Client: Bureau of Customs - District 10 (Port of Cagayan de Oro and subports of Misamis Oriental, Iligan and Ozamiz)
Date: July 7-8, 2012
Venue: Dahilayan Forest Park, Manolo Fortich, Bukidnon
My work at the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines, United Nations and other NGOs have contributed greatly to my consciousness about diversity. Which is why as a trainer, I make it a point to make a rapid audience analysis so that I can better customize my materials, activities and delivery. This makes me optimize adult learning theories and diversity factors such as age, sex, educational attainment, culture of the industry, position in the company and religion. Even my grouping techniques take into account the distribution of women and men.
This latest project was the first time with Muslim participants - 46 out of 126 to be exact. Seeing the profile overview that I requested from the client, I reviewed my PowerPoint presentations, activities and materials for cultural appropriateness. Added considerations: 1.) a values seminar for the BOC is like steppping on eggshells and 2.) majority of participants belong to the 40-60+ age bracket, which means that teambuilding games have to be physically appropriate while at the same time promote learning and fun.
Day 1 started with an ecumenical prayer where both Muslims and Christians were represented.
In an end-of-life exercise during the values seminar, participants were asked to write down possible comments that other people will say about them when they (the participants) die. The exercise went smoothly until sharing time when the Muslim participant who led the prayer went onstage and emotionally announced: "I don't care about other people's opinion's about me, only Allah can judge me if I deserve to join him in Paradise!" He further mentioned that his brother is a mayor and that he has been with the BOC for more than 30 years.
I let him talk and I sincerely apologized if the exercise was offensive to his faith and that the offense was not intentional. The room fell silent. It was awkward but I was able to pick up the momentum again by addressing the whole group with a sincere apology.
During the break that followed the exercise, the fellow who stormed the staged approached me, with both hands joined as if in prayer, to offer me his admiration about my training skills. From that point on he became a very active participant and approached me several times more to thank me for the knowledge he gained from each segment of the training. Other Muslims came to me with assurances that they were not at all offended.
The two-day activity was a resounding success. Everyone had a good time. I got excellent feedback. They want me back for more.
And I will use the lessons I learned the next time around.
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