Making the Place Work For You

By Kate Larsen

When we gather people together for a training session, whether in our home facilities or on the road, our goal is to help them improve their performance, and often themselves in the process. They come to our sessions with the expectation that we're going to use what we know on their behalf. You might say they respect us for a "trainer's edge."

But doesn't it seem foolish to you that too often we limit that edge to training content alone? Wouldn't we have more impact if we worked to improve the whole person, encouraging habits and attitudes that improve the quality of their lives as well as the quality of their work?

We're more than a collection of content and techniques, and we have an opportunity to do more for the people we train – especially when we take them away from home, away from their familiar comforts and health habits, the rhythms of their lives. We don't have to put the same amount of time or emphasis into the surrounding elements in the learning environment. But by giving them just a little thought, both in advance and when we're on-site, we can have a tremendous impact on the lasting value of the training experience we're delivering.

Just pay a little attention to time, place and matter.

Time: Plan the Whole Day

We spend a lot of time working out the details of what people will do in the course of the training program, often so precisely that we can say, in 15-minute increments, what people will be doing at different times of the day. But how well they do what we've laid out for them will be strongly influenced by what kind of shape they're in when they arrive and – especially in a multi-day session – how well they adjust to being on the road. To maximize the impact of training, program the off-hours as well. Look for:

Energizing Differences: Every site, every city, every region has something uniquely different to offer. Incorporate those differences into the training experience. Especially when dealing with conference centers, the site coordinator can help find the little extras and pieces of local color that can add depth and dimension. If we don't ask, they don't find.

Local Connections: What else is going on in the surrounding area while the training group will be in town? Can you bring some of that flavor into the site to support the training experience? Can you schedule a night out to take advantage of festivals, events or other attractions?

Tours: Give attendees some options, especially before and after the training cycle, to explore the local area, either in small groups or alone. The trip will be more memorable, and they'll arrive back at the workplace more rested and refreshed (see sidebar, page xx).

Place: Use the Whole Facility

In general, conference centers are much more than buildings with meeting rooms. Most have exercise facilities and recreation options, from workout rooms to tennis courts, plus pools, saunas and other amenities based on their physical surroundings. Many are located in secluded or parklike settings that lend themselves to walking (individual or organized), running and other outdoor activities. Some have or can create special team-building activities that involve people physically as well as mentally: volleyball (or "walleyball," a fun form of volleyball played in a racquetball court), hiking, climbing, swimming, even golf.

Obviously, there are variables that are difficult to control – weather (especially at intemperate times of the year) and safety considerations in the immediate vicinity most prominent among them. But your conference coordinator can help you design a variety of healthful meeting elements to help you take full advantage of everything the site has to offer. Consider:

Wake-up walks: Instead of letting people straggle in for your morning session in various stages of alertness, get them up and out for a short sunrise walk first. For some people, the equivalent of a commute gives them a chance to "get their heads straight" before getting down to the business at hand. (Call it teambuilding or networking time – they'll never suspect it has a fitness agenda as well.)

Sunset activities: Sunrise and sunset are the body's rev up and slow down cues. They're also prone to look anything from nice to awe-inspiring. Use them to give some opening and closing structure to the day.

Network options: Have a board for partner signups for those who want to walk or run early or late, but would rather not do so alone. Let people know these options will be available before they leave for the session, and encourage them to bring their fitness gear – walking or running shoes, walkman and favorite music, water bottles, swimsuits and goggles, etc.

Fitness handouts: Before people ever leave home, provide walking and running maps of the area surrounding the conference center so your attendees can plan to keep to their own fitness schedules while on the road. The site can help you prepare them, complete with times and distances. If a workout facility is available, include the hours it is open.

Site Strengths: Give people advance information on what fitness facilities the site offers, including hours of operation, staffing and additional support – coaching, lessons, physical therapy and massage. Determine if hours can be extended to accommodate early risers or night owls, an important consideration if people are gathering from different time zones, since their body's clock will still be on home time.

