Trainer Bob Pike uses a magic formula in his trainings which is the 90/20/8 rule. He mentions that most adult audiences can listen with understanding for 90 minutes, listen with retention for 20 minutes and we need to involve them every 8 minutes.

My tried and tested rule for all the corporate trainings that I have done is a little different. I have modified it slightly because over time, people’s attention span has decreased.

My magic number for training is ridiculously simple but yet extremely effective. I call it the 20 minute rule. After speaking to adults for 20 minutes, we need to involve the audience and induce a ‘state change’.

Question: What does involvement and state change mean?

Actually its simple. Involvement will mean to get the participants to do something with you while state change means to change the current state of condition they are in. This means if they are sitting straight, they move around or move something in their bodies that will change the current state they are in. Here are the different ways I induce a state change in an audience:

1. Get participants to echo what I write on flipchart board.

2. Get the audience to turn to a partner and say a catch-phrase, eg. “Habits determine your success level” or “Success leave trails.”

3. Get participants to take part in activities, either in pairs or group level.

4. Allow them to discuss with their partners on their action steps.

5. Give time to process their thoughts by writing it down.

(This is not an exhaustive list and there are hundreds of ways to do it but these are the ones that I use a lot during my talks.)

Why 20 minutes? You might ask. Well, that’s a good question.

You see, the Hippocampus, part of the limbic brain is that part that pays attention. A person’s attention is calculated using the following formula:

Attention span = (Age/2) + 2 mins     [Note that the max attention span is 22 minutes]

Therefore, using 20 minutes is a pretty good gauge and is easy to monitor.

Hope this helps you when you speak to audiences or conduct your own training. Have fun!

PS: I will be launching my new DVD soon on “Stirring & Connecting with your audience, anywhere, anytime” which will launch in 5 December 2011. It is a DVD that teaches you how to engage and stir the emotions of your audience. Most people can just talk but how many can actually stir your heart? More information will be released soon about it.

Popularity: 2% [?]

I have been following the recent mass recall of Toyota’s Prius and other hybrid models. A total of 8.7 million recalls of cars and trucks have been issued (updated on 10 Feb 2010). To give you an idea of the magnitude of the recall, Toyota sold 7.8 million vehicles globally in 2009.

The recall is due to the accelerator pedal that does not move back to its original position after being released. In some worst cases, it actually gets stuck.

It is a great pity and regret that such an incident happened in Toyota, because there were many books written about “The Toyota Way”; how their values spurred the company to continuously improve and solving root problems.

In fact, one of Toyota’s core values is RESPECT. From its website, it mentions that

“Toyota respects others, makes every effort to understand others, accepts responsibility and does its best to build mutual trust.”

This is something that I really like about them, but recent news seems to suggest that this value was not followed closely. They did not understand their customer complaints about the brakes and thus resulted in many deaths from faulty components. This created a massive distrust in the safety of their cars.

In any company, Core Values are really important and because they provide guiding principles that your staff should live by. The best part about having clear values are that whenever you are faced with tough decisions (in Toyota’s case, it was to recall so many vehicles and take a substantial hit in their profits), you will make the right decision.

I know that in many companies, values are often overlooked and it is something that only the management talk about and not the rest of the staff. However, it is time to dig out the values and understand what each value actually means to the company and individual.

For example, if doing the right things is one of the core values in your company: this could mean that you will always seek to do the right thing regardless of situation; even if it means it costs more to develop environmentally products, or admitting to a mistake that could become a massive Public Relations disaster and costly recall or even apologising to your colleague when you are wrong.

I am happy that Toyota’s chief wrote an article that he will take personal responsibility for the entire situation, learn from their mistakes and quickly correct them (see their values on Genchi Genbutsu and respect).

For people in management, the Toyota incident is a great way to revisit your core values and what it means to each and every person in your organisation. For the rest, what are your core values and what do you stand for?

Do leave your comments below! I want to hear you.
PS: If you need team building or training programs that help you clarify and instill your core values to your team, do contact us!

