Ditch Your Icebreakers: What to Do Instead

Every trainer's done it...we've all been in training sessions and meetings with a facilitator who's trying to set the tone with an opener of some sort - before or after the ground rules and intention setting, there's almost always an obligatory ice breaker moment all the participants endure.
In this episode, our hosts discuss the concept of the conversational icebreaker, it's merits, and talk about if they are a tactic so popular, could it really be achieving the intended outcome?  And, they'll share if their intent and impact are misaligned, what might be an alternative.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to the Beyond the Training podcast. Hey Jamie. Good morning. How are you? I'm well. How are you, Robert? Quite well. I just said good morning. And I don't know when this pod is going to actually post. So uh Grand Rising, if nothing else. Uh, how's your mental health?

SPEAKER_01 0:14

I don't know that I've reflected good. No. I was gonna say I don't know that I've reflected on it in the past few days, but I do think I've reflected on it, and it's been good. What about you? Mental health.

SPEAKER_00 0:26

You know what's interesting that almost every day I'm thinking about my mental health because I'm ha we ask this question when we come into the booth and and record these episodes. So I'm thinking about this a lot. And and I I wonder, I think, I think that because I'm asking you this question or you asked me this question and I'm preparing about it, I'm actually thinking about it more. And because of that, I think I'm actually in a better space because I'm actually paying attention to my mental health and and thinking about it and wondering how am I doing? What's what are the inputs and uh exports of my mental health? So I'm in a good place, and I think it's because I'm talking about it, and which is the whole reason we started this is that I was influenced uh by the uh Colorado Men of Color Collaborative, and they were talking about asking each other instead of how you're doing, uh, how's your mental health? And I was like, Well, I'll try it and I'll take on the challenge. And here we are, uh I'm almost a year later doing that same thing. So it's good. Thank you for asking.

SPEAKER_02 1:25

As it relates to mental health, one thing I have been working through maybe is when I ask people how they're doing and they just say okay, and letting that be okay and not, oh, what's wrong? Oh, what can I do to support? Um and then you talked about talking about it. So now I'm like, well, maybe should I keep asking about what would get you to great? Or why are you just okay? What do we do when people say I'm having a terrible day? Or it's just okay. And is it okay to just be okay? And I don't have to fix that for anybody.

SPEAKER_00 2:02

Well, I I think it's a fascinating okay. Let's just let's take five minutes just in this moment to to get into it just for a moment, because you are sparking something for me that I when you said okay, when someone says my my day is just okay, when you ask them how they're doing, I often go, Great, that's good, let's move on. So uh then you kept on talking, so it sounded like you meant okay is not is not great. I I remember having said there was a commercial a while ago uh that said uh just okay is not okay. I think it was about technology. I feel like it was like internet commercial or like if your phone connectivity is not just okay, then that's not okay. I think that's where that came from. But I used to say it like just okay is not okay. And then it's not an effort to fix somebody's day, it's just that it's all right to my acknowledgement. It's not not not okay to be okay. It's it's okay to not be okay. That said, I I don't want to ask people how's your day? Because I know the answer, fine, uh I'm okay, is is what's coming. And so I want to make sure that our conversations are more intentional. So I don't know that I want so much to fix it, Jamie, but I do want to have more intentional, impactful conversations.

SPEAKER_02 3:20

Do you well I wonder if though I don't know though, because you said when people respond, I'm okay, you're like, great, let's get on about our day.

SPEAKER_00 3:34

I used to, yeah. No, that's what I'm saying. I used to do that. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:38

And some people don't want to talk about their day.

unknown 3:42

I know.

SPEAKER_02 3:42

Some people are the I don't want to do the icebreaker, I don't want to do the warm welcome, I want to get to the bulk of the meeting so I can be on with my day. And even in some ways, I'm that person. When the opener takes 35 minutes, I'm hot inside.

SPEAKER_00 3:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:00

But it takes 35 minutes to get through everyone's warm welcome sometimes. Yeah. Because people do like to share and process and tell you their life story. Um, and even the openers around your favorite latte sometimes take 35 minutes, and that's what gets me really going is we just spend 35 minutes of my day hearing about people's favorite lattes.

