Counting Down My Top 10 Favorite Learning Experiences and Sharing Advice for New L&D Professionals
- 6 days ago
- 3 min read
#3: Developing a Healthy Office Sandbox
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.
#3: Developing a Healthy Office Sandbox
I was hired by a client to facilitate a 1 1/2-day workshop as part of their team’s retreat. During our initial consultation, the client explained the team’s communication challenges were impacting cohesiveness and destroying morale. Following subsequent discussions to understand the client’s needs, I designed, developed and delivered a session composed of four modules: (1) Developing a Healthy Office Sandbox; (2) Building Bridges Across Functional Work Groups; (3) Planning and Running Productive Meetings; and (4) Flipping the Switch in Your Team’s Electrical System. The audience for the session included the department’s leadership team, full-time faculty members, and senior administrative staff.
The four-hour Developing a Healthy Office Sandbox module consisted of three interconnected segments:
Segment 1: The Rules of a Healthy Office Sandbox
Segment 2: The Roles of a Healthy Office Sandbox
Segment 3: The Realities of a Healthy Office Sandbox
Why This Experience Makes My Top 10
Reason #1: Survey feedback from participants about what they wanted to learn exposed problems beneath the surface.
It was important to me to hear directly from the people who would be participating in the session. With the client's approval and logistical assistance, I arranged for their team members to take an anonymous online survey.
The prompt for the Developing a Healthy Office Sandbox module and a sample of the unedited responses appear below.
Module 1 of the retreat will focus on developing a healthy office environment. What would you like to learn, or which specific topics would you like to see covered, during this module?
How to diffuse disruptive/antagonistic behavior
How to encourage people to see the glass as half-full versus half-empty
How to keep a few negative team members from affecting the morale of many others
How to reduce workplace gossip, which at times can become quite malicious
Vignettes demonstrating aspects of in-office upheavals and strategies of healing
I was surprised by the candid feedback learners offered in response to the survey questions related to the remaining three modules. Beyond what they wanted to learn during the session, their responses revealed issues that my client did not fully disclose or perhaps was unaware of.
Learners expressed concerns about preferential treatment, lack of input in critical decisions that impacted their roles, inconsistency in disseminating information, unprofessional behavior during team meetings, and unclear performance benchmarks. And these issues were just the tip of the iceberg.
Their responses helped me to understand the complicated relationship dynamics simmering within the team. I quickly realized I needed to be prepared for the potentially charged environment I would be walking into.
Poor communication was at the root of this team's dysfunction. Transparency was top of mind for me.
I wanted to ensure learners had access to their colleagues’ comments during the session as we explored the concepts and tackled the activities. To accomplish that, I included the verbatim survey responses for each module in the learners’ workbooks. I redacted information which might divulge the identity of the respondent.
Although certain comments might have been uncomfortable or difficult to read, their inclusion in the workbook was a necessary first step toward acknowledging the festering tensions and addressing the metaphorical “elephants” in the room. Only then could the team begin the significant work of implementing real solutions to their communication challenges.
With the benefit of valuable survey data from the participants, I designed a session which placed a heavy emphasis on group work and discussion.
Read the remainder of this article for free on Medium here.
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