Popularity: 83% [?]

When I first started in my training business, did you know that I actually worked for other training organisations for just $30/hr? This was rather pathetic, because I only worked for 2 hours day, and most of the time, just 2 days a week. This meant that I only earned approximately $480/month.

This was extremely bad because I had to dig into my savings every month to pay for the bills, housing loan and even food for myself. For four nights in a row, I could not sleep well at all and my wife asked me if I was stressed by what I was doing (I couldn’t admit it and I said NO). Things became very bad till the extent where I could remember that I was left with just $22 in my bank account. This left me very dissatisfied with the results that I am having.

After so much pain and frustration, I made a firm decision. I believed it was a compelling moment where I said ENOUGH WAS ENOUGH! I made a firm decision that I will NOT BE POOR, but will be one of the BEST trainers in Singapore. I will grow from strength to strength in training in the things that I strongly believe in and earn money from it. I must admit that it was only this strong sense of disturbance within the soul that when you make a FIRM DECISION and take Massive Action, it will change your life!

Fast forward many years: I have found a lot of success in training; teaching people what I am passionate about, influencing them to make changes and being paid well for it (what a dream job). All this happened because out of the moment of desperation, I made a FIRM DECISION. I am well paid currently in what I do and derive tremendous amount of satisfaction from my transformational work.

The reason I am sharing about this personal story is to ask you if you ever had a burning desire to do something but yet met with tremendous obstacles that faced your way, or were you ever been plagued by thousands of reasons why you will fail in a task, my encouragement to you is this: MAKE A FIRM DECISION AND TAKE MASSIVE ACTION.

Conclusion:

A Radical Change only happens when a person becomes extremely frustrated and makes a FIRM DECISION to do whatever it takes to overcome the situation. This change will be lasting because it causes a person to be an Overcomer!  Remember, everything starts with a Decision. What is your decision today?

PS: If you are keen on embarking my route as a trainer, you can Dare To Train.

Popularity: 42% [?]

Here’s a FREE Training Program where I will be personally sharing!

You MUST attend this FREE 2-Hour Workshop to Learn :
• Techniques To Overcome FEAR and Create Dynamic Stage Presence when you Train!
• How to Get Instant BUY-IN from your Audience
• How to Create a High Energy Environment for People to Learn
• How to Effectively Use ACCELERATED LEARNING TECHNIQUES to CRAFT Highly Charged Training Programs
• How to Avoid the 3 Costly Mistakes Most Trainers Make!
• How to use Stories And Metaphors That Will Grip Your Audience to MAKE your Trainings Fun and Inspiring
• How to be an Awesome and Dynamic Trainer, Command High Fees and Build a Training Business that will Inspire Others

Date: Thursday, July 23, 2009. (Call us at 6274 5145 to find out the latest date)

Time: 7:30pm – 9:30pm

Location: ERC Institute (City Campus) Fusion Polis Room

Street: 61 Robinson Rd, #17-01, Robinson Centre, S 068893

CALL or SMS 9189 0015 with your < name > , < contact number > , < email address > to book your seats NOW!

The Trainers : Kenneth Kwan / Jason Ng

Kenneth Kwan’s high impact training and unique ability to get entire groups of people to change their behaviours quickly have resulted in peak performance levels and achievements in a short period of time. He advocates that the mindset is the first place to start, rather than typical skills training. This translates into better alignment of organizational values, team spirit, higher revenues and trust within participants. He has personally trained over 3511 participants so far. In addition, He was recently featured as a speaker in Learning and Development Summit 2009 for HR professionals and also got his article published in the Straits Times.

He is also a Certified Behavioural and Career Consultant and uses DISC profiling to create Cohesive Team Synergy, Sales Techniques, Value Alignment and Talent Management with companies. Kenneth has also achieved tremendous success in conducting Public and Private sessions for HR managers, Directors and members of the public in understanding human dynamics in Personality Profiling.

