Facilitating vs Teaching

If you read my last blog post, you might be wondering what I teach to my clients. Well in truth, I don't actually teach them. I have them teach themselves, with me as a facilitator. I personally don't really like telling people what to do, because I feel that they need to figure it out for themselves before it really soaks in. There's a pretty awesome quote by Confucius that nicely sums up this belief of mine.

Tell me, and I will forget.
Show me, and I may remember.
Involve me, and I will understand.

So what better way to involve my clients than by having them be the ones teaching each other? Now it's not like I just sit back and let them say whatever they want. There actually is structure to my class. A lot of it. In fact being a facilitator can be in many ways more challenging than simply lecturing because it involves stimulating discussion and ideation while subtly guiding that conversation toward the lesson points. That can be quite difficult at times.

In fact, let's talk about some fun/challenging situations that I often face in my classroom.

1. Q. What happens if a client asks a question/makes a comment that only slightly pertains to the topic but is more of just a life story?

A. Listen. They may address a point that somehow relates to what I am trying to talk about. I wait for them to finish and say, "And I'm glad you mentioned ____, because that's something important that we're all going to talk about." The key is to not make the client feel as if I am ignoring their input, but rather that I'm building off it. Yesterday, I barely finished introducing myself when someone raised his hand and told me how the front-desk lady gave him trouble because he referred to another lady as "Asian." Well, that related nicely to a later topic of dealing with difficult people at the workplace.

2. Q. What if they talk WAY too long?

A. Many of my clients have indeed been through a lot of BS (that's why they're my clients), and naturally feel the need to vent their frustration. Although I hate cutting them off in the middle of a story, sometimes it needs to be done in a respectful manner. I would usually say in an apologetic way, "I appreciate your comments, but for the sake of time we're going to have to move on." Then if I can, I try to relate something that they said to my lesson so that they know they contributed.

Awesome Techniques:

The Greeting: As my clients walk into my class, I make sure to shake each of their hands, look them into the eyes with a huge smile, and greet them with, "Welcome to class!" or "It's nice meeting you!" This is honestly one of the best parts of my class and helps in so many ways. First, it establishes a direct relationship between me, and every single one of my clients. Secondly, it sets a positive and cheerful tone that is so helpful to having a good class. Thirdly, my clients like it. It makes them feel good. And if it makes them feel good, it makes me feel good. And when we all feel good together, that's key to an amazing class. In fact, I've noticed a lower amount of participation in the couple of classes that I could not greet all my clients. Maybe this is due to confirmation bias, but I like to think its' not.

Well, I have to go but I'll continue to update this as I keep facilitating!

Teaching Ex-Cons

I know this particular post has nothing to do with bikes, but I'm deciding to write it anyway.

Envision a classroom full of primarily large black men in their 30's and 40's of whom the majority has been to prison, tattoos blaring. At the front of the room is a skinny 21 year old Asian college student who happens to be teaching these men about how to be successful in their future jobs.

Now consider the facts:

• The only job this Asian guy's ever had was being a waiter for three months when he was 17.
• He's never been to prison.
• It's his first class and he's terrified.
• This Asian guy is me.

Many might agree that this is a recipe for disaster. Why on earth would these clients ever listen to some guy half their age AND size who looks like he came from the Far East? He most likely knows nothing about the kinds of lives these men and women are struggling through and won't be able to offer them jack. Now these are very valid questions.

These were some of the questions running through my mind weeks before my first class. I was able to answer some of them which gave me slight comfort. In terms of me having minimal actual job experience, I realized that school itself is like a job. No I wouldn't be able to answer specific questions about what it's like to work as a metal welder, but I would be able to shed light on what it takes to lead others, accomplish goals, and work in teams. In fact, the skills that it takes to be successful on the job are the skills that it takes to be successful in LIFE. And yes I do consider that I've had some level of success in my life that validates why I might deserve to be teaching these clients.

However, just because I convinced myself of an answer didn't mean that I felt 100% confident going in to my first class. During my bike ride to the place where I teach, I kept thinking, "So in 20 minutes I'll be teaching.... So in 10 minutes I'll be teaching... OH MY GOD."

Well it came down to 0 minutes left, as I walked with my volunteer supervisor down the hall to my class. When she asked me if I was ready, I knew this was it. No more freaking out. I spent hours preparing my lesson the night before and I knew I got this. I tried to trick myself into thinking that I've taught this class for years now, which actually kind of worked.

"Hello everyone and welcome to class!"

The class itself was a little shaky, but by the end I was stoked out of my mind that I didn't fall flat on my face. The fact that none of my clients were sad, or angry at me was the equivalent of climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro. My volunteer supervisor gave me the lowdown on how she thought it went, listing things she thought I could add to my next lesson and that overall it was great. G-R-E-A-T. Frosted Flakes great. I couldn't believe it. Life was so sweet.

