The cycle of learning, unlearning and relearning

Uncertainties in the COVID-19 era have made all of us more appreciative of the people around us and their contribution to our success and happiness. As this week I experience a significant change in my workplace I am taking this moment to reflect on my journey of learning and unlearning at #MenariniAsiaPacific.

 Thanks to @Attilio Di Gaudio for appointing and @Tom Browning for offering absolute freedom and belief in my abilities. Unlearning that Medical affairs can only make a significant contribution in speciality disease areas I had to quickly learn on how to make the best out of the available evidence and resources for primary care. This lead to a focus on large Real-World Studies (RWS) in the region to ensure publication in high impact journals and received appreciation with a CEO Special recognition award. 

With a belief that organizational branding and image is not truly established by what the organization boasts about itself but established from what the current and past employees speak about it in the open forums, @Crystella Lim offered several opportunities for me to contribute at employee engagement activities like #MenariniFM, Booster lab, DNAChallenge. I have been impressed by Crystellas ability to create stories out of ordinally life events.

A major moment of learning was offered by @FrancieTan (a colleague turned friend) to appreciate the diverseness and impact of the aesthetics on the people and their lives. Collaboration with key aesthetic experts we organized several trainings and workshops the younger aestheticians across the region and also two major RWS under publication process resulted in winning RELIFE global award by @Steven Kusmanto

Menarini also offered me a close exposure to China and it’s complex healthcare structure. It took me several visits and interactions with Chinese physicians and colleagues to fully appreciate the rapid progress achieved in China with apps like Ping An Good Doctor平安健康保险股份有限公司, WeChat health also the speed at which changes are implemented in the healthcare sector. I learned with @Jennifer Zhang, @James Sun impact of male sexual disorders like erectile dysfunction and premature ejaculation on the families and thus collaborated on the RWS leading to two publications (under progress) on premature ejaculation.   

 Aligned with Menarini’s commitment to people development I could learn a lot at workshops on Marketing excellence, Utilizing strength and leadership meetings. I experienced @Khai Meng's commitment to learning and development and @Andrew Koh's passion for training excellence.

Extensive (sometimes tiring) travel across the region for CMEs, conferences and internal meetings did have many unexpected perks too! Meeting an Indonesian health minister for at Jakarta airport and having a quick chat. Stumbling upon Bawarchi as one of best Indian restaurant with live ghazal singer in Bangkok. Visiting the Great wall to appreciate the history of China. Exploring the lanes of Ho Chi Minh and Hanoi to appreciate the contrast between history and present of Vietnam.

Of course, life at work became more enjoyable learning experience with like-minded medical colleagues like @Fabio Iachetti, @Kavitha Raghuram, @Ankur Gupta who unabashedly exposed some of the flaws in me and helped to relearn.

I had to unlearn some of the subconscious bias & assumptions and learn to be more open & receptive after several stimulating and futuristic conversations with colleagues across the region like @David Zhu, @ Ebenezer Jeyaraj, @Stephen Hsu, @ Mages Shunmugam, @Nikhik Bedekar, @Elaine Yeh, @ Ramesh, @Girisan K, @Sunjin Kim, @Byron Zhu, @Steven Kusmanto, @Derris Loy

I am thankful to all these colleagues and events at Menarini to have supported the cycle of learning, unlearning and relearning as I get ready for a new cycle next week.