Photo Adventures with Curiosity and Learning

For whatever reason, Friday at Duke-NUS is dress-down Friday. It brings a short casual atmosphere to a typically charged and energic work place. I usually arrive between 7:15 and 7:30 and the only folks there are Belinda and Mimi. Today I took my camera, just to capture the wake-up faces of our group in Block 3 (and a few others).

Why do this? Duke-NUS is really a special place to work and learn. Smiles everywhere and its one of the few places I've worked in the world where smiles are endemic. Call this a study of Duke-NUS smiles.

Belinda's place is usually my first stop each morning. This morning, she was clearly not prepared for an early morning photo - but here she is

A variant

This is Evelyn - with her own smile. Evelyn is an artist in hiding. She did the first graphics of our Watch us Grow. She transformed plain-jane black/white graphs into something quite colorful.

Walking from Block 1 to Block 3 is sometimes quite interesting. I think this is the car of one of our staff

This is our peopleless work area where we explore and develop new tools for enabling better and more fun learning

This is where my team lives - minus Walter, Leslie, Erna and Ning

This is to avoid confusion. Our team is so friendly, they are often confused with HR and Finance - who try to out-smile us

This is where Sam sits (back) and where Martha and Nintendo (Urgent care) sometimes live

This is Mimi - usually beats me to work before 7:30

This is Eron waking up

Mimi liked my smile - so here we are

and Eron a few minutes later - after waking up

This is Raphael - who really is an early bird - usually 7am or before, and always with a smile

Alina - a member of Corinna's team

Corinna popped into my space - curious about all the flashes - check out this smile

Li Fook and Tony - our architects that make things happen

Me, Matthew and Tony

Matthew and his smile which is continuous. Only continuous smile I've observed at Duke-NUS

Eunice is a pianist in disguise when not smiling at Duke-NUS

Corinna in her home

Lay Peng waking up

Lay Peng after waking, with smile

Kok Eng - 1st office - who is the chief smile manager for HR

Sandrine - part of Tony and Li Fook's team. Her smile is what I would call a quiet smile that speaks gently

Martha -- who manages me

Mei Leng - waking up

Christine - fully awake

Stage 2 of Mei Leng's wakeup. Mei Leng follow's Elizabeth Kubler-Ross's path from initiating event to acceptance. This is part of the denial phase

Stage 3 of Mei Leng's wakeup - this is a continuation of denial

and this is acceptance

This is Lai Ming with her calm smile. If there is a storm brewing - Lai Ming will calm you

Tony want's to make sure everyone sees his smile

Ignatius - I hope not a temp smile

Ying Ying - in stage one of wakeup - denial

Sam - hesitating

Josephine with an infectious smile

David and a partial smile

Erna - she is a virus in disguise and will infect you with her smile

Walter in denial

Walter seeking a 2nd opinion

Ying Ying - fully activated - two smiles

Walter, fully activated - mega smils

Pauline - another quiet smile that calms stormy waves

Ting Ting - who knows where I'm coming from and none-the-less, smiles

Ian - his smile and always anxious to help. He is a major enabler

Lynn

Ning - who is full of dry humor - keeps our team energized with trying to figure out the humor part

Leslie - a smile and mega-enabler

Over to block 1 - where our learning enablers live: Sok Hong

Seya - without these two, my IMT sessions would be chaos

Anita

Fritzie and her infectious smile

Hui Min - Hui Min was one of our first to travel the troubled waters between Block 3 and Block 1. She has grown up with us since the beginning and now we can't live without her

Kakak - of our cleaning staff

With Hui Min

Kelvin - who was among our first - manages the practice program for our 1st year learners

Geok Hong in denial

Partial acceptance

We have a Nintendo Wii - mostly to explore positional and tactile feedback as used in the gaming world. There are a couple of medical games - Urgent Care. Before you can do any game - you must play Urgent Care and complete a follow-up form. It actually works. Here is lunch time distraction.

See - it really is a medical game

Our support team

Team 2:

It really is lunch time - and Mei Leng and a group are off to Mr. Song's for Lime Juice and yummies

Back to work - making the new building work

Li Fook - trying Live View option on my camera - Lai Ming and myself

The stuff of our new facility

Demonstrating live view for macro photos

Exploring the world of signage

My place - mostly a whiteboard and lots of macro photos of spiders

Pat Casey (an invader from Block 5) and his team with Li Fook

Dolliss

Esther - Ranga's PA - in her surprise smile configuration

Esther in her composed smile configuration

Cecilia

And our head cheerleader, Ranga

C. Frank Starmer

-