Le Grand Tour D'Asia: Day 40 of 58

Garr Reynolds at KLA-Tencor Japan

Tuesday, February 16th

Learning Moment: Yokohama, Japan

We had a big day today.

I conducted the slide:ology workshop at our Japan office, where I was joined by Garr Reynolds - the author of Presentation Zen and Presentation Zen Design. Garr was, as expected, brilliant.

He spoke about Simplicity, Restraint, and Naturalness - three design criteria that are too often absent in the high-technology world. Garr models all three, making it easy for anyone to understand and identify with him and his message. He's also, by the way, a lot of fun. We had some good laughs throughout the day.

If you're ever fortunate enough to have the opportunity to hear Garr speak, take advantage. If you can't hear him speak live - order his DVD. It's the next best thing.

Le Grand Tour D'Asia: Day 28 of 58

With Maggie Lee at the KLA-Tencor Offices

February 04, 2010

Learning Moment: Singapore

What a great day...

Why?

Well let me list the reasons:

1. Today I led a slide:ology session that was great. The audience was totally engaged, we worked on some interesting issues, and I learned a lot (even though I'm the instructor, it isn't a good session unless I learn a lot).
2. I received great support from Maggie Lee. Maggie is a member of the Singapore HR team. I'm consistently pleased and humbled by the help I get from our Asia HR teams. Maggie is great. That's her photo above.
3. Angie and I had a good dinner at The Pump at Clarke Quay. There are few better people watching spots than Clarke Quay. The fact that dinner was good was a bonus.
4. We heard a great singer - Jai - at Murphy's bar. I stopped Angie and said, "Wow, that chick can sing." Turned out 'that chick' was a guy, and that the guy - Jai - really could sing. We stopped in to hear one or two songs and stayed until midnight.
5. I got to sing with Jai. Jai saw me singing along with the songs he was playing and asked me if I wanted to sing. No, I answered, until I saw that anyone could sing with him. "Do you know 'With or Without You', I asked?" Yes he did. And yes I did - sing, that is. It was my first time on a stage in about 5 years, and yes, it felt great. Jai and I had a good time, harmonizing and improvising a bit - we extended the ending and had a few laughs. That, my friends, is what I miss about music... the improvisation.
6. Angie and I got a tri-shaw ride back to the hotel. Despite all our years and visits to Singapore, we've never had a tri-shaw ride. Well, tonight, that streak ended.

There is no recipe for an outstanding day - but I can suggest strongly that if all of the above things happened to you, it would be a great day for you as well.

Le Grand Tour D'Asia: Day 20 of 58

Geetha, Jaishree, and Uthra

January 27th, 2010

Learning Moment: Chennai, India

Today was a relatively quiet day.

It was cloudy during my commute into work; the first cloudy day we've seen. I continued reading "You Must Be Joking, Mr. Feynman" during the ride. Just as we reached the office, rain began to fall. Everyone seemed surprised, as the rainy season isn't due to start for another month. It was a short rainfall. The rest of the day was pleasant.

Our second day of the "Managing at KT" workshop was engaging. The group asks many interesting questions. We spent a fair amount of time on SMART goals. Most people don't realize the power of well-written goals, but these folks understood. It's rewarding to see them create strong goals.

Members of our stellar Human Resources team - Geetha, Jaishree, and Uthra - stopped in to make sure all was going well, so I took the opportunity to pose them for a picture.

Learning the Kirkpatrick Levels

The gang gets together

For the past two days, we've had the pleasure of learning from Jim Kirkpatrick, co-author of "Implementing the Four Levels". In this photo, our team (Mike Gilbert, Brent Bloom, Martin Woodrow, Jim Keller, Kevin Weafer, Jim Kirkpatrick, Keith Bartholomew, and myself) closed out the event.

The workshop helped us identify ways that we can better evaluate the success of programs that we're going to implement during the next fiscal year. We were challenged in many ways, and gained a lot from the experience.

I would highly recommend that you discuss your key learning programs with Jim. You're likely to identify more ways to measure the success or failure of your program.

I love it when a plan comes together...

Brent Bloom and Nancy Duarte allow me to join them

Yeah, that quote gives away my age, but who cares?
I've been working with Nancy Duarte - author of "slide:ology" - since last September, building "slide:ology@kt".

"slide:ology@kt" is a day-long workshop, based on her excellent book, that is customized to our environment at KLA-Tencor. Nancy and her whole team at Duarte have been amazing to collaborate with. They are smart, fun, and very, very cool.

All of our work came to fruition this past week, as Brent and I delivered the workshop to thought influencers and leaders in KT. One senior executive who was holding an all-hands meeting the next day put these principles into immediate practice. He told us the difference was clear and powerful!
How great is that?

It's interesting, though... I've never been a long-haul kind of guy.
I'm a 'high I' in DiSC profiling: creative, energetic, with the focus of a butterfly: cruising from flower to flower, drawn by whatever grabs my attention.
This is one of the longer projects I've ever stuck with. It wasn't hard to stick with, because the project has been endlessly interesting. I've learned so much from Nancy's content and approach.

On one hand, the process has been energizing and rewarding. On the other hand, as soon as we finished Thursday's session, I crashed. I've been flat-out exhausted for the past 48 hours.

That's why I had to tweet, "I'm tired... but it's a good kind of tired."

Our "Dress Rehearsal"

Ed Muzio (2nd from left) and the KT Gang

On Wednesday, our longtime friend Ed Muzio spent the day at KT, introducing us to a very cool simulation.

