So inspired by Sivatel experience (2)

My second part is all about why I felt so inspired ka! 

Moderating this session was a joy as I could ask what I wanted to know! Let me go by the keywords I got from his sharing na ka.

'People and Family'

At Sivatel, all staff working there are confirmed to be part of the 'Sivatel Family' so the management has ensured that the policies and implementation are along this 'family' philosophy. One example is its medical insurance has been maximized to allow for both in-patient and out-patient expenses, and for both the staff members and their immediate family members. As a medical doctor with health awareness and as an administrator with 'people-oriented', this practice sure confirms to his team the best welfare for their well-being.

Talking about staff with poor performances, Ajarn Apichati said we needed to assess ourselves what we could have done better to train them. With at least three opportunities for the person to be trained and improved, it would be then more justified to ask him/her to leave!

I also noticed that he talked about the customers much less frequently than about the caring Sivatel has for its team ka!

'Water'

He said he considered himself like 'water' (very Chinese thinking), not 'fire'. Water will always find its ways, which could sometimes be long and winding, to waterways like river or ocean and that to him means success in reaching his objectives/vision.

His character is also very warm and approachable….definitely far from being ‘fire’.

'Leadership'

When asked about his bosses, he cited two, one female and one male. The reasons were delicate negotiation skills and genuine empowerment. His female boss had her ways to gently convince other people when resistance was strong, making his project accepted and successfully implemented while his male boss empowered him to manage the project with strong support.

'Networking'

As it seems obvious that he reads a lot, I asked him how important reading was to him. He said he used to read a lot more but these days, networking by going out to meet and talk with people matters to him more. Even so, he still reads but more executive summaries.

I discussed it with my workshop team that this was because he has got a wealth of knowledge to the extent that more real-life experiences are needed. Those, me included, who haven't read much need to continue our reading muung ka!

'Lintegration'

The use of his 'Chinese traditions' and his previous experiences in different circles/sectors is the best example of being able to 'lintegrate'. He goes to each of the sections of his hotel on a daily basis to talk with the staff at their stations, asking how they're doing and how the business is at their respective bases, so similar to his previous ward rounds, I guess! This capability has enabled him to excel in various ways that could be different from others.

The discussion was lively with many questions from the participants (and one has asked me afterwards to seek his response to her question as time was limited!) I was thrilled to see a few foreign participants stood up to give a round of applause! They were, like me, very impressed and inspired!

After that, we divided the participants into 5 groups to visit different sections of the hotel from kitchen and wellness, to front desk, housekeeping, and marketing. The results showed that they did find the evidence to confirm Prof. Apichati's sharing, especially about the caring for the staff, which has driven them to be motivated and to excel in their performances.

I was also delighted to see that the participants understood how other sectors could become contributive to their thinking and education circle. It isn’t necessary to visit universities all the time ngai ka!

The feeling of being inspired is still hanging on my mind and heart until now!

 

So inspired by Sivatel experience (1)

Dear All, How I wish I could have managed my time better to tell you about this story that inspired me so much last Friday ka.

Last week, I was Program Leader to conduct a 3-day international workshop for International Relations Officers in Southeast Asia under the SEAMEO-RIHED initiative (Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization-Regional Center for Higher Education and Development). The theme was on internationalization (IZN) as well as IROs' roles and required skills, including how to administer exchange programs.

My team and I crafted a program for 24 participants to learn about IZN as against their own contexts plus a drive for them to think out-of-the-education box.

One activity was for them to visit Sivatel which is a family business hotel that is only 4 years old. The key was its owner/CEO-- Professor Dr. Apichati Sivayatorn, who I've known for over a decade. His background by education and profession is Dermatologist. He was Associate Dean of Siriraj medical school, Mahidol University where he acquired increased leadership skills and knowledge management. Moreover, he was an assessor of Thailand Quality Award (TQA). With his experiences of TQA framework, he drove Bumrungrad hospital to be awarded Thailand Quality Class (TQC- a promising organization to strive for performance excellence with TQA). After that, he started taking up his role in his family business to now become CEO of 'Sivatel'.

To come up with a speaker who can gear the participants to understand different sectors is always a tough one but you can see from the brief bio I've given you that he was the right person to share with us. (I told him I was holding my breath when I saw his facebook message popped up....was afraid he wouldn't accept our invite na ka! Thank goodness he did!)

Before going to the 'inspiration' part, let me share my three lessons na ka...feel I should write on 'LinkedIn' na ka nia!

First Lesson: Maximization of Learning for Smooth Survival!

We asked our participants to meet us at the meeting room there at 9 am, meaning that all would have to find their ways there on their own. This little exercise made a few feel a bit frustrated--this was to give them some senses of loss faced by our younger exchange students and how one should survive smoothly amid unknown and uncertain situations! When we have access to the internet with so much information available and when we have locals to help, one should learn how to maximize what's already there and how to become more accustomed to acquiring more information by themselves ngai ka!

