NUTS

[…]

But if there’s one thing I remember about Sim by, it’s his criticism of the Singaporean mindset.

The No U-Turn Syndrome, or NUTS, was how Sim viewed how Singaporeans always required a rule base to get anything done.

It’s referring to how in Singapore, u-turns are not allowed unless there’s a sign that allows you to do so, which is different from how other countries do it — you can u-turn unless there’s a sign prohibiting you to do so. And to make things even more fun, there are sometimes no u-turn signs, too.

This also means that when you want to do something, you automatically seek the approval of an higher authority, and if there’s no rule, the default is “no”.

It’s terrible, and forces you to just stay in your lane without making changes.

When I started working, I saw plenty of examples of how this worked, especially in larger organisations.

[…]

With the passing of Sim, it doesn’t hurt to be reminded of what he said again, and the examples he gave of how inflexible our Singaporean mindset is.

If we’re going to honour his legacy, we should honour his words, too. Because as nuts as it sounds, NUTS is still pretty relevant in our society today — if not more so than ever, with the challenges Singapore faces ahead.

Source: Yahoo News