Inspired and energized by the M

Dear All, It is quite rare for me to leave a forum that makes me feel so inspired and energized but I felt so yesterday ka!

Through my contacts, I was invited by the Future Innovative Thailand Institute (FIT) to participate in a one-full-day forum entitled, 'FIT Education: Truth and Dare', aiming to do better today for a better world for our kids tomorrow.

The forum started from giving 8 presenters to do a TEDTalk like style on various dimensions, covering education system, basic education and vocational education plus English proficiency.

I learned so much from each presenter, who spent time determining key issues to offer within 15 minutes max.

Why was I inspired and hopeful?

- I learned about so many efforts, big and small, to help reduce the education gap while increasing the quality like English for All which has been implemented quite successfully at a disadvantaged school in Pitsanuloke, and the kids showed off their English with fun; early childhood education that is expanded to 43 centers in Isaan to help 2-4 year olds learn how to plan, do, and review their decisions; efforts to promote the love of science and technology; use of IT solutions to help learn science and math, etc.

- Most presenters are in the M gen ka... they are so passionate to do good for education and to open more windows of opportunities to the disadvantaged. They sure care for the genuine quality!

The shining passion combines with their capability and energy offer some positive signals and definitely for me personally, hope for our country.

- Most dare to do their projects with the least government's support, which seems to prove that rules and regulations could be the huge hindrance of development, and creativity.

- Even younger generations don't seem to know much what's been going on in education, I think it turns to be a plus for them to think more freely without getting stuck with the same old issues and obstacles. Several stressed 'context-specific' concerns too! Yayyyy! Would be even happier if more get into our own cultural traditions, which could be the root causes of quite a few issues we've been facing ka!!!!

- We've heard repeatedly how teachers' role needs to be changed but in this forum, I was so happy several mentioned that teachers need to keep up with the world changes and learn much more. They don't think training helps much as there've been so many training sessions/courses for teachers that have led to quite a few problems. With proper use of IT, teachers should be able to facilitate learning much better and to many, teachers are irreplaceable.

- Frustration was felt in the forum how education hasn't responded well to the needs of our healthy survival now and the future. Khun Jone Jandai said, 'We pay to get to know nothing at all.'

For lunch, the room was turned from a theater style to groups so we could chat while having our lunch as well. There was no need for formality and things needed not be set readily! For the group discussion, very little instructions were given except to need to answer the topics we chose from the whole list!

My group discussed 15 years of English without proficiency gained (pressure to use English, memory about teachers of English, fear of making mistakes, personal preference to learn languages could be some of the factors to think about) and how to tackle equity issues. I enjoyed listening to the younger ones' ideas and interactions.

One little thing that I got too was that I have a more positive attitude toward some politicians who have been committed to improving our challenging situations ka.

As I'm writing, I still feel so inspired and energized! Will think of some little projects I can do to help my circle laew la ka!

Leadership in the New Normal era

Dear all, the last article to share this time is about vision and leadership ka. It's entitled, 'Building Your Company's Vision 'by James C. Collins and Jerry I. Porras, summarized from the Harvard Business Review, September-October 1996. 

• Two components for lasting vision

• Core ideology
• Envisioned future 

• Core ideology: the enduring character of an organization

• Core values

• Guiding principles by which a company navigates
• ‘Quality’ is not considered core value but stays in the strategy
• Finding core value by asking individual staff questions such as “Can you envision them being as valid for you 100 years from now as they are today?”

• Core purpose

• The organization’s reason for being (to guide and inspire) ...beyond just making money (the underlying drives come largely from a desire to do something else of value e.g. produce, service)
• Examples of core purpose

• 3M: To solve unsolved problems innovatively
• Wal-Mart: To give ordinary folk for chance to buy the same thing as rich people
• Walt Disney: To make people happy

• Finding core purpose by asking “Why is that important?” five times to frame the company’s work in a more meaningful way
• Company need to have a clear understanding of their purpose in order to make work meaningful and thereby attract, motivate, and retain outstanding people

• Core ideology cannot be changed. With a clear core ideology, a company can freely change anything that is not part of it (if it’s not core, change it!)
   

• Envision future: long-term plan plus vivid description of what it will be to achieve the goal

• Ambitious plan typically requiring 10-30 year’s work to complete

• The goal itself should be easy to grasp-so compelling in its own right -that could be said 100 different ways yet be easily understood by everyone

• Vivid descriptions of plan

• Visions translated into picture, an image that people can carry around in their heads. 

The basic dynamic of visionary companies is to preserve the core and stimulate progress. It is vision that provides the context.

