Starting our Personal Development with God

“I still need to get more understanding on personal development. What do you mean by ‘the baseline’ for personal development?” asked Polin to start conversation with Radot. 

“Most people will shake their heads if a conversation is related to God. He is not an interesting subject in these days. We ignore His existence. Any where we go, most people do not acknowledge His existence: in Arabic countries, China, India, Europe, and United States. This is the main problem on this present age. We are far and far from God. We eliminate God from our life; we don’t want Him in our home. We don’t involve Him in our activities. At almost any aspect of lifer we don’t want God. So sad.” 

“Possibly that is the trend in the world today.” said Polin. 

“The age of religious era has gone in some parts of the world, especially in Europe. There is no more religion, especially of Christianity. People in Europe live like people before the Christian era. It is sad to see that the church in Europe almost empty; few young people come to the church. Only old people come to the church and the number also few. How sad it is.” 

“Will Europe be finished?” asked Polin.  

“They are heading on that direction. People in Europe forget God. They forget their Creator. They forget the root of their civilization; they forget the Person behind of what they have achieved up to this present age. In United States, probably it is not as bad as that of Europe’s. People still have religion in that nation. So, there is still hope for them. But, in general, we see that God has been ignored and is abandoned from our life. We go to business, we will not find God there; we go to court, we will find no God. We go to school we will find no God. We go to anywhere in this world, we find no God. We forget the Person that creates men; we forget the Person behind our existence; we forget the Person that gives us food, oxygen, water, meat, fish, vegetables, milk, and anything we need.” 

“It is true in the area of personal development. God is also eliminated. See what kind of material given to students. People that do not know God teach on personal development. People that do not know God become members of Supreme Court. Politicians, policemen, jury, teachers, and other kinds of profession are without God. We meet so many people without God.”  

“What will be the end of our life if we don’t know him? What kind of life we will inherit if we continue ignoring him in our life?” asked Polin. 

“It will be a disaster. We need to get to the basic and we need to start with Him before we talk anything about personal development.” said Radot. 

“If most people do want to know God, how we will face that?” asked Polin. 

“That will be the challenge for you and me. It will be a challenge for those people that know God. In the world with people not knowing God, we have to make decision what kind of life we should take. What kind of decision is we want to make.”  

“But, some people still go to church or mosque or other place of worship? How could we say that they do not know God?” asked Polin. 

“I am not saying that people totally ignore God. We confess that there is God but we take decision not to follow Him. We make a decision not to follow what He says. It does not dictated by how many times we pray, how many times we read our Holy Book, how many times we fulfill our obligation in religious services. If we know God, we should be doing what He says. We should not make any corruption; we should not make any lie to other people; we should not make evil thing to others. We should not make any scenario to harm other people. So, we may go to church or mosque, or other place of worship, give our money to needy, but if our conduct is not according to His command, sure we do not know Him.”  

“You mean if we do not follow His words, it means we do not know Him.” asked Polin. 

“Yes. Our obedience to His command is the test of our knowledge in Him. We pretend that we know Him, but in reality, we do not know Him.” 

“So, we also need to involve God in our personal development, don’t we?” asked Polin. 

“Yes. When we talk about personal development, we should consider and make God as our reference. Other people will make other reference, but we, at least you and I, will make Him as a reference for any kind of pursuit in personal development. So, if we want to grow, let’s remember Him that He is the source of our personal growth. Our existence depends on His.” 

“If that is the case, God is so important for our personal development.” said Polin. 

“It is. We need to think about Him seriously. If we ignore him on our personal development, we will eventually go nowhere. But if we make Him as our goal of our personal development, there will be a reward at the end. Our true personal growth will be meaningful.” (Judika Malau)

Promoting Business Excellence

“When did Business Excellence come to your mind?” asked Radot to start conversation with Polin. 

“It started in 2002.” said Polin. “At that time I applied for a vacant position on a group called Business Excellence. After being interviewed, I was accepted to fill that position. Since that time, I dealt a lot with business processes. With Business Process Team, I have developed about 120 business processes for one of major Oil & Gas Company in the world for about 5 years.” 

“So, about 120 business processes have been developed. That’s fantastic.” said Radot. 

“Most of those business processes were of Finance, Supply Chain Management, Human Resources, Operations, Exploration and of other departments.” said Polin. 

