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.

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.

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.)