SPi CLASS: Order for my Chaos? (Part I)

Recently my supervisor asked me to attend something with the innocuous name of SPi CLASS few years ago I would have been filled with apprehension: This has to be some kind of remedial class. Are they dissatisfied with my work?

But today I know that isn’t the case. My boss had put me in charge of the team for when he isn’t around, so it wasn’t a question of my abilities. The class, he assured, was preparation for when I and my teammates would be leading our own teams. To be honest, I would have been delighted to attend whether the class was remedial or not.

The reason for this is because our account was formed only two years ago. Thus, operations within the team tended to be a bit informal, to say the least. In the first few months we pretty much made stuff up as we went along. But as long as we fulfilled the client’s requests, then we were all right.

But even with our client expressing satisfaction with our work, something was definitely missing. It’s not enough to be doing the right thing when you don’t even know what it is you’re doing right. The reason was obvious: After all this time of flying by the seat of my pants, albeit successfully, I needed structure. To have a firm and definite direction would do wonders not only for my performance but for my self-confidence Therefore a formal class in developing one’s work performance looked attractive.

I did some digging around for information about this SPi CLASS. Scout out the terrain and all that. The idea of SPi CLASS began when the Training Solutions Group of SPi Global (Solutions, People, Innovation) was approached by PLDT’s Business Offices customer service in October of 2011. The aim was for the group (the name ‘SPi CLASS’ had not yet been born) to train the customer service department of PLDT to the point where its subscribers and clients would notice the improvement upon first contact with customer service representatives.

Recall how one business tattoos itself in customers’ consciousness the way they clap and cry out: Ready to serve! (See? You knew right away who it was.) Well, the signature gesture introduced to PLDT customer service was . . . the handshake! CS reps are trained to welcome people with a hearty handshake.

This made me pause. Really now? A handshake?  Cynic that I am, I wondered if this was one of those voodoo rituals that seminars like to spout, like mindlessly repeating some mantra before a mirror. But the trainers go on to explain that physical touch syncs the customer service rep’s mood with that of the customer’s and builds empathy, declaring: I’m ready for you!

Reinforcing this empathy is another innovation: The mirroring technique, where the rep subtly follows the customer’s actions. Sits when she sits, smile when she smiles, and so on. I must admit out of all the seminars I’ve attended, these were unheard-of techniques for me. Usually, a competency like ‘empathy’ was inculcated into trainees merely on the strength of the trainers’ persuasive powers in showing the importance of the concept, leaving the trainees to develop their own approach. But SPi CLASS’ practical techniques actually led the trainees to discover the importance of empathy on their own, that ‘Well, whaddaya you know’ moment, as it were (More impressive than an ‘aha’ moment.)

Long story short, PLDT was delighted. From an initial contract with the Training Solutions Group sessions for 200 Metro Manila employees, the arrangement grew to include several regional PLDT business offices.

As for SPi CLASS itself, it has its origin in the Leadership Seminar in 2011 led  by SPi Global’s President and CEO Maulik Parekh. Mindful of SPi’s vision to InSPire Success in the field of customer service, SPi’s Training and Development Team broke from its traditional role of keeping its expertise as an inhouse asset, instead sharing their success formula with other industries.

After the success of the PLDT project the program now called itself SPi CLASS and was formally launched in June of 2012. The commitment and dedication of the people behind SPi CLASS was proven by the manner in which they addressed the teething pains inevitable in any new project. The AVP of Training and Development had to fork over his own money to make an advance payment for venue rental.

SPi CLASS next conquest was a group of 22 customer service reps from NTT DOCOMO, Japan’s biggest mobile service provider.

Wait: 22 trainees?

But the more I thought of it, the more impressed I was. That SPi CLASS would endeavour to train such a small number speaks well both of the trainers’ dedication and the elite status of the chosen few trainees. I once trained small classes myself and learned that such groups cry out for individualized instruction. This was only apropos because the main thrust of this four-day SPi CLASS was establishing personal rapport with customers.

