 |
| Source: RNIB |
With 2
mandatory essays (Management and Indonesian Language and Culture (ILC)) to be
submitted weekly, I don’t consider myself amounting the same effort for each
essay. The essays for Management were supposed to consist of 2 pages, a summary
on the first and an opinion on the second. However, ever since the lecturer
rephrased somewhere in the 3rd week that the 2-page essay is “Up to
you (the content), as long as it’s no more than 2 page,” I decided not to
invest too much time stressing out.
First of
all, I don’t like typing summaries (personal preference) and prefer to jot them down. Second, it's hard for me to express an “opinion” for something I just learned. Thus, this encouraged the idea of doing study
cases for the sake of saving time and improving the content quality. Moreover,
it made 2-page essays seem less of a tough job.
Since I
haven’t written anything for the past 2 weeks due to mid-term exams, I can now capture
a quick celebration before it morphs into a slight fear that the lecture
materials learned in the past few months will permeate. In retrospect, I opted to
open some folders that comprised the essays I wrote so far in this semester. Among the weekly topics, week four was not
meant to be a typical week as it embedded in our daily human experience: decision
making.
Various
sources show that the average adult make 35,000 decisions each day (yep,
Google). In fact, the figures make sense when we compare it with other studies.
For instance, Brian Wansink, the John S. Dyson Professor of Marketing and of
Applied Economics at Cornell, observed that we tend to make more than 200
food-related decisions. Surprisingly, his respondents thought they only made 15
decisions when it was proven that they account to many more decisions, even
when they’re unaware of it.
Decision
making attributes to the success of individuals, companies, and even our
society, especially when being faced with a situation or a problem. Who we are
accumulates our decision making as well: The higher role/status a person holds,
the higher degree of responsibility one takes, the more decision one makes. As
an example, a businessman decides for his company’s behalf and his family,
whereas his son tends to focus on himself. As a result, sometimes it’s more
about the quality than just the quantity in order to take precise courses of
actions. Thus, it is fair to associate decision making and problem solving.
In
the first 2017 edition of Harvard Business Review magazine, there was a
fascinating featured article regarding problem solving. Thomas Wedell, who is a
consultant and a speaker, wrote about how effective a company is at problem
solving. Based on the in-depth research conducted by him and his colleague, Paddy
Miller, 85 percent of the surveyed C-suite executives admitted that their
companies struggle with problem diagnosis, resulting in a significant higher
cost.
Supporting
the statement, they provided the case of “the slow elevator.” The issue
centered on tenants and people who complain, resulting in an initial assumption
of proposing a solution to “make the elevator faster.” With this approach, they
can either install new lifts or upgrade the motors although it would be costly
and time consuming. Moving on, when managers reframed the problem, they decided
that it was not the elevator that needs fixing, it’s how they define the
problem itself.
Many times when we fail to put everything in perspective,
we find it hard to open to new options. Just like what happened with “the slow
elevator,” the objective shifted as they broadened their understanding of the
problem. Instead of insisting that the problem lies on the elevator, the new
orientation was solving the problem of “waiting too long.” Feasible solutions
were then brought to the table such as putting mirrors, hand sanitizers, without
having to “make the elevator faster.”
Speaking
of elevators, I still remember back in Jakarta, I couldn’t help noticing the televisions
inside the elevator or above elevator buttons outside. Skepticism evoked me with
WHY entertaining people who are waiting for an elevator matters. You can’t even
watch a single Phineas and Ferb episode, such a waste to put TVs in/before an
elevator. Having amplified that it’s actually a “cheaper” solution compared to
installing new elevators, the what-so-called random phenomenon of “Televator”
turned out to be purposeful after all.
As a reflection, reading this article provided me not only with new insights on the
implementation of management, but most importantly the stories behind the (it-seems-random)
events we encountered in our daily lives. I have come to a realization that
misunderstanding and underestimating things shouldn’t be cultivated. To my joy,
the article proved a profound point to never stop finding answers and solutions
even when it seemed like the end of the tunnel. Just like in business, a lesson
can always be ingrained and flourishing is always a possibility, despite the
inherently competitive nature.
References:
Lang, Susan S. (2006,
December 22). ‘Mindless autopilot’ drives
people to dramatically underestimate how many daily food decisions they make,
Cornell Study finds. Retrieved from http://news.cornell.edu/stories/2006/12/mindless-autopilot-drives-people-underestimate-food-decisions
Wedell, Thomas. (2017,
January). How good is your company at problem solving. Harvard Business Review, 79