Ed is author of Four Secrets to Liking Your Work, a book I highly recommend to anyone who wants to find more joy in their work. The excellent companion website contains case studies and examples from the book.

On Wednesday, Ed took our team through an exercise called "Dress Rehearsal". It's a complex game that simulates matrixed organizations, played by 9 - 13 players. It tests time management skills, teamwork, critical thinking, resource management, role definition, negotiating skills, and a lot more. It's fast-paced and fun (in a stressful sort of way).

We did well, beating the median scores in every round.

I can't say I'm surprised. We have a well-rounded team with a great attitude. Results always come before ego with this group.

We took away a lot of learnings from the exercise. I'd share them, but I hate to give away the game.

You can find more information about "Dress Rehearsal" from Ed's company, Group Harmonics.

slide:ology @ KT

The incomparable Nancy Duarte at KT

Today was a very cool day.

Brent and I delivered the slide:ology workshop to a select audience of executives and influencers at KT. The turnout was great and the buzz was amazing.

Slide:ology author Nancy Duarte was in the house.

Duarte Senior Designer Eric "The MacGuyver of PowerPoint " Albertson was in the house.

A bunch of my favorite colleagues and internal clients were in the house.

Pizza... was in the house. What could be better?

Have you ever seen a lightbulb go off over someone's head?

Well, I saw 40 of them go off today. It was awesome.

We shared the principles of slide design. We looked at the results of an internal team that saw an 1800% improvement in slide design (yes... 1800%!!!).

We practiced a new way to create slides. We saw a change.

So, get off your butt. Buy slide:ology. Take the class.

Change your slides. Change the world.

Now (if not sooner).

Thinking Strategically

Our learning team with author Steven Stowell (2nd from right)

The phrase 'strategic thinking' is one of the more dangerous phrases in the business lexicon.

Everyone says it.

Everyone agrees it's important.

Everyone nods a lot when discussing it.

Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure that no one has the same definition in mind...

I'd suggest that strategic thinking belongs with 'pornography' in the "I don't know how to define it, but I know it when I see it" Hall-of-Fame.

Because of this, I was pleased to see that Steven Stowell had a book called "Ahead of the Curve: A Guide to Applied Strategic Thinking". Steve co-wrote two of my favorite coaching books - "The Coach" and "Win/Win Partnerships", so I felt pretty confident that Ahead of the Curve would have some great insights.

I wasn't wrong. Ahead of the Curve addresses strategic thinking - with a little 's' - for everyone. In Steve's mind, a decision about buying a house or choosing a college is a strategic decision - so everyone should have some strategic thinking skills.

It's a great point, and a really good book.

We brought Steve in last week to lead a workshop for us, and then we received certification to teach the course. The workshop was fast, practical, and interesting. The attendees learned a lot.

Steve is an excellent facilitator, and a truly generous soul - with both his time and his knowledge. If you're looking for a course on everyday strategy, I would recommend checking out Steve and his company CMOE.

About Glenn Hughes

Design and Delivery of Authentic, Innovative Global Learning

Glenn Hughes is Director of Global Learning for KLA-Tencor Corporation. He holds a Bachelors Degree in Engineering and a Masters in Adult Education and Training. His mission is to "Accelerate Learning" for global teams and individuals (see Glenn's LinkedIn Page).

To accomplish this, he leverages his engineering background to facilitate analysis of opportunities and then design the appropriate learning solution for each challenge.

Possessing a robust toolbox and extensive experience in Global Operations, Glenn lived in Japan and Singapore for more than 10 years and continues to spend 8-10 weeks a year doing business in Asia.

Called the 'Indiana Jones of Corporate Learning' by one colleague - for his willingness to travel anywhere and explore any problem - Glenn has practical experience and insight into doing business cross-culturally.

Glenn has designed learning solutions for:

• Duarte Design's slide:ology
• PowerSpeaking's Speaking to the Big Dogs
• Group Harmonics' Make Work Great
• huesworks' SMART as Hell

Glenn's Certifications include:

• Edward de Bono's Six Thinking Hats® Instructor
• Ken Blanchard's Situational Leadership II® Instructor
• Duarte Design's slide:ology - The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations® instructor
• Kouzes & Posner's The Leadership Challenge® Workshop Level I Facilitator
• PowerSpeaking's Speaking To The Big Dogs® Instructor
• PowerSpeaking's FastTrackSpeaking® Instructor
• PowerSpeaking's HighTechSpeaking® Instructor
• Ken Blanchard's DiSCovering Yourself and Others® Instructor
• Vervago's Precision Q&A® Instructor
• Marcum & Smith's Egonomics® Instructor
• Coach U's Core Essentials Coaching Graduate
• InsideOut Coaching® Instructor
• CMOE's Applied Strategic Thinking® Facilitator
• Mager Associates Training Director's Workshop
• Aperian Global's Working Globesmart® Instructor
• The Grove's Principles of Graphic Facilitation
• CMOE's 8-Step Coaching Model
• Barnes and Conti's Exercising Influence®
• Miller Heiman's Executive Impact®

Glenn also practices:

• The 7-Step Problem Solving Method
• The Language Processing Method
• Patrick Lencioni's Five Dysfuntions of a Team®
• Tuckman's Team Development Model
• ProSCI's Change Management Process and ADKAR Model
• Charthouse Learning's Fish! Philosophy®
• Lominger's Leadership Architect Competency Cards
• hueswork's PhotoFacilitation

Training Top 100 - Again!!

Shameless self-promotion, I admit...

For the 5th consecutive year, KLA-Tencor was named to Training Magazine's Top 100.

Here's the downloadable article of the 2006 winners.