Lim Siong Guan's Book: The Leader, The Teacher and You

I picked up this book by Lim Siong Guan from the library last night and finished nearly half of it in one sitting. It was really a breeze to read, very thoughtfully organized. You came away thinking this guy cares a lot about the reader. Too many writers care more about themselves. He must be a wonderful person to work for, which unfortunately means this book is educational but mostly only indirectly relevant. Too many of us work for lousy bosses. The tenets of the book remain true regardless of your work environment but you got to have great faith if you think his wisdom will lead you on an upward path to success. More likely you would be shot down and need to pick up the pieces and try again and again. I am not sure many people would bother. To be fair, he often didn't know if he would succeed but he kept his integrity throughout.

I noticed his faith in scenario planning. I shared but abandoned my confidence in it years ago. To great minds it is a useful tool especially to communicate inside the organization. Unfortunately most minds aren't great and the whole effort becomes subcontracting your thinking to a system. Just like lesser strategic Chinese minds imagined their Great Wall was good enough to keep out invaders.

He has created and put in many good systems in our civil service but I worry they are now manned by too few people who know how to make good use of them. Good systems under lesser people breed complacency and a false sense of confidence. They lost their fear and vigilance even as danger is slowly building up.

Also I have not yet come across any praise for LHL's government. For a nice guy like him, what he did not say could be more important than what he did.

We are all free to disagree.


Update: 2:45 pm

From Chapter 6: Culture and Values. Lim Siong Guan shared Dr. Goh perspective on moral education....religious education was eventually rolled back because of Dr. Tony Tan. Huge mistake and now Heng Swee Keat is struggling to find a way to short it up but without resort to religion.

Today's government is not known for its moral compass but business pragmatism aka as long as it makes money. It has little regard for the moral but watch the legal closely. What a bankrupt. No wonder he had no praise for LHL's government. To Lim, values define us and give us a future, but how many of us know what our society's values are? Compassionate Meritocracy? That's is what this government gave up and is now trying to bring back. Until we rubbish the PAP nose in 2011 it was law of the jungle and a benign neglect for the poor, weak and sick hoping that they will die without making too much noise as the G went about raising the quality of the gene pool. In other words, Dr. Goh was a counterbalance to the godless LKY and his son. Add Tony Tan to the unholy mix too. I consider him our worst President because without executive power the person in that office acts from personal power. You don't see that flowing from him like Wee Kim Wee or Ong Teng Cheong. Even SR Nathan had he not been diminished by his high pay had personal power.