Attacks on Indian Students, Un-Australian!
Being in Melbourne this week, I was there first hand to witness the protest made outside Flinders Street Station in response to the rising incidents of attacks against Indian students. The events that transpired have added to my growing concern for broader situation at hand.
The contention here is that these attacks are racially motivated and given the regularity and the extent of violence involved it is hard to see this as anything else. However, there really seems to be reluctance from the powers that be to acknowledge this fact. The suggestion from one official that the attacks were more opportunistic than premeditated is something that beggar’s belief. The same official said on Sunrise, that there are a high percentage of Indians out late at night because they occupy jobs in convenience stores and service stations and are therefore more likely to be targets. This demonstrates the undertones that are at the root of the problem. Shouldn’t everyone have the right to feel safe, regardless of their employment or ethnicity?
The Australian Reported that effigies of Kevin Rudd were burnt outside the Australian High Commission in New Delhi on Monday, over the series of attacks on Indian students in Melbourne. The PR only got worse as the Victorian Police were accused of using excessive force in removing the protestors, which has done nothing for easing the anguish over the safety or racism concerns.
It would seem to me that action needs to be taken other than the usual rhetoric about “seeking out the perpetrators and prosecuting them to the full extent of the law”. Rather than being seen to be doing the right thing, I think we should be actually doing the right thing. Clearly more needs to be done to curb the violence.
From a purely economic perspective, Indian students represent the highest participants in the Australian international education market and this is largely due to Australia’s reputation as being a relatively safe and supportive environment to study. Indian Foreign Minister S M Krishna has said during the week that they “are worried about the safety of Indian citizens, particularly the students”. So already the cracks are appearing in this important trade area.
As the owner of an education institution, I encourage students who are considering a study pathway in Australia not to be disillusioned by the disgraceful actions of a minority. The vast majority of Australians are welcoming and will be supportive of your choice to study here. Our organisation MRWED has enjoyed a positive relationship with Indian students both domestically and within India itself and I look forward to continuing this relationship in the future. I strongly condemn the attacks and I hope that Indian students will not have their chance to undertake a world-class education in Australia thwarted by behaviour which is essentially “Un-Australian”!
Digitally Distinct?
With so much changing in the e-world, it is worth checking out how you personally fair in the digital stakes. Building your digital brand is now as important as having an email address or website. Generation Y are particularly clued into how their digital brand affects their interactions with the world and their opportunities for success, but I think everyone could benefit from learning how to connect to and connect through digital media.
Dan Schawbel, a leading personal branding expert for Gen-Y discusses how we market ourselves to others in his best selling book “Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success”. He discusses how blogs, podcasting, and social networks can position individuals to find careers based on their passion and experience. As an extension to this, I think educators can tap into these same tools to extend their connection with their audience. Traditional education is all about what happens in boundaries of the classroom. Today, I think those boundaries are much broader and the notion of the teacher as a conduit of learning, rather than the custodian of knowledge is a greater truth.
The old “water cooler conversations” are now happening online on twitter and myspace and rather than feeling displaced by this emerging social media, we should find a place for it to complement our other methods of learning.
Click the icon above this post to see how robust is your digital brand is. I am happy to say that I am Digitally Distinct!
Having Fun at Work!
I am a big advocate for fun in all aspects of life. For me, if you don’t love what you do, and have fun doing it, you are not really living… you are merely existing. However, I recognise that there are factors that will sometimes prevent us from being involved with activities that we are really passionate about.
Therefore, my advice here is to make time for fun! It should be on our daily “to do list”. Life can be stressful enough with the rigors of work, family, study and other personal commitments, for you to let the mundane and mediocre take over. This is why our classes have a combination of interactive activities, warm-ups, energisers and fun summaries to attract and maintain the attention of our groups.
I have met a number of “empty vessels” who wander through life unfulfilled and their disengagement becomes poison for people around them. You should be striving to smile or laugh at least once a day, every day. There is plenty of science that discusses how positive endorphins are released when we are happy and anecdotally, you have probably experienced the rush of euphoria when you have had a really great time. The challenge is how we manage this across our organisations or at a smaller level, across our learning groups.
