A letter to all Club and Societies related CCA Leaders:

I recently received calls from mentees and juniors about all sorts of problems hatching within CCAs back in school, and I find it repetitive. Most of these problems are actually prevalent in CCAs across local schools. Here are three main points that often tackles the most hectic headaches of countless of student leaders.

CCA should not be just about competitions, or follow-through motions

To the readers of this post who are, or were formerly in a clubs and societies related CCA: think about the time when you were asked about your most meaningful experiences in school. How many of you actually find it annoying as you find it hard to come up with something that you really feel significant or proud of, and sort of regret not doing something better during your CCA days? For a long while, I have heard lots of peers around me, including CCA leaders, commenting that their time spent in CCA was a waste. Often, there was comparison made between their experiences on the ground, and another person who enjoyed a seemingly more rewarding CCA life, and naturally a more robust graduate portfolio. Speaking from experience (including a few I mentored before), is often the lack of ownership in whatever they do, or simply they can’t find meaning.

Let’s look at the cause of failure for such a CCA, and, for CCA leaders and mentors, what are the tell-tale signs that you might be drowning in this kind of CCA life. Firstly, what happens when a CCA lacks pride and motivation is that people are merely following through what needs to be done, often half-heartedly or just literally “bo-chap”, since they have no choice but to be there to fulfil the curriculum requirement of attending CCAs after the organisation itself failed their expectations of guaranteeing an ideal CCA that they would enjoy in. This is understandable, and high chance this wasn’t at their fault. Why? They simply don’t see the meaning to them for doing all the stuff like repeating the routine of projects after projects for simple competitions that looked like jokes after a while! What’s more, most common people don’t have much luxury of time and effort to hijack their precious energy just to think about something else that’s more exciting and to take charge from scratch. (Just imagine those are commoners facing the stress of failing tests and knowing that they won’t be as recognised as those with appointments. Will you take that extra effort to care for something that may not even pay as well as scoring for a math test?)

Another case, people are just sick and tired of going for competitions after competitions that they barely had chance of securing victory (and nothing else!!), which their effort just doesn’t really translate to fruitful achievements. Realised something? No one would want to say stuff so depressing as such in any occasion. That’s where people realised that they are short of lots of experiences that people from Council, UG, or even AVA Clubs would have gained elsewhere (be it community projects, organising events etc.), such as communicating skills in the society, event planning, managing failures and stress, sense of fulfilment and usefulness.

A lot of times, it doesn’t really matter about the amount of achievements you got from winning competitions. School leaders, or down to teachers-in-charge, often used competition achievements as a benchmark of how well a CCA perform, and I find it naïve, simply because that doesn’t define how successful and meaningful the CCA culture is. The game plan fails as soon as a member cannot find the reason to commit to the CCA and that the CCA isn’t helping much in growing him/her in person.

Speaking from opinion, I would rather a CCA doing more in areas such as community services, deepening life skills such as administrative accounting and resource management, where the responsibility of conducting goes down to individuals. (Notice that anyone in the club have the right to take lead and initiate a project, and the job of CCA leaders should be taking the supporting role, since your job includes the wellbeing of your batch-mates under your charge. They also deserve a portfolio)

Sustainability is key

A common thing that often CCA have is that good initiatives, or even good results cannot sustain, either because the knowledge isn’t passed down, or there isn’t simply enough members joining etc. The solution is actually simple, sustainability weights much more than securing a dominance in a competition, or simply lessening the extra effort in initiating new members to the scene. A lot of times, the decision makers like to make very blunt decision to just group those who are specialised together to increase chances of winning, and neglecting the need to encourage interaction between those who know more and those who are not proficient. And end up when these seniors left, the juniors are left with not much and have little means to help themselves.

Another possibility is that the good practices are not passed down simply because that seniors assume that it’s not an important skillset, or simply the juniors does not realise the importance in the good practices and initiatives.

If you realise that this happens, you probably failed the job to ensure that the CCA is sustainable. This isn’t a sole job of the teacher/mentor-in-charge. A successful CCA have both the teacher/mentor and the student leaders realising the need to keep the CCA running well. Just like maintenance of the transit system. You can’t expect the system to not breakdown if you decides to just pass the job and tick forms without actually performing necessary checks and preventive maintenance jobs.

Connection Matters

Another important thing for CCA leaders, especially for club and societies that often needs to go through administrative procedures such as booking venues or needing a lot of external support. Get along well with the Councils and important appointment holders around the school. This would lessen a lot of hassle when you need resources to get things done.

Key to Ace Project Work – An A Level Project Work Field Guide

As vague as it can get, just like how concise it can be.

