1. training
13 Ideas
^
for 2013

2. ]
EXPERIENCE training
Behind the scenes at a concert venue
Opening a mini-golf course
Visiting the experts in employee engagement
Working with shelter dogs
On stage at a late night talk show
In the midst of a photo shoot
Listening to experts

3. Schedule a behind the scenes tour at a local concert venue.
Bonus: Schedule Q&A time with volunteer manager, see if the Program Board
students can volunteer at an event, set up a panel with venue
event planners. Training

4. Create your own mini-golf course. Break the group up into
teams of 5. Each team gets a “hole”. You can buy mini golf
putting greens on amazon for cheap. Teams can be challenged to Student Union
come up with a concept/design for their hole that represents their
mini-golf course. Add in other challenges like motivating the staff,
selling party or event packages, etc.
Training
0 this training can be manipulated to be used for many other types of groups -- contact courtney about coming to facilitate it on your campus.

5. VISIT THE EXPERTS IN EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT
Search for “100 Best
Companies to Work For”.
When you find the list,
check to see if any of
them have a
headquarters near your
institution. Set up a tour
and a time to chat with
some of the employees
behind the great culture
at that company.
LEARN BEST PRACTICES IN WORK ENVIRONMENT AND EMPLOYEE CULTURE

6. Teach Calm Assertive Leadership Using Four Legged Friends
This one takes some planning and is dependent on students’
comfortability/allergies. Perfect for a an exec board or small group. If you
have ever watched an episode of Dog Whisperer (if not, YouTube it) you
know that a dog’s behavior is completely dependent on the owners ability to
be a calm assertive leader. Well students need to be calm assertive leaders
too. Call a few local dog trainers, if they are legit they would have
connections in “the doggie network” with local shelters and such. If you can
pull it off, it will blow your typical team-builder out of the water.

7. REINVENT TALKING HEADS
One thing I used to LOATHE about
training the Orientation Leaders (OLs)
was that every department wanted to
present to them. Every department had
their canned speech and I was
determined each year to not have several
talking heads just delivering their canned
speeches for the OLs. This happens not
just in orientation but with RAs, tour
guides, and any “ambassador type”
leadership position.

8. LATE NIGHT WITH
Orie ntation
Over the course of your training program spread the key department
heads out and bring them in for a “late night talk show” style
interviews. Think Jimmy Fallon, his model is the best because after he
interviews a guest he plays a little game with them.
So you bring in the director of dining services and one of your
leaders gets to play host.
They ask questions about upcoming projects, common myths
about dining on campus, and throws in some fun personal
questions like most embarrassing moment on the job.
End with a blind taste test or minute to win it type game.
After that you could always open it up to any other questions the
students have for him/her. O

9. REINVENT BONDING
Every training includes some type of
meal or movie to “bond”. Save your
money. Borrow, rent or grab a nice
DSLR camera from another office or a
friend and do a photo shoot with your
students. The students love getting their
picture taken, they will be silly together,
and they will share the pictures like
crazy on social media. So you get an
added bonus of a buzz on campus
about your program because of
amount of photo sharing and tagging
going on.
See a few examples on
the next slide.

11. Bring in an outside expert on a
relevant topic
Teaching communication? Bring in a hostage negotiator.
Teaching public speaking? Bring in a stand up comedian.
Teaching supervision skills? Bring in a head chef.

12. P technology
infuse
With Pinterest boards for your staff
Tracking a training hashtag
Ditching boring openers/case studies for videos
Using online modules prior to training
With a Slideshare account for your office
Blowing minds with Nearpod

13. This is the perfect assignment to delegate to a student intern, graduate student, or any Pinterest lover in the office.
Create a Pinterst account that your student team can follow. Below are some ideas of boards. This is a great way
to highlight key things from training, or something they can look at before they get to training. See examples for
Residence Life, Program Boards and Orientation Staff on the following slides. Get creative and mold the different
ideas to work best for your staff.
Board Ideas (General)
• Meet the department- introduce others in your
department with their pictures and a brief (300
character or less) bio/contact info
• Leadership Resources- blogs and websites to find
new and different ideas on leadership
• Upcoming events that they should be aware of
• Key partners/on campus resources- link to their
websites, pictures of their offices with location/contact
info

14. Board Ideas (Residence Life)
• Door dec ideas
• Feature returning staff- pictures with their
name, year and their advice for the year
• Relevant “good practices” happening at
other campuses
• Programing ideas for their floor
• Emergency- Pictures of emergency staff on
campus with brief bio, why you would contact
them, and their contact info (could highlight
EMT, PD, and counseling staff among others)

15. Board Ideas (Program Board)
• Up and coming artists
• Event ideas
• Cool marketing ideas
• Pictures of venues on campus to host events with
tips, info on how to reserve space, etc.
• Unique event set ups and decor
• Event planning blogs
• Speakers to bring in for campus lectures- maybe
feature a few alumni of the university that also do
speaking gigs

16. Board Ideas (Orientation)
• Meet the NODA/Grad intern staff- pictures of them
with brief bios/contact info
• Icebreaker websites or ideas
• “Personalize your polo and khakis”- pictures of staff
with their uniform and ways to personalize it with
accessories
• Feature returning staff (see Residence Life)
• Have some fun with the Beloit Mindset list (pics of
things on the list)

17. if you do it for events then you should do it for training
#AwesomeTraining
create a hashtag for training-- it creates buzz for your
5 office on social media, and it helps you assess your
training with real time qualitative data

18. Ditch Case Studies and Boring
Powerpoint Intros to Topics
Case studies can be
boring, and the typical intro
to a topic is generally one
of the reasons students
tune out early in
presentations. Videos are
great to grab attention.
With TED talks you can
have an expert in your
workshop for free. I have
curated over 20 videos
including the ones you see
here, as well as a whole
page of pop culture clips,
TED talks and a few other
featured video clips that
anyone can use for a
variety of different training
topics.
0 Above is a screenshot from one of the video libraries on Courtney’s site. Go to the courtoconnell.com video library to see them all.

19. Don’t waste time on boring policy review, put it in an online module.
A few years ago I came
across a career
services site that was
using Adobe Presenter
to create slideshows
that could have audio
and video embedded
that they used to create
resources about the job
search for students. I
instantly thought, wait a
second, we could use
that kind of software to
create training
resources for students.
After much research
into the software and
endless time figuring
out the kinks. My office
is officially in the
business of creating
online modules. Now
prior to August training,
all students watch an
intro to student life and
a module about the
service mentality. It is
great.
If you are unable to view the screen recording on this page I have included it as
a video on the blog post. Check out how you can create a virtual resource for
your students, and email Courtney with any questions on how to get started.

20. I ide
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Slideshare is like a little bucket to store all the training presentations you do. Why
wouldn’t you want your students to have access to these after the training? Create
a slideshare account to store them all and voila, problem solved!

21. Take your training from
boring to mind blowing with
a free app. Basically you
create a media rich
presentation using content
you create on their site, a pdf
of a slide deck, videos, quiz
questions (use their site to
create those), and any other
media you want to include.
Then watch the presentation
come to life when your
students download the free
app and view the
presentation along with you
as you present it.
I am not doing this thing justice. Go to nearpod.com and play
around for a little bit. This will change the level of student
engagement in your presentation instantly.