23. What it’s like to be a GTD Trainer?

Transcript

Automatically transcribed and lightly edited. Timestamps omitted for readability.

Morten: Welcome to another episode of the Getting Things Done podcast from GTD Nordic. I'm Morten Røvik, and I'm still here with my friend and colleague Lars Rothschild Henriksen. Hi, Lars.

Lars: Hi, Morten. Happy to be back to record another episode for our listeners. And if you are new to this podcast, the goal is to support you in your own GTD practice, reflect on how you can perhaps improve your GTD skills or learn GTD if you're new to the methodology. And if you are new to the podcast, then you can learn the basics of the methodology in episodes 1 through 6. But, you know, we hope that you find these episodes valuable regardless of how experienced you are with GTD.

Morten: Good. And today's topic is, I hope, interesting for quite a few of our listeners. The topic is what's it like to be a GTD trainer? And this is a wide topic, and we try to chop it up a little by telling, you know, what's your motivation to become a trainer? So if you have the right motivation, should you then apply? And I will send this over to you, Lars, to tell me what was your motivation? What's your story behind wanting to become a trainer?

Lars: Well, first of all, I wanted to actually— I didn't actually know that it was a possibility until this Norwegian guy posted in the forum that I had made for Danish GTDers many years ago now. And I didn't— we actually got this question from a listener as well to talk a bit more about about this, how this is actually a possibility and a way of living, a way of life to share GTD best practices, teach people how to do GTD. And for me, the motivation was I was an independent consultant at the time and I wanted this to be a part of the business, part of the offerings that I was providing in Denmark. And, you know, when I learned that it was a possibility, it really didn't take.

Morten: Me long to apply.

Lars: And yeah, we met in Copenhagen many years back now, Morten, and spoke about this possibility. And it really was an eye-opener for me that this was possible to build a business around. I didn't know that this was available. And learning, I think also the quality of the material, the things that we received from the David Allen Company, the training material, the methodology behind it, the visuals, all the thinking behind it that really made by some of the best people in the world at these things. So it's such a pleasure to deliver these things. I didn't know that at the time when I wanted to become a GTD trainer, but after becoming a trainer and in becoming a trainer, I figured that out. And it was really, yeah, it's been a lot of fun ever since.

Morten: Yes. And you totally skipped the motivation part. What motivated you? Why do you want to be a trainer?

Lars: Well, for me, it was really to to help people learn GTD and the methodology that had helped me for so many years. And when we spoke, I had been using GTD for 7 or 8 years, I think. And being able to share that, of course, I had, like I think many of the GTDers listening to this, I've been sharing tips and tricks with my colleagues and trying to help them in their daily lives. So this was part of the reason for me to really impact people and help people lead better lives. That's, I think, what it comes comes down to.

Morten: Exactly.

Lars: What about you?

Morten: No, I, I am— my story of getting to, you know, to where we are today started back in 2006. I started in a new job as a managing director for IT consultancy, and I was hired because I was— they deemed me to be fairly structured, and they needed some help structuring the, the company a little. And I quickly realized I need something more than my practices, which was lacking. It was full of holes. I didn't, you know, it didn't— like everybody else in the world who doesn't know GTD, you're trying to make sense of it all, trying to make a system to not lose things. And I understood I needed something more. And on the exact date I started this new job, I stumbled upon GTD in a podcast. By the way, podcast, this is kind of like things, I have a tendency of going in circles. So this podcast started and talked about GTD, and I was highly intrigued, and that started my journey to learn GTD. I downloaded the book, started listening to it as an audiobook with David, and starting implementing. And I understood very quickly that this is 'This is a life-changing opportunity for me.' Because I understood with my commonsensical brain, my logical brain, that this will work if I implement this. I understood the logic behind it. Soon after I started practicing, I understood that— sorry, the question arose in my brain, 'Why is this not part of the school system here? Why? This is genius. This will help a lot of people.' That sparked my idea of bringing GTD, well, first and foremost to Norway at the time. But after running after David, which I started doing a few years later after I finished my job as the managing director of this IT consultancy, I started running after David asking him, David, please, can I please become a trainer in Norway to give this to people? And he said, yes, but we don't have a system of giving this to others yet. We are good at training our own trainers, but how can we give, you know, a partner in another country this? They didn't have the system. So I continued running after him and pulling his leg, you know, not pulling his leg by making a joke, but I was like a dog biting in his— the leg of his trousers, not giving up. And in 2012, we started my official certification as a GTD trainer, later to become master trainer level 1. We'll talk about certifications later, but just for you to understand how this works is that after we— when I've done this, um, we had the possibility, uh, David told me that now we have the possibility to, to, to give this to other nations, to other partners, and there we are building a partner network And of course I was super happy to be signed on, and later on I signed on as the Nordic region, responsible for Nordic region as well, of Norway, then Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and Iceland. And this is how it started. And my motivation is because I understand with my logical brain that this really works, and it's my, my practice also tell me it really works, and all the people we trained also tell me this really works if you implement it. So it's It's what, what is more, what can be more rewarding as a human being than change people's lives to the better? This is my inner motivation, really. This is, I love the, when the coin drops in people's head and they understand what this is done. I got an email from a client today saying that, you know, she has been struggling for a while with her GTD practice, but suddenly now it's kind of loosened for her. And now she tells me that, I feel, I feel really happy these days. And this is like, okay, I make through teaching something, I made a person happy. What can be more rewarding than this? So that's my motivation, my motivation and my story for becoming a trainer and why I want to do this.

