Inspire

Today I had a wonderful experience. I met a group of 70 new executives undergoing their Trainee Executive Program. As a speaker at their management module, I had to brief them on the direction of the company and provide them some information on the current corporate transformation program.
the invite came in the midst of having to prepare for so many other things, despite not having the time to really put my mind into it, I put together a few slides. I had 4 hours of lecture to give. What would I have to say?
I tried to imagine being in their shoes, energetic young chaps with better things to do with their lives probably held against their wills, forced to endure 4 hours of lecture. It immediately reminded me of my orientation days, where we had to sit through a 2 hour lecture, delivered in monotone, about a topic that in no way seemed to be relevant to me. I remembered in the middle of the monotone, the speaker's voice dipped a little, almost as if he had reached the end of the lecture, and, almost immediately the whole group of us clapped spontaneously, much to the displeasure of our coordinators. Needless to say it led to an ad hoc lecture the next day.
I promised my self that I would not put these young execs through that kind of hell. My department does things differently, so different it shall be.
I didn't have the time to find a suitable game to throw into this session, but instead I thought I'd break the monotony with discussion sessions. Thinking back, I do believe that I did not quite hit on the right questions, and the debriefs were not impactful enough, but I believe I did break the monotony.
But I must say the sessions worked. And the success wasn't because of my presentation, but largely due to the vigorous spirit of participation showed by the execs.
What could I have done differently? I could have done less on managing change, perhaps that was a little irrelevant and perhaps I should have run the blindfold game as I had done earlier in the year. Looking at the spirit of the participants, yes, it was something I'm pretty sure they would have enjoyed.
You only have one chance to change the world, I had said in that session; and yes, that was an opportunity gone by, but I definitely would look towards another game the next time I get this chance.
To the PEP32 gang, I take my hat off to you for the honesty and vigor in participation. The future of TNB is strong in your hands.