Northern Lights Trip (con't)

Here I am again to finish what I've learned from my trip ka.

5. Only cold tap water a 'yes'

We were told to drink water from the tap....but only the cold one. It was helpful since the very first days, we didn't have a chance to buy bottled water. However, when we were on the cruise, I had to recheck if cold water was drinkable. The answer was 'yes' as well.

We did save money while feeling safe drinking cold water on land and on the sea ka.

6. Senior citizen age
Admission fees to museums and events could be real high and so we asked if several of us could get 'senior citizen discount'. In Norway, the retirement age is 67 so 67 up will get the privilege. My junior friend who's resident there asked for a special rate anyway and the answer was, 'We could go by your country's retirement age.'

Another occasion when we felt 'old is good'! 

7. King's crab with a QRThe cruise offered one King's crab meal and we saw live crabs in a glass tank. We were struck to spot that each of them had a QR code. Our curiosity led us to scan one successfully and this was what we found. The information provided showed not only that particular crab's code, size and weight as well as the catch date, but it also offered us a picture and story about the fisherman.

What a meaningful way to use QR!

8. Learning by 'trying'
While on board, the cruise came up with some interesting activities to keep us engaged and definitely make us learn more about Norway. Several examples were:

- Salmon filleting by their main chef with huge plates of fresh salmon and specially made sauce for all to eat  (I just realized filleting salmon is far from simple)

- Arctic circle celebration that allowed us to know its highlight and to end by the captain giving us each a spoonful of original cod liver oil -- what every Norwegian kids had to take from their young ages (we could keep the spoon as our souvenir too!)

- The Northern Lights moments' announced by the ship team....this was on our request by keeping one number on the phone dial pad lit up ka. 

This is what I can call, 'A delightful experience I can see/eat/drink'!

Cheers.

Northern Lights trip

Hellooooooo! I'm back ka.

Have been so busy with meetings all week even today and tomorrow but let me make myself feel good by sharing my experiences with you all here na ka. 

My group (basically those from my program on the Ship for Southeast Asian Youth back in 1985) planned this trip to Norway to visit one of our members who is married to a Norwegian and to take this opportunity to explore the country much further with her help in the overall planning ka.

Will keep it short as follows even though I know I can write much longer from almost 10 days of travel ka:

1. A must to try

My group and I normally aren't interested in hamburgers unless we have to but this time, we saw an ad of a Burger King'', boasting its beef whopper with 0% beef. Most of us aimed to try and we did ka. 

We thought the taste was ok but then our  เจ food to be closely taste like pork may be better....yet the process to help lessen environment and resources is another matter to probe further.

2. Not one drop of alcohol when driving

My junior friend and her husband had to drive us to a ferry and so they both strictly observed non-alcohol drink while they were entertaining us in their home. Her husband said he didn't want to lose driver’s license as he needed to drive to his university daily.

My mind went to two keywords ka: Discipline and Law Enforcement.....sad nidnueng loei ka thinking about us here in Thailand.

3. Non-cash country soon

We were told that even with some little things, they use credit cards, not cash. So, it wasn't a surprise to see some restaurants with a sign saying, 'Card only' ka. One group member found that her '500-Krone' bill couldn't be used and she had to exchange hers at a bank

Time for us to get used to using cards or electronic transfers to pay ka. 

4. Northern Lights

Even when northern lights weren't high on my own agenda, I followed the group to chase them. We were on a  special trip to hunt for the lights one night. A 21-year old driver drove us out of Tromso city to the middle of nowhere, which was extremely dark. It was like going to a fire camp since we could sit around the fire, heat sausages, and drink hot chocolate while feeling real real chilly. It was cloudy with slight vision of stars.

Chasing the northern lights failed but such a rare experience was priceless ka!

Finally, we saw quite a bit from boarding a cruise ship (with no coronavirus back na kaaa!) We all were very excited and our host was relieved to see such satisfaction onsite and from taking and sharing lots of pix ka!

5. Not Chinese!

We felt so goooood traveling in Norway as people there were real relaxed. We all told ourselves to breathe the cleanest air fully every day!

One day at a tram station, a Western-look guy who could likely be a Norwegian moved away from us right away after looking at our faces. My friend said we weren't Chinese! His reaction changed to be real friendly. He started telling us about the area and what to see!

