Most of us have at least caught a glimpse of the TV reality show, the Amazing Race. Thousands of miles later, only one team hobbles into victory! Winner takes all! The rest head for the hills, licking their wounds.

On the 20th of August the intrepid Lafarge Cement Sales & Marketing Teams
set off on their Ama-zing-zing Race…

…and what an incredible day it turned out to be!  It was destined to be nothing but that from the start…  Firstly, to Maria Sazeides from Lafarge - From the moment we started planning, Maria was very clear about two things – she wanted the race to make a positive contribution to the communities we visited and to make sure her team experienced a different side of Joburg – different from what most of us experience everyday.  Huge kudos to Maria for her openness to doing something different and for her generosity.   Secondly, to our amazingly talented and passionate about making a difference where others fear to tread, Tracy!  Thanks Trace – you put an amazing day together.  Thirdly, to a great logistics team – you can’t believe the nitty-gritty painful amount of detail that goes into planning one of these things – so a special thank-you to the Nomsa’s (ours and Lafarge’s!), Gill, Raelene, Shirley and Evelyn. And last but not least, to an incredibly enthusiastic gang from Lafarge – they rocked from the word go!

The Avo team created an Amazing race with a whole different spin. Sure, there was competition: teams raced down historic main street searching for clues from egoli’s mining past, teams had to out-create each other with spray paint on the star graffiti wall and there was also a race to get as many African greetings as possible from the New York of Africa…our very own Jo’burg!
 
But the highlight had to be the time spent with the children of the Sunshine Nursery school in Yeoville.

Each team was tasked with creating a learning aid for pre-school kids: a letter of the alphabet to be stitched onto a colourful cushion. With the clock ticking, teams madly designed, stitched, stuffed and decorated with the whirr of the seamstresses’ sewing machines humming energetically: the wind beneath their product’s wings. Then they hopped into their taxis and raced to Yeoville. Here, each adult carefully took the hands of two little ones and embarked on the BIG WALK to the church. This was a great space to play and sing and learn. Learning aids came to life, smiles stole hearts and then the MacDonald’s Happy Meals arrived. It was a day of great fun and huge heart…

And the winners were:
6 Seamstresses in the fashion district
26 team members from Lafarge and most of all…
45 children from a tiny nursery school in Yeoville.  They were not only the big winners of the day, but as a result of our time with them, the Lafarge team has now adopted them!  So a huge, heartfelt thank you to Lafarge for their commitment to continue making a positive impact in the lives of these kids .

Hey all

I had to do an On The Spot 17 & 18 Jul and I was so looking forward to it, I was working with new slides and spent the time to get the content under my belt. It was a full group of 10 and the only additional pressure I was under was the timing of the course.

Then….. DISASTER DAY!!

Lunch time came on Day 1 and I called Grant… then Gill….with a desperate plea for HELP! I’m causing some SERIOUS DAMAGE to Avo’s reputation here, who cares about my own, after today I’m NEVER going to be asked to train for AVO again!! I so wanted to cry and leave the building BUT I had to be all grown up and remain, after all it seriously could not get worse right??…

To top it off how could this go so wrong on a course where you have to walk the talk on presentation skills!!!

Well between end day 1 and beginning day 2 I spoke to Vanessa & Grant, confessed how I so wished I had contracted some contagious tropical disease which would mean that I would not be able to continue the course….

But day 2 was a new day & I was simply going to pretend that yesterday NEVER HAPPENED just so that I would be able to get through day 2

Fortunately we got the technology right , I managed to salvage some shreds of credibility with the delegates while watching their videos one on one & I “gave it horns” ( took Vanessa’s advice) on the morning of day 2. For the FIRST TIME in my training life I did not look at the delegate feedback reports!! Not even a peep, I did not want what was left of my self esteem shattered, or else I would not be able to train the two new courses I had the following week.

So this week Monday, I met with Grant to debrief the Disaster Day. I did have a few days to get back into adult space and I was now ready to face the music. Eventhough my child protested how unfair technology had been to me!

To my absolute delight and total SURPRISE these were some of the comments from the delegates:

“Rochell was really really really awesome, Fantastic in a different league, seriously impressed”

“It was an ecstatic experience”

“The presenation was awesome, everything was fabulous”

“Rochell is excellent (with a hand drawn heart and all!)”

