Walking the Executive Walk / Training Tips

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I have always seen myself to be a heartlander kind of person or rather, I have come to terms and do not foresee myself working in the CBD since I seems to always remain in the social services sector. Being in the social service sector would mean that my offices are usually in the heartland, nearer to the ground and community which we work with.

Symphony of Heels
Therefore, when I made my way to the CBD for course today, felt quite out of place. The experience was a real eye-opener though and was indeed different from what I experience every morning.

Here, you see everyone so prim and proper; in their executive office wear, carrying briefcases and files. Once in a while, you will catch glimpses of people engaged on their phones or scribbling away on their PDAs while walking. The rhythm of the morning goes "click cluck click cluck" with every strike of heels of shoes on the well-polished tiles of the MRT station. It was really a sight to behold. However, when you soon come to the escalator and the crowd slows down, almost with a congestion of people trying to get onto the escalator, you soon find yourself in a mass of people close to each other. You might feel a kind of deadness and coldness as everybody had this aloof, "sianz" or "dont mess with me" kind of look. Think I still prefer working in the heartlands...

Conceptualization Galore
Went to NVPC for training on Volunteer Management and had quite a lot of fun today. Realized that I really like the feeling of being able to conceptualize things. Throughout today, I not only conceptualized how I can work to create change in my organization to build a pro-volunteering culture, I have also tried to conceptualize how I will conduct next week's meeting with my fellow volunteer cordinators in my organization, gaining ideas from the way the training was conducted. Really loved the flow of the workshop:

• Setting the Tone - Workshop began with the right tone, set by the way in which we were all greeted by the trainers (fun & friendly tone) and with games that help participants move around and become familiarize with the environment and other participants (creating a less threatening and more familiar environment).
  In one of the games, they asked the participants to go around and try to arrange themselves according to how long they have been doing volunteer management, lining up from the least experienced to the most experienced and later saying "together among us, we have more than 100 years of experience which can be shared with one another". By laying that down, he was laying the tone that they are not the experts and everyone can be an expert (everyone is an "expert" in their own ways). It helps to communicate (subtlely) that there is the expectation that everyone contrbutes to the session.
  
• Laying Down the Boundaries - Laying down the house rules e.g. attendance, usage of handphones, lunch and break etc helps prevent any "unpleasanties". (From experience: Sometimes, telling the participants that one can just go off to the washroom if necessary (without asking for permission) has the benefit of making the participants feel treated with respect as adults and this also sets the tone. Participants should also be told that it is OK to ask questions and share insights.)
  
• Understanding Your Audience - Games were also used strategically by the trainers to get a quick scan of the profile of the participants e.g. how experienced the group is (using the ranking exercise) and what were the group's general view about volunteer management (by doing a "Agree-Neutral-Disagree" maneuver where those who agree with a statement will stand at one end of the room and those who disagree the other end, the rest in the middle).
• Making the Workshop Interactive - The workshop used a lot of groupwork and asked group to discuss topics and put their discussion points on flipchart sheets. Then recognizing that each may have a different view on the significance/ranking of the points on the sheet, they assign each person 3 coloured dots to vote and finally coming up with the top 3 points being presented as the group's consensus.
  There is later also opportunity for each participant to further rate the points themselves and identify 3 areas for change. Finally, each participant will write a post-dated letter to themselves asking themselves (i) the progress of what they have set forth to achieve, on (ii) how they have been caring for themselves in the midst of the all the work and (iii) reminding themselves to call a fellow classmate to see how they are doing. These letters will be kept and sent back to us 2 months later for us to evaluate ourselves.
• Challenging & Changing Perceptions of Stakeholders (including self)- The workshop also challenged perceptions and tried to make us believe that the work we are doing are valuable. It is only when we believe in the value of our work when we get the motivation to go on. It also helped identify the various stakeholders and help us check our perceptions and expectations of our work vis-a-vis the perceptions and expectations of our work by other stakeholders. By working with perceptions, it is a real effective way of understanding where everyone comes from and forging a "win-win" situation for (almost) everyone. Working with perceptions (rather than behaviours) is very powerful and once we have managed to sell our idea or perception, we have won the battle
• "Working with Cognition-then-Actions" flow - They work with cognition first then actions so that people will believe in what they are doing and see the rationale for doing so.
• Usage of Stories & Visuals to reinforce points - There is plenty of usage of stories and visuals to help reinforce a point made. By using them, it also makes the lesson more interesting. Use humor if possible too.
  
• Usage of Music - Music is also used during exercises to create the ambience for reflection and also make it less boring
  
• Well-Researched Reflective Exercises - There are also well-researched exercises that challenge one to relfect on their current state of work and what could be better.

From my other experience being trained and having trained, here are also somemore tips:

• Opportunities to Jot Down (New) Ideas - This is not from this workshop but rather from another workshop. I find that sometimes new ideas can grow from all the sharing. The classroom is like a nursery for ideas and providing opportunities for people to jot down ideas on their notes (e.g. a "my thoughts" section) or on flipcharts around the room helps encourage this.
• Helping with Info Retention - From experience, sometimes helping participants to understand the flow helps with retention of information as they know what to expect. An helicopter view of the "agenda" is always good so that participants can conceptualize and understand what is taught easily. Sometimes, it is also good to help participants retain info by using acronyms or even using activities (use real life examples) that builds on teachings from previous modules.
  

I think while I gained insights into how I can work to effect change so that my organization can have a pro-volunteer culture, I have learnt even more in terms of conducting training.