From Common Sense to Common Practice
After many years of training people, I have come to realise something:
The most important things in life are often not things we don't know. They are things we know, but don't do.
We know we should listen. We know we should care. We know we should appreciate people.
We know trust takes years to build and moments to destroy. We know we should have the courage to do what is right.
These are common sense.
But common sense is not always common practice.
And that is why I believe the job of a trainer is not simply to transfer knowledge.
A trainer must touch hearts.
Knowing Is Not Enough
If participants leave my class saying, “Andy taught me many things today,” I have only completed part of my job.
I want them to leave saying:
“I already knew some of these things. But today, I finally felt them.”
Because when something touches your heart, you remember it differently.
And when you remember it differently, you are more likely to live it differently.
That is why my training follows a very simple philosophy:
Know → Feel → Do → Share
KNOW — Bring Out What They Already Know
Instead of immediately giving people answers, I ask questions.
- What would you do?
- Have you experienced this before?
- If we know this is right, why don't we always do it?
Learning begins when people discover that the answer may already be inside them.
FEEL — Move Knowledge from the Head to the Heart
Facts can inform us. Stories can transform us.
I use stories, personal experiences, reflection and human situations to help participants connect an idea with their own lives.
When someone remembers a manager who believed in them, a colleague who stood beside them, or a family member who quietly sacrificed for them, words such as Care, Courage and Connection suddenly become real.
They turn from concepts into feelings in the heart.
DO — Turn the Feeling into Behaviour
But even being touched is not enough. People must act.
So participants practise what they have learned, through conversations, scenarios, reflection, role plays and real-life situations.
- Can you show Care when someone is difficult?
- Can you have Courage when an uncomfortable truth needs to be spoken?
- Can you maintain Connection even when you disagree?
This is where common sense starts becoming common practice.
SHARE — If You Can Teach It, You Own It
Finally, I encourage participants to share what they have learned.
Tell your colleague. Share it with your team. Teach it to your children. Talk about it with your spouse or friend.
Because when you explain an idea in your own words, it stops being the trainer's lesson.
It becomes your lesson.
And when you live it and share it, the learning continues long after the class has ended.
I Don't Want Participants to Remember My Slides
Years later, people may forget my PowerPoint. They may forget the models. They may even forget some of the words I said.
That is okay.
What I hope they remember is how they felt, and what they decided to do because of it.
- Perhaps they listened more patiently to someone.
- Perhaps they finally thanked a person they had taken for granted.
- Perhaps they found the courage to have a difficult conversation.
- Perhaps they became a better manager, colleague, parent, spouse or human being.
That, to me, is training.
My Measure of a Successful Class
I don't measure a successful class only by how much participants Know.
I ask whether they Feel something.
Whether they Do something.
And eventually, whether they Share something.
Know → Feel → Do → Share.
Because knowledge that stays in the classroom has limited value.
Knowledge that enters the heart can change behaviour.
Behaviour that is shared can influence another person.
And that person may influence another.
I don't just want to be a trainer who teaches minds.
I want to be the Trainer Who Touches Hearts, so that what people learn becomes what they live, and what they live becomes something worth passing on.
Andy Ng
The Trainer Who Touches Hearts
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