It’s the Lightening Up

of Corporate America!

     You’re a management trainer and corporate economic climates have taken the wind out of your sails. You’re looking around for community college adult education courses to run. You’re doing drips and drabs of HR consulting with some old friends. Times are tighter than your shoelaces. 

     Stop beating yourself up; stop doing all the things you’ve always advised and taught others to not do. Take some of those deep breaths you advocate. The message is this: L-I-G-H-T-E-N    U-P ! Lighten up the programs you’re proposing. Companies do not want any in-depth, heavy-duty, psycho-analytic training programs for their managers right now!

     They want L-I-G-H-T agendas combined with good relaxing fun and team-building. Corporate America may be stupid about growing business and productivity ratios and revenue streams and job creation, but they know when it’s time to lighten up the stress that their loyal managers have been shouldering. 

     And it’s time now.

     I had my own management training company for many years. I ran over 2,000 workshops and training programs, and had over 20,000 participants in 50 different cities and half a dozen different countries.

     It was everything from Maslow’s Hierarchy to Quality Circles, One-Minute Manager, TA, Theory X, TheoryY, Theory Z, Empowerment, Assertiveness Training, Anger Management, and my own inventions: Corporate Entrepreneurship, Doctorpreneurs and Teacherpreneurs.  

     Then is not now. Then corporate executives charged trainers with the responsibility to teach them how to be better, more effective, more efficient, more productive executives and how to be better humans. This took some doing, and tons of analytical diagnostics and psychotherapy.

     Today, the word is L I G H T. As in S I M P L E and having F U N while gaining firsthand leadership and teamwork experiences with fellow employees. A best buddy of mine, Kevin Bousquet, who runs Interlaken Inn Executive Resort & Conference Center www.InterlakenInn.com in Northwest Connecticut, agrees.

     You may have seen my plugs here for Interlaken. It truly is THE premier business escape (2 hours/NYC and 3 hours/BOS) with the finest location, facility, amenities, meals, service AND budget-conscious prices that any management trainer or meeting planner will find. (If you call, tell Kristy I sent you and get a special gift!)

     Kevin tells me that the programs that are having the most success are those with the least stress and the most fun. Not all fun and games, but fun and learning. Interlaken’s Executive Ropes Course, lakefront boating and golf options and gourmet challenge programs are the busiest and most talked-about. Dump the heavy stuff!

Think of it as the Lightening Up of Corporate America!  

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Input always welcome: Hal@BusinessWorks.US

(”Businessworks” in subject line) or comment below.

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals and God bless you! 

Good Trainers Are Actors.

Make Sure To Set The Stage!

     More and more companies and organizations that have tightened their belts the past couple of years have begun to loosen their training budgets because they are recognizing that investments in training must be ongoing regardless of how crunched revenues become.

     Without continuing training efforts, competitors move in and take charge of sales, customers, markets, communities, quality employee candidates, vendor relations, and entire industries. Status quo is not an option. 

     Having designed, delivered and facilitated nearly 2000 training programs, seminars, and workshops, I feel uniquely qualified to offer forth some wisdom to companies and organizations that are planning or setting out to conduct sessions of their own.

     Following is informed, free advice—small stuff that adds up to big bucks—that will save you time, money, energy, and aggravation. It will help insure that you get your money’s worth out of your training dollars:

     Give program facilitators (especially “outside professionals” you’re paying fees to) advance access to training facilities, rooms and equipment. Allow them adequate (by THEIR definitions, not yours) set-up and workspace “psych-up” time prior to actual scheduled sessions. Insure their privacy during these periods by keeping access by others restricted, including locked doors and covered windows.

     Much of what a facilitator does that’s effective depends heavily on presentation staging, on having familiarity with the setting and the equipment, on having comfortable and uninterrupted rehearsal time, on being able to set up a room and seating and control devices and practice session agenda steps.

     Conscientious leaders, teachers, facilitators like to do “dry-runs” with the use of easels, tripods, display tables, computer and screen projection equipment. They want to make sure of not tripping over a tripod leg as they walk backwards to emphasize a particular point.

     They don’t want to get to the board and find no markers or chalk. Laptop projections and sound system connections can be critical. Some who conduct programs require special lighting, chair and desk arrangements, wall display areas.

     BOTTOM LINE: Don’t expect a professional facilitator or trainer or workshop/program/seminar leader to simply stroll in at the appointed session time and conduct an effective session. You will positively NOT be getting your money’s worth if you do.

     THINK GREEN: Ask for or prepare 2-sided copies of printed handouts whenever possible. Use or encourage note taking and written exercises be done on the backs of typed scrap paper whenever possible. Maintain room temperature slightly cooler than the usual level throughout the session (vs. constant back and forth adjustment). Active sessions generate more heat.  

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Input welcome anytime: Hal@TheWriterWorks.com (”Businessworks” in the subject line) or comment below. Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals, good night and God bless you! halalpiar  # # # 

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You still need “Meeting Magic” 

but your budget’s been bashed!

The boss expects you to arrange your next meeting at a 5-star resort with 5-star service in 5-star surroundings at ONE-star prices?? 

     Talk about meeting planners having an impossible job… You’re expected to work miracles without a wand or a prayer… and now, to top it off, your budget’s been bashed. Right? Or am I just imagining things? In the “old days” you could book fancy meetings at fancy locations for fancy prices and get top management compliments left and right. Right? No more.

     In fact, if you’re still on the job, and your organization is still having off-site meetings, you may be what little kids used to call a “lucky duck”! Maybe that’s not a reassuring thought, but what I’m about to tell you can be the most reassuring option you’ve had in years.

     Here it is:I have designed, delivered, and facilitated nearly 2,000 management training sesions, workshops, seminars and meetings nationwide and in Europe and the Caribbean. The sessions I ran took place in some of the world’s finest hotels, conference centers, and campus and cruise facilities.

     I understand the importance of having an experienced, competent, and reliable on-site support team on-call, of not having technical glitches, of having personable engaging staff services from people who know when to provide quiet top level performance behind the scenes and out of the spotlights.

I appreciate the need for knock-out facilities and inspiring surroundings where participants can be both relaxed and challenged.

     I know how good it isto have facility services that are so outstanding that the chef actually visits tables (not while meetings are in session), that someone shows up at your door with a replacement toothbrush five minutes after you call the desk, that nice weather prompts a last-minute request to meet for golf or car-racing or ropes course experiences, or to relocate a session to poolside or lakeside or gardenside and it’s quickly and cheerfully accommodated.

     Yeah, right, you say, at six gazillion dollars per person. Nope. The best-kept-secret location—known for hosting America’s top executive management teams— is available at far less than you paid for your last exotic location booking, and probably far less than you paid for your last boring one-dimensional location booking.

     And odds are, by the way, if the absolute perfect setting and services you seek are likely to be just a couple of hours drive from Manhattan or Boston Commons, transportation expenses will be a whole lot less too!  

     If you’re interestedin knowing more about this no-gimmicks/no-strings-attached opportunity to book the best world-class service facility and location for the least amount of money I’ve ever experienced, return here later this week for the details. If you just can’t wait, email me as noted below.  

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Input welcome anytime: Hal@TheWriterWorks.com (”Businessworks” in the subject line) or comment below. Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals, good night and God bless you! halalpiar  # # # 

FREE BLOG SUBSCRIPTION? Click on ”Posts RSS Feed” (Center Column), or now on your AMAZON Kindle for just $1.99 a month after a free trial. BE A CO-AUTHOR: Add your own 7 words to the end of the daily 255 days old growing tale! Click under “7-Word Story” (center column)