February 13, 2007 | Awake & Dreaming

Well today I wasn’t sure what to expect form the session of Train The Trainer. I suppose that those of you who work in huge MNCs or other such companies and work in their customer care, quality or training divisions may be familiar with this term. It is molding the trainers (and in this case the Process or Team leaders) to be able to impart the required tools to properly train and guide the entry level trainees and customer care representatives. I did not have anything like this in my old company and I wish I did. I had to develop my own techniques and styles and methods as I went along. I may have to unlearn what I have learnt all this time. So we went in to meet our trainer coach, a lady from the corporate office in Mumbai, to the sounds of Celine Dion belting out ‘I’m Alive’ playing on the speakers attached to the laptop! WTF? Anyhow we met her, a tall Punjabi gal originally from Chandigarh and now posted in the client’s corporate office in Mumbai. She greeted us and got us to introduce ourselves. She started it out with a game and promised us chocolates when we contributed correct answers for the many tricky quizes she had arranged for us. For the record I had properly got one right and was ‘rewarded’ with a chocolate bar! I didn’t eat it thought, instead giving it to the rather pretty Quality person from our client’s Kerala office we had befriended and who was sitting behind me. ;)

The session was interesting and gave me lots of ideas but was also a bit dragging. In the afternoon it was a fight to keep our eyes open. Knowing this, she had already devised a plot to make us dance to …… ‘Macarena’! WTF again??!! Anyway, she got one of the guys to do the lead and soon we were all shook up! The evening did drag on, although again I must say that she does speak very well and is a very poised and confident person and I did learn quite a bit from this session. We have another 4 more days to go – I just hope she doesn’t make me sing & dance to ‘The Ketchup Song’.

My ICICI bank account problems seem to be solved and I deposited my cheque in my account this evening. :P

“IF I SPEAK AT ONE CONSTANT VOLUME AT ONE CONSTANT PITCH
AT ONE CONSTANT RHYTHM RIGHT INTO YOUR EAR, YOU STILL WONT HEAR”

Song for the day – “A Small Victory” – FAITH NO MORE

Below is a transcript of Primeau’s comments following the presentation.

â€œI have been preparing for this evening for about a week or so, and I am going to try and keep my composure. I have a lot of things to say so I want to make sure I get it all in.

“When the Flyers first brought to me this idea, I tried to think what this night is about and for me, this night is about the opportunity for me to say thank you to all those people who had influences on my life and my career.

“I would first like to thank the two people who obviously have the greatest influence on not only my career but in my life: my parents. With their selfless dedication to me, my brother and my sisters, (they) enabled me to stand here today and I thank you.

“To my beautiful wife, Lisa, and my children, Corey, Kylie, Chase and Cayden who are my support and my strength and who gave me so much of my motivation to succeed. I love you guys.

“The Detroit Red Wings, Mike and Marian Ilitch for giving me my start and the opportunity to play in the National Hockey League, thank you.

“To the Philadelphia Flyers, my teammates, Mr. Bob Clarke and Mr. Ed Snider who have been more than gracious to me and my family for which we can never repay them for their generosity and support and for their faith and confidence they showed in me. Thank you.

“And now for me the most important thank you of this evening, and why I stand here so humbly. I learned early on during my stay in Philadelphia that you need not be the most talented, the most skilled, the best goal scorer or the best playmaker, but if you play with passion, desire and a blue collar attitude you would and could be embraced more than you could ever imagine. I took great pride in putting on my Flyers jersey because I felt as though every time I did I had your support. I will always give credit to the fans in Philadelphia for creating my identity as a player and as a person and for that I humbly thank you.”

A fitting honour for a great player. You can read more about Keith Primeau in my old blog here.