Daily Lessons from Life 22 February 2010

"Indonesia rounds up students in cybercafes - Mon, Feb 22, 2010 AFP

JAKARTA, INDONESIA - Indonesian police raided Internet cafes Monday and rounded up dozens of students who were skipping school to play computer games or chat with their friends online.

The raids in the town of Bandung, West Java, came in response to complaints from parents and teachers about children missing classes to spend time on the Internet, an official said.

'We raided 23 Internet cafes and rounded up 89 students. Many were in their school uniforms,' Bandung city official Suparno told AFP.

'They should be in school during school hours but instead they were playing computer games, chatting online and checking their Facebook profiles.'"

Well, not a bad thing to do really as sometimes young folks are not able to know what is good for them and what their priorities should be in the long term.

Lessons for me are:

1. it is ideal to let people decide what is good for them as the actions resulting from that decision will be followed through with stronger commitment than following some one's decision or, worse, order!;

2. at the same time judgment need to be passed on if the people who are to be given the independence are ready to make the decision or not. If the facts and evidence shown otherwise, it is the responsible thing for the leaders to decide for these people that having the independence to make decision is perhaps not a good idea! Of course, hopefully, there are 2-way and open communication between the parties to explain why such a decision was made and the judgement arrived;

3. the people with the so-called 'independence' to do as they pleased will respond negatively to such a decision. This is the natural reaction. Hopefully when the emotion is more stable, rational reasoning back up with facts and evidence shared can bridge the gap. It will be a difficult communication process. One that will take patience and genuine sincerity to be successful.

In the corporate world, while our co-workers may not be young and ignorant kids, some do need such help after observing their behaviors and the results produced. Take away the autonomy gently but firmly! Also work on helping them to build up the capability to be making 'independent decision for themselves again!'.