Lars: Great.

Morten: Yeah. So Let me run you through some of the prerequisites to become a trainer. You might not remember them, but they're all important for the David Allen Academy certification program. To be, to be considered as a trainer applicant, you, you need a few qualifications, and they— there are 3 qualifications. You need to be a seasoned professional trainer. That's number one. And an enthusiastic GTD practitioner, that's number two. And number three, an avid student of the GTD methodology. And I normally would tell people, and now you can hear my bell going off. If you listen carefully now, you will hear exactly what time of day it is. But it's an— and we say about the three levels or sort of three prerequisites, qualifications. What's most important is the enthusiastic GTD practitioner and that you really are an avid student of the GTD methodology, methodology, because to be an assistant professional trainer is not the most important, because if you can read, you can deliver a seminar. It's so well made that if you can read, it's a little clunky to just read, but you really can actually just read. Because everything is scripted here, it's easy for you to deliver. So, and then the certification levels, I thought we will touch upon a little. Can you tell me about your certifications, Lars? What are you certified as in the GTD world?

Lars: I am a certified GTD trainer for Level 1 Fundamentals and Level 2 Projects and Priorities. And besides that, aside from the training course, I'm also a certified coach and almost done being certified as a virtual coach as well. So, but the starting point is really the fundamentals course that I'm guessing several of our listeners have, have attended before starting to, to listen to this one. And I— yeah, that's where we all start to, to build from.

Morten: Yeah. So the certification levels are as follows. We have certification levels for trainers and we have certification levels for Coaches. So if you do the trainers first, this is Certification Level 1 for Fundamentals. Then we have Certification Level 2 for Projects and Priorities. And then we have Level 3, which is Focus and Direction. And these are certifications that enable you to deliver 3 different seminars.. And the most popular one is where we start. Everyone starts at the Fundamentals. And then you have— and I have the fortune of being a Level 1 Trainer, a Level 2 Trainer, and a Level 1 Master Trainer, which means that I can train the trainers on Level 1. And I'm a Certified Workflow Coach, as you are, and I am a Certified Virtual Coach as well. So that's my certification levels as per now. And we were going to go to— or I was going to go to Amsterdam to become a certified trainer level 3, but because of the, the corona times we are in, this— that's not possible. We will see what will happen after this summer about this. So, um, I don't know if you remember the timeline on this, uh, when you got certified. Do you remember how it was?

Lars: Well, I think it has changed as well since I— when I was certified back in 2015, that the timeline might have been a bit different. But we started off in the beginning of the year. We had the gathering of all the trainers in that group around March, I think. And then we had the test seminars closer to summer, and some of mine were also after the summer. So it took me a few months longer than I think it will for most people today. I think you've changed the flow a bit so people are more efficient and get their certifications quicker than I was able to back in 2015.

