Managing the Unexpected

Managing the Unexpected?
Expecting the Unmanageable?

I am taking a summer class in Risk Assessment and Management. Or something like that, I don't quite remember the name of the course. One of the course requirements is a book report. I chose a book by Dr. Karl Weick, whom I read quite a bit in another management seminar and I kind of know what to expect from his book. Yes, it has something to do with organization culture, okay?

The title of the book is "Managing the Unexpected", where Weick and his co-author Sutcliffe, suggested normal organizations to benchmark high reliability organizations (HRO) on managing the unexpected events. Its a pretty interesting book and the method they used is similar to the "Harvard Case Study" style, where they laid out quite a number of organizations experiences, analyzed, compared and contrasted these incidents.

However, the real "take" I got from this book is not really from the two excellent researchers-cum-authors. It happened this morning in my risk class. My professor, for some reason, referred to the HRO in his lecture, and naturally, he asked who got the book. So I didn't have much choice but to speak up. After my brief oral report on the book, he said this:

I liked this book, but as a department chair, I would like it better if the author could change the name to "Expecting the Unmanageable"

That made my day.

無常

今天閑着沒事做, 沒什麼心情看書, 又還不想回家, 因為家里很熱, 就決定要整理我所有的 email account, 刪除所有不需要了的 email. 翻着看着, 我翻到两封 email, 同一個朋友發的, 分別是今年二月和三月收到的. 一封算是報平安的, 另一封則附有相片. 相里的她, 挺着肚子, 高興地顯示着肚里的雙胞胎.

今天看到這两封 email 時, 真的是感慨萬千. 雖然意外發生距今兩個多月了, 我卻覺得彷彿是昨天剛發生似的; 前一秒還高高興興地期待着, 下一秒就什麼都沒有了.

世事無常, 凡事只要以平常心去看待, 就不會那麼感慨了. 可是, 平常心, 談何容易啊!

Infinity

"Is there any number larger than infinity?"
"errr.....no.....I don't think so..."
"What about infinity times two? Infinity square?"

My risk analysis course professor. I was cracking up in class when he said so. But only another of my coursemate got the joke. The rest of the class were flabbergasted, staring at him, not knowing how to response.