ALTHOUGH costs of university education range from a few thousand ringgit to hundreds of thousand, few working adults would pay a few hundred ringgit for training that could boost their careers or change their lives for the better.
Sadly, the learning culture is poor in our country. In seminars opened to the public, participants are usually sent by their organisations, and the participants are happy with welcome breaks from routine work. Few make full use of the opportunity to learn and perform much better.
This is evident when they make no effort to prepare questions or raise issues for trainers to answer or expound. During training, many remain silent as most are too shy to ask or answer questions, afraid that others might think their questions are silly or their answers are wrong.
Many so-called training programmes are not effective as trainers spend most of the time lecturing and spoon-feeding answers, and participants are busy trying to understand and remember what is said.
Programmes are loaded with tons of facts, and figures look good on paper only. But the superficial understanding of information is not useful knowledge.
With little application, they will soon be forgotten.
For programmes to be effective, learning outcomes must be spelt out from the beginning and the level of achievement assessed towards the end of training.
I have developed and conducted several training programmes for tourism industry personnel nationwide. Towards the end of training, participants are required to identify and declare by pledging how they can do better at work and at home after the training.
To learn well, one must start with an open mind and acknowledge that most of what we know are outdated, superseded, inaccurate or incomplete. All these should be discarded by unlearning and relearning, and skills are acquired through training and improved with practice.
During training, everyone should not be overly serious, lest it becomes boring. Trainers should make it fun by injecting humour or generating interest. It could start with something to open the hearts and minds of participants, such as using the Johari Window.
Those who have not heard about the Johari Window may think it is like Microsoft Windows and developed by Johari but it is totally different. It is a simple but effective technique for people to better understand their relationship with themselves and others.
It was created by two American psychologists, Joseph Luft and Harrington Ingham, in 1955, and the name Johari came from joining Joseph and Harrington. To illustrate the technique, I would first draw a large square on a whiteboard and then divide it into four smaller squares.
Each square or window signifies personal information such as knowledge, feelings and motivation, and whether the information is known or unknown to oneself or others from four viewpoints. As all of us are different, the size of each window varies from person to person.
The top left window represents the “Open” area, which is known by oneself and to others. They include behaviours, attitudes, emotions, skills and opinions. The top right is the “Blind” spot, which one cannot see but others can.
The bottom left window is the “Hidden” self, which is kept secret from others, and the bottom right is the “Unknown” self, which no one knows until it is developed and discovered. After explaining all four windows, I would proceed to change the size of each.
The larger the “Open” area, the more effectual communications become and relationships are more dynamic. The “Blind” spot gets smaller as one solicits and listens to feedback from others. Likewise, the “Hidden” self reduces in size as information moves to the “Open” area.
Finally, I would shrink the sizes of “Open”, “Blind” and “Hidden” windows as small as possible and fully enlarge the “Hidden” window, pointing out that most people have hardly developed their true potential, as they can be 10 or 100 times better than what they are today.
After telling participants that I can see what they can become within a few years, many feel motivated. When setting up new businesses, I have always recruited staff without relevant job experience but have trained them to become the best in the industry within two months.
Even the most junior staff are told to think and act like a manager from the first day at work. After two years, and with the business running profitably, I would take up another new offer to set up yet another new business, empowering the staff to manage the company on their own.
Another method that I use to get participants to open their hearts and minds is by asking those who dream in colours to put up their hands. Initially, there would be no response, and I would have to repeat the question and explain that all of us dream when we are asleep.
But we can only recall if we wake up while dreaming, which can be in the middle of the night or before we wake up in the morning. Most people can remember, at least, part of their dreams but have never occurred to them whether they were in colour or black and white.
I could see the puzzled look on the faces of many participants as they could not tell for sure, with some appearing to wonder why I asked a silly question. But usually by now, someone would raise a hand and I would ask what colour. Their answers have always been “colour”.
The first time I dreamed in colour was after reading an article in 1963. That same night, I dreamed of a gold coin. In that year, television broadcasting was introduced in Malaysia and for the first few years, many people watched television from outside the windows of houses with one.
After informing the participants that colour TV was introduced in Malaysia in 1978, I would then tease them that if they were not dreaming in colours, it would be like watching a black and white movie.
My aim was to get them to realise and take concrete steps to know themselves better. With their hearts and minds opened and resolved to unlearn and relearn what they know after realising their full potential is way bigger than what they have ever imagined.
YS Chan is Asean tourism master trainer for travel agencies, Travel & Tours Enhancement Course and Mesra Malaysia. Comments: letters@thesundaily.com
