Last week a colleague called me to ask for help. Apparently, a handful of chapters are showing a pattern of violations and confusion around risk management policy and the NPC unanimous agreements. She has now been charged with creating and presenting a policy training session for each chapter. She was concerned, because the program could very easily turn into the typical pain-filled policy reading. Instead, she wanted to do something more meaningful and interesting that might actually work. If she had done what most people do:

Lock the entire chapter (or 80% after reasonable excuses) in a room
Tell a few jokes to seem human and make them feel happy
Stand in front of the room and read the policy (maybe from a PowerPoint slide
Point out specific things they did wrong
Open up for questions and offer complicated answers
Remind the chapter of all the punitive consequences
Offer a personal message of support and encouragement

This is what would have happened:

More frustrated with the organization whose bureaucracy they already don’t understand
Annoyed members who are now less likely to attend anything unless it’s mandatory
Continuous eye-rolling, yawning and secret texting
Deadpan silence during Q&A
More confusion as a result of poor answers
No new learning
No behavior change
More violations next year
A chapter who is now more pissed off at the organization and less satisfied with their experience

So, as I said – she was looking for help about how to make the session interesting and effective. She also told me: These were slight, but important issues that resulted primarily from misunderstanding or ignorance of policy/procedure. They were not willful violations. Each chapter had its own unique set of issues. She asked about the best way to approach the session. Here are a few of my recommendations: Teach Members to use Resources

Before the session, ask every member to go online to download and print a copy of the policy and bring it with them to the session.
During the session, do a fast-paced meet-and-greet activity involving advisors and headquarters staff.

Teach to the Policy

Create short, generic scenarios about each violation that has occurred.
Split participants into groups.
Each group gets a scenario.
Each group must:
- Read the scenario.
- Highlight every section of the policy that is relevant in their scenario.
- Identify the accountability procedures that would take place.
- Discuss the long-term, unwritten consequences of the issue on the chapter.

Reinforce Policy and Critical Thinking

Identify the Top 5 policy violations throughout the entire national organization.
Develop pop-quiz, multiple choice questions about policy contents, intricacies and interpretation.
Assign point values to each question based on difficulty.
Break members into teams.
Each team picks one player at a time to answer questions.
Ask questions, explain the answer (or ask members to explain) and track points.
Offer lifelines: phone a friend (advisors/staff) and poll the team.
Recognize the winning team(s).

Teach Real-Life Problem Solving

Create one-paragraph dilemmas that could be used to launch a simulation experience.
Split participants into groups.
Each group must evaluate the dilemma and make a decision.

Processing Questions:

What were they thinking at this time?
What are all the bad things that could have happened here?
Name 5 opportunities to intervene that would have prevented this from escalating.

Rehearsal

Identify top 5 stupid things people have done regarding policy.
Teach confrontation / intervention skills.
Ask participants to form pairs and practice these skills. Change partners and repeat.

Other ways to make it sexy:

Use teams and add in a sense of competition.
Use a storyline: another chapter is asking for their help.
Add time limits to enhance the excitement.
Offer small rewards for the top group.

What would be the result of this training?

It wouldn’t suck
It might actually be fun
Time would fly by
Participants would respect the facilitator
People might actually go to an optional event!
Members are too involved and engaged to yawn, roll their eyes or text
A lot of challenging questions would come up – which they would probably be able to answer for one another
Most importantly: they would learn what you want them to learn: how to ask questions, how to use resources, what the policy says, where to find specific contents of the policy, how to think when in a real-life situation, when to intervene, and how to intervene
More likelihood of behavior change
Fewer violations
A chapter who is now more excited about the organization and more satisfied with their experience

Here’s what she wrote back yesterday:

Thank you for helping me out with my policy workshop! I ended up using written scenarios to review the NPC unanimous agreements and [our] risk management policies. For the [organization’s] scenarios, I used various incidents that have occurred recently within the organization. After reading each scenario, the women were asked to write down the [organization’s] policies that would apply to the situation, the risks/concerns with the situation, and who on their chapter support team should be contacted. I had them pair off into small groups and then we came together as a large group to discuss the answers. After discussing everything, I told them what happened in real life when those scenarios happened (chapter on probation, members sent to standards, etc.). I definitely believe that the women have a better understanding of the policies and how to use their chapter support team. However, I won’t really find out how well they understood everything until they take new members next year.

Next time…how to do a thorough evaluation in less than 20 minutes.