Morten: Yeah, well, I wouldn't say you were inefficient. It's all in the planning. No, what I'm going to tell you about now, and I want to make sure that listeners understand this, this is our adaptation of the certification process. The certification process, has the same components, but how fast or how slow you make them is up to the individual trainer and the master trainer to give you guidelines on. But we've done this 3 times now. We just did one this year. So this is— we do them biannually, so every second year, and we just done it this year, which means the next possibility for doing something like this in the Nordic region will be 2022. To do. So if you get too enthusiastic now, please bear that in mind. It will take you a couple of years to get there. Um, and but all the, all the trainers in the— sorry, all the, the master trainers that are representing the 78 countries in the world that we are able to deliver GTD as a seminar in will make adaptations, and they will make, um, you know, they will decide when they will start, how often they will do them. Like our colleagues, colleagues in London do them more than we do here in the Nordic region. So if you go to, I think it is gettingthingsdone.com/partners, can you just check that out real quick, Loris, while we talk? And I can correct that if that's wrong, because I think that will give you an overview of all the partners in the world. If you wanted to do this in Kuala Lumpur, I don't know if we have someone there, but it won't be far. So it will start— what our timeline would start at, we start taking applications in fall of the, the year before the, the, the certification year. So we started last year, 2019. People are signing on, wanted to be trainers. We talk to them, we, we get them to, to understand if they are qualified trainers or qualified applicants, that is. And then we start in January, we start signing on people, and they will sign an application form and send them to us. We will then review the application and send them to be approved by the David Allen Academy, and we will then sign the individual instructor agreement with the instructors and start some individual coaching to see how people are doing. Then you will have something we before called Cognitive Preference Survey, which is an online survey with a call with a very bright guy called Frank Sopper. It's now called.

Lars: Kairos.

Morten: What's it called?

Lars: Kairos Survey? Cognition, I think. I don't know.

Morten: Okay. Maybe you will be so kind and put a link in that because that's free really now, actually.

Lars: Yeah, that's really, really cool. And just to come back to the list of partners, I'll include it in the show notes as well, but it's gettingthingsdone.com/cognitive.

Morten: Global-partners. Aha. Okay. Global-partners. Yeah. Good. But it'll be in the show notes when you listen to this, you can find it there. Yes, sir. And you will also put a link to the Kairos.

Lars: I will.

Morten: Yes. Oh, good.

Lars: Good. The Kairos survey.

Morten: Yeah. The Kairos survey is a survey to find out how your brain prefer processing information. Now, this is very interesting, especially if you get it followed by a call with Frank Sopper, who will explain this to you and make it relevant for you. It's a lot of people, myself included, I'm sure you would say that too, Lars, that this has been valuable for you in your practice of GTD to understand how your brain works.

Lars: Extremely valuable. It was so much fun to learn about this, learn about the strategies, learn about how we all think differently, what stimulates your brain, taking that ideally into consideration as well when you try to figure out what kind of tasks to do and how much time to set aside. So for example, if the test finds you to be a low reader, then keeping that in mind as you— if you have something large to read, then be sure to remind yourself that you need to set aside maybe several days for this because you're only able to focus on these for a limited amount of time. So it's been very useful for me. I think everyone who's done the test have really been excited about it. So it's really cool that it's available out there and you can test it, test it out yourself, get the report. And as you also know, we also use this in, in most of our coachings to really understand the clients better and to optimize the coaching with regards to their cognitive preferences.

Morten: Exactly. And this then it becomes really interesting because we can then tailor the coaching to your brain's preferences on how it processes information. And this is very, very interesting and very, very good tool for us as coaches as well. So that's part of this certification process. And then you will have a 10-day trainer-to-trainer session. We call it the T3 in Oslo. It's 3 days in Oslo here when we do it here in the Nordic region, where we spend 1 day where you as a trainer-to-be will experience the GTD Fundamentals course as delivered, you know, normally delivered like a participant. And then day 2 and day 3, you will practice with your colleagues and your new trainers-to-be colleagues, practice delivering the GTD fundamentals. And when this is over, you will start— and this is where I said that planning should start before the Trainer Trainer— you should start practice— sorry, start planning your practice seminars, because you will deliver 3 practice seminars before you are considered to— for doing a test. We'll talk more about that in a moment. But practice fundamental seminar, 3 of them with the 4 and recommended up to 10, 15 participants, and you will then deliver that practice with, preferably with some of the master trainers. I do this in the room for your first seminar. And then when you've done that, we will do a debrief and see how it went, and we will give you feedback. And then you will do a webinar or a workshop for what we call an I&I installation implementation, like Outlook setup and use as a GTD system, how to do a weekly review, how to do email management, etc. And these are tailored to your— not tailored, but they are following your practice seminars. So you have to do a practice seminar and a webinar and workshop, webinar/workshop after, times 3. So it's practice seminar 1, practice webinar/workshop 1, practice fundamental seminar 2, and then ditto workshop/webinar and Voilà, 3 the same.

