A New Dawn

SEALA 2, DAY 1

A piercing blue sky in Kuala Lumpur heralds a new morning for South East Asia Leadership Academy! It is 8:25 am and SEALA's second annual regional workshop is set to dawn in 35 minutes. 

For the next ten days, we will explore ideas about leadership and transformation, purpose and betterment, and traverse realms of the spirit, as wide as the Malaysian sky.

In the ballroom of the Pullman Putrajaya Lakeside Hotel, the final touches are applied in preparation for the formal opening of the program.

Cue trumpet fanfare! Grand entrance of the SEALA 2 participants.

Ayesha Shaukatullah is greeted by SIBF facilitator Khudabuksh Walji.

SEALA's guiding spirit, Founding Board Member Anand Sharma (Founder and CEO, Growth Advisory) welcomes all and sundry to the magnificent journey ahead, Whether participants, instructors, facilitators, speakers or staff, we are one crew with equal amounts to learn, teach, expand and refresh in one another's uplifting company. At different times we will each be captain, sailor, navigator and helmsman during the days ahead.

Ensign Yumna Harisingh Jawa and Chief Warrant Officer Prajna Murdaya reporting for duty, sir!

SEALA is not an experience where you can doze in your chair, or settle back comfortably into what you know, or think you know... So, everyone, on your feet!

It is not enough for everyone to be on the same page: John King (Founding Partner and CEO, Cultural Architecture) wants the group to be harmonious and in tune.

The SEALA a capella singers: Ayesha, Noreeta Mohd Nor, Basu Banakar.

If you don't measure, you can't improve. Farhad Karamally feels his leadership has already made measurable progress since the morning. He demonstrates how much to Zubair Anwar-Bawany.

Learning, John points out, is a high-energy activity that is predicated on anticipation and a willingness to be surprised. Here, Raheel Waqar is learning to anticipate surprises from high-energy Tita Veda. 

Top Tuangsithtanon engages in conversation during the coffee break.

Anand, speaking on the evolution of management and the role of leadership, traces the changes from early principles of "scientific management" (workers as cogs in the machine) to a modern system that aims to engage the hearts and minds of all the associates in relentless pursuit of operational excellence.

Relentless-Pursuit-Of-Operational-Excellence is David Liu's middle name.

Structural integrity, as applied to a skyscraper or a pyramid, means it won't fall apart under stress. Leaders need to be no less grounded, as Andrea Bednar (Founder and CEO, PoP Associates) explains. Compelling purpose, self-awareness and integrity are the foundations for effective leadership. Leaders need to operate in integrity – and to be able to restore integrity, when they stray from it.

Integrity means doing what you said you would do, when you said you would do it. Danny Dewanto, Monica Trehan and Vijay Kaggal are doing what they said they would do (be amazing SEALA participants) when they said they would do it (right from day one). They are therefore in integrity. 

If we had to design a skyscraper – lofty, inspiring – Sridhar Loganathan would make a good model. (Less good for a pyramid, though.)

Facilitator Saad Khan joins Mei Ching Khew and David for dinner.

Gloria Dittus meets a fan of Oregon State football team. (Orange and black are also the colors of Princeton University, and of Halloween).

Participant Paired Introductions. Over dinner, participants were paired with assigned colleagues, tasked with learning more about one another to present their partners to the group at large.

Farhad showcases the colorful, multi-talented Yumna.

The view from the audience.

Prajna and Ayesha are both big achievers and big personalities.

Bina Ali and Sarika Grover tease out commonalities in their creative approaches to design and business.

Shawnn Liew and Danny announce an important discovery: they are brothers!

IT guys Ridzuan Sidek and Basu speak the same language, personally and professionally.

Suhel Saraf and Tita strike sparks off one another, and light up the evening.


Thanks and congratulations to all for a sparkling opening day to SEALA 2!