www.ask-nottell.com

If you happen my blog here, please just click here to switch to my new home.

Please click the following

Because of technical issue with Blogger.com in China, I switch to Typepad.

To continue reading, please click on http://learningfacilitation.typepad.com/. See you there!!

ASTD – ‘Can a trainer’s job be just delivery in the classroom?’

In a session of ‘Top 10 questions which trainers ask’, I asked Bob Pike who is a well known figure in the corporate training field a question – ‘How do trainers get good feedback on his / her effectiveness in the classroom?’ I asked this in the context that the happy sheet is often just a ritual at the end of the class – participants frequently do not care to put down their true thoughts for all sort of reasons. They are rushing to leave. Or they try to be nice…..especially in Asia.

Bob’s immediate response struck me ‘Trainers should be evaluated by the underlying value which the training intervention brought to the company, but not just their effectiveness in the class.’ I know that there is argument like this i.e. we should go for level 4 instead of level 1 or 2 evaluation, but I just do not expect he would answer my question with this…. Perhaps it is because I have been focusing myself in the classroom effectiveness since I joined the training field. It made think whether I have had the wrong focus at all.

I do not have a clear answer yet, but it surely makes me think. Whilst I do not have a final conclusion myself

• The sponsors or the employers pay for the intervention. It makes sense to evaluate the whole spending by looking at how much value e.g. increase in revenue, cut down in staff turnover brought by the intervention;
• It is however often difficult or costly (in terms of time and money) to measure level 4. For example, it takes time for the change to show, and control groups have to be arranged;
• If the course is paid by the participants e.g. a presentation training, it makes sense to just look at level 2 or 3 evaluation.

Perhaps I can have a better answer myself by looking into more Kirkpatrick’s thoughts on evaluation.

Anyway, re classroom effectiveness, Bob did give a good suggestion afterward and he modeled it as well. He is great. He promised to send us some bonus material if we send him an email after the session containing one paragraph about one key learning from that session. This is a good idea since it

• Extends learning beyond the classroom – enhance retention
• Checks for yourself your effectiveness
• Shows that you care

Good stuff!!

ASTD - Insights and Learning

I am now in the Chicago airport waiting for my connecting flight back to Shanghai. Finally, there is time for me to reflect.

Contrary to my original plan, I did not write my blog during the conference since I was so absorbed into the conference. It started early (6:30am on Wednesday!!) and sessions run back-to-back. In addition, there were so many people which I can talk to – heard that there were over 9,000 participants. Together with my jet-lag, I just did not do anything else.

Let me now take this blog to reflect on some insights and learning from the conference.

ASTD Conference in Atlanta

I will have the chance to go to the ASTD 2007 International Conference and Exposition this week in Atlanta. I very much look forward to experiencing it and sharing with what I see and hear!!

“What would happen in Taiwan?” – Different organizational culture

This was the question wandering in my head before my trip this week in Hsinchu, Taiwan. The background is that the organization I am working in acquired a local bank in Taiwan, and I went there to deliver a sales class. Before the trip, I felt both concerned yet excited. Concerned because:

• The participants are different from what I usually have. Culture in a local bank and an international bank can be very different. From my pre-course research with other trainers who delivered there, the comment is not very positive – conservative, skeptical, always on phone…. and needing lot of breaks to smoke!!

• The participants are not that well-versed in English, but the training material is in English;

• My class is the first non-technical training to them. In local bank, most trainings are technical one. In other words, non-technical ones are something they are not used to;

On the other hand, I was excited in the sense that I know I am helping them to make a big leap from selling in the local bank mentality to consultative selling….. It would be amazing if I can inspire at least a few to do it!!

With the above in mind, I have done a lot to prepare – talking to other global trainers who have been here, translating some essential content into Chinese, thinking of ways to make the content easier to be understood given their English level and lack of experience with foreign bank approach….. and try to sleep well the night before….

To my great delight, the course went well – much better than I expect!! The group even asked for ‘participation’ themselves when we set the group rule, and most of them were really risk-taking in asking questions or expressing their views during the class. And more importantly, I can feel that some souls were inspired. I am happy!!

Looking back, my learning is that:

• Most people come to the class with good intention to learn, and we as the trainers should believe in that;

• Preparation is everything. If your group is likely to be quiet, prepare ways to make the class participation easier for them e.g. having a mechanism where questions can be written on a post-in rather than asked on spot, having variety in delivery to keep the energy high, lightening up the atmosphere at the very start with music, ice-breakers and good content (how the participants feel in the first break is very important to determine their view for the rest of the class)… and most importantly, making yourself approachable – no one like to talk to a bossy trainer!!

• As always, never settle for sub-standard training facility – in this case, I believe that the better-than-normal venue in a good hotel helped. Firstly it gave the impression to the participants that this is a good training. People need to feel important themselves. More importantly, the venue does allow me to focus on the delivery rather than running around to find the break-out area!!!

”How to be a happy trainer?”

My simple answer is ‘Deliver something which you truly believe in.’ And this was exactly my reflection for the SPIN class which I delivered in Beijing last week. The class was a SPIN selling class and it was the 3^rd time which I ran it. With the experience of the previous 2 classes and late night preparation for this one, I did find myself mastering much more this skills. More importantly, I am more convinced that this is a concrete piece of skill which really works. And I know that it works because it did work when I delivered my class using SPIN methodology. Things like come together – as I immersed myself more and more in SPIN by reading more and thinking for more examples in class preparation, I used it for class delivery as well. Whenever I want to pass a message to the floor, I ask instead of tell. And I let them feel the ‘pain’ first before guide them to feel the ‘benefit’!!

Like selling, class delivery is a kind of persuasion – in short, you are persuading the others to ‘buy-in’ your ideas.

I used it, I know it works and thus I believe it. And I feel good to try to influence the others to use something I believe. It is engaging to myself. I enjoy the passion inside myself to try think of different ways to influence them!!

Love to do more!!

What is the focus - powerpoint, me (presenter) or them (participants)?

I always remind my presentation class participants that you should avoid letting the screen / powerpoint to be the focus of your presentation. Quite a lot of presenters commit this mistake - light dim, presenter sitting down, and then slides after slides after.... Instead, the presenters should take charge - stand up, project your energy, 'blacken' the screen when you speak, use powerpoint only to aid but not replace your message!! After all, human being rather than the mircosoft powerpoint can connect better to human being. And after all, if the latter can do better, we do not need to be physically organise a presentation!! Just send out the powerpoint file + voice tape.

