go game storm dot com !!

I was reading Thiagi news letter of May 2010. Here, a reference to a training games web site is given. Go through, browse this site with focus and attention, in leisure. Seems to be a great source of training games and ice breakers and interactive activities.

http://www.gogamestorm.com/

6 roles of a parent

By Roger Ellerton PhD, CMC

"Your children need your presence more than your presents." --Jesse Jackson

Parenting is the process of helping your children to 1) become aware of their potential, 2) expand their wings beyond their family and 3) perform and evolve at the peak of their abilities in a safe, supportive environment. It involves drawing out their strengths and helping them to bypass personal barriers and limits in order to achieve their personal best.

Each child is a unique individual, and each has their own schedule for growing up. At each stage of their growth, their needs and expectations from their parents will change. To meet these needs, parents take on different roles and communicate with each child according to that child's focus, style and age requirements. As a parent, you play six primary roles - sometimes two or three at the same time; at other times, one specific role may dominate. These roles, which require a different mindset, tools and techniques and approaches, range from providing your children with the necessities of life (environment) to making them aware of their potential (purpose in life) in a larger context than their current experience with their family or circle of friends.

1. Caretaker and guide
   In these combined roles, your focus is on your children's environment (where, when and with whom). As a caretaker, you promote your children's development by providing safe and supportive play, learning or work environments free from unnecessary outside distractions. As a guide, you're familiar with the territory (at minimum, more familiar than your children) and provide guidance and direction on possible paths they can take to achieve their desired outcomes.

2. Coach
   Traditional coaching, which is referred to here, is focused on what your children are doing - their behaviors. As a coach, you help your children perform to the best of their abilities by identifying and encouraging specific action steps they can take to reach a successful conclusion.

3. Teacher
   For the most part, teachers provide information and instruction on how to do a task or achieve an outcome. As a teacher, you help your children develop new strategies, skills and capabilities for thinking and taking action, rather than focusing on a particular accomplishment in a specific situation. With your assistance, they discover and refine many of their unconscious competencies, making these a way of life.

4. Mentor
   In the mentor role, you provide guidance and influence to generate and strengthen important beliefs and values for your children, and you function as an appropriate role model.

5. Sponsor
   Being a sponsor, you recognize, acknowledge and promote an attribute or identity that is already within your children, but that is not yet fully apparent or that they are not yet aware of. You do not have to be a role model; you may not have the same skills as the attribute being sponsored.

6. Awakener
   As an awakener, you bring to your children's attention something larger than themselves (family, community, spirituality) and the purpose/vision that is awaiting them.

Each of the above roles includes follow-up on your children's progress by providing respectful and timely feedback. This feedback includes praise and suggestions for improvement to help them learn and grow. For example, as a coach you provide feedback with regard to the actions your children have or have not taken, while a mentor will model and provide direction on specific beliefs or values that are important.

These competencies of caretaking/guiding, coaching, teaching, mentoring, sponsoring and awakening are essential skills for supporting your children. Each of the different levels of support requires a different interaction between you and your children, as well as a different tool set and abilities. Many situations will require a combination of these competencies.

These six roles have a hierarchy. The skills and abilities related to a particular role must include and also transcend the skills of all of the previous levels. That is, a teacher must have and exhibit the skills and abilities of a coach, a caretaker/guide and more. On the other hand, a guide may not possess or need to exhibit the skills and abilities of a coach.

Link 2 network marketing Training

Yahoo search yielded the following results :

http://in.yhs.search.yahoo.com/search?p=network+marketing+training&ei=UTF-8&fr=ond_onnetwork_ti_netpcdial&partnerid=yhs-tata&YST_b=11

"Re usable learning objects " PDF

Sanjay Talukdar has used the word , ' Re usable Learning Objects' in Training.

I google searched the same phrase. It threw up a lot of links. One is a 21 page PDF on ' Re usable learning objects.'A comprehensive study.

Link is here :

http://media.wiley.com/product_data/excerpt/56/07879649/0787964956.pdf

Go to the home page of this web site and see what is there available.

