Triple Triggerfish fun

I was midway through a dive at Eva's Point at Sipalay in the Philippines just hovering on the sloping wall and just about to head over to the vertical drop-off, I was pretty relaxed. The dive guide's frantic rapping of his stainless steel spike against his tank drew me from my hypnotic state to look up and over in his direction when it dawned on me why he was trying to get my attention.

Three triggerfish had made their move towards me with the closest about a metre from my head. Had I been aware, I would have seen them all charge me at once and I would have had time to get in the defensive position using my fins as a decoy. As they tend to attack your fins especially when mounting a rear attack, the first you know of their presence is them biting your fins.

A frontal assault is a different battle when your head is exposed, the powerful jaws of the triggerfish allows them to bite chunks of coral off with ease - this is not what I want biting into my head. My first experience with a triggerfish was in Papua New Guinea about 20 years ago when one attacked the head of a Japanese diver, he lost huge chunks from his head - it was not a pretty sight.

I have been involved in a dual triggerfish duel about 3 or 4 years back, having to fend off two at once whilst maintaining my decompression ceiling. This was an experience I was not keen to repeat; now three of them in a group was looking a real task.

My first movement was to throw a right hook, this missed wildly but bought me a little time. As I was within reasonable distance from the group, I was able to make my way over to the others and with weight of numbers the triggerfish weren't going to take this any further.

The little triggerfish didn't concern me too much, it was the medium sized triggerfish that was the first one to lunge at me and get things rolling. I have successfully fought off triggerfish of that size before, it takes a battle but you can get out of their territory reasonably unscathed. It was the large triggerfish that scared me the most, this thing was massive and powerfully built. This was going to take some work to defeat, I wouldn't want to endure an attack from this big fella as a one-on-one let alone working together with the other two.

Much to my delight they didn't pursue me into the group, all of a sudden they were outnumbered and just hung back and watched for a while before leaving the group alone. Later on the boat, the old German lady was laughing and saying I normally look so calm underwater, this wasn't the case, yet I wasn't worried - I know the damage these bastards can inflict.

Hailing from a trade background

Applying for an MBA normally sees a number of high flying candidates coming from senior management roles, mid-level managers, finance and consulting. But does this really represent the full spectrum of MBA applicants? I don't think so. Certainly the senior managers, finance specialists and consultants would be prime candidates for executive MBA programs but what about the majority of applicants?

I saw a promotional slide where the MBA graduate reflected on his trade background and I thought that tradespeople are really under-represented in MBA programs. For my way of thinking, tradespeople are excellent candidates with their technical knowledge, project skills, diagnostic and trouble-shooting abilities, work ethic and ability to work under pressure.

Even more so, candidates from technical trades make ideal mid-level managers owing to their extensive operational experience once they have gained experience from leading-hand, foreman and superintendent roles. From an operational perspective, technical tradespeople know the business from a bottom-up viewpoint.

All technical tradespeople need to do is learn the language of business and become more conceptual in their thinking. Such candidates need to learn the art of leadership to get the job done through the efforts of the team - it isn't that much of a step up.

Flying Christmas day

I never look forward to a Perth to Bali or Bali to Perth flight, this isn't a normal airline clientele and flights never appear to be routine. Today I was hopeful, this was a day families would be attending luncheons at the resort and an empty flight awaited me.

I imagined flying on Christmas day to be a fairly quiet flight based on previous experiences. I recall a Garuda flight on Christmas day from Bali to Perth to be almost empty except for half a dozen people on board, this was a decade ago. This was a midday flight and I guess everyone was busy having Christmas lunch in their Balinese resort.

After a long lunch at a resort, I was taking a later flight, this was a 18:20 flight and I was expecting similar circumstances. In the boarding lounge much to my surprise, there were more people than I expected, but still, this wasn't looking like a full flight and I was pretty happy.

I was feeling pretty relaxed during boarding, then the chaos started. A whole bunch of people with unruly children arrived late, I was already seated, still feeling good at this stage and thought they were ready to close the door.

That's when the horrible screaming, crying and poorly disciplined children and the mayhem erupted. I quickly reached for my tablet and headphones and cranked the volume up in an attempt to drown out the noise - this was to no avail.

