training

There are more than 1 million meetings in South Africa per day. These are not just three or four friends getting together over a beer – these are formal gatherings ranging from budget discussions to conferences, conventions, training sessions and motivational sessions for under-performing employees. According to Gillian Saunders at Grant Thornton, there were 101 000 conferences held in South Africa in 1999. From these figures, it doesn’t take rocket science to extrapolate the need for high quality, top class speakers.

Many years ago I was told the story about an IT technician who was called to an executive’s office to fix a computer. The techie arrived, opened the machine, turned one screw, closed it and fired it up. It worked perfectly!

When the executive received the account for USD 255 he was incensed. He phoned the techie, demanding to know how turning one screw could possibly cost so much.

 I have been involved in the teambuilding industry since 1994 and as a result I often get asked by industry publications if I’d like to write editorial or them.  When I agree, they want to charge me a fee because they feel that my article will constitute “marketing”. 

The real message behind this practice though, is not that they want to charge me for marketing, but they are willing to place anyone’s contribution if they are willing to pay.  Irrespective of the author’s experience and / or standing in the industry. The teambuilding industry has changed dramatically in recent times, in part due to the recession, but for the most part because people have changed along with companies' expectations of these excursions.

I’ve done this with great effect in the past – both with small groups as part of Managment Training, but also at conferences with groups of a couple of hundred people!! The beauty of juggling lies in the fact that we’ve all marvelled at the skill of jugglers since we were little, but few of us have ever managed to acquire the skills.