#8 Aptitude Commitment Enthusiasm

[This blog is a tribute to the enthusiasm of three young persons who are pushing through an intensive 3-day Training of Trainers in late November.  Thank you, Devanjan, Dipannita and Sudipta for believing in your ability to make this training happen]

In September I was fortunate to meet the trio at a one-day Train the Trainer program held through ISTD in Calcutta.  The session itself had a motley group of people, all intent on learning skills of training from me.  Among them, some of the most enthusiastic participants were these three -- all of them in various stages of completing their diplomas and getting into the uncertain waters of training. I  have often faced the phenomena of participants getting carried away with the training, asking for my email id and phone number (and a selfie) in their excitement and forgetting all about it a day later.

I was therefore totally unprepared for the quick follow-up mail, WhatsApp messages and calls the very next day!  The agenda was very clear - a one day program will not help us as much as a full scale training would.  Could I please organize a three-day intensive program for a group of like minded would-be trainers?  They will organize everything, would pay whatever was possible, would get other participants, and a host of other promises.

So, I went into high gear with what sales people called Objection Handling -- only, I was creating all the objections.  From "You won't get a venue" to "Unlikely to get more than 10 people and it will  then be too expensive" to the usual clincher, "You won't be able to afford my charges".  Nothing worked. They came back with a budget, a list of ready candidates, multiple venues to be explored and even support from ISTD for a Certificate!

I hadn't yet mentioned a fee for facilitation, training kits or handbooks.  I felt guilty.  Especially guilty when the trio went and physically visited training locations, made tentative bookings, compared notes and got back to me.  On my part I got my materials ready, worked on an e-poster, sent out a few mails and posted an event on my Facebook page.

We had a little setback when the venue we had advertised came back with new problems, new rates and rules.  This sent me scurrying off to find another venue - I contacted old friends, some of whom
didn't know me.  But we eventually found and booked a new venue which comes with its own advantages and challenges.  Meanwhile, Devanjan and Dipannita assure me that we will get our target number of 20 participants.  They have no problem with some basic lunch at a very low rate (they were even ready to exclude lunch and tea from the program). They are going to adjust to the furniture which is unlikely to be workshop friendly.  They have even agreed to take care of collections and expenses.

This never-say-die attitude got me thinking about the training eco-system itself. In my 40 years of being in the classroom or in outdoor camps or other team building or learning activities I formed my own idea of what an ACE trainer should be like.  I used the acronym ACE to stand for Aptitude, Commitment, Enthusiasm.  My view is that if any of these are missing the quality and effect of the training intervention is going to suffer.

The good news is that each of these three attributes can be learnt, practised and absorbed into one's training style.  These young people have already learnt more about organizing training than several of the recognized or branded trainers, the typical sage on the stage.  They have experienced Learning by Doing, they have touched the heart of Experiential Learning, they are co-facilitators in this program.

I'm going to prove it on November 22, 23 & 24, from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. daily.  If you're not there at Chitrabani then watch this blog which is sure to come up with my learning from this experience.

[Dear Reader, if you know some young, enthusiastic trainers who might like to attend this session, please pass on my blog to them or my email id LDG@LesDGama.in ]