Factors influencing Thai IZN

The past Friday, I attended a meeting to learn what the Fulbright Specialist, Andy Hines, has learned from his 4-week stay working with Bureau of International Cooperation Strategy (BICS, MHESI) to determine future of IZN. 

He came up with 14 factors for us to prioritize what to cover in BICS' Long-term strategy in the next 10 years  and let me share some issues for you to see the top 7 priorities and see if you agree na ka:

1. What are our outcome priorities?  
2. How can we more effectively track and respond to changes in work/jobs/skills?    
3. How can we shift outcomes discussion from “numbers” to quality? 
4. How can IZN implementation be more successful?    
5. How can we spread IZN across all sectors of Thai society?    
6. How can we adapt the culture to be more open to challenge and the “creative abrasion” needed for innovation and entrepreneurship?    
7. How can we build up our international research capability?

Do you agree ka? Can you guess which is my first priority out of these 7 issues mai ka?  

Definitely it depends on the contexts of respective universities and for BICS to determine the best at the national level. Each item has lots to discuss and I'm glad Andy allows us to use it freely along with several other slides I find very interesting too ka.

My top one was number 3 of the group because other issues do need the quality-led thinking to move meaningfully and change the 'numbers only' attitude! After all, it's about MINDSETS, which is agreed by all as the most important and challenging aspect to tackle ka!

In fact,  culture of quality and culture of IZN need to be embedded along with a more open improved Thai ways of 'gen'less/authority-less discussion' culture too ka. 

Design thinking = Human-centered and more

Hello all! I came back from Laos the day before .....you bet there are quite a few things to share and I should select several so as not to be too long ka.

In Laos, about 4.5 hours of Design Thinking was shared by Ajarn Chaiwat Kaewpanngam to participants of GMS-UC (Greater Mekong Subregion- University Consortium under SEAMEO-RIHED). An MIT clip on how a prototype of a walker for the elderly could be produced was really inspiring, showing how 'users' were the most important group designers/producers had to care for (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kq2kd3CXi1o -- sharing for the educational purposes ka!)

Immediately I thought of the following ka:

- the meaning of 'quality' as 'fit for purpose' which could really be contextual to include lifestyles and preferences, as well as physical and psychological conditions of the elderly... human-oriented before anything else.

- the need to collaborate in an open and safe environment for creativity and innovation (and what happens to us, Thais, in some sectors that are so authority-driven?)

- the term 'empathy' repeatedly ringing in my heart how the next generations should do design thinking to nurture their empathy!

- the whole systematic process that needs to care for customers/users in every step of design thinking

The team had a chance to visit Savannakhet University and I was impressed with:

- its professors who attended our workshop who kept linking their work back to design thinking and how they planned to spread it to their colleagues to use this tool in their work

- its faculty who didn't hesitate to help respond to our questions with eagerness, making me feel of their teaching and research passion

- the students we interviewed who were basically from  its one and only international course 'Food Science in Economics on Rural Development and Business Extension'.  Similar to our Thai kids, they wish to be proficient in English (the ones talking with us were real good in English and their readiness to share experiences ka). They were clear in their purposed to work with foreigners (to earn more) and to develop their rural areas.

This Laos trip has added more positive attitude in my heart from their sincerity and genuine desire to share how they hope to pursue  their dreams!

Happy weekend ka. 

Co-working space ecosystem

I entered a 'Twilight Zone' yesterday, visiting True Digital Park (TDPK) with a group from Institute for the Teaching of Science and Technology (IPST). Thanks to a Fulbright alumnus and his team for the visit, Khun Tarit's briefing and Q&A even when it was on a press conference day. (Dr. Tarit   Nimmanwudipong, GM and Head of Commercial for True Digital Park  responsible for partnership formation, community building and product commercialization)   

It was a whole new world for me and all in the team ka. 

This is my 'Twilight Zone' because of the following ka:

1. It's now clear what digital transformation is. While digitalization is to change hard copies into the digital form, digital transformation needs the change of mindsets to prepare strategic plans with KPIs for major milestones, and continuous monitoring. Like other key issues, leadership with vision and shared goals is essential to get started.

Khun Tarit said there was no need for leaders to buy-in as they've been the main driving forces to push the transformation forward.

2. The startup ecosystem allows startups to have more opportunities to access infrastructure/facilities (office, meeting rooms, equipment, relaxing areas with games, food and beverage, etc.) without any need to make any investment. Even one person who happens to have one good idea to try can just become a member at 7,500 baht/ month to enjoy facilities around.

More importantly, they will be among other startups, entrepreneurs, and supporters (venture capitalists and related services from digital agencies like e-commerce and partnership cooperation), enabling them to mingle (as needed) with other startups, mentors, or coaches to gain rich/ diverse perspectives in the co-working space that goes beyond 'an office to work on their projects' for their ideas to turn into innovation. 

