Amazing.

Yesterday I had to conduct a training at work and realized I've ran completely off the lesson plan that I've been using over 2 years yet I wasn't worried.

Instead of 'presenting' the theories of the KPIs to them all at once, though I still used lots of interactive questionings and probing, I've threw in more questions for them discuss just to elicit concepts and meanings rather than letting them all come out from me.

In the past, I would ask them, "What is IPT (items per transaction)?"

Their usual response would be, "Items Per Transaction."

I would then ask, "What does IPT measure?"

They would go, "Average number of items each customer purchase in one transaction."
I would be satisfied with them because they were correct.


Yesterday, I found myself changing my approach. I asked, "What is IPT (items per transaction)?"

They responded expectantly, "Items Per Transaction."

I asked, "What does IPT measure about you?"

They went, "Average number of items each customer purchase in one transaction."

I added, "Think again. IPT is one of your KPI. Why would we want to measure the quantities that customers buy, which we cannot control?"

They paused for a while and went quiet. I repeated the questions slowly again but emphasized on the last 2 words, "What does IPT measure about you?"

Suddenly, one of them started to mumble, "Average number of items each customer purchase in one transaction... customer buy... we sell, they buy... OH! Average number of items we sell to each customer?"

That moment I wanted to scream with excitement and gladness inside me! I kept my cool and repeated slowly after him, "Average number of items we are able to sell to each customer! Very good!"

* * * * * * * * * *

This type of exchange went on the whole day and I felt that they were able to establish the reasons the set of KPIs were given to them by the company more than before. I had actually practised what I had learned and turned to focus on their learning outcome and their understanding rather than the objectives of getting these information to them via pure-training.

Words could not describe my feelings. It just made me feel so ... 'good' and I'm going to continue to practise the skills and theories picked up.
I've learnt, I truly did.