Movement for change Take initiative according to the situation
I watched the performance of Phantom of the Opera on YouTube.

There was a segment that is relevant to Singapore and I like to share the moral of the incident. 

The theater management wanted to lay a trap to catch the Phantom, who has made unlawful demands and killed a production worker. 

They requested a team of police officers to guard the exit doors to stop the Phantom from leaving the theater. 

The leader in charge of the operation told a police officer to watch a particular box office and to shoot to kill if the need arises. The officer asked - how do I know if the need arises?

The leader replied - you will know when the time comes. 

I was amused at this reply. It is so common in Singapore that every worker has to be given detailed instructions on what to do in every conceivable situation. We have a cultural of following the SOP (standard operating procedure). It the situation is not covered in a SOP, the workers do not know what to do.

I prefer a more flexible approach. We can write a SOP to cover the situations that can be anticipated, but there should be flexibility to deal with the unexpected situations. 

We should encourage the front line people to exercise their initiative and set quite broad limits for them to do so. We should stop the practice of penalizing people who took the initiative and act outside of the stated SOP.

Tan Kin Lian

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