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126: Individual Growth, Part 2

August 13, 2013 by Brenda Leave a Comment

In the previous article we shared three ‘bean stories’.   Each participant in the twelve-week ‘Communication Skills’ training  course was given five dried beans and asked to come back to the next session with a presentation incorporating all five beans.   Their instructions included reflection using the beans as a metaphor for Growth.  They were to see what lessons or stories they could develop. 

Here are three more colourful stories from a different group currently engaged in a twelve-week programme.

L-R:  Zethu Cele, Ntombikayise Ngcobo, and Nomasonto Sithole.

L-R: Zethu Cele, Ntombikayise Ngcobo, and Nomasonto Sithole.

Zethu Cele - My 5 beans 

I divide my 5 beans into 5 important people in my life:

Friends, family, community, neighbours and colleagues. 

I’m also using 5 different colours to identify these people:

Glitter, green, pink, black and red. 

Friends - glitter

Family - green

Community - black

Neighbours - red

Colleagues - pink 

[1] Friends

My friends are very important people in my life because they are always there for me, when I am in a sad situation they come and comfort me. They carry my problems and find the solution; they make me feel like nothing wrong has happened. When I am in a happy situation they are also there with me. I can even ask advice, they give me good advice. That is why I refer to my friends as glitter because they are shining. 

[2] Family

My family are the most important people in my life because they made my future become brighter. They take care of me when I’m sick. They send me to school. They taught me about god, my culture, when I have financial problems they take care of me even if I don’t have any problem they are always with me. I refer to my family as green in colour because the care they give me leads me to green pastures. 

[3] Community

The people of my community I live with are important to me because I share some ideas with them of how are we going to develop our community. I refer to them as black because we are and we fight development. 

[4]Neighbours

My neighbours are also important people to me because if I need emergency help my neighbours are the first people to give help, although sometimes they cause problems, some of them are jealous. That is why I refer to them as red in colour. 

[5] Colleagues

My colleagues are also important to me because they make my job easier. I stay with them from 8h00 to 16h30, from Monday to Friday sharing the tasks of the department, without them I would not do my job properly. My colleagues are all ladies. I refer to them as pink.

Zethu, thank you for this delightful contribution. 

Ntombikayise Ngcobo - 5 Beans

5 BEANS

  1. GROWTH 
    To be able to grow anything, you need to make sure you know how you are going to go about getting the correct results.  When growing beans you first have to soak them in water until you see little sprouts from the bean.  In life to grow you need to nurture your talents and your God given gift.  By doing this you nurture your talents and gifts and then you are sure to get the best results ever.
  2. VALUE
    If you have one bean in your hand, you must not just see one bean; you must know that, if you plant that one bean you will get a whole lot when it is time to harvest.  Often in life we don’t realise that the things we have hold such great value.  You might not realise it at that time but this teaches us to always value what we have and we must take what we have and think outside the box as to what we can do with what we have, or maybe we don’t really have to think outside the box, maybe we need to realise that there is no box. 
  3. OPPORTUNITIES
    There are a lot of farming opportunities in our country and people can start farming projects in their communities.  Beans are easy to grow and when you plant one seed you are guaranteed to get more out than you put in.
  4. I would then plant my one bean.
  5. The last bean reminds me of my mentor at work, Zanele Mbeje.  During month end in our department it gets very busy and she always says “Eish, people times are hard, beans on toast…” 

blog126pic2

Ntombikayisa, thank you for your colourful and provocative contribution.

Nomasonto Sithole - Five good things about my 5 beans

  1. White
    It is a clean and elegant colour, most designers prefer white when they design their things. White can be mixed or matched with any colour. Most churches use white in their church uniforms.
  2. Blue
    We are surrounded by the sea, it is blue and the sky is blue too, if you look up in the sky where there are no clouds you just feel happy and warm and say, wow the sky is clear. Blue is the loveliest colour for the baby boys.
  3. Green
    It is the source of life, everything we eat that comes from the soil is green. Green is a natural colour.
  4. Orange
    I remember when I was 10 years old my grandmother bought me a 2 piece dress for Christmas it was a skirt and a shirt. I like orange because it reminds me of the good memories of having a grandmother, she used to tell us stories some of them were nice some were too scary but we enjoyed them. I real miss her a lot and sometimes I feel like crying when I’m thinking of my lovely grandmother.
  5. Lime
    It reminds me of my friend who was knocked by a car on our way from school, we were doing grade 6 and she liked the colour lime. Every time she wore something lime she liked to ask us to guess what colour underwear she was wearing.  Then when we guessed many colours that are not the same as hers, she used to say “oh my friend I’m wearing my favourite colour which is lime and she pulled her uniform up so that we can see, so we laughed and enjoyed that.