“Very impressive”

GOSH!!! Were these guys in the same room as I was in? Were they high on some drug or was I? How did this happen:

1) Thank you God for heeding my SOS
2) Like we say to the delegates, we never come across as badly as we think we do, I was in a nightmarish hell which they apparently were not aware of
3) I lived the Avo principle of transparency as in no cover up stories and using all the mistakes as examples
4) I never would have survived if I hadn’t KNOWN my material as in backwards, how else do you flip chart everything up until Dynamic Delivery
5) My safety net at AVO with particular thanks to Gill, Grant, & Vanessa

RESILIENCE!!

I’ve been working with a really phenomenal bunch of people from Group Risk at one of the big 5 banks in South Africa.

What a privilege.

I’ve gained so much insight into myself and other people during this time. What we do at Avo is about self and the other person, try looking at any course we run and you’ll find it revolves around that dynamic. So how privileged am I to be constantly working on myself while I’m working with others?

So to my point; I have a pretty equal combination of analytical and very steady behaviour in my personality profile and by far the majority of people coming from Group Risk are analytical - their behaviour fits the analyst personality profile very closely.

Just last week a group came along on our Persuasive Conversations course, and every single one of them were very strongly analytical. Many people misunderstand the analyst type person. An old stereotype of this group of people was that they didn’t have much of a personality. Analysts know this is not true but I sometimes get the feeling other people are not always so sure. Later research indicates that they may be some of the most complicated personalities to be found.

On this series of courses I have experienced this complexity and have been through the widest possible range of emotions and experiences that you could think of. We’ve had so much fun but at the same time have had some incredibly serious, deep discussions. There has been laughing and joking mixed with thinking (lots of it), discussing, explaining, wondrous stories, debate… about senior managers, exploring family relationships and the minds of teenagers, some tears (yes some of my own as well), challenges, challenging situations brought to the table, worries, solutions, ideas and learning.

Yes, every single programme makes my mind spin, at some point I usually consciously feel myself thinking how great it is to be alive, enthusiastic and stimulated with the people around me. When engaging with people and attempting to work out how to connect with them be aware that you don’t box the analyst too rigidly, they have incredible depth and bring massive value.

I’ve been re-exposed to the word “rigour”. I didn’t really think I would use it to describe a space that Avo or I would be training in, you know we do the ‘soft’ skills, but the last three courses I’ve been running with have been … rigorous (even though its still the soft stuff).

Yep that’s it … rigorous. And I guess the rigour-ness came in the debate, the discussion and the questioning. Not the material, not the concepts, not the exercises but the interaction. So for me its been a ‘wonderful’ challenge, a ‘fantastic’ experience and ‘exciting’ growth. The nice optimistic adjectives are in italics because when you are in the middle of holding the debate and hearing the arguments it feels very hard, … rigorous.
We are rolling out a country wide change intervention with one of our favourite clients (need to withhold name for now) and they are absolutely fantastic. For them it’s a serious change, hence the rigour of the arguments and debate.

I’m the facilitator and I know they are learning and unlearning a lot, but I’m learning just as much if not more than them.

What people? And what skill? Let me paint you a picture: They are strong, smart, driven, fast, efficient, energetic, focused, enthusiastic, engaging, fun and funny, witty, quick thinking, quick to argue, quick to challenge … rigorous … and on top of their game.

You try and keep up with this bunch in a day, even if you are the facilitator, wow …! And so back to my word, yep, Rigorous. I know that much of the nuts and bolts of this massive change rests on the shoulders of these guys and as one of them said yesterday, “the success is in our hands boys”. With this kind of talent in a company I have absolutely no doubt that they will succeed and stay an international leader in their field.
For those of you that continuously made the following statements … you know who you are!
“I just wanna ask One question” (for the 24^th time)
“There are pockets of excellence in our funnel of excellence”
“No guys – lets look at the Bigger Picture here”
“I need to stand up …uugh … I just want to say …”

The Amazingzing race on the 16th March was amazing, even if the forces of nature were against us!

That didn’t stop the guys from running through Main Street JHB soaking wet and trying to find the clues, and not giving-up.

The interaction with the church choir in Hillbrow was one of the special moments for the team.

