Hands Off
Ropes courses, trust falls, bungee jumping, tap dancing, gourmet cooking and spanking. What do they have in common? All have been utilized as a means of teambuilding or leadership development. "Trainers" seem to be consistently looking for the next attention getting, fun or action-packed gimmick to use in making their point. What ever happened to good solid content put together with solid instructional design principles? Boring? Not if done right. Impactful? If done right, absolutely.
Over the years I have seen trainers get excited about the latest physical gimmick or highly physical activity. I admit, I have even tried a few over the course of my career. I tried just enough of them to learn of their dangers and their ability to become a distraction if used inappropriately or with the wrong group. Too easily, the activity itself becomes the focal point and the true purpose is lost. Will participants remember the activity and maybe even have fun? Sure they will. Will they learn something meaningful or be able to explain to others exactly why the activity was included in the training? Not necessarily.
I clearly remember a time early in my leadership development career, scrambling to redesign a program that included two somewhat physical activities; physical in that they involved organized movement around the room and included some body contact. They seemed fun and innocent during the design process (and they were recommended by a consultant so they had to be good - right?) but much less so after a couple of participants expressed concern regarding the amount of contact, regardless of how innocent it was. The first concerns expressed were the wake-up call to make some quick changes. While the redesigned program was less active it was certainly no less effective and was in fact probably more effective because it was more content based.
While the actual gimmicks themselves seem to be fads that come and go, too often I hear of trainers who unintentionally but irrevocably damage their own credibility and effectiveness by forgetting why they are there AND by assuming their audience will be as excited about and as capable of physically performing the activity as the trainer is. While we all know that interactive sessions increase the degree of learning, interactive does not mean falling backward off a tree stump. Yes safety measures are built in to the more aggressive activities and there is always the "proclamation" that participation is strictly voluntary. Yeah, right!
You might be wondering, "Come on, what's the harm of livening things up a little bit?" You may want to address that question to Alarm One, an Anaheim, California based company that just lost a $1.7 million dollar harassment claim for spanking under the guise of camaraderie building exercises which all participants "willingly" participated in. As training and development professionals, we are not the activities director; it is our obligation to deliver quality materials that preserve participants' dignity while enhancing their professional capabilities.
Enough said. Hands off!
If you haven't already read about the Alarm One case click here to read a summary of the story as reported by Sacramento's CBS 13/KOVR: Woman Awarded $1.7 Million for Workplace Spanking
Posted by Denise Knutson, Senior Consultant, The H.S. Group
Over the years I have seen trainers get excited about the latest physical gimmick or highly physical activity. I admit, I have even tried a few over the course of my career. I tried just enough of them to learn of their dangers and their ability to become a distraction if used inappropriately or with the wrong group. Too easily, the activity itself becomes the focal point and the true purpose is lost. Will participants remember the activity and maybe even have fun? Sure they will. Will they learn something meaningful or be able to explain to others exactly why the activity was included in the training? Not necessarily.
I clearly remember a time early in my leadership development career, scrambling to redesign a program that included two somewhat physical activities; physical in that they involved organized movement around the room and included some body contact. They seemed fun and innocent during the design process (and they were recommended by a consultant so they had to be good - right?) but much less so after a couple of participants expressed concern regarding the amount of contact, regardless of how innocent it was. The first concerns expressed were the wake-up call to make some quick changes. While the redesigned program was less active it was certainly no less effective and was in fact probably more effective because it was more content based.
While the actual gimmicks themselves seem to be fads that come and go, too often I hear of trainers who unintentionally but irrevocably damage their own credibility and effectiveness by forgetting why they are there AND by assuming their audience will be as excited about and as capable of physically performing the activity as the trainer is. While we all know that interactive sessions increase the degree of learning, interactive does not mean falling backward off a tree stump. Yes safety measures are built in to the more aggressive activities and there is always the "proclamation" that participation is strictly voluntary. Yeah, right!
You might be wondering, "Come on, what's the harm of livening things up a little bit?" You may want to address that question to Alarm One, an Anaheim, California based company that just lost a $1.7 million dollar harassment claim for spanking under the guise of camaraderie building exercises which all participants "willingly" participated in. As training and development professionals, we are not the activities director; it is our obligation to deliver quality materials that preserve participants' dignity while enhancing their professional capabilities.
Enough said. Hands off!
If you haven't already read about the Alarm One case click here to read a summary of the story as reported by Sacramento's CBS 13/KOVR: Woman Awarded $1.7 Million for Workplace Spanking
Posted by Denise Knutson, Senior Consultant, The H.S. Group
posted by The H.S. Group at
4:17 PM
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