The whole duration of the flight had screaming children running up and down the aisles, children climbing over everything, kicking seats, pushing the flight attendant button, yelling, turning the overhead reading lights on and off, constant crying and of course the all too frequent scream. This group of parents just let these kids run riot for the whole flight, this was a flight that had descended into chaos.

I'm not a parent so maybe I'm a little intolerant to parent's issues but I also know bad parenting too. We had certain standards of behaviour as kids growing up in the 70s, we knew what we were allowed to do and what we weren't and we knew the consequences of not behaving. Christmas day is for the kids and today they certainly did as they wished.

The capitalist organisation

I was recently discussing company values with a friend as she is employed for less than an ethical company. She lamented the owner's lack of regard for worker rights; ultimately she was true and correct.

I responded with my analysis of the organisation that fulfilled the obligations of a capitalist business inherited by the owner paying scant regard to ethical values, the triple bottom line, sustainability and corporate social responsibility her company met none of this criteria.

The business is there solely to make the owner richer; he pays the minimum rates of pay to stop people seeking employment elsewhere - that's about it. He has created a culture of blame that lacks innovation, accountability and motivation. No need to discuss modern management practices and the role of stakeholders in decision making - he just isn't interested.

Whilst economist Milton Friedman claimed the sole role of the organisation is purely to make a profit in the late 1960s; I feel the era of stakeholder involvement and corporate social responsibility has advanced to such a degree since he made his remarks that businesses now ranked on their sustainability programs now compete on their green credentials.

Diving Amed

Diving is overpriced in Bali, there is no doubt about that. I really haven't done enough diving around Amed and that needs to change. There is plenty of good dive sites midway up the island, all to often, my trips involve diving after a few days relaxing in the south and I should spend more time staying in Amed.

What I really need to organise is a long weekend away dedicated to diving during the cold and rainy Perth winter. I often threaten to take a long weekend diving up around Amed but never seem to get it organised, maybe 2017 is the year I actually get this short dive weekend organised. Tulumben is the best known area in Bali for diving owing to the Liberty wreck but just down the road is the small village of Amed, this is a pretty good and underestimated area of Bali diving. 

Roofing - insanity or art?

There was the planking craze that had everybody mimicking the trend. The ice bucket challenge was pretty popular too - everybody had to get in on this craze. To be fair, the ice bucket challenge was a great idea devised to raise awareness for motor neuron disease and raise money for this worthwhile charity. What I hope doesn't take off is roofing - this is seriously dangerous. There was no skill involved in either the planking or ice bucket challenge but everyone had fun, this is not the case with roofing. This is not an activity to be copied - there wouldn't be too many second chances here.

Russian Instagram sensation Angela Nikolau is probably one of the more famous exponents of roofing. Whilst this is no doubt linked to her stunning good looks, balance, poise and athleticism; this modern day adventurer doesn't appear to have any fears. I have to admit, when I scroll through some of her photographs, I feel more than a few pangs of anxiety.

Check out her Instagram feed at https://www.instagram.com/angela_nikolau/?hl=en

Dealing with yes men

True leaders don't want yes men; that is all great in theory but most of us have managers that are surrounded by hand picked yes men who will do anything to undermine high quality employees to bolster their position. 

How many of us work with true leaders instead of petty managers using their position to manipulate workers for their own means? Generally, such managers are weak leaders too frightened to employ top notch candidates who would be considered a threat to their shaky abilities. Instead, they surround themselves people of limited ability who remain loyal to that manager as they know they will not be likely to pick up a similar position in another company. 

You need to play these guys as hard as you can, they believe that you are weak and will not confront them directly. In military terms, a frontal attack is a poor choice, instead flanking and penetration tactics straight out of the German WWII military manual stand the test of time. 

If you adapt such tactics for business, this ensures you counter-attack from a defensive position and not leave yourself exposed. The German military were not stupid enough to attack France by going over the Maginot Line; instead, they swung around through the poorly defended Belgium and attacked the flank at their weakest point in a Blitzkrieg maneuver. Well, you need to adapt the same tactics and use maneuver to your advantage. 

You need to build alliances to counter their unethical tactics and use game theory to determine your desired outcome and work backwards to counter their every move. That way you will have insights into the way they play the game and be ready to counter their now poorly and hastily planned defensive moves stifling any further offensive moves. Then you have them.