Gideon F. For-mukwai The Man behind the Paper.........
Recently a fellow professional speaker spoke to an audience of about 70. It was an interesting presentation. I enjoyed
it. However, two members of the host organisation were not enchanted. One of them said to me, “OMG! It's the same
presentation I‘ve heard twice. Nothing new!” I wonder how many others felt that way.
It got me thinking. Each time we present or redeliver a service, we're-earning our stripes again. It calls to question
our willingness to learn, unlearn and relearn new ways to improve our client’s condition. It dawned on me that
whenever we fail to add value or raise our service level, we undermine our accreditations and certifications. Ouch!
Think about that!
It takes a lot of effort to create an engaging programme, let alone earn a professional accreditation. That
notwithstanding, our accreditations and past reputation by itself does not solve any problems. It does not help the
client improve; our new perspectives do. I believe we get rehired because of our past performance; however the past
alone is not enough.
Therefore, it is not enough to replay the same canned presentation over and over. Like music, we must do remixes
otherwise the audience does not need the artist of the man behind the music to be there in person. We must come
with new instruments and different beats to spice things up.
My commencement speaker in 1997, Professor Victor Anomah Ngu, (a former Queen‘s surgeon) said something that
still echoes in my mind today. He said, “A degree is a piece of paper. Only the man-behind-the-paper can make a
difference.”
Professor Ngu‘s words continue to remind me that my clients don’t care what academic papers or certifications I have.
There are lots of people with similar degrees, but not all deliver the same content. Thus, our clients do care more
about what the man-behind-the paper brings.
As we go about our lives as educators, knowledge brokers or professionals in 2014, we must constantly ask ourselves
what new ideas, insights, tools, strategies and perspectives we bring along to improve the lives of those we meet in
the boardrooms and training rooms?
Whether you are an educator or not, whether you serve a few or a lot of people, whether you live in the countryside
or city, you'll definitely have to interact with other people in 2014. Well, if you are a hermit who lives in a cave, ignore
this idea. Otherwise, consider those you serve. If you do a great job, you as a person will be remembered, not your
certification!
If we do this consistently, we will be able to transform the complaints of the critics into positive emotions. When that
happens, our clients will enjoy the presence of the-man-behind-the high-paper. That's the magic of having an artist
perform live and not play the recorded music.
Gideon F. For-mukwai is a Singapore-based trainer and workshop leader with
international experience in over 16 countries. Founder of XtraMile Solutions,
specialising in crisis resiliency, business storytelling and stakeholder engagement
training programmes, XtraMile helps clients turn pitfalls into windfalls and
problems into profits.
Contact: http://1xtramile.com | [email protected] | +65 9674 1088