SPEAKER_00 4:22

All right. So, what would make that more impactful for you? Because I I do love the what is your favorite latte, or what's your favorite uh not conglomerate coffee shop name insert here, uh, drink. So, what what would make that icebreaker, warm welcome, more impactful for you if it's gonna take us all the way around the room? There's four 40 people in the room, so even if everyone speaks for one minute, that's 40 minutes.

SPEAKER_02 4:51

So I believe that your opener, what's your favorite drink from a non-cogglomerate coffee shop is different than what's your favorite latte. And I'll say why in a second. So we at Seven Focus, and those of you who've experienced us, um we have what's called a warm welcome. And that comes from Castle, like Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning. Um, it's a national organization. And we've really came from uh what they called our three signature adult practices. So warm welcome, engaging practices, and an optimistic closure. Um, and the war, and from their perspective, which I have fully bought into, is that a warm welcome helps you get to know people in a meaningful way as it relates to the content, the agenda, um, the work that you're doing of the day. And so knowing everybody's latte around the room likely won't help me work with them any better or differently. Maybe I remember three people's and maybe I want to buy them that kind of latte the next time we have a project that we're working on. But it really doesn't advance the work impactfully. Now, yours, I do believe is closer aligned to a warm welcome. Maybe if we're talking about capitalism and I get to learn about people's favorite local coffee store that they support and why they support it. And then I am like, oh, I should probably check out that coffee spot because it's really close to me. And I want to support non-huge coffee shop organizations, global ones. So a better one is something that we each I get to share and I get to learn from my colleagues about themselves that helps us do the work better.

SPEAKER_00 6:49

You know what's funny about what I asked you? I was actually just trying not to give ourselves uh unnecessary sponsorship in this pod that we are looking for a coffee shop that wants to be sponsored here on said pod, and we'll say your name all day long. As a matter of fact, we'll drink your coffee. Uh, and that's why I didn't do that. But I love that you picked up on the fact that there might be something anti-racist, anti-capitalist in the warm welcome, and that is what makes it most inten or more intentional for you. So I think it's really interesting that I don't know that we've ever talked about our favorite lattes on this pod. But I think I know what yours is. Chai latte? Oat milk.

SPEAKER_02 7:28

Yeah, I go to. Yep, yeah. Uh I got it. Good work. Um, and I'm really vibing now oat milk that has no added anything. It's literally oats and water. Um just without, you know, all the additional sugars. But while I'm like flattered and appreciate that you remember my drink, how does that help us work better together?

SPEAKER_00 7:54

For sure. For sure. It's it's it's certainly more about the fact that I know it and we have a relationship where I can remember that. So if I'm going to get coffee for me, then I might ask you, or just surprise you, and that there's something in that human relationship connection piece than it is knowing the actual latte. Now, here's the problem, Jamie, is that if I was to be the kind of person whose acts of service is my love language and I bring you a coffee that I and I don't know your favorite coffee, then what? Then you have this 12 ounce of hot steaming liquid that you're not really going to do anything with. And so either you waste my $7.99 because I had to go to the conglomerate coffee shop, um, or you drink something that you maybe don't want. And so or you're just asking.

SPEAKER_02 8:40

I'm on my way to get a coffee.

SPEAKER_00 8:42

Yes. Intention for sure, uh, and impact. Absolutely. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:48

If warm welcomes, icebreakers, the intention are really to set the tone of the meeting. I do think we have a lot of opportunity to improve upon them in the workplace as we think about diversity, equity, and inclusion. So I really value the warm welcomes as we just shared. And um I will say sometimes it's hard for me to think about warm welcomes that are connected to the agenda. Um, and what I would offer to those to the our listeners is set the agenda first. What's been helpful for me is to set the agenda first and then come back and ask how do people, how can what question that I can I ask to allow people to enter this conversation to get there. And this is a little bit of the science that I'm I really love um thinking about the science side of our brain and how it works. And it wakes up our RAS system.

SPEAKER_00 9:42

Uh-oh.