For sure, rapport is taught in just about every call center. Despite this, I am witness to many gaffes that make my ears curl. An agent may be facile in the language but  unaware of nuances like cultural sensitivity. For instance, once I encountered an agent preceding her repeated instructions to the customer with ‘I told you…’ which may come across as snippy to customers.

This is not unexpected when one considers that a regular call center training class covers a broad scope like technical, billing and so on, glossing over some other topics like rapport. But a specialized class would make trainees aware of competencies they had heretofore taken for granted.

After the NTT program, SPi CLASS took on a different direction. Rather than serving one company, they held an open workshop for 16 participants from eight different and diverse companies at a Makati hotel. Moreover, in addition to customer service the scope now included leadership and training.

This workshop must have been daunting, to say the least: eight different major business establishments with diverse needs. Instruction had to be all-encompassing, yet remain individualized, the strength of SPi CLASS.

The trainers thus had to think on their feet, tailoring the modules they used to the needs of not just each company but each individual.

Was it successful? Well, some of their clients, a major insurance company and one of the country’s largest telcos, want SPi CLASS to conduct sessions with their own employees.

After having done my research for this article, I wonder if I now possess the foreknowledge that the other participants do not, and how it would affect my attendance. Would that make me more demanding of SPi CLASS, testing the limits of their abilities? Regardless, I knew that I could only benefit from this.

My next section will deal with my personal experience in SPi CLASS.

The EDSA I Example? Think Again.

Today marks the 28th anniversary of the EDSA I People's Power revolution.

It's gotten so that every time we hear of some popular uprising elsewhere in the world, we point to it with pride and say: We helped inspire that.

But if EDSA I was such a success in changing things for the better, why the hell is our country still in the shithole? To refresh our memory (and man, does our memory need constant refreshing), watch the EDSA-inspired movie 'A Dangerous Life'. After you do, ask yourself: Where are they (the protagonists) now? Heroes have become heels and vice versa. Disgraced figures are once more in power and are continuing to win followers. We're all asking (those who give a shit anyway), WTF happened?!

Worse is that this administration (led, incidentally, by the only son of the President that EDSA I installed) uses the recent economic upgrades from  Standard and Poor's, Moody's and so on as proof that government's business acumen is leading the country out of poverty, so screw those naysaying economists.

But what the economists say is that the upswing is due to dollar remittances from overseas contract workers who have despaired finding a good job here. The experts also say that foreign direct investments are on the verge of leaving (or are staying away altogether) disgusted not only by laws hostile to FDIs but by how this government changes the favorable rules midstream, all because of leftist populist pressure that Ninoy Aquino's son and namesake believe is carrying on the legacy of People Power.

(Interesting that PNoy's mother opened Pandora's Box when she set free Communist leaders who are back to orchestrating these populist protests with the aim of bringing down the economy.)

In Cory's time, investor confidence had already started to wane post-EDSA, and those that remained were finally driven off by the massive brownouts that threaten to repeat itself today because of government inefficiency and just plain incompetence in energy bodies like the Energy Regulatory Commission and the Department of Energy and PSALM, all led by unqualified political appointees who not only failed to regulate, but drafted hallucinogenic-inspired creations like EPIRA and WESM.

If the Philippines and EDSA I are indeed to serve as a favorable example for the rest of the world, then the international community should also take heed of what happened after the euphoria of People's Power petered out. Witness the chaos that followed the Arab Spring which seemed to assume that matters would right itself as soon as dictators were overthrown. It would appear that they and other popular revolts before them had followed the example of EDSA I a little too well.

Ongoing revolutions in the Ukraine, Venezuela and Thailand should take heed: Don't just think of removing despots. Think even harder on what will need to be done to fill the resultant vacuum. There will be that: Duhh...what do we do now? moment, and without a doubt  the new rulers will be inundated with supporters calling in favors to have a seat of power in the new government, just as the Cory administration was, with disastrous results.

(The fact that we cannot say just EDSA, but EDSA I reveals the continual upheavals in this country, the same reason The Great War had to be renamed World War I. )

The Philippines needs to get its act together. Let's educate ourselves in choosing truly qualified leaders. That way we can also serve once more as an example to the rest of the international community.

