When Obstacles Become Opportunities

SEALA 2, DAY 6

This morning Bill Starnes speaks about the sources and power of influence. Notwithstanding our best efforts to persuade or exhort others, there may be social obstacles and entrenched behavior that also need to be diagnosed and negotiated. A matrix of questions can help to analyze a situation in the round.

Why are people doing what they are doing?

 Why are SEALA people doing what they are doing?

Do they enjoy it? – Please see photos of SEALA 2, Day 4 Part II, "SEALA Under the Stars."

Are they personally able? – Glittering talent.

Do others motivate? – Passionately engaged facilitators and instructors. 

Do others make it easy? – Peer encouragement.

Do 'things' motivate? – The heaped Malaysian buffets are a strong inducement.

Do 'things' make it easier? – When all else fails, there's always double espresso.

As a case study Bill explores tools of influence, and sources of communal resistance, in the fight to eradicate guinea worm disease (drancunculiasis), a water-borne infection by the guinea worm. The pictures were pretty unnerving. 

If Feldatun were a public health officer, with her skills and determination, those guinea worms wouldn't have a chance.

There's not much on earth that unnerves Tita. (Not a li'l old guinea worm, anyway.) Bring 'em on!

The previous topic merges naturally into Bill's second session on holding others accountable. Through an analogous combination of interpersonal skills and behavioral analysis, it is possible to hold others accountable for broken promises or missed expectations in a way that not merely solves the problem but enhances the relationship, turning the obstacle into an opportunity.

Bill circulates a worksheet in preparation for the afternoon's group work. Participants will role-play a confrontation that represents a current challenge in their life.

  

Monica confronts Bill with a question.

Psss psss psss psss Bill psss psss psss SEALA psss psss psss Anand psss psss psss crocodile psss psss psss Michael psss psss psss banana...

It is a great pleasure to welcome Tun Musa Hitam, Chairman of the World Islamic Economic Forum (WIEF) Foundation and former deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia, for a vivacious conversation about life and leadership.

Tun Musa relates the values which themed and guided his long career to his formative experiences as a young man, including an adventure cooped up on a Chinese boat eating ovaltine biscuits, student politics, and meeting the prime minister of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka).

                  

       

             

Questions from the floor.

Tun Musa comments on contemporary East-West issues and compares the leadership ethics prevalent in public service in his day and now.

Thanking Tun Musa for an illuminating talk.

A peek into the world behind closed doors of the Learning Groups: Group 2.

Group 3.

Group 4.

Small Group Sessions:

Laina Raveendran Greene  (CEO, Getit, Singapore/ Indonesia): “How Social Entrepreneurship is Impacting Mainstream Business: The Role of Empathy and Innovation within Corporate Cultures.”

Lavanya Rama Iyer (Head of Policy and Climate Change, World Wide Fund for Nature, WWF, Malaysia): “Natural Capital: If You Don't Know It Exists, You Can't Manage It.”

Sabri Rahman (CEO, Television Airtime Services Group, Malaysia): “Creative Thinking: Turning Obstacles into Opportunities.”