Project Work often is deemed a heavy hurdle for countless of JC-1 folks. With the mental stress of bothering will the outcome be an A, a less than desirable B (or if it’s gotta get any worse, a C) at the very end. At around March each year, the battle to secure the first “A” in the graduation certificate would begin, as one get to know their comrades (whether you like it a not) and the question of the year. That’s the motivation for even bothering about PW in the first place. Isn’t it?

At some point in time, at the very least, people would be naturally be thinking: “What kind of projects will guarantee myself an A”, “Will I need to tank the whole ton of s**t? (Will my team members “pangseh” me?)”, or “How do we even start??”

All these are perfectly normal, until when you find that you are dwelling on it for too long. So, what constitutes to an “A-grade” project? In lecture, the tutors would likely go through samples after samples of projects, and breaking up on possible answering directions to the question set by the exam board. But, what it takes for a successful project is to look through what the whole idea of Project Work is about, and whether your project (be it analysis or ideas) are sensible and well prepared. Here are some of the best proven practices and important mind-set that are gathered from the experiences of top performing PW groups, as well as from senior subject tutors.

The “Problem Solving” Mind-set.

Think of PW as a faulty system on the run, as if you are an engineer or a service provider who is needed to solve the glitch (Yeap legit I mean by that!!! This is probably how application in real-life is exercised in the curriculum). The thing about PW is that it is there for you to present solutions to the problem somewhere in your society (just that the question gives a vague direction of where to look up to). No matter how the question changes, the pattern and format won’t deviate much. Your job is to convince your “boss” on the best possible solution that one can’t pick much on in any way. As long as you find the link between PW and the idea of getting it solved (1x good one). You are probably on the right track.

Find Meaning in the Project

The motivation to do well lies in the fact of knowledge that the thing we do have meaning in it, where we deem it is worth the effort. This is a mind-set that is hard-coded into every single human on this world (as long you are mentally sound, at the very least). We takes the task of importance seriously when it matters in our lives and when we have a feeling of it having a good outcome. Results will definitely show on the attitude of your group towards the project. (Whether it is a big thing that pumps adrenaline of excitement into you that you would want “chiong” a lot into and make sure it is perfect, or some crap that often requires meeting of deadline and thinking probably it will “sway sway” award you with a distinction grade)

Drill Hard to the root of the Problem 

(Make some Depth in Your Work)

More often than not, the root cause of PW groups finding themselves going around the circle (you know it when you simply can’t get their WR or EOM ideas to make smiles on their PW tutors, or can’t make sense on convincing yourself out of the stuff you write) is that they are not able to identify the real needs over the issue, what is the real thing that cause the issue to be that complicated. Take note, PW is nowhere like a classroom discussion where you can simply pass it off with some random ideas at the back of your head (This is the places in your WR and OP where either led to your group scoring straight Bs, or the reason revolving around EOMs on why some in the group got A while others, a B). What the examiners look at is your amount of understanding and awareness on the issue you are working on, as well as your maturity of thinking by the amount of senses you put into the analysis and the workability of the ideas your presented in your WR or OP.

This common problem is very easy to comprehend and attended to as long as you understood what the hell is going on for the previous point on the “Problem Solving” mind-set. You might have realised it, the whole idea is the same all along. No point going around the surface of the issue and present something that can be easily brushed aside by a very basic counter-argument. Similarly, get your depth of analysis by looking at the solution as a whole. Foresee the possible problems that arise as a by-product of the solution, or why something of a similar sort failed previously and how different will yours be (if any). This is an effective way to balance between Creativity and Sensibility.

Effective Content

The key to getting any effective ideas into play is to know the subject matter well enough. No EoMs and WRs aces without the writer knowing what it takes.

It’s Everyone’s Part

You might have heard rumours from people around, that someone or two in the group would be a tanker that “tah” everything for u. The truth is, this often fails big time, as big as the fantasy-like imagination that some charismatic player is godly enough to settle everything, or when you think being handed to a team with the smart ass with the best PI guarantees good stuff. That nonsense is more like settling for early straight Bs and Cs. It is a must for everyone in the group to be focused and on the ball at the pace fast enough to know what is happening, or enjoy seeing the work being hanged there for days and weeks without consensus or effective progress. One or few masterminds can’t make an organisation work. That should be the saying. Don’t learn the hard way when you and your team struggles to pull together sh*t to hand in a seemly proper WR or a passable OP that you aren’t confident of at all.

That the baseline of a good PW experience. There is a lot of room to play with. It can be as far as making PW into an actual project executed on the ground, an extreme example (heard it turned out well but extremely risky). 

Your seniors and PW Tutors are your good friends on the job. Some good advises may help you in the process. A side note, if you want do pay some attention on to others under a different tutor. Every tutor have their slight variation in their teaching styles and insights, and not all fits your group. (esp. when PW scripts are cross-marked by different tutors at the end). Try to get objective and neutral insights from different sources to help you evaluate the part and parcels of your project.