“That company has done one of the most important elements of Business Excellence.” said Radot. 

“So, business process is one of important elements of Business Excellence.” said Polin. 

“There are at least 9 elements of Business Excellence: leadership, people management, policy & goals, resources, business process, employee satisfaction, customer satisfaction, impact to society or sustainable development, business results.” 

“Almost everything about an organization is mentioned.” said Polin. 

“Each element covers many things. For example, under leadership there are vision and mission, values. Information System, business process map, procedure, key performance indicator are covered under business process. Recruitment, training, career development and other human resources aspects are covered under people management. Other aspects of organization are covered on other elements.” 

“So, any thing about organization is just summarized on a term: Business Excellence” said Polin. 

“Some people even try to make a score for how excellence an organization is. By answering to a list of questions relevant to each element, an organization’s score with respect to Business Excellence could be determined. This will show how well an organization is run; how well all above elements are planned, implemented and reviewed.” 

“It will be good to see the score of our organization in term of Business Excellence.”  

“That is how people try to measure how excellent of an organization is.” said Radot. 

“Is there any definition of Business Excellence?” asked Polin. 

“The definition could be different from one expert to another. Some say it as business process improvement, re-engineering, or total quality management. Basically, the substance is the almost the same. However, in order to have a picture about Business Excellence, we may need to have a definition; at least we have an idea what we mean by Business Excellence.” 

“For our conversation, Business Excellence is the integration of all elements above in an organization. There is an integration of vision and mission, values, leadership, people management, policy & goals, business process, people satisfaction, customer satisfaction, impact to society and business results. Organization is not only interested in business result, but also how the result is achieved; not only interested in defining values, but also in implementing them; not only interested in organization structure, but also in people talent management to achieve the organization goals; not only interested in investment, but also in the proper management and efficient use of all resources for the better results; not only interested in making profit to organization, but also in the welfare of the people, customer, stakeholder, and society. So, there is a comprehensive approach how to manage the organization. In other words, no element of the organization is neglected; all is well managed. That is what we mean by Business Excellence.” 

“That is quite comprehensive. I just wonder if we have such organization in our country Indonesia.” 

“Some organizations have done some parts of Business Excellence. But, we need to promote it and educate our people about it. We could start talking about it with friends or people in our organization we involve in. We could make an analysis how well our organization is in term of Business Excellence.” 

“Many times good idea are just mere talk. People write about it, talk about it, and make seminar about it. But, when it comes to implementation, every one is just silence. So, it just a nice thing to talk. We do not have a power to do it.” said Polin. 

“That is a challenge. But, we could try for our selves. I think that the first step, especially if we are a kind of people that have a relatively a clear conscience and believe in true values. We should be the first group of people that need to think and do this.  Just like an old saying, “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable-if anything is excellent or praiseworthy-think about such things.” (Judika Malau)

Shizaru – Do No Evil

“Within two weeks I heard about ‘Three Monkeys’ two times.” said Polin to Radot. “It was spoken sincerely by the CEO of a company I work for. Firstly, he said it in front of about 50 people that participated on 2008 Work Plan Meeting in Cipanas, about 80 km from Jakarta. Secondly, he said it in front of Jakarta office’s employees.  ‘’It was shown with picture of three monkeys in different mode.” Polin continued. “The first monkey closed her eyes, the second one closed her ears and the third one closed her mouth. In brief, the three monkeys are presentation of proverb ‘see no evil, hear no evil, say no evil. Its meaning seems questionable to me. What do you think?” asked Polin. 

“The original proverb is ‘Three Wise Monkeys.’ But the question is ‘could we apply the word ‘wise’ to monkey?’ Even though we could learn from nature, the word ‘wise’ is only applied to man and God. We may also apply it to angle. We do no apply that word to animal such as monkey.” said Radot. 

“So, we should not say ‘wise monkeys, shouldn’t we?” asked Polin. 

“Let’s back to the proverb. And before we talk about the meaning of the proverb, I would give its background in brief.” said Radot. “According to legend, the original concept came from China, probably from the Analects of Confucius, a philosopher from China. In his Analects, there is a phrase “Look not at what is contrary to propriety; listen not to what is contrary to propriety; speak not what is contrary to propriety; make no movement which is contrary to propriety”. 

