Experiential Learning of Your Success As Contest Chair

It has been quite a while since I blogged as I have been busy with assignments and catching up on readings that I need for the 2 programs that I am currently attending. This article is definitely long overdue to all my faithful followers on Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin, and definitely super long overdue to all the Toastmasters that have attended the judging training conducted by District 80 and I promised to share with them on the links and materials to becoming a successful Contest Chairman.

I was invited by Michael Rodrigues DTM to help to conduct the Contest Chairman segment of District 80’s Competency in Judging Speech Contests Workshop that was on 26 August 2010 at AIA Changi. The training was fun and enriching for me, particularly that I tried a totally different method in facilitating the training session as compared to the usual methods.   I tried engaging the participants of the judging contests workshop via experiential learning methods as I realized that there are many Toastmasters in the group that have the relevant experiences in managing and running a speech contest and all these experiences can be pieced together if everyone is given the opportunity to share and participate.

Experiential Learning is the process of making meaning from direct experience (Source: Wikipedia) and based on Kolb‘s experiential learning cycle, there are a total of 4 stages of learning; which are:

1. Concrete Experience – an actual happening or event that triggers a learning experience and looking at things as they are, in raw detail without change
2. Reflective Observation – the learner observes and reflect on that experience
3. Abstract Conceptualization – abstract concepts are conceptualized and formed based on the reflection
4. Active Experimentation – testing of the new concepts

Through the training session that I conducted and facilitated on the role of contest chairman for the judging speech contest workshop, I can personally see the active learning and contributions of the workshop participants as they work within their assigned groups. On closer observation, you can also see Kolb’s Experiential Learning Model in action, though all the 4 stages might not be as clearly visible as all learners have different levels of motivation and concentration for the workshop, bearing in mind that it has been one long day of training at AIA Changi.

It is interesting that once I started assigning each group with a task of producing flipcharts of “answers” to the different aspects (assignments which I gave them to work on) of organizing the speech contests to the roles and responsibilities of the contest chairman, many people quickly gathered in their teams to begin work and a wealth of past experiences from individuals within the groups are collected and consolidated into the flipcharts. The division of work among the groups are based on the following assignments below:

Some people take a lead in directing discussions among the groups. Some participated. Some listened attentively. It’s an amazing feeling to see the whole training place liven up with people working and collaborating in teams.

Here are the long awaited “answers” to the assignments given to the group and the beautiful works that each group produced for each given task.

Role & Responsibilities of Organizing Chairman

Task Checklists, Logistics & Certificates etc

Briefing of Contestants

Briefing of SAAs

Promotional Plan, Flyer Details & Budget Templates

I am happy with the results that were produced and I believed it has been a wonderful experience facilitating this session, let alone that the participants were able to draw out their valuable experiences and learn from one another.

I will be consolidating the materials useful for the role of contest chairman, including the links to these materials found in other Toastmasters website. So stay tune for the next blog article where I will consolidate all these materials into one article.

Knowing Your Game As A Leader

One of the most important leadership lessons that I learnt as a District Leader for several years is to know your game as a leader. The success of our leadership journey in many organizations like Toastmasters, can be measured on a set of KPIs that are critical to the organization. Knowing your game and how your performance is measured is important in defining your success as a leader.

For example, when I was District Governor of District 80, the success of my leadership was measured on the 4 Critical Success Factors (CSFs) of the district, which are club growth, membership growth, Competent Communicators and Advanced Communicators. Similarly, the success of a Club President is measured based on the achievements in the Distinguished Club Prorgram (DCP), the success of an Area Governor is based on the Distinguished Area Program and the success of a Division Governor is on the Distinguished Division Program (DDP).

Knowing your game and understanding the performance indicators of the programs that defined your leadership success allows you to stay focus. It helps you to direct your limited resources, time, and energies into the strategic areas where you can create the maximum impact. Being focus, directing limited resources to achieve success goals defined by the organization and knowing how to play the game are what I have personally witnessed some of the successful leaders within the district has done.

