Learning about training in South Korea

I was privileged to train in South Korea this week- the first time ever. Thank you to IAVE, Seoul Volunteer Centre and Volunteer 21 for hosting me. Apart from falling in love with the country and renewing my passion for Korean food, I learnt a few other things about training,  NGOs and volunteerism:

• the South Korean NGO sector is incredibly well developed
• there are a massive number of volunteer centres across Korea
• they have developed a set of 12 standards for volunteer centres
• the Koreans probably do volunteer recognition better than any other country I have seen
• The Koreans who attended my workshops participated in my small discussion groups but getting feedback from the groups to the presenter (ie me) was a stretching exercise for everyone concerned 
• Most of the presentations I observed were very one way with questions at the end
• Questions were excellent and on topic
• they were very visual - the Korean trainer's had power points that were full of colour and animations and pictures. Some pictures, I believed, in the West would be seen as very "cute" ie little bunnies in the corners
• they liked stories
• they are very respectful of teachers/trainers
• they very honest with me about things they liked and didn't like in training
• they loved photos....I have never smiled so much!!!

No More Free Training?

What do you think of something you get for free? How much value do you place on it?
I have been pondering this over the last week.

Me in action!

I spend about 700 hours a year presenting seminars and workshops (14 hours a week on average). This means I see and meet a lot of people and can make a lot of observations about what I have learnt from these trainings.

From time to time, a client will organise me to present training to their community, network or city for free. To pay for the training, they will use funds from somewhere else.

The training organiser will offer free training for many reasons:

• to get more people there
• they were given a grant for the purpose
• its their agency's philosophy to give free training
• they are concerned at the tight economic situation of their community 

These are all fair reasons. My reflections of my experiences of what happens when a group offers training for free, has made me question the value of giving training for free.

Here are some observations I have made over the last eight years:

1. More people don't show- they havent paid anything so they have nothing to lose. The organisers often lose with excess catering which is "wasted"

2. More people are late to a free training than a training they have paid for. They're less committed to it

3. More people actively plan to leave a free training earlier (many end up staying and telling me how good it was). It is almost as they believed before they came that if "its free so it probably won't be very good".

4. In a free training session, I find more people leave their phones on. Additionally more people will answer their phone and take a call in the middle of a free workshop. They don't value what is free as much as something they have paid to listen.

5. Bizarrely, I get more "rude people" coming to a free workshop than one where they paid. These people are more likely to interrupt, annoy others and sidetrack than in other workshops. I am particularly pleased with the way I and my team handle these situations.

6. I don't often get people arguing with what I say but I can tell you 90% of the times that someone has decided to start an argument with me, it has been at a free workshop. I am not talking questioning or discussing or even disagreeing, I am talking about picking an argument.

7. Finally, I can tell you that my overall evaluation scores are a little lower at the Free workshops I have done. Not dramatically lower. My average rating at a paid workshop is 93%. At a free workshop, it is 91%. The fact there is this consistent difference says something. I know I am not different when I present at these free sessions. It makes no difference to me and I try to give 110% to my presentations. I know my content is the same. The difference is in the expectations of the audience. Have other people found this?


Note to my clients, who I appreciate so much.
One because you are fun to work with and
Two because you have kept me employed. Thank you.

I dont begrudge or regret doing any workshops for you. I however, suggest for the future: If you organise training, and you believe in its value, don’t make it free.

What is your experience?

Alaska Bound

I am in Anchorage July and would love to do a day of training while I am there. Anyone from Alaska know anybody up there who may be interested?

Completely Unqualified Trainer? You're Hired.

I recently got an invitation to a Social Media webinar.  Being a resourceful Gen Xer I immediately googled the presenter:-

• They had a web page but was dull and out of date
• They were not on Linked in
• They did not have a Facebook page
• They didn't have a Myspace or Hi5
• Flickr? No. Yelp? No.
• Blog? No
• Had they advised agencies on how to use Social Media? No

Their entire Social Media presence was four weeks on Twitter; 19 tweets and 11 followers.

My Question is: what makes Social Media so easy that anyone thinks they can teach on it? I feel cheeky sometimes teaching on it. I am still learning a lot about what makes it tick and work. I certainly know what  doesn't work!

This is my beef with a lot of things in the community sector. Because we are tight with dollars (we don't have any), we get people who are not qualified to train and teach our staff.

When I fly a plane, I want someone as a pilot who has been taught by pilots.
When I have surgery, has the doctor been taught by someone who knew medicine?
Yet in the community sector it seems the attitude is: "if you are a cheap or free trainer, we will hire you, regardless of skill, knowledge or commitment to the sector".

Two years ago, we lost a contract to another company. No big deal. That's business. I was disappointed but not devastated. The other company put a bid in that was much cheaper than ours. What made my blood boil, is that at the very first training session, the trainers stood up and said "this is the first time we have ever trained". Period. Neither had ever trained before. Wait for it -theres more. They then said "be patient we have never worked in this field".  Some of the attendees were furious but others shrugged their shoulders and said "its cheap!"

A woman said to me "I wish we could get you for training but you are outside our budget. I said "whats your current training like?" She said (and I quote): "Its complete and utter Cr*p. That's why I would like your company but we will never change".

Now, before I am accused of sour grapes, let me tell you I am very happy with the amount of work I get. I would like more, of course! That's not my motivation for this post. I also hasten to say that 93% of clients tell me we are excellent value for money and we have done a number of deals to deliver free training to people.  I am genuinely distressed at the wastage and loss of potential. When the overwhelming feedback we get at our company is "this is the best training I have ever been to", that says more about the state of training than it does about our work (no offence to my brilliant trainers).

Poor training costs money! Two examples:

• we applied to write some training materials but didn't get the contract as we were undercut 33% on price. The difference was the other group had never worked in the community sector and didn't know the field. The materials they produced were so bad that the client hired us to review and re write them having paid the first contractor as well
• we were asked to come in an "untrain" and then "re-train"  a community group after another trainer had given a staff group a terrible presentation. Firstly, it very was dull. The presentation came alive when the facilitator gave such wrong information that a "riot" occurred. Some staff walked out and some stayed and argued. The management shut the training down

 I would like to encourage agencies to build in a sensible budget for training. When applying for project funding, include the staff development costs in it. and I would like to encourage  request demand agencies not engage bad trainers!

Off to tweet about this blog!