Vibes >>> Content
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Talking staff training here in a sec, and the The Staff Training Sprint Playbook is available right now. Your whole staff training is ready and waiting inside that playbook.
All right, on with the show.
I’m up at camp right now getting ready for the summer. Oh and I’m recording videos every single day (YT, LI) which honestly feels a little weird for me. More on this in another newsletter when I feel like I have a better handle on it.
Why do I mention that first when this newsletter is about something totally different? Easy.
I want to put the video thing out there in public because I think it will help keep me accountable.
It’s super easy to default to the things we know (or at least think) we do well. And then call it a day.
Staff training is something I feel comfortable with. Camp videos on social media? Not so much.
So, anyway, I’m going to go through the things I’m thinking most about staff training this year, and every year. But just know in the back of my mind I’m also thinking about a camp YouTube script.
This is what camp looks like. A bunch of seemingly disconnected things all coming together into a two-month period. Crazy.
Anyway, on to staff training and the 5 things I’m thinking about as we prep for this summer.
Vibes > Content
I might have the most kickass presentation in the world. Crisp slides and this perfectly built schedule. But if the staff are in clique-y clumps or don’t even know each others’ vibes, none of it is going to land at all. I will probably die on this hill.
Community gets built through shared conversation, shared buy-in, and shared memories. Mostly the shared memories piece. Work super hard to build a memory together on Day 1 of training and everyone will reference it in Week 4.
Imagine me yelling this next line: Day 1 cannot be a content dump. It needs to be movement, and silliness, and different groups of people, and maybe weird, and a bunch of other things that don’t involve slides and sitting.
Community first. Other stuff later.
The other stuff is important too. No one remembers it if the vibes suck.
One sentence per session
If I cannot say what you want staff to remember from a session in one sentence, the session isn’t ready to roll.
This is harder than it sounds. The temptation will be to write five long sentences and then trick yourself into thinking it’s just one sentence. But it isn’t. Nail the actual sentence, the rest gets simpler. The activity, the discussion, the slide deck if you have one. Every piece either serves the sentence or it gets axed.
At the end of the session, ask staff to say what they think the sentence is that makes the session. If they can’t? Uh-oh. Chance it didn’t stick. That is your feedback loop.
Do → Discuss → Declare
The version of staff training where the director talks for 45 minutes and then everyone shuffles off to lunch is over. O-V-E-R.
Especially with 19-year-olds. The more lecturing, the further you get from the actual point of the things you do at camp.
What works inside a one-hour session is 20-20-20.
DO - Twenty minutes of activity. Discuss - Twenty minutes of discussion. Declare - Twenty minutes of presentation. I really think that order matters. When staff have already done the thing and talked about what happened, the takeaway lands. This is where that 1 sentence is key.
It’s fine for it to be a little messy. I had a projector break at Tri-State. We screwed up the Zoom breakout rooms in The Staff Training Sprint Cohort. Feels weird in the moment, but it’s fine. Break some things. The conversations that show up in the messy middle are usually the ones that last.
Say the why out loud
I used to try being real slick about the structure of what I was doing. Hiding the agenda. Smoothing the transitions. Pretending the activity is just for fun.
Nah, forget all of that. Pull back the curtain instead.
Tell staff “Yo, the reason we are doing this game is that this is what it feels like to be a brand new camper on Day 1.”
Walk them through the structure of the session before you start it. Tell them what you are hoping they will get during the activity.
It does not ruin the “magic”. (oh and by the way, there is no magic) It makes them part of building it.
I love trusting staff with the meta.
You fall to the level of your systems
The GOAT James Clear says:
“You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.”
And he sold like eleventy-billion copies of a book about it.
Goals for staff training are easy. Connection. Feel ready. Be cool.
The harder question is what is the system that gets you there every single year, even on the year you are short two leadership team members.
Some systems that hold up year after year: spreadsheet check-ins, pre-assigned teams, materials shared in advance, triads instead of pairs, a shared takeaways doc, the same opening question every morning.
None of them are clever. All of them survive a weird year.
What did I miss?
Seriously? What got skipped here? I need to know because staff training feels like it’s right around the corner.
Yeah, I’ve done a ton of these, but this is a new year, a new camp, a new staff. And I might need a little help because I’m also thinking about this freaking Instagram video.
Running a camp, oof. It’s a lot.
You got this
Jack
PS - Reminder from the top: The Staff Training Sprint Playbook has everything you need to plan staff training.
4 Live Sprint Replays, The Full Staff Training Recipe Book, prompts to get started and plan too. It's all in here.
Get my newsletter every week.
It’s all about kids today
Jack Schott
Summer Camp Evangelist