Training take aways : Day 1 : 30.Nov.09. Kolkota

SAMIRAN LAHIRI
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Explain the advantages of Direct Short Term Gain versus indirect long term gain - of MLM selling.

Speak the common man languge of their father, mother and surroundings. Ensure that your smart guide is going to talk a little different from the rest of his people.

Asking some one Rs.50,000/- cheque, you are not respecting his other committments. He's not living, just to pay your insurance premiums. He has other things too .
If he is not ready at the point, ask for leads.



Do net search on ' Reverse Innovation'.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SANJAY TALUKDAR
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" Every trainer has his own /her own challenge area - which , only he/she knows. What is yours ? This differs from trainer to trainer. "

" What is that one thing, if I can deliver, that the trainee is going to remember for the next 5 years ? And feel, it's been the most useful take away ? Strive to deliver that one thing, in every training, to every participant! "

DE BRIEF AFTER GROUP PRESENTATIONS
---------------------------------------------------------------------

In a group presentation, never focus your attention on one person, and switch off others.

No one goes and appreciates rural people. You be the one who goes and appreciates them, a genuine one, at every given chance.

MY OWN GROUP DE-BRIEF
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No one understands , how many zeros are there in Rs.16,000 crores. Avoid hard numbers. Instead, focus on their benefits.

" When ever you address a segement, always give living examples of that segement and their success stories. If the person is present, there is nothing like it. "

Understand the ' pain area' of each prospective segment. Pain area for house wife : Identity Crisis.

Do not present your company, in the way , your CEO presents it to share holders or venture capitalists.

People have I-POD LC - 6 types of fears.

I = illness.
P = Poverty.
O = Old Age.
D = Death.
L = Loss of Loved One.
C = Criticism.

Pain area of the urban teacher is - catching up with the Joneses.

Book recommendation : " Fortune at the bottom of the pyramid " by C.K.Prahlad.

* Net Search : Bloom's Taxanomy.

After every 40 minutes, public goes dull. Be aware of these blind spots.

* Net Search : " Re usable learning objects " .

What are the assests for a trainer ? Number of ice breakers, Energizers, training content modules that one has developed.

As a trainer, how many assets have you built for yourself, in the last 6 months ? None !

Do write faculty guide for your energizers, role plays and slides. This will become your assets in your future training sessions.

Session Plan : Copy all PPT s into JPG s. paste them into MS WORD. Then, write faculty guide.

3 types of Role plays : Show case role play (2 people), Triad Role Play ( 3 people) and group role play.

Your ' scoping for the program ' dircetly depends on the faculty notes you prepare.

Your style is unique as a trainer. Your faculty guide evolves with you, over a period of time.

Problem Solving Exrx : Reaction Envelops

Reaction Envelopes

Stephanie Ruder, one of our readers who is a coach and a trainer living in Switzerland, recently sent me an email about the importance of people taking personal responsibility. Here's an adaptation of the Envelopes framegame that Stephanie may find useful in helping her participants explore this important concept.

Purpose

To explore alternative reactions to everyday hassles.

Time

30-90 minutes

Supplies

• Hassle Envelopes. Write a common hassle on the front side of an envelope. (Example: Stuck in a traffic jam.) Prepare as many different envelopes as there are teams.
• Response cards. Four index cards for each team.
• Pens or pencils
• Timer
• Whistle

Flow

Organize participants. Divide participants into 4 to 6 teams of 3 to 7 members. Teams should be approximately the same size.

Brief participants. Explain the concept of taking personal responsibility. Although we cannot control what is happening in the real world, we can change our reactions to the event. For example, when we are stuck in a traffic jam with cars crawling at a very slow speed because of a highway accident, we can use the slowed-down pace to make telephone calls to our friends. The secret is to stop feeling like a victim and change our beliefs and assumptions and find some meaningful opportunity in the situation that confronts us.

Create some examples. Ask participants to brainstorm alternative reactions to getting stuck in traffic. Follow up by asking participants to give other examples of everyday hassles. Take one of them and challenge participants to generate positive reactions to these negative events.

Distribute the supplies. Give one hassle envelope and four index cards to each team.

