Tags:

leadership collaboration google's way

Description:

(to be completed) This is a wonderful experience about Leadership, Collaboration, and most importantly, the mindsets for success.

(this is only a draft and will be updated soon)

Overview

In the spring break after AY2022, I registered for a course named "Multicultural Collaboration and Leadership", consists of 7 100-minute sessions in Tokyo Tech and one 120-min session in Google Japan's Shibuya Office, taught by doctor Nguyen Dung Minh, a Marketing Research Manager from Google Japan, who is a Vietnamese Tokyo Tech Alumni.

The main topic of the course is not too strange, and indeed, it was repeatedly mentioned by the Japanese education system from time to time already. However, Dr. Minh's teaching styles and approaches to the problem of multicultural collaboration and leadership was very... one-of-a-kind, which is totally different from every professor I had known so far in Tokyo Tech.

"Consider me as your old brother, not a professor, and feel free to ask me anything". He said.

His lectures often go like this:

• He sits on a table right next to the students, and starts telling stories of his life. These stories often start in a way not so relevant to the main content of the class, but it will eventually be directed to somehow play a key role in giving reasons why the students should care about what they will learn.
• Then, he introduces the main content, starting from the problem (which are often very fun), then the solutions currently implemented by Google and Meta in order to mitigate those problems. However, while teaching, instead of just talk about the content, he always proactively and periodically asks for feedbacks from students. Even the craziest feedbacks are appreciated.
• Afterward, he lets the student form groups to talk or to finish small tasks given to them. He monitors the activities, asks everyone to talk about their findings and to share their stories, then give feedbacks to the students. This is the most fun part of the classes since students are given opportunities to be as creative as possible.
• The class ends with some closing remarks and notes to remind the students of what they have learned so far.

(the rest of this article will be completed soon)

Key findings from the course

Personal strength discovery

Promoting diversity

Managing unconscious bias

How to work in a global team

Non-relevant contents that I learned from the instructor and classmates

It is important to have a growth mindset.

Read more books.

And talk to people from outside of my comfort zone (local cluster).