The Backstory
Recently, a participant came up to me at the end of the session and stated,
“This workshop should be compulsory across the organisation”.
My response to him was
"I agree, however, you would not have had the same experience today if everyone here was made to attend."
And this was true. But it got me thinking.
I have been delivering Courageous Conversations workshops for a long-term client for both teams (mandatory attendance) and drop-in (option to self-register) for a number of years.
Group engagement is higher in the drop-in sessions than the compulsory team ones - it makes sense as they were motivated to sign up and get there themselves.
However, sometimes we need everyone to be there.
So…
How can we harness the energy of the self-starter to inspire those who are being dragged to a team-building session?
A few thoughts…
Have you truly sold the benefits of the session before they walk in and are they feeling comfortable? (David Rock’s SCARF model can be helpful)
Have you talked about the session and encouraged people to share their ideas about the design? (I am a big fan of Loom - invite your facilitator to introduce yourself and prompt some discussion before the session - reduces the unknown and gets people thinking
Is it going to be enjoyable? (Fun can happen no matter how challenging the topic) How do we motivate people to want to be in these spaces? Sometimes imperfect, silly and a little lame is just the thing to reduce the stress about challenging topics and allow us to really express how we are feeling. (Check out “Still life in Workshop props” if you dare!)
Whether your organisation is looking to provide mandatory training or self-registered we have an option for you, no one size fits all approaches around here. We will work with you to design a bespoke workshop fit for your organisational needs!
Click here to book a chat with our Chief Experience Officer, Kate Crawshaw.
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