We often discuss vision required from leaders. Yet, the understanding about the significance and how it's considered isn't fully made clear so I hope this article helps.

 

Leadership in New Normal era (2)

Happy Monday and long weekend ka!

Another article that has touched on VUCA though much earlier on than the previous email is 'Leaders Make the Future', by Bob Johansen who points out 10 new leadership skills for an uncertain world. The book was summarized by summary.com back in 2009 and is even more relevant today when uncertainty has crept in with strong impacts.

The author has turned the negative VUCA around to be as follows:

Volatility yields to vision while Uncertainty could be coped with by understanding, Complexity by clarity and Ambiguity by agility.

The 10 leadership skills needed are:

1. Maker Instinct

• Able to exploit one’s inner drive to constantly improve things and synchronize this instinct with those of others while focusing on connectivity and network with leaders as nodes 

2. Clarity

• Very clear about what one is making but very flexible about how to get it done, able to acquire more knowledge and inspire others to follow

3. Dilemma Flipping

• Able to turn dilemmas into advantages and opportunities while having the skills to listen and learn without judgment what's going on to understand and tackle properly

4. Immersive Learning Ability

• Able to immerse oneself in unfamiliar environments to learn from them in a first-person way through gaming and simulation (online social world)

5. Bio-Empathy

• Able to take big picture thinking that respects all the multiple interrelated parts and nonlinear relationship as well as cycles of change, and to give value to person-to-person communication

6. Constructive Depolarizing

• Able to calm tense cross-cultural situations and bring people from diverse backgrounds toward constructive engagement-- you can imagine I do love this one a lot kaaa! this also includes language skills besides cross-cultural knowledge and skills na ka.

7. Quiet Transparency

• Able to be open, self-effacing but not self-promoting (willing to tell others what one do/did and why but only when asked)
• Give up some control by deciding what one can do and what one wants to manage
   

8.Rapid Prototyping

• Able to create quick early version of innovation by failing early, failing often, and failing cheaply for faster cycle of learning by doing (extreme speed in learning) without focusing on idea ownership

9. Smart Mob Organizing

• Able to create, engage with and nurture purposeful business or social change networks through intelligent use of electronic and other media

10. Commons Creating

• Able to create shared asset for the benefit of all by creating new commons (especially out of dilemmas)

VUCA has permeated our world of work and life, which will challenge us further, especially those who have to lead. New Normal leaders sure need to learn even faster with understanding of others, openness to change with less fear of failure and of uncertainty.

New Normal Leadership (1)

Hope your week has been going on great ka.

I still have my 'hangover' from the most recent Forum on New Normal Leadership and with help from Khun Chotima, may I share two articles with you briefly about leadership na ka.

The first is, 'What VUCA Really Means for You' by Nathan Bennette and G. James Lemoine, published in Harvard Business Review, Jan-Feb 2014. I heard this acronym from Dr. Calingo and so was eager to learn more and here you go if you haven't known it before na ka.

VUCA is a trendy managerial acronym for Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity. I think VUCA well well describes 'new normal' as the world changes have led us to think and act anew on some new/different sets of standards/practices ka.

	characteristics	approach
Volatility	§ unexpected, unstable, unknown duration	§  resources needed  to preparedness and match the risk
Uncertainty	§  lack of information about the basic cause and its effects	§  invest in information – collect, interpret, and share
Complexity	§  very many interconnected parts and variables overwhelming the process	§  restructuring with help from specialists and resources allocated
Ambiguity	§  “unknown unknown”	§  Experiments needed for lessons learned to be broadly applied

 

VUCA makes it even more difficult for our senior administrators to lead. Definitely, mindsets with attitudes to be ready for unknowns and 'new fears' are very much needed for them to function properly.

Will share the second related article soon ka.

Happy long weekend na ka.

 

Thinking ignited?

Hello all!

I've talked with quite a few senior administrators, both in business and universities. Some of the things they said are still hanging on my mind ka.

Here they are:

- I don't want to be the top but I'll do my best. If it happens that I'm the top, that's the reward.

- I don't want to be the best. I want to be the only one who offers it!

- I have my vision and I believe in it.

- As a president, I'm so busy that I have no time to read.

- Without external funding, I'm not sure if we can participate in regional activities.

- Even without external support, I think we can manage sub-regional activities, trying to get sponsors from local foundations, or invite partners to our university/national activities.

- The government meant well but they didn't know the context. They built one-same- nationwide-design water gate that caused a major conflict instead of solving the existing problem.

Ignite your thought too mai ka?