Exit.

The BTL-WUSC Connection.

Hanoi, Vietnam – “I have high admiration for your work at BTL, and for your vision,” the rector said as we huddled around a board table at the WUSC office this afternoon.

We spoke in deliberate phrases and, given the structured hierarchical nature of society here, I had no option but to take it as significant praise.

“You are my English teacher and my communication teacher.”

My entire mandate, I’ve maintained my goal has been to establish meaningful connections at a personal level, rather than suggest wholesale changes. As such, I have been grateful to form a relationship with, among others, Mr. Vinh.

Since our first meeting, he has reminded me of my manager back home: aversion to the status quo, big ideas and the energy to see them through. The system in which he operates, however, is much different.

We held my exit debrief with the college today, and discussed both what I have accomplished during my time in Vietnam, and some plans for implementation.

As I flipped through the jagged scrawls etched onto my notebook’s pages, we found I have, over the past three weeks:

• Designed and developed three marketing pieces;
• Provided a marketing template, a how-to guide and basic training for design;
• Tailored a communications plan and trained staff on developing strategies;
• Provided consultation and analysis related to BTL’s marketing efforts; and
• Conducted a workshop to build capacity related to marketing, branding and communications.

The rector decided he was also looking for a step-by-step guide for crafting marketing messages, and I explained this would no longer be capacity building: I have left tools and provided training that can empower his staff to carry out this work. It’s time for the connections we established to begin to bring their ideas to life.

He smiled, and nodded.

I have volunteered to host a workshop for the Vietnamese Association of Community Colleges tomorrow morning, but my mandate for BTL is now complete.

Mission (Mostly) Accomplished.

Everybody stays away from the bus.

Hanoi, Vietnam – As the bus thundered past the sprawling Panasonic, Canon and Yamaha factories in Dong Anh, it struck me my time at the college designed to support these industrial park tenants has pretty much drawn to a close.

I had just commuted 45 minutes for a five-minute meeting, before pointing myself back in the same direction toward the centre of Hanoi.

I have one week left dedicated to a pair of workshops, a chamber of commerce event and debriefings, but I have otherwise completed my mandate – and my amended mandates – ahead of schedule.

As I watched the materials I have created get sucked into the vast tangle of a computer’s wires, I could only hope they will once again see the light of day.

And so, I sat, pinched into a tight seat with torn nylon and chipped paint, reflecting as a high-pitched children’s choir pumped through the bus’s tinny speakers. The driver opted to pass into oncoming traffic while crossing the bridge over the river.

Who is to argue? No wonder these buses are efficient.

The sun has finally been sprung from its shackles, and I have a fresh haircut. It’s time to turn the clock off and take in the transcendent splendour of Halong Bay tomorrow.

I Pity the Typhoon.

Ponchos for sale hang from the bus sign.

Hanoi, Vietnam – These days, the sun is but a passing bird.

Feeling the effects of Typhoon Kalmaegi hitting the Halong Bay area today, the city is reminiscent of a child’s Lite-Brite: pinpricks of colour set against a tableau of grey.

Bright orange fish swish in clear plastic bags hanging from racks perched atop rusty bicycles across the city.

Tinted tin roofs quilt a patchwork that blankets my sightlines and xe ôm – moto taxi – riders tuck under the backs of their drivers’ brightly coloured ponchos. They quickly become veering dots of dye set against the wet, grey pavement as drivers, too, fold all but their faces into their nylon bubbles.

Warm, tropical rains leave pencil sketches of Morse code on the horizon. With the winds, the trees join in on the Tai Chi practiced around the lakes.

Even the blocks-long flower market I pass every morning on my way to work is nearly abandoned and painted the colour of storms – but for the scattered petals consumed by puddles. Left to nature’s hand, faded umbrellas spin like tops.

As I sit for more than an hour waiting for a meeting to begin, it’s perhaps an apt metaphor.

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.

A Slice of Language.

A pizza my morning.

Hanoi, Vietnam – A smiling woman arrived unexpectedly at my desk this morning, a personal-sized pizza in hand.

She laughed and visibly searched her English vocabulary for the right word.

“Product?”

With furrowed brows and a chuckle, we scanned each other’s faces for the lexicon that would unlock the secret of the doughy creation.

“Students!”

Bingo. The mid-morning snack was courtesy of the college’s Culinary Arts program, which provides students with an understanding of the tourism and hospitality industries to provide them more stable jobs.

Best of all: no delivery fees.

On Target.

Don't mask your ambition.

Hanoi, Vietnam – Questioned about my ambitious goals, I am told to aim lower.

“Things are different here.” This much is true. “Volunteers usually identify three outcomes they would like to produce in such a short time.”

I choose seven.

Having spent my past couple days designing a template, writing a user guide, preparing messaging and creating marketing pieces for three of BTL’s programs, I have achieved all but one of my outcomes by my mandate’s half-way mark.

You have to think big.

Working abroad often requires flexibility, patience and positivity: resources and training are not always the same in other countries. I can’t imagine Corel Paint has been relevant in the Canadian design community for years. Not that I’m a graphic designer anyway.

I’m just currently playing one on Vietnamese T.V.

Crop a logo out of a .PDF because there are no .jpg, let alone .eps files? Cringe, but do what you have to do.

(And leave a gentle reminder about the importance of protecting the brand.)

