Leaders in time of crisis

 Hi all ka...hope you're starting your Wednesday in an ok mood ka.

 

I've had a chance to read several articles about leadership in time of crisis and wish to share these two na ka:

 

1. Harry Kraemer (March 23, 2020) pointed out 2 mantras leaders have to keep repeating it by heart:

 

Mantra 1: You’re going to do the right thing, and you’re going to do the best you can do.

I think it's good to boost our own confidence while keeping our morale high knowing we'll decide what's best for all in such a situation ka.

 

Mantra 2: You’re going to tell people what you know, what you don’t know, and when you’ll get back to them to discuss what you didn’t know before.

In today's world, people can access information from different sources and leaders are the ones to build trust with accurate information at the right time. 

 

So personally, we need to know who to team up with, how to verify data and info, what and when to deliver....all to keep our communities informed and cooperative.

 

If it's something new, people can accept it when we inform them, we don't know and will keep them informed about the learning process and the findings.

 

This is the link in case you wish to read the full article ka:

https://harrykraemer.org/2020/03/23/two-principles-for-leading-your-organization-through-the-covid-19-crisis-article/

 

2. Based on Michelle Buck's insights (October 30, 2020) on, 'How to Develop a Leadership Mindset for Uncertain Times', these 4 principles are shared ka:

·       Leverage the power of reflection as our values and purpose can give us consistency…..and hopefully our leaders are good people to do for the communities ka.

·       Think about how they can generate transformation from adversity to benefit from the situation.

·       Create a sense of safety for those around them to help them feel comfortable to speak up and be creative.

·       Embrace ‘both/and’ thinking as opposed to ‘either/or’ with open-mindedness that may lead to productive solutions.

Source: https://insight.kellogg.northwestern.edu/article/leadership-mindset-uncertain-times 

 

The two articles were written last year and I think in normal or abnormal times, leaders need to learn to look within to know themselves better and to stay strong/sane while going beyond their own selves to listen and decide with empathy and facts.

 

Tough to lead in normal times but super tough in difficult times to อยู่รอด na ka. Dr. Santitarn Sathirathai uses three terms for leadership in different times as อยู่รอด อยู่เป็น อยู่ยาว ka. Now, I have to keep my mouth shut before referring to some particular groups we've been seeing kraa.

Promise and partnership

 Good morning to all ka. Hope your Wednesday is awesome. 

I’ve got an article from my friend who I mentioned much earlier about his responsibility as then President of Marlboro College to close it amid many world changes and domestic challenges. The College was closed and it sure treated its student and staff with dignity. 

This is the article called, ‘Promises to Keep: Marlboro’s Search for a Partner’ by Kevin F. F. Quigley and you can follow the link below if needed to read in further detail na ka: 

https://www.higheredpartnerships.org/promises-to-keep-marlboros-search-for-partner/ 

I’ve drawn some essence of the marathon-like partnership exploration process this college took before finalizing its alliance with Emerson College in the summer of 2020. 

He offered advice on partnership and what to be aware of ka: 

1. Focus on Mission: strategic partnership – one needs to be clear on their educational mission and not on maintenance of their independence. 

2. Time is Not Your Ally: as it could put students at unacceptable risk. 

3. A Long and Winding Road:  He pointed out that due diligence is required while efforts must be made out of intense opposition from key stakeholders, including students, faculty, alumni, neighbors, faculty, and perhaps legislators. 

4. Know What You Have and What You Want: he stressed that the prospects for a successful outcome are significantly enhanced if the Board has clarity about its goals and an unwavering commitment to stick to them. 

See what its institution can bring to the table that might be a distinctive identity like a ‘particular academic program or technology, certain well-known faculty, or an attractive campus.’ and to be clear about what it is looking for in a partner.  

The steps started with a participatory self-assessment involving one-on-one interviews with Marlboro trustees and senior administrators, focus groups with students, faculty and staff, as well as an on-line survey.

Then three essential goals identified were: intent on preserving Marlboro’s identity; protecting its distinctive approach to interdisciplinary, self-directed learning; and commitment to supporting students and faculty in an emotionally challenging process. 

5. Trust, but Verify.  Developing trust requires respect, empathy, honesty and transparency, from both institutions. 

For me personally, I think this is helpful for us to take up when entering partnership with targeted universities/industries and who knows, it offers us some good thought and suggested actions if there could be some forms of alliances or M&E in our higher education circle ka.

Any comments mai ka?

Sharing essence from 'The Great Remake'

 Hello all! Hope some of you have been vaccinated na ka. I’ll have to wait and see how things go this week ka.

I just read one new book in Thai entitled, ‘The Great Remake สู่โลกใหม่’ by Dr. Santitarn Sathirathai (Dr. Surakiat’s son), and really enjoyed it ka.

When I heard his interview about the book on a podcast program, I pre-ordered right away because it sounded easy enough for me to understand ka…not too much about economic terms and jargons. More importantly, he touched on universities and people ka!

Here’re some of the things I’d like to share from a non-econ person na ka:

1. The huge waves driven even faster by COVID-19 that we need to be aware of and get prepared to handle the changes effectively. They consist of 6D: Debt, Divided, Deglobalization, Divergence, Digitalization, and Degradation of Environment. I think all the 6D’s are obvious when mobility is limited and tech advances have helped shape different ways of work and life and on the other end, have left quite a number behind and have harmed environment. Asia, basically through China and Vietnam have performed well recovering their economies.

