reunion gathering - part I
My previous classmates at KMB (Kolej Mara Banting - IB World School) managed to meet up last Sunday at the Palm Gardens Hotel Putrajaya for hi-tea.
Despite the frequent revisions of the venue (Restoran Nelayan Titiwangsa or Palm Gardens Hotel), time (lunch or dinner) and date (3oth or 31st July, 6th or 13th August); from the endless attempts to agree upon on a single date when all of us would be available to trying to arrange transport to ferry us between KL and the hotel; the endless SMS which have to be sent to my classmates either to remind them of the plan or to notify them of any new developments in the plan.
Given the state of things, I think I might be forgiven to feel exasperated by the confused and haphazard planning which threatens to jeopardize the gathering itself; initially, I was given the task of communicating the latest details of the gathering to the rest of my classmates but eventually, I find myself trying to 'influence' the choice of venue and date of the gathering itself in hopes that situation would clear itself up (which would also reduce the need for me to send countless SMSs to my friends about the plans for the gathering in a single day).
In short, the plans for the gathering were in a total mess and it was a coup d'etat waiting to happen.
But truth be told, I cannot blame the confused state of affairs on a single person; it was not the result of an oversight of one individual. Even if it was, the others (including myself) should be aware of the impending problems and tried to bring the matter to our attention.
The fact that there is no central authority to regulate the decision-making process compounded the problems even more; all of us placed too much importance in the belief that we would be able to reach a unanimous decision on the details of the gathering.
The possibility of reaching a unanimous decision through consensus in itself is not unrealistic; however, I believe that trying to reach a unanimous decision through concensus without the regulation of a central authoritative figure is or at best, difficult to achieve.
Despite the frequent revisions of the venue (Restoran Nelayan Titiwangsa or Palm Gardens Hotel), time (lunch or dinner) and date (3oth or 31st July, 6th or 13th August); from the endless attempts to agree upon on a single date when all of us would be available to trying to arrange transport to ferry us between KL and the hotel; the endless SMS which have to be sent to my classmates either to remind them of the plan or to notify them of any new developments in the plan.
Given the state of things, I think I might be forgiven to feel exasperated by the confused and haphazard planning which threatens to jeopardize the gathering itself; initially, I was given the task of communicating the latest details of the gathering to the rest of my classmates but eventually, I find myself trying to 'influence' the choice of venue and date of the gathering itself in hopes that situation would clear itself up (which would also reduce the need for me to send countless SMSs to my friends about the plans for the gathering in a single day).
In short, the plans for the gathering were in a total mess and it was a coup d'etat waiting to happen.
But truth be told, I cannot blame the confused state of affairs on a single person; it was not the result of an oversight of one individual. Even if it was, the others (including myself) should be aware of the impending problems and tried to bring the matter to our attention.
The fact that there is no central authority to regulate the decision-making process compounded the problems even more; all of us placed too much importance in the belief that we would be able to reach a unanimous decision on the details of the gathering.
The possibility of reaching a unanimous decision through consensus in itself is not unrealistic; however, I believe that trying to reach a unanimous decision through concensus without the regulation of a central authoritative figure is or at best, difficult to achieve.
This does not mean that one should be dictatorial in one's decision-making process - that would be courting with disaster; but it does not mean that one should absolve the entire decision-making process to the individual members of the group as well.
Like most things in life, one have to tread the fine balance between the two extremes.
posted by wanaimran at
8:22 AM
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