Pathways Workshop by Toa Payoh Central CC Toastmasters Club

On a breezy evening one Wednesday on 4th April 2018, eight (not so) young grasshoppers marched down to Toa Payoh Community Centre armed with notebooks and pens to learn more about the fabled Pathways. Fees for this workshop was fully sponsored by our club, Anchorvale CC Toastmasters Club, to encourage members' attendance.

There were 4 esteemed masters that day:

• Pathways Guide Alicia Chia Poh Lin
• Toa Payoh Central CC Advanced Toastmasters Club President Christophe Hamchin
• Past International Director, DTM Poh Kim Siong
• District 80 Program Quality Director, DTM Harikrishnan Muthusamy

After a brief intro by emcee Roger Sng and organizer Janet Haw, Sensei #1: Pathways Guide Alicia Chia spoke on (surprise surprise) pathways! She introduced Pathways as a flexible education system that’s customizable to achieve our unique professional and personal goals. With no time limit to the curriculum, there IS time to stop and smell the roses.

Pathways is a system built on 5 core competencies:

• Public Speaking
• Interpersonal Communication
• Strategic Leadership
• Management
• Confidence

And to help us develop these core competencies, there are 10 paths:

• Dynamic Leadership
• Effective Coaching
• Innovative Planning
•  Leadership Development
• Motivational Strategies
• Persuasive Influence
• Presentation Mastery
• Strategic Relationships
• Team Collaboration
• Visionary Communication

Every path has a total of 5 levels, and each level has projects for us to complete before clearing that level. The good thing is that the projects in level 1 are the same for all the 10 paths. It only starts differing from level 2 onwards, as level 2 focuses on helping us develop our personal style. Of course, some projects overlap for certain paths, so be sure to choose your projects wisely to give yourself some flexibility in your pathway selection.

After finishing all the projects in all 5 levels, you would have to do a reflection speech to reflect on your journey through that pathway.

Online basecamp is free for your first pathway, and US$20 for your subsequent pathways. If you want printed materials, it is US$25. While there are no refunds should you decide to quit that pathway, there is a 30-day path exchange deal for those with buyers’ remorse. Of course, all these is on top of your club membership fees.

For those who are undecided about which pathway to take, there is an online assessment with 20 questions to help you decide which path would best meet the goals you want to achieve. It takes about 12 – 18 months to complete a pathway if you are consistent in completing your projects.  

The next speaker, Sensei #2: Toa Payoh Central CC Advanced Toastmasters Club President Christophe Hamchin, very kindly showed us how to navigate through the confusing online system: Base Camp. He showed us how to view video tutorials, download project checklists, and access the vast amount of learning material available on the website. 

He even gave us a handy tip: if you find that you are unable to move on to the next level in the system, double check that you have answered all questions in the pre and post assessment of your projects. Failure to answer even 1 question will result in you not being able to move forward in the system.

He also showed us how we can ask for feedback/give unsolicited feedback ;) to members of the same toastmasters club. Through the ‘Feedback Submission’ feature on the website, we can indicate the type of feedback we would like to receive and select the specific club members we wish to receive the feedback from. 

Those club members would then receive an email, and we may choose to make their response open to all club members/just the exco/or only ourselves for viewing. The limitation is that we won’t be able to ask for or give feedback to guest speakers/external evaluators from other clubs.

After a short break with delicious homemade refreshments, Sensei #3: DTM Poh Kim Siong talked about how important it is for clubs to grow with Toastmasters International, and start on the Pathways instead of sticking to the traditional program. His speech can be summarized by analogies from the Wizard of Oz: 

• It takes commitment to achieve your goals—the Pathways journey is not easy and requires you to dedicate time and energy towards it. 
• Sometimes you need to lean on your friends – ask your fellow club members for help if you need guidance during this journey.
• Running away is not the answer – if you quit Toastmasters halfway you will not achieve the goals you set out to accomplish.
• Follow Your Own Yellow Brick Road – don’t compare your Toastmasters journey with other people’s. Everyone’s experience will be different, so do things at your own pace.
• No one else can do it for you—no matter how much help others extend to you, if you don’t put in the required effort on your own, you won’t improve. 

He also shared another nugget of wisdom with us: “A leader is a reader.” He recounted how he hit a roadblock with his 3^rd DTM application because of technicality in the rules, and used this to urge us to read up more on the pathways so that we can avoid similar hitches.

Poh Kim Siong also showed us some handy websites that summarized what pathways is about on a single page:

https://www.toastmasters.org/education/pathways

https://pathwaysexperience.blogspot.sg/

After that was Q&A with the 3 speakers as panel.

Qns 1: Can we do 2 pathways simultaneously? Yes.

Qns 2: Since the first level is the same for all the 10 pathways, when you start on your 2^nd path, do you have to repeat the projects in the 1^st level? Yes. Repetition is the mother of learning, so it will do us good to repeat the projects anyway.  

Finally, Sensei #4: DTM Harikrishnan gave a short speech on leadership and what it takes to be a leader. According to him, a true leader is one that helps others develop their leadership potential.

Overall, it was a highly informative and useful workshop and all the grasshoppers left wiser than they were before.

Thank you.

Written By:

Audrey Lim

Disclaimer: Photos in the blog are from Toa Payoh Central CC Toastmasters Club, reproduced with their permission.