I have had a few great learning experiences in Feb. First, I facilitated a one-day planning workshop in Shanghai for the HR team in Mainland China. Then, I attended a TTT class for a managerial course in Singapore. Right before the Chinese New Year, I facilitated an offsite meeting in Hong Kong for the HK HR team.
I have learnt a lot from these. For example, in the Singapore event, I saw my fellow facilitators from different countries in action. They are very skilled and I learnt a great deal from them! There are so many things I want to write about. However, since Feb started, work became very hectic. Got to find time…..
The first thing I want to reflect on is my ‘journey’ to become more flexible at my facilitation. In the past 1 to 2 years, I have noticed how rigid I tend to be. Thorough preparation is a good thing. But sometimes I get too upset when things are not in place. Or I can be easily disturbed when the event does not progress as I plan.
I in fact mentioned something on flexibility before in this blog e.g. see my post back to late 2008 - Preparation – the fine balance between ‘task’ and ‘people’
Anyway, back to the Feb events. I consciously pushed myself to act flexibly. For example, during the Singapore event, I proposed some last-minute change in my teach-back session. Since my session was moved to after-lunch, I decided it is better to run the ‘action’ part before the ‘discussion’ part. It worked well at the end. And I am glad that I received positive feedback.
And in the HK event, I also made some changes and added new things on spot e.g. the way to collect participants’ feedback. (It worked OK but I realized that it could be better if I have prepared more.)
I am glad that I am progressing on this ‘flexibility’ journey. And reflecting on these, I think it is a balance, again. I should prepare as much as I can. But then on spot, I should be ready to change, including even abandon the original plan.
