FOLLOW UP MEETING AGENDA

Determine which weekly lessons need follow-up sessions.

During these, you are primarily the coach and facilitator. Base your approach on your observations during the week and the results of team assignments.

Be sure to check on how well members practiced the lesson: What did they do very well? Where do they still need to improve? What “unexpecteds” did they encounter that should be addressed? What coaching can you offer during this session? What awards can be distributed at this point? What follow-up learning needs to take place?

Based on the results, make assignments for the coming week. When the team is ready to move on, introduce the next training topic.

Other Preliminaries

Pacing Your Lessons—and Roles

Since mastering any new skill requires practice, present a new lesson one week and review and reinforce it the next—and maybe the next and the next. To do this, you  must play three roles: that of the instructor who introduces fast, hard-hitting content; that of the coach who observes team members during the week, gives them on-the-spot feedback, and guides practice sessions during team meetings; and that of the facilitator who

focuses team members on what they’ve learned and uncovers the strengths that lie within each of them. Of course, all three roles will overlap and each is essential  to your intervention strategies.

Conceivably, the following five lessons could cover 10 to 15 weeks of training. It’s your call. Your job is to balance “buzz” and “burnout”—to keep your team members engaged and excited about learning without sending them into overdrive. Ask your peer leaders to help you take the team’s pulse, and make adjustments accordingly.

Multimedia Options

Before you roll out new lessons, assemble an in-house video crew to film brief interviews with people who are already performing well in these skill areas. Many young workers have a facility with video technology

and would love to tackle this creative project. Engage some as interviewers and provide them with an initial list of questions.

Next, start creating your proprietary video training library by asking your crew to edit and catalogue the video clips according to topic. Along the way, add to the library by engaging your team in acting out customer service “dos and don’ts.” Rather than spending training dollars on videos that may or may not fit your situation, you’ve customized your own—and given your team a great learning experience in the process.