Lars: And I clearly remember mine, and I think all trainers do. It was so much fun to start delivering. Like you said, this is all scripted, so you really feel comfortable standing up there. Of course, there will be questions, new things that you haven't come across before, but you really feel that you have a solid background, both with regards to the script and of course with regards to the conversations that took place in the, in the T3, in the gathering in Oslo. And just one note on that as well, it was really cool to, to just meet up with different trainers, people who have the same interests, people who had, you know, the same passion for, for sharing the methodology and hearing their stories and, you know, just hang out with, with some really cool GTDers.

Morten: A lot of fun. Yeah. And, and all the thing— all the trainers that I've ever trained in the Nordic region are, are highly intelligent, And very nice people. I mean, really, the nicest people are GTDers. I don't know why. I don't know. I have that. I met hundreds of trainers, GTD trainers throughout the world. And there's, I would say, maybe one or two I don't regard as very nice people, but all of them else is super nice.

Lars: And I think it's maybe also worth mentioning the diversity of the background. So obviously, this, I think, reflects the typical backgrounds of of GTDers, that of course there were several IT consultants that also now offer this. Carsten, who's joining us in Denmark, he is also an IT consultant. That was also my background. But we also have some, some really, really cool creative people, creative types that joined us and are now trainers. So it really is a diverse group of people. And I find that really valuable because there are different, so many different angles to this and you really learn a.

Morten: Lot from these people. Yeah, in last, well, the last, sorry, the 2 years ago when we did the Trainer Trainer, we have then a professional musician. This is not very often you see become a GTD trainer, but he's really good. He's in Norway, he's in Berlin. And we have now on this this year's trainer contingent— is it something— is that a word in English? Contingent? No, maybe not. This group of trainers, yes, we have a doctor. He's not just a medical doctor, but he's a medical doctor who is responsible for his municipality's doctors. So he's like, he's— I don't, I don't want to misquote him, but I think he said he had He has like 38 doctors that report to him. So he wants to learn GTD and train people in GTD. So it's a variety of people who want to become GTD trainers. So, and well, after you've delivered your practice seminars, there is just one thing that stands beside you and, or two things that stand beside you or in your way to become a certified trainer level 1. And that one first is me. I said, I want to make sure you you really understand your GTD and that your GTD system is really impeccable, that you really understand this. And this— we— David Allen used to say that people who don't know what they don't know, and that is also true with trainers. I also found that with me, that I didn't know what I didn't know until I know what I understand what I didn't know. And, um, and this is the second thing is there's a written test, is Level 1 Trainer Competency evaluation. And if you pass this, you will get certified as a GTD Trainer Level 1, very nice certificate you can hang on your wall. And then, then there is some certification maintenance, but this is not— you have to deliver a seminar a year and some other stuff you have to do. You have to write a story, you have to participate. We have a forum for all the trainers. We also have local community of practice here in the Nordic region where we meet every quarter on Zoom or Skype or something like that and to, to talk about GTD.

Lars: And that's about it. I would add two more things that I remember that were really valuable, maybe three things. First of all, some more resources that were provided before we met in Oslo. There's a lot of good content. I actually just stumbled across it recently when I was moving some archives over to a new hanging folder system. I found a USB drive, USB stick that I got from you a while back where it said GTD on it or something. That was fun to find again. There's a lot of cool stuff, a lot of cool videos with David, some great contents to dive into both on that one and also in the GTD Connect membership that you will then get. If you're not already a member, really, there's so much good stuff in there to learn about the areas of GTD where you want to dive a bit deeper. And the last thing I would add is also the coaching from you, because I don't think you— I'm not sure if you mentioned that, but as you start off with GTD as a trainer, I certainly remember some coaching sessions with you about how to adapt my system. At the time, I think my weekly review wasn't as weekly as the name might imply. So that was one of the things that I certainly had to improve back then. So, so those coaching sessions were also really valuable in my, in my own GTD practice, which of course then helped me deliver better GTD seminars.