One of the biggest benefit that I discovered by understanding my game is how I can apply these to work in my professional life. I remembered when I was a regional marketing leader with a NYSE listed company, working on the strategic plan using Hoshin Kanri and LEAN Management tells me that my performance are measured on a few key factors called Targets To Improve (TTIs). If I do not understand these TTIs and how the overall strategy cascaded and managed, and staying focus on them, it will affect the overall plan of the organization and you know you will never achieve the results that you want.

I encourage all current leaders to stay focus on the goals and deliver the results defined by the programs. I encourage all future leaders to take the opportunity to learn from the success past leaders, read more and contribute in whatever capacity you can for your Club, your Area, your Division and your District. Knowing your game will get you a step ahead of your competitors.

Looking At How CBT Framework Can Benefit An Organisation

Following up from my previous blog article discussing about the potential benefits and implications of a national CBT framework and how workers can get trained and retrained, hopefully leading to new employment opportunities, I am following up with the notes and discussion of the work of other groups working on the Genetech case study during the DACE class last week.

Generally, all the teams agreed that the implemented of a national CBT framework can help an industry or a new organisation to get trained and qualified workers. The trend is currently effective to equip organisations with workers of lower education to manage their new production facilities and plants.

I have personally witnessed how the last economic recession have affected and impacted PMETs, the effectiveness of the CBT framework as well as policies in getting and helping affected PMETs might not have been as effective as it would have been for general blue collar workers.

Can A National CBT Framework Gives Retrenched Workers A Second Chance?

In my last week of DACE class where we moved into a new module in the program, i.e. Review Competency-Based Training Approaches For Adult Workers and it was another session that many of my classmates contributed in the discussions. In fact, some of the discussions got very interested and “heated” as I guessed this is something closed to everyone’s heart and I personally also added to the “heat” with my own opinions.

As this module focuses on the Continuing Education and Training (CET) system in Singapore, we had to examine the Singapore Workforce Skills Qualifications (WSQ) framework, a national credentialing system that was developed in 2003 with the establishment of Singapore Workforce Development Agency (WDA).  This qualifications framework has similarities with UK’s National Vocational Qualifications (NVQ) as well as the Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF).

I felt that if a national skills and competency framework is successfully implemented, it should be able to give citizens the right training within the system and equip them with the necessary skillsets to function and perform their job roles. A successful qualifications framework should also give enough job opportunities to citizens, especially when the world now is still in recession and Singapore even though is coming out of the recession, there are still not enough good opportunities for citizens within Singapore and many countries around the world.

Therefore, this was indeed a highly debated topic during the lesson last week and it’s definitely no coincidence that people would question about the success of WSQ and how the policies implemented by WDA or MOM have benefited our citizens and how many actual good job opportunities that our citizens can work on, be safe and stable, including earning the income to bring the daily bread back home.

We examined a hypothetical case study of a foreign company entering a new market like Singapore to set up a new manufacturing plant and how a developed competency-based framework can help the new setup to recruit, retrain and retain workers needed.

The above pictures are work from my group discussion and I was lucky to have Jian Hong on the team who is involved in the biomedical/pharma industry and had personally experienced the case of Genetech setting up in Singapore through his regular involvement within committees in the industry.

Here are some of my personal observations and opinions, learning from the example of Genetech and looking at the current situation in Singapore on how effective a national CBT framework has been:

