Negotiation and Communication Skills Workshop (24th April 2013) -Special Discount for readers of this blog!

Hello everyone! I will be visiting KL from 12th April until the 26th April 2013. I hope to catch up with as many of you as possible during that 2 weeks. During this visit, I will be conducting a workshop called "Negotiation & Communication Skills Workshop" at the Renaissance Hotel on the 24th April 2013. The organiser of this event is Crimson Logic. I understand from the organiser that there are still a few spaces left. In this workshop, I will be sharing with you some of the techniques in creating instant rapport. This is a practical interactive workshop. There will be role plays and exercises to allow you to attempt these new skills. I hope to see you in the Workshop. The organiser has very kindly agreed to give a discount of 15% if you mentioned that you heard about it through this blog! See you in KL and hopefully I will see you in the workshop! Cheers

Mediation Skills Training Course at the Industrial Court - 18th -22nd Sept 2012

Distinguished participants

"Mediation Skills and Techniques" book presentation

The Malaysian Mediation Centre (MMC) conducted a 5 days Mediation Certification Course at the Industrial Court, Malaysia recently. It ran from 18th September 2012 till 22nd September 2012. The venue was at the Industrial Court itself in Kuala Lumpur. The trainers were Nacha, Meg and myself. Nacha and Meg did most of the work while I handled the topic on techniques or better known as “Dealing with Stubborn Behaviour”. I informed the participants that I intend to replace the negative word “Stubborn” with “challenges”. Why? Because challenges can be overcome! The participants were made up of the Chairmen and Chairwomen of the Industrial Court (“Industrial Court Judges”), the Registrar, the Deputy Registrar and the Assistant Registrars. They came from Kuala Lumpur, Perak, Sarawak and Johor.

The feedback from the participants was positive. I think most of them enjoyed the course very much. I wish I could share more techniques with the participants but because this  is a Certification course, there were a lot of grounds to cover apart from mediation techniques. As usual, the training would not have been possible without the support of the wonderful coaches like the ever obliging Puan Hendon, the ever friendly and helpful Tejinderpal, the witty Wong Lu Peen, Sumathi and a few others. For the record, the trainers and coaches were not paid. All monies collected go to the MMC fund.

Rachel Tan who is now with Thomson Reuters Malaysia (Sweet & Maxwell Asia) made an appearance with copies of my book. The Industrial Court bought seven (7) copies of my book to be distributed to the various Courts in Malaysia. Thank you so much for the great support. All of us had a great time and hope that we will be able to conduct more of these trainings in the future.

Risk Management Workshop 2012 - "Communication: Connecting People"

I was amazed with this wonderful group of people!

Here is Betty, the lady with the big smile (far right)

Almost full house!

Kudos go to Mysahra Shawkat Ali 

I gave a talk on “Communication: Connecting People” which was one of the sessions in the Risk Management Workshop held at the Bar Council Auditorium on 21st June 2012. The workshop was very well attended, as a matter a fact, almost full capacity. The organisers mentioned that they have to turn down a number of people as they could not accomodate anymore due to logistic issues. The Risk Management Workshop was very well organised by Mysahra Shawkat Ali and her team.


Before my session started, I was pleasantly surprised when a fairly mature and pleasant lady participant walked up to me to introduce herself. She mentioned that she met me almost ten years ago and is a classmate of Jennifer’s aunty. She remembered meeting me and my family almost a decade ago. We had a nice chat, catching up with each other’s life. Her name is Betty and has been working with Tommy Thomas (a senior lawyer) for many years.


I enjoyed interacting with this group of wonderful participants. It is always a real joy to speak at a workshop where you can see so many smiling faces. I spoke about handling internal, external and electronic communications in the Company. I also shared with the participants some of the techniques that they can use to deal with challenging clients and also I went through a list of DOs and DON’Ts.


At the end of the workshop, a short video clip of my book launch was shown. Again, I was pleasantly surprised when a thunderous round of applause was given at the end of the video clip which also signalled the end my session. Mysahra, thank you for making it a memorable day for me! Let’s hope I get some good reviews from the participants!

Introduction to "Mediation Skills and Techniques" workshop

In conjunction with the launching of “Mediation Skills and Techniques”, I conducted a workshop called “Introduction to Mediation Skills and Techniques” at the Raja Aziz Addruse Auditorium, Bar Council. We had over 40 participants in that workshop! I was informed that as at to date, this is the biggest group of participants in any Mediation training course held at the Bar Council.

The purpose of the workshop was to introduce some of the techniques in creating rapport, eliciting information and accessing the parties as an effective way in communicating with people. We started the workshop at 9.00am by doing a quick overview on what is Mediation and the protocols associated with Mediation. After that, we explore the concept of reframing, anchoring/associating and “mirroring”. We then applied those techniques in creating rapport and eliciting information. To demonstrate the use of those techniques, I had the privilege of meeting a very nice and enthusiastic Mediator by the name of Kamsimah Mohamed from the Financial Mediation Bureau. She sportingly volunteered to be my “target” and shared with us some information of her private life. Thank you, Kamsimah!

After that, we had a couple of breakout sessions and then time for a tea break. As usual, Mr. Ragu and his team (the caterers) provided some mouth watering food such as nasi lemak and some kueh for breakfast. I did not partake in the food as I normally do not have a heavy meal when conducting workshops.

After the break, we did listening skills and more techniques. I introduced the technique in picking up cues from the parties. That segment went on until 1.00pm. We then took an hour break for lunch. Again, the lunch prepared by Ragu was sumptious! What followed after lunch was something different. I decided to hypnotise the participants and created a “Circle of Excellence”. The “Circle of Excellence” is a subconscious programme that the participants can call on when they require a boost in their confidence either to speak or to perform in public or whenever they want to feel motivated.

Immediately following that, we did a role play. The role play was done in two different styles. The role players were Sivanesan Nadarajah, Rachel Brooke, Jonathan Yoon and myself. I think the participants enjoyed the role play as there were some laughter and applause.

All in all, I believe it was a pleasant workshop. I am truly privilege and honoured to have met so many people both from near and a far (as far as from Penang) who attended the workshop. Some of them include Natalie Shobana Ambrose (an Analyst with ISIS and a Columnist with The Sun), Kamsimah Mohamed (Financial Mediation Bureau), Nehrman (Financial Mediation Bureau), Ibrahim Baharom (IRD, Ministry of Human Resources), Farez Mohd Ali Jinnah (a young and upcoming lawyer) and Khairul Anuar Che Azmi (Universiti Sains Malaysia). If there are participants who are reading this article, feel free to comment as I would love to hear from you.