Second Lesson: Informal Setup to Increase Inquisitive Mind

Thais and many ASEANers are used to having formal room setup especially in the classroom and theater styles. I myself learned from years with Fulbright Thailand that talking with all forming in one circle of only chairs works real well as all can see each other and feel much less formal to the point that they are much more comfortable to ask questions! Yes! Much less intimidating ka!

Third Lesson: Questions Prepared

Before the actual visit date, my colleague and I went to see Prof. Apichati to talk with him informally, learning more about him and his rich experiences while asking him if our earlier sent questions would work for him. He was able to use the list of questions as a guide to what we actually wanted to get from him. In fact, it was just to start the discussion to ensure that the session went well from the very beginning. It sure helped with our session a whole lot ka!

Quite a few things happened behind the scenes lae ka.....something leaders should be aware of and feel appreciative na ka!

Will be back for the second part so it won't be too long ka.

moderating session (2)

Hello again....I'm keeping myself up for the lost time ka:))!

Now comes to what I'd like to share with you about my second forum moderating on measuring internationalization (IZN) of higher education.

It went much better than expected and in fact, like many Thais, I tended not to expect much but simply tried to do what I could na ka.

1. Bilingual? The host asked me to do it in English but I told her we could try bilingual as it may be more productive for us Thais to express our thoughts in Thai....but it didn't apply to my panelists lae ka. I was amazed when I asked several of them to hear that it'd be much easier for them to speak English throughout as they could think faster in the language.

 

Um!

Finally, our higher education has seen the fruit of our decades of investment in people to come back to work in universities, jing mai ka?

I also feel hopeful that more of our younger generation will represent Thai higher education well and that our international relations offices will get to be instrumental to drive internationalization forward......if these decision makers could train their teams seriously too.

 

When I looked around, I realized that there were only like 5 foreigners out of around 100+ in the audience. Still, all felt comfortable to do it in English ka.

What an awesome circle!

2. Stage setup I'm glad that we've gradually moved away from making our panelists sit at a long table decorated with flowers on stage to chairs without tables. It has created much less barrier with the feeling of being open to share ideas while the panelists, me in particular, feel less formal to become more sabai sabai, helping with the flow of thoughts ka.

 

3. Song  This was sort of funny dee ka. One panelist was mentioning that working in international cooperation was lonely while one in the audience said the acronym of his office could also turn into office of one being alone. I was then thinking of the song, 'You never walk alone.' even though on the back of my mind, I thought it could become a little issue for some football fans of other clubs.

 

It did stirred one panelist a bit ka. To me, that did add to the pleasant atmosphere with a nice flavor of people's preference and expressions:)).....though I don't think I'll use this song again dee gwa!

4. Time to interact  When key issues were raised and more time was alloted for the panelists and the participants to discuss back and forth, it was so very lively and enjoyable.

5. Measuring IZN The EU expert has yet to come up with his report but from about 40% of the response return rate, it was helpful for us to have fact-based information (that I said each university may need to revalidate too!) to work further. He put the IZN efforts into three categories: Developing, Establishing, and Enhancing.

When the report is out, I plan to share it with you na ka.

Bye for now ka.

moderating sessions

I'm back to the circle to write again after several weeks of running around-- as a semi-retiree ka!

These days, I was asked to moderate two sessions, one regional (SE Asia setting) and the other national. Those who know me real well would know how nervous I've always been.

No difference ka-- nervous with learning again!

I've had opportunities to serve as MC and moderator and these days, I choose to do more of the latter even both functions require preparation and careful steps to make it smooth.

For MC, it could be more of an annoucer that concerns a lot about the right cues while being a moderator, one needs to capture key issues to throw in more questions, observations, or to drive the audience to interact for lively and contributive deliberations.

For me personally, moderating a session in itself isn't something easy to do and when it's required to be in English, it adds to the challenges.

Let me share what I got from the first session na ka:

1. Knowing the audience made me feel the urge to prepare more especially when they are high level policy makers who should be ready to share their thoughts and wisdom to ignite further thinking.

2. Knowing this guest speaker in person and enjoying what he wanted to share were two main factors to create liveliness in my mind and eagerness to do this function.

3. During the introduction, I simply forgot his family name....sure my senior moments came at the very right time:))! I turned to him for help and then repeated his last name to the audience. It was funny and I laughed about it later. One of my former colleagues said, 'ธรรมชาติดี' (nicely spontaneous!)....need to make sure to memorize well in the future ka!

The time was short but it led to interesting issues on brain-based reactions to digital learning like tablets vs textbooks, contexts of geographical locations and digital divide, and cyberbullying.

More about the second session tomorrow ka!