Conduct the first round. Ask team members to discuss the hassle on the envelope they received and to identify how they could respond to it in several different positive ways. Tell team members to write short sentences describing these reactions on an index card. Announce a time limit of 3 minutes and encourage the teams to work rapidly. Explain that the teams' reaction cards will eventually be evaluated in terms of both the number and the quality of the positive alternatives.

Conclude the first round. After 3 minutes, blow the whistle and announce the end of the first round. Ask each team to place its reaction card (the index card with its positive alternatives) inside the envelope and pass the envelope, unsealed, to the next team. Warn the teams not to open the envelope they receive.

Conduct the second round. Ask teams to read the hassle on the envelope they received, but not to look at the alternatives listed on the reaction card inside. Tell the teams to list positive alternatives related to the hassle on a new reaction card. After 3 minutes, blow the whistle and ask teams to place the response card inside the envelope and pass it to the next team.

Conduct more rounds. Conduct two more rounds of the game using the same procedure.

Conduct the evaluation round. Start the fifth round just as you did the previous rounds. However, tell teams that they do not have to write any more positive alternatives to the hassle specified on the front of the card. Instead, teams must evaluate and synthesize the four reaction cards inside the envelope. They do this by reviewing the different cards, selecting the top five positive alternatives, and writing them on a flip chart paper.

Debrief the participants. Assemble participants back in their seats. Invite them to briefly comment on the patterns among the positive alternatives. Also ask them to discuss the similarities that can be found among positive alternatives related to different hassles. Ask the participants to identify the hassle for which it was the most difficult to come up with suitable alternatives.

Carry out follow-up activities. Collect all the envelopes and cards for use as examples during future sessions.

Adjustments

Not enough time? Announce tight time limits. For example, allow only two minutes for each round. Play only two rounds of the game before conducting the evaluation round. Eliminate the evaluation round. After evaluation, proceed directly to debriefing.

Too few players? Conduct the game among individual players. All you need is a group of three participants. If necessary, play the game twice, using two different sets of hassle envelopes.

Too many players? Divide the large group of participants into three or more subgroups. Have each subgroup divide itself into teams and play the game in a parallel fashion.

Questioning Technique ( TF)

Although providing employees with answers to their problems often may be the most efficient way to get things done, the short-term gain is overshadowed by long-term costs. By taking the expedient route, you impede direct reports' development, cheat yourself of access to some potentially fresh and powerful ideas, and place an undue burden on your own shoulders. When faced with an employee's problem, you can respond in a much more value-adding way: by asking the right questions, help her find the best solution herself. We aren't talking about asking just any questions but, rather, employing questions that inspire people to think in new ways, expand their range of vision, and enable them to contribute more to the organization.

Questions packing this kind of punch are usually open-ended — they're not looking for a specific answer. Often beginning with "Why," "How," or "What do you think about...," they are questions that set the stage for subordinates to discover their own solutions, increasing their competence, their confidence, and their ownership of results.

Here is a framework for asking the right questions at the right time to create clarity and agreement around issues and to empower your direct reports.

Ask the right kind of questions

The word "empower" gets bandied about so much that one could be forgiven for overlooking what it actually means: to imbue someone with power, to instill in the individual a sense of his own strength and efficacy. "When the boss asks for a subordinate' s ideas, he sends the message that they are good — perhaps better than his. The individual gains confidence and becomes more competent," says Michael J. Marquardt, a professor of human resources and international affairs at George Washington University (Washington, D.C.) and author of Leading with Questions: How Leaders Find the Right Solutions by Knowing What to Ask (John Wiley & Sons, 2005).

But an empowering question does more than convey respect for the person to whom it's posed. It actually encourages that person's development as a thinker and problem solver, thereby delivering both short-term and long-term value: the short-term value of generating a solution to the issue at hand and the long-term value of giving subordinates the tools to handle similar issues in the future independently.

A disempowering question, on the other hand, undercuts the confidence of the person to whom it's asked and sabotages her performance. Often, these types of questions focus on failure or betray that the questioner has an agenda.

