Leon Lim: “We can learn from each other by creating shared cultural sensibilities”

Leon travels frequently, constantly moving between borders, cultures, and languages. No doubt this has influenced him greatly and it is perhaps the reason why thinking inclusively resonates so strongly with him. As he says: “Different countries have different approaches to things. The culture in Brunei is more laid back, but in Singapore things are always fast-paced. The people there are always rushing and pushing. They want things done yesterday and not at that moment. Everywhere I have been, I have encountered different approaches to both life and work.”

“It is therefore crucial to adapt, to take the time to learn from each other. Bruneians, for example, can have a very different attitude to work than our Dutch colleagues. Over the years, I’ve learned that the latter have an open work culture where everyone appreciates directness and the freedom to voice their ideas. Over here, we’re very welcoming and open to talking to our overseas colleagues, but we’re a little bit more hierarchically minded, often finding it difficult to speak up.”

Dwelling on his early days as an operator, Leon reminisces that “the first time that I worked with a Dutch operator I was really shocked, taken aback, actually, by his directness. I can't recall in detail what I did, but it was something related to performing a preventive check on the system. I had made a mistake and he was next to me and he immediately told me what I did wrong and how I should do it correctly. I wasn't ready for that reaction at that time. I was shocked, lost for words, but then I got back to it, and I realised my mistake. Without being aware of it, I appreciated his help and thanked him. I think that's where I started to realise, ‘OK, so this is the way our Dutch colleagues work.' To practise openness and always be ready to share feedback with each other. I personally really enjoy sharing this experience as it highlights the real effort it took to learn and understand each other.”

Leon specifies that this is always a two-way process: “When our overseas colleagues come over, they might sometimes find it difficult to adjust to us, our culture, our food and languages. There are a lot of different nuances in the way we communicate. Singlish, for example, might look a lot like English, but there are some distinct differences that might get lost in translation to non-native speakers. Even small phrases or tonal differences can carry meanings that aren’t immediately obvious. I’ve also noticed that new visitors can be a little bit too forward, so it’s important that we help them bridge the cultural gap. I always try to think inclusively by helping everyone to communicate together by talking, eating or, more generally, trying to understand each other.”

Thinking inclusively together

Over the years, Leon has seen many changes to his own role as well as the company at large. “Internally”, he says, “I think we are adapting to the wider company culture by thinking inclusively and slowly spreading this way of thinking within the team. A critical piece of this process was to learn how to dare to make a difference – to speak up to yourself and to others when you feel like something is wrong. That’s where culture plays a very important part.  For years, I’ve been telling different teams that everything, good or bad, can only happen once. If it's an achievement, then we celebrate it, if something goes wrong, then that's it, it just happened, we cannot turn back time. You really need to speak up to make that difference.”

“Especially younger operators sometimes find it challenging to speak up. I really hope that I can share my knowledge, experience and values with them, so they eventually feel safe enough to dare to make a difference as well. We always invite everyone to speak up if they feel like they're uncomfortable to continue with the work. I think a lot of our colleagues here are slowly adapting to the idea that they need to make themselves heard.”

For Leon, teamwork clearly transcends geographic, cultural and linguistic boundaries. As he points out, “when I started we had much smaller teams, not just here in Brunei. Over the years the company grew which meant that we really needed to be one team. Because Asia is a vast region and halfway across the world from where HQ is, we always need to work closely together across time zones. Of course, we have strict procedures and manuals to get the job done, but it doesn't bring the team together by itself. Learning to communicate and understanding each other is crucial to get the best results.”

Especially in his new role, he would like to focus even more on being “a cultural bridge that connects the different people and teams of Ampelmann. At the beginning of the year, for example, we finished our first ever monsoon campaign. Several international colleagues flew in, and we noticed that they were not mingling and communicating enough with each other. Each was speaking their own language, and it created a kind of disconnection. Because this prevented both groups from learning from each other, we raised this concern and decided to pair each non-local with a local so they could learn how to communicate together.”

Representing excellence

As a field technician with years of experience working with Ampelmann’s systems, driving engineering excellence is very close to his heart. “We're here to fix things”, he says, “but we do much more than solving downtimes. As the front liners, we know how the gangways work and perform in the field, so we also share feedback with HQ for improvements so that we can create systems that are even better and safer."

Even though he will be moving into a non-technical role shortly, he thinks that this core value will remain essential to his new position. He is currently working closely with Brunei’s newly appointed, and first-ever, Improvements Operator: “I’m having multiple discussions on how he can play a part in improving the systems’ technical design simply by talking to other Bruneian operators who might have good ideas to share. Some of us can feel reluctant to speak up, but, of course, we do discuss things from time to time and with the introduction of a local Improvement Operator we can gather information individually from each operator and share this feedback to the Improvements Team in Delft to enhance the systems and designs and make them better suited to local conditions.”

Like most people at Ampelmann, Leon notes that “staying safe is at the heart of the company’s core values, it’s where all the others lead to. We all want to get home in one piece”, he says. “When a system breaks down, we can always fix it, but when a person gets hurt, that’s a hard thing to deal with. It can be a serious injury or minor injury, but an injury can always be avoided. That's also why we stress to follow the manuals and procedures. It not only protects us and allows us to work safely, it prevents us from injuring ourselves.”

Nevertheless, he is also keen to point out that safety has a much wider meaning: “Safety is part of the Ampelmann culture, and it represents us as a company. Ampelmann was created for safety, it’s what we sell when we transfer people and cargo offshore. We always think about it, it’s in everything we do. It’s our reputation and it’s what we represent when we put on our orange coveralls. It speaks for itself. Ampelmann is safety. We are all safety ambassadors when we set out to work.”

In this way, he also thinks the core values are particularly important because “they represent what the company is. As an employee it is also our responsibility to show our core values with each other as well as with external parties. As I’ve become more senior over the years, I also think they help guide us and they can help us learn from each other by creating shared cultural sensibilities. They also help to grow us as an individual, as a team, and together achieve the shared goals of Ampelmann.”