9 June 09

Simulate and prepare all you want… There is no substitute for reality and circumstances where you cannot predict what the outcome will be.

A while back we prepared profusely to present a section of the Health and Safety Representatives course to Jo Enslin, who would evaluate our competence. What was nice about this whole situation was that we did dry-runs to each other over and over again, and we started to know our audience. The questions that I asked was answered by model students, who incidentally are my peers and knew that they needed to cope with me in their class if they didn’t cooperate in mine… I am sure you can see how that would influence what the outcome in a simulated class would be. Everyone participated nicely, answered the questions I asked and knew what I was talking about. So, Jo passed me competent as my assessment went pretty well.

But then, Yesterday morning we got some bad news about the health of a colleague who would be presenting a Health and Safety Reps course. As a result he couldn’t make it anymore and it was decided that we would assist Mark Andersen in presenting the course as we each prepared a section thereof. I felt pretty confident entering the class and listened to Mark for a while before I had to step up. I presented this tab so many times that I expected I would nail it. But when I started it was way different to how I imagined it. I struggled to get the class to participate in any discussions and then I started rambling and didn’t really want to ask much questions. I understand the content very well, but it is a whole different story when you try to explain a new concept to someone who hasn’t seen or heard of it before. That is something I still have to learn but at least there were things that came from this experience that helped me a lot. I realised that I have to learn to pace myself, the class also feeds off your mood a lot and if your stressed they also tend to be more up tight. I learnt that I have to explain things in a way as if someone has never heard of the concept that I am speaking about. But most importantly, being in front of a real class was great and the experience will stick to me a while to come. I am grateful to have trained in real circumstances and to have taken something from the opportunity.

So I am ready for round two… Bring it on!
Stay classy, and relaxed guys