In business, something tends
to go wrong every other time. These incidences are enterprise risks that we
must mitigate and we should actually anticipate them. When we are aware that something
may go wrong, then we are in a better position to deal with the situation when that
time comes.
I have been a trainer since
the age of 26. I started training young designers back in 1996 at a time when I
didn’t realize that training is my natural talent. Things have really changed over time and it
is no longer practical to be a single facilitator in a training workshop. Just
the other day, we were invited to submit our bid for corporate staff training
for an inspection company with offices in the entire East African region. Our
bid went through seamlessly and we were really happy to get a new good client.
For many years, we had specialized in providing program support in the
development sector. Apparently, devolution in Kenya has disorganized most
development agencies because they all focused on eliminating poverty at grass
root level, a mission they never achieved anyway. Then comes devolution and
County governments, and their work became almost irrelevant. For that reason,
we lost almost 80% of our business within 2 years. We found ourselves in a
terrible situation! We sought to diversify, targeting the private sector
especially medium enterprises.
Back to our recent
assignment! When we got the job to train staff, I quickly put together the
project team and set out to develop training materials as specified by the
client (customer care, PR, communication skills, personal branding, finance for
no-finance managers, project management, etc) and all that sort of thing. A lot
of times, the client is not a trainer and may ask for a little too much in
terms of the training content. As trainers, we are used to that and we can
easily deal with such challenges during actual facilitation. Everything was confirmed,
presentations were perfect and we were set to go!. But, something went wrong
just the night before the training. A mosquito worked on me, I got malaria and
I suddenly could not do anything. That morning, as my colleague drove to pick
me up and collect our equipment, I was almost vomiting with every breath. It
was terrible, given that I really wanted to do a great job as the team leader
and especially now I was going to be the first presenter….. and responsible for
setting the ‘climate’ for learning. My colleagues always insist that I go in
first… and they know the reason. I do it very well.
When planning to work with
two trainers, we always get a third one on standby who actually comes to just sit
around. When we are asked for a single trainer, we present two and quite often
we decline the job if the client insists on a single unaccompanied trainer. Ordinarily,
this may sound unreasonable but we work that way. Over time, our experience has
taught us a trainer can become unavailable suddenly as it happened during our
recent training as a result of sickness, something happening to a family member
or any other unforeseeable situation. A lot goes into preparation of a training
workshop. There are months of planning, booking expensive venue, mobilizing participants,
etc; and the training it actually cannot stop! While agreeing on the payment
for the training team, we usually allocated an administration budget to cater
for these extra costs. That way, bad incidences do not affect the income of
trainers.
In this particular case, our
trainer number three saved the day. One person took the lead and it was done
well. By the time I felt good and strong enough to walk; it was already 3 pm on
the first day of the training. My role, even in my situation was to stay on
standby to send any document via email whenever support was needed. And they
only forgot the training evaluation form that I delivered as I joined the team
as the training was winding up at the end of the day. Of course the team
cheered when the team leader appeared, and I told them how a mosquito worked on
me!
Do thing tend to go wrong in
your business or project? It is important to anticipate the risk and prepare
adequately to handle the situation. You may spend a little more with every
incidence but it is a good practice that earns you respect and repeat
assignments. Your client, like our case, will understand that you have adequate
capacity. You also indirectly help to reduce their risks as they give you work.
For those of you who train, it is a great risk to present a single trainer
without a backup. In Kenya, we call it a ‘one man guitar’ situation. It is also
selfish to operate that way. When you train as a team, ‘iron sharpens iron’ and
delivery is great. Projects will keep on coming your way. If you like this
article and it has been useful to you, let me know.
