Yoong Heng Tan is no stranger to challenging projects. With more than 20 years of experience across railway, aviation, road, utilities, bridge, water, infrastructure and underground space master planning, today he leads the Singapore office of Arup, a global design, engineering and business consultancy.
For five days at the start of May 2019, Yoong Heng participated in Pollinate’s inaugural Leadership Impact Program with three other executives and the Pollinate management in Bangalore, India.
The program also immersed leaders in Pollinate’s culture, exposed them to a working social enterprise, and involved an intense mix of theory, deep discussion and community visits, peppered with networking and panel presentations. Our facilitator Elena Bondareva also checked in with the leaders every morning to reflect on the previous day and note down their goals for the day ahead.
When he returned from the trip, Alexie Seller, Pollinate Group’s CEO, spoke with Yoong Heng to hear his thoughts on this personal and reflective journey. Here are some highlights from their conversation.
Yoong Heng (left) with Dan Sturrock (Investment Director, ARENA) and Sita Adhikari, Co-Founder and Director of Impact (Pollinate Group) visiting our customers in Bangalore.
Alexie: What motivated you to sign up for the trip?
Yoong Heng: I had been involved in community work in Laos with my son before, so when this opportunity from Pollinate came up, it really piqued my interest to understand how a social enterprise works and the lessons I could draw from Pollinate to make a difference.
I hope to be able to lead with empathy and understanding in my role as Arup’s Singapore Office Leader. There’s always more that can be done to address key organizational challenges such as imbalances in the gender ratio, sustainable development and ways to better align with Arup’s commitment towards the 17 United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.
I also wanted a hands-on experience that this program offers, as well as to learn how Pollinate empowers communities. I believe that exposure to more cultures and different ways of life can only offer more lessons, as well as foster deeper connections, understanding – and more empathy.
One of Arup’s core missions is to strive towards social usefulness and social good in all that we do – there’s common ground there in our partnership with Pollinate.
Alexie: What’s changed at work since you returned from the trip?
Yoong Heng: I learned new and interesting theories and concepts that I’d never encountered before, which are enabling me to identify singular, critical behaviors that can make a team move or change quickly. I’ve been trying it out since Bangalore.
I met with Arup’s environment and sustainability committee and provided the direction to dramatically cut our waste – with emphasis on circular economy strategies. We’re already actioning things like removing single-use plastics at our events as a simple starting point.
Working alongside Pollinate showed me that despite limited resources, social and environmental impacts can still be achieved. It made me realize we can do better immediately. There is a need to act collectively to make a greater impact and change.
“I realised that when you make assumptions too quickly, it can really prevent progress, and maybe someone else from performing. This program challenged me to view the issues from the ground-up, and it opened me to new perspectives.”
Alexie: What were the key takeaways for you?
Yoong Heng: I’ve been to many other leadership development programs, but Pollinate’s Leadership Impact Program had a completely new style.
It offered a chance to reflect on my personal leadership and influencing style, look deeply at issues faced by communities and how we can enable change in our teams to create greater impacts for those communities.
Alexie: Are you sharing your story to inspire other leaders?
Yoong Heng: I’ve shared my personal experiences with Arup’s Singapore office, and intend to share with our other offices too. I would love to see more leaders join this unique experience as it was so rewarding.
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Pollinate Group leaders also took away valuable insights and lessons from the program, immediately actioning them as Yoong Heng did. One example was forming a specific, internal project leadership group to drive the development and scale of the women entrepreneur program in India.
We thank Yoong Heng and Arup for participating in our inaugural Leadership Impact Program and look forward to the longer-term impacts of the program on all participants.
To join our next Leadership Impact Program click here.