SPEAKER_02 9:42

I think it's the RAS system. Give me a second. I just did a presentation on this recently. So while I'm pulling this up, um really thoughtful, warm welcomes openers literally wake up our brain's processing uh system and our and it helps us be more engaged in the meeting later. Um one that I've used as an example. Um we uh have a learning group that's going through some shared learning. And this one of the months is all about what does the data say around disparities um in the workplace for women, people of color, people within the LGBTQ plus community, specifically pay disparities. And the warm welcome for that content is well, do you want to take a guess?

SPEAKER_00 10:34

When we're talking about disparities, the disparities is the agenda?

SPEAKER_02 10:38

It's yeah, it's essentially yes. What the agenda is what are your reflections on what you read? What questions do you have around the data? I just gave you a hint.

SPEAKER_00 10:48

Well, that I was gonna say that's what something I would ask, and I think I've heard you ask is given what you know from either our last conversation or the journey work we did before this conversation, what questions do you want to answer today or something like that?

SPEAKER_02 11:02

I think that's a good question. Um, and uh the question that I ask is what's a data term or a math term to describe your learning for this month?

SPEAKER_00 11:12

Oh, oh, oh, oh, okay. All right, all right, all right.

SPEAKER_02 11:15

And so it connects to data and people are like, oh, I have to that does activate your brain a bit, yeah. Hey, because I can't just roll off my favorite latte. It's not as easy as just like, oh, and um, and then people already take you into the learning because they'll say things like multiplication. I already knew a lot of this stuff, but it really reinforced my belief in the value of why it's so important for us to be thinking about equity in the workplace. Yeah. Um, so it's things like that that everybody gets to share, people get to enter and enter the conversation. And I also work to intentionally say say, share it, especially when it's virtual or hybrid, share in the chat or share out loud so people can find their entry points for the warm welcome.

SPEAKER_00 12:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:02

So then it doesn't become let's all go around the room. All 40 people have to go, and people get to engage in the ways that are meaningful for them.

SPEAKER_00 12:12

Okay, so I I really still am stuck on using my what is your favorite latte warm-up? Uh, or what did you do this weekend, or what are your plans for the holiday? I still want to ask that. Um, so I really want to uh need some consultation from you about how to make those even more impactful. Before we do, before we do, before we do though, I am thinking about the the warm welcome. Uh, and and I think I need to know the difference between a warm welcome and an icebreaker. Because I think if I ask the right, what's your um what is the difference? Like what is the intent and the impact uh between warm welcome, as you have described it from as a castle um uh technique and the icebreaker that so many of us as trainers, uh facilitators, educators use?

SPEAKER_02 13:00

The difference is how will what I learn help us meet the goals that we have.

SPEAKER_00 13:05

So, okay. I love I thank you for making that one sentence. Why is talking about our favorite latte or what we're doing over the week, did over the weekend not going to help us do that?

SPEAKER_02 13:17

Often, more often than not, it's hard for me to retain the information because it's not connected to the content. And so here's some other brain science stuff. New content has to be connected to current content in my brain. And that new content has to be sticky for me, meaning it I have to understand why I'm gaining the new content. What does it mean for this work? Um, and I have to find again a connection point in my brain for it. Knowing 39 other people's lattes, there's nothing in my brain that's gonna that's sticky for that information to stay and then me to do something with it now. Because I am a fan of anti-capitalism and I love coffee, I'm like, oh, I'm really interested in this. And oh, I've never been to that place. People are talking about different points in the city. And my I know I travel city, I know the city. I'm like, oh, where is that? 44th and Wazi. I don't know that I've ever been over there. And so my brain is having to work to find some connection points, but information like what's your favorite latte? It's not sticky for me. Maybe for other people, maybe everyone's writing down everyone's favorite latte and that works for them. Yeah, I'd be willing to bet it's more often than not. Um and you know, I wanted to come to Castle's work website. I haven't been in a while because it really is the practices were really developed for adults working with young people. And now that I'm here, it's interesting because I haven't looked at it in a while. They changed their language a little bit. And I don't know if they changed their language because this is youth focused. Uh these languages are now towards the youth, because the other language was towards adult practices, but now they say inclusive welcome, engaging strategies, and intentional close. Um, and so here they say when planning and facilitating activities, educators are always thinking, what's my purpose? The inclusive welcome is an opportunity to bring that purpose to life. I like that better than what I said. And so a warm welcome, an icebreaker, whatever you want to call it, an opener is an inclusive welcome and it's an opportunity to bring the purpose of the day, the meeting, the session to life.