• The existence of a national-based CBT framework provides opportunities for workers to get trained and retrained. I definitely agreed that this will improve the skillsets and competencies, including confidence of working citizens, especially those who have a lower education as compared to degree holders.
• National-based CBT framework should allow and give opportunities to citizens to enter and find work in a new industry which they have not worked in before, after attending training and obtaining the qualifications.
• Recent economic crisis has affected a lot of PMETs and somehow, the national-based CBT has challenges in allowing PMETs to re-enter into the workforce, especially the senior ones. This might also be due to the lack of senior roles for PMETs and hirers in Singapore might not be as open-minded to accept workers out of the industry.
• A national-based CBT framework can add skills and qualifications to a worker. However, it cannot add experience for the worker if he/she is from a different industry. This might prove to be a challenge for workers seeking work in a different industry, which he/she have skillsets that are transferrable, yet hiring companies might not be keen to explore with them.
• Lack of legislation in Singapore to protect the rights of workers can prove to be challenging when economic downturns happened.
• The Singapore WSQ framework is still new and there is still a lack of strong support and recognition of the framework from companies. This might be one of the biggest challenges of acceptance and recognition of the framework that workers might not have the second chance in their careers after being retrenched.
• Lack of international recognition for Singapore WSQ currently.

There are still many points that can be discussed and argued on whether the Singapore WSQ has been successfully as compared to other national CBT frameworks found in highly successful countries like South Korea, Australia, United Kingdom and Germany.

However, I personally do appreciate the fast response of the Singapore Government in giving grants for citizens for training and retraining under the SPUR program. I also appreciate the fact that we now have a national framework for the workforce and it is developing. There is definitely more work that has to be done by the different agencies involved in this program and I personally think that one of the challenges would be convincing our own citizens who are hirers, HR managers and recruiters in changing their mindsets and attitudes.

A Picture Tells A Thousand Words & A Story

I cannot believe that I have already finished the second module of the DACE program that I am studying now. The next class will be on Review Competency-Based Training (CBT) Approaches for Adult Workers.

One of the approaches to conducting training classes that promotes interaction and participation among the participants which I have noticed at the last 2 modules of DACE is where the trainer uses pictures to help you trigger thoughts, reflections or even recollections of what you have learnt, how you feel about the program, or what you look forward it. By just using a simple picture, you can start creating discussions and conversations among the participants and encourage them to share with each other.

In fact, this is similar to the innovation workshop that Everest Innovation has asked me to conduct for CPF Board. The workshop program was developed by John Seah, founder of Everest Innovation and within the training program for the innovation workshop, John shared on a method of SCAMPER for brainstorming and ideas generation, that are highly essential if we want to find innovation and creative solutions, products and/or even services.

The SCAMPER method involves a stage of Pictorial Connection, which essentially is to select a few interesting pictures and get team members to generate trigger words from the pictures. The trigger words can help the team to generate and brainstorm new ideas and who knows, you can get very creative and WOW ideas from unrelated trigger words from the issues that you are trying to find solutions for.

Reflecting back, I have seen this in action and have experienced it again in class in using pictures to help enhance learning and stimulate your thoughts. Like many people say, a picture indeed tells a thousand words and the pictures used in class have helped to tell us the journey that I have walked for Training Needs Analysis.

Take a look at the pictures we had in class and what thoughts, ideas and reflections come to your mind:

Based on the pictures, we were in fact able to form a story of the important topics covered for Training Needs Analysis and the learning points that were important to us. I am also comment that pictures must be well chosen to assist in triggering your thoughts and in this case, the pictures were appropriate and well selected.

Look at the amount of information that my group has generated on the “poster chasing” flipchart in a short 3-5 mins of brainstorming and looking at the pictures, to tell you the story of our TNA journey:

Here are the results from the other teams in the class.

Your History Tells A Story

One of the reasons why I set up this blog is to share the leadership experience that I had in Toastmasters, particularly during the years as District Governor, Lt. Governor Education & Training and Lt. Governor Marketing. It is also the encouragement of many members, especially in Facebook that asked me to write down these experiences as it will be valuable learning lessons for many.

One of the skills that I used when I became District Governor of Toastmasters International District 80 in Term 2008-2009 was to analyze the historical data of District 80 to plot out the trends of the 4 Critical Success Factors of the District and you can do that very easily with membership payments and educational awards. The historical trends tell you a good story about how the District is performing and give you good insights on key patterns and behaviors that will aid in developing your District Success Plan. You can view the past performances of your district right here by selecting your district number from the drop down menu.

