Bangkok Post, Thailand, Kriengsak Niratpattanasai Column.

Byline: Kriengsak Niratpattanasai

Jul. 4--Last week my partner Michel le Quellec and I ran a workshop for the marketing and sales department of a Thai-western joint venture.

The leader of this team is a European. Under him are a half-dozen managers and below the managers are 30 staff members. We found that the team has an array of very good, intelligent and pleasant members. But due to differences in values, they had a difficult time working together, resulting in a lack of trust in each other and overall frustration.

We designed a three-day workshop that was held in Pattaya. It started with a "breaking the ice" session designed to help the participants learn about each other on a personal level. Then, Michel ran a values and rules session and the team was divided up into small groups: four groups of Thais worked on Thai values and two groups of foreigners worked on Western values.

There was quite a contrast in the results. For example, Thai values were: sabai sabai (easy going), sanook (fun), seniority, compromise, forgiveness, respect, family, honesty, kreng jai (consideration), security, mai pen rai (flexibility), nam jai (kindness), shyness, and kantanyoo rookoon (reciprocate). Western values were: courage, intelligence, respect, honesty, professionalism and teamwork.

Each value was illustrated with an example of behaviour (rule).

For example, the rule for respect from the Thai groups were: "Younger members of the staff must never challenge older people and always listen to their advice."