Our final activity was Rocky street in Yeoville - we met people from different parts of Africa and learnt about the different cultures and foods.

The guys had an unforgettable experience in Joburg, and saw it from a new perspective. One of the team even commented that he always avoided the CBD and just went there for business and now he was grateful for the opportunity to experience the vibe and awesome people of this city.

Thanks to everyone for an eye-opener of a day!

(posted by me on behalf of Grant).

Ok, I felt stretched. It’s so great to run a programme where you know that the people you’re working with are fast, focused, driven and experienced. I was working with a bunch of guys from Absa Group Sourcing who are probably running at 200% at the moment.

Yet they were able to find the time to spend two days on a programme, do the homework (before and during the course) and I know that everyone of them also connected with work in an attempt to keep up with the usual. We worked hard for two very full days, not relenting on the learning points, just one after the other again and again.

Nor did I pull any punches. Sometimes feedback, although straight, can be hard to take on board, but not for these guys. Another part of the feedback is trying to get them to believe that they are actually damn good at what they do and all that is required is to fine tune already present skills or growing their natural strengths.

To their credit they not only kept up, but stayed involved and engaged all the time keeping me truly on my toes every moment of the course.

To you guys thanks very much, I got a tremendous amount out if running the course with you.

Here are some comments from the training:

“This course has given me tools to increase the chances of giving a successful presentation manyfold” - Antony Barker

“How great to learn a set of tools to create my own style within the rules” - Claire Raath

“Great experience with good presentation and data, very helpful” - Stephan Kok

“Motivating and builds confidence” - Ian Horn

“Useful, practical, informative. This is a well structured course, well balanced and well delivered” - Jennifer Steyn

“Thank you for the light and personal touch” - Jacoba Schutte

I’ve had a quiet revolution in myself. It happens every now and again when you discover stuff about yourself that you didn’t know or had forgotten or was not seeing clearly I’m really happy with the work I do.

Sometimes when you lose sight of why you do the work you do, why you chose it, why you enjoy it, it becomes a millstone round your neck. And then sometimes you have the opportunity to be shown why you’re in this game. I had the opportunity to work with WBHO over the last two months. For those of you that don’t know it’s a large construction company.

In August I had the opportunity to train some of their level 3 engineers. They were on an intense two week academy that WBHO had set up for them. These guys are generally in charge of running a construction site. They work in a tough environment with a wide range of people from different race groups and cultures, with different languages and vastly different education levels. They talk straight, very straight, you call a spade a f-king shovel and you don’t pull the punches, that’s a waste of time. When someone makes a mistake coaching is straight you f-ked up, now get it f-king right or I’ll f-king kill you and so everyone knows exactly where they stand and what to do. And then along I come, feeling slightly apprehensive that my work on Empathy, Emotional Intelligence and Transactional Analysis is not going to go down very well amongst a group of straight talking engineers.

Well what a great experience. These guys are amazing. We did work on Personalities, on Parent Adult Child, on Listening, Empathy and Assertiveness. We discussed Negotiation, Conflict and dealing with Cultural Fluency. Every time I connected with them my paradigm of engineers and the construction industry was challenged. Every time we connected we had fun, we laughed and we got serious. AND every time they took what we were discussing to heart, looking for ways to implement the knowledge and skill at work, at home and with one another. My experience with conferences or academy type learning programmes is that they’re about playing - team building and drinking, oh and training is for recovering. Well these guys would not stop working that is and it blew me away. They devoured every thing I threw at them and I was only a small part of their programme. And so I finished on an absolute high feeling fantastic about what I do.

Over this small time while connecting with Marileen, who managed the academy, to deciding what to include and what would be most valuable, to dealing with the guys on the programme I began to get a super feeling about WBHO. Then some of the other Avos who connected with them started saying the same thing. Whenever one of us connected with the WBHO team it was a memorable experience. That starts to tell you something about their culture: they are just damn nice people. That was August. I should have blogged all this then. I got busy, back to back with more training and so you think I’m writing about it now cause I’ve got time no I don’t but I’ve got to tell you I just connected with them again this weekend in a completely different division and it’s the same!