“There are similar words: look, listen, and speak.” said Polin.  

“The proverb was possibly brought to Japan and then probably rephrased into “see no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil.” In Japanese language, it is called, Mizaru, Kikazaru, and Iwazaru picturing monkeys in three different modes: closing her eyes, closing her ears, and closing her mouth. In English, the monkeys’ names are often given as Mizaru, Mikazaru, and Mazaru.” 

“So, the proverb was rephrased into ‘see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil’, wasn’t it?” asked Polin. 

“Probably. In Japan the proverb is simply regarded as a Japanese Golden Rule. Some simply take the proverb as a reminder not to be snoopy, nosy and gossipy. Some think that if we do not hear, see or talk evil, we ourselves shall be spared all evil. Others believe the message that a person who is not exposed to evil (through sight or sound) will not reflect that evil in their own speech and actions.” 

“If we do not entertain our mind with evil thought, we will possibly not reflect evil in our speech and actions, will we?” asked Polin. 

“Thought is the root of our actions.” said Radot. “Today “See no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil “is commonly used to describe someone who doesn’t want to be involved in a situation. In other words, some one does not care if it does not matter to him.” said Radot. 

“It is not a good attitude, isn’t it? We need to care our surrounding. We can not be ignorant to anything.” said Polin. 

“The meaning of the proverb is partly right. To some respect, the meaning is true. If we see evil, possibly we will accumulate evil thought in our mind; we will have tendency to do evil actions. An example of this is watching television. If our children often watch evil actions on TV, they will tend to do evil things. What is seen on the television will possibly be done to others. That is what happens to our teenagers on sex problem. So, it is true that if we see evil thing, there is a tendency for us to do evil actions. So, not to see evil will reduce tendency of evil actions.”   

“The same thing with hearing.’ said Radot to continue. “If we hear no evil, we will not entertain our mind with evil thought. But, if we hear evil, there is possibility that we will do evil action to others even to our selves. What we see and hear could generate a thought; depending on what thought coming in to our mind. If the incoming information is evil thought, we will generate evil thought and action; if the incoming information is good thought, we will possibly generate good thought and action.”  

“So, it is important to control information we receive through seeing and hearing.” said Polin. 

“Yes. The issue is that we can not always control what we see and hear. Many times event or information is just entertained to us without request. For example is the information on the television. We heard a lot of dirty words in the movies. So, many times we can not control what we see and hear.” 

“But, we could avoid it, couldn’t we?” Polin asked.  

“We could avoid it, but the act to avoid it does not always mean right. I mean if we close our eyes on evil action and we do not do anything, we are wrong. If we see evil actions bringing danger to many people and if we do not try to stop it, we are guilty. So, it is not always a good act to close our eyes to evil action. Our act to avoid it could even be said as an evil act.” 

“Many people avoid thing when they see danger.” said Polin. 

“The only true phrase from the proverb is ‘speak no evil.’ We are commanded not to say evil to others. This is what we could possibly control. To some degree we could control our mouth even though our tongue is the most difficult part of our body to control. To speak no evil is a command and this command is absolutely right.” 

“I think we need the fourth phrase – do no evil. It covers all. When we say ‘do no evil’, it means we are not permitted to speak evil thought and do evil action to others; we can not say bad words; we can not steal someone’s belonging; we can not apply partiality to others; we can not ignore someone’s right; we could not sleep with other women beside our spouse. To borrow term from Japan, we need ‘Shizaru’; it means  ‘do no evil’.”  (Judika Malau) 

The Goal of Personal Development

Polin always wants to develop himself. Even though he knows and feels there is a growth in his life, it does not make him satisfied. He reads books, takes courses or attend seminars that helps his personal growth. He always remembers an advice from Dale carnegie’s training saying, “If you stop learning you stop growing. 

“What do you think about personal development. What do you think about it?” asked Polin to start conversation with Radot. 

“It is an interesting subject.” said Radot. “We often hear such phrase. Some say it as individual development. Some say it as personal growth. It means the same thing.” 

“One way to help people grow is through education. There is formal type such as primary school, junior high school, senior high school, university and other education institution. Teachers or professors give lectures to his students. In a company, this-type of education is facilitated by Human Resources Department. They usually provide in-house training course, send employees to public course or seminar, send abroad for a special assignment, and many other things to help employees grow. There is also non-formal type education, which is we get from our home, and our social interactions with other people.”  