However, if we include participants in the comparsion, the focus should shift further to them rather than the presenter!! Bearing this in mind will guide you to do a even better presentation. For example, you will 'cut' your message into managable size so that the participants can 'digest'. You will avoid long lecture, and instead you will introduce different delivery method.

Learning from the tour guide in Chengdu, China

We have spent a weekend in Chengdu, China last week for holiday. Whilst I once travelled there in 1993, there is almost no place I can recognize now. Well, partly bad memory, partly lot of development in this city.

Chengdu is an old city with lots of historical attractions. I am most impressive by the Dujiangyan Irrigation System 都江堰水利工程. It is simply amazing to imagine that someone built the system over 2,000 years ago, and the system has been working well to protect lives in Chengdu for so long!!! (See the photo on the left.)

Back to our blog topic - let me share with you all a piece of learning from the guide of the local one-day tour we joined there. She is called Little Li, an energetic and cheerful girl. On our way to the destination from Chengdu downtown, Little Li explained to us the tour logistics arrangement. What interested me most is how she introduced the 'ground rule' of the tour. The 'ground rule' in this setting is very much like what we have in training or facilitation environment - a commonly-agreed set of behaviours / non-behaviours.

Little Li said,'In the coming destination, if you smoke (which is very common in China!!), you will be fined for RMB100 by the tourist authority, or you have to wait on the spot until you find someone else smokes!! (She got some laugh.) We do not want people to smoke in our tour bus as well especially since it is air-conditioned. So, we will also impose fine if someone smokes in the bus. I will not keep the fine myself. Instead, we will all share it by buying extra dishes during lunch with the fine.'

Once I heard it, I found very familar - it is like our attempt to stop participants from using mobile phone in the class!! In addition, I was thinking to myself whether it is a good way to set the 'ground rule'. Perhaps somewhat different.

What I would say, 'In the coming destination, if you smoke, you will be fined for RMB100 by the tourist authority, or you have to wait on the spot until you find someone else smokes!! (To get some laugh) By the way, who do not smoke in our bus? Please kindly raise your hand if you do not smoke. (To create the group atmosphere that someone do not want the smoke) OK, I saw a few hands there. Perhaps we should have our rule here. Any suggestion what the person should do if he / she smokes in the bus? (Keep silence hopefully to get some participation though not very likely...) (If no) May I suggest.... (a consequence)?'

Why such change? I am always hesitated to use fine as the consequence of breaching the ground rule. Money could be a touchy subject. It would be quite odd if someone refuses to pay. You will also be in trouble if someone is willing to pay, but in the sense of buying the mis-behaviour e.g. saying 'OK, how much does it cost? RMB100 for each time I smoke, right? Here is RMB500 and I will keep on smoking....'.

Instead, I prefer to first use group pressure as the motivation - showing that somone do not want the mis-behaviour e.g. raising hand or inducing some discussion against the undesirable behaviour. Then, introduce a consequence (a non-monetary one) e.g. saying 'those who smoke in the bus will have to come out to do a performance for all of us, to our satisfaction!!' The fear of coming out in front of crowd can well be a consequence!!

"Please... don't do these" - more

I attended a briefing for new-joiners by the internal HR profession. The briefing is to both to give information and welcome them into the company. In one module, she introduced the company’s compensation and reward arrangement, and somehow she started by asking the audience, ‘Who is satisfied with your current reward package?’. Not surprisingly, the only response from the floor is silence….. and confused faces.

Whilst it is a good idea to use question to arouse interaction, the question itself is obviously bad. Let’s think in more details why:

Non-answerable – well, no one will say in front of the crowd to the HR people that he / she is not or is satisfied with the pay when he / she just joins the organization. The question just cannot arouse interaction;

Undesirable response – The HR profession definitely does not want to have someone answering ‘I am not happy with my pay’, which is possible response (if any response). Not only it is difficult to handle such a response, but also this will just ruin the party.

Creditability dropped – Sophisticated audience will see that this is a bad question. The HR profession’s creditability just dived right after asking this. (She did encounter challenging questions on other areas afterward)

Though it seems quite obvious that questions like this are very counter-productive to the effectiveness in communication, you will see speakers committing such mistakes from time to time. Sometimes, inappropriate words just come out of their months out of their plans. Why? I wonder say:

Preparation – Did you make the effort in advance to know the participants, the objective of the event, or even talk to those who have presented before?

Thinking on your foot – it is about sensing the atmosphere, event themes, and then saying sensible things. Experience counts here. Some just do it worse than the others.

I had a lot of sympathy towards this HR profession, and I tried to help by asking questions who are easy to answer in that session. I am sure that as she does more of this, she will get better.

"Please... don't do these"

I facilitated a program last month which consisted of sessions delivered by various speakers. Wearing the hat of a trainer, especially as a presentation trainer, there were a few moments which I almost could not help to intervene. Let me share these with you so that we can avoid them in the future:

Comparing the participants 'down' - One speaker started his session by asking a few questions. Whilst the questions were not 'easily-answerable' questions (I shall discuss more in the future posts on the topic of 'easily-answerable' questions), the participants were not very responsive - there were moments of silence. The speaker then made some unnecessarily-damaging comment along the line 'You guys in Shanghai are quiet. I were in Shenzhen last week. Your colleagues in Shenzhen were much more active." Together with his tone, it was obvious that he was comparing the participants down as compared to their counterparts in the south!! Big No-No!! No one likes to be lectured on 'what I did wrong', especially when there was no precise right or wrong in that case - 'what is wrong if I do not speak up' . In particular, you do not want lecture them especially since you want their cooperation in your presentation!!

Act like their bosses - There was another speaker who just shouted, pointed her finger and ordered the participants to answer questions. Well, this is another to-do if you want to shut people down. Arguably, you can do it if you are really... the boss.... but still... I consider it undesirable. My philosophy is that you should consider all presentation to be a sales presentation. In other words, you have to win people over, no matter what your position are. Well, your (senior) position can win over the participants' bodies (in being there), but not their heart to really absorb and carry out the messages you try to get across!!

Interaction - "Why need so?"

Interacting with the participants is essential to make your communication essential - no matter whether the communication take places in the training, facilitation or presentation setting. In short, interaction is important since:

Confidence gaining - One way to alleviate your nerviousness is to interact with the participants in the beginning. Most presenters become nervous before the event starts because he / she 'thinks' too much about the participants. Questions coming to mind include ' Will they ask difficult questions?', 'Will they be bored?', 'Will they not pay attention to my delivery?', etc. Interacting with them, experiencing them as human being, feeling that they are OK people helps a great deal to gain confidence!!

