I hope you like the article “Stories about Flexibility” which was posted a few days ago. As promised, here is the second installment.
Story No. 3 - The Lecturer and his “ice breaking” game
Last week, I attended the “Legal Practice Management” course at the College of Law in Sydney CBD. Lawyers in the State of New South Wales who intend to venture on their own and start their own legal practice must attend and complete the course. There was a good mix of both young and senior lawyers. I found the course to be very useful and informative. The College of Law did a fantastic job in conducting the course- they provided good materials (both in hard copies as well as in a USB stick) to read and a nice solid folder to put your materials in. I am not saying this merely because College of Law has its advertisement in my blog, I say it because I do mean it sincerely!
On the first day, we had 3 speakers talking about interesting stuff and then we adjourned for an in-house lunch. When we continued with the afternoon session, we had this lecturer who came in and told us that he wanted us to play an “ice-breaking game”. The participants looked at each other in amusement - thinking whether the “ice-breaking game” was just a time filler or did the lecturer really wanted to get to know the participants? Keeping in mind that each lecturer only had 90 minutes to deliver his/her session and furthermore, an “ice-breaking game” so late in the course didn’t make much sense. Furthermore, by that time most of the participants already knew each other. This was all rather puzzling to me until I discovered the real reason the following morning. According to one of the participants, this particular lecturer normally conducts the first session of the course, therefore, it is understandable to have an “ice breaking game” at that time since everyone is new to the course and it would be a good time to know each other. However due to a scheduling issue, the Coordinator of the course had to switch the lecturer’s session with another lecturer’s session, thus pushing back the particular lecturer’s session to a later time. From what I have experienced is that this particular lecturer must have a pretty standard and rigid pattern when he conducts his session. It appears to me that it doesn’t matter to him what time of the day his session is conducted, irregardless he would just follow his usual pattern. A person who is flexible and “open” would probably leave out the “ice breaking game” and go straight to conducting the session making it relevant and useful. A flexible person would also take into account the time of the day and the class environment at the given time so that the session can be tailored to suit the mood and the need of the class.
It is my view that dealing with a person who has a rigid or set pattern is easier compared to an unpredictable person. The reason is because it is easier to predict the person’s next action and you will have sufficient time to plan your strategy to engage that person.
Story No. 4 - Madam X and CPF
My mother’s good friend whom I shall call here as Madam X lost her husband to old age some years ago in Malaysia. She managed to obtain the probate and the assets were distributed accordingly. However, a few years later, she received a letter from Singapore’s Central Provident Fund (CPF) Board notifying her late husband that he still had some monies with CPF. Madam X came to see me with the letter from CPF and asked for my assistance. I informed Madam X that legally, the Malaysian Probate would need to be resealed in order to claim the monies from CPF. Keeping in mind that Madam X is an elderly lady and works in the school canteen, traveling would be quite a hurdle for her. Therefore, I informed her that I will contact my friend who is a Singapore lawyer and seek his opinion.
I explained to the Singapore lawyer of Madam X’s predicament and the lawyer said he would do some research and come back to me. A few days later, the Singapore lawyer informed me that it would be better for Madam X to come to Singapore and personally see the officer at the CPF Board in order to resolve this issue. The Singapore lawyer volunteered to accompany Madam X to the CPF office and his services would be pro bono. I appreciated the Singapore lawyer’s kind gesture and informed Madam X the good news.
A day coinciding with the school holidays in Malaysia was set for Madam X’s visit to Singapore. I guess I was more anxious than Madam X with regard to this matter. I was on the phone with the Singapore lawyer frequently to follow up on this matter. On the appointed day, the Singapore lawyer and Madam X went and see the officer at CPF. It took quite some time before Madam X called me to inform that everything had been settled. Didn’t quite understood what she meant, I immediately called the Singapore lawyer and this was what he explained. The officer at CPF was very helpful. The CPF officer told Madam X that normally they would require a probate in order to release the monies. However, as an officer, he has some discretion and in order for him to exercise that discretion, there must be three things that need to be satisfied. One, the proof of identity of Mr. X. Two, Madam X was legally married to Mr. X at the time of his death and three, the death certificate of Mr. X must be produced. Fortunately, I have asked Madam X to bring all of the original documents with her to Singapore, just in case if the documents are required to be sighted. After the CPF officer examined all the documents, he informed Madam X that he is satisfied that Madam X had met all the 3 conditions and therefore, would be exercising his discretion to release the monies to Madam X.
I was very impressed with the way the CPF officer handled the affairs. He wasn’t rigid and he knows when to be flexible when it comes to exceptional circumstances. Of course, in order to be given that kind of discretion, a lot of confidence and responsibilities have been placed on the officer by his employer. To quote the famous line the Spiderman movie, “With power, comes with great responsibility”. I once asked a retired senior government officer, “why can’t all governments give their officers flexibility and discretion when making decisions?” “Wouldn’t this cut all the red tape and get things done quickly?” The retired senior government officer replied, “Giving government officers flexibility and discretion can easily open up to abuse of power or even worse, it may lead to corruption. Therefore, we always have in place a standard operating procedure for the officers to follow so that their decisions will be uniformed”. In other words, rigid but seen to be fair. There are always two sides to a coin. Personally to me, as long as the person is taught that it is okay to be fair and flexible, I think flexibility should be the flavour of the day. What do you think?
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