Here is my plan: Be the champion of fun in your own environment. Be the Fun Master! Last week, I tried something different. I cooked lunch for my head office team and the buzz that this generated around the office was fantastic. It motivated, it engaged, it created laughter, but not at the expense of productivity. It also acted as a kind of reward and recognition activity for my staff, which was appreciated. We video-taped my preparation, cooking-show style for a bit of a laugh and this added to the positive atmosphere! Check it out on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BZfcJhaTWE (part 1)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zMhR2ZPZqI (part 2)
By having regular fun-oriented programs at work, you can provide staff (and students) with an opportunity to engage, connect, interact and have fun with one another. This will build “buy in” and create stronger relationships and greater commitment. Ultimately, you will generate a more energised environment.
Leadership: Building better Teams
I have just returned from a Leadership Summit in San Diego, where it was announced that I made the top 10 list of US Training Magazine’s Top Young Trainers for 2009. This was a great honour, given the fact that there were only four non-US based trainers in the top 40. These awards recognise the talents, accomplishments, and leadership exhibited by 40 learning professionals aged 40 and under. My congratulations also goes to the only other Australian on the list, Lee Woodward from the Real Estate Academy in NSW.
This aside, the summit was well-balanced and it was a great opportunity to connect with others in the learning and development field. It was nice to get out of the ‘fishbowl’ and swim in a different pond for a change. It also allowed me to re-energise and look for priority business and training developments for the next 12 months. This is an annual event put on by the publishers of Training Magazine and is well worth a look. Next year’s event will be held in May at the Sheraton Wild Horse Pass in Phoenix, Arizona.
During the event, I was lucky to catch the keynote from Barry Conchie, the UK-based, Co-author of Strengths Based Leadership. He suggests that “great leaders are not well rounded, but great teams are”. I think we often feel that our leaders have to be great at everything, but in reality, some of the best are the ones who surround themselves with great people. Conchie’s research reveals that 73% of employees are engaged in organisations that focus on strengths. So clearly we need to spend more time growing strengths, rather than fixing weaknesses.
Over the years, Conchie has studied thousands of executive teams and he began to see that while each member had their own unique strengths, the most cohesive and successful teams possessed broader groupings of strengths. In fact, four distinct domains of leadership strength emerged: Executing, Influencing, Relationship Building, and Strategic Thinking. He found that it serves a team well to have a representation of strengths in each of these four domains. Instead of one dominant leader who tries to do everything or individuals who all have similar strengths, contributions from all four domains lead to a strong and cohesive team.
Finally, it can be revealed that successful leaders also meet four key needs of their followers: Trust, Compassion, Stability and Hope.
So the Advice… Relentlessly look at the strengths of leaders, build balanced teams with complementary strengths and focus on the followers’ four key needs. With this in your arsenal, your organisation will be better placed to build stronger and more successful teams.
MRWED a Top 10 Australian Employer
The 2009 list of Best Companies to Work for in Australia was recently announced by The Great Place to Work™ Institute and BRW magazine. This year, MRWED Training and Assessment featured in the Top Ten (at number eight) with high profile businesses such as Google (#1) and Russell Investment Services (#3). As a small business owner and one of only five Queensland-based businesses listed in the top 50, it is an honour to be placed so highly. Furthermore, we were proud to have out-gunned big names like Deloitte (#11), Coca Cola (#20) and Yahoo (#21).
Two years ago, we looked at reshaping the business in order to start a transition from a good to a great company. As part of this transition we established the theme of being “reMARCable”. This is an obvious play on words with my own name, but it captured the essence of the journey we were undertaking. We wanted to create remarkable experiences for our students and I wanted to create a remarkable place to work for my staff. I was literally remaking myself as a leader at the same time as we were remaking our business for the better. So, this week’s recognition of the work we have put in, tells us we are in the right direction.