WIIFM clarifying - 'What Is It for Me?'. Preparation before the event is the major way to answer WIIFM for you. Yet, there is always something unexpected when the event really takes place e.g. participants turning out not to be what was described by the organiser. Therefore, on-site interaction like asking question will gather information e.g. participants' area of interest for you. Equally importantly, it shows to the participants that you care what is important to them!!

Attention retaining - One of the major challenges to you is that adult has only limited attention span - around 20 minutes as indicated by some study. It is not new to you (and me!!) to witness someone playing his / her mobile phone, blackberry, etc under the table!! Keep them involved in action is the best way to keep them 'awake'!!

I shall spend quite a number of more entries to discuss about interaction.

互动 - ‘为什麽需要它？‘

无论你所处的场合是training, facilitation或presentation，与台下
参与者的互动也是有效沟通的重要技巧。 简单来说，互动是重要的原因包括以下：

增加信心 - 在你的环节开始的时候与台下互动是其中一种减低紧张的方法。大部分的演讲者在开始前也会因为考虑太多关于台下参与者的问题而紧张。例如，‘他们会问难以回答的问题吗？’，‘他们会觉得闷吗？’，‘他们会留意我的演讲吗？’。 与台下对话，感觉他们，让自己知道他们是OK的，这会大大增大你的信心！

弄清楚WIIFM - 'What Is It for Me?'或‘关我啥事’（对，是必较口语化，但传神！）。 事前的准备是回答WIIFM最主要的做法。但是，总会有些事情是你不能预计的，例如，真正出席的
参与者跟会前提供给你的资料不相符。 所以，当场的互动如提问能让你吸取有用的信息，例如，参与者关心的题目。 同样重要的是，这种互动会让参与者觉得你是关心对他们重要的事情！

保持注意力 - 作为演讲者，其中一个主要挑战是成人的注意力只能维持很短的时间 - 例：美国海军曾在1970年代研究人类只能连续注意18分钟。参与者在桌下把玩他们的手机，blackberry对我们已不是什麽新鲜的事情。保持他们‘清醒’最好的方法就是让他们参与！

我将花多个环节讨论‘互动’。

One necessary take-away for the participants

As a trainer, you always want the participants to have take-aways by the time they leave the training room. (And as a great trainer, you will want these take-aways can change the participants' behaviour as well!!) What is the common take-away which you want the participants to have no matter what training course it is?

My answer is to let the participants feel good about themselves on the training topic. For example, if it is a presentation training, let the participants feel that they have the potential to be a good presentation. In fact, lack of belief on themselves is a major reason why people fail to present well. If it is a SPIN training, let them feel that they could exert good influence on the others.

How can it be done? Most importantly, it is through the atmosphere you create in the class, as well as the feedback you and the fellow participants give. Firstly, you will create a safe, low-risk environment. That is where FUN comes into place. Atmosphere setting can well be a separate training topic by itself. With such environment, you encourage the participants to attempt some small steps. Then, give them motivational feedback - catch them what they have done right. Not that you only tell the good news and hide the bad ones. But you will focus on the desirable behaviours, and even better let them tell you what they have done right (this helps to reinforce their memory). In short, tell them that it is possible!!

Why 'feeling good' is important? It is all about behaviour change. It is like those alcohol rehabilitation group, where the lead would like the group to feel good before the group ends. In short, it is easier for people to change their behaviour if they feel good about it. As we learnt in psychology, positive reinforcement works better than negative ones!!

"What can a presentation class do for the participant?"

How would you answer the above question? Probably the answers will include 'How to use powerpoint?', 'How to manage your body language?'..... If I were to answer this question before this week, I would give the above answers. Essentially, a presentation class is to equip the participants with effective presentation skills. It seems to make perfect sense.

My answer is not the same now. I attend a presentation class these 2 days delivered by Bentley Williams. Whilst the above-mentioned presentation skills are definitely parts of the course purposes, there is an interesting purpose which I have not focused on above - the course is to give confidence to the participant. In short, show them that they can!! In other words, you will have discussion, activities, .... etc in order to help them discover their strength.

I feel quite ashamed that I did not focus on this purpose before in my basic presentation class, because it should be obvious. Why obvious? Here is the logic. What will be a successful presentation class? Simple - the participants deliver better presentation after the class. Then, the question is what stop them from delivering better presentation. For the beginner, the lack of confidence is definitely an obstacle.

How could I miss it?

Apart from feeling ashamed, I find such discovery very inspiring. Not just that I can improve my course in the future, but also that I can use the above logic to review my other class. I should ask myself the question - what is the major factor which stop participants from the desirable behaviour? Instead of the traditional wisdom that a soft skills course should equip the participants with skills, it can be equipe them with a belief like confidence!!

"Will it be the same without the presenter?"

I sat in an external training today. One of my motivation was to learn from more trainers on delivery skills. Not exactly impressive. One, she was not familiar with the content - which is most detrimental to the delivery. No matter it is for a general presentation or trainer, the message will get across only if the speaker has reasonably good creditability. It is human nature - people trust the speaker first, before they believe in the content. Well, if you do not know the content, it is the easiest way to lose you creditability. Not knowing the content shows when you always have to refer to note or even worse the slides, and more obviously when you are not able to answer straightforward questions. Knowing the content is not magic like having charisma. If you are serious about the delivery, you will prepare and you will know the content. So, in some sense, it is kind of a dis-respect if you do not know the content. How can people trust you then?

Two, which is also about how serious she is - she arrived at the training room at 0830, the exact time when the class was supposed to start. There was no greeting, and worse no proper equipment set up. More exactly, there was no projector, which unfortunately she had to rely on a lot!! Well, like energy level, your participants will not care more about the class than you.

Three, being an external trainer who earn her living by mainly delivering class, her delivery skills is less than satisfactory. Unclear instruction for small group discussion. Tell instead of ask. Poor control of timing. Un-readable slides.

When her session ended before lunch, a question actually came to my mind - 'Would the learning (if any) be the same if without the trainer there?' Unfortunately, my answer is yes (almost yes). She was reading slides. (In fact, it may save more time if she was not there since we all could read more quickly.) She could not answer questions. Frankly, this is sad.

