The first ingredient of any workshop is the people who attend. I am awed by the people attending the workshop we have the pleasure of facilitating alongside Laura Dodson and Maureen Graves in Bangkok this week. They are doctors, health administrators, therapists, organizational consultants, NGOs, and more. They are so hungry for new ways of being in relationship and learning how to work more effectively in the world.
There are about 90 Thai in attendance. About 20% have attended a workshop with Laura and Maureen in the past. About 30% speak english, and everyone of them are more than happy to act as translators. Toni and I missed the first day, due to technical plane details leaving Chiang Mai. Laura, who is the lead facilitator, integrated us into the leadership team today, and together Toni and I taught the Satir stances of communication to the group. I was impressed with the types of questions that were asked during the session and after words in one-on-ones. Everyone was really trying to figure out how to use this new tool we just taught to make their lives better and do better work.
The workshop is put on by the ASEAN – The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (www.aseansec.org), and is being held at Mahidol University (http://mahidol.ac.th). A large majority of the participants are young – in their 20s and 30s. It is encouraging that these are not only leaders of today, but leaders of tomorrow, that are working to create a better future with as clean and clear collaboration as possible – making it easier to create sustainable change with real impact.
The nation has a slogan they’ve been using to promote tourism – “Amazing Thailand”. I can now say I know from first hand experience that the land would be nothing without the Amazing Thai People.
it sounds like a wonderful workshop..Im glad you are co facilitating I thought you were a participant and I was hoping you would both be able to share your knowledge as well..The workshop will be better for it Im sure!! Keep us posted