Let me focus my leadership experience as a District Governor on membership payments and using historical data to help in planning.

One of the first things I did was to pull out the past data of the monthly membership payment figures of District 80 so that I can see the actual performance for each term on a monthly basis. The above chart shows the chart that I developed using the data collected and immediately, it will give you a good indication on the monthly payment trends. It also shows you critical periods that you need to focus on membership payment, especially during dues renewal periods of September and March.

It also tells you a story about the membership payment trends of the District and how effective the team have been working together to encourage clubs to pay their club dues early and promptly.

Using the data in the chart, you can compute the percentage contribution of each monthly membership payments of each term’s performance. These percentage figures will be useful in helping you to set your monthly targets for the membership payments figures that you need to hit each term. This simple method that I used is comes from my experience as a regional marketing leader for a US MNC and I need to develop the sales budget for next fiscal year. As you are aware that you do not get consistent monthly sales figures because there are some seasonal factors in selling your products.

Hence, this method will help you to:

• Develop accurate monthly targets of the membership payments
• Analyze and predict the seasonal factors in your district’s membership payments
• Focus on critical months of membership payment collection
• Give you an indication if you are doing fine on a month by month basis

There are further things that you can also do with the data and you can even plot out the charts as shown below:

The charts will give you a very good picture of the overall performance of your district and it tells you many many stories. You can analyze from the charts and identify the historical trends, similar to the charts. You can also see if some of the old trends are useful and you can decide not to include them when you start planning your monthly targets. For example, you notice that the membership payment trends for Term 2004-2005 are out of proportional to the historical patterns of the other terms and hence, this might be one set of data that you will not consider to use.

I hope this is a good start to sharing with you my leadership experience and how you can use information and data to aid you in your journey. The journey is tough and challenging and constantly, we get many opinions from members, like “we have too many clubs in our district” or “we have too many members”. We can debate over these issues without facts and as leaders, it is important that we make strategic decisions based on factual information that we have properly analyzed.

Dissecting the Training Needs Analysis Report

The Training Needs Analysis (TNA) Report is an important document that is produced at Step 6 of the 7 Steps Process as outlined by Deborah Tobey (2005) for a TNA process. This report helps to justify the training required to improve the performance of the learners and organization.

The purpose of the TNA report is:

• To approve the training intervention design and delivery of the required training program(s)
• To allow stakeholders to take ownership of non-training issues and recommendations
• To support the case of recommended programs and to secure the budget and necessary resources for training

Last night’s DACE class was on how to develop the TNA report as it is one of the assignments required by the program. We discussed about the different components within the TNA report based on an article by Cotton (2004). As usual, the class broke into 6 groups to dissect the TNA report, to discuss and present our findings based on 6 questions related to the TNA report and our assignment:

Here are the findings that were presented and shared during the class.

Group 1: Information in a TNA Report

Group 2: Review of a TNA Report

Group 3: Non Training Issues & Recommendations

Group 4: Critical Success Factors

Group 5: Recommendations

Group 6: Implementation plan

It has been an eventful evening and the program has been structured enough to allow group discussions and sharing of ideas and opinions. As mentioned in my previous posting, because of the diverse background of trainers and L & O (Training) managers in this cohort, you will get different views too. Sometimes, as the program is academic and we might have overlooked the practical aspect of implementation.

Collecting Data for Training Needs Analysis (TNA)

Some of you might be aware that I am currently doing the Institute for Adult Learning (IAL)’s Diploma in Adult & Continuing Education (DACE) program. Interestingly, I realized that this is my first diploma program that I got myself into as I took the “Air” Levels route towards my computer engineering degree in NTU.

Last night’s DACE class on Planning A Training Needs Analysis dived deeper into the processes of TNA based Deborah Tobey (2005)’s 7 Step Process, looking into the methods of collecting and analyzing data.  Frankly, I have enjoyed the classes so far as it provide a lot of interaction and collaboration among team members and the lecturers have been good facilitators to allow exchange of different views and opinions.

