Faces of OD
Model
Behaviour
By Geraldine Ling
MOE’s assistant director of OD once had a
supernatural encounter which taught her
resilience and perseverance
Ms Masni Mah
One could tease
and call her a “cover girl”. But, no, this
dedicated civil servant is not about to grace the covers of fashion and beauty magazines.
While the 35-year-old’s porcelain skin and mixed parentage good looks – her father’s
Chinese and mother’s Malay – would make her a natural photo-shoot model, Ms Mah is
one of the “faces” of the recruitment tea sessions for the Education Ministry’s
Organisation Development Division.
What she does is to personally send out invitations to the potential hires as well as to
personally interact with them when they turn up for the sessions which are aimed at
attracting people who dare to be “different”. She helps them to feel that they can be
empowered to explore new ideas in OD.
It is easy to see why she is a winner of hearts. Ms Mah, an assistant director at the
ministry, exudes friendly warmth from the first handshake.
“People can smell insincerity, so I try to be as authentic as possible.” she says.
Soft-spoken and even-tempered, the young mother – she has four boys aged between
one to six - strikes an easy rapport with you. There is a distinct air of candour about her
as she answers each question you ask.
But perhaps the top reason for having her front the tea sessions with her colleagues is
her wealth of experience in OD. Ms Mah has had some 12 years of experience in this
area at the ministry.
© Nov 2011 Centre for Organisation Development, Civil Service College. All rights reserved.
Finding meaning
But work, as she would tell you now, has taken on a different meaning.
“I am constantly involved in something different, be it learning new OD tools or
facilitating focus group discussions. I feel myself growing and contributing. My boss
gives me the room to share my views and my colleagues never fail to amaze me
with their ingenuity.
“I go home happy and consider myself blessed. That’s why I still feel engaged,” she
says.
As a young officer, the geography
honours graduate began her career at
MOE’s PS21 unit in 1999, where she
looked after the staff suggestion
scheme.
During this time, she was also given
the opportunity to attend a year-long
course in change management,
organised by the Civil Service College,
where she picked up organisation
learning knowhow.
When the unit split to form a new
innovation arm in 2001, she was sent
to San Francisco to train under
innovation firm, The Idea Factory.
Armed with the lessons she learnt,
she started designing and running
workshops for various schools and
MOE divisions. Shortly after, she
helped start the $1 million MOE
Innovation Fund together with her
colleagues.
About four years ago, shortly after
completing a part-time Masters
degree in Policy, Leadership and
Change, she rose to become the OD
division’s assistant director.
Not bad for someone who never
thought she’d work in OD.
“I didn’t even know what OD was,”
she says, shaking her head. “But I was
okay with trying anything after I
graduated. My idea of a job then was
to sit behind a desk, generate
paperwork and do whatever your
boss tells you to do.”
What also blossomed further was her love for people.
“I think it was always in me – this desire to want to listen to people’s stories and
then make sense out of them,” she says.
In fact, she tells you that it was a supernatural experience she had during her
honours thesis days that sealed this observation.
Then, she had been researching into the lives of the Nyungah Aboriginals in
Western Australia. After six weeks of conducting interviews in Perth, she was all
set to go home.
But she became a victim of lost luggage when she arrived in Singapore. Despite
help from the airline authorities, her suitcase, which contained the bulk of her
research materials, could not be found.
Worse, her six-year-old sister later said she saw a ghostly apparition – resembling
an Aboriginal dressed in ancestral costume – floating above a sleeping Ms Mah. It
was then that Ms Mah’s aunt ventured a guess that the Aboriginals had somehow
spirited the suitcase away to protect the intricacies of their culture from being
known.
Ms Mah was thrown into distress.
“You can imagine how scared and frustrated I was,” she says calmly.
What saved the day – and her thesis – was her meticulous nature and love for
order. Ms Mah had, after each interview, painstakingly typed all her key
observations into her laptop.
“I also thought through my thesis in my dreams and often woke up feeling like I
had figured out what to write for each chapter,” she says.
The result? A second-class upper honours.
“
It’s only when you
stay long
enough that you can see the
returns of your efforts. I’ve been in
the service long enough to see that it works.
”
© Nov 2011 Centre for Organisation Development, Civil Service College. All rights reserved.
As for her encounter with the third
kind, the gentle-mannered woman
says that she has reconciled herself to
the experience.
“I told myself that the spirits did not
mean me any hard. They were
probably as curious about me as I was
about their culture.
“Looking back, I enjoyed every single
moment listening to the Aboriginals’
stories at the interviews. And through
those times, I realised that I was at my
best when I worked with people,” she
says.
The episode had also taught her
resilience and perseverance –
qualities which she said helped her
thrive in OD.
She explains their importance:
“People in OD tend to take a longterm view in the things that we do.
That’s why we put in extra effort to
cultivate relationships or participate
actively in collaborations.”
Building relationships, she adds, will
hold practitioners in good stead in the
future if they need to gather
authentic feedback from the ground
or garner support for a programme.
“OD cannot work without the people
around them. Whatever initiatives we
come up with have people’s interests
at heart. We need their support.
That’s why we need to have a positive
front. If we are defensive, people may
not want share their views with us,”
she says.
Yet at times, this is a dreary road which
can take a traveller some time before he
sees success, she warns.
“Many new officers struggle. They may
feel like they’re giving a lot without
seeing any quick outcomes, so some
feel disheartened and leave the practice
prematurely.
“But it’s only when you stay long
enough that you can see the returns of
your efforts. I’ve been in the service
long enough to see that it works,” she
adds.
© Nov 2011 Centre for Organisation Development, Civil Service College. All rights reserved.
“
OD is about
harnessing diversity in
the organisation for
the greater good, to
achieve the
organisation’s mission
and vision. It’s about
thinking of the
whole, rather
than the small
parts.
Changing faces
”
She recounts how OD has taken shape over the past decade, with the most significant change being the sharpening of the practice’s role in organisations.
“There’s more clarity and recognition for OD contributions and it’s great that more senior leaders can see how important it is
for their organisations,” she says.
“In the past, people thought OD practitioners were generalists. But now, more people know that practitioners have wideranging sets of expertise, like facilitation and diagnostic skills.
“So people dedicate more time to OD, it’s not just a ‘good to have’ anymore,” she adds.
Painting a picture of how she hopes OD would progress in the future, she expresses a heartfelt desire for aspiring leaders to be
trained in the practice.
“OD is about harnessing diversity in the organisation for the greater good, to achieve the organisation’s mission and vision. It’s
about thinking of the whole, rather than the small parts.
“You cannot have a CEO who has a silos mentality. You need someone who always has a finger on the whole, who understands
the need to invest in culture and people – because this is what will set the organisation apart from others and drive it forward.”
And as for her own aspirations, Ms Mah says that she sees herself staying in the practice in the near future.
“There is so much more to learn. I hope to find new experiences as an OD practitioner. It is only then that I can contribute
more to my organisation,” she says.