By Mel Kaneshige
This is the third in a series of eight articles written by Outrigger’s executives in support of our Value of the Week program. Every other week one of our company’s executives will introduce the value of the week and share what that value means to them. This week’s author is Mel Kaneshige, Outrigger’s Executive Vice President Real Estate & Development, and this week’s Value of the Week is: A‘o (To learn and to share) – We create opportunities for mutual learning and empowerment that lead to personal and organizational growth and development. – Ka‘ipo Ho
Mel Kaneshige
At Outrigger, A‘o, or learning and sharing, takes place everyday. For example, all new Guest Services Representatives at the Outrigger Waikiki on the Beach spend four days cross-training and experiencing first-hand the daily rigors of working in the Housekeeping department. When the Outrigger Reef on the Beach prepared for the return of its guest rooms from renovations, managers engaged in a job-shadowing program to re-learn each department’s operations, their contributions towards the guest experience, and the challenges that went along with that responsibility. At OHANA, the Revenue Management and Groups departments recently trained Front Desk managers to assist with the responsibilities of group handling and reservations, and the Front Desk managers passed that training on to their staff. On Tuesday mornings, our Legal, Risk Management, and Security departments jointly conduct a Hospitality Law class for Outrigger’s managers and supervisors. A‘o happens everyday at Outrigger, whether it’s in a formal classroom setting, job-shadowing and cross-training, or in passing conversation between employees.
A‘o is defined at Outrigger, as “we create opportunities for mutual learning and empowerment.” There are two very important aspects to consider here. The first is that we all have a mutual, or shared, responsibility to the learning process, especially our own. Beyond the typical responsibility of the training department to provide the appropriate educational resources, and a manager’s responsibility to ensure that his or her staff is properly trained to fulfill their job duties, each of us has a personal responsibility for our own day-to-day learning.
Secondly, opportunities aren’t going to fall from the sky and into our lap. We have to take the initiative to create opportunities for ourselves. There are so many ways to do that, for example, learning additional job skills, exploring more efficient and effective ways of doing things, trying something new that will stretch us beyond our comfort zone, reading up or taking a class on a particular topic of personal interest, or even by making a conscientious effort everyday to make a positive difference.
A perfect example of A‘o recently occurred in our new Phuket office, where our employees there developed on their own the Thai version of Ke ‘Ano Wa‘a, called Mittrapab in the Thai language. Through visits to our Waikiki offices by some of our Thai employees, they learned about Ke ‘Ano Wa‘a and with the encouragement of Darren Edmonstone, our Senior Vice President for Asia, met among themselves to express the concept of Ke ‘Ano Wa‘a in a way that fit with the Thai culture and language.
Mittrapab means friendly, supportive, and loyal, all of which are important values to the Thai people. As they put it – when friendship starts, we start to know each other, and we start to learn from each other – applying to relationships with guests and each other. Like Ke ‘Ano Wa‘a, they used the letters in Mittrapab to express their values.
“M” is for Motivation
“I” is for Integrity
“T” is for Teamwork
“T” is for Tradition
“R” is for Respect
“A” is for Acceptance
“P” is for Practicality
“A” is for Attitude and
“B” is for Baan (home)
As in Ke ‘Ano Wa‘a, each value is expanded upon with examples of what is meant.
The process of learning and sharing is the foundation for any culture to grow and thrive, be it in our homes and family, at work, or within our communities. In our Hawaiian culture, the word a‘o means to learn and to teach. The Hawaiian phrase, “A‘o aku, a‘o mai” recognizes that learning is a process of teaching and passing on knowledge and skills, or a‘o aku, and learning or receiving and taking in knowledge, or a‘o mai. The world is our classroom, and let’s view each day, on and off the job, as an opportunity to learn all that we can, to share all that we’ve learned, and to accept our responsibility to shape the culture of our places – home, work, and our communities – with pride and dignity.
My thanks to Ka‘ipo Ho for his invaluable help in writing this article.
