Getting your people to step outside their comfort zones is essential for growth. What are the best ways to do this in a training setting?
Last weekend I took part in an interesting training session, where executives from a major financial firm posed a business challenge to our students and asked them to present their solutions.

Since I’ve been writing a lot about motivation lately, I was particularly interested to see how the students would react, and what they thought of it afterward.

The results were extremely positive. Our students said they liked being put under pressure to solve a problem and get up and speak in front of an audience of senior managers and executives.

Some of these students are on the shy side, so this could have been a big obstacle, but they overcame it nicely. Part of that was because the process was facilitated smoothly and openly by the company’s executives, and the respective teams had different “coaches” working with them to help carve out solutions and presentations.

But I was also worried that the students might falter a bit outside of their comfort zones. This is a classic management challenge, as we all know. Expert after expert has said that one of the key tactics to growing professionally is to step outside your comfort zone and confront the unknown.

We’re looking to do more of these scenarios with our students, and I’d like to hear from the experts: What are the key ingredients to an effective training program? What tactics have you used in the past that have led to buy in and success?

Sound off in the Comments section below.

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