Voices of our younger gen

 Yesterday, I physically moderated a session at the Policy Dialogue 14 under the theme "The Contribution of the Higher Education Partnerships in Southeast Asia towards the Achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals 2030". This event was jointly organized by a few regional/international organizations to maximize our regional efforts and partnerships of higher education with various stakeholders for the sustainable future of the region.

The topic of the sharing was, “Voices from the learners: the future of the sustainable region”, allowing us to hear learning experiences of 4 young speakers in Southeast Asia/ASEAN and how their exchanges/degree program/ team projects have shaped their thinking and roles about work and life to lead the change for a sustainable development of the region.

While it was so inspiring and delightful to hear stories and lessons learned from them, I myself got some good experiences from managing the session ka:

My key messages from the young panelists:

- Besides technical skills, exchanges enabled them to acquire soft skills from engaging themselves in different kinds of activities, to learn to live in the present and get the most out of the programs, which needed to be planned well before participation; increase their global perspectives; create and enhance friendship/networks; get to feel closer to host universities and communities to feel included, etc.

- Sustainable region means continuous collective efforts to help solve cross-cutting issues like climate change and language proficiency; all could become possible by getting started from one own self (small change makes big impacts!), stressing leadership of the youth, caring about social and environmental issues with stakeholders involved, and having clear shared goals.

- Our young generation is very smart and ready to explore cross-cultural differences. One said he thanked himself too for taking part in the exchange program which changed him in many ways.

We need to engage them in our planning, support, and other processes throughout to ensure their learning and sharing are even greater for increased positive impacts. Each exchange program should think harder of what multiple objectives it could generate, not just credit transfer, opportunities to travel and mingle. Rather, it could do more deeply into some soft skills like adaptability, learning how to learn, creativity, etc.

My learning/impression about the physical presence:

- It was a little odd to be onsite moderating a hybrid session after over 2 years. I talked with one panelist who was the stage with me, chatting with 3 others virtually and keeping onsite participants engaged. It was my very first time to use StreamYard on my own to monitor comments and questions online in addition to sharing the gist of the sharing with the participants and being a time keeper.

Thank goodness there was a dry run to talk with the panelists and that I went to the venue much earlier to get the feel and to learn more about the app.

- The sharing of the 4 panelists made me feel so very happy during and after the session. I felt very hopeful and proud of our younger ones who have ‘purpose beyond self’. I admire each organization, which has made to carry out different projects and activities for them….and should be more with them and by them. Quality processes and outcomes will definitely be on the rise ka.

Happy me for the rest of the week ka.

 

Great gift idea on Mother's Day in England

 Happy Monday kaa!

I only wish to share one little but meaningful idea my niece shared this morning ka. She has her family in London and it was Mother's Day in the UK yesterday.

The parents at her eldest boy's school asked each parent to donate some gifts and then they helped wrap them into gift sets to be sold at 3 pounds each. Moms joked among themselves to expect to get back something they donated!!!!

All the proceeds went to the school for its development. 

Kids (around 7 years old) could shop around to choose to buy one and give it to their mothers. My grandnephew got a set of eyeshadow and bracelet and hid it from his mom (he had to plan well na ka!) 

I love this idea and it tells me a few things ka: how active parents are to participate, how great kids learn about Mother's Day and a way to strengthen bonds, how nice for kids to have a chance to decide and see how they think about their moms from the stuff chosen,  how fun for all to celebrate Mother's Day, and how creative to raise funds for the school ka.

So narak with multiple meaningful objectives na ka.

Generations and hobbies

 A quick note to share what I've learned working on my podcast about generations and hobbies ka.

Since there are 5 Tuesdays this month, our little team thought of asking 5 generations to talk about their hobbies ka.

Gen Traditional/Baby Boom: music, singing, painting, reading, watching documentation about history, meditation

Gen X: collecting stamps, traveling, reading books and newspapers, fish keeping, listening to different styles of music

GenY: cooking, playing the guitar, own YouTube channel to show the music played, learning from younger gens about cryptocurrency

Gen Z: singing, baking, driving, playing musical instruments, board games, traveling, horseback riding, reading articles

Gen Z: watching YouTube, traveling, drawing, selling stickers, singing, playing musical instruments

Several things we've found ka:

1. We see the common hobbies of music, singing, and traveling, which have been and could be good for families of all generations to form stronger bonds while nurturing some soft skills.

2. Families and schools are the two most important institutions to encourage kids to start having their hobbies. These two must stay strong and attentive to younger ones amid the fast changes of the world.

3. The younger gens seem to urge their own generations to be bold, following their hearts in what they wish to pursue without having to think and listen too much to what others may have commented. 

4. Even hobbies are for pleasure basically, some could be turned into careers. One said it was great to link iwth their own jobs to start some conversations with more sharing and learning especially about food and cooking.

5. Exchange/Study Abroad experiences are proven to be highly valuable in many ways, from ways of thinking to socialization and forward looking.

6. Younger gens have shifted from watching TV shows to YouTube clips which are shorter/funnier/non-traditional.

Anything most applicable to you mai ka?

Happy weekend ka.