END (hope it helps and all the best~!)

Insights from Book: "Team Genius: The New Science of High-Performing Organizations" (Part 5)

This continues from Insights from Book: "Team Genius: The New Science of High-Performing Organizations" (Part 4).

PART 5: Inspecting a Failed Team

Team Genius offered out some most important questions to ask as a team member or leader for a failed team. These question act as a post-mortem for fail teams as reflections.

1. In retrospect, did the team have a viable strategy that would have worked without any interferences or any incompetence from the senior management (or the higher ups above the team leadership, if any)
2. Did the team function harmoniously throughout the span of operation of the team, including even the interval when its impending failure is apparent?
3. When it encountered the event that would prove fatal to the teams' efforts, did the team recognises it as such, or were the members oblivious?
4. How did the team react to this news of impending failure? Did it try to react? Develop a new strategy? or just surrender to it?
5. Did the team leader keep the team on point in the aftermath of the shock?
6. Did the team research for new & relevant talent in its response to the crisis? Was that talent quickly incorporated into the team's operation?
7. Did the team leader swiftly and decisively present the changed solution, with alternative responses to the senior management - or did he or she and the rest of the team attempted to cover it?
8. Was the blame casted and recriminations made among members for the failed outcome?
9. Did the tram leader help the team members with recommendations in the aftermath of the failure (ie. rescue the disruption that have already happened)? Or were the members jettisoned and forgotten?
10. For the decision maker: Not knowing what was to come, would you have done anything differently?

Extra points that was stated in the book on the success and failure of teams:

1) Life does not offer that many wins, take them while its reachable.

2) Better off achieving a guaranteed success, especially one that accomplishes more than expected, than try to push a failing team to the finish line.

3) Failure breeds failure, just as much as successes do. So planting a winner in a team does not do much in turning things around.

Other notes

• Putting everyone into similar tasks (a waste of resources) is a grave mistake for almost any type of teams --> Lack of much needed resources for the most potential wielded + Not all people are suited for the same task;

• Put the project as the main foundation stone for the group, not the people or the organisation itself. Make sure that the directions of the group is clear at all stages of the progress. It is a danger to have any member losing track of what needs to be done or what's next.
• Put only people that have the interest and heart to do the job, to join the team. Putting people for the sake of it or to claim the title, or even just basing on the eligibility of the person only make the team worse.

Insights from Book: "Team Genius: The New Science of High-Performing Organizations" (Part 4)

This continues from Insights from Book: "Team Genius: The New Science of High-Performing Organizations" (Part 3).

PART 4: The Keys in Team Formation and Functionality

(I) The Keys in in Team Formation

Forming teams can be as easy as publicising the intentions of the group to be formed and getting interested people from a corridor. However, Team Genius pointed out that there are some algorithms in getting the right people in the right team:

• Diversity: Look past surface differences such as gender, race. Focus on read differences in culture, life experiences, skills, thought processes.
• Proximity: The closer members are in terms of social distance, more productivity can be leveraged. If there are instances where members can't be placed in the same room, find communication tools to close the gap if possible.
• Size: Always determine the smallest size for the task. Recruit the tram of the size or not too over the numbers. (see below)
• Hierarchy: Layers of management increases efficiency but not necessarily productivity. Keep leadership to the smallest number of managers and the fewest layers of control. For a mid-size team (see below), There should not be more than 2 levels of leadership. It would be very helpful if members know each other well on a personal basis.
• Resist the desire of team members to recruit friends into the team. Even if the person is talented, it might reduce the diversity in the team unless it is a conformity that it won't likely happen.
• Someone from a healthy team in the recent past, or a proven leader coming off a "successful failure" is a good suit of a leader for the team, for they have the necessary experience and knowledge that they pick up form the former team that are applicable to the current.
• Resist the strategy of letting the leader choose his own team (since often than not it's his/her preference and this might just create homogeneity in the team in terms of ideas and way of work)

(II) The Proven Size of teams

Team Genius stated out some of the proven perfect numbers for a good team:

Small, delicate teams: 5- (+/-)7

Mid Size teams: (+/-)15

For large size teams, the author put 150, 1500 strong as a point of saturation for teams, which is based on the amount of control that the leadership of the type can handle, especially for communication. 

One thing to note is that the amount of communication nodes increases exponentially with the amount of members in the group (just like how permutation works). The author effectively used the example of Hewlett-Packward company in the 1960s to explain the numbers, as the founder cum director started to realise that he cannot relate well to his employees to effectively convey concise and personalised instructions once the numbers go past 150. (It's the point that even remembering names and work division would be hard for an average person on the ground)

Continued-->

Insights from Book: "Team Genius: The New Science of High-Performing Organizations" (Part 3)

This continues from Insights from Book: "Team Genius: The New Science of High-Performing Organizations" (Part 2).