Private Sector Disaster Relief: Altruism and Business Do Mix

I was in Iloilo City when Typhoon Yolanda/Haiyan hit, but the city itself had been spared. Not so the surrounding municipalities, some of which are just an hour’s drive away.

A few days later I was at the Iloilo Sports Complex packing used clothes and canned food into boxes as part of our company’s relief drive. One of my co-workers cracked that he would stick his picture on one of the boxes. This was a reference of how some politicians were distributing relief goods with their mugs plastered on the packaging or grinning out of streamers at the distribution site, and how these brazen heavy-handed attempts at self-aggrandizement were drawing the ire of the denizens of social media.

This made me think of the relief efforts of both government and private companies. To be sure, the Department of Social Welfare and Development did the best they could, but they were hindered by a system riddled with poor infrastructure and politics.

Then I read of the efforts of the MVP Group of Companies for Yolanda victims. When I was stationed in Manila many years ago I volunteered for one of their relief efforts as a favour to a friend. I am certain that Manny Pangilinan’s face did not appear in any of the relief packages. And why should it? Unlike with politicians, there would be no point.

I brought this up with someone, whose only response was to sneer that big companies use this as a tax write-off. Well, if it gets help to disaster victims, I have no argument with that.

But is Corporate Social Responsibility motivated by pure altruism?

The private sector certainly seeks to improve its corporate image, motivate and retain employees and break into new markets, states a study by IRIN. The same study also says that companies regard disaster risk reduction as an investment essential for the business community.

So there you have it. But the most important questions is this: Is that so terrible?

The problem is that we see any gains by corporations as nefarious activities by blood-sucking, greedy, grasping, money-grubbing capitalists. As a Third-World country, this old chestnut is further inflamed by our entertainment media which inevitably features that cliché of the Wicked Rich villain cackling behind a wall of goons.

The plain truth is that companies need to benefit if they are going to survive. Former US President Bill Clinton said: “We want healthy companies because only they can invest in our communities.”

 If a company goes under, they won’t be much help to the community during times of normalcy, let alone disaster.

Ask yourself: Is ANYTHING motivated by pure altruism? When you dropped P50 into the collection box, did it make you feel good. Some may have done it to gain favors or to assuage a feeling of guilt. We are doing it to serve our own needs, too. Why should companies be exempted? Whether it is a poor widow dropping a copper into the poor box or a major corporation donating a planeload of goods to a storm-stricken people, everyone benefits from helping people out.

The Price of Being the Good Son

The event was a minor one, the circumstances of little significance. Though it happened when I was in high school I remember all the details. I was at a stamp exhibition at Broadway Centrum. It was starting to get dark so I called home to tell my parents that I would be late for dinner. (This was before there were any cellphones.)

That pretty much characterized my  youth. I was Lawful Good, following all the rules as my parents, school and media preached. When one of my siblings erred in their responsibilities, my parents used me as an example of behavior appropriate for a son.

Then the inevitable happened: I got a life. In college I attended more parties and went out drinking with friends. Naturally, by that time I was 'too old' to report when I'd be coming in late. And my parents hammered the guilt trip into me.

And yes, I was guilty: I was guilty of setting unrealistic expectations. They expected me to be the Sonny Boy as long as they were alive. I now regretted that I wasn't a bit more of a jerk back then. Maybe then they would have resigned themselves to 'boys will be boys'.

But alas, loyalty and obedience to family was too deeply ingrained in me. When my father started to get older, he made it clear that he expected me to carry on the business. This, again, was natural. My siblings had chosen to work elsewhere, some moving abroad. I tried teaching at a speech center, but as my father made clear, this was only to be a sideline.

Let me hasten to add that my parents were far from dictatorial. It was my decision to be my father's successor. I could have easily worked as a permanent teacher at some school, but again filial piety made me ride in to the rescue of a business of two generations that could not die.

The result was an unmitigated disaster. The job carried a lot of responsibility, and I possessed none of the aptitude or temperament needed. I continued to slack off until the business nearly went under.

I ended up leaving the business and moving to Iloilo. My brother who handled the Iloilo side of the business took over the Manila main office as well.

