Welcoming staff to your program
This post originally appeared in Dr. Rachel A. Larimore’s weekly Samara newsletter on August 9, 2022. If you’re interested in receiving these emails, scroll to the bottom of this page to subscribe.
Next week inside The Grove we’ll be releasing a video I recorded focused on welcoming staff—whether to the team or back for the new year. In preparation I’ve been revisiting the work of Priya Parker who is an expert in gatherings and author of The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why it Matters.
While much of Parker’s work relates to gatherings such as birthday parties, reunions, and holidays, it absolutely applies to work gatherings. She defines a gathering as “the conscious bringing together of people for a reason.” So, the beginning of the year orientations, trainings, and professional learning events are all gatherings!
On her website, Parker offers a few downloadable guides for gatherings with rules to consider. Her books and resources have SO much good information, but here are three highlights to consider as you plan your nature-based staff gatherings:
1. Have a clear purpose
Why are you meeting? For our work this should go deeper than “it’s the start of the year.” Is the purpose to build a community and a sense of belonging among your team? Or maybe to ensure the health and safety of staff and children throughout the year? Most likely there will be multiple goals and there may be a different focus for each day. Whatever it is, be clear in your purpose—and communicate that with the team!
2. Provide a persuasive invitation
Parker says, “…an invitation is not simply a pretty carrier of logistics. It’s the carrier of a story.” The invitation you provide your team should persuade and entice them to participate in the gathering in service to the purpose. Parker further explains:
“An invitation should prepare your guests for why you’re bringing people together, what you’re asking of them (which part of themselves to bring), what to expect and what role they might play in the occasion (should they choose to accept)."
How can you create a fun, persuasive invitation that starts to convey the WHY for gathering? Some programs will send care packages to their team with materials they’ll need for the training and/or school year. I’ve seen other programs send thematic clues and/or inspirational quotes leading up to the first meeting.
3. Close with intention
While orientations, training days, and professional learning tend to be the start of the school year there is an ending. That is, a time when the whole-group time ends and teams begin working on other tasks. As you’re planning keep in mind what Parker says about closings:
“Closings are a moment of power. How you end your time together shapes your guests’ experience, sense of meaning and memory of the event.”
There are so many ways to close with intention. This might include an inspirational quote, everyone sharing a thought about the gathering, a group photo, or an unexpected party favor (everyone gets their own lanyard with a hand lens?). The key is that you mark the end of the gathering and distinguish it from your other meetings.
There are so many things to consider when planning orientations, trainings, and professional learning events, but hopefully these give you some food for thought. Again, I encourage you to check out Priya Parker’s work for even more ideas and inspiration.
Keep changing lives,
Rachel
Rachel A. Larimore, Ph.D., Chief Visionary of Samara Learning
About Rachel
Dr. Rachel A. Larimore is an educator, speaker, consultant, author, and former nature-based preschool director. As the founder and Chief Visionary of Samara Early Learning her work focuses on helping early childhood educators start nature-based schools or add nature-based approaches into their existing program. Learn more about Rachel here.
