Lessons from a 4-minute challenge in Japan

I just got back from a week’s trip to Japan, exploring in particular Izu which is located in Shizuoka. It was the first trip for pleasure since the sky was open so my friend and I carried quite a number of gifts for our Japanese friends (we participated in the ship for Southeast Asian Youth almost 38 years ago). This is simply to let you know that we two each had heavy luggage (20/16 kilos) and I also had my carry-on plus my handbag ka.

Yes! Yes! One of the very first lessons learned was that we could have stayed in Tokyo for one night to leave the heavy stuff there.

In any case, had we done that, we wouldn’t have had this learning experience ka. This was from our Japanese friend who joined us to Izu.

We two Thais managed luggage quite well with our eyes open for an elevator. However, when we and our Japanese friend left Izu to go to Hakone, we had to change from a local train to another for the destination.

The local one stopped on platform 1 while the other was on platform 5 on another level. The challenge was that we had only 4 minutes to catch the second one. To me, since the following train would come 17 minutes later, I’d have chosen to go slower. What about you ka?

My Japanese friend started planning to take the best coach of the train that would let us get off as close as possible to an elevator for platform 5. She said, ‘I have to be successful.’ Having heard it, I said to myself to go along and hope it could work out for her as wished.

Even one disabled waiting for the elevator, we managed to go up with him and then ran fast to the train. Picture me running with two full hands kaa!

It was almost a miss but we beat this 4-minute challenge kaa! Whew!

Although it could be regarded as anecdotal (asked another Japanese friend to find they value success highly too!), this experience gave me another cross-cultural understanding. It’s not just the sharp sense of being successful and continuous success (big or small), but their perception about planning ahead, use of time as well ka. They feel they must save up some good minutes to do other things!

What comes to your mind about this story ka?

While I was thinking about this 4-minute experience, I pictured myself panting in the second train kaaa!

Learning from Khun Joe Thana

 Hello all. 

Some sharing from listening this morning to Khun Joe Thana Thienachariya who was keynote speaker for MHESI on the topic of, 'Higher Education Survival: Amid Sirens and Sustainability' for senior leaders who are EdPEx assessors, current and new ka.

Here are several highlights ka:

1. He's a great storyteller who are ready to share his years of experiences in different circles in some fun ways. So while sharing thoughts, he was able to capture people's attention and at times with a little laughs.  His ppt was filled with a few yet powerful words ka.

2.  He stressed the world changes, tech advances at the exponential rate require far different approaches and thinking in managing work. Mobile phones create micro moments for us to be distracted very often....we've come to the age of now, age of choices, age of product caring more for experience.

- Younger gens have their own specifics like lesser rules (e.g. not to wear office uniform) impatience to climb the normal work ladder, free to express their ideas, etc.

- Leaders need to be visionary, daring enough to project what will happen in the future and decide fast to begin actions before the changes take place. He emphasized leaders' capability to collaborate too ka.

- Universities have to design with empathy....what students prefer. More extracurricular activities should be added to give more life and soft skills to students and would make them look much more impressive on their resumes than their academic performances.

- Besides the technical skills, skills needed are creativity, collaboration, curiosity.

- Love this formula ka..... IvsTXY which needs us to look at learning that should move away from having just one specialization in 'I' to become more like 'T' with specialization and broader knowledge and going to 'Y' to be interdisciplinary for the modern world. X is for leaders to come in between and make diverse groups and expertise working together. 

- We should turn to be more practical to make it possible to change, going away from being rigid with decades-old rules and practices. Old molds aren't workable while being average isn't the norm nor acceptable any longer.

It was inspiring with quite a few points to think further. Personally, I think our faculty and senior leaders mean well to change for our students and institutions....but the big question is 'how could we mean well to our own selves to make changes within us too?

Happy Monday ka.

Sharing session on writing an SOP

 Swasdee ka, everyone. 

Last week, there was one activity we organized on behalf of the Chula University Alumni Association on the topic of, 'Quality SOP is with Story and Passion'. We managed to have 6 speakers, namely, 4 Fulbright alums, one Endeavor alum, and one Fulbright Outreach Officer with me moderating it ka. Several on the Alumni Committee jumped in as wished as well.

We could consider it the 'first' in some aspects:

- the first to touch on how to write a Statement of Purpose (SOP)

- the first to share real examples from some applications (with permissions ka!)

- the first to  go in free forms for speakers to respond, react, add as wished throughout the session in their capacity as applicants, essay readers, or from their life experiences

-  the first to have the speakers sit  with the audience in an open-ended circle

- the first to see the audience stay on from the beginning till the end and sit around with speakers

It was really fun to hear some stories about how Fulbright alums found their passion. They reflected back to the much younger days to check 'what has made them become them today?' Exposure to various activities, remarks about them from others, or some pitching events could all help shape their thinking and decisions on their studies and work.

All stressed that everyone has their own stories that are unique. It depends on how they select some to write in alignment with their tracks of studies they're interested in, and on how they 'sell themselves' in writing. For those who are at the stage of applying for universities (did have one King scholarship recipient in the audience), they need to research in further detail about the focus of universities/departments as against their own interest and lifestyles. It was fun to discuss how to begin and end the SOPs with really good comments from the speakers and the floor ka.

We hope they had some tips on how to know themselves better along with how to write an SOP on their own. 

While preparing for the session, I got some ideas about my own podcast episodes to touch on three topics, namely, story, passion, and empathy ka. Suggestions welcome na ka.

Happy Monday ka.

Bias in decision making

 I just listened to Khun Rawit's Mission to the Moon podcast (Feb 4, 2023) about the bias in decision making, summarized from 'The case for behavioral strategy' by Dan Lovallo and Olivier Sibony in McKinsey Quarterly, March 1, 2010. It caught my attention to the point that I googled the article.  

Here's what I've drawn from the article ka:

- Good decisions are from fact collection, analysis, and the process to reach decisions.

- Biases could be from a few factors like 'habit, training, executive selection, and corporate culture......a product of human nature'. 

- It's advisable to COUNTER the following:

       -- pattern-recognition biases using analogies, comparisons, or salient examples or  listening to those who use their powers of persuasion to tell a compelling story.....or falling into algorithm traps of similar stories fed to us na ka.

       -- action-oriented biases since things are uncertain and plans can be changed.

       -- stability biases -- sabai lovers to go for easy ways

       -- interest biases when judging as silos for one's own unit for example.

       -- social biases to go along with the majority (like groupthink lae ka!)

The authors advise 4 steps for behavioral strategy:

        -- Decide which decisions warrant the effort - selective of issues that need crucial processes

        -- Identify the biases most likely to affect critical decisions - open discussion helpful

        -- Select practices and tools to counter the most relevant biases - what's best fit to the issues

        -- Embed practices in formal processes - when proved successful ka

If you wish to listen with some examples, please check this out ka:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96oTIEYi6os

Hope it could serve as a nice approach/reminder ka. 

Happy Monday na ka.