2. The world economy will be reformed by these three factors: Finance (พี่ใหญ่), Digital (พี่รอง), and DLT (Distributed Ledger Technology and Blockchain is one best known- น้องเล็ก). Each has a different character from highly careful and risk taking/innovative to advanced capabilities to develop DeFi (Decentralized Finance—no need for intermediary body to do transactions ka)

3. We must learn how to survive Covid19 (อยู่รอด), how to stay amid existing and other possible risks (อยู่เป็น), and how to be sustainable (อยู่ยืน)

4. My focus is on the last chapter which is about human development ka. Throughout all the chapters, repeated keywords are digital and data-driven. Yet, after all, it’s our own mindsets and qualities that matter most ka. From what’s left in my mind are these “How’s” ka:

- How universities could find their ‘souls’, what exactly they and only they can offer.

- How to shape our people young and old to have empathy and humility; to develop growth mindsets and keep learning; to respect and benefit from diversity; to have endless creativity without feeling scared to express or put into experiments; to be resilient; and to link what is learned with their work.

- How to create Social Learning and aim for Collective Intelligence.

- How to adapt (ธาตุน้ำ) with drive to be competitive (ธาตุไฟ) while tending to the disadvantaged (ธาตุดิน) so as to become sustainable (ธาตุไม้)….all with the need for appropriate data/ management (ธาตุลม) ka.

There’re lots more in the book which is a good read ka.

Enjoy your Monday ka.

Harassment and actions taken

 Hope it’s a good start of the week ka.

Yesterday, some of you may have seen news about a harassment case and its hashtag ranked first on social media. My little circle discussed it and one has led us to read a report prepared by Australian Human Rights Commission, entitled, ‘Change the Course: national Report on Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment at Australian Universities, 2017’ I quickly skimmed through its executive summary to further summarize some key issues to share today ka.

This report was the result of a national survey of 30,000 students in 39 Australian universities with a qualitative information through written submissions. It included experiences of technology-based harassment as well.

Let me quote Commissioner Kate Jenkins’ Foreword as follows:

‘…. three unavoidable conclusions of this report:

• sexual assault and sexual harassment are far too prevalent in university settings as they are in the broader community

• there is significant underreporting of sexual assault and sexual harassment to the university, and

• universities need to do more to prevent such abuse from occurring in the first place, to build a culture of respect and to respond appropriately by supporting victims of abuse and sanctioning perpetrators.’

The whole report offered the results of the surveys and 9 recommendations. I’ll share some of them na ka.

Brief findings were:

·        In total, 26% of students were sexually harassed in a university setting in 2016.

·        Some or all of the perpetrators were students, teachers or other people associated with the university.

·        Women experience sexual assault and sexual harassment at disproportionately higher rates than men.

·        A vast majority of students who were sexually assaulted or sexually harassed in 2015 and 2016 did not make a formal report or complaint to their university.

Contributing factors to sexual assault and sexual harassment were: attitudes towards women,  alcohol, perpetrator abusing a position of power, and residential settings.

Five key areas of action proposed were: leadership and governance, changing attitudes and behaviors, university responses to sexual assault and sexual harassment, monitoring and evaluation, and residential colleges and university residences.

Under each of the five areas, they tabled out who to take charge, what to do systematically and in full cycle ka.

Take for example, on Leadership and Governance, it stated that, ‘Vice-Chancellors (university presidents) should take direct responsibility for the implementation, decision-making, and monitoring and evaluation of actions taken with an advisory body with relevant stakeholders to come up with an action plan, assess and publicly report progress annually…..’

I like it when it stressed how the universities need to have the crucial role in changing attitudes and behaviors of the whole community with measures for evaluating and refining the actions taken. In addition, internal and external reporting procedures as well as support services must be communicated and offered clearly to all.

It gave high priority to monitoring and evaluation, which referred to reviews and assessments of the effectiveness of existing university policies and pathways to ensure that proper support for well-being, safety, and trauma treatments would be given.

The incident yesterday was taken up seriously and promptly. Yet, more needs to be done systematically and Australia's report could be one good practice to consider adjusting to our context and culture na ka. 

The full report is from this link na ka: 

https://humanrights.gov.au/sites/default/files/document/publication/AHRC_2017_ChangeTheCourse_UniversityReport.pdf

Awareness must be increased along with actions to be taken as part of the university mission to shape us all to be truly decent global citizens ka.

One -year podcast with nice little things

 Hello all. I just posted on Facebook about the one-year anniversary of my podcast program called, Learn Plern Plern ka.

The happiness about this little success was really nice and what's nicer is some little things that I got ka.

First, it was about my guests and how their contributions have extended to make their families proud ka.

Here are two examples na ka:

One dad lined to tell his daughter that mom and dad listened to the interview and '...we are so proud of you......, we will give you full support.'

Another said her mom only said 'It was good. That was all ka!' My speaker said she guessed her mom must have sent the link to her line contacts ka.

Second, the program has reconnected me with quite a few contacts and Fulbright alumni and got to know new ones who were so willing to help ka. I feel so lucky to get the speakers who have made deep reflections to come up with their unique and insightful stories. 

Third, I had no expectations about the numbers of 'like' and 'share' and with no expectations, it was sort of fun to see that on average, the program has interested more than around 10 clicks from my family and good friend circle to be in the hundreds and the highest hit almost 3,000 ka....the power of the speakers' networking ka.

Lastly, this podcast program enables me and my little team to think more creatively to offer some stories not so many have heard about ka. Collective learning ka!

Cheers.