Now when everybody was assuming that I was reflecting on my sins, what I was really tossing about in my head was that I was too dependent on letting my parents pronounce what was best for me. I had been a total schmuck to not consider the possibility that my talents lay elsewhere, simply too lazy to look for a different job just because there was one already waiting on a silver platter.

I had always been a lazy weakling, letting others do my thinking for me even though my intelligence was something others said they admired, and not bothering to speak up for myself. (Some would say 'rebel'.) I remember how part of my dad's grooming process was to insist I dress like he did: short sleeved polo shirts, dark gabardine pants and leather shoes. (He would drag me along to shop for these.) When I asked if I could get a long-sleeved shirt he actually got irritated.

Today, I am fortunate to have found my niche, even though I am still paying for my past sins. But now I have learned that if I ever have a child of my own, I will certainly instill discipline in him or her. (As my work mates will attest, I can be a pain of a stickler sometimes.) But I will certainly make sure that he grows up with some guts, to speak out without being insolent. That will mean constant communication with him without badgering him. I will respect his privacy if only because my own are constantly being violated. In short, I will make him WANT to work with me.

Not too long ago, I had to deal with an infuriating person who was lazy, deceitful and totally lacking in personality. Now I realize that my disgust was because I was seeing myself in that individual.

But I will make sure that I will not see that in my child. Because then, he or she will truly be A Good Child.   

  

The Measure of Heroism

Although the recent earthquake was felt here in Iloilo, I was mobile at the time, and a jeepney ride can rival the San Francisco quake of 1906. I only knew something was up when I saw crowds standing outside the different buildings I passed.

In the days that followed I read and listened to the various reports of the horrendous damage in Bohol and Cebu. On the one hand, I felt blessed to have escaped harm. But there was another, less savory feeling overcoming me: One of impotence. I would read how various private organizations like Tulong Kapatid would send relief missions to the hard-hit areas. And here I was, stuck in Iloilo. With every aftershock we felt, my desire to join Kapatid's army grew. Had circumstances been different, I would have tapped into my amassed Vacation Leave credits and enlisted. But alas, I was unable to leave Iloilo, and I literally had no money to spare.

This made me think how a disaster can create the feeling of helplessness on so many levels. Primary of this, of course, are the victims themselves, sheltering inside ruins that may come down on them any time. Then there are the frenzied workers of Tulong Kapatid forever worrying that they may not be moving fast enough, chomping at the bit whenever they got held up not just by earthquake damage but the sorry condition of our infrastructure. Lastly are people who want to lend a hand but are manacled in place for various reasons and have no resources to spare. I fantasized helping the Philex miners by lugging whatever cleared rubble I could carry, or lending my more than passable cooking skills at the soup kitchen. I would be the compassionate yet stone-faced monitor maintaining iron discipline to make sure the desperate crowd didn't rush the call stations set up by Smart Communications. Hell, I'd even lug cables for Meralco or maybe PLDT's plastic bags of relief goods and Maynilad's water to and from a 'choppa' or maybe up and down a gangplank, ignoring the pleas of my compatriots to take it easy, or I might have a heart attack.

(Yes, I admit it's not all altruism. I just love shattering people's expectations that I am a frail, slow moving old fart with my agility, stamina and quick thinking and coolness under fire - I hoped. I pride myself in never crying AY!! when surprised.)

I envy those relief workers and wish I could have joined them. They must be so proud of themselves. But something tells me that they would be so overcome by the tragedy around them that they would have no time to feel pride.

Yes, I would leave my cushy work station and get down and dirty, like these heroes. This is when I came to the conclusion that the measure of heroism is how badly ordinary people want to emulate someone.

The Making of a Grammar Nazi

"WITH!!!"

Heads turned at my outburst, but I was used to it. After three years in customer service, my ears still curled when I would hear a phone representative say: Is there anything else I can help you? Like hunting for the lost piece in a nearly-completed 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle, I found it excruciating not to supply that last word aloud.