First live on Streamyard

As promised ka, I wish to share another message this week about my experience of going live for two reasons: first live on streamyard and I'm glad I know another good app, first time sharing quite a bit about my life ka.

Like other programs, Yong -- the host, who's really passionate about writing, has to prepare how it'd run with invited guests. She's amazing at handling it even after only several live programs. Thumbs up to her and her experience as a Nation journalist and a Fulbright alum, among a few others! I got a really fine draft with three sections of talk for my own prepared responses ka. 

What I've learned from this activity are:

1. To go live, skills from zoom help. The host has to be multi-skilled and prompt (skills of the younger gens ka!) to manage the show with both content and entertainment while engaging the audience ka.  We couldn't follow everything planned as questions and comments from the audience were to be raised for two-way participation. Both of us found it fine to be more flexible and go with the flow.

Streamyard is convenient and I like it especially as a guest, not a host yet! My hands were very cold that night as always ka!

2. The theme of the talk was, 'Life-long learner' and I give lots of credits to my 'T-Pop Plus' group (our girls' team who worked together for 3 years on GMS leadership development to subsequently add on one youngest guy for inter-generational/gender learning) who engages me in its numerous and diverse discussions, keeping me alert and aware of the current and future trends with increased learning ka.

3. Being a guest on such a program to talk more about me and my life made me reflect hard about all the questions. I learned more about myself and my life from the reflections......passionate in teaching and working on cross-cultural exchanges, influential people in my life, and what keeps me busy in my retirement ka. Some wanted to know how to live happily being single and during retirement. I thought of my friend's question who asked if my everyday activities could make me feel that time flew by. I then realized that there could be some who didn't have enough to do or didn't enjoy their activities too. Luckily, I have more than enough activities to do ka.

4. Signature reading works (effectively as always!?!). I shared with them how I used the skill as a tool to get to know our Fulbright circle. Did give them some tips on how to read a signature ka. We asked the audience to share their thoughts on 'One key learning from the talk' and quite a few sent in their responses. The host and I selected 4 for me to read their signatures! They said self-awareness was important and that parents should guide kids to have reflections after some activities to learn more about themselves. One thought of himself to say he was frustrated with Thai culture but learned that in fact, we all should learn to appreciate our own culture (which has its many precious dimensions and less beautiful ones) before being able to do it with other cultures. Several enjoyed listening to how Fulbright selected its grantees and how applicants should get started earlier on in their university life.

Cheers to this learning opportunity ka.

CEO Excellence

 Hello all.

I come back this week with a plan to share 2 messages ka. This one is drawn from vdo clips about a book by McKinsey and company entitled, 'CEO Excellence: The Six Mindsets That Distinguish the Best Leaders from the Rest' written by Carolyn Dewar, Scott Keller, Vikram Malhot from interviewing 67 CEOs in-depth. These CEOs include  Jamie Dimon (JPMorgan Chase), Satya Nadella (Microsoft), Reed Hastings (Netflix), Kazuo Hirai (Sony), Ken Chenault (American Express), Mary Barra (GM), and Peter Brabeck-Letmathe (Nestlé).ka. 

Here are what they share on the clips, which are a short and simple summary ka....after watching it, it urges me to think of buying a copy na ka...even though I'm now trying to manage my กองดอง (pile of books and magazines) kaaa!

The 6 mindsets are:

1. Be bold: not just to set directions, but to see how to make the organization better, faster, or different.

Our MHESI and universities plus their stakeholders need to focus on well-thought out strategic directions together and to be bold to make them work, not simply 'flavor of the month' to make sure of the impacts and sustainability ka.

2. Align the organization: by treating soft stuff the way we treat hard stuff even when soft issues like culture, talent, and organizational design are hard to be measured.

Wonder how many senior leaders think about the soft stuff to join hands with their team and act na ka....it takes time, energy, wisdom and most important of all, sincere commitment to making it work ka.

3. Lead through leaders means managing the psychology of the team to keep them in sync with the organizational directions to feel hungry to team up.

Hope senior leaders enhance teamwork by setting a good example for others to follow, not just giving order and monitor mai ka?

4. Engage (not to manage) the Board: leverage on their expertise through trust and transparency, call them not to update on things but to ask for help since most Board Members would be more than willing to help.

Thinking of many boards/councils in our higher education community loei ka.....selection of members for the growth of university/ministry, not for the growing empire of the CEO?!?!

5.Connect with stakeholders: keep asking why we exist for what purpose before deciding who of the stakeholders to meet and for what ...in any case, the efforts should bring the stakeholders to share common purpose and be on the same side of the table.

Looking at the whole ecosystem, we see even more stakeholders, it's a must to 'start with why' from our end before moving on jing jing ka.

6. Be your most effective: this means CEOs do what can add value by doing what only they can do like making some key decisions, driving people, etc. Several things they should also do include management of their time and energy as well as pondering on 'To-be (CEO) list', not just 'To-do list', and being good listeners.

Love 'To-be list' for our senior leaders to reflect often about them and how they can be better to gear their organizations!

While I'm digesting the information to share with you, I think of a few implications that are really useful for our ministry and university leaders to review and improve. Wish we had some research studies about our CEO mindsets too ka.