The PMA Blog

This morning I didn't follow my own rules and here's what happened:

7:00 Start pc

7:01 Dive right into email

7:03 Open email with fun blog title for website company

7:05 Peruse their website

It's time for your summer team meeting and you haven't even begun to plan it.  Don't let your meeting be like the ones where the most memorable parts are the adult beverages consumed after the meeting! 

The 5 F's will make your summer team meeting a phenomenal success with almost no time to plan:

So the 1^st quarter is almost over and your motivation for the new year’s resolutions and healthy changes is wearing a little thin.  The stresses of winter and normalcy have crept back into your life.  Ok well that’s what’s happening to me anyway and I’m hoping I’m not the only one.

The vast majority of resolutions have gone by the wayside for everyone else, but not for us my friends!  It’s time to double down with a few strategies to re-energize and re-motivate:

I keep this quote on my office wall.

"When learning about life and people, make no more assumptions than are absolutely necessary.  Ask and observe."  William of Ockham, 1324

 Over the years it reminded me time and time again, that no matter how prepared I can be to teach a specific topic, the most important component of that training is unknown until the class begins:  the audience.  

It's too easy to forget this when trainers and facilitators have been teaching a topic for a long time or leaders have become expert in their presentation material.  Once we forget this simple rule, the lecture begins.  Or, we roll out the same tired questions, expecting the same answers and we are fully prepared to respond to them, even before the question is complete.  It is the stuff of deteriorating results in the classroom, and it can be deadly for our most seasoned trainers (myself included). 

So, here are three tactics for keeping it fresh and different every time, based on who's in the room.

I've seen a multitude of blogs and articles citing this statistic “the average duration of a New Year’s resolution is 19 days.”  The gist of most of these articles is that we should take the stat as a sign that resolutions are a waste of our time.  I disagree.  I think if you make a list of the most successful people you know and compared them to everyone else, you would find one critical difference.  Follow-through.

We all have great ideas.  We all have things that get us excited and make us feel a passion that we don't feel about other topics.  But most of us stop short for a handful of key reasons:

• We lack confidence.
• We fear failure. 
• We get overwhelmed. 
• We lack focus.
• We are shooting for balance.
• We feel incompetent.

So what's the answer?

I just read an article in HR Dive that reported on "The top learning trends for 2016 and beyond" written by Kathryn Moody. The last trend cited in the article was the focus on Millennials in the workplace.  I don't disagree that it is a trend, but I do believe we've gone completely over the top with it. 

We humans have a strong need to see patterns and to organize the world around us that seems so chaotic at times.  That said, we have more data than ever about each individual and live in an age where we can use our new technologies (and good common sense) to customize learning to each person.  

In last year's Forbes article, "How To Get Even More From Your Technology:  Turn It Off", Kevin Ready makes the case that in order to overcome the evils of our technology, we should walk away or turn it off.  

He's not wrong about the evils, and occasionally walking away or turning it off creates a much needed techno-break. However, I believe there's a far more valuable answer:  Get control of your technology!

Don't let it overwhelm and distract you.  With a few rules for wrestling it under control and modifying your behavior, your tools can be useful and productive, not your enemy.

At Priority Management Associates, we teach people to take the following approach:

Assess it - Learn it - Control it - Work it

"Last month we asked "Do you use all of your allotted vacation?"