From a learning perspective, we should always ask ourselves this question 'Will it be the same if without me?'..... Am I making a difference?

Presenter vs Trainer vs Facilitator

What is the difference among a Presenter, a Trainer and a Facilitator? Here is my thought:

A Presenter is simply the one who is getting some messages across to the 'other side'. In most of the case, the 'other side' consists of more than 1 person. For example, a sales head in a kick-off meeting to the sales is a presenter;

A Trainer is one form of a presenter. The key feature is that the 'other side' comes to the occasion with preparation to learn. (Well, there are some presentations which the 'other side' is not prepared to learn - sales presentation is an example.) In addition, a trainer is normally more knowledgeable than the 'other side' re that topic of the occasion. For example, those who (especially basic) teach accounting skills are trainers

A Facilitator is not the same as presenter or trainer. Unlike a presenter, he / she does not necessarily have any pre-arranged message to get across. Unlike a trainer, he / she does not necessarily know more than the ‘other side’ (you cannot call them audience cos there could be nothing to hear from the facilitator). Still, most trainers have to do some facilitation in their training. A pure facilitator is more there to induce discussion among the ‘other side’, ask a lot of questions to make people think and help to adhere some ground rules (preferably set by the floor). For example, if you are conducting a team effectiveness workshop, you are facilitator. They knows more than you about themselves, and you are there most to make them to think and glue relationship. There is an interesting saying:

‘A trainer brings the participants from unknown to known. A facilitator brings the participants from known to unknown.'

But is there any similarity in these 3 roles? Yes, and this is an important one. These 3 are very much about communication. It is obviously true for the presenter and trainer. For facilitator, though he / she should not have specific messages to communicate, he / she has to listen very well and ask lot of good questions... again, communication!!

Among all the skills / learnings I have been discussing in this blog, some are only applicable to being a presenter, some for trainer and some for facilitation. For example, a facilitator should ask a lot of questions and use music to control the energy. You cannot readily do so in a sales presentation. Some are however applicable to all. For example, you should always have to give a lot of examples if you want to tell something.

I hope the above difference will help you understand the learnings which I discuss in this blog better.

"少就是多"

我（作为培训师）刚从本周为期2天演示presentation训练中学习到非常宝贵的一课。 在课上，我告诉同学说,其中一个presentation失败的主因是信息超载， 这是常见错误因为主讲人往往是演讲题目的专家， 因此， 当主讲人热情和投入的时候，他/她就会很自然的提供了很多他/她所知道了讯息。

有趣的（也不幸的）是，我发觉我也在犯相同的错误，在课堂上，由于我在过去1年的时间不断吸收了很多的演示presentation技巧，我把不少这些材料加入了在课程里，因为我深深想信这些材料能大大提高演示presentation的效用， 我控制不了自己这样造。 不过,尤其是因为这2天的课程是入门级一类的，我的改动让课程内容变得对同学太多了。 举例来说，对刚认知演示presentation技巧的人来说，告诉他们沉默或停顿的技巧可能太早了，更不用提我提及的其他约30个不同的技巧/伎俩! 此外,由于提高演示presentation技巧是一种行为改变, 同时间改变多项行为是很困难的。 我应该在一个培训中把要他们吸收的技巧/伎俩数目大大减少，顶多在一天内只讨论3-4主要的技巧/伎俩，让他们每人只注意其中一条，然后让他们不断不断的实践！

“Less is More”

I just conducted a 2-day presentation training this week, and I received a very valuable lesson from one participant who is also my fellow trainer. I was telling the participants that messages overloading is major reason for ineffective presentation. And it is common mistake because the presenter is often the subject matter expert (SME). Thus, it is just very natural for the kind and eager SME to deliver a lot of what he / she knows.

My learning is that …. I was committing the exact same mistake in the class. As I have been picking up more and more presentation skills in the last 1 year, I add all these into the delivery. I just could not help it since I found them all to be great addition to achieve an effective presentation. However, especially since this class is the beginner-level presentation class, my course content became too much to them. For example, telling someone who just becomes aware of something called presentation skills about the power of silence is not exactly useful. Not mentioning this is among some 30 different skills / tricks I mentioned!! Furthermore, since doing a better presentation is a behavioral change, it is very difficult to adopt a lot of tricks / skills at one time.

I got to reduce the number of messages in a given training intervention. Looking at it retrospectively, I should at most have 3-4 major learnings a day – make them aware of one and then practice like hell, before moving on to the next one!!

'An Inconvenient Truth' - A Must-Watch

A 100-minute movie about one presentation delivered by a politican on global warming. This description is basically what 'An Inconvenient Truth' is about. Well, such description does not sound very attractive by itself - long presentation, speech by a politican... and it is about global warming.... oh no!! However, if you notice how popular this movie is, you can imagine that there must be something great about this presentation, amid the factual description at the beginning of this paragraph.

Yes, there have been a lot of discussion and attention on this movie, in many aspects. Of course, the main message delivered by the presentation / movie is one - how important it is for us to act now to stop global warming!! On the other hand, it is facinating to have Al Gore to spend so much of his time, effort and will (since not many other politicans or large corporation would love his speech) to deliver this presentation, and thus the above message.

For me, it is also how the presentation was conducted. Other website site like presentationzen.com have staged a lot of discussion and view on this movie. And let me offer mine here. In short, my comment on this presentation - 'It is a 100% must-watchfor those who is serious to learn about presentation skills'. I think it is close to perfect - let me highlight a few points:

Preparation - I always say that preparation is the single most important success factor in presentation. Al Gore is definitely prepared. You can see from the presentation that he knows the content very very well e.g. at a point, his speech is in pace with the automatic count down of years on the chart, and he does not have to look at the chart. In fact, he mentioned in the movie that he has made the presentation almost 1,000 times. (Not that we have to do 1,000 times, but you should be able to get familiarized with your content after say 10 times. Yet, I still see a lot of colleagues in my organisation I am working in failing to comprehend his / her visual aid and content as they deliver their 80%-similar sales pitch the 11-times.)

Visual Aid - The slides are assisting his arguments. But at work, the slides are replacing or even prohibiting colleagues' arguments. Al Gore does it by showing the visual aid at the right time - mostly deliver your verbal arguments first, and then show your aid - not the opposite (which is common among our colleagues). On the other hand, the pictures are of high quality e.g. the earth photos in the beginning and relevant e.g. the balance at Chapter 28. In particular, I love the chart he used at the end to demonstrate how the CO2 emission can be reduced by various actions he suggested. They way he (or his team) designed and used the chart is simply an art - to show the contrast, to get the message across!!! In addition, he uses good variety of visual aid - comics, picture, chart, quote... and almost ZERO word slides!!