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Jason Ng is a Family Life Educator / Trainer with Families For Tomorrow Services, a pro-family organisation conducting family education programmes at primary schools, secondary schools and junior colleges. His wealth of experience in parent child education has made him a well sought after speaker around the region in Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong. Jason has conducted talks, trainings and workshops to thousands of parents, teachers and students on a wide range of topics including parent-child relationship management, character education, maximising of children’s potential, social and emotional learning for teenagers, multiple intelligences of children, anger management for children / teenagers, work-life balance and computer gaming addiction.

To share his passion in helping parents with the prevalent social concern of uncontrolled usage of the computers by children, Jason has been invited by Mediacorp Singapore to be the guest speaker for Singapore Parenting Congress 2009 recently on July 11th to 12th ( www.mediacorpradio.sg/spc09 ). He was also interviewed by “The Living Room” on 938LIVE to share his knowledge with concerned parents on this subject.

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***Here’s what others have to say about it:***

“Before the “Dare To Train” training, I am zero in terms of training knowledge and skills. What “Dare To Train” has done is that it has provided me actionable & easy steps to conduct a professional training routine that allows me to instantly connect with my audience. With these skills, I will be able to use it to complement my Real Estate business as well as make an additional revenue source. Kenneth and Jason have shared selflessly and they practise what they preach.”
- Kevin Yeo, ERA Agent

“Having worked as lecturer at a polytechnic, I have been involved in training for many years. Kenneth and Jason have nonetheless been able to introduce new elements that have enriched me as a trainer. Their sharing of the templates in use will surely enhance my training ability.”
- John Ooi, Director, Touching Lives Pte Ltd

“This Program uses a totally different methodology in terms of delivering content as compared to other training institutes that I attended. It has provided me with complete confidence to provide training and workshops immediately. Kenneth and Jason have provided us with high level energy, skills and techniques to be a great trainer.”
- Francis Toh, Free Lance Trainer

“My experience from public speaking was from observation of other speakers until I took action to enroll for the “Dare To Train” course. I am pleasantly surprised by how simple it is to present effectively just by following a template. My perception that presentation is all about content is also changed because there is so much others factors that matter. I have been blessed by the training and I wish to thank the trainers Jason and Kenneth for sharing with me all trade secrets of an effective trainer. I am confident that with the skills set acquired, I can emerge to be a dynamic speaker.”
- Elvin Leong, Free Lance Trainer

Limited Seats Only!
CALL or SMS 9189 0015 with your < name > , < contact number > , < email address > to book your seats NOW!

(This is not an MLM, Insurance or Property recruitment drive, “Feel Good” Event, nor is it a Forex, Options or Futures Trading Seminar. We just want to ADD VALUE to you by sharing training techniques and tips)

Popularity: 18% [?]

One of the secrets of conducting a good training is the ability to engage your audience through discussions. Constantly apply them and people will enjoy it! Kinestatic movements are always fun, so use them to create energy in your audience. I always believe that Great Training Sessions are all about engaging the audience in participating with you. Here are some photos to display what what was taught.

Kenneth looking on while the audience discuss

I need to see your hands!

Participants practicing what they have learnt!

Here are some testimonials I received:

The title was interesting and I know I will gain some knowledge and improve myself better. Body language and facial expression plays an important part in my both family life and working life. It will definitely benefit my whole family. Today’s seminar will be a role play to my only daughter who is still waiting for me to talk about the topic (at home). She has been SMS-ing me to come home faster and teach her. Well done and keep it up Kenneth.

Lalitha
DSTA

I will like to thank Kenneth when he taught me how to introduce myself to people to let people have a good impression of me and also know how to boost my confidence through my posture. I feel that after this lesson, I am able to introduce myself well and have confidence in myself during a conservation. The way he teach is very interesting especially the class activities during lesson to let me understand the topic better.

Ms Lim

I have learnt how to do the 60 seconds introduction interestingly. I like the way how Kenneth actually makes us remember his name. I will definitely try to use whatever he have taught us when I talk to my client. Thanks Kenneth.

Christina
NTUC Club

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Popularity: 10% [?]