Wins.

BTL.

Hanoi, Vietnam – You can’t change the world in a month.

Instead, my goal for this and every mandate is to try to establish meaningful connections at a personal level to build capacity in a collaborative manner. I certainly don’t have all the answers.

So, it was with great excitement I saw a normally quiet man come to life in front of his colleagues during an all-staff meeting today. He spoke passionately about having new ideas to market the college, and he wanted to build pride in the room.

We had discussed gaps in the college’s strategy during a meeting last week, when I stressed the importance of assessing the effectiveness of BTL’s tactics. If they’re not working, figure out why. If they can be fixed, fix them. If they can’t, move on to something that will provide value.

Have a plan, and don’t be afraid to change what is not working. At the time, his eyes lifted from his page with a glimmer.

He became animated and implored his colleagues by using many of the same messages he had quietly absorbed the week before. Over the past seven days, he has changed his marketing approach by getting back to the basics.

With his help, we actioned a couple of the recommendations from the four-page memo I drafted after our meeting last week.

It was one of those eye-opening moments where we found ourselves speaking the same language.

Even though we don’t at all.