Advice to future volunteers: a good attitude goes a capital-L long way. Smile – albeit honestly – even if you are uncomfortable.

You’re supposed to be uncomfortable: it’s how you learn.

But, don’t be afraid to think big.

Pho of Love.

Pho-to.

Hanoi, Vietnam – As I tucked my chair in from a breakfast of pho, assorted Western and Asian standards, and a couple cups of fantastic coffee, the concierge and wait staff stopped me from boarding the elevator.

“We like you. We really like you.”

The cook burst out of the kitchen with a sheepish grin and a twinkle in her eye.

“But she loves you.”

I’m not sure if it’s because of how much of her food I have evidently enjoyed over the past couple weeks.

I love it here at the Church Hotel on Hang Gai, too; this place has been fantastic. In some ways, the morning's laugh was a bit of an omen for the day to come.

After a 2.5-hour meeting with the heads of marketing and recruitment, I was able to compile some best practices from Canadian institutions and make four pages of recommendations for strategically marketing BTL, while enhancing its recruitment efforts.

In the process, I was finally able to cross off two of the seven major results I built into my mandate’s ambitious work plan.

It has been a good day.

The Whole Song and Dance.

Team work, and Team not-so-work.

Hanoi, Vietnam – Before the day's heat drops like a hammer, women move silkily around Hanoi's broken sidewalks.

It’s an early morning ritual to practice tai chi under Vietnamese willow trees, which hang languidly around the lakes. Some believe they hold ghosts.

Riding a bus with shocks that feel like a bouncy castle, we coursed along the Red River to welcome a delegation from Seng Kang Secondary School in Singapore this morning. The ride cost .50 and took about a half hour as the courteous ticket taker directed riders to specific seats.

I was given the front, rather than the tiny red plastic stool placed in the middle of aisle. My aching knees thanked him.

The students put on some Singaporean songs and dance, and played in the courtyard with local students, tripping over each other in games designed to inspire a high level of teamwork. "Soft skills" has been a term I have heard repeatedly since arriving, including by the head teacher from Singapore: "Mastery of core skills is no longer sufficient," she said.

The rest of my day was spent scoping out my activities for the next few weeks with the ever-helpful Mr. Viet, and attempting to conduct a marketing scan of Bắc Thăng Long College's current and proposed activities. I have thus far had some difficulties locating strategy, as "things change quickly here."

And yet, in other ways, change does not, in fact, come quickly.

My first week, however, is complete.

First Day of Class.

Things are looking up.

Hanoi, Vietnam – Coming off a September holiday weekend, I felt a little like a kid embarking on his first day of school.

Which, in many ways, I was.

The roads were swollen following Independence Day, which signifies the return to school in Vietnam. Children gathered onto scooters – young girls outfitted in smart white blouses with red ribbons tucked neatly under their collars – and I melted into traffic with them.

With my equivalent to an elementary literature primer, I’ve begun perfecting my Chào buổi sang/tối (Good morning/evening) and Cám ơn (thank you), adding to words I had learned previously. I was only missing an apple for the teacher.

Today was my first day at the modest, yet expanding, campus for Bắc Thăng Long College (BTL), where I met with the dynamic Rector, Mr. Vinh, Mr. Viet, Mr. Hiep and a couple long-term volunteers for the first time.

Mr. Vinh is a man of many ideas, and the two-hour meeting dissolved at times into an ever-expanding vision for my mandate before Ms. Ngoc attempted to narrow it once more. I am, after all, only here for three-and-a-half more weeks.

Strolling through campus.

Despite the fact many of these anxious discussions were carried-out in Vietnamese, I found it fascinating to see how many times I felt I knew exactly what the Rector was getting at based on his facial expressions and body language. He reminds me in many ways of my manager back home – which is a good thing.

Big vision and a desire to make necessary change are attributes with which I can very easily get on board.

Mr. Vinh invited us to a celebration lunch at a Korean barbeque-style restaurant, where we feasted and I was challenged to try to tell the difference between Saigon and Hanoi Beers. Priorities.

Despite not being a drinker, our host led several rounds of cheers in order to make me fell welcome.

And I do.

Orienting Myself.

Hanoi, Vietnam – The sun is setting in the distance, making tall clouds appear to be mounds of cotton candy.

The clouds broke after a day punctuated by heavy rains, which may serve as a metaphor for having some of my apprehension relieved during a local orientation at the WUSC offices. The session was another positive step in trying to understand the contributions I hope to make.

I will be spending the next few weeks reviewing the marketing strategy at Bắc Thăng Long College, trying to understand its competitors, developing messaging and making recommendations related to professionals best suited to implement the College’s marketing initiatives.

Apparently, 80 per cent of the College's students come from the nearby industrial sector, which was hard hit during the economic crisis, resulting in tremendous downsizing. As most of the remaining local industrial-zone labour force does not require specific skills – they’re mostly repetitive-task assembly line roles – the College has found it necessary to expand its catchment area to recruit.

Specific objectives like this should help drive the strategy. The next step will be to meet with College officials on Wednesday, and to begin to put ink to a work plan.

In the meantime, tomorrow is a national holiday, and high on my list is seeking out another cà phê nâu đá – which Ngoc had me order in Vietnamese today. It was easy to see why everyone raves about the country’s traditional dark roast coffee mixed with condensed milk and served over ice. 

I was the one getting an education today.