0 Singapore Productivity Or Excellence

With the advent of the upcoming Budget in Singapore, it appears that many people in the business community are expecting additional benefits from the Government. While I will always welcome government support, I also know that this is not the defining factor. Looking at the way people have interpreted and debated the new Population White Paper, it appears that everything is now externalized. All pros and cons are evaluated based on the lines of tangible hard facts of economics versus the soft intangibles of social benefit. My take is a little different, and more psychology driven than politics driven. My premise is not to build only an external solution. Scientifically we know that external motivation does little to sustain a person. Why do we strive so hard to build a family or career? Because it develops satisfaction. But satisfaction often comes from dealing with something challenging and difficult! That is the nature of human behavior. The issue here is most people talk about developing the hardware, the infrastructure. The premise is that when this improves, people will be more satisfied with life. This is a great equation, and unfortunately too simplistic in my opinion. The best looking building may also hide cracks in the foundation, just as the most good looking person may hide scars from the past. The reason for my skepticism is even if we build great infrastructure, without building the appropriate attitudes, we will end back in this same scenario ten years later because we did not address the beliefs and attitudes that created this scenario in the first place. I am growing, and I hope I am wrong, to see a society in Singapore become inward looking, complaining and blameful, complacent, dependent on government support in spite of not being a welfare state, and driven by the illusion that security, absolute security, is possible through external intervention. While I acknowledge that this is a generalization, I prefer to work on the assumption of the worst case scenario, so anything else gained is a bonus. When you ask someone to fix a problem, there must be awareness and acceptance that there is a problem. However, when telling someone that the issue is with them, it is very hard to see. I've told people that when I suggest a change in their behavior, that they need to look at it not from me as a person pointing fingers and complaining, but rather as a person who is offering a unique perspective, thereby potentially offering a change that is an improvement. Of course, as a coach, I expect to encounter resistance. All the more I have to be patient and learn to understand why the response to the situation was lackluster. Perhaps it was a misinterpretation of my intent. Perhaps it was something that I did not bring across well. Whatever the case, it all calls for realizing that everyone has difficulties, and every person's opinions are slightly different because we are not uniform. We are human. In Singapore, we seem to strive to be a very materialistic society. The word "productivity" itself says it all: achieve more. Instead, I challenge people to move away from the concept of productivity to the concept known as "excellence". Just as it is human to be vulnerable, it is the human spirit that goads us on to excel. Excellence is not a science. It literally is an art form. In my opinion, to strive for excellence begets productivity, but from the inside-out rather than from the outside-in. It means we have to look at ourselves as the integral part of the bigger picture, and to say: how does what I do affect the greater scheme of things? Take for instance the issue of foreign talent. I am aware deeply that there are fears here. But from an employer standpoint, if you give me proper market forces to dictate my choices, I will note two things. First, Singaporeans appear relatively less hungry than some others to fight for their rice bowl. It means I'm no longer sure how dedicated they will be on the job. Based purely on the law of numbers, give me a bigger talent pool and I will eventually find someone who is dedicated and skilled and lower in cost based on an employer's criteria. If, in worst case scenario thinking, all Singaporeans fall out of the category, it must mean that something they are doing is making them unhireable. I believe I am a logical and rational employer. If something costs 100 but is worth 1, I'd be the biggest fool buying it. The question is whether Singaporeans can be that employee that makes a 5,000 investment in salary worth 500,000. So the issue in my opinion, is an attitude. Why would anyone help someone win 500,000 on just 5,000? I believe, someone who is playing in a Blue Ocean, not a Red one. A Blue Ocean represents win-win, positive and sustained growth. In a proper ecosystem, a Blue Ocean employer thinks of how to help his employer maximize return. A Red Ocean employee simply asks "why should I lose out?" without seeing that the gains are mutual: the employee becomes more skillful from experience, hence more valuable and marketable, and the employer gains tangible returns from offering this autonomy, challenge and monetary stability. The employee learns to communicate this value and builds a long term relationship with this employer, possibly eventually going into joint partnerships in the future. Who exhibits better personal excellence? If market forces come in, Singapore workers will be forced to improve, hence sharpening our edge against a tidal wave of changes expected. Perhaps this is harsh, and from a political standpoint, too extreme. Yet, any Singaporean reading this should know that we can be overcome by economic forces anytime as a small country. Should we not depend more on building personal excellence first? This is the ultimate security: knowing you have faith in your own abilities to build a future you want, anytime, anywhere, even with limited resources. This leads me to my second point. Personal excellence is intangible. I have been teaching this for close to two decades and had been a fundamental turning point for myself in my early teens. Without this attitude, I believe I would have just been the average guy. Yet, we see people clamoring for programs and schemes that are all about money making and wealth building. I'm not against that, and I know the allure of such programs. Yet money is what you end up with based on who you are, what you can do, and whether or not you act on it. I have not seen people who apply their talents, go hungry! This is fundamental, but I think it has not been driven home. Sadly, I am seeing more people who are hanging on to the government as the only support. A crutch. Instead, a heavy dose of learning and self improvement should be ingested. For all the available grant schemes in Singapore, perhaps the training grants should be lauded the most, yet people may not tap on them let alone know about them. Personal excellence is something we have heard of and not known for. We watch and are awe-inspired by the likes of Rocky and Warrior, The Pursuit of Happyness and Remember the Titans. These stories talk about the impeccable quality of the human spirit. Perhaps we are still young, and as a country still coming out of teenagehood, we still depend on our parents while demanding autonomy. Perhaps in time we can kill the mentality of entitlement and replace it with an attitude of excellence so that we will be known less as an efficient country but a country with a heart, standing to defy the odds and come out stronger. This is where we began in our roots of independence. That is our legacy. It is a calling we have been invited to answer in this period of trial and uncertainty. And it is not the country that has to take action but the individual. Will you answer that call to be excellent?