A Peace of the City.

Stream of consciousness.

Pok Fu Lam, Hong Kong — My plan had been to wander through the University of Hong Kong, past pools of carp and turtles, and through labyrinthine covered walkways.

But, a wall of green falls onto the back of campus. And, nestled into the peak of jade, a steep, narrow staircase looms like a beacon.

How can I not?

The slopes are polka-dotted by drainage holes, like insect burrows. Giant palms fan themselves in the lazy heat, and a golden silk orb weaver the size of my palm keeps its witch-like eyes on me. All eight of them.

In the tangle of vines, the mossy carpet offers only nature sounds like those that have sold millions of relaxation CDs. Thickets of bamboo stand sentry.

Otherwise, it’s absolute peace in the city.

This path circling Victoria Peak leads to a waterfall, its slippery, moss-covered rocks pushing me away. The only chatter is the stream, telling me ghost stories of time eternal.

With nobody knowing where I am, and the risk of injury high, I decide to turn back prior to reaching its source.

Perhaps I’m getting smarter with age.

Gone Fishing.

Well planned.

Hanoi, Vietnam – “We don’t do market research,” Mr. Tien said.

“We go fishing – we just put the line in the water and maybe we catch a fish.”

It was the line of the morning, so to speak.

I continued the analogy by explaining how time consuming fishing is, and if you’re lucky to catch one, there’s hardly room for another. If you’re going to successfully market yourself, know your audience and how to reach them.

It’s a message I have been preaching for the past month.

In order to extend the impact of my stay beyond my mandate with BTL, I volunteered to facilitate a three-hour workshop this morning for the Vietnam Association of Community Colleges.

The group of 17 was engaged, active and thoughtful, leading to fruitful brainstorming sessions directed toward improving the reputation of community colleges across the country. We focused on planning, understanding audiences and putting the ‘social’ in social media.

As if to punctuate my point, Mr. Tien came up to me after we had taken a series of group photographs.

“My wife just texted me,” he said. “She told me I had been standing beside the tall foreigner.”

Female intuition?

No. Someone had already posted photos to Facebook.

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.

On Deck.

The light shines brightly.

Hanoi, Vietnam – In many ways, I’m well suited for my position in Canada because I’d prefer to make others, and the university, look good.

It can be easy to hide behind the ever-shifting ink that flows from my pen: the spotlight and I aren’t really on speaking terms.

So, it was a bit of a stretch to my comfort level to be facilitating a 2.5-hour workshop at BTL this afternoon, where 23 pairs of eyes pointed toward me as the observer who has spent the past three weeks at the college.

Facing discomfort and expanding your horizons are, of course, key reasons for participating in an experience like Leave for Change. How else to grow?

I had, ironically, drawn up a deck short on words and high on imagery to get back to basics of branding, marketing and communications, and to have staff begin planning practical activities that address their flagging recruitment efforts. I used images I had taken of Hanoi to help identify audiences, and we began the process of defining who ‘BTL’ is.

From there, we pulled threads together by developing communications plans that address areas of strategic importance to the college. I wasn't there to provide answers, but to offer suggestions of things to think about, and different approaches. Share the spotlight.

Showing a picture of the college’s front entrance – and the impact it can have on both first impressions and BTL’s brand – drew immediate acknowledgements of improvements that should be made. Tasks were assigned before we left: ownership was in the right place.

Today was one of those rare instances in front of a room my nervous legs did not chatter at a greater pace than my speech. Instead, calm: it was a successful session.

And, somehow, we ran only 15 minutes long.

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.