Ask, Not Tell

I recently came across a wonderful free-of-charge software called ‘Cool Timer’.   You can keep your activity  instruction on PPT on the slide whilst at the same time show how much time is left.

我最近用了一个免费的软件 - ‘Cool Timer’。 使用这软件，你可以同时在屏幕上显示例如你的活动指示，和该活动还有多少剩余时间。

Let me continue to write about my learning from the recent offsite meeting experience.  See this first post for background.

My 2nd piece of learning - Take note when you facilitate discussion!    Or I would say - Whist this blog is called ‘Ask, Not Tell’, my learning is ‘Not Only Ask Question, But Also Take Note.’     OK, let me tell you how I learnt this from the offsite meeting experience.

Like most team building event, I ran a team game.  It is called ‘Broken Square’ and its main aim is to bring out the importance of ’sharing’.  It went very well.  During the debrief session, the participants were stimulated to voice out their thoughts on ’sharing’ e.g.

• ‘Why should we share?’ (This is the first question they asked after I gave the instruction.   A powerful question for debrief purpose!)
• ‘We got to understand what the common goal is before we can all work toward it.’
• ‘They (a sub-team) refused to share, after they have completed their own square.’

Read more

Work has been hectic these days, and thus I wrote less frequently.  There is so much I want to write about……   Anyway, glad that I have time for this post.

I facilitated a one-day offsite meeting last Friday in Shanghai.  The purpose was mainly to enhance the teamwork.  I felt good about it as I found them exchanging quite openly their view.   In fact, I was most concerned before the meeting whether they would voice their tough but true view on various team issues.  Without this, the meeting cannot be effective.  I worked late for a few days before the event in finding ways to make sure they will speak up.  (It was a tough week last week since I got to conduct training workshops in the day time.) Well, it seemed to me that they did.

Anyway, I can only be really happy with the effectiveness after I receive the participants’ feedback next week.

On the other hand, I felt good about the experience because I learnt quite a lot from it.   First, I am glad that I ran an anonymous survey before the event.  I collected their view on what works well and not well in the team.   When I led them to speak up their thought during the meeting, I gave them each a copy of the survey result.   With that, the participants feel safer to speak up as they knew that some shared their own view.   Some say that team issues are like ‘elephant in the room’ – most know that the issues exist but no one talk about it.

I used a website (www.surveymonkey.com) Read more

When I prepared for the Botswana class, I had a chance to talk to a master trainer who has had lot of experience in Africa.   The conversation helped a lot.  Apart from what I should do in class for the African learners specifically, I gained an insight from him about class preparation in general.

I asked about the challenges in selling in Botswana since I want to make my class relevant to the learners.   The master trainer gave his view on that and then wisely said ‘Why don’t you ask them directly?’   He said he would simply run a brief discussion at the beginning of the class.

It makes a lot of sense to do it.   The learners are the best ones to tell you what their own challenges are.   In addition, after they express their challenges in the class, they will feel the ‘pain’ more consciously and thus become more interested in the class (provided that the trainer can effectively show how the class content can kill the ‘pain’)    This is just like the effect of Problem Question in the SPIN methodology.

当我在准备博茨瓦那的课程时，我有幸请教一位有多年在非洲工作的培训师，这帮助很大，除了具体我应该如何与非洲学员相处，我更体会一些一般课堂准备的技巧。

当我问那位资深培训师在非洲做销售的挑战时，他除了告诉我他的想法，他还问我为什么不直接问学员 - 他建议我在课开始的时候就与学员讨论他们现在面对的挑战。

这做法很有道理 – 学员部任何人也更清楚他们自己所面对的挑战，另外，当他们自己陈述销售的困难后，我们在课上就更能清楚意识这些困难，并因而对课上的内容更感兴趣（假设培训师能有效带出课上的内容如何解决这些困难）其实，这种做法就像SPIN方法内的Problem Question一样。

People stay in house, but not apartment in Gaborone.  And I was given a chalet with 3 bedrooms to stay in as well!   Well, for someone from Hong Kong, I just do not use to big place e.g. when room rings, I got to run downstair to answer it!!  But still, nice experience overall!

在哈博罗内的人多住在一栋一栋的房子里，而我在那里做培训也被安排住在一所有3间客房的房子！对于我这个在香港长大的人，我实在不习惯太多的空间，例如，当电话响的时候，我需要跑到楼下接听！但总体来说，还是一个很好的经历！

The training room in Gaborone is just next to the 18th hole of a golf course!   Taking advantage of this (and the nice sunshine), we had some of our class outdoor….   It is my 1st outdoor SPIN class!

在博茨瓦那的培训室是在高尔夫球场第18洞的旁边，有着美好的环境（加上阳光），我们就把部分的可在室外上！ 这应是我第一次的户外SPIN课!

After transiting in Singapore and Johannesburg, I finally arrive this morning at Gaborone in Botswana!   So far, I see lot of space but very few people!

在新加坡和约翰内斯堡转机后，我终于到达博茨瓦那!   地方很多但人很少！