Morten: Yeah, and that's, that's part of the certification process that you will be followed up by me by coaching sessions to make sure that your, your GTD practice and understandings is impeccable, as impeccable as it can be. And as you said, this is a lot of material, videos, a lot of of things you can read and listen to for dive into this. And what I suggest when you, when you are becoming a trainer, I would tell you that deep dive into this. Don't, you know, kind of listen to podcasts, listen to audiobooks, listen to, see videos, read, and really immerse yourself in the methodology and all the material that will help you become a better trainer and help you do better understand the methodology. And one thing that's really important for you as a potential trainer to understand is that we are very adamant on stressing that this is not your personal flavor of GTD you will deliver as a trainer. This is the David Allen Academy version. This is not you trying to teach people about how you do GTD. This is about teaching how David Allen Academy wants you to teach this.

Lars: This is very important. Yeah. And I think that's also part of the challenges that I think GTD listening to this podcast, I'm guessing you're GTDers, you probably want to share some tips and tricks with your colleagues. What I often saw, at least reflecting back on the way I shared my tips with people, was that I would reflect or I would share how I use GTD, and that might not work for everyone else. In all likelihood, I had adapted it to a way that worked very well for me. So unlearning a bit to be able to share the methodology with people, that was also certainly part of.

Morten: The process. And I see time is very close to half an hour, so maybe we should just wrap this puppy up.

Lars: And, um, sure, let me, let me just do that. And just let me also just say that how fun it is to be a trainer. It's so much fun to deliver. Like I mentioned in the beginning, the course materials, methodology, it's, it's, it's really, really well done. Some of the best people in the world. And we also hear that from people who attend the seminars. Teachers, for example, that really know about this stuff say that this really hits all the right places to make sure that people, people learn it and just the ability to impact lives directly. You see, when people really get it, get to know and work with really awesome people, it's so much fun. So hopefully this will inspire some of you to look into that possibility.

Morten: And one question that might arise in your brain right now is that how are we going to do this while on curfew for Corona and/or current quarantine? Then the answer is that we have a virtual version of Level 1, and it's possible to, to be certified to deliver that as a trainer in training. So, and just practical, if you want to apply to become a trainer, you must apply to your local master trainer. So figure out which country that is in gettingthingsdone.com— sorry, slash global-partners. Yeah, and you will find your local master trainer, and then you will find their website, and then send them an email contact form from there. And, um, yeah, I hope that we've given you some inspiration and information on how to become a trainer. And, uh, Loris, will you take us out?

Lars: Yeah, so for those of you in the Nordics, uh, how could you then get in touch with us? Well, that's gtdnordic.com. You'll find links to the country websites there, and each of those country websites in the Nordics will have links to all the different work that we do, both with regards to the virtual seminars and virtual coaching that Morten just mentioned, but also to all the articles we've written, Facebook groups and LinkedIn groups where people share the methodology tips and tricks. So you'll find all that information there. And as usual, we really hope that you find these episodes valuable. So if that's the case, then we really appreciate when you share the podcast with a colleague or rate the— rate us on iTunes. And last thing before we go, just a few additional notes from my end. First of all, what are your plans for May 19th? If you have room in your schedule, we have planned a Nordic Virtual GTD meetup with some of the coaches in the Nordics. So there will be a chance to ask your questions, learn from others as well. We've done a couple of these Nordic virtual meetups now, and we wanted to share this with the rest of the world. So if If you want to attend, you'll find a link in the show notes where you can sign up to join us via Zoom. Secondly, we want to hear from you. We always want to hear from you with regards to topic ideas for the podcast and feedback, of course. But we want to learn from you how, you know, when did GTD help you the most? Because it always seems to be the case that GTDers have a story where GTD really got them through a difficult time in their life or creative time or some way that it really helped them. And we're trying to put together an episode where we have some really cool stories from around the world about this topic. So let us know what your story is, and you'll find our email address for the podcast in the show notes as well. So that is it from, from my end. Yes.

Morten: Okay. Thank you, Lars. And thank you for listening. And until next time, be productive and have fun.

Lars: Bye-bye.

Morten: Bye everyone.