Maybe you have training sessions and a team event in the plans for the upcoming months, especially as the holidays are approaching and the New Year begins.

Here’s a thought: Why not have both at the same time? Just think about what it takes to pull just one of those off. You’re likely needing to…

• Coordinate schedules to get everyone in the same room at the same time
• Confirm and set up the place. Maybe you’re spending money to be off-site, maybe you’re using your own office. Either way, you’ve got to make sure you can use the space and set it up the way you want it.
• Get the technology to work. (It ALWAYS works perfectly when you test it! Emphasis on when you test it.)
• Budget the expenses. There’s a significant cost of having a group of your people in the same room at the same time. Not only because of logistics, but during that time they won’t be doing their jobs and that’s another expense.
• Organize the session or event itself. You may need a speaker or facilitator to make it happen. Sometimes, it may be the right call to have an internal person handle this. However, oftentimes it’s most beneficial to allow all participants to simply be…participants (this includes yourself if you work for the company).  It can be very difficult for a team member to both facilitate and participate at the same time.
• Arrange extra goodies to keep your people going…Food, drinks, appetizers, snacks, maybe throw in notepads, water bottles, pens, etc.

Okay, okay, I think you get the idea. The costs and coordination needed can really eat up your time and money.

Now here’s the point: you’ll get more bang for your buck if you bundle your training with your team building. If it’s really an engaging team training, participants should both learn and grow trust with each other, right?

RIGHT?

We’ve found that high performers, A-Players, or whatever Silicone Valley calls great employees these days, are past the point of showing up to continuing education sessions just to get the credits.  These are readily available online. Plus, in most cases, they’re appearing in body but not really in mind and spirit.

Bundling training (which gets a bad rap, much of it well deserved) with authentic engagement that also grows working relationships solves multiple issues—especially if you do it consistently.  For example:

1. People look forward to them! I can’t stress this one enough!
2. You cut down the amount of mandatory employee events overall. I can personally relate to feeling obligated to go to too many things (events, activities, meetings, sessions) and it can take the fun and engagement out of something you’d normally look forward to. This doesn’t mean doing away with opt-in happy hours; rather, it allows interested people to step up and take ownership rather than being volun-TOLD to go.
3. The price tag overall will be less. Bundling almost always saves you money in the long run instead of feeling like you’re constantly hitting the ‘BUY NOW’ button.
4. If you do it consistently and track the progress, your team will become and continue to be an engaged high-performance team. Plus, there are great technology tools out there like Emplify which tracks this sort of thing for you.
5. Less coordination, hassle and headaches on your end. As a matter of fact, you can outsource much of the organizing and still save time and money in the end. We promise, it’ll be more of the ‘THAT WAS EASY’ button.

Bundling your training and team alignment can come in a few shapes and sizes, so if you’d like to talk more specifically about timing, agendas and programming, simply give me a call (844-336-SHOC) or shoot me an email.