Mindsetting and IZN for IROs

 Hello to all and hope it's a great Monday for you na ka.

I was in Tagaytay, Philippines to help conduct several workshops relating to IZN -- internationalization, to a group of International Relations Officers (IRO) from quite a few countries who are members of AIMS (Asian International Mobility for Students Program), organized by SEAMEO RIHED ka.

Let me share with you what I learned from this trip and set of activities ka:

- 5555! for me, especially ka. At Filipino immigration, though the line wasn't that long, I overheard one couple say, 'we're senior citizens. let's go there.' I looked where they went and saw a sign which read, 'senior citizens'. 

Immediately, I said to myself to try as I wasn't so sure it was meant for what age up. Like in Thailand, even with a special track for the elderly, I was told that it was for 70 up ka. 

I fit for the track kaa! couldn't help but ask the officer about the age and she said it's for 60 years old up ka in the Philippines. I could fly through easily:))!

- For the IRO day, we three from our 6-person TPopPlus team were there, designing the whole program and facilitating several ka.

       - The first one was to conduct our 'Mindsetting session'. Originally, people tended to call it 'Icebreaking', which could unfortunately equate to fun only without much content ka. 

We had 3 main activities for 6 big groups (about 12-14 each) starting from 'pick a card' for them to share their feelings about the AIMS program (past, present, and future), and our elaborate-from-gender game. .

My deck of cards consists of 170 cards and though we said it wasn't a gift, we lost one which was sort of expected so I was prepared ka. I feel the cards must be too attractive to resist!

The lessons learned were valuable for all to know a bit more about themselves and their mindsets, collaborative working environments, positive observations and comments made, etc.

      - The second was broken into 3 stations (Big picture, mentoring and coaching, and mental health) and I took care of one about the big picture IROs need to learn and practice for them to contribute to the success of their missions and visions. 

Even with the best assistance from my TPop team and the keynote speaker turned into a key-takeaway person, it was tough to repeat the process (without a microphone and powerpoint) talking, group activities, and rating three times!  Couldn't imagine my life without the other two ka

It was amazing to see the eagerness and willingness of the participants to go through the 3 stations.

     - The third was the culmination of what was learned all day for participants to come up with 'supersonic shuttle' being the big picture about IZN and their role as IRO's. 

Unbelievably after a very long day, the groups retained their energy to the max to come up with fascinating ideas and presentations. We couldn't be happier to see that they included in their shuttles keywords like vision, mission, growth mindset, stakeholders, hearts/passion, and diversity ka.

I was so happy too not to find any keyword on 'budget' which was raised quite often during the station activities since attitudes and shared goals are more needed to get started before discussing money matters.

There was some confusion in announcing the winners. But we simply took it a minor mistake to take our little gift back ka! happy atmosphere and happy participants ka.

We laughed so much and talked among our own group that part of the exhaustion is from laughing ka.

Our extensive plans and my sleepless night before the workshop started paid off ka.