenangku dan menimbulkan banyak pertanyaan.
Kesalahan siapa ini? Salahkah aku dan mereka yang tidak mempunyai pertanyaan2 kritis? bodohkah aku karena seingatku aku trauma berpendapat karena cemohan bapak guru di sekolah dasar dulu di ruang kelas di pelajaran matematika sesaat aku memberanikan mengangkat tangan dan ternyata memberi jawaban yang salah versi bapak guru?

Kirana New Hair Cut

Belbin's Team Role in Pesantren

Last night was interesting night of my big family and a good example of how traditional pesantren inner environment face typical regeneration problem. As been recognized from time to time, regeneration (Kaderisasi) is always be a major problem for any family type organization. Many examples of how this kind of problem could bring the pesantren down to the lowest level. Incapability, internal conflict, instant generation and hilangnya idealisme perjuangan were some major causes.

There was a serious discussion last night about next generation taking responsibility. Who should responsible which part and so on. Well, in my opinion, it is one of the leader's (in this case; kiai, pimpinan) hardest job descriptions to be implemented; to put the right person in the right place, including the hardest part to be organized, inner family. What management theory could offer to solve the problem?

First of all, of course, the objectivity and clear perspective of the decision maker; kiai. To clearly see and honestly value the real capability of even their own son and relatives are significant. It is part of "adil" quality of the leader. Even Allah answers Nabi Ibrahim's questions in Al-Baqoroh 124 by excluding the dzolimin from His promise.

Secondly, to put the right person in the right place. It is unrealistic to put all of the human resources in a single position. One has their own uniqueness quality. I might good in teaching but not my brother. He might brilliant in selling but not to concept a strategy. It is truly fine art to see people's capability yet it's not a rocket science.

How people unique position in terms of team working (pesantren is really team working really) could be explained by management terms. One of widely used theory of how team works is known as Belbin's Team Role.

Cited from Wikipedia, The Belbin Team Inventory, also called the Belbin Self-Perception Inventory or the Belbin Team Role Inventory, is a test used to gain insight into an individual's behavioural type. It was developed by Dr. Meredith Belbin after studying numerous teams at Henley Management College.

The Belbin Team Role Inventory assesses how an individual behaves in a team environment. It is therefore a behavioural tool, subject to change, and not a psychometric instrument. The test includes 360-degree feedback from observers as well as the individual's own assessment of their behaviour, and contrasts how they see their behaviour versus how their colleagues do. the Belbin Inventory scores people on how strongly they express traits from 9 different Team Roles.An individual may and often does exhibit strong tendencies towards multiple Roles. Belbin himself asserts that the Team Roles are not equivalent to personality types

The Roles

Plant

Plants are creative, unorthodox and a generator of ideas. If an innovative solution to a problem is needed, a Plant is a good person to ask. A good plant will be bright and free-thinking. The Plant bears a strong resemblance to the popular caricature of the absentminded professor-inventor, and often has a hard time communicating ideas to others.

Resource Investigator

The Resource Investigator gives a team a rush of enthusiasm at the start of the project by vigorously pursuing contacts and opportunities. He or she is focused outside the team, and has a finger firmly on the pulse of the outside world. Where a Plant creates new ideas, a Resource Investigator will quite happily steal them from other companies or people. A good Resource Investigator is a maker of possibilities and an excellent networker, but has a tendency to lose momentum towards the end of a project and to forget small details.

Coordinator

A Coordinator often becomes the default chairperson of a team, stepping back to see the big picture. Coordinators are confident, stable and mature and because they recognise abilities in others, they are very good at delegating tasks to the right person for the job. The Coordinator clarifies decisions, helping everyone else focus on their tasks. Coordinators are sometimes perceived to be manipulative, and will tend to delegate all work, leaving nothing but the delegating for them to do.

Shaper

The shaper is a task-focused leader who abounds in nervous energy, who has a high motivation to achieve and for whom winning is the name of the game. The shaper is committed to achieving ends and will ‘shape’ others into achieving the aims of the team.He or she will challenge, argue or disagree and will display aggression in the pursuit of goal achievement. Two or three shapers in a group, according to Belbin, can lead to conflict, aggravation and in-fighting.

Monitor Evaluator

Monitor Evaluators are fair and logical observers and judges of what is going on. Because they are good at detaching themselves from bias, they are often the ones to see all available options with the greatest clarity. They take everything into account, and by moving slowly and analytically, will almost always come to the right decision. However, they can become excessively cynical, damping enthusiasm for anything without logical grounds, and they have a hard time inspiring themselves or others to be passionate about their work.

Teamworker

A Teamworker is the oil that keeps the machine that is the team running. They are good listeners and diplomats, talented at smoothing over conflicts and helping parties understand each other without becoming confrontational. The beneficial effect of a Teamworker is often not noticed until they are absent, when the team begins to argue, and small but important things cease to happen. Because of an unwillingness to take sides, a Teamworker may not be able to take decisive action when it is needed.

