Back in the saddle!

I'm back in the saddle! The teaching saddle! It's great to be back! I have only taught 1 day a week (if that) each week for the last 5 weeks. I forgot how much fun it is and how much the day FLIES by! Last week I covered day 16 & 17 of a full time class in Overland Park, KS for Tiffany Brown and then I covered days 2-4 of a full time class in St. Louis, MO. I had SO much fun teaching last week! We had some great discussions, we had fun with activities and before we knew it, the days (and then the week) was over!


I had so much fun last week that it almost makes me wonder if full time new hire is my favorite class to teach.  Or was it just the euphoria or reuniting me with what I LOVE to do??


Not only that but I got to check out some new places and meet some awesome new people! I got to visit downtown Kansas City which I thought was really great. I loved the districts and areas. I thought it was really clean and looked like a lot of fun!

I didn't get to sample a lot of local KC fare because I was only there for a couple of days but I hope to now that I'm back this week!


Then on Tuesday night I had to close up shop early for class in Overland Park and zip up to the KC airport for a flight to St. Louis where I would be covering class on Wednesday!


St. Louis, and my St. Louis class, were a lot of fun! I had a great hotel room. This was the view I had from my window:

I could see the Arch as well as Busch Stadium right outside my window. It was cool to walk and drive around and get some up close pics too.

The days there were busy but they went by fast. I stuck to old faithful's on my first couple of nights there for food but then ventured off to a little Italian type place downtown for dinner. After I finished eating, I wanted to get some dessert because their white chocolate brownie looked really good. The waitress insisted though that I try the Gooey Butter Cake I asked what it was and she asked if I was from St. Louis, and I said no. She said I had to try it then because it's a St. Louis thing. She couldn't really describe it. So I tried it and it was AH-MAY-ZING. Here is what this awesomeness looked like:

Looking forward to the rest of my weeks in Kansas City & Overland Park! (And I brought some Gooey Butter Cake back for me and Josh to have at home)

Super Saturday!

Oh what a super Saturday it was in training! No one wants to work on Saturday, so I think it's particularly challenging to train on a Saturday and motivate people. Our current group wasn't bad as a Saturday morning crew could go, they are new to the company after all so they are a little excited because of that, but they weren't entirely engaged. 


So for my first activity, I'd seen the fabulous Jerry Phillips do it in a way that imitated a Soul Train. I wanted to do the same to get them up and moving, but we lacked space. I decided to do it in a circle shape and got the Soul Train theme going. I told them to dance and have fun, but they weren't getting into that music. So I changed up the music, and also told them that the circle/music wasn't going to stop until everyone was dancing. Slowly ... everyone was shaking or throwing their arms up. They were having fun!!


We threw the activity in between, but continued our "Soul Train Musical Chairs" around it. We repeated it 4 or 5 times and by the end, most everyone was having fun. Someone even pulled out their "Dougie" to show us. :)


Throughout the rest of the day, they were a little more carefree and fun loving, and seemed to be more engaged in whatever we were doing. Their practice sessions even went good. Once we got to more activities near the end of the day, I threw some more fun into it.


The second to last activity I had them act out in the theme of their favorite TV show, movie or game show. Everyone picked a game show, but it was fun! They did Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, Jeopardy and the Love Connection. Most of them still got all of the material in, and had fun. The last activity was just a recap of the day and I had them do it as if they were doing a news broadcast from an inclement weather location. The first group didn't really get into it, but the last two groups got SO into it, it made it worthwhile! They included relevant recap information, even a little bit of fun about our guy who did the "Dougie" and they acted it out as if they were in a tornado, a hurricane, and a volcano!


Some days can be a struggle, and you'd think Saturday could be one of them with trying to keep the attention of 11 people and keep them engaged, but this was definitely not one of them! This was a super Saturday!

Encouraging self learning

I am proud of a section I did this week that encouraged my participants to learn ... but finding it within themselves. We covered The Customer Rules and rather than reading out of the book or off the poster, I asked them what they thought each of the rules meant and how they could live it. It encouraged a great discussion about customers and focusing on them and how they could live the rules everyday in their stores. I felt like this taught them more about The Customer Rules than any web based training or book could. We shall see if they TRULY learned however when they have to remember them and what they mean. 


I am also trying to rely on my book less myself when I am facilitating. Just glancing at the book to see what the topic and main points are and then talking about it from my own experience. It's hard to do and I find myself stumbling through it because I don't want to forget anything, but I don't think they can tell. 


I am also struggling to find a way to infuse fun into the training. I know our first week is kind of hard because it's very introductory but this group isn't naturally fun so I have to create it, and it's been kind of hard. Hopefully some of the listening activities today will open them up. :)


Lisa

New Training Blog

This will be a new training blog for me. It's mostly for me to reflect on my training days and seek inner reflection and improvement for myself, therefore it is a private blog. But I will share with co-workers. :)

I find myself finishing the day in class thinking I could have done something differently or better, or maybe I could try something a new way next time. But then those ideas flutter away out of my head and I forgot about them. So I figure if I write them down, I'll remember them, and I can hold myself accountable to working on them. 

Or maybe I can just share really funny stories that I want to remember. Either way, this should be an interesting journey as I start to come into my own as a trainer/instructor/facilitator. 

Lisa