Feel so bad for Chinese and what if coronavirus outbreak was originated in our country?

More soon ka. 

Future of work and leadership

Swasdee kaa!

I'd like to share an article I read entitled, Insights on Leading for the “Future of Work” by Christine Schaefer, February 6, 2020, who talked with Cheryl Cran, a successful business entrepreneur and author.

-- I like what Cheryl Cran sums up the focus of her work as in a simple sentence: “Helping companies and leaders be ‘future-ready’ now!”  

Have our universities seriously helped our students be future-ready NOW?

-- Based on two decades of supporting the leadership of thousands of organizations around the world as founder and CEO of Synthesis at Work Inc., Cran pointed out two key challenges that leaders today face across all sectors and industries:

1. Attracting and keeping top talent.

She noted that “millennials typically do not stay with an organization more than three years, and many leave without giving much notice.”

2. Being able to upgrade technology quickly enough, moving from their legacy systems to full digital transformation

Cran has “a natural aptitude for leadership and seeing the big picture.”, and these two traits have helped her clients to have greater success with the feeling of excitement. 

Do our leaders have the ability to see the big picture.....one similar picture to move ahead and how excited are we to help our students to succeed?
3. Her passion is in finding future-focused solutions by building high-performing organizations for long-term success.

Does our leadership grow out of the real needs of our universities and are we patient enough to think and act more for the long-term success too, not just 'flavor of the day/week?' or 'Quick wins only'?

4. “Regardless of title, everyone is a leader in the future of work.”

Personally, I think it isn't easy in our Thai culture of seniority and authority but I've seen some seniors who have empowered their juniors much further which is really encouraging. 

What could be the best for us to promote leadership in our people from faculty and staff to our students and communities?

5. For the future of change, Cran said we need to become more adaptable and agile. We need to realize as well that the future is about collaboration, and we must all be shifting from a ‘me’ to a ‘we’ approach.

The term, 'collaboration' comes up again and again. I hope our universities look beyond their walls to join hands with others in and out of the region to become real global citizens in our internationalized globe which is in need of synergy for a better world to live in.

Follow this link if you wish to read more na ka: https://www.nist.gov/blogs/blogrige/insights-leading-future-work

Sharpened strategies

Hello all.....it's a bright not blue Monday for me (even the air quality is really bad!) as I can stay back home (and in fact with much more work to do ka!)

Have learned some more the past weekend observing a workshop for 3 regional universities (CMU, KKU, and PSU) under 'University 4.0' project, supported by the Spearhead Project on 'Khon Thai 4.0' ka. 

The workshop was run by Associate Professor Apiwat Ratanawaraha from the Faculty of Architecture, Chulalongkorn University, who uses Foresight to help lead the universities to identify future signals that will have key implications to future of education. 

My key learning points are: 

1. V to STEEP: Value is added to the forces I earlier learned last year when we had our environmental scanning using STEEP: Social, Technological, Economic, Environmental, and Political. Now it includes Value to make it STEEPV ka.

2. Go beyond megatrend: This would help the universities sharpen their strategies by going beyond general mega trends e.g. as aging society sends out strong signal, we must include it with more specific terms for higher education like AI for aging society as lifelong learners (my own version ka). It will give us some framework to work on.

3. Ajarn Apiwat was giving an example of Aberdeen University which has shared on its website the list of scans they've identified from some good processes involving key stakeholders.....some of the signals that will/may have impacts on their university were Additive manufacturing, Australia considers formalized recognition of micro credentials, Blockchain universities, Brexit: Protecting Scotland's interest, etc. Ajarn Apiwat said he shared it after the universities had done their scans because they would make more efforts to draw their own lists without being led (copied)!....sounded great to me loei ka!

4. Some scans our 3 universities have identified are: Social impact investment, Psycho-social disorder, DIY education, Digital learning platform, Blockchain in education, Mixed reality, Sustainable lifestyles, Diversity, China impact, Functional AI for all, Inequality, etc.

Working with their own and across universities allowed the flow of ideas and shared perspectives for them to polish their reports for higher quality strategic plans. I'm sure they'll be more future-oriented to get clearer, more sharpened strategies, and more practical approaches responsive to their contexts while retaining the philosophy of higher education institutions for Thailand and the world ka.

Feeling hopeful!