LEARNING

 Happy Monday ka, everyone.

I have several things to share from my recent workshop we offered to a group of university senior leaders (SL) ka.

1. Our overall workshops exclusively saw the 11 SL (out of 14) participating with our team without having any support staff in the meeting room ka. Here's what to share na ka.

- It was a happy exercise not to have an opening, closing, and group photos.

- The top leader stayed throughout joining all the activities....and for us, this is one best role model this SL has shown.

- We think with only the SL present, they tended to be more comfortable. They also learned how to 'work in the dark' as they didn't know what to expect and the program was loosely drafted.

- Workshops were at its best when everyone focused on the tasks as individuals or as teams as requested, not to be too much of an influencer or commander! 

I strongly believe that if we see and accept our own selves better through self assessment and reflections, we'd be able to appear to inspire or encourage others much better while sending more positive vibes to the whole atmosphere with maximum learning.

- Thai caring is always what we treasure....not that we love free kanoms brought to us and participants, but more importantly it's about the time to think and manage for all to have the most delicious kanoms to enjoy.

- In the speedy rate of world changes, going by the rules could be a big barrier and we need bold SLs to make timely data-driven decisions, based on trust. 

- If we think we know almost all that others share, we could lose learning from other perspectives.

- Self assessment helped SLs learn the meaning of diversity and get to appreciate its value far better.

- Life is fun adding to the management with 'Mu'nagement! This term is from one SL who told me to do one podcast episode sharing how SLs could benefit from signature and palm reading to put the right man in the right job and to learn different ways to convince different persons/groups.

2. One story to share and you may wish to think of yourself what your reactions could be ka.

One of the three of us came to say someone broke into her room and took all her possessions including toiletries bag. She asked the reception to see the CCTV while the other two went to check their rooms and thought of ways to help out. 

Immediately the other two thought of the following: 

- what the hotel needed to rush to take actions, including who to report to.and the steps the hotel should learn and have in place (standard practice, compensation, etc.) 

- what was needed for the person to use and wear

Well, after some struggles between us and the hotel, we learned that our member went to the same room number but wrong building ka. 

What would be your reaction if it were you ka?

We all wai'ed and apologized to everyone from cleaning to reception teams we saw kaa! We also shared with the SLs that we did lose face from making a mistake (caused the trouble) but we've had several lessons learned.....to be more careful/ recheck, to stay more calm, and most importantly to admit our mistakes and readily apologize in the open without delay ka.

Cheers to more learning kaaa!

Being direct and empathetic

Late last week, I had coffee with a Fulbright alum. Got some thinking and learning from him to share here ka.

He said as a science-oriented person, he felt he lacked EQ. The thing was he had been too direct with his staff and the person cried, making him feel bad. 

Then he shared another story about his team who basically comprises talents. They tend to challenge others, which could make the other end feel attacked and lose confidence.

We discussed the two cases and I told him the following:

- When a person cries, it could be from several other factors too. In fact, I thought about it and feel he's quite empathetic to share it with me ka...showing he cares about his team members and has reflected how he could have done better.

- Challenging someone in a meeting can be considered positive if we can set  our own selves and ideas separately ka. I think in our speedy world of changes, caring is one thing but getting to the points to discuss and draw the best ideas/solutions could be quite healthy with lots of learning dee na ka. (sure if the challenges don't attack the persons or contain improper/impolite terms). Admittedly, if this sort of situation happened 1-2 decade ago, I might have had a different answer ka. But we've developed our professionalism to some extent, meaning that it should be more acceptable for open discussions with less limitations of age, authority, and gender.

It'll be really helpful if the chair/lead of the meeting could turn to be facilitator/coach, offering softer/differing styles of questions or requesting responses as needed ka. This person has to be very focused to remind the meeting that whatever is challenged is aligned with the issues raised and that they're essential for all to reach the shared objectives of the organization na ka.

What do you think ka?

Direct Experience Effects

 Happy Tuesday ka. 

Learn Plern Plern this month is on, 'Happiness' ka. I'd like to share with you what we'll post next week na ka.

Our guest speaker is Tam--Dr. Sutayut Osornprasop, Senior Human Development Specialist at the World Bank ka. I asked him to share his perspective on Happiness working across three world continents ka.

When I asked how he's become a 'true believer' of the World Bank's vision and missions (To create a world free of poverty on a livable planet and its mission is to end extreme poverty and promote shared prosperity.), he shared these two stories ka.

One was from his very first mission to go help Myanmar during Cyclone Nargis  when the country was under dictatorship rule. His direct experience of seeing people's hardship even before and during Nargis hit him hard. He learned how to survive with much lower than standard health and sanitation.

I noticed his much softer voice when talking about it as if the impacts of the situation on him happened not long ago.

The second story was recent when he got food poisoning in Madagascar. Luckily his colleague took him to the hospital in the middle of the night to the emergency department.  Even it is the largest public hospital, it was not ready to respond to emergency cases. His friend had to go to a pharmacy nearby for the saline infusion process. The staff there had to use the phone's flashlight and what was more awful was that the person couldn't find the right veins for the IV line after having tried over 10 times (OMG!) It was so painful that he decided to go back to rest at the hotel. Luckily, he became better ka.

The effects from the two learning experiences showed how he has become increasingly committed to the vision and missions of his organization, realizing how he could serve as a bridge to convince global policy makers to take actions to help alleviate poverty and to help those suffering from natural disasters. His happiness sure comes from the impacts he can make ka!

I learned from his sharing how natural disasters could be so destructive and add on to the seriousness of people's poor livelihoods and how other countries and organizations must cooperate to help out. I also empathize with the least developed countries that have been so distant from quality of life ka. We can't take it for granted that being the largest public hospital should be the best place to go as well. Most importantly, direct exposures could strongly strike our hearts and influence our thoughts and actions.