Each of these Action Steps provided could easily be a chapter in your "Play Book". If they are things you are already doing take this time to celebrate with your team. We all want to feel we are part of something special but in the midst of the "battle" we forget all we have to be grateful for. If any of these ideas "strike your fancy" and you would like to do more here are ten steps for one very Affective* plan for implementation.
1. Share the list with your team. Ask members to select the topics that resonate most with them and have them prepare and train the team on that topic. Make sure they are successful. One of the key lessons the founder of Sylvan Learning Centers Berry Fowler taught me was, "We don't teach people to make them successful, we make them successful to teach them".
2. Make it a priority: Growing people should not be something you do if you have the time. Make the time and make it important. If your people don't grow neither will your organization.
3. Clearly define expectations: If people don't know exactly what to expect they will instinctively fall into the fear mode. Define the time their presentation should take, whether handouts are required, and what kind of progress you want to see and when.
4. Schedule check-in and status dates to review progress.
5. Use presentation teams to breakdown departmental or personal barriers.
6. Assign "opportunity people" with the topic that most fits their personal growth needs.
7. Provide resources like books, tapes, articles (or have them write me for assistance). The greatest value of this exercise is not in the presentation, but the preparation.
8. Meet with team presenters in advance to review both presentation and materials. You can also assign team members to perform this function therefore giving all members the opportunity to both present and coach. Include presentation skills. Speaking in front of a group is a frightening experience for many. Use this as an opportunity to enhance those skills as well.
9. Ask for action: Begin each new training session with a review, quiz or sharing session of how the previous lesson had been put into practice. Remember that it is easy to begin things. It is difficult to keep the conversation going.
10. Appreciate super success, fabulous failures and everything in between. "Where we stumble, there lies our treasure." Joseph Campbell (modified slightly by RM)
*We use Affective instead of effective in all our materials to signify the predominant role our emotions play in peak performance. We are not thinking beings that have feelings, we are feeling beings that have thoughts.
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