A process of self discovery the most memorable aspect of TOT - Participants speak

The PRIA team is back from a great learning experience at the 8 day residential Training of Trainers program, jointly organized by PRIA and SSK, Lucknow. The workshop was attended by staffs from PRIA, SSK, Samarthan and Unnati.We had a quick chat with some of the participants to find out what was their experience like. We spoke to Julie Thomas who is a part of PRIAâs gender team, Suman Bhanoo from the Urban Poverty team, Anshuman Karol from the Empowering Civil Society team, Anshu Singh from our field office and Amitabh Bhushan who was attending the workshop as a co-facilitator.

What was the topic of the workshop?

"It was a training to become a trainer where we were taught about what are the qualities one should have to be a trainer, what kind of body language, communication skills we should have”, said Julie. Anshuman added "It was a process to explore ‘oneself.â  And I found it working. It enabled me to know my strengths and weaknesses not only as a professional but also as a person”.

Explaining the objective of the workshop Amitabh said, "to enhance understanding of the role of training as an educational intervention in social change, enhance our understanding of roles & the competencies (including self-development) of trainers in Participatory Training, sharpen the trainers competence in facilitating  small group process and increase capacities in organizing and conducting trainings.”

What was the most interesting learning you had?

For Julie the sessions on principles of adult learning was the most interesting. She explained how adult learning is different from regular learning we do in schools in the sense that adults are emotional learners and they need to feel various emotions, they need to feel safe when they are supposed to learn. For Suman the principle of ‘learning, unlearning and relearningâ was most interesting. Explaining the principle Julie said, "Itâs like if I have to teach you something new about a tissue box, I have to first make you unlearn what you already know about it. As a trainer one has to understand that for an adult itâs not easy to accept new learning.”

"The other thing we learned was how to identify what is ‘your style of learning? Are you target oriented or people oriented? Also what kind of leader you are, are you a coach or a delegate and so on,” said Suman.

Talking of various learning Anshuman said, "through eight days of rigorous processes, trainers left no stone unturned in order to inculcate the values of team work, positive attitude, communication, behaviour, necessary training skills etc. among the trainees. The sequencing of sessions was so skillfully done that I didnât find any disconnect during the whole training programme.”

Julie continued, "We learned about how to design a workshop, training program, technicalities, how to conduct group discussion, role plays, how to facilitate. Towards the end we were divided into groups and each group were given topics on which we had to take session, it was a mixed group consisting participants from PRIA, Samarthan, SSK. So we conducted these sessions using various methods we learned and it was video recorded and then a feedback was given to us one by one on our posture, voice modulation, hand and eye movement, presentation, post_content, facilitation basically every minute detail was caught on camera and there was a feedback for it.

So did you feel embarrassed at any point with the feedback?

"Yes, very much”, said Suman. "But the good thing was that it was on camera so we could see and validate the feedback. Otherwise weâd just be dismissive about them,” added Julie.

For Amitabh the experience was different being a co-facilitator. His most interesting learning was that a trainer has to take preparation and delivery of training with dedication and seriousness in all stages - pre training, during training and post training if one has to deliver quality training inputs and ensure effective learning. Training is not just about concentrating on the thematic sessions.

"In Participatory Training, learning is in three ways-from trainers to trainees; from trainees to trainers and amongst the trainees from each other experiences. Leadership style, group dynamics, process of decision making and communication pattern were also some of the important learning,” Anshu said while sharing her most interesting learning.

How do you think the workshop learning would help in your work?

"I work in the Gender team, training of the community members is one of my core work, so itâs going to help me there,” said Julie. Anshuman added, "I found the ToT extremely useful and I wish I did it 4-5 years back. It is a process to explore ‘oneselfâ. And I found it working. It enabled me to know my strengths and weaknesses not only as a professional but also as a person. It is an experience that taught me many lessons which are going to be extremely useful in my professional career.”

"The learning will help me to carry out process as need assessment, framing training objectives and training design with enhanced effectiveness. Further after understanding the areas of self-improvement I will be able to facilitate all future training programs related with my work more efficiently and effectively,” said Amitabh.

What was the most fun activity during the workshop?

The Role Play was the most fun activities during the training for Anshu. Amitabh thought the openness for self-development was the most fun. In addition there were lot of singing which was fun."Every morning the sessions started with songs and then there were energizers.” said Julie.

What was your most memorable aspect of the workshop.

A process of self-discovery was the most memorable aspect of the workshop for many. Like Anshuman said, "Here you are working with a group of persons who are not very familiar to each other. Suddenly you discovered your leadership and negotiation skills, your skills of managing a team to achieve certain goal in a given time frame, your skills to work under pressure and so on.”

For Amitabh too the group exercise was one of the most memorable aspects. "Participants were divided in small groups and each group was given a subject, specific training method and asked to do facilitation for ninety minutes. During the division of responsibilities each of the team members had long dialogues, debate on their roles and all participants desired for more time and responsibility and at times the trainer team were called to facilitate the process to amicable settlement. Being asked by participants to part of such negotiation in two groups and observing the individual behaviour was most memorable aspect of the workshop for me,” said Amitabh.

Anshu found the session on understanding "Who am I” the most memorable. The understanding self through exercises were excellent. Capturing all the moments through video recording and then discussing the sessions on group dynamics, feedback and facilitation through video shows were excellent, she said.

Tell us briefly about the resource persons

"Dr. Rajesh Tandan of PRIA and Mr. Ashok Singh of SSK were the lead trainers with more than 25 years of experience of conducting TOTs and other trainings at national and international levels. Ms. Shilpi Aggarwal another resource person was also an accomplished trainer with experience of conducting TOT for more than 10 years. It was great to see Dr. Tandon in the role of a trainer in TOT after a gap of seventeen years,” said Amitabh.

"The resource persons were just brilliant. Very down to earth, they had a sense of humour and there was amazing flow in their post_content delivery,” said Suman. Anshu emphasized on the tireless efforts put in by them, "They were concerned for each trainee. Even after whole day training starting from 8.30 am in the morning to 6.30 pm or 7.30 pm in the evening they made preparations for the other day. Their efforts were worth appreciating.” she said. 

Tell briefly about the venue and food

"Sahbhagi Shiksha Kendra was the venue which was very calm and peaceful and training friendly. Every care was taken for the comfort of the trainees and the trainer team. Even the food was as per the occasions. Arrangements were done for the trainees who were in fast for Ram Navami, said Anshu. "It was really big, it had jhoola, garden, aquarium, pets, canteen, TV, sewing and stitching center, mobile repair center everything was within the campus,” said Suman.

Did you get time to visit the city? How was the experience?

"I could not visit the city as the co facilitators were busy preparing PPTs and sorting out videos required to be used for the next day sessions” Said Amitabh. But many other participants went to the city. As Suman said, "we went shopping, had tunde ke kabab, visited Imambara, and did ganjing…

What is ganjing?

Oh there is this place Hazratganj where everybody goes for strolling and we call that Ganjing. We also had paan, Julie added.

You may be interested to read