Rock.Paper.Scissors.Blog

Munir Virani is a quiet, humble kind of guy whose eyes twinkle as he adroitly draws you into his passion, which is raptors.  I contacted him recently out of the blue & asked him to speak at the monthly Learning & Development roundtable I host in Nairobi.

I was tickled when he said yes because I figured that anyone who can get people interested in a type of bird (raptors) that include some downright ugly critters that eat dead flesh (vultures) has to know a thing or two about teaching & training.

Others think so too as his TED@Nairobi talk has more than 800,000 views.  Both he & his partner came to the roundtable & enraptured us with raptors.  After his workshop we debriefed what he’s doing right when it comes to learning & development.  Here’s what we came up with:

• Know thyself–Munir is a busy guy so asked me to remind him a couple days before the workshop by email & text, which told me that he knew himself as a trainer & what he needed to get the job done.  Knowing yourself, what do you need to get the job done?

• Set the right tone right up front – Munir started by saying that he was more nervous talking to our small group than to a large TED audience, which drew us in with his affableness & honesty.  How can you set the right tone, right up front?

• Set the stage, set a challenge – One of the first things out of Munir’s mouth was ‘I’m going to get you to understand & care about raptors.’ Gauntlet thrown, challenge accepted.  How can you set a challenge for your audience?

• Know thy audience – Munir was talking to an international audience, which he deftly acknowledged, both with local examples as well as international examples.  He even asked someone from New York if she knew a particular region & wove that into his talk.  How can you know your audience & speak to them accordingly?