Movement / Set Up - The moment Al Gore used the elevating machine for him to point out what the world temperature will become - the message cannot be more clear!!

Opening - With a high-resolution earth picture in the dark room catching everyone's attention, emotionally

Ending - Asking for an action and appealing to the positive i.e. "All of us can make a difference to stop global warming"

I shall discuss in more details of specific presentation learning points from this movie..... stay tuned.

Managing the “mis-behaviour”

I am running a 5-day training workshop this week. I am not only a trainer for a few sessions but also the overall manager for the workshop.

Whilst I am writing now, today is the day 2 of the workshop. The discipline is just less than satisfactory. I have people coming late, absent on day 1, using mobile phone / blackberry, and showing up without enrollment on day 2. I am asking myself why people behave badly – and here are some thoughts

1. Unclear instruction from the trainer e.g. they are simply not clear when they are supposed to come back
2. Inadequate respect to the fellow participants and trainer
3. Need to run the BAU business whilst in class e.g. called by boss or clients
4. Personal reasons
5. Boring class – irrelevant content, lack of interaction

Unsatisfactory class etiquette has always been the major area of concerns for trainers. I have been picking up and creating various ways to render better etiquette, and thus better learning environment for all of us. I think I have done well to tackle point 1 and 5. The most difficult ones are point 2 and 3. For point 4, it is more that you show your understanding and check whether they should leave the class at all.

A personal learning from this workshop on managing etiquette – I was quite upset this morning. Some gave me lousy reasons why they did not show up on day 1. On the other hand, despite reminder on day 1, some did not come to the room on time. And then after today session started, I still found some leisurely smoking outside the room. That really irritated me. I came up to them and asked ‘do you know when the program is supposed to start?’

If I could do it again, I shall have suppressed my emotion and said ‘I need some favour from you guys. I need to tighten up the time flow so that people do not have to stay late, and we could all have a better learning environment. Could you please help to take a lead?’

In short, people will likely follow if you show respect. Or people will do what you request rather what you instruct.

Emotion control is another important learning point. As a trainer, you will someday got irritated by some behaviours. But no matter how wrong they are, you will lose if you show your emotion, cos you are the one representing the atmosphere of the class. Emotion will also make you less able to challenge your own assumption – you will think ‘They do not show up because they do not respect me, or they are always on phone because they do not arrange back-up at work!!’ The reality is .... your participants may really have something urgent to attend e.g. I have one who has his father sent to the hospital during a class. You will surely regret if you got angry and show your emotion as he was always on a call!!!

So, the learning points are:

• Never show your emotion
• Give clear instruction e.g. tell exactly when to come back, show them the clock
• Give them 'consequence' if they violate 'ground rules'
• Don’t be boring (!!!)
• Pick up effective tricks / ways to manage mis-behavior
• Be aware of your assumption on why one mis-behaves

'Why business people speak like idiots'

Another book recommended bythe presentationzen.com. There are a lot of good tips about how to get your message across effectively. On top of presentation, the book is actually more about business communication in general - more specifically about how ineffective business communication has become. Though mistakes mentioned in the book (e.g. use of complicated rather than simple words) are more often committed by native English speakers, the book still issues some relevant warning to non-native speakers. Beyond the book, the authors do continue their effort to 'fight the bull' via their website - fightthebull.com!!

Back to the topic of presentation- I am most impressed by an example mentioned in the book about the consequence of mis-use of Powerpoint - causing the failure of space shuttle Columbia.!! Judging from the Powerpoint slide itself (see the slide on the side) which was shown in a meeting the week before the disaster, the slide writer seemed to consider that the SOFI issue can cause serious damage. Yet, this message was unfortunately 'buried' somehow in the 'word slide'. (You can find the full report here.)

In the organisation which I am working in, 'word slide' is just so common, to the extent that the Powerpoint slide is supposed to contain bullet points. There are a lot of reasons why this is the case. One reason is that 'word slide' is easy to prepare - just type, or even cut and paste. It requires no imagination or creativity. And you can readily use the 'word slide' as the handout.

In short, slide is not properly used a visual aid..... and in fact, it is not the aid. It is the opposite - making communication less effective. It is sad. I personally have sit through countless presentations / product briefings, progress meetings.... where key messages failed to reach a reasonable proportion of the audience. It is a waste of time - enormous amount of time e.g. a simple briefing can easily have some 20 people for an hour. A wastage of half of the duration can be translated into 600 minutes or 10 hours equivalent. Just think of how much work can be accomplished in 10 hours!!! Not only quantity, but also quality - think of the deadly consequence in the Columbia shuttle case because of ineffective communication.

Well, I believe it all depends on whether you want to simply get the job (presentation) done, or really get the message across!!

‘Hello’ + Name + Smile

I initiated and ran a short facilitation skills workshop today. There was a topic ‘What do the participants expect from an outstanding trainer?’ One of my colleagues raised a very interesting point – something not only the outstanding trainer, but also all trainers should have. It is like a must. So, according to him, participants will expect the trainer:

1. To greet them upon arrival

2. To remember their names

3. To smile

Simple but important!! Yet we miss to do it in a lot of occasions, when you are so occupied by the last-minute preparation. I will definitely remember it as the 3 basic golden rules.

Difference between Great and Good facilitators

'Both deliver excellent learning experience, but a great facilitator will know exactly what he / she does well.' This quote is from an experienced facilitator in our organisation.

It is so true. Knowing exactly what you do well help you repeat your success. Ideally, you can do it by having someone observing your facilitation and giving you detailed feedback in form of time log. You will have such luxury sometimes when you are under a TTT process and watched by a master trainer. But such chance is rare. The alternative is to observe your own delivery, whilst you are doing it. What I am doing now is always to have a notebook on a dedicated space which I can easily reach though I am facilitating. I will scribble quickly when I notice something I have done well. It could be a quote, example, link, analogy or the way I explained an activity. Not easy.... but trying...

How does your participant feel?

'How would the workshop be like?' 'The others should all be good facilitators from different parts of the world. Will I look stupid in front of the others?' 'Will the master facilitators ask me to do something difficult?'

