Janelle and I were recently in Uganda running 4 business mentoring workshops for the Mbale business community.
Now, the thing is with Ugandans, ‘time’ doesn’t seem to be an issue for them. If they have a meeting due to start at say, 10 o’clock in the morning, it doesn’t seem to matter if they wander in at, 10:30 or even 10.45am.
We were running business mentoring workshops there, and each day was due to start at 9:00am in the morning and finishing at 1:00pm in the afternoon. Several people arrived on time, but the majority arrived between 10.45am and 11.30am. We had one person who arrived at midday!!
We thought to ourselves, “How are we going to fix this time problem?” It was an issue for us because we were wanting to give them value and the opportunity to learn. We couldn’t do this if they were missing out on at least a ¼ of the sessions we were running. We knew they wouldn’t be getting the best learning value for themselves if people came in halfway through the day.
Janelle and I thought and pondered about this, and how we could change it. We came upon a strategy! We decided that we would give them a course achievement certificate at the end of the workshop for each day that they attended on time and participated in the session. Also, we were going to give one participant who arrived on time and participated a copy of my book, “Family Matters! So Does Business: Five Ways to Keep Your Family and Business Flying.”
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At the end of the first day, we let all the participants know that if they turned up on time and participated, they would go into the draw to win a copy of my book. Also they would receive an achievement certificate, which was nicely made and bound in a lovely blue and gold cover. Each day they attended and each business unit they competed would be marked on the certificate.
Therefore 4 completed modules could be shown on the certificate. What we didn’t realise at the time was how much the book would be sort after and valued as a winning prize each day.
Well, when we outlined this concept, the attendees actually sat up and took notice, and I thought, “That’s interesting.” So we waited to see what happened the next day. We were due to start again at 9:00am the next morning.
We said to them, “What you are doing when you turn up late is being disrespectful to the trainers, Janelle and I, but you’re also being disrespectful to your fellow attendees by turning up late. If this is how you run your business by turning up late, then don’t expect to have other people be on time when you need them to be. It’s not a good way to run your business.”
The next morning Janelle and I arrived for breakfast at about 8.15am. Participants were already there in the training room!!
Wow, and we hadn’t even started our breakfast yet!!!
At 9.00am we started that days training. At about 9:30 we had two or three other participants wander in.
The same happened the next day as well, and on the 4th day.
Most people were there by 8:30am, each day, but we still had a couple of participants wandering in after 9:30am.
By the end of the workshop, the attendees were asking some great questions and implementing their learnings into their own businesses, and as a group had set up a ‘Whats App’ group so they could consider doing ‘joint ventures’ together. Some of the questions and some of the insights that they shared, just blew us away. It was just amazing.
On the 4th day at the end of the session, and the end of the workshop, we then invited those who had arrived on time and had participated., to receive their Certificate. We gave them their certificate having marked each day that they had arrived on time and participated.
Now, some attendees had all four ticks for the four days completed, some had three, some had two, and a few of them only had one.
Once we’d given out all the certificates, four of the attendees came rushing up in consternation and said to us, “We haven’t received our certificate.” To which we replied, “You’re right, you haven’t, because you didn’t arrive on time or participate. Those were the two criteria.”
All of a sudden, the Ugandans in the business community realised that we valued ‘Time’ and how important it was to be on time.
They then understood the value of time, and all the participants saw that we actually meant what we said we would do. That if you didn’t attend on time and didn’t participate, you didn’t get a certificate.
I’m really looking forward to next time when we go out to Uganda to see the difference as to timekeeping and whether they attend on time on the first day, knowing what they’ve learned.
