Together with her husband, Rebecca took the TOF course in Luang Prabhang last (21-29 July 2009). She was so excited after the course and is looking for potential clients for PPMS/DMF workshops. She wanted to start with non-profit organizations and associations and then move on to government entities and perhaps even ADB. She helped Andrea and Pet in the conduct of the recently concluded TOF Shanghai (from 17 to 25 November, 2009) where a total of 27 participants were trained.

In an interview, she said that the whole exercise was her first experience in doing the translation and then presenting the content in the internet. This was her first time and she is glad she took the challenge although she wished that the materials would have been less formal and allowed the use of colloquial. She was glad that she took the entire e-learning course before taking on the translation and presentation assignment from ADB. “I really learned and understood more after I took the e-Learning course in addition to the TOF.”

Her loving husband is a trainer and facilitator, an executive speech coach and a certified member of the International Association of Facilitators. She continues to learn from him as they journey through life together.

Andrea and Peter expect the Chinese e-learning version to be online by the end of January, 2010.

Ms Nana Kvanchiany and Ms Alissa Klima are the module translators and presenters. Nana handled the nine modules of the PPMS/DMF. She graduated from the TOF in Issyk Kul, Kyrgyzstan and co-facilitated with Andrea and Pet TOF in Armenia and Turkey. She is a Project Analyst  in the ADB Tajikistan Resident Mission. Meanwhile, Alissa delivered the Implementation planning and change manage management modules is a freelance facilitator from Uzbekistan. She continued working with ADB related projects since 1999 and has been with the Performance Management Systems activities since 2006. She co-facilitated TOFs in India and Turkey.

Being their very first e-learning presentation experience, both Nana and Alissa discovered the subtle differences between the traditional face to face and the e-learning versions. E-learning allows you to take the course at your own time and phase. You can “stop and go” and repeat a module as you may need. The learning rhythm adjusts with your natural speed and learning style. It is dynamic, lively, exciting, stimulating and practical as it takes the learners into a step-by-step process. Both Nana and Alissa would like to invite the future PPMS/DMF participants, facilitators, implementation managers, change agents, friends and colleagues to take the e-learning course right in front of their computer screens in their respective work places.

The Russian videos will now move into the video and sound editing while other elements like handouts, quizzes and certificates are being translated. Then, the completed elements will be given to the Moodle specialists for more HTML and SWF programming before being mounted on this site. Meanwhile, Andrea has just announced the pre-production of the Chinese versions.

Find answers and stimulating commentary on these and other topics in September’s issue of FacilitateProceedings:

• Blended Facilitation (Have Your Cake and Eat It Too)
• Bridging Cultural Boundaries in Global Teams
• Engage Event Participants To Generate Bottom Line Results
• Can You Select A CEO By Telephone?
• Develop Your Team’s Cultural Literacy

We’ve gotten lots of great reviews from our latest white paper about the 8 design principles for creating interactive webinars that keep participants on the edge of their seats and away from their emails. Download it here: Designing Interactive Webinars.

The Project Performance Management Unit (PPMS)  of the Central Operations and Services Office(COSO) has mounted a TOF wall (now called The ToF Wall) in the seventh floor SouthWest Wing of the COSO area of the ADB building. As its first installment, the Wall shows six panels including one measuring 33 by 60 inches that contains photos of the participants and the facilitators in action.

The Wall also explains the aims of each PPMS module. These are:  (a) Stakeholder Analysis – the first step and diagnostic tool in the DMF approach. It clarifies who is directly or indirectly involved in or affected by the development concern; (b) Problem Analysis – identifying the cause-effect chain of problems improves the project design and it depicts the underlying logic of a results-focused project; (c) Objectives and Results Chain Analysis – helps stakeholders identify solutions, explore alternatives, agree and commit to the desired change; (d) The Design and Monitoring Framework – the results of a participatory process that created ownership of the project; and (e) The Annual Work Plan – the link between project design and implementation.

Everyone is invited to visit the Wall. And for those who could not visit the wall, we are embedding with this post a slideshow of all the photos in the Wall.