Implementer

The Implementer takes what the other roles have suggested or asked, and turns their ideas into positive action. They are efficient and self-disciplined, and can always be relied on to deliver on time. They are motivated by their loyalty to the team or company, which means that they will often take on jobs everyone else avoids or dislikes. However, they may be seen as close-minded and inflexible since they will often have difficulty deviating from their own well-thought-out plans.

Completer Finisher

The Completer Finisher is a perfectionist and will often go the extra mile to make sure everything is "just right," and the things he or she delivers can be trusted to have been double-checked and then checked again. The Completer Finisher has a strong inward sense of the need for accuracy, rarely needing any encouragement from others because that individual's own high standards are what he or she tries to live up to. They may frustrate their teammates by worrying excessively about minor details and refusing to delegate tasks that they do not trust anyone else to perform.

Specialist

Specialists are passionate about learning in their own particular field. As a result, they will have the greatest depth of knowledge, and enjoy imparting it to others. They are constantly improving their wisdom. If there is anything they do not know the answer to, they will happily go and find it. Specialists bring a high level of concentration, ability, and skill in their discipline to the team, but can only contribute on that narrow front and will tend to be uninterested in anything which lies outside its narrow confines.

Those are the team roles and could be used as guidance of how Kiai and pimpinan could categorize people around. It is useful really to see people's from their capacity, tendency and capability. They might want their son to be Kiai after replacing him, but it is sometime not the case since there are different roles for different persons.

Crocodile Dundee

My favorite quote from this movie was when Sue, the girl in the movie explains about psycholog's (psikiator) vital function in such New York cities life. "They're the one for people to tell problems, to be open" she said something alike. Smiling, Dundee replied " Why? people here don't have a friend?".

It wakes me up from my time pace bloody life for living in such giant messed up city like Jakarta.

Watching this movie in TV last night reminded me of A character I knew. Pure, naive, wild, warm, loving and of course, free. It lead me to my best time in college, UGM Yogya spending six bloody beautiful years with different characters and mountains. Yup! mountains. Those mountains were my favourite and will always be. And when I speak about mountain I could not separate it from the best partner I had, my best friend I have, a Crocodile Dundee character, Suparjono.

"Telur itu telah pecah"

Alhamdulillah, "telur itu telah pecah". Begitu ucap kawan sekaligus supervisorku, Luqman mengomentari fisik majalah Edukasia edisi dummy. Terlepas dari kekurangan dan kelebihannya, lanjutnya, kami boleh sedikit berbangga telah melahirkan wujud pertama "bayi jurnalistik" tersebut. Cheers, you deserve it, mate, sambil mengangkat gelas anggur berisi lemon tea.

Banyak memang yang harus dievaluasi dan secara pribadi menurutku edisi ini jauh dari sempurna, jauh dari ekspektasi awalku ketika merumuskan konsep bisnis majalah ini.
Tetapi, setidaknya kita bisa memakai edisi Dummy ini menjadi pijakan besar untuk melangkah, bahkan meloncat ke tempat tujuan.

Semoga bisa menjadi penerang jalan bagi masyarakat, do'anya. Amien.

Tak lupa kuucapkan terima kasih buat semua yang berperan di dalam mewujudkan Majalah Edukasia. Long live Edukasia!

Interviewing your "gonna be manager"

Lately, it has been a very hectic month for me. To explore something new is intriguing, yet it's exhausting. Magazine publishing is something I never imagine to come into and this IS the real test case for my entrepreneurial knowledge application.

One of the hardest responsibilities of mine is to choose the Manager, in this case is a Chief Editor since it's me the GM. So, is there any ways out there how to choose such manager how to find someone you don't even know them (personally) yet whom you will depend your reputation on? plus you don't have a lot of budget in your pocket to hire a head hunter or even to persuade your competitors' resources.

One of the methods available is to interview them your self. It would be better if you've been knowing them somehow but how if you don't? Sometime interview becomes very formal and merely superficial. It's just like a first date. Everything looks so perfect and beautiful.

So, how to escape from such situation? According to Jack Welch, there are some key questions you have to ask them:
First, make sure yourself about they integration.

IF this requirement has been fulfilled, all you have to do is to ask what you want to know; vision, leadership, crisis management and whether it's original.

Vision is the most important things. The different between leader and manager is whether they have a vision or no. You have to see how they see their environment, comparing the data surround or applied consensus. You could ask them to reveal their best example in anticipating the market change situation.

After, you may come to their leadership. It's much better if you have their record in your hand. Managerial questions like how their recruitment process, problems faced or even to ask their successful "students' out there.

Next, a crisis management is something you don't want to miss. Every leader has their own crisis time and it's very useful to know how they handle the situations, the method, the brave and the experiences. Ask them whether they have been in position against everyone else? or ask them about they biggest integration "sin".

There were some questions Jack has provided and yet it's not that easy as seen. I have been in this situation and need to make a critical decision to bring "Edukasia" forward.