Thoughts like the above came to my mind from time to time when I was on the SQ flight to Mumbai to attend the workshop I mentioned in my previous posts. On reflection, I become aware that participants to my class will probably feel the same. They are probably a bit anxious to meet up with some other strangers, especially if they need to 'perform' in the class. They do not want to look stupid in front of the peer, and they will be cautious at least in the beginning. This is especially the case for Asian participants.

Having been a trainer / facilitator for quite some time, I almost forget how I felt when I was a participant myself. I got to keep such awareness. Bearing in mind how a participant feels is important. It helps you to "work with" them better. (No matter whether you are a trainer or facilitator, I do believe that we "work with" them rather than "teach" them.) You will appreciate better the time to warm up, and thus the need to break the ice and ease their anxiety.

Don't lose that feeling!

iPod - a great music-tool at class

I said in my previous post that I personally find music very helpful to enhance learning. I use my iPod nano.

I prefer playing MP3 rather than from CD in class because I can play many different songs with change for another CD. And I prefer iPod rather than other MP3 player or straight from the laptop. I used to play it from my laptop, but the trouble is that I cannot manage the music as I have my slide on!! I can however do so with the iPod. In addition, compared to other MP3 player, I can control my iPod nano very easily, most of time by just one click!! Such feature is absolutely necessary when you are in the class, since there are already so many things for you to attend to.

One additional plus - you can use iPod as a back up (to your laptop) to play your slides. Very simple - just save your slides as JPEG files and transfer to your iPod. Of course, you will need a iPod AV connection kit, which is available in the Apple store. I learnt this from presentationzen.com.

Flipchart... a visual to record group memory

If you asked for my personal choice of an icon to represent Mumbai, I would choose the cab there. Its yellow-black colour is very eye-catching. More than that, I was particularly drawn to the fact that they are all old FIAT!! I believe they were all born a few decades ago!!! Another amazing fact is that their meters are not outside of the car!!

Enough.... back to the topic. Flipchart and marker pens are like icon for facilitators / trainers. One of its uses is to visualise a group's ideas. With this purpose in mind, I learnt something new from the workshop last week how to do better.

Machine-gun inputs - What if there are lots of ideas coming from different people. You try to think in order to summarise with key bullet points, but there are just too many. A easy solution is to first take down whatever is said. After all inputs are "shot" out, summarise them on another flipchart. (Of course, you need more than one flipchart stand for that.)

Mumbling input - What if you try to record idea from someone who mumble? Lot of ideas (or no main idea), no structure..... in what he / she said. They are the kind of person who is developing his / her only whist he / she is speaking. A rather natural reaction is to put your own words for him / her on the flipchart, hopefully to summarise. A better way is to ask 'thanks for your input, could you please help by giving 3 words to put on the flipchart?' Well, if the participant cannot even handle this, just suggest a few words yourself (try your best) and say 'can I summarise your input by XXX?'

There are some other things to watch out for, which I learnt in the past:

No yellow / orange / green marker pen - They just cannot see it!!

Don't settle for sub-standard marker pens- I always bring mine, even if I travel to another city.

BIG font - People are used to write for themselves to see, but it is not enough if you are a facilitator - you need to write for the others to see. If you are not sure, do check it by standing at the back of the room before the class starts.

Write it slooooowly - You will easily feel that time passes too slowly when you are writing on the flipchart in front of the participants. You may even find yourself scribble. Practise, practise and practise to write more slowly.

Learning in Mumbai

I am attending a Trainer training in Mumbai these few. I am extremely glad that I can attend this. (I would hate myself to death if I could not go because of the visa issue which arised at last minute.) The training offers me learning which I long want to have, and which I find hardly to get. These include in-depth discussion of basic tools in facilitation e.g. ice-breakers, ground rule. I not only can learn from the others' experience and thought, but also allow myself to reflect on what I have been doing - good or bad. Most importantly, the 2 master facilitators - Mark and Sarah - are great!! They live what they deliver!! My role model!!

There are so many about my learning from this event which I want to share. And I will do it in the coming few posts. A quick pre-view - No surprise!! one of my major learning is preparation. And in particular, an good analogy of preparation. Like the iceberg, what the participants observe about you is just the tip of the iceberg, and there are a lot of preparation which they do not see i.e. underneath the water. As what the master facilitators shared, you will need over 2 days to prepare for 1-day program!!

More (learning) to come!!

How rigid should the course design be?

Since start, I have facilitated over 10 different courses. Most of the course design were developed by the others. Some course are relatively more rigidly designed e.g. SPIN – all activities are written in details in the facilitation guide, which can specify which slide to show when you go through a certain point. In addition, the TTT process is very thorough. It takes a few days and goes through almost each activity. On the other hand, there are course designs which are very flexible. TTT process is brief and the instructor guide is rather rough indeed e.g. only 1 day for a 3-day program. Time is just enough to walk through the activities, but not available at all to go through the content.

I like the former better. I believe that it is important for the participants to receive consistent messages for one single course despite using different trainers. Of course, it takes more time to develop such a course. In particular, it takes time to write a good instructor guide. It not only has to be easy to understand, but also easy to follow. It would be a challenge for the trainer to refer to the guide, slides and may be his-own note on spot in the class!! And more importantly, such courses have to stay long enough e.g. 3 years in order to be fine-tuned (and there should be course design resources to fine-tune courses). I would say this is probably the reason why SPIN is so thoroughly designed.

"Sorry, I don't quite understand what you want us to do"

This picture was taken during the dessert safarai trip in Dubai last November. The trip turned out to be much more exciting (and tough!!) than I expected. Before the trip, I was expecting those kind of gentle safarai where you 'cruise' within a jungle and see some animals. But it was actually like sitting in a driving test for the Toyota Land Cruiser 4x4!! Well, despite all the 'bumpy' moments, the trip was nice - enjoying the sunset in the middle of the dessert was definitely a new experience to me!!

So much about the safarai - let me share with you some of my facilitation learnings in Dubai. I was in Dubai to deliver a SPIN class. I looked forward very much to this trip since it was the first I deliver a class outside Asia. And it did turn out to be an excellent learning experience for myself (and hopefully for the participants as well!) Let me tell you more.

There are a lot of activities in SPIN class (something which I like the class a lot), and of course I need to give lot of instructions. To my surprise, I received lot of puzzled faces and questions asking for clarification - much more than I expected. Whilst it was partly owing to the different accents, it was also partly because of clarity of my instruction.