You could just as easily insert your own name to the reMARCable concept. It could be reJEFFable or reMARYable. Although it might not have the same ring to it, you will be making the conscious effort to strive to be the very best you can be. Whether this is in the classroom, in your career development or even with your family, when you move beyond the expected and the ordinary and choose to be remarkable, a world of possibilities will present itself.
For a full list of the top 50 places to work check out the following link: http://brw.com.au/viewer.aspx?EDP://20090430000031088745
Talking Tricks
I was in Sydney today at the AITD Conference and I had the opportunity to speak on my popular workshop “12 Proven Tricks to Spice Up Your Training”. As a trainer we often think that the only tool we have in our toolbox is a hammer. However, relentlessly bashing away at the content doesn’t guarantee that students will take anything in. Sometimes it really is the case of beating the proverbial ‘dead horse’. Adding games and other interactive exercises within training helps to build engagement and retention and supports the notion of learning through fun. Using the right games will also give you the ‘buy-in’ necessary to keep the students on the learning journey. Realistically, we want them in the game and playing, not just sitting on the sidelines observing.
The AITD group was fantastic and we had a great time discussing ways to make training more fun. As promised, I have produced a podcast of the presentation and this is available in two parts. Just double click on the links below.
Freeing your mind
As I come to the end of an Easter break with my family, I am reminded of the importance of getting away. Often we just live from moment to moment without stopping to just enjoy where we are and the company of those most special to us.
The “getting away” or the changing of focus is the key. Whilst I was getting away physically, I was also able to free my mind from the normal toil of work and business and this enabled me to see other opportunities and be creative. Sometimes to get the focus we need, we have to remove ourselves from the usual, the ordinary. You have to live outside the box to see outside the box!
I think the same can be said for our training. Try new things, remove yourself from the “same old, same old”. Take a few risks with new activities. Invite your students to make suggestions to the program. Use new technology. Free your mind of the ordinary and try something extraordinary. You’ll be glad you did.
The Importance of Validation
We have just returned from Melbourne after a two-day validation workshop with our TAA training team. From the very beginning, I was reminded of the importance of having many heads and many eyes on the job.
We have some new resources which are going live later in April and the workshop was designed to iron out the kinks and ensure that everyone had buy-in to the changes/improvements. We also needed to confirm that the marking guides and trainer support kits were up-to-date and ready to use.
I found it to be a very dynamic process as it proved the old adage of “TEAM” – Together Everyone Achieves More!
We had great success by having a combination of lead-assessor driven validation, together with small group project work. This is something I would definitely recommend for internal validation within RTOs. Essentially, the mix of structure and collaboration supported lively debate, creative problem solving and ultimately better resources.
The more we use those at the front line of our training and assessment, the more we will learn about the successes and challenges of implementation. It was great to have input from so many of my team this week. Decisions about what happens in the classroom, should include those from the classroom and not just the boardroom.
Partners in Smart Training and Assessment
What a month March has been for me personally. I spoke about learning styles at the DEEWR Big Skills confernce in Sydney, my 12 proven tricks to spice up your training at the DETA Partners in Smart Training and Assessment Conference on the Gold Coast and have just returned from LearnX in sydney where I spoke on the benefits and pitfalls of offshore delivery… Some of our best training and learning minds were on show over these events and the one thing that stood out for me, is our sector is very stong. There is a lot of optimism out there amongst providers and now is a good time to get our products and systems right, the right people in the right positions and the right training in front of the marketplace.
Whilst we all recognise that these are difficult economic times, I think those involved in education and training are in the unique position to help shape the skills and competencies of the workforce at large, so business is ready for the next wave of demand. The big companies are doing this and government is supportive, both financially and in terms of policy.
So as the DETA conference suggested, we need to be “Smart” about how we approach opportunities and realise that we are all in this together and have a responsibility to continue to provide a strong and robust VET system, so we can all excel!
Wecome to our Blog!
After many months of discussion… MRWED Blog is finally here! It will be a place to discuss all things training and assessment. I look forward to your input. We’ll laugh and we’ll cry, but most of all I hope we have a great time… which is always the MRWED way!
You can follow me on twitter too – http://twitter.com/MRWED_CEO. So much technology, so little time!