Achieve Your Best Result (Sri KDU Workshop)

“Strategise with your team members!” Allan called out to students of Sri KDU.

Strategies, strategise … these are not new words to the teams of eager faces as they settled in their groups to brainstorm their next course of action. However, executing their group strategies for that day, was a new challenge. They took it all in their stride. Be it the teambuilding tasks of He Ain’t Heavy, He’s my Brother! or untangling themselves in Chaotic Tangle or Synergise – Your choice! all team members gave their full-hearted support to ensure that they achieve the team’s goals.

Amidst shouts of “Go left! Go back! Climb over!” in Chaotic Tangle or Synergise – Your choice! everyone listened to the team’s instructions and did as they were told. They managed to untwine themselves from the chaotic mess of tangles they had put themselves in when they merged from individual groups to form one big circle. Communication was the key word to the team’s success!

In He Ain’t Heavy, He’s my Brother! , six students held up pipes forming a bridge for their team members to cross over. This exercise called for tremendous support and a focus on their goal. The initial fears of “I can’t do it!”, “One of my team members is heavy, how can we carry him?” were dispelled when every team member took the challenge. They finished off with positive echoes of, “I did it!”, “I have overcome my fears!”, “I can do it one more time!” The heavier the team member, the greater the rah-rahs and excitement, the greater the support.

In applying what they have learned from these games, Sri KDU students knew that they could apply these strategies in their studies to achieve good results. The strategies are: set a goal, manage your time, work with friends and family members, be committed, be focused.

In their personal follow-up, they need to be committed to their weekly time management planner which Dr. Tan Hui Leng had guided them through at the beginning of this session, which was, “Achieving Good Results”.

In Plan your Goals, the students:

1. Charted their present results
2. Charted the results that they want to achieve for SPM, as all goals must be specific and measurable.
3. Coloured the gap between these two sets of results
4. Their goal is to close this gap through managing their time and activities

What you can measure, you can control. Therefore, students have to control their time and their activities. How do they do that?

Alwyn continued with the session on Managing Your Time, taking them through in the written exercise of “Who are you? What are your roles?”. “What are Urgent and Important to you? What are Urgent and Not Important to you?” howled Alwyn,

“Is thinking for ten hours about what to write in your Facebook, considered Urgent and Important, or is it Not Urgent and Not Important?” Alwyn howled again.

He drove home the point to them – that all their students have to fall into Quadrant 2, which is Important, Not Urgent. This can be achieved with good planning, organizing and prioritizing their activities, and exercising a control over aimless activities. The more time you spend planning our time and activities the more time you will have for those activities.

The A-Team’s formula for that day was:

Achieving your best results = manage your time = self-management

Who’s Who in the A-Team?

The A-Team members from KDU College besides Allan Nelson and Alwyn Lau were Alex Wan and Ann Teoh.

Who’s Who in the D-Team?
Guess who were the Distinction Team members from KDU College ? If your guess is Dr. Tan Hui Leng, you’re right! Let’s also introduce you to Datin Lily Zaiton. She is the Advisor of Special Projects. Dr. Tan Hui Leng is the Deputy Principal of KDU College.

See You Again!
Sri KDU students – see you again on 2 July 2009. Cheers!