3. Main challenges of the TDPK lie in the recruitment of the talented as there aren't enough in the labor market (our universities need to do much better jobs kaa!). It's necessary for them to have the right tech mindsets so Khun Tarit repeated several times about it and how the right hire with the right mindsets is the key to success! The ways to nurture the digital transformation mindsets could be from visits and coaching (would need to be structured to maximize learning too lae ka....I'm so proud that the IPST team did prepare their questions for me to give to Khun Tarit before hand!)

4. I was very impressed to visit Ricoh ka. The name attracted me as I was really curious how a copier company could be that innovative! Love it loei kaaa!

The company isn't confined itself to its earlier competence as they looked into the future of paperless and omnipresent world of work. It turned out that they could integrate copiers in some different forms ka.....to copy more than on paper, covering glasses and other materials. Their commercial product lines include finger scanner plus (to detect blood veins to show the 'real humans' over only 'fingerprints', and also categorize numbers of male/female as well as time to visit, etc. as marketing tools. Their meeting rooms are equipped to facilitate modern access, like making it invisible from the outside, get written feedback that could be integral on the digital board, etc. 

Ricoh has given me its new meaning ka!

5. In the age of digital transformation, TDPK has shown the 'door-less' in addition to 'partition-less' office. Its President has just one desk to work along with their team in the same room!

6. The fun (yet shocking) side for me is that I was the oldest in the building kaaaa! On average, those on the TDPK team are from 25-early 30 years old kraaa! 

Will there be a 'place' for the elderly to stand in this tech world mai ka? 

What about an integral part of social and human sciences?

Could our present approaches be more open to have the good mix of various gens to benefit from diversity?

7. The IPST team had a reflection session after the visit to identify lessons learned and how to bring it back to their office.....lucky for them to have highly capable people with rich content....yet, challenges to meet with the fast digital world stay on!

Out of the 'Twilight Zone' feeling amazed, yet worried about our Thai ways of management ka.

Future with horizon scanning

 I had a good opportunity the other day to sit in a short training by Dr. Andy Hines,  Futurist and Fulbright Specialist, at the international office of MHESI (the newest ministry that has included higher education......SIGH!) I enjoyed it so much that I wanted to write about it ka.

Before then I asked what was the difference between 'Future Studies' and 'Foresight'. He said it was interchangable and so I said maybe the latter sounded sexier and he agreed ka.  I also wondered whether the scenerio planning and horizon scanning were similar. Interesting to see how terms can be changed as time goes by to mean similar or  different from another set of perspectives..... that could confuse different generations na ka nia:))!

Andy started by saying that 'Horizon Scanning' is an approach. framing issues of focus, scanning to get the information we look for, forecasting how to tell stories, visioning what future looks like before planning and taking actions ka. Thanks to Andy Hines for sharing the slides with us to make it easier for us to review after his talk ka.  

Originally from industry for 25 years before joining University of Houston, Andy has had some good hold of how the private sector thinks and I find it so valuable ka. When he discussed three 'horizons', from present status to next 5-10 years and then distant future, he said clients like to know the second one which is 5-10 (if not 5) as they want to see more immediate results of their business success ka. Futurists will look past the second to the third while trying to find more evidence from the first two domains to support the foresight alternatives. 

For the Domain map, STEEP  as one of the 'bubbles' (key issues to focus) has to be included (something like environment scanning mai ka) to look at  the world outside from Social, Technological, Economic, Environmental, and Political.

By using different tools among others, Coggle to come up with focus areas to explore, and Diigo (those who are in research must have known and been using it na ka) to share related research and articles, the team can share the same themes and learning platform to sieve the most relevant ones for further discussions and alternatives selection. 

To choose resources to be on baseline scenario, go to those that send same information with strong signals. Futurists will be keen to probe into the weaker signals with lots of disagreement and even they may not seem to be that credible, they could become alternative scenarios! Some could impact our decision making like an example of the future of NASA when most labs may not be a must since they can work from their computers, it means more investments into other priorities, not buildings and equipment as much anymore

He's set up Diigo to focus on 'Future of IZN in Thai higher education' and so I'm learning to read more from what Andy has got and even on the daily basis to get to read new articles. I feel I need to contribute too ka.

When asked if we should be scared of the future now that it seems things have been changing so fast, he said 'no' ......look at GM which has started the tests on 'autonomous vehicles' since 1991 and 3D printing which began in 1996 for us to see how they could work at present! We'll see some big change but not surprising ka. I felt a little better loei ka!

Before, during, and after his session, I'm so very convinced I love to learn more about 'future' kaaa!

Happy weekend na ka.