“Do always people grow through this education?” asked Polin. 

“In general, through education people will have an increase of understanding. But, it does not mean they understand all or they could apply all in real life situation. There is a lot difference between learning and doing. We could learn a lot, but we apply a little. Some people could apply more than other people do. Exposure to the real work will help more understanding on what have been learned. The concept ‘see, do, repeat’ usually help our personal growth.”  

“But, two of many important questions on personal growth is the sign and reference for personal growth? I mean what is the sign if we say that we grow?’ What is the baseline?”  

“You mean there must be a sign?” asked Polin. 

“If we say we grow, there must be a sign: physically, intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually. Physically, up to certain age we grow up and reach the maximum physical growth. Then, as our age increases we get older, and our physical strength decreases; our seeing, hearing and thinking abilities decrease. But, this kind of cycle does not always happen on emotional and spiritual growth. As we physically become weaker as we get older, but our emotion and spirituality could be more stable and stronger. We hear phrase such as Emotional Quotient and Spiritual Quotient. All of these related to our personal growth on non-physical aspect. But the general sign for personal growth is our ability to make decision. Unless we have such ability, we may not yet accomplish the true goal of personal development.”  

“You mean that our goal in personal development is to have ability to make decision?” asked Polin.  

“Yes. To have ability to make decision is our goal on any personal development. It means after we get some learning, we will be able to make decision for ourselves; we could decide who we should marry, what profession we should pursue, where we should live, how we manage our finance, we could select the rights word we want to say and other decision. Ability to make decision is the mark of our personal growth. If we can not make decision, it means we are far from the maximum level of maturity in our personal growth.” 

“So, ability to make decision is the goal of our personal growth, isn’t it?” asked Polin.

“Yes. It means we are able to make right decision. I think we miss this in our work place, especially companies in many parts of the world. We can’t make decision on our job. Even though we have been working for years, still we can’t make decision. We just do simple tasks; never exploring our ability to make decision. Room to make decision is so limited. We just make insignificant decision for years, possibly until we achieve our retirement age.” 

“So, we just make insignificant decision on our job.” said Polin.  

“The next issue on personal development is the reference. In simple question, ‘What is the reference for making right decision? We could make decision on many issues, but how do we know that our decision is right or how do we know that we make right decision?” 

“This is an interesting question. What is the basis for right decision?” asked Polin. 

“To answer that question, it could take hours of discussion. What we mean by right decision could be different from one to another. People have many ideas what they mean by right decision. There could be many definitions. We could argue what is the right definition but the substance of the right decision must be there.”  

“Every person has its own reference for saying what he means by right decision. People in the East will give their definition; so do people in the West, in  the China, and in India.  So, to make a baseline for making right decision will be another challenge.” 

“So, to define the term could take hours, couln’t it?” asked Polin. 

“It is possible. To accept a definition of right decision will be challenging because people will make reference for that definition. But, it is true that there is a baseline for making decision; there is a mirror to see if we have made right decision. Let’s take examples from our life. We make a lot of decision from simple to the complex ones. If we want to buy a house, we need to make simple calculation how much we need to pay per month. If we need to purchase car using leasing, we need to know what is the interest rate used, insurance, and other thing. If we want to send our children to school, we need to calculate our capability whether we could afford money for their education. Making business requires some calculation of our financial capability. So, in our daily life, we make many decisions; we make analysis or consideration before we make our decision. Even to choose clothe we want to wear need decision. We have to choose the color. So, there is a reference for making decision; what ever the reference is.” 

“But, in personal development, is there a reference?” 

“Since we are the most important of creation, we need to look for the reference. We need to know the baseline for making good decision; what the baseline is if we say we have grown; what the criteria are to say ourselves have grown in overall aspects.” 

“So, to choose the baseline for true personal development will be a great challenge. People will make what ever he wants, but we need to consider the solid foundation for personal development.”  

“That is interesting.” said Polin. 

“It is the most critical in any pursuit of personal development. If we miss it, our personal development will end up no where. Our effort on personal growth will be meaningless. We don’t want that happen to us. We want to have a ‘well-done’ journey’. (Judika Malau)