Inspire me, train me
June 24, 2011 9:18 AM   Subscribe

I'm looking to find examples of and ideas for some inspirational training for young execs. Please hope me.

I've been tasked with thinking through some ideas for a 2-3 day training session for young execs - the average age will be about 28-30.

It's an offsite. It is part personal development, part motivational and part reward. So it needs to be, if not always fun, then certainly inspiring and not just like their day to day jobs.

They normally work as marketing/marketing trend analysts - so their core competencies are analysing market data, forecasting what is going to happen, teasing out trends, doing presentations to clients on what they got etc.

There are some creative aspects to the job, but it's not a creative job as such. I'd like part of the training session to help them think more creatively, lateral think, problem solve, present more creatively, visually and effectively. But some concise training on general business strategy, as long as it was not dull, would be helpful too.

If I could line up people like Guy Kawasaki and Atul Gawande or Jesse Dee's "Steal this Presentation" they'd fit the bill. Any ideas/examples of some inspirational training or trainable thought leadership is just what I'm looking for.
posted by MuffinMan to Work & Money (4 answers total) 4 users marked this as a favorite
 
Best answer: In my previous life I was a management consultant at a high-flying firm here in Massachusetts. I worked with a lot of smart people at a lot of Fortune 500 companies. Over six years, I noticed that the best predictor of someone being a resilient, creative, collaborative, and fearless executive was that they had done improv. Not just a one-hour team building thing. They had either done it because they'd thought about going into acting, or because they were into theater in their free time, or because their B-school prof was into it. It was weird how many of the successful, pleasure-to-work-with people had this in their backgrounds. I highly recommend it.
posted by Yoshimi Battles at 11:06 AM on June 24, 2011


Seconding improv classes.
posted by Mchelly at 11:22 AM on June 24, 2011 [1 favorite]


Best answer: I had a wonderful experience with Olivier Mythodrama. One of the founder's is Lawrence Olivier's son and they use Shakespeare's work to teach leadership. Many of the instructors come from the theater world which I found could bring insights not normally found within typical training.
posted by beisny at 2:05 PM on June 24, 2011


Best answer: If you can't turn your staff into Second City on cue, but you can afford someone from the de Bono Group to come in and conduct The Course in Creativity, I recommend that you do. Your trainees will be challenged, entertained, and inspired, as business executives.
posted by paulsc at 5:08 PM on June 24, 2011


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