I have been thinking that I was clear in telling. In the past, I have received various feedbacks that relative to the others I am structured, slow and sensitive enough to pass clear message. In the training context, for example, I believed that my instructions for class activities were clear enough. But I realised that I should do it better. The Dubai experience told me that I was sometimes too quick and brief in giving my instructions. I believe I did not realise such area for improvement before because my participants in Asia were more reserved in 'challenging' me.

Working under confusing instructions is frustrating. Remember the last time when you were a participant e.g. when the instructor said 'We will now have a small group activity. Now form yourself into small groups with 3 people each.' People then were left with silence. You will feel embarassed cos if you choose someone, you do not know whether they like it or not. And more importantly, it means you abandon someone else, especially those originially sitting next to you. Normally, what happened at the end was that the small groups composed those sitting next to each other.

Now, I always tell myself the following when I give instruction:

Specific - You really have to. Take the previous example, instead of forming the groups themselves, you better do a '1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3...' or 'month of birth' kind of team allocation. In addition, you will tell each group where they will conduct their small group activities e.g. the small table over there!!

Another example - You want them to learn from their previous experience with good and bad presenters around them. Some instructors will say 'Now, in your group, share with each other your experience with good and bad presenters'. A better instruction would be 'Now, in your group, each of you will tell the others one good presenter and one bad presenter you have met. After telling the others about the occasion, tell also the others what the presenters have done or not done which make him / her a good / bad presenter'

Show them the sample deliverables - Even for simple exercise. Say, for the presentation exercise above, assuming that you want them to present group learning after small group discussion. Some instructors will say as well '.... after your sharing in the group, I will ask you to present with the bigger group.' For a better instruction, you will draw on a flipchart the sample output you expected e.g. dividing the flipchart into 2 columns, for good and bad behavior respectively, and you will write an example under 'good behavior' e.g. eye contact. You will also say 'this flipchart will be what you come up with at the end of your group discussion so that you can use as visual aid to present your sharing to the bigger group.' And you will remind by saying 'I however do not expect a laundry list of DO and DONT. Please thus do first tell the others your real experience, and then add on the flipchart about what the presenter has done / not done'.

Written instruction - Always help even for simple activities. For example, you run an energizer asking them to draw 4 consecutive straight lines to join 9 dots. Do write on the flipchart '4 consecutive straight lines', cos there is always someone who did not listen to you as they are thinking about something else... their work, their kids, their dinner... or as they are 'recovering 'from lunch!!

Slowwwww - It also means you need to repeat it. If you feel that the participants are not listening enough, you should even ask someone to repeat your instruction!!! Telling slowing is especially when you are delivering outside your own countries - not everyone can follow your accent easily!!

So, thanks to the participants in Dubai which told me more about my instruction-giving capability. (And I did love the participants - very participative, lovely and friendly. I was a bit worried about outspoken participants in the beginning but it did turn to be a great experience. I even slightly thought of working there!!!). And my another learning is that facilitating in other countries will help you to sharpen your facilitation skills!!! It is like sports - you will know more about your strength and weakness as you play with different players!!

"What I hear, I forget. What I see, I remember. What I do, I understand"

I conducted an one-day influencing skills course last week. The course is new to me and it contains a kind of communication model which is new to me as well. Before (and even during!!) the course, I have been thinking hard the best way for the participants to 'absorb' the model. I hate those training, or presentation, which you will forget 100% shortly after you attend it. It is a waste of time to the facilitator, participants and the company.

Well, the model is not complicated (the people-type kind of model). It will take less than 30 mins if you choose just to tell. In the end, what I did include:

- Telling;
- Showing Visual - PPT;
- Developing together - using a white board to develop the model with them line by line, word by word. And keeping the white board as anchor for following discussion;
- Examples - especially on people around the participants. What can be more interesting to find out how to influence your boss better!! (well... in fact.. the answer should be their spouses!!... but these are not common figure);
- Personal stories - people just like to hear stories, especially the real one. It also got me closer to them as well;
- Asking questions - instead of telling them the different perspectives of the model e.g. how each style makes decision, I asked them to guess and tell the big group.

What was the most interesting is however an activity which I came up with on that day (I got to adopt something other than the original design to that particular group of participants). Well, it is not something new - in fact, I have done similar activity in another course. The important point is that this one day experience in struggling for the best delivery method helped realise the power of DOING.

Here is what I asked them to do - assign them into their own styles, assign a task, sell things to another style group, and rate the performance for each other at the end. In short, I learn the followings via facilitating this activity about the power of DOING:

- Compel to think and review the learning - No one escapes. In fact, they will not choose to escape, assuming that you make it fun for them to DO the underlying task;
- Contrast for them to observe - Whilst one group was selling, the others benefited from it as watching the role play. Of course, the facilitator got to ask the right questions (yes, not telling) to extract the learning points for them;
- Fun - I always believe that fun is the integral part of learning. Not only for child, but also for adult.. in fact, I wonder fun is even more important for adult to learn;

So..... "What I hear, I forget. What I see, I remember. What I do, I understand"

Inspiring me to blog...

Garr Reynolds' presentationzen.com is the blog which inspired me to start mine. This is an exceptionally wonderful resource to learn presentation, including design, preparation, delivery, etc. I am happy to recommend you to stay in touch with it.

Music as the powerful energizer

Yes, the title above sounds obvious. But whether you will really use it or whether you can use it well in the learning environment is another thing. Here is my experience. I used music only a few months after I heard people saying that it is useful for learning. What stopped me are things like hesitation of whether the class will then look cheap, whether participants will be distracted at the end... etc. But today, after using it for a few months, I sincerely believe that it is very useful!!!

Music at the class start makes participants settle in the class more comfortably. Music (e.g. Disco / Hip Hop) charges participants with energy to conduct exercises, and keeps them awake especially after lunch. Music (e.g. soft ones) makes helps participants calm down after activities, and reflect themselves what they learnt from the activities. In addition, music can condition people, and one most useful application is to bring them back on time during break (assuming that they can hear the music in their break area). In particular, music will work well for you if you being to the aural learning style - a piece of music associated with your learning can trigger you to recall the learning more easily.

After all, participants enjoy themselves better with music, simply because people love music in general!!! I am using music all the time in my class. Well, apart from the above, music amuses me during the class as well!!

Most music work, and of course different types of music work better for different purpose. Among all the music I am using, the pieces in the "Tune for Trainers" CD (see the picture) are the best!! You can readily purchase it from Trainer's Warehouse - a resourceful place to get your training gadget!! In the CD, you will find tailor-made music for class start, lunch, break, etc. In addition, there are a few 1-min long music which is great for you to mark the time during activities.

