Many people had asked me about how I run and transform Muzium & Galeri Tuanku Fauziah (MGTF), Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM). Unfortunately, I can't give them straight answer most of the time. Perhaps, it is due to my lack of 'academic' background in organisational and human resource management, business planning and brand development. I don't have a Phd in those things. heck, I don't have a Phd in anything (at least, not yet). Most of what I've done came from my scattered readings, asking people (in the business of running a museum and gallery or anything to do with them) and most of time, 'practically' testing my own hyphoteses (on several key issues related to museum and gallery).
But I do have my own list of key principles on what clever people would call 'paradigmatic shifts'. They were taken from several sources (reading materials, practical actions and personal experiences). I guess such shifts can be applied to many other situations as well.
So here we go:
Transformation from
(In governance)
• GOVERNMENT CULTURE to SUSTAINABLE CULTURE
• MAINTAINING STATUS QUO to TAKING RISK
• ENLARGEMENT to CONVERGENCE
• RETAINING SIMILAR METHOD to CHANGE OF DIRECTION
(In working culture) :
• From KISS ASS to INTEGRITY
• COERCIVE to INSPIRATIONAL
• PASSING JUDGMENT to GIVING MOTIVATION
• GIVING COMMANDS to SHARING KNOWLEDGE
• SECRETIVE to OPENNESS
• WORKING ALONE to WORKING AS A TEAM
• DEMANDING PRAISES to GIVING ACKNOWLEDGMENT
(in management culture) :
• From FIGHTING THE DARK to EMITTING LIGHT
• MANAGING to INSPIRING
• FOCUSING ON TODAY’S CRISIS to DEALING WITH TOMORROW’S OPPORTUNITIES, now
• REACTING TO CHANGE to INDUCING CHANGE
• CHEERLEADER to VISIONARY
• CONTROLLING OTHERS to EMPOWERING OTHERS
• PUNISHING BAD BEHAVIORS to ENCOURAGING GOOD BEHAVIORS
• FINDING FAULTS to SOLVING PROBLEMS
• LONE DECISION to CONSULTATIVE DECISION
• CENTRALIZED to NETWORKED
Plus many-many more scenarios of transformation that our mind can imagine.
Hijra to the road of fitrah (after a series of several workshops and teh tarik kurang manis sessions) :
• Open-minded
• ‘Participative’,
• Cross-disciplines
• Transparent
• Prudent
• Confident
• Balanced
• People-friendly
• Nature-friendly
• Gender-sensitive
• Diverse
• Tolerant
• Creative
• Innovative
• Risk taker
• A sense of humor
• Hard work & fast
• Think visually
• Good psychologist
• Set high standard
• Strategic thinker
• Research-minded
• Power of analysis balanced with a ‘blink’ sharp instinct
• Imaginative
• Trustworthy
Everyone is a 'leader'. Everyone is a winner. remember those millions of zygots swimming along with only one (winner) managed to fertilise the egg....to become 'me'. Every soul is an emitting light. A good transformative leader will bring others back to traits that are closer to our fitrah - light, passionate, innovative, focus on ideas, inspiring, eyes on horizon, long-range scenarios, vision grounded in values, humble, comfortable with oneself, honest and just.
A leader makes peace. Pray that we all become one, who is peace (salam).
In regards to the arts, perhaps the shifts here may spark few frequencies here and there...
FROM Singular or master narrative (read Euro-American) TO discourses and multiple (small) narratives
FROM Passively safe TO provocatively challenging
FROM Aesthetic only TO cultural studies
FROM Formalism only TO multiple methodologies
FROM Modern only TO beyond post-modernism or whatever 'ism'
FROM Homogeneity TO trans-cultural
FROM National only TO regional & global
FROM Exclusive TO inclusive or participative
FROM Mass(mess) media TO multimedia/new media
FROM Status-quo (for abuse & unjust domination) TO deconstruction (of whatever that is abusive/unjust)
FROM Rigidly prescriptive, given & predetermined TO choice
FROM Nation-state TO trans-national
FROM Independence TO interdependence
FROM Centralized TO multi-centers
FROM Singular discipline/media/medium TO trans-disciplines/cross-media
FROM Linear TO non-linear
FROM Form TO information (and value)
FROM Fixed and frozen (dead) TO change and flux (alive)
FROM Content TO context
FROM Singular meaning TO multiple meanings
FROM Product TO time
FROM Mass TO customization
FROM Artist as the controller or artist-centered TO artist as facilitator or audience-centered
FROM Review of end product or summative TO review of process or formative
FROM Sequential and single direction TO cyclical, simultaneous, concurrent and multi-directional
FROM Isolated specialist TO multi-skilled generalist
FROM Hierarchy TO network of relation or web
FROM Physical skill TO thinking or mental skill
FROM Product-centered TO services or user-centered
FROM Global competition TO global collaboration
FROM Dominance TO synergy
FROM Passive audience or consumer TO interactive audience or prosumer
FROM Physical attributes TO intellectual attributes
FROM Fractions TO convergence
FROM 'Zahir' TO 'Batin & Zahir'
Those on the right side of this transformative shift are perhaps more friendly or healthy to the true nature of our mind. They will hopefully unveil the inherent creativity in all of us.
Berhijrahlah sayang, demi masa mu.
yabedabedu!
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