Today’s topic was Bridging the Communication Gap.
Setting up the laptop to work with the LCD projector and plugging the laptop and I pod player into the extension cord using my adapters was problematic and time consuming, but the technicians were calm and capable.
A magnificent spread was provided in the back of the room: platters of cut fruit and pastries, with yogurt, juice, coffee, and tea. Bottles of water and candy were on the participant tables and my table.
The ten participants all showed up at 8:45 for the 9 am start, so we started early. They are an intact team with manager and staff together in the training. I discovered this last night, so I made some adjustments to the learning activities at the beginning of the session.
They all speak English, although Spanish is their native tongue in Equatorial Guinea. And they all speak very softly with accents, which makes it difficult for me to hear and understand at times.
They participated actively and enjoyed being persuaded to volunteer through bribes of prizes. They’re a very bright bunch and I like them and their manager very much. They are taking the content to heart and appreciative of learning how to use the Big Five to manage conflicting personalities and how to communicate adult to adult using I language, rather than communicating parent to child.
After they completed their Big Five profiles, I had them post them onto a flipchart so they could see how well or ill-balanced the team is. They mentioned at the beginning during their introductions that some of their communication challenges are speaking confidently with others. This was borne out by the team profile, which shows everyone skewed to the middle or left of the Big Five continuum. They lack any innovators, extraverts, or even focused goal setters.
This doesn’t mean they are dysfunctional. They all seem to get along well and their work is clearly accomplished. It just means that there could be a tendency for group think and they need to either bring in new members who can fill the voids or have current members play those roles to balance out the team.
The room was chilly, so very comfortable for me. But they complained after lunch and opened doors, including one to the outside. It warmed up even further when my liaison got someone to raise the temperature. By the end of the day, everyone was perspiring! My last task was to ask my liaison to have someone put the air conditioning on again, just not quite so cold.
I just read their evaluations and they appreciated the interactivity as well as the content. One person even said they would recommend the class to more people at their work.
My client should be very pleased. I certainly am.
May your learning be sweet.
Deborah
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