SPEAKER_00 15:41

All right. So if we're going to talk about lattes, favorite lattes, or the latte you have sitting at your desk during the meeting, then we need to connect it somehow to our learning. So if there's capitalism, there's an opportunity there. If it's uh related to maybe needs, there may be uh what what is a what is a human need that you have uh that has resulted in you, your coffee, latte, whatever that you ordered and sitting on your desk today, uh, something that is connected to the agenda or our learning today. Maybe not the agenda, but our learning today. Okay, I'm starting to get that. Damien, I don't know. Well, I do know. I know that you uh know that I was an educator and well, still in my life, just as a like a kid educator in my former life. I don't uh educate kids as often as I'd like to. And at the same time, I remember learning about Jean Piaget's uh theory of cognitive development. Are you familiar with Piaget?

SPEAKER_01 16:36

I think so.

SPEAKER_00 16:37

Well, since you brought us Castle and RAS, I figured I'd bring us the cognitive his cognitive theory, uh, basically a lot of what you actually said that in order for you to take on new information, you needed to be able to connect to some other context, learning that you already had. He called those schemas. Uh, so you already have a schema, already have a mindset around something, capitalism, humanization, uh math. And then the educator, the learning happening in the room, has to somehow connect to that, either add to it and reinforce it, or somehow build upon it um uh through different types of contexts or one added learning. Think boxes. You stack one box on top of another, it might fall down. But if you stack uh uh one box on top of two, then you're more likely to keep it. And so um PIJ's uh theories help people who are uh educating young people or older people uh understand that you know, when before you're two years old, uh there the way that you are building blocks is literally with building blocks, and you use your hands to put those blocks together. When you get a little bit older into your early grade school ages, uh now those building blocks can come become a little bit more movable. You you start to learn about space and time. Uh you get more concrete when you are a preteen, and then after uh our teenage years, we're pretty much in our our formal operational. Most brains are in our formal operational, and so those schemas that we are building blocks on, or those building blocks into or connected to continue to get more and more mature. And so that's why you can ask certain things of a 12-year-old that you can't ask a two-year-old because they're going to give you different uh responses. But it's those schemas that you were just talking about that you need is a connection to and can help to activate the learning. I really like that you said that. Activate my brain into the learning that we're going to do today.

SPEAKER_02 18:30

What you just named is not easy necessarily to do, to build on people's schemas, to be thinking about people's schemas as we create content, as we're leading out a meeting. So it's easier to just go with uh, what's your favorite latte? What did you do this weekend type of approach? Um, because it does uh, as I mentioned, with the what's your favorite um or what's a math term you would use to describe your learning, that warm welcome took me some time and intentionality to think about. Um and if we really, even in our work, Robert, I was just thinking about this recently. If we really, really, really want to have an impact, we have to really be intentional about every single minute of our meeting, of our session. Um, and it doesn't mean we have to at minute one, this is exactly what we're gonna do. At one minute and five seconds, we should be here. Um, but we have to be thoughtful with how we're asking people to spend their time with us. Um, and it has to be meaningful, it has to be useful for them. And to your point, it has to connect to the schemas that they already have in their brain. It has to add a building block, it has to connect to something that they've already built. So the other thing I wanted to, I did go back to and to look at the RAS because I want to make sure I get this right. And it is the reticular activating system. It's a network of neurons in the brainstem that controls sleep wake cycles and arousal. It's part of the reticular formation, it's made up of multiple neuronal circuits that connect the brainstem and cortex. The RAS regulates sleep-wake cycles by altering the brain's electric activity, including the speed of neuron firing and the voltage of brain waves. And so it's really important for us to work to cue the brain to pay attention, to get it out of that sleep cycle. Not that we're all literally asleep in the meetings, but um moving from a passive to an active that our neurons are actively firing. And again, I don't know that the question around what's your favorite latte. Now, maybe if we worked in a coffee shop, Robert, okay, yeah. That would be really relevant.