Nomasonto, you have painted some vivid ‘word-pictures’ for us.  Thank you! 

Isn’t it fascinating how beans can be a wonderful metaphor for Growth?  

If you’d like more information on our Communication Skills course (twelve sessions) or any other training or coaching that we offer, please contact Brenda Eckstein on +27 82 4993311 or brenda@146.66.90.172

125: Individual Growth, Part 1

August 11, 2013 by Brenda Leave a Comment

My symbol for Growth is a dried red kidney bean.  At most of our longer training courses, in Session 4, each participant is given five red kidney beans as part of their assignment for the next week.  Their instruction is that they should reflect on what these beans may symbolise in the personal development.  They are required to incorporate these in a prop for their presentation at the next session. 

At first the young engineers look at me in amazement.  What can you do with five kidney beans?  The two most obvious uses for the beans are planting or eating. However, if you plant them in the garden, you won’t be able to bring them back to the next session.  If you eat them, there is no useful evidence.  

Reflection, creativity and a bit of work enables them to come to the next session with life-changing messages.  Sometimes they are sung, danced, presented as a poem or in other exciting ways.  From the current ‘Communication Skills’ training, course running over a twelve-week period, I have chosen the outlines of three of the presentations as examples of what can be done.

Mark Sibiya (Mechanical), Nondumiso Hlongwane (Industrial), Sanjeev Sing (Mechanical).

Mark Sibiya (Mechanical), Nondumiso Hlongwane (Industrial), Sanjeev Sing (Mechanical).

Nhlakanipho Mark Sibiya - 5 Beans Memories 

I couldn’t think of anything very interesting about my beans. I spent the whole week thinking of what I can come up with, than over the weekend during a church service the Pastor mentioned something about never forgetting where you come from. Every pain you go through is not to kill you but to make you stronger. 

The first bean made me think of the first day I was born, my uncle who sadly passed away told me that the day I was born I actually opened my eyes earlier than a newly born should. So he named me Nhlakanipho which means Clever in English terms. 

The second and third bean I put them in pairs because to me it reminds me of our 2nd year birthday with a very close friend of mine who also sadly passed away 5 years ago. I put those in pairs because Promise and I started schooling together and we got along very well even our parents were friends. 

The fourth bean makes me think of my fourth year at University, this year was a very difficult year for me because in that year I was very emotional because my mother actually got very sick and with all the exam stress to add up to all of that I just couldn’t handle anything coming my way but with the grace of the lord we made it. 

The fifth one recalls my mum’s birthday which is on the 5th of February. This day after my mother had recovered we actually made her day very special to show her how much we really appreciate her in our life’s and for being very strong and fighting for her life just for us. 

So to me these five beans mean a lot as they have revealed some important parts of my life of which made me what I am today, a strong young man who prays.

Thank you, Mark for sharing part of yourself with us.  Your message is powerful. 

Next we have Nondumiso’s contribution:

Nondumiso Hlongwane - Productive negation of beans (seed)

For seed of bean to be reproduced, it has to undergo a process of negation. A bean kept in the kitchen chest drawer cannot reproduce more beans. 

Two beans out of five were thrown on the lawn, and three were kept comfortably in a chest drawer. Amongst two, one got on to an infertile place then died and one luckily fell unto fertile conditions allowing it to develop and grew.

Amongst three from the chest drawer, by chance one fell out and ultimately got swept out to a fertile lawn and developed into a plant. The two kept special bean in the chest drawer got rot for good. They rot because they were protected from the sun, storms and winds. 

A husband and wife were staying together with five children, while all of them were biological kids of the husband. Mother had only three and she used to spoil them throughout their childhood, she never gave tasks. All domestic work was done by the other two; the two were sent to execute difficult tasks sometimes in the rain and all other sort of discriminations. One of them gave up and the one had a strong perseverance, until she became successful in life.

Among the three kids who used to be kept incubated by their mother, the two enjoyed the comfort zone where else one did not enjoy that relaxation zone and chose to sympathize and join those whom were discriminated. She also became successful too.

 In conclusion, if person experiences adverse conditions and if he is a life-long learner, she stands to become successful. And another lesson that you get from this story is that even if you live under luxurious material conditions learning can help you to live a long successful life.

Nondumiso, your approach was novel and inspiring.  We appreciated the way you interpreted the lessons from the beans.