One of the important group work was to identify the data sources and types of data to collect for TNA, segmentized into 4 stages as defined by Tobey (2005):

• Business – needs and goals of the business that training needs to support and align with
• Performance – current performance of organization and learners and how training intervention can meet and improve business needs within the context
• Learning – learning that must take place to support the required performance
• Learners – needs of the learners

From the above, we actively went into our groups to discuss and came out with the following findings based on the case of Trekkers:

We went a step further to identify the means to collect data and updated the our flip charts:

One of my personal takeaways during the lesson was that I was fortunate to have been in consulting and held regional marketing management roles that helped me to think critically on what are the actual needs and why are we doing these for TNA, which many practitioners would felt it is academic and may not reflect what is actually happening in their workplaces.

I also appreciated the training I had before in using strategic management tools like Hoshin Kanri, Lean Management and Balanced Scorecard, doing root cause analysis and countermeasures on a monthly basis helps me to further analyzed training needs requirements and select those that are critical to the business and delivers maximum impact to the learners and the organization.

In a classroom full of learners from diverse background, it is interesting to hear and see views from a different angle and understand the thought processes that people have taken to look into the situation given and perform the required tasks.

Great Leaders Can Be Made & Taught

Leadership is an important component of the Toastmasters Educational Program. The Leadership Track provides members with a structured pathway to learn to lead with practical practice.

Yet many debated, “Are leaders made or born??” Many researchers tried to answer the question for decades and the debate goes on and on….

My personal journey as a leader was rather accidental than intentional. It happened several years ago when our International Director 2008-2010, Poh Kim Siong DTM offered to send me home and we strike up conversation in the car that changed my life. He encouraged me to come forward to serve the District as a Division Governor, having seen some of the stuff I was doing in Toastmasters. I never looked back when I finally made up my mind after a few other coffee sessions and persuasive talk.

As I reflected upon my own experiences, leaders can be made in the process of encouragement and “talent-spotted” by experienced ones. The only intentional leadership journey that I embarked on was to become the Charter President of The Frontier Toastmasters Club, a club which I personally founded with Chay Wen Liang, Janelle Ho and PDG Christopher Teo DTM.

Toastmasters can make leaders. Toastmasters can help you to become the leader you never thought you will be. The new term has just started and there are many opportunities for you to develop and polish your leadership skills. In fact, simply start doing projects in the new improved Competent Leadership manual allows you to acquire leadership skills in a step by step approach. Participate in organising club/area/division speech contests are effective methods to becoming an effective leader in a friendly environment.

I encourage you to take every opportunity to become a leader. Work with a trusted mentor on projects valuable to your club/area/division to gain the experience of leading a team. Great Leaders can be Made… and it starts with you!

Go for it! Go For Greatness!

(PS: This article first appear in my first issue of monthly/bi-monthly newsletter, talking about leadership. You can view the full newsletter here.)

Getting Started…

The idea of having my own blog has been rooted for a long time. Interestingly, I recently discovered that I still have a Live Journal account way before blogging becomes popular and this account was created during the days when I started a dot com company with a group of friends back in university.  (PS: Here is my Live Journal link)

Many friends, especially in Toastmasters encouraged me to start a blog and start penning down my thoughts, reflections and the journey of leadership. There are others who encouraged me to write about the experiences and projects that I did as a regional marketing leader.

This blog was created as a result of these encouragement. In fact, I registered the blog back in November 2009 to test out the features of WordPress as I had the intention of setting up a website, blog with my own domain name. Sounds cool huh??

It is only during one of the lessons for my DACE program that the lecturer also encouraged us to start our own blogs and I started receiving emails from classmates announcing their blogs; that prompt me to start updating this. In fact, I only managed to update this article with these new thoughts on 1 August 2010… how timely it is!!

I guess this will be a collection of reflections of my experiences as a leader, regional marketing professional and a trainer. This will be the start of a new journey and I hope I have the energy and pace to keep updating it….