Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Party

Took a half day off to attend the Christmas party of Adler’s kindergarten.

Frequent visitors of this site may know Euterpe studied in the same kindergarten three years ago, and there was the same Christmas party – in the same place. I was so impressed by the seamless running and terrific time keeping at that time that I came to the conclusion their management skill is better than most of the extraterrestrials we encounter in hospitals and universities. (See http://ccszeto.blogspot.hk/2009/12/party.html)

How about this time?

I must say with the experience three years ago, Vivian and I were not as much excited. The program was by and large the same. The headmistress took a bit longer to give her speech – because she was apparently having a cold and needed to clear her throat a few times in the middle of the talk. In the little drama about Jesus Christ’s birth, a few kids – playing the part of sheep – found the floor of the stage too slippery to crawl. When the Santa Claus appeared, a few children were too involved in the dancing and forgot to collect their presents…

The program was scheduled to finish at 4:30 PM. In spite of all these small hiccups, at 4:25 PM, the last song was sung, and the headmistress rose to the stage again and thanked everyone for coming. I could not resist to say to myself, “This is real first-class management: It’s not about doing something right, but doing something right repeatedly – no matter how monotonous these things are, and prepare for all unexpected developments.”

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