Well then, what is the key to forming the right team? The book dived in next to highlights the prerequisites of a team to be effective in its way.

PART 3: The Right Conditions for Securing Team Success

1. Compelling direction: a team with great drive requires them to have a very clear division of labour (i.e. having a very clear team tasking), which are usually challenging and consequential at team level or individual level. Members are compelled to work when they know that the task poses a great impact to the team and that consequently it is something they want to do that is up to take their ability to test.
2. A bounded team with stable membership and strong identity. This is quite similar to a sense of pride that we often term it as. In this setting, members of the team are inter-dependant in terms of interaction, where there is close linkages between members in terms of the task. Take note: this does not mean the task would overlap, or in layman term having 2 or more people doing the same job. It meant the tasks have clearly defined lines, but closely affects what the others do (or at least the members can sense the changes that his/her task can bring in the big picture).
3. Right mix of members and guiding-values. This does not mean like minded individual don't form good teams. It just means that introducing differing backgrounds and values bring along a broader spectrum of ideas. Again, it brings back to the question of diversity stated in Part 2.
4. Supportive organisational context that allow access to vital materials and resources. So in a school context (for example), it comes in the form of the amount of support from the teacher in charge, school management in terms of funding, mentor-ship, good networking of supportive individuals that can offer external help etc.
5. The viability of becoming a coached teams that are guided by a mentor with expertise on the subject. This is especially important when the teams is venturing into a new sector with no members having adequate experience and network to offer concrete direction and resources.

Continued-->

Insights from Book: "Team Genius: The New Science of High-Performing Organizations" (Part 2)

This continues from Insights from Book: "Team Genius: The New Science of High-Performing Organizations" (Part 1).

PART 2: A Snippet: The Double-edged Sword of Diversity in Forming Teams

Guess most of us would always here that diversity is a favourable trait of a good team. But Team Genius listed out some of the contentions of having diversity just for its sake. While having too common backgrounds (regardless of physical attributes) can limit creativity in teams, in a diverse group, members may view each other through a biased scope of stereotypes on social categories (not just the usual stuffs like physical build, but more of backgrounds and experiences). This can be a problem especially when members start to fail to identify themselves with the group.

Continued-->

Insights from Book: "Team Genius: The New Science of High-Performing Organizations" (Part 1)

Here's some insights that I have gathered from my interpretations of the book "Team Genius: The New Science of High-Performing Organizations" by Michael S. Malone and Rich Karlgaard.

So, the book largely covers the science behind team building and operations, which is critical for an effective command-ship as a leader and player of a team (either or both). Here's some of the great points.

PART 1: What great teams do?

1) Communication is key!

Great teams communicate frequently. High performing teams usually have close to a dozen conversations between themselves and the outside world within every work hour. Its is merely a trend or observation but it holds true in majority of the good teams out there.

Contrary to common understanding, most of the ideas are most effectively conveyed not via formal conversations, but during informal "small talks" (or "kopi-chats" in local context). Why? A guess was that formal conversation sets a barrier to free expression of ideas, since there would usually be a unspoken conscious on what to say and what not to say on the table-top, and members tend to be conservative on what they are gonna say in such a formal setting.

2) Mutual respect + Equal footing

Members talk and listen in equal measure. Everyone in the team is unique and deserves a listening ear. A good team tend to have an even distribution of communication share among each member, which in other words, every member have a fairly equal share of the amount of content they present to the group. Bad teams often have teams within teams (i.e. divided fronts that have a lack of consensus) or have members who talk/ listen but not both, which often results in a one way communication.

A common problem for work groups, especially student-led groups, tend to have most of the weight laying on a single person, or a couple of people that are usually outspoken. And, whether with or without consensus, most of the teams would naturally let the outspoken ones to take the initiative on the course of action and direction of the group.

3) A resourceful warehouse

A good team often have members looking for ideas and information outside the group. Members would intermittently or consistently connect with various outside sources (especially for skill-sets and knowledge that are lacking in its members)

These teams often have a well kept record of useful info that they can leverage on should they need it in the future.

Continued-->

[UPDATE 04/01/2019] Project Alpha - H2 Economics Revision Notes 2017

[UPDATE 04/01/2019]: The encryption of the resource have been updated to fix the glitch over an additional numeric "0" in the code that prevented a number of users from accessing the file. The instructions on the file have also been updated accordingly to reflect the change. There are no changes made to the main document. If you have been experiencing issues opening the previous version of this file, feel free to re-download again. Tks and apologies for the shortcomings earlier!

Refer to the main post for more information and link to the updated document.