Matter: Consider the Whole Person

Over the years, many of us have come to equate good nutrition with eating less. Today's nutrition experts, on the other hand, say people can actually eat more – as long as they're eating the right things.

The temptation when you're planning – or, often, simply okaying – an off-site menu plan is to load up on treats: high-calorie items, overly sugary foods, oversized portions, plenty of caffeine and a side order of alcohol. In moderation, all those things have a place. But consumed to excess, they can actually erode the energy and degrade the attention spans of the people you're training. And why would you do anything outside the room that works against the results you're trying to achieve inside the room?

Solution: Integrate healthful items into the menu plan:

Water: Make sure water is available, both in the room and at all breaks. People need between six to eight glasses of water a day (eight ounces per glass, or the equivalent of four or five cans of soda) when they're less active, more when they're active. If you're looking into a meeting premium, how about water bottles with the organization's logo?

Vitamin C: Citrus fruits, berries and green, leafy vegetables provide this important antioxidant, which is believed to boost the immune system and helps fight heart disease.

Vitamin E: Another healthful antioxidant, shown to promote heart health, prevent cancer and provide numerous other benefits. You'll find it in nuts, seeds and wheat germ, which you can handily disguise as muffins instead of the usual collection of sugar-laden rolls. (Make sure break tables include plenty of items like bagels – with light cream cheese – and fresh fruit, too.)

Fiber: Adults need 20 to 35 grams a day (most don't get it). Buffet lines and salad bars are great places to include high-fiber choices like wheat and whole-grain breads, fresh fruits (especially citrus), raw vegetables, whole-grain pastas and brown rice.

Other Healthful Choices: Ask your conference coordinator to work with you in including such options as bananas, tomatoes, cabbage, broccoli, garlic, onions, green and black teas, purple grape juice (and red wines), all of which have proven health benefits. Choose leaner meats and lower-fat dairy products. Select entrees that can be prepared using little or no fat (they work great on buffet lines, a conference center specialty). For snacks, suggest small cookies instead of monster sizes, large pretzels with mustard, popcorn and "power bars" (a healthier alternative to candy bars).

Make sure what people put in their bodies is every bit as good for them as what you're trying to put in their minds. Get them active and moving. Help them keep their days and nights in balance. You'll find your training has more impact and your trainees go back to the job feeling better about themselves and the work they do. Now that's a trainer's edge.

Minneapolis-based speaker, trainer and professionally certified success coach Kate Larsen works with organizations on increasing productivity, work/life satisfaction and health.

SIDEBAR 1

Send Them Home Healthy

Does this sound familiar? People go off to a training session in another time zone – frazzled from finishing up last-minute projects. They arrive jet-lagged and dehydrated from the sometimes less-than-friendly skies. They spend a couple of days going to bed and getting up at odd hours in a strange bed, eating different foods (often including too much of the wrong ones), and without the healthy balancing factors of their life at home (family, fitness regimens, eating habits, sleep cycles). They come home worn down physically and emotionally, then immediately go back to work, dreading the to-do pile that's been growing in their absence.

If that doesn't make you sick, what will? When you're scheduling an off-site training program, be sure to program the days before and after so people arrive ready to concentrate and return able to apply what they've learned. Otherwise, all your hard work in the session itself comes to naught.

SIDEBAR 2

Take Care of Yourself, Too

Setting up and running an off-site training session is hard work. Presenting during it takes even more out of you. The day is full enough as it is. The temptation to overload or expand it with activities before and after, all of which seem to require you, is sometimes difficult to resist.

Resist it. Your presentation energy in the session itself depends on how well you're treating yourself before and after. Decide in advance how available you will be before and after you present, and say no when you have to for your own health and professional stamina. Arrive on-site at least a day early to give yourself time to acclimate, and try to build a day or two of buffer time between sessions to recharge.

If you're not good to yourself, you won't be much good to anyone else.

CALL US: 888.LIF.WALK

Kate is a senior partner with CLC, Inc.