Developing your Mission Statement

When my friends and I traveled in USA, one of the many important things we keep was a map hat showed the interstate highways, cities, etc. It helped us find New York city, Washington D.C., other cities and point of interests for site seeing. It is one of the most important tools that help us get to our destination.

We need a map for our life. We need a picture of our final destination. Either we are studying, starting a new doing business or planning to establish educational institution, we need a map. CEO and Top Management need it for company they lead. We need a tool that will give the direction of our life or company; we need to know our mission that will help us focus on what we should be doing.

What is a mission? In Webster’s College Dictionary (Random House), there are several definitions: “a specific task that a person or group of person is sent to perform; the place of work of such person, or the territory of their responsibility; military operational task, usually signed by a higher headquarters; an aerospace operation designed to carry out the goals of a specific program; an allotted or self-imposed duty or task; calling.” “Mission is a written reason behind an existence- either for an individual or for an organization. It is the key to finding our path in life.” wrote Laurie Beth Jones on her book, The Path.

The Starting Point

Dear Radot,
Thank you for your letter about approach in knowing religion. After reading your letter, I now try to focus on understanding core beliefs of each religion if I want to understand each.

My next question is about the starting point. Where should I start if I want to understand religion? Is there any principle that I may follow? It will be a great lesson if I know this starting point.

Warm Regards,
Hildegard

Dear Hildegard,
I am very pleased to hear that you now understand a proper approach when talking about religion. I will answer your question about the starting point.

An Approach to Discuss Religion

Radot,

I really thank for your letter about Religion and Society. It is interesting to know that a society is dictated by belief(s) of its people. I did try to make a small study on several religions and which countries that are affected by each religion. I made a brief study about religion that had impacted the history of my country. I also did make a quick comparison between my country and countries in Southern part of America. There is a clear difference on the way people live. This led me to a question, ‘what caused this difference?’ Could be this an example of how religion impacts a society?

 Another question, there are several religions on this world? What is the approach in discussing religion? Any thought?

 Sincerely,

Hildegard

Imaginary Letter: Religion & Society

Radot,
My name is Hildegard, a teenager from United States of America. I am not Hildegard from Bingen who lived on the 12th century. Currently I am a student on a Senior High School.

A friend of mine, Polin from Indonesia, just told a story about your blog. He told me that he enjoyed reading your blog, of which its content is mostly about religion and society. I have seen your blog title Radot & Polin, but I could not understand because your writings were written in Indonesia. I also had a chance to read some writings on your other blog. I read the tag on the blog title, His Thoughts on Religion and Society. ;there must be something behind it. Would you share what is the reason for choosing this phrase on your blog?

If you don’t mind, would you translate your writings from bahasa into English so that teenager like me around the world could read them? It will be beneficial for a teenager like me or any one to read writings in religion and society from some one who has a passion in this subject and present it in his own style.

I would be waiting for your letter.

Warm Regards,
Hildegard

Meeting Guideline

Finally my CEO issued Meeting Guideline to all managers and group leader this morning. The Guideline was about 2 pages containing what to do before, during and after a meeting. It also mentioned kinds of meeting: decision-making, review, information-sharing, celebration or announcement type of meeting.

 

The Meeting Guideline issued by CEO this morning was due to many ineffective meetings. As I observed, too many meetings that I attended were not effective. Agenda was not communicated. There are a lot of technical discussions occurred on the meeting that should occur prior to the meeting. People just said as he liked about the subject. The information shared not complete. We tend to cut one’s talk when someone is still talking.

 

The Meeting Guideline issued today is quite informative. There is a preparation before a meeting, things to do during and after a meeting. I am not going to cite all of them. What I want to stress on is just three things if we organize or attend a meeting.

 

Firstly, make sure that we have an agenda. The meeting which I always attend does not always follow this rule. No preliminary information about the agenda. The meeting invitation does not state about it. People are just invited to come, attend and give the schedule: date, time, and venue. If there is an agenda, it is always often stated on the meeting and people discuss about it. It is impossible to discuss many things at a time with relatively good results. We don’t have time to discuss many subjects for a 2-hour-meeting.

 

Secondly, make sure there is facilitator for a meeting; someone that will manage and arrange the talk during the meeting; a person that able to point out and control the direction of the meeting. He or she should manage whose turn is to speak or give time to someone or ask someone to speak on the subject discussed. He should maintain so that the participants always discussed the subject and focus on what to be expected from that meeting. We need this type of person on each meeting we attend. If not, we may be just waste a lot of time; we discuss something which there is no path forward or ending.

 

Thirdly, make sure that we take important notes during the meeting; something that required us to act. We want to have action as a result of the meeting, when such action to be taken, defining action required, who is to take, when must be done, and when is expected to be completed. Often, we forget this and we just enjoy talking during the meeting without being aware of the purpose of our meeting.

 

I hope when you have a meeting, you would remember these three things. Of course there are other things about a meeting, but the above I think will help each of us to get the most from the meeting we attend. (JM)