The most effective and empowering questions create value in one or more of the following ways:


1. They create clarity: "Can you explain more about this situation?"
2. They construct better working relations: Instead of "Did you make your sales goal?" ask, "How have sales been going?"
3. They help people think analytically and critically: "What are the consequences of going this route?"
4. They inspire people to reflect and see things in fresh, unpredictable ways: "Why did this work?"
5. They encourage breakthrough thinking: "Can that be done in any other way?"
6. They challenge assumptions: "What do you think you will lose if you start sharing responsibility for the implementation process?"
7. They create ownership of solutions: "Based on your experience, what do you suggest we do here?"


Create a culture that embraces questions

To foster a culture in which questions are widely used to create value, begin by letting direct reports know that you value their queries. "For example, tell them to bring their best questions into their performance appraisal," Marquardt says. These might be questions they posed in the past year that led to new ideas and solutions for the company or questions they would like to ask you during the review to boost their own effectiveness and that of the unit or team.

Just as important, it is up to you as the leader to model the question-asking approach so that your team, in turn, will employ it with their own reports. For example, you can track how well the team is working together by asking questions like:


* We've been working together for three hours today; what did we do best as a team?

* What enabled us to be successful in coming up with an innovative strategy?

* How can we ask better questions?

* How can we apply what we are learning to other parts of our work?

* What leadership skills helped us succeed today?


What you get by asking
While going into your team or one-on-one meetings with a list of questions rather than points to be made takes some thoughtful planning, the payoff can be huge. Marquardt experienced this himself when he was executive director of the former Arlington, Va.–based World Center for Development and Training.

He asked each of his direct reports, "What one idea and/or strategy that we are not currently implementing do you believe would best contribute to the success of our company?" The responses this question generated were amazing, he says. "We came up with a marketing strategy that I had never considered before and added a couple of new services for our customers," including a short-term certificate program and courses that blended classroom and online learning. As a result of his query, the group also examined new markets in Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia and developed local partners in those regions. And because these were their ideas, Marquardt's direct reports were committed to putting them into action. "They accepted responsibility in designing, marketing, and implementing the new programs," he says.

By leading your team meetings with questions, you will also help eliminate ambiguity and create alignment around issues. "Most groups are not aligned when they come together," Marquardt says. "When a leader goes into a group and states a problem, everyone assumes that they understand the problem in the same way. In reality, that is false." If, for example, a product isn't selling, you may assume that it's because of a flawed marketing program. But what if others think it's a flawed product? You won't learn that without asking, "What do you think the issue is?" Without consensus on the problem, you can't define a strategy to address it. Asking such questions enables team members to understand one another's perspectives and agree on what they are dealing with.

What not to ask

Marquardt points out that, contrary to the business truism "There are no bad questions," several types of questions can have a negative effect on subordinates.

Questions focused on why a person did not or cannot succeed force subordinates to take a defensive or reactive stance and strip them of their power. Such questions shut down opportunities for success and do not allow people to clarify misunderstandings or achieve goals. These questions include:


* Why are you behind schedule?

* What's the problem with this project?

* Who isn't keeping up?

* Don't you know any better than that?


Leading questions seek a specific answer, one that puts the person being asked the question in a negative light, pushes through the questioner's agenda, or exerts social pressure to force agreement. Among their many downsides, leading questions such as the following inhibit direct reports from answering candidly and stifle honest discussion:


* You wanted to do it by yourself, didn't you?

* Don't you agree that John is the problem here?

* Everyone else on the team thinks John is the problem. What about you?


While closed questions, which require specific answers, can be a good way to open and close a conversation, a whole string of them in a row, such as the following, will make subordinates feel they are being interrogated:


* Is this a good time to talk?

* What time is the meeting?

* How many people are coming?

* Who else will be there?

* When will the report be ready?


Their success is your success

As you strive to lead by asking rather than telling, remember that leaders are only as successful as the people who report to them. By asking your direct reports the right questions, you can help them develop their ability to solve problems, their creativity, and their resourcefulness. Not only will their greater strength in these areas reflect well on you, but it also will enable them to better help you and the whole unit when fresh challenges arise.

"You don't have to have the answer to ask a great question," says Marquardt. "A great question will ultimately get an answer."