Jules and I went to Swaziland to do two talks on Saturday to all the guys that manage the Plant (aah-ha me speak ‘constructionish’.) They provide all the big trucks, graders, excavators etc to the different working sites around the country and around Africa. Yes we had the same experience. The guys were even more straight than the engineers mentioned in previous paragraphs, but just as warm, friendly, interested and enthusiastic about our messages. So to Marileen, thanks for your faith in us, and to Bill and Rob, thanks for taking us on to do that work with your guys. But it’s not just thanks for the work, you have a culture that has impacted all the Avo’s that met with you.

I thank you for helping me with my quiet revolution. Because of you, I remembered how much I love what I do.

The Guys from WBHO just continue to amaze the Avo Team! Every time we have the privilege to work with you, we discover that your rock solid authenticity, your passion for WBHO and your pride in what you create is what makes you stand out both as individuals and as an organisation.

Let’s take the Amazing-zing Race as an example. When I met you in the foyer, I thought…these guys are exhausted. But as soon as the first challenge was given, you were on track! A serious hunt for clues began on the way into the CBD. The race down Main Street was just that: with some of you tearing back to find that first clue you missed at the start. Then Elaine miraculously found us all steaming hot coffee. That fuelled the mad race to the top of the Carlton: this time the security guards assisted rather than hindered some of you! One of the finest moments was trying to find the clue…which was being hidden by an innocent bystander…as I said, “the answer was there all the time…”

From there to Hillbrow. Wow. Will I ever forget the faces of that choir as you so generously gave them a whopping donation. The song, “thank you!” bursting out, their beautiful voices filling the room! I need to tell you that George e-mailed me and asked that I convey the following message to you:

“Cordial greetings !

What an emotional time that was for everyone. Thanks so much!

Your comments (were wonderful, thank you!): On the Amazing Race

In closing, Jimmy said of us: “stay as you guys are!”. Jimmy, you put our feelings towards you in a nutshell too!

In closing, Jimmy said of us: ‘Stay as you guys are!”.
Jimmy, from myself, Grant, Hilary and Jules: we send the same message. You put it perfectly!

You don’t often get a day with your team to have some serious fun, bonding and learning. The QA team works under a great deal of pressure and they appreciated being given some time to do just this.

Here is what they said about the day:

The course was absolutely inspirational and an absolute pleasure!

We got to know who we are!

Very fruitful and challenging.

I thoroughly enjoyed the course. The highlight for me was the speed dating where I got the chance to interact with all my colleagues.

Highly innovative and motivating workshop!

In life-it’s all about the little things that we constantly ignore or acknowledge.

Do not stop what what you do because you are the best!

I was inspired by the course, to work as a team and also to continue to develop myself!

At 7:15 I arrived at their offices and was shown into what looked very much like a dining room in an old farm house yes, in Bryanston. I didn’t know but the Cape Dutch gabled house was the original farm house in the area - really, really beautiful. It feels like you’re far out of Joburg, with trickling water from the pond and ducks swimming noisily.

So I put my slightly anal “this-is-how-a-room-should-be-set-out-for-training
-especially-presentation-skills-training” view of the world on hold (how do you set out a Dining room???). Yellow-wood table, creaky chairs and squeaky wooden floors.

But I must admit, once over my own stuff, what a great day we had. The guys at Ogilvy have a lovely vibrant way of being, and so the course was full of discussion, debate, personal experiences and laughter. We were relaxed, engaged and tired at the end of two super days. I look forward to finding out how your recent presentation experiences have been, what you’ve learnt and what worked for you.

Here are their comments after the course:

Cassandra Naidoo - The course was incredibly valuable. Learnt lots about my bad habits & now that I am aware of it, I will make a conscious effort not to practice them.

Sabie Macu - This is bloody marvelous!!! Primary learning: I need to stop looking too serious, i.e. Work my facial expression!

Pranusha Naidoo - This was an extremely beneficial course. I found it very relevant and assisted me in overcoming my bad habits. Highly recommended!

Stephanie - Brilliant! I learnt so much about myself, what I need to improve upon, what I am great at, it’s practical!

Lisa Oosthuizen - It was great to learn all the tricks of presenting and to be made aware of any bad habits so they can be eliminated, I feel presentable now.

Guys, please blog and let me how things are going, would love to know of any experiences that really worked for you.

Ciao Grant.