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Help!
 Staff Training
 Every time we have a pre-show booth-staff meeting, one or more of the staffers throws us off track with inappropriate behavior or tunes out what's going on. How can I keep staffers engaged and productive?
 The business world is just like a high-school classroom. It's filled with talkers, tweeters, slackers, know-it-alls, arguers, sleepers, etc. But when your exhibit-marketing program hinges on the effectiveness of your booth staff, you need to nip the side tracking, texting, back talking, and whatnot in the bud.
Just like an effective high-school teacher, you need to prevent the behavior and/or address it as it occurs instead of ignoring it altogether. You'll be surprised. Before long, those troubled students will realize you're no substitute teacher, and that you won't stand for their antics in your "classroom." So here are four ways to stop, or at least curb, your staffers' inappropriate meeting behavior.
 Organize your participants and the room. Seating people in groups of five or six at round tables instantly makes them feel like they're part of a group. Plus, you can quickly create the groups by having people count off and then rearranging the participants according to number. For example, going around the room, have people count off one through five. Then ask all of the threes to move to one table and all of the twos to move to another, and so on. This allows you to improve networking among the group, and to break up peer groups of particularly difficult staffers. Make sure any problem participants from the past are in separate groups, but if possible, relocate those groups near the front of the meeting room to prompt active participation and prevent them from misbehaving at the back.
Set group guidelines. Take a couple of minutes for the group to set seven guidelines for you, the instructor, to ensure that they get the most from the training. Then work with participants to set seven guidelines for the participants. These can include anything from "no talking when anyone else is speaking" to "no matter what is happening, we're taking a break every 60 minutes." This way, you can lay some ground rules about acceptable behavior, and participants can request support for their needs as well – the latter of which will foster buy-in from participants.
Take preventive action. Set your expectations for participants' behavior and communicate them to your staffers prior to the gathering. Consider adding a simple note at the end of your meeting invite or agenda to remind people of what appropriate behavior looks like. For example, use: Please turn off all cellphones, keep chatter to a minimum, stay alert and on topic, and ensure that all feedback is appropriate and professional. Also consider implementing some type of reward system for attentive behavior – a tactic that can actually make the session both fun and effective. Throughout the meeting periodically toss out a question about a topic you've already discussed. Award the first person to shout out the answer with a small reward, such as a $5 Starbucks gift card. Defining and awarding appropriate behavior in this manner may sound sophomoric, but when you're dealing with juvenile behavior, it's warranted.
Integrate side conversations. When two or more people appear to be having their own conversation as opposed to following the topic at hand, integrate them into the larger discussion. Act as if you assume that the conversation is somehow relevant, and ask the Chatty Chucks and Cathies to share their discussion with the group so you can all stay on the same page. Simply calling out the "talk-a-holics" will usually put a stop to the behavior. And sometimes, you'll learn (no doubt surprisingly) that the talkers were discussing a critical booth-staffing issue and that they have something appropriate to add.
Address personal attacks. If a staff member personally attacks you or another participant, immediately intervene. If the attack is against another person, insist that the three of you – or other appropriate personnel – discuss the matter after the meeting.
If the attack is against you or your practices, listen to what the attacker has to say, do your best not to take it personally, and then acknowledge the person's viewpoint, perhaps by summarizing his or her statements in your own words. If the point of view is valid, calmly address it and move on. If you disagree with the attacker's claims, disagree quietly and firmly, suggest that the two of you speak privately after the meeting, and proceed to the next topic without allowing for further discussion. Your meeting is not the place for personal attacks, snide comments, and backstabbing, and as the leader of the group, it's your job to create a "safe zone" free of this behavior. If doing so is a challenge, consider enlisting the help of your human-relations staff for suggestions or to intervene in these situations.
Redirect the group. Exhibit staffers love to tell war stories, which not only can go on and on, but also can deflate the positive vibe you're trying to achieve, eat up valuable time, and throw the entire staff into a "my horror story is better than yours" contest. So when someone takes your meeting off track with a marketing war story or unrelated tale, wait for a vocal pause in his or her story or comments. Then quickly summarize what was said, and if possible, make some kind of connection to the topic at hand. But after regaining participants' attention, quickly move on to a different topic or different participant.
Managing a meeting can be a lot like wrangling a group of hormonal teenagers. But if you implement these strategies, your booth-staff training will soon start turning our star pupils.
– Tony Castrigno, owner and
designer, Design Contact, New York
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