A Day in Makati: 587TH PMAP General Membership Meeting
Sunday, June 30, 2013
In a fortunate turn of events, I
arrived at the venue in a Pajero. I arrived a tad too early, I might add. The
event was scheduled at 11:30 am. I arrived around 10am. Talk about excited.
Haha. I decided to proceed to the exact location of the event: Rizal Hall. I
walked towards a long table and approached a woman seated behind it. “Madam,” I started. She abruptly—and awkwardly—stood
up, “Kayo ba ‘yung taga-TV5?” I gave
her a dumb-founded look, “Hindi po. I’m
from Mitsubishi, I’m here to register.” She relaxed a bit and informed me
that the registration will start at 11am. I was about to leave the room when I
noticed a bunch of men—hotel personnel—each sporting an earpiece, clamoring
behind my back. The woman in the registration table probably thought they were
my escorts. That was perhaps why she assumed I was part of the press. The hell,
right? Hahaha. I don’t know, but I took that as a compliment.
I headed towards the lounge where
lots of foreigners were having serious conversations with other, er, foreigners. I was sitting beside Europeans
(Germans, I guess) who were having an argument about something that sounded
important. I’ve noticed that they almost always begin their statements with an “I
agree with everything that you’re saying but,” or variations thereof. It was
fascinating.
At around 11am, I went back to
Rizal Hall. The place was already buzzing with people. After having registered
myself, I went around the area to collect some freebies from the companies who were
invited for the exhibit. Not much of a haul, to be honest.
Well, the registration
fee included a full-course meal.
Ack. |
The starter was a potato salad which I did not
bother taking a picture of. I hate the taste of red onion and I believe that mayonnaise
is only for sandwiches. To my credit, I took a small bite from it, hoping that
it would taste OK, if not good. But it made me tear up. I spat it out. Ack.
The main course was not bad. It
was chicken thigh with couscous. The couscous reminded me of something I was
sure I’d eaten very recently but just couldn’t put my finger on. (I later
remembered that it was the Chili Cheese Fries from Sunrise Buckets.)
Jollibee's Chicken Joy tasted better |
The
dessert was so-so: Vanilla ice cream atop a pineapple. I
mean, I tasted the cinnamon (ew!) but the vanilla ice cream was OK. I wasn’t thoroughly satisfied. The entire meal didn't thoroughly
satisfy me, for that matter.
After some perfunctory speeches,
a panel discussion took place. It was entitled, “Increasing ROI on People
through a Robust Performance Management System.”
This was the reason I was
asked to attend this meeting. Handling the Performance Management System (PMS)
is one of my major functions in MMPC. The panel consisted of HR heads from
Digitel, UniLab, and URC. The forum was rather informal and spontaneous and at
one point, I got up and asked a question: In your organizations, what are the
most common causes of delay when it comes to the implementation of the PMS?
![]() |
Need to jot down for training report |
I won’t elaborate but the answer I liked most is from the HR Head of UniLab, Ms. Anna Maureen
Macaraig-Martinez. “Resistance, of
course. And the frame of mind that the PMS is tedious and is synonymous with
more paperworks. But Change Management had always been difficult. Communication
and education is key.”
The meeting ended a little before
3pm. I walked out of Makati Shangri-la feeling a little more confident.
Instances like these had that effect on me.
Cheers to the next adventure!
0 comments