Mekong-US Partnership

 Hello everyone! 

Late last week I was invited to attend a policy dialogue in Cambodia, organized by Stimson (a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank which aims to enhance international peace and security through a combination of analysis and outreach....from wikipedia) with funding from the US State Department ka.

The focus was on Human Resources and Capacity and my talk (my title was MK-US Heart-ership) was to share my experiences and views working with CLMV ka. My emphasis was on the sincerity, trust, and commitment in partnership while focusing on  shared future/goals and one same big picture, quality of the projects, and full cycle of implementation (not only on numbers but results/impacts ka).

Here is what I learned ka:

- Many investments have been in this Mekong subregion (this dialogue excludes China who is a member country of Mekong and also a big intra donor for this subregion) and some could be overlapped as it seems that there's no central coordinator to manage the big picture. If done well, we'd see more effective and more powerful impacts na ka.

- Types and numbers of projects in addition to funding invested seemed to get attention over links, integration among projects and impacts out of the individual/collective efforts and goals.

- I liked a few speakers and let me share only two so this message won't be too long ka. One was Dam Bich Thuy, President of Fulbright University Vietnam who pointed out 3 things universities had to do, namely, be innovative, holding on to their values and identities (stay true to our identify, learners to know themselves and she put it as 'to be' referring to both success and productive life), and be future-focused.

Another is a Thai CEO, Khun Panyanuch Pattanothai, CEO of Generation Thailand, who shared how the organization helps link underserved youth with employment by bridging their employability skill gaps...... tough jobs from recruitment, training and design to assessment, mentoring and improvement, all are data-driven. The Mckinsey model sees the full cycle of processes needed and I like this holistic approach very much ka. I told her I'd like to shadow her for a week ka! Don't know when but the work she's been doing is really contributive.

Several other elements I liked as well were:

- When I was asked to participate, the host asked all the panelists to come up with one question for attendees to answer. This was the very first time I got such a request and found it very useful for me and the attendees if I could come up with one good question ka. However, I was unsure how they used them as I didn't see the questions or I might have missed them!?!

This can be one good practice for us ka.

- One provost who served as moderator brought his students who are really bright research fellows. One was bold, not just to express his ideas and suggestions, but also his doubts about the present implementation of his government and others around. He felt upset that the Cambodian government doesn't care much at all about research too. 

How I wish we could encourage our younger researchers to attend actively.

It was really great to see passionate people working for the better of Mekong countries.....still wish more could touch on the humanistic side as most projects seemed to respond to employment, competitiveness, greening of the world....not that the issues aren't important, but I feel hollow in my heart as we do need attention and some more focus as an integral part of projects/partnership to nurture caring, healthy mind and soul.

Any issue igniting your thought mai ka? share with me loei ka.

Inspiration and LinkedIn

Hope it was a real nice long weekend ka.

As I was reading through some articles to feel motivated enough to share what I liked, I spotted one Facebook post from an alum of Undergraduate Exchange Program (UGrad) which Fulbright Thailand helped manage then.

With Hataitip Tasena -- Nong Aim's permission, let me share about her volunteer work and lessons learned ka.

Aim has been working as Research Fellow at National University of Singapore, focusing on 'Healthy Aging' (so very much needed na kaaa!)

With her profile on LinkedIn, she was invited to join this event, which hapened to be her first serious volunteer activity since she stayed in Singapore. The Lifelong Learning Institute, managed by the Government of Singapore, is open for all walks of life to help find their own interests and to seek advice on change of careers or skill training.

For this project, Aim was a speaker to introduce healthy aging-related careers to high school, vocational, and university students ka. Kids could get to learn more about jobs available to assess themselves who they liked them from professionals in each specialization. Speakers had to design their own 20-minute workshops for students to play a role in each profession, followed by Q&A.

She said the challenge was to do it a few times for each group that came to the station all through that half day. It was exhausting but fun and she got the event T-shirt free!

Love her reflections ka: She said working with generations who determine our society's future gave her strength and hope. She felt she was the one inspired not the other way around!

My lessons from reading her post are:

- LinkedIn brings many opportunities for professionals so make sure our profiles are up-to-date ka.

Recently, one lady from Teachers College (TC), Columbia reached out to me as she's doing her internship at Unesco, Bangkok ka. Sharing her experiences with the TC community and beyond will be so good for all.

- I can't help admiring the Government of Singapore for its vision and actions ka......serious and effective.

- Events don't always mean funding. Volunteers are everywhere and many are ready to pay it forward in some forms ka.

- I value learning with and from younger generations to move me a little bit closer to be more of a digital person ka....so so analog me!