Sanjeev Sing - Five Beans Assignment

When I was given the task to do something creative with my five beans, I had no clue where to start. As the week went on, I realized that I am generally a very organized person and everything I do must have a flowing nature. I had thought about my life and what I want to achieve in my life and what better way to depict this than with beans. I just thought that sometimes thinking about what you want to achieve can be stressful as it isn’t an easy road. Representing these goals with simple beans made me realize I can achieve one goal at a time and gives me a structure to follow without the stress. 

In my bean collage, the first depiction is of me graduating at the end of the year. After my graduation I would like to invest in buying my own home. The next step for me is to buy my German engineered sports car which is shown in the collage. When I have gained enough experience in industry I would like to start up my own business, which is represented by the bean behind the desk. When I have reached the stage in my life where I have achieved all my previously mentioned goals, all that is left for me to achieve is my dream of learning how to fly an aero plane.

If something as simple as beans can achieve all this, then so can I.

Sanjeev’s visual presentation.

Sanjeev’s visual presentation.

Sanjeev’s visual presentation was unique.  He showed his five major goals and each one had a bean as the person’s head!   Well done, Sanjeev. 

So, what could you do with five dried beans?  How could they represent your goals or lessons learnt?  By being forced to be creative, we often surprise even ourselves with the insights that emerge. Try it, it works! 

In the article following this one, three more examples of Individual Growth are shared.  These are from a different group.  Beans certainly are inspiring, aren’t they? 

For more information on the 12-week ‘Communication Skills’ course or any of our other training programmes, please contact Brenda Eckstein on +27 82 4993311 or brenda@146.66.90.172

Reflections on ‘a lighthouse’

November 27, 2011 by Brenda Leave a Comment

My favourite lighthouse is at Umhlanga Rocks, KwaZulu-Natal.  It stands next to the Promenade, outside the Oyster Box Hotel.  I love looking out to sea and seeing the ships beyond.  This was the view from my balcony at the hotel at sunrise on a beautiful morning in November 2011.  

If you have ever read ‘Care of the Soul’ (Thomas Moore) you’ll know what I mean when I say this experience puts me in touch with my soul.  These beautiful surroundings make me feel ‘whole’.

This sight stirs my imagination.  I came up with some facts and questions which I’m sharing. 

It is fascinating that every lighthouse throughout the world has its own unique colours and patterns. 

      Q:  What are your (true) colours?

      Q:  How are others perceiving your patterns?

Lighthouses have identifiable flashes.  The Umhlanga Lighthouse has ‘group flashing’ every twenty seconds and the range is 24 sea miles.

      Q:  What signals are you sending out to others?

      Q:  How do you make yourself known when some-one else is experiencing darkness?   

Lighthouses stand firm on the rocks.

      Q:  What keeps you ‘grounded’?

Lighthouses mark a geographic location.  The Umhlanga Lighthouse is positioned at 29 43 41.57 South, 31 05 18.20 East

      Q:  Where do you choose to position yourself?

      Q:  What is your territory?

The ships waiting to go into Durban harbour use the Umhlanga Lighthouse as a beacon. 

      Q:  How are you ‘showing some-one else the way’?

Lighthouses are designed for a purpose.

      Q:  What is your purpose?

      Q:  What will it take for you to fulfil your purpose?

Lighthouses have ‘keepers’ or ‘custodians’.  The Oyster Box Hotel, in the early years, ‘managed’ the lighthouse from the front-desk area of the hotel.  In many cases, ‘port authorities’ manage the lighthouse.

      Q:  Who are your ‘keepers’, your ‘custodians’?  Who is supporting you?

      Q:  Who are you supporting?

According to www.lighthouses.co.za, the Umhlanga lighthouse  ‘stands guard to some of the most treacherous waters of Southern Africa and not only warns ships of the hidden dangers, but the flashing light is also a welcome to the ships sailing into the safety of the Durban harbour’.

      How can you help others who are sailing in ‘treacherous waters’?

      How can your light help others sail to safety?

The questions above may help you to reflect.  If you’d like to share your own ‘lighthouse’ questions with me, you are welcome to please send me a personal e-mail at brenda@146.66.90.172

To learn more about the Oyster Box Hotel, please go to www.oysterbox.co.za.  You’ll see the lighthouse on the home-page and have a look at the magnificent photos in the ‘outdoors’ section of the photo-gallery.

It would be great to see you there!

Warm wishes,

Brenda

Choosing A Learning Management System

May 7, 2011 by gary Leave a Comment

Gary is a trainer and technology consultant based in Sydney, Australia. Contact Gary at gary@eckstein.id.au for assistance in selecting and implementing Learning Management Systems.