(Of course, since I didn't even know the perpetrators of this gaffe, I could not very well march up to them and bellow in their ear holes. Yet I find it fun to be able to express my outrage even if they have no idea what's up with me this time.)

But there was a time I was able to correct teammates. That led one to ask me how I had become so fanatical about getting the correct grammar, syntax, pronunciation, etc. (We worked for a US-Based client.) I would just tell them it was the English teacher in me (which I had been at one time). Little did they know the dark secret I harbored.

The truth is, my applications at English tutorial centers for Korean students and at the Speech Training departments of the previous call centers where I worked had been continually rejected. Apparently, I was the wrong age. (The tutorial centers minced no words revealing this. Not surprising, since many of them are little more than friendship clubs at best and escort services at worst.) It was the old prejudice against older employees.

But what really ground my gears was that the very people who rejected me - the Filipino interviewers at the tutorial centers and the speech department heads and trainers at my previous call centers - were themselves guilty of multiple counts of Pinoy English. This is the brand of English (grammar, pronunciation, syntax, context and what have you) that many here have come to regard as the standard. The help you with example is one such. To be fair (note that I don't say In fairness or even worse Infairness) my interviewers did not say that, but they did commit such atrocities like taken cared of and the unnecessary article, as in That's a good news. They are so convinced that this is correct because 'everybody' is doing it.

(Apparently, the entire population of the Philippines represents 'everybody', and never mind that we comprise just 1.37%  of the world population.)

So these young punks who feel I'm not good enough to be a speech instructor feel justified saying in-TER-val instead of  IN-ter-val and As what I have said instead of As I've said.

Thus I go into a frenzy whenever I hear this Fag English, and correct it every chance I get. Rightly or wrongly, it's my way of vicariously rubbing their noses in the shit that they are full of.

(Lest I be accused of gay-bashing, let me say that Fag English is committed by people of any gender or sexual orientation. I came up with this name because I associate it with loud, shallow, pretentious and showbiz-obsessed aforementioned young punks, which I call fags, faggots or gaffots. See also my article: Dulling the Gay Blade. I guess that it was loud was the main reason I have come to connect it with these types.)

It is ironic that both the historical Nazis and this Grammar /Syntax/Pronunciation/American English Nazi were products of perceived injustices committed against them.

SOCIAL MEDIA DAY FOR THE CLUELESS

There’s an old writer’s axiom that goes: Write what you know. But I’ve been doing that so long it got boring (Translation: I don’t know much), so I decided to try writing on a subject where I am a relative noob. That opportunity presented itself in Social Media Day in Iloilo. Not only am I technologically retarded, but my first exposure to social media was when I wrote a letter to a newspaper editor on a typewriter and sent it by snail mail. My equivalent of Facebook was scrawling messages on washroom walls at school.

This year’s SM Day (using hashtag #fwdPH our hosts pointed out repeatedly) took place on June 30^th in a pizza restaurant open on two sides. Next to the Central Philippines University, it was your typical student hangout. In fact, most of the audience consisted of that group. Social Media Day began in 2010 to ‘recognize the digital revolution happening before our eyes’. (Mashable)

Proceedings began (only 30 minutes late, a positive sign hereabouts) with Community Manager Yen de Felipe introducing the Google Business Group, the first in Iloilo.

The GBG is mainly a community of business people who are passionate about Google products and continually do networking on it with the rest of the group. But don’t let the word ‘business’ scare you. It is open to everyone, and is free. There’s no sales pitch, and if you’re a non-techie like I am, you’d be welcome, because discussion is strictly non-technical. (Tech discussions are on another Google forum.)

So how do I sign up? Well, as soon as I registered for the event by giving my email address, I joined GBG.

The next speaker was Franz Sarmiento of Bacolod, one of 19 Google ‘student ambassadors’ in the country. Just as I was wondering about the perks of Google products now that  GBG had drafted me, Franz answered my question. After a brief demo on the traditional use of Google Maps (finding his way from the pier to SM City), he revealed how Google Maps was integrated with Google Plus by locating branches of a famous chicken house in Iloilo, then linking it to his Google+ account. That way he was able to check out all the reviews of this restaurant by other members of the G+ community as well as writing his own. (Clicking on the restaurant’s +1 button is G+’s version of a Facebook Like, he tells us.) Now anyone interested in that restaurant will be able to read your reviews. And it goes beyond food reviews, of course. You can post your rants on any topic available. He also sent a Check this out message of a restaurant to a friend. 

