Ask, Not Tell

It is real!!　A lot of people talk about Generation Y and argue that they need different kind of training. I hear and see a lot of these in training conferences or magazines. But I never realise that it is so real until last week. I conducted a series of presentation classes to 24 banking trainees who graduated from universities around 1/2 year ago. They are around 22 or 23. They were born in 1985-86. They are real young!! And more importantly, they are really different kind of learners as compared to the others I experienced before. Read more

There are some more learnings in class facilitation from my Singapore trip which I want to share.

It is another small but learning-enhancing activity to recap learnings from the class. This is especially useful for class with lots of new concepts. Divide the learners into small groups of 4-5 each. Ask them to come up with 26 phrases starting from A to Z. And the 26 phrases have to be about the concepts learnt from the class. Why is this activity good?

• It can be made as a competition among small groups. People are excited by competition;
• Everyone in the small groups can participate (so long as it is kept within 4-5 people); Read more

Do you like the economists? Not many people do.

At least it is claimed by one of the prominent economists himself – Robert Frank, the economics professor in the B-school in Cornell University. Robert argues that the detestation is largely owing to the bad experience during our first encounter to economics i.e. for most the economics lessons in schools. The chart on the right is what Robert shows as he makes the argument – the typical ‘Economies of Scale’, ‘Average Total Cost’ things…… Most economics teachers teaches the subject in the ‘language’ which the students do not understand. And worse, the latter is forced to learn the subject and take the exam. That leaves people generally bad impression on the subject, although economics can be fun (see how Robert does it below). Read more

Audience can get bored when you talk for some time. And this happens earlier than you think (or wish). It is around 18 minutes. Granville mentioned that this time limit was discovered in a US Navy study in the 1970s. Their objective at that time was to best use the time of instructors and students through the Navy’s education system. Interestingly, they found out that the attention span is quite short – just 18 minutes. Read more

My another learning from “The Articulate Executive – Learn to Look, Act, and Sound Like a Leader” by Granville Toogood. - it is about Adolf Hitler, who is the founder and leader of the Nazi Party, also a major figure in the modern history. Granville wrote about Hitler’s first speech to the German Bundestag in 1933: Read more

With the 7 days of holiday in the Spring Festival, I can now have more time to work on my blog. One thing is about the books I recommended – the list on the right side of your screen. I want to share with you my thoughts on these great readings!!  Let me first start with “The Articulate Executive – Learn to Look, Act, and Sound Like a Leader” by Granville Toogood. Read more

Today is the first day of the Year of Rat. (Yes, it is your year if you were born on 1996, 1974, 1962…) It is also the start of the Spring Festival – the most important festival in the Chinese communities. It is now the 3^rd year which I had my Spring Festival in Mainland China since I moved from Hong Kong. I observe quite a lot of interesting aspects of how people in Mainland China people spend their Spring Festival. When I spent my first New Year eve in Mainland China, I was amused by how popular the CCTV Spring Festival Gala is here. Read more

Shanghai continued to snow very heavily. In fact, the snow on the night of 2 Feb was said to be the heaviest in the last 50 years!! See the photo on the left – the view from the office to the parking lot nearby. I took it before the training started on 3 Feb. When I got out of my car, I was surprised to find myself stepping on the thick snow. It was over 10cm!! Abnormal weather it is!!

One implication of bad weather to your training class is that some learners will arrive late. The million-dollar question in training – how to deal with the late-comers!! I faced it on the TTT course last Saturaday, the day after the heaviest snow in the last 50 years. And more interestingly, I got to talk about managing late-comers in the class as this is a TTT course. So, I got to walk the talk.

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