By now I've taught 7 lessons, and am in love with it. I've made many changes to my lesson plan to make it better than ever. Receiving compliments from the clients might just be the most amazing feeling in the world, knowing that I gave them something worthwhile.

Critical Mass – A mass of individuals critical to starting a movement.

Every last Friday of the month, hundreds to thousands of bike riders from all over Los Angeles congregate on the corner of Western and Wilshire to partake in an epic ride to the west side and back, a total distance of about 30 miles. This ride is known as Critical Mass. 

Started by just a couple dozen riders in San Francisco years back, the movement quickly spread and is now an event that takes place in every major city in the US. Numbers have escalated from just a couple dozen to thousands of bike riders on average. In fact, Los Angeles’s Critical Mass at one point was the largest bike ride in the history of the US. 

So what is all this commotion about? What are these crazy bikers trying to say anyway? While it has been perceived as some sort of political protest by outsiders, most participants see it simply as a celebration for the joy of biking. 

A really cool aspect of Critical Mass is that up until recently, it had no leadership structure. It’s literally just a bunch of cyclists who meet at a specified location and go wherever they want, collectively acting as a single unit. It’s kind of like a school of fish, or a flock of birds, in which the direction of the group is decided mainly by whoever is in front at the time of the decision making, and everybody else just follows. 

A few years ago however, LAPD decided to step in and take matters into their own hands. The LA Critical Mass ride is now guided by the police department’s cars, motorcycles, and bicyclists who lead the route that they themselves pre-determine. The LAPD’s involvement has garnered both positive and negative feedback from the ride’s participants. While the ride no longer has the natural, spontaneous feel it had before, the LAPD ensure that the group of riders remain safe from motor vehicles by blocking off roads and intersections. It’s really quite a site to see hundreds of stopped cars whose drivers are staring in amazement at something they never even knew existed. The even cooler thing is that these car drivers usually are not angry at this strange obstruction in their path, since they know that this is an event organized by the LAPD.

However, a very sad incident occurred just last week during Critical Mass. We were near UCLA biking down a huge hill and multiple people lost control of their speed and struck a wall at the bottom. While most of the riders rode away fine, one teenage boy was not so lucky and passed away before paramedics could arrive at the scene. He was not wearing a helmet and was most likely riding a fixed gear bike with no brakes. However, this last piece of evidence has not been officially confirmed. 

With this sad day in the history of Critical Mass, it is likely that LAPD will become stricter in enforcing safety regulations for the ride’s participants. However, it is unlikely that the ride will be forced to an end. What the LAPD does will have no bearing on the continuation of Critical Mass, since its beginnings were from individual riders who had no hierarchal structure.

Hello World!

Three summers ago, I dislocated my elbow and tore my ligament as a result from crashing my ex-girlfriend’s mom’s bike. Not only was it a blow to my physical body, it was a blow to my ego. In fact, I was so traumatized by that incident that I seriously questioned whether I would ever ride a bike again. Being in college was probably the worst place to be because I was totally surrounded by students masterfully biking to class, while I was left to my humble long-board. While walking home from school, I witnessed a girl riding her bike along a narrow, bumpy sidewalk with a sketchy looking wall on one side and a nasty metal fence on the other, and seriously considered complimenting her on a skill I could only dream of having. Whenever someone would bike past me without using handlebars, I couldn’t help but perceive him or her as anything but a deity. These are people who have entered a celestial dimension. It’s like hacking life. 

I guess there’s something in my personality that makes me want to overcome my deepest fears, thinking how awesome it would be if I could be that guy riding his bike with no handlebars. I obsessed over the possibility of being able to ride a bike with no handlebars, but knew in my heart it was indeed an impossibility. Unless…

Unless I overcame my FEAR.

Long story short, I bought a bike off craigslist, converted it to a fixed gear for various reasons that I’ll cover in future blog posts, and can honestly say that it has deeply changed my life in a tremendously positive way. 

The focus of my blog will be the rise of the fixed gear culture, particularly in Los Angeles. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, ‘fixies’ are a force to be reckoned with. Whether you're a car driver, pedestrian, hipster, wealthy person, or poor person, you'll inevitably have to deal with these hoodrats at some point in time. In just the past few years, Angelinos have seen fixies riders start off as just a strange few, to thousands overtaking the city on midnight rides such as Critical Mass. Pretty amazing considering the fact that the last time fixed gear bikes were popular was in the early 1900's.

Original Hipsters

So why fixies, might you ask? What about beach cruisers, or road bikes, or trial bikes? While fixies will be the starting focus of my blog because of how impactful they’ve been on certain social groups in recent years, I’ve got boundless love for all bikes and will certainly include them in my posts as I see fit. If you have any suggestions on what you would like to see me write about, please comment.

Now if you excuse me, I’m going to go ride my bike with no handlebars. Yay!