So what does Google Plus have that Facebook doesn’t? Well, seeing as how Facebook helps you connect with people you already know, the downside is that like any normal interaction with friends, clutter tends to build up. Thus we often see our Facebook page littered with selfies, duckfaces, Instagram food, posts that inexplicably over-use the word Mode, posts describing every bodily function, and so on. In short, stuff that makes you want to scream: “Who the eff cares???!” Few are willing to wade through this garbage to see if anyone out there has similar Likes. Google Plus, on the other hand, concentrates on just your interests and more importantly, draws other people – friends or not - with similar interests: It connects you with people you want to know. It also has a feature to filter out the – uh – over-enthusiastic users.

Finally, keeping in mind that social media’s role is for social responsibility and social good, Franz showed how Google Plus’ Crisis Response Team was used to locate shelters during Typhoon Pablo. Other features shown us were Storm Signal Indicator and Precinct Finder for election periods.

Our break consisted of a viewing of an Illongo gag video that went viral in 2007: Benjo kag Ang Batalyon Pitbull, a redubbed scene from the movie ‘Troy’ (helped along with free Lourlour pizza and their filling thick soup – shame I didn’t get my Tag Your Tea drink). Yen pointed out that the video’s creator had revealed that he didn’t even have a script at the time, showing how even something so slapdash can have wide appeal on social media.

Next up was Prim Paypon, who – living up to his name – is loathe to follow anyone who continually posts selfies and other detritus. (I can relate). He spoke on The Dream Project: When Social Media Makes a Dream Come True. He reminded us that in the distant past (my time) kids would answer the question: What would you like to be when you grow up? with the traditional responses: Doctor, lawyer, etc. But with each succeeding generation the answers became more diverse like mathematician, president, beautiful  etc. (I’m not making this up).

The Dream Project, then, was established to make these dreams come true. It has its origin right after Typhoon Pedring when pictures of the catastrophe went online. The project almost withered on the vine when after more than a week, no response was forthcoming. Then on the tenth day a Swiss NGO informed them that they were willing to donate a large amount ‘no questions asked’.

That windfall gave heart to the project organizers who used social media to reach out to schoolchildren across the country, organizing Dream Workshops to get these 3^rd and 4^th Year High School students to acknowledge their dreams, and then to nurture in them a fire and the know-how to chase after these dreams.

It is shocking, Prim disclosed, that Filipinos who made it big abroad are barely known in their own country, so part of the project sought to inspire these children with these heroes who – like them - started with nothing and turned it into something wondrous, like Reese Ruiz who is literally a rags-to-riches success story where she was able to transform our lowly ‘trapo’ into high fashion.

       

(One of the success stories, Eric Divinagracia, founder of The Little Theater, had dropped in unexpectedly and was good enough to share an impromptu speech.)

After a series of quickie talks given by a diverse group of speakers (from a gym instructor to an advocate of using SM for long-distance courtship) the session wrapped up.

Today’s seminar proved an old adage that there is no such thing as a boring subject. If the speaker has enough passion and the skill to relate to their audience, then any topic is enjoyable, as this one undoubtedly was (even if they rarely touched on Facebook and YouTube). The speakers call themselves ‘evangelists’ but unlike their cosmic counterparts, they did not proselytize on the strength of blind faith alone, but answered the question: What’s in it for me?

I began writing this right after I set up my Google Plus account. I was also heartened to hear that many wanted to join the Dream Project. (Pity that as of this writing, they generally take only volunteers from Bacolod to prevent dilettantes.) One can only – uh – dream they open an Iloilo branch.

(From L to R: Yen de Felipe, Prim Paypon and Franz Sarmiento)

Kudos to the speakers and organizers of Iloilo’s Social Media day. You’ve inspired us to see the true role of Social Media for the betterment of our society.