Enjoy!!

From the 'Energy Level' perspective

One of your jobs in a presentation or training environment is to energize your participants. Or I should say it is necessary to have a group of energized participants in order to put your message across in a presentation or class. You can always imagine that there is a devise in the room which can detect and show the ‘energy level’ in the room, like what the thermometer does to the room temperature. If the ‘energy level ‘ is low, the learning is slow (or even does not exist). Remember all the boring wordy product briefing!!

Two incidents these 2 days which make me think:

I sat in some of ex-participant’s presentation and class these 2 days. Having been a trainer for a while, I can feel very strongly the ‘low energy’ at the start – the silence, the dull face, the lack of response to the speakers’ questions. People (at least I do) felt odd, and the speakers are not sure whether the participants are getting the points. The question is to raise the ‘energy level’. Well, in short, this is the reason why ice-breakers exist. However, what should we do if the session is very brief e.g. 1 hour like the system briefing today? A thought we had in the post-briefing discussion is that we should have some easy-to-participate activities in the beginning. Asking question is one. Even better, we can ask some yes-and-no questions so that people can just respond by raising their hands, or even better by standing up (‘energy level’ always up when people stand up!!!). In addition, some visual aids will help e.g. circulating the fake bank-note if the topic is about bank fraud.

The another occasion is a conference call today. It was like the one I mentioned last time – global one, largely one-way, lot of people. However, the call facilitator was great. His voice is of ‘high energy’ (the golden rule – the participants will NEVER have a higher energy level than the presenter / facilitator / speaker!!!). More importantly, I believe he designed the call from the ‘energy level’ perspective!! Before each speakers started, he introduced each by telling what the speaker’s Chinese Zodiac animal symbols are!! It is quick, it is about the coming Chinese New Year. And people get excited – how old he / she is, whether he / she has the same symbols as mine….. Great stuff!!

What are the learning points? Think from the ‘energy level’ perspective when you plan, and prepare accordingly!! (yes…. It all relates back to preparation!!! Surprise!!)

How prepared are you in using stories in presentation? And do you have the gut?

I attended a big conference call this week. Well, you know how boring conference call can be, especially those with over 10 people and wide spectrum of topics (Why is big conference call boring? I think it goes back to the essence of a good communication i.e. you need interaction. You simply do not have enough air time for all to speak, which is the only interaction medium in a conference call.)

Having said that, there was a UK lady in the call who gave an impressive briefing (almost a speech since it was so polished). She started with a story about her son, and then related it to her topics, and at last summarized with the same story. More importantly, she impressed me by finishing her entire briefing in 20 minutes, exactly the duration indicated in the agenda.

Let’s not think about what (whether too much) preparation she made, but focus on the effect. Her performance impressed me a lot, and I believe it also impressed to most (for those who was listening) in the call. In the future, I will associate her name with ‘preparedness’, ‘articulate’, ‘good communication’. A very effective way to perform and gain reputation in a community, which help gather collaboration and help our work)!!

I then think of her preparation (always the key in any form of presentation). She probably has scripted her speech, well, at least in bullet points. And she must have rehearsed as well in order to have such a good control in time. In addition, she really has spent time selected her stories and practiced telling it. Adding altogether, I guess it may take at least 30 minutes. Well, it may not worth the while for everyonel. But it is definitely worth us to keep it as an option – when you have to build reputation, or when the audience is very important.

And a question to me (or to you as well) – why haven’t I done it at all before?

Another thought out of this call is the gut in telling a story in such a high level conference call. Hey, everyone is so serious talking about business, with all those high-sounding jargons e.g. strength-based, retention, value-added, matrix…. Do you dare to tell a story relating to your son? I guess this all goes back to how much you believe the power of story, and how much you are willing to take risk. I think for me the latter question relates to me more. I do believe story help to draw attention and retain memory. And if I take some risk, give it a try though others may think otherwise, get used to it, it will be fine. Yes, it is the risk-averse attitude which is the obstacle.

As I shared with the others in the class, one can only acquire a skill if he / she takes the risk to use it. Open your mind, and do what you believe. Also, as Steve Job said, ‘Stay foolish, stay hungry!!’

Using the Speaking Note

The offsite went alright. The mat activity fitted well with the objective of the offsite, and the timing was good. More importantly, I do learnt something new (or I should say, I learnt an ‘area of improvement’ for myself!!) – about the use of speaking note.

I prepared speaking notes of palm-size, big font, bullet-points speaking notes. Well, very much the ‘correct’ design of speaking notes as what most will believe. However, the notes did not help much at the end. Why? Because I did not read it at all on the spot!!!

So many things were happening during that 45 mins, and thus I did not read the notes at all. What was the consequence? I missed to mention that there will be prize for the game, ask those who have played the game to come up, and more importantly invite the bosses for observation comment!! Yeah, not detrimental… but I wished I did not miss and could do it better….

My learning is that:

· I got to prepare more. More time to rehearse so that I can memorize the key points naturally, despite the chaos in the ‘real’ environment;

· I got to practice to use note. I got to conquer the “odd feeling” in taking time to read the notes. I should try to make note for the next class, and use it (even though I may not actually need it)

(The mountain on the picture is the 玉龙雪山. It was taken from a window in the hotel. Sadly, the offsite was so packed that I spent 98% of my time in the hotel.

Rehearsing for the LiJiang 丽江 off-site meeting

The offsite meeting next Mon and Tue will be the first occasion when I facilitate large scale team building activities. I have been asking around to gather thoughts and suggestions on which activities would be more applicable for the occasion – not easy. To prepare better, I had my colleagues done a trial run in the office today.

Whilst I thought I already had a pretty good idea of how to run the activities, I was quite surprised to realize all the ‘holes’ when I trial-ran today. My learning is:

· Always rehearse (always true) – especially the important occasion;

· During the de-brief, everyone will have the tendency to go too fast. I should leave longer “pause” to push for thinking, summarize the points raised by the others and asking more prompting questions. (These sound natural but when you have to do it on the foot…..you are just so wary of dead air.)

· Help them to imagine ‘back’ the real work. Give them a specific situation e.g. “imagine what will happen in the office on Wed – the 300 red emails on your laptop, the outstanding BCAs for you to read and support, the ……”

Good luck to me in Li-Jiang!!