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We've all sat through trainings, workshops and more meetings than we care to remember that didn't deliver. Let's be real... some of them sucked.
If you're an executive, director, manager – or a consultant, coach or trainer – this episode is for you.
James lays out the importance of "setting the table" for a successful event, especially when it comes to the good ideas and 'light bulb' moments during a group activity.
Don't let a thousand good ideas vaporize into thin air the moment your training ends.
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Confidence Covered By Humility is a podcast by James Mayhew for anyone who wants to lead their business, their team and their home with humble confidence.
Connect with James on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesrmayhew/
Watch James' video series for building a High Performance Workplace Culture on YouTube
Schedule a meeting to talk with James.
I’m James Mayhew and I am blessed to partner with leaders to build purpose-driven organizations that are filled with talented people doing exceptional work on the most important things.
Thank you for listening!
– James
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And welcome back to the confidence covered by humility podcast.
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I'm your host and your business and leadership coach, James Mayhew.
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And I just wanted to start out by saying a huge thank you for your comments and your
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likes and your shares and your subscribes.
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It just, uh, it just means so much to me that you would do that.
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Now, today's another short, uh, I'm in this series of doing shorts here.
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And a few weeks ago I was At a, at a, uh, new client, actually, this is the first time I was with them, a
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company that's been around for multiple generations and really doing some cool things in their industry.
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And what I want to talk to you today about is an experience from there.
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And, uh, I'm just going to frame it up with this sentence here, set the table for success.
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So like I said, a few weeks ago I was invited to speak to a group of leaders at this company.
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And, uh, because it was the first time I was with them, I always like them to get an experience,
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you know, what is it like to work with me?
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I want, you know, to do well.
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I want to set the table in a way where they're clear about why are we here today?
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What are we going to do?
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What is it, you know, how is that work going to look?
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And what are we going to do afterwards?
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And I just feel like that is a.
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The recipe for an effective training session.
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So after I did this brief introduction of myself, which I probably pretty poor at those, but I keep it pretty short.
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And basically I just tell them, Hey, this is what you should expect today over these next three hours.
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The goals for the day are, are these number one, I want you to be able to understand the purpose
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behind and the best usage of your core values.
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Number two, We are going to discover some communication gaps, but that's also going to show us some opportunities
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where we're going to learn how to coach and mentor through your core values to close those communication gaps.
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Now the third goal that I have for you today is that we're going to identify ways to utilize your core values
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and key areas like how you develop individuals on your team, how you can evaluate someone's progress through
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core values and overall we're going to strengthen everything that's already good here by going through this.
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Now, I believe that this setting the table is a crucial step to do because it establishes the
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value for their time and their monetary investment.
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I don't know if they've had good trainers in the past.
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I assume they do or have had.
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Uh, I want to make sure that when they think back to my time with them, that I've done a good job for them.
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It also provides accountability both to them, the people that invited me, and it, and it also
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provides that accountability for me when I say, Hey, these are the things that we're going to do.
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Well, that keeps us focused.
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It keeps us on track.
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Now there's another thing that I do.
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There's a few other things that I do just in the introduction part in this introduction.
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It might take a while to get through this, but I also want them to, to know that it's going to be interactive.
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And so I always, I joke with them and I say, okay, here's your two minute warning.
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Uh, you're not going to sit on your hands today and uh, you are going to be participating.
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It's, that's what brings, uh, the highest quality.
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To this type of training is when you are engaged in it and you are sharing your thoughts and then I
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offer one final discussion point Which is this it's a story minor you get out of this what you put into it.
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And here's why I need to say that Oftentimes when we come in to do a training there are a lot of
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distractions that we have to deal with right?
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There's a phone call.
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There's an urgent email.
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There's a fire that needs to put out And so I always just tell them, Hey, we're adults here.
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So, you know, you know, to keep your phone silenced and all those, but if you need to
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respond to something, get up and take care of it.
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But at the same time, I also want them to know that, you know, put, put effort into this, be engaged, be involved in
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what's going on and don't daydream or, or don't be worrying about the thing that you think is really important because
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what we're doing here is actually really important to you.
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And then I also do one final thing to set up what I feel is a, Oh, great way to set the table.
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I say, listen, when we're in a room like this, there are going to be ideas.
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There are going to be light bulb moments that you have.
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There's going to be hundreds of them, if not more.
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Okay.
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You can start to think about you've got a room of 20 people when they're for three hours, we cover a lot of stuff.
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There's a lot of.
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Those special little moments that happen.
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So I tell them during a meeting like this, when they happen, if you don't write them down, if you don't
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discuss them, either, you know, when we do it like a small group or bring it to the large group, there is a
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really good chance, pretty much a hundred percent chance.
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I would say that they're going to fade away.
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They're just going to vaporize.
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When that meeting ends, you had good intention.
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You were going to remember them, but they don't, that doesn't happen.
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So leaders, managers, supervisors, if you're listening to this right now, just don't miss what I'm talking about.
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Make sure you set the table with your teams.
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You want to prepare their minds.
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You want to prepare their hearts also for the purpose behind the trainings.
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Meetings are really an essential part of your business.
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But meetings should never suck.
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Okay.
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Meeting shouldn't suck.
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You should take ownership to deliver a great experience.
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Even when it feels like it's a staff meeting or a recurring meeting, that's how they don't feel recurring.
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Or like we just got to show up again.
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So set the table, explain the purpose, let them know what's at stake.
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And always, always have actionable takeaways.
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Even when it's an informational meeting, they're going to come up.
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Now, one of the ways, I'm going to give you four steps actually here to ensure that those things happen.
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So here's step one, just before the meeting is over, you got to save time for this.
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I do this in my trainings, I'll go around the room and we ask each person's, each person for their biggest takeaway.
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And it doesn't have to be the biggest.
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It's just like, what's a, what's a takeaway from today that landed on you that was important.
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What that does is it creates momentum and it reminds people of things that they might've missed.
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Step number two, give them time to write down things that they want to implement.
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We actually carve that out.
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We say, okay, take a few minutes right now.
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Go look back through your notes.
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What are the things that hit you today that you want to implement and see through that happens after today?
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Because when I'm gone, we have to make sure that these things get, get done,
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which rolls into then step number three.
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And maybe you want to do this one sooner.
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It doesn't have to be in this exact order, by the way, but you also want to remind them
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of where we've come from through the day.
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I find tremendous value in reminding people of where would we start today?
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What did we do?
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So, so we have now context of, okay, we're seeing the world a little different as a result.
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When we remind them of that, it makes those ideas start to come back together.
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So maybe you want to do that at step one.
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That's cool.
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Reorder it.
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If you want step number four, give them what the next steps are to ensure that the
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techniques and methods will be implemented.
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In other words, if the person who's invited me in to do a training has not done that
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part, I'm going to make sure that I do that.
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But.
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What What will happen oftentimes is I'll, I'll get to a statement like that and
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they'll say, Hey James, we've got this.
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And I say, great.
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Take over.
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And they walk 'em through.
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The accountability and ownership piece of that.
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All of this, all of this sets up a great training or it sets up a great meeting.
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And the point of this is that you're set the table for success.
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I'm James Mayhew, and I work with companies of all sizes, small, medium, and large to do this.
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We ensure that they have amazing and talented people doing exceptional work on the most important things.
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All right, we'll catch you again on the next episode of Confidence Covered by Humility.
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