SPEAKER_00 20:44

Or yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:46

So it's not necessarily that that question is not a good one. It's most of the time the context that I'm in, the question is not connected to our day, our learning or our session. So that's what uh my sometimes frustrations are around opener's icebreakers that last 35 minutes. That is cool. That was funny because everybody told me their favorite finger and why, but that doesn't help us think about biases differently. That doesn't help us meet our project timeline.

SPEAKER_00 21:21

So first, I want to make sure I don't forget. Uh, can you say the acronym again, R A S?

SPEAKER_02 21:28

R A S, reticular activating system.

SPEAKER_00 21:30

Reticular activating system. And if I was to try to connect it to a schema in my brain, I'm trying to think of some of the words that you said, is basically waking up my brain uh neurons enough to connect, to make the connections to what we're talking about uh and what I already know.

SPEAKER_02 21:47

Not quite. This is a little bit of just waking up the brain first, and then you get it to so that I can do that. Then you get it to connecting to the schemas, building blocks that I already have in my and and brain science. Says that you that literally the neurons have to connect for the information to stick and potentially stay. So then part of the other brain science says that the brain naturally prunes information that's not used within 24 to 48 hours. But if we use the opener and connect it to schema, like you said, right, for example, when we're working with young people and we're talking about miles traveled, we're we could we have the opportunity to talk about the communities that those young people already live in. So then when they pass this street, more likely than not, their brain is like, oh, I would just remember that this street sign is one mile away from my school. Now I've made that connection, and my brain likely won't prune that new information anymore because I've used it. I've used it in my context.

SPEAKER_00 22:52

So absolutely it this fired a memory for me. There's some neurons in there that I had to knock the dust off real quick. But one of my favorite memories in high school in physics class was learning about uh miles per hour, speed specifically, and uh the laws around uh how we get to the speeds that we have and how we know whether or not your car is driving at a particular speed. And so I can I can see my physics teacher. I know what he I could describe him to a T, but I cannot remember his last name to be able to shout him out. So those of you who were in my physics class, uh send me a text and remind me what his name was, and I can shout him out. And anyway, uh what he the way he taught us about how uh miles per hour work and how speed works and the friction that we have uh that keeps us like wind speed and and ground speed, da da da was he let me drive my car past a photo uh not radar, like a photo radar. So, you know, get the radar gun to to judge the speed. And uh I got to get in my car and drive as fast as I could down the street next to uh uh the uh the school. And you know, it was like a block. So it wasn't like I was doing 75 in my little uh Geo metro. But it it would what was fun about it was that I was in my car learning at that time, and the it was the the experiment was could you go 30 miles an hour? Could you go 20 miles an hour? Um, and then we had this whole science experiment was is is my speedometer correct? Uh turns out in that uh GeoMetro that was already by the time I had it like 11 years old, it was off by about two miles per hour, the speedometer was. And so I told my uh teacher, I'm gonna use this every time I get pulled over that uh the speedometer has been scientifically checked and then it doesn't work. I never had to use that, but uh I thought it was pretty funny at the time. But what you're what you're naming is so crucial, and I remember learning that, and I know more about how my vehicle gets up to the speed that it does or doesn't, um, or how photo photo radar works because he connected it to my own learning, my tangible, tacit building blocks of how I move in my car, versus uh if you'd have just you know said E equals MC squared or whatever the the formula might have been. So I I just was making that connection. Thank you for connecting the content to my context.

