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.
ไม่มีความคิดเห็น:
แสดงความคิดเห็น