Talking

Yesterday was a milestone in my budding career as an HR/OD consultant. After several months of being part of a team or being a co-facilitator at a number of compliance training seminars, yesterday was my first shot at doing a whole day workshop on my own.

WARNING: I’m going to do some bragging now so read at your own risk. The workshops went very well and I received plenty of congratulatory comments from the participants (a total of about 60 people). But the best comment was from Doug, a guy in his late fifties who remained very quiet (almost half asleep) throughout my presentation. He came up to me as I was leaving and said, “ I’ll admit I was not looking forward to this session but you made it worthwhile. That was a great workshop and you did a great job as a presenter”. What a compliment – especially after speaking about and facilitating group discussion on the edge-of-you-seat topic of “Workplace Harassment and Violence Prevention”!

I think one of the best things I like about my job is the fact that I get to do a lot of talking. And I mean a lot. As my dad and hubby lovingly point out, I’ve got “the gift of gab”, which is a nice way of saying “sobrang daldal niya” (“She’s very talkative”).

Of course, with my job I literally talk all the time. To begin with there’s the hundred and one phone calls I make a week and the presentations I give trying to market our consulting services; then there’s the one-on-one coaching sessions I have with clients both in-person, on the phone, or over the internet; and finally there’s facilitating group workshops where I’ve had my fair share of airtime.

But obviously this love for the spoken word is not just on a professional level – the fact is I like to talk (yes - I like to listen too. I guess with some people it does NOT always go without saying).

I inherited my love for having conversations, that are for the most part intelligent (!), sometimes trivial, and in some instances downright silly, from my dad. A brilliant man who was known as “the bubbling brook” (aka the "clucking chicken") back in his younger years. Although in hindsight, most of my family (the females especially) are great talkers – family gatherings are never ever silent affairs.

And, of course, there are my friends. Especially my really good friends (you guys know who you are). Phone lines have been burned, teachers have been angered, restaurants have closed for the night, cellphone bills have doubled, and yet our conversations go on. Just imagine us getting together after not seeing each other for months – it's every man/woman for him/herself – definitely not for amateurs :) Classic example of “birds of the same feather …”.

And yet with my hubby, we're really more a case of “opposites attracting”. Great how that worked out though.

But I digress, back to my point, I do enjoy having conversations with people – most people. In fact, if I had to list my favorite things to do, most of them would probably involve talking - that and eating. In my opinion, the two main elements of a perfect evening include: good conversation and good food.

So, to summarize the last 9 paragraphs, I facilitated a great workshop yesterday and I like to talk. I could have stopped there - but have I mentioned I like to talk?