Teamwork

 Good Monday to all ka.

Even I've been more particular about what to write, I found one topic to share as I was reading 'CEO Excellence' ka....if you follow this egroup, you may recall that I got hold of this book for some time now and have been so slow to read it. Yet, amazingly, whenever I pick it up to read for simply several pages, I love it every time ka....this round, nothing is different and here it is ka.

The title of this chapter is, 'Teamwork Practice....make the team the star'. .I love Michael Jordan's quote that follows which reads, 'Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships' 

My eyes and heart got stuck with the chapter loei ka.

Reading about Michael Jordan's Dream Team who lost to a group of college players by eight points meant a lot jing jing ka. The story went on to talk about Michael Jordan who said they were out of sync.... while the Coach then, Chuck Daly, decided not to make any adjustments during the game to sort of teach the team one good lesson for them to realize that 'they must know they could lose too!'. The arrogance and complacency was replaced by teamwork and hunger, which led the team to win the Olympics Gold. 

My learning is:

- Individual competence and intelligence is good but not great...more is needed for the right people with the dynamics of how to work in a team for 'stronger impacts'.

- Teamwork means shared goals with sync actions based on intelligence.

- Losing could be a good strategy for us to learn the hard way.

There's one little story about Gail Kelly who took over Westpac as CEO. Her team felt she didn't deserve to get the position.....this could sound like quite a few people in our government service who suffered from this kind of attitude (I too lived through it for a short while too!)

What she did was to heighten the degree of team trust and collaboration by turning a 'group of 12 direct reports into a high-performing team through a series of off-sites' to work on transformation projects together. She made sure that the purpose of the team was 'clarified, behavioral expectations were set, and trust was built through facilitated sessions....'

My learning is:

- Trust can be built through designed activities with clear expectations set for all involved.

- High performing teams can be small in number but must be the right people.

- Team building is something to invest and do regularly.

Will read more to share more ka.

Collaboration, trust, and leadership

 Hope the weekend allowed you to relax and that you all are ready for Monday ka.

I have some little life experience of a senior leader to share with you ka.

Last week, I had a chance to have dinner with one senior leader-good friend from ASEAN and his experience collaborating with a western university. I got the following from our conversation and my further thoughts ka:

• Trust and respect are the keys to enter a longer term of collaboration......read MOU carefully.
• The two sides must  have an equal share in funding, and in any case, definitely not one-sided.
• Understand the local culture so as not to impose one's own onto the partner.
• Younger gens are influenced by social media and world trends. They too need to have some orientations of local contexts and values.
• End the collaboration before it gets far too long and more serious to manage.
• Ranking doesn't mean that much to the development of our higher education institutions (so don't go crazy about it!).
• The government and ministries concerned must envision the changing world trends and required skills to prepare universities and people well in advance and play a key role to direct and support them.
• It's a must for faculty members to enhance knowledge and skills in what the trends require......internships for faculty could be one best way ka.
• In crisis, leaders have to stay focused, look into the future, and weigh the best options for their key stakeholders. This includes management of expectations of our younger gens.
• ASEAN has increased its significant role in the world scene. We must strengthen our relationships to work as one ASEAN team with our ASEAN Values intact.
• Before then, it's time for our Thai higher education institutions to be one same team on one shared future for our kids, people, country, and ASEAN ka.....sorry to say it's so frustrating to see our universities compete against one another and hesitant to share their key learnings. It's more painful when some welcome foreign institutions, especially the West  and selected East, with open arms.

Any comments mai ka?

Art Therapy class

 Good morning to all ka.....what do you think about my topic ka? Can you guess what I'd like to share?

One of my nieces has had a few one-on-one art therapy sessions at a cafe at a walking distance from my house. Talking with her made me feel so interested in what art could do. 

You know what happened for sure ka! Yes! I've become one of the clients and it should go for 10 sessions....one hour each ka.

The first started yesterday and it was so fun.

I failed to take a picture of this Canadian institution that offers a certificate in art therapy but at least I learned about the process ka. My 'art therapy' student is in her clinical period to acquire experiences for her supervisor to assess. The charge (only 500 baht) isn't high, considering her time and the room rent she has to pay ka. 

As the firstcomer like me, the art therapist showed me some documents about privacy and confidentiality issues. I'll have to sign next time to note that they're serious about our information and work from the sessions ka.

The session itself is divided into 3 parts: 

Check-in: Draw what has happened before we meet (mine was from waking up till 9 am ka)

Activities: Follow the instructions to use different types of color pencils/crayons to draw lines or pix without lifting the pencil.

Check-out: Express feelings how the session goes.

We don't need to draw well ka. I myself am one of the worst in the world.

For the Check-in session, I drew several things I did and I was surprised to find that I totally missed out one task that I felt quite worried then. Instead, what I drew showed I focused on my talk (powerpoint), breakfast, and meditation.

I like the activities part as I was asked to choose two colored pencils....one for my right hand side and the other for left. Then starting from the right, drew lines or any as wished without lifting the pencil to follow drawing freely with the left using the pencil chosen.

The fun part was this ka. She asked to look for any animal I could see from the lines/pix I drew. I found two dolphins and I chose the more prominent one ka. I had to answer a few things, e.g. what was its name? Where did the dolphin live? where to go when happy or down?, etc..... purely imagination that I love love kaa.

I shared with her how I felt about the process. She said I could use a larger piece of paper as my drawing covered almost all the space. I wasn't hesitant to keep drawing though I missed drawing what I wanted and at one point, I lifted my fingers ka. Quitely, I also learned about me ka.

Have jotted down several questions I'll ask her next time ka.

Sounds sanuk mai ka?