SPEAKER_02 25:12

Last thing I want to name as we close out today's conversation, questions like how was your weekend and how was your holiday or you know, questions that you typically feel okay with asking. And I think they're okay questions as well. And context matters. So what's the agenda of the day? Is this going to help us connect? And know your the people in the room. And I know you do this, and I want to make sure we name this for listeners. Not everybody wants to talk about their weekend in a room full of 40 people because maybe they have a relationship that's not warmly welcomed and they aren't at a place to talk about their partner the same ways that everybody talk about um their partners in um heteronormative relationships. Um, and so there's that to be mindful of that some people have to not have have to, actually, maybe it's the right word, have to, and or choose to lie about how their weekend was. You don't want to share with 39 other people really what they did out of fear of judgment. The holiday one uh always gets me. Not everybody celebrates the holidays in the same way, wants to celebrate the holidays. Some people have really bad experiences connected to the holidays. But if you know the people in the room, you can ask those questions if you know they celebrate holidays and they love it and and they want to tell you about their holiday adventures. Or um, you know the people in the room and they feel really comfortable sharing all the juicy details of their weekend. Um, so context matters is what I would add to this conversation.

SPEAKER_00 26:46

You're absolutely right that context matters. And I thank you for naming that. Not everybody wants to talk about their mental health, not everybody wants to talk about how their day went, because their day or is going or yesterday went or whatever, uh, might not be something they're interested in. So that tells me that there are at least two questions that can help us get more intentional toward our impact in these conversations. And I haven't forgotten that you said you and I can even do more to be intentional with the audiences that we're working with. And so the two questions that came up for me is why am I asking this icebreaker question? Or if it's if I even if I'm calling calling it a warm welcome, why am I doing it? What's the purpose? And connectedly, what are the learners, the people in the room, supposed to do with it? Like, what is the point of that? Um, on uh Friday, I had a I was in a session, a conference, and uh there was an icebreaker. It was literally 40 people, and we all went around the room. And and the whole time I was thinking, what's the point? I think partly I was thinking about what's the point because I was thinking about you would not you would have had a fit uh having seen that. Not only uh because we were all just sitting there doing this warm welcome uh in icebreaker, but we are also passing around one microphone to each other. And so I I I knew that that would have just uh totally you would want to pull your hair out.

SPEAKER_02 28:07

And for our listeners, the point of it's not that I don't like microphones, it's that 40 people, depending on where I was in the room, would have already touched the microphone before I touched the microphone.

SPEAKER_00 28:18

That's right. Uh, where I was, I was at the back of the room and the microphone started at the front, so I was like person number 36 or 37, yeah, out of 40. And and and certainly the question that was asked for our icebreaker could have been utilized more impactfully um throughout the day, throughout the conference. And and now that you've said all this, I'm kind of thinking, like, man, if I were to go back and do that again, if if I was to get with the facilitator, I would say it this way, or ask this question, or you know what we were, we could have been doing this and that. There were a couple people who did bring up stuff that they heard later on. So they would say, Oh, Danielle, I remember that you said this thing, and it was kind of like jokey jokey. Uh, I I remember that you said this thing. For example, one person said, I want to write a book. And so the another person said, Well, maybe you can include this in your book. Um, and it was kind of funny, but it wasn't necessarily connected to the content of the the day. It was just people remembering what had been said at the beginning of the day. So why? What is the purpose for this question, this icebreaker? And then what are the people in the room supposed to do with it? That that's really helpful for me to think through. And and and I didn't say this before, I'm not even a big fan of icebreakers in the first place. Uh so if I'm going to do a warm welcome with intentionality, those those are two questions that are helping me think through how.

SPEAKER_02 29:39

One question that is typically my go-to is uh that we use a lot in focus is what matters to you in this conversation? So a lot of people to review the agenda in advance and ask what matters to you. And some people might say, let's maybe say it's a project plan that we're working on. Someone says, Matters to me that we stay on task today because we're close to being finished. Somebody else might say, matters to me that we're gonna celebrate at some point, uh, because we're close to fit being finished, um uh, etc. And that it's a really great question because people will just share what they want to share. Some people might say, I had a terrible weekend and I didn't get to finish what I was supposed to do for the project. And you know, I'm sorry. I want you all to know that I'm taking accountability. Could be a range of different things that is not as narrow as what's your favorite fill in the blank.

SPEAKER_00 30:31

In order to get to that though, to be able to respond to something like that, we not just you and I, just we practitioners in the world, facilitators in the world, we need to be ready for any and all responses. And I think the reason, a lot of the reason we ask easy, you know, what's what uh are you a dog person or are you a cat person? You know, we ask those kind of questions because we can be prepared for what comes next