Agile – A New Way of Working and Thinking

On February 14 at the Hyatt Regency Bangkok Sukhumvit, over 40 attendees gathered for Agile – A New Way of Working and Thinking. This event was organized by AMCHAM’s Human Resources (HR) Committee and featured speakers Arnut Changtrakul, Certified Trainer at Dale Carnegie, and Shaun Wong, Partner at Baker Tilly. Today organizations, in every industry, need to gather and act on information, make decisions quickly and implement change to meet rapidly-evolving requirements of customers and the business environment. Many people call the ability to do so successfully “agility” and it is becoming ever-more important in the age of disruption.

Arnut started the event discussing the rate of disruption companies currently experience. Growth happens quickly in the digital age and employers feel the brunt of it. Arnut cited artificial intelligence (AI) as an example of a practice that was once overlooked but now is at the forefront of people’s minds as concern of becoming obsolete grows. He noted that with the general distrust that comes with AI, especially when it comes to performance review for HR professionals, there can be a disconnect when needing to train employees to be flexible for speed. Soft skills are showing to be more important for employees as requirements for jobs are becoming more project based. A study from Dale Carnegie showed that employees who received training in these soft skill areas were six times more effective than those that did not.

Shaun Wong, a Lean Sigma and Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP), then spoke on his expertise in agile implementation in companies. One of the main differences that he pointed out was that companies need to be flexible from the beginning. With companies like Pokemon Go reaching 50 million followers within a matter of days (19), three to five year strategy plans need to adjust accordingly as well. He noted the importance of a workplace environment that encourages collaborative creativity but also supports its employees when they may not meet the mark. ” ‘I want you guys to be creative but you can’t fail.’ …Who’s going to be creative [in that environment]? It’s okay to fail but you’re going to fail, fail fast.” said Shaun. “Fail Fast” being a popular term used in an agile workplace.

After a short coffee break, the event reconvened with a panel discussion where the speakers took questions from the audience. Audience members were curious about how to implement agile in an environment that is not considered a flat model. Both speakers stressed the importance of workplace culture and mindset starting from the head of the organization.

Speaker presentations will be available on the AMCHAM member portal. Photos from the event can be found on the AMCHAM Facebook page.