Happy sharing today kaa.

vocational vs university education

 Good morning Monday to all ka!

I got this article from Ajarn Piniti (former SG of OHEC), which is a good read with some more thoughts to add when discussing the future of higher education ka. It's written by George D. Kuh who is the Chancellor’s Professor Emeritus of Higher Education at Indiana University (https://hbr.org/2019/10/why-skills-training-cant-replace-higher-education). It's about the US but I think some good points are for us to consider ka.

During these 2 decades, we've heard and talked a lot about future skills and speed of people acquiring them with some key roles of western university online courses and those offered by tech companies. Thailand has seen some new movements calling for short courses and micro-credits in some forms.

This article points out that what's been raised 'is typically on “vocational” skills'. I like the following statements ka:

....'privileging short-term job training over demanding educational experiences associated with high-levels of intellectual, personal, and social development — a foundation for continuous life-long learning — is a bad idea for individuals, for the long-term vitality of the American economy, and for our democracy.'

From my view, I think we generally could tend to:

- follow some new movements too fast while leaving some meaningful moves behind....not wrong to be fast but a bit slower to think of what important aspects could be ignored.

- be off-balanced like thinking of responding short  over long-term objectives (even S&T vs Human & Social Sciences).....to think much less of why universities exist.....universities are tasked with responsibilities to prepare our generations who can lead their lives and the world(s). 

The author says,'....many business leaders say that they prefer candidates who not only can do today’s work, but who will be able to continue to learn on their own in real time to do tomorrow’s work — jobs that have not yet been invented.' ....no shortcuts .....as the need to increase people with accumulated wisdom, interpersonal and practical competence, and more than a splash of critical thinking, analytical reasoning, and altruism.

I agree with him on his title, 'Our higher education can't be replaced'. I only wish our Thai universities probe well into themselves to identify what they can do best and no matter what, to realize that they exist meaningfully when they can inspire and help guide learners to lead decent lives as good human beings with valuable learning experiences to bring about fine progress for our country and world. 

Start from senior leaders, faculty and staff dee mai ka?

Agility, VUCA, and Humanities and Social Sciences

 I'm quite eager to share several aspects from my experience being a keynote speaker at the National/International Conference on 'Agility of Humanities and Social Sciences in a VUCA World' at Burapha University the past week ka. Here they are ka:

1. Happy run-through: It was virtual via Zoom and Facebook live but I decided to be at the faculty studio which was a good decision to see the process and the overall management ka. I admired the whole team for its determination to offer best online delivery. MCs, moderator and myself had a run-through several times to ensure that each transition would be smooth. The technician crew was great ka...they asked for keywords for the transitions (which also meant we must keep it the same/or at least similar!)

2. Nice moderated keynote session: For my session after the virtual opening, they assigned one moderator (Dr. Sutraphorn Tantiniranat-Kwan, our Fulbright alum) to chat with me about the topic and my focus before I gave my talk. I sure love this style as it made me feel more relaxed and helpful for participants to know what to expect besides prepared synopsis in Thai and English ka.

3. Gist of my talk: Since it was a platform for research presentations, my talk focused on the following:

1) looking on the more positive side on Vision, Understanding, Clarity +Agility +AI for the overall world environment of 'Green VUCA++',

2) stressing not 'people' not 'situations/issues',

3) paying attention to "Triple M's", comprising Mindset, Management professionally by CRMO-- Chief Research Management Officer (not to underscore the importance of big picture, networking, integration, and knowledge), and Mentoring/Coaching

4. Prepared Q&A: Questions were from one Specialist....Fulbright alum ka:)).....working with the faculty last year, one from zoom chat. Others were from my moderator and myself to the moderator. Even when we may expect to have some questions or comments,  we need to have our own questions na ka. 

My moderator asked me what was the most important out of my Triple M's....mindset definitely ka. She wondered why I didn't mention another 'M-Money'. I told her that thinking of money first could block our creativity for good initiatives. I believe that a good project will invite funding by itself ka. When there was no more question, I asked her to let me know what three keywords she got from the talk. She got quite a few, including empathy and ethics ka.

5. Relationship renewed: The invite was really special for me to reconnect with Dr. Suchada Rattanawanitpun, Dean of the faculty who I've known over the 2 decades, working closely with her on AUN and IQA plus several little activities ka. Great to have an opportunity to know several more ka!

One little story that made me feel so good ka....one of the two MCs told me she recalled sitting in a session I shared about Fulbright during her senior year at the Faculty of Arts, Chula. Deejai loei ka.

Happy me, happy Monday na ka, everyone.

Porntip