Dialectics of Training - From People to Kids

What's a people forced to live for and defend an elite? An army.

What's an army stripped of military objectives? A workforce.

What's a workforce stripped of factory settings? A classroom.

What's a classroom stripped of school settings? A corporate training workshop.

What's corporate training stripped of corporate protocol? A sports team.

What's a sports team stripped of sports? Kids at the playground.

6 Ideas on (Not) Having Meetings

1. Never call a meeting simply because it's on the schedule - this is meeting for the sake of meeting. How many times have people wrecked their heads trying to come up with an agenda? Don't. Forego 'regular' meetings altogether because they are by and large point-less (does this sound a little overboard? Sure, but not by much)

2. Never call a meeting to discuss operational / admin / departmental issues - got a budget problem? A client issue? Machinery concerns? God wonders why we have heads and managers if we need to call other heads and managers to deliberate on such things.

Only call a meeting for strategic or ground-breaking decisions. Apart from collectively peering and charting the unknown, there's no need to physically get people together to communicate.

3. Never have more than three items on the agenda - anything more and focus/attention goes out the window (together with many a participant's spirit...let's not kid ourselves)

4. Never have an AOB - this is a recipe for disaster and time-wasting (if it's important enough it either gets on the agenda or the next one)

5. Always set a (preferably short) time limit for each agenda item - bring a BELL if necessary

6. Float discussions and debates online prior to the meet

Poor Endings More Severe Than Bad Starts

Pop-quiz. What do the following movies have in common?

· Next (Nicolas Cage)

· The Abyss (dir. James Cameron)

· War of the Worlds (dir. Steven Spielberg)

· The Sphere (Dustin Hoffmans, Sharon Stone, etc.)

· The Colour of Money (Paul Newman, Tom Cruise)

· Devil's Own (Brad Pitt, Harrison Ford)

· Indiana Jones & the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

· Deja Vu (Denzel Washington)

· Planet of the Apes (dir Tim Burton)

They were all 'great' movies all the way till the end. For me, these ranked as the all-time biggest flops because they broke a cardinal rule of cinema : If the movie ending sucks, the movie sucks. Period.

Most bad movie-endings have to do with plot cop-outs. The script-writer didn't bother tying everything up in a nice way, took the lazy path and simply whipped up an 'external' factor (it's usually aliens, sigh!) to conclude the story. This was clearly the case with Crystal Skull and Next. Or if you want to end abruptly, let it end provocatively and don't leave viewers hanging for the sake of being, uh, hanged. Example of good 'hanging' ending: No Country for Old Men. Bad example? Colour of Money.

As with movies, so with training. You can start slow, you can even lose focus in the middle, but don't you dare mess up the ending. I'm not saying you have to set the fireworks off on stage in the last five minutes (just like good movie endings simply do NOT have to be 'loud' ones). But by all means, don't make it end so poorly people willingly ignore all that came before.

I'm talking here about boring-ass "debriefing" sessions which often up sounding mega-condescending and sermon-like. I'm talking about half-hour 'thank yous' or announcements which have virtually nothing to do with the topic. I'm talking about people lazing around because they've finished their tasks but the rest haven't and there's nothing for them to do but chat, look at the ceiling or get more coffee. I'm talking about talking urgent shop and taking the fun out of the training right at the end.

It's perfectly fine to end 'normally' (e.g. quick closing activity, 5-minute conclusion, etc.). Just don't make people hate the end.

Pre-Class Brain Teasing?

The trainer gave a brain teaser before the start of the class. It looked something like the above.

No relevance to the 'lesson objectives' but essential to break the ice.

How? By getting the people to talk, to laugh, to ponder, to be curious (even about something not related to the course), to cheer.

Especially for Would-Be Interns

For the love of dim-sum, how much can an internship earn you dollar-wise? $300 a month? $400?

Wouldn't it be better to offer one's services to a good company for free? Instead of clawing and scraping the interviewer for every penny he can give?

Imagine you work for free. Imagine you do a waaaaaaaay better job than those fellas getting a few hundred monthly. Hey, imagine you do a comparable job to MANY of the rest earning a few thousand a month - what do you think the average boss will do when your internship ends?

Isn't there a chance you'll be begged to join the organisation when the time comes?

Michael Jackson and Learning

10 educational ideas from This Is It:

1. Learning is an event

2. To know is to move

3. Rehearsals are non-negotiable and it's okay to act weird whilst practising

4. Love is part of the deal

5. Teacher (or in MJ's case, the director) isn't always right

6. Sometimes you need to feel the answer

7. Everybody sees what you're doing - if not now then sometime eventually.

8. Don't miss the trees for the forest, every little bit counts

9. There is no 'old' or 'new' subject; if something is good it's worth learning no matter how long it's been around

10. Live and love the NOW, and remember for every class, THIS IS IT.

Good Endings

Many teachers make the mistake of seeking merely to 'cover the textbook' i.e. get across a pre-set amount of data. Instead, I'd propose our job is to 'copy the movies' i.e. give a Wow experience to those fortunate enough to be in our class.

One aspect of the movies - also something that the director simply cannot ignore - is a good ending.

Every great movie has an ending worth talking about (e.g. Dark Knight, Kungfu Panda, Slumdog Millionaire - you name it). Almost every FAILED blockbuster messed up the last tenth of the movie (e.g. the final instalment of Indiana Jones, Next, The Day The Earth Stood Still, etc.).

Ditto with our teachings, presentations, preaching, etc. The ending matters. But how many of us make it a point to end with a (good) bang?

I also get a feeling that our listeners no longer expect high-quality presentations i.e. the standards are so low that almost ANY kind of post-presentation wrap-up talk would be welcomed. I mean, wouldn't you love it if you knew your audience at least discussed something about what you talked about (apart from the colour of your tie)?

That said, ends should be of a worthy note. The last 5 minutes may not be as critical as the first 5, but nothing worthy of enduring ears deserves less than a well-planned finale.