oNE bODY, mANY pARTS

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Today is such a special day and I enjoyed every moment of it... been a long time since I last felt this way... Well, today, I felt very connected to my colleagues and for once, somehow, I was not nervous when I spoke with them and we had a lot fo fun during training.

Today, our department has kind of "closed shop" for the day for internal training. Since we have a new staff and this is appraisal period, our boss came up with this idea to have a day of training and have all staff do presentations on their area of work. In this way, it serves to orientate the new staff, help staff to understand each others' work so they will see how everyone's roles interlink with one another, "cross train" all other colleagues as well as help her to do her appraisal. Would say this is an ingenious idea! And the whole session was conducted in such a friendly manner with fun and laughter and lots of food. Even though this presentation was meant to be an appraisal and our Number 2 also came down to observe, there was really very little competition and we all would even joke about each other's presentation saying how it "spoil market" and sometimes even affirming each other. Somehow, I was also less tensed today and my presentation, surprisingly, went very well and I seemed to confidently covered everything I wanted to say and most importantly, the presentation did justice to reflect the work I did.

Our boss shared that in order for a team to success, we need to be clear about the goals, roles, processes and relationships. For goals and roles, we are generally clear about it. For processes, we are currently refining it. But one of the challenging things still remains to be relationships. She reminded us that it is not good enough to have clear goals, roles and good processes but bad relationship.

I like one of the exercise which my boss wanted us to do; she wanted us to get in groups to discuss what factors help develop close relationships in a team... the cliche answers like "communication", "being genuine", "sharing same valooes (values) and viseons (visions)" came up. But one thing stood out and both groups highlighted celebration and food... True enough, our team really celebrate (in fact we find every opportunity to celebrate) and this makes work a little less mundane. We give each another fun nicknames like Ms Malaysia (for staff working with Malaysian centres) and even have interesting lingos like "kaboom kaboom" to refer to stamping of dates on letters. We eat together (and often go out to find nice food), we go on holidays together with each others' family, we have fun together and even exercise together hahaha... in fact, our department seems to be so well-known for its hospitality, we maintain a snack corner (some call comfort food) where people from all over the building can come share the food :) Our meetings also have food and snacks. Maybe that's why we started recently to also exercise, becoming a little health conscious :)

Anyway, guess what we did after a whole day of training? Yes, we went to have teochew porridge buffet with another ex-staff and visited one of the centres which will be closed down come April next year. So we went there to take photo and then go makan after that...

A verse that my boss used: 1 Corinthians 12:12-31

12 The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ.

13 For we were all baptized by[c] one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.

14 Now the body is not made up of one part but of many.

15 If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body.

16 And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body.

17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be?

18 But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.

19 If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

21 The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!" And the head cannot say to the feet, "I don't need you!"

22 On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable,

23 and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty,

24 while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it,

25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other.

26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.

28 And in the church God has appointed first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, also those having gifts of healing, those able to help others, those with gifts of administration, and those speaking in different kinds of tongues.

29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles?

30 Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues[d]? Do all interpret?

31 But eagerly desire[e] the greater gifts.