Counting Down My Top 10 Favorite Learning Experiences and Sharing Advice for New L&D Professionals

#9: Managing Stress in the Workplace

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Recently I wrapped up an article series focusing on the four essential elements of impactful learning experiences. When facilitators execute these elements successfully, learners leave their training sessions feeling informed, engaged, entertained, and inspired.

I was eager to author another series but was drawing a blank on a topic. As I began reflecting upon my early years in the postsecondary classroom and more recent years in corporate training spaces, several learning experiences stood out to me.

While a late night talk show host gig is probably not in my future, I decided to compile a list of my top 10 favorite learning experiences.

I hope that by sharing my work, I spark your imagination, inspire you to experiment with new approaches, and encourage you to pitch audacious ideas for your learning projects. At the end of each article, I‘ll offer a few suggestions for you to consider.

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#9: Managing Stress in the Workplace

In 2016, I consulted with an Atlanta software and services company that specialized in automating and simplifying customer service operations. As a complement to their broader healthy lifestyle initiatives, they retained me to develop and facilitate a session on ways to manage and alleviate stress at work.

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This two-hour in-person session consisted of three segments and covered the following topics:

1. Introduction: Review of objectives and opening activity and discussion

   
   

2. Understanding Stress and its Consequences: Definition of stress; common sources of stress in the workplace; emotional, physical, cognitive, and behavioral symptoms of stress; and the mental and physical consequences of long-term stress

   
   

3. Managing Stress: Controlling what you can; personality assessment and types; managing stress based upon your personality type; managing stress in the moment using the STRESS technique; tips to prevent and minimize stress; and scenario discussion group activity

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Why This Experience Makes My Top 10

Reason #1: I used an opening activity to “stress out” my learners.

Following a review of the session objectives, I divided the group into teams of 4-5 participants for what I described would be a fun icebreaker activity. Once in their teams, I gave them one minute to quickly select a leader.

I then placed a box containing a 48-piece jigsaw puzzle at each team’s table. To ensure an equal playing field, every team received the same puzzle design. I explained they had 20 minutes to assemble the puzzle. I also reassured everyone it was a simple puzzle and that 20 minutes should be plenty of time for them to complete it if they worked together.

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What my learners didn’t know was that the odds were stacked against them. In preparation for the activity, I removed one puzzle piece from half of the boxes. From the remaining boxes, I swapped out one piece of the puzzle with a piece from another one. Obviously, this made it impossible for any team to complete their puzzle.

To help the groups stay on track, I announced "time remaining" warnings at the 10-minute, 5-minute, and 2-minute marks. After time expired, I asked the leaders to raise their hands if their team completed their puzzle. Of course, none of them had. Nonetheless, I applauded everyone's efforts and thanked them for participating in the activity.

During the debrief, we discussed these questions:

1. What were the stressors for you in this activity? (I turned out to be one of them.)

2. How did you respond when the stressors were introduced? And when they became more pronounced?

3. What did you observe about how the people around you responded when the stressors were introduced? And when they became more pronounced?

4. Why do you think it is important to be aware of your personal stress triggers?

This was a low-stakes activity. Nothing of consequence was contingent on its successful completion. Learners faced no punitive action if they failed to complete the puzzle. Similarly, there was no promise of a reward or special benefit if they did complete it.

Despite being low-stakes, the activity still produced a moderate level of stress. This was confirmed by my personal observation as teams were working on their puzzles and by the learners’ own admissions during our debrief.

Read the remainder of this article for free on Medium here.