My guest blogger today is a friend and colleague, Phyllis Weiss Haserot -Practice Development Counsel
Consulting/Coach to the Next Generation and Author of "The Rainmaking Machine: Marketing Planning, Strategy and Management for Law Firms" and "The Marketer's Handbook of Tips & Checklists"
Read her thoughts and suggestions below:
To provide professional development, teach skills and help to bolster productivity, a number of firms have used motivational speakers, sales and marketing experts, and team-building consultants who use physically engaging outdoor activities to kick off or enhance the training. Though this one-shot approach has proved successful in the short term when the speaker/trainer is engaging and knowledgeable, the effects often fade fairly quickly unless the activities and lessons are translated in a second stage to those activities and tasks the professionals need to perform on a daily basis. This second stage has been missing from most Outward Bound and similar types of team building training. It is also frequently missing from business development or sales training (indoors) that is not followed up with coaching and/or refresher sessions that relate to current specific needs and build new habits.
The second phase or bridge, conducted indoors, consists of exercises that are made to relate to on-the-job situations. Some examples are: organizing a team-selling opportunity; beginning a new matter with a client – setting ground rules; or determining how to reward teamwork in rainmaking. The facilitator must be familiar with firm cultures and with the processes and interactions that typically occur in delivering their services.
For more on how this training works:
Years of experience with groups of all kinds have shown that new kinds of challenges and inspirational talks excite people and compel them to try new things. This is particularly true of high achieving professionals. But if they simply go back to business as usual after the sparking event, little changes except for the extremely self- motivated. The “bridge” to real life work situations is the crucial missing link to successfully building new habits.
To contact Phyllis and learn more about her offerings– pwhaserot@pdcounsel.com
Voice:: 212-593-1549
pwhaserot@pdcounsel.com
please visit: www.pdcounsel.com
and blog http://www.nextgeneration-nextdestination.com
Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/pwhaserot
http://www.linkedin.com/companies/practice-development-counsel