Learning and development (L&D) makes business sense for most organizations. The significant advantages include increased employee motivation and improved employee skills and capabilities in addition to satisfying the various legal and stakeholder requirements to develop staff. Keeping records in relation to L&D is necessary (in Australia electronic records often need to be kept for 30 years) as is making L&D accessible and relevant for employees. A significant portion of L&D involves training and this is the focus of this article.

The needs of learners have changed markedly over the past decade. With the proliferation of technology in business as well as in everyday life, learning is increasingly becoming decentralised and varied in content and method. Whereas ‘classroom’ teaching alone may have satisfied most learners a few years ago, combinations of media and extension of geographic reach are becoming necessary (increasingly video, wikis, blogs and the like are being combined to form successful training materials).

The solution to the changing training landscape has been in the form of software suites called Learning Management Systems (LMS). These software systems combine course content (for online education for example), assignments and records of attendance and attainment making them a single solution for managing most aspects of training in organizations, both educational and in other industries. The uptake of LMS has been rapid, particularly with the widespread use of Internet connectivity. The first widespread ‘wave’ of LMS use began in the late 1990s with the adoption of learning software systems in large corporate enterprises, government departments and larger educational institutions such as universities. We are however on the cusp of a new wave of LMS implementations.

Due to the improving capabilities along with increased support and reliability of General Public License (GPL i.e. free to implement and use) Learning Management Systems, the Return on Investment (ROI) of implementing and maintaining a LMS is proving attractive to medium and even some small size organizations. Whereas in the past LMS cost a fortune to license, implement and maintain, the costs have become affordable to smaller organizations particularly when weighed against the benefits that may be attained. This is resulting in a new wave in rapid uptake and implementation of Learning Management Systems.

The major proprietary Learning Management System developers and vendors had a very valid argument for persuading potential customers to ignore GPL systems; GPL systems lacked support, were short on features and were unreliable. Unfortunately for the major proprietary LMS vendors, the tables have turned; GPL systems are now often more reliable, have more features, have a far broader support based (such as documentation and online forums) and are simpler to implement than the propriety systems.

If your organization is thinking of implementing or updating a LMS it is thoroughly advisable to consider some of the GPL alternatives such as Moodle, Ilias and Claroline. Nowadays a strong case needs to be made to implement a non-GPL LMS.

Ten Tips To Help You Become The ‘Person Of Choice’

May 7, 2011 by Brenda Leave a Comment

BEI successfully provides training in helping people ‘move up the ladder’.  Apply the ‘Ten tips’ illustrated below in your work and personal lives and you will increase your chances of being ‘the person of choice.’ (These were developed through the consolidation of input from various groups of participants in Brenda Eckstein International workshops.)
  1. Develop your competitive advantage Firstly identify your unique talents.  What are you able to offer that few others can?  Then develop these talents so that you cement a competitive advantage.  See how you can match your competitive advantage with the needs of the other person or the organisation. 
  2. Build positive ongoing relationships We all prefer to deal with people we know and trust. Use your conversation skills to help build positive relationships, and then actively sustain those relationships.  Treat networking as a process and not as a transaction.  Promote yourself, maximise your influence.
  3. Communicate effectively Get your point across effectively by first being sure what you wish to communicate.  Then convey it clearly in the most appropriate, effective and efficient manner. Check that your message has been perceived and understood correctly.
  4. Become an expert listener Become valued as an ‘expert’ listener so that others know they can depend on you to understand and follow through on instructions correctly.  Active listening will help you to process and remember facts and also enable you to be more empathetic.
  5. Be reliable Build up a history of following through on expectations and on your promises by completing all assignments efficiently and effectively.  Consistently meet or exceed people’s expectations of you.  People need to know that they can depend on you.  Make sure your performance is always exemplary.
  6. Exercise professionalism Be professional in all your behaviour.  This includes being punctual, respecting other people, their privacy and their time.  Present a professional image in all your actions and in your appearance.
  7. Recognise and optimise opportunities Actively look for ways in which you can be of assistance to others.  Find areas where you can help solve problems.    Also look for opportunities to pursue activities that you really enjoy or are good at.  Maximise those opportunities.
  8. Be approachable, friendly and yet polite Make sure that people find it easy to approach you to ask for help, or to share ideas.  Be friendly and easy work with.  Be respectful and polite.
  9. Practise honest and ethical behaviour Show that you are a person of integrity and that you can at all times be relied on to actively promote and practise honesty.  Be ethical in all that you do.  Do not tolerate complacency in this area.  Do the right thing.
  10. Be properly informed Have the correct facts ‘at your fingertips’. Consciously make an effort to learn all you can about your job and the functions of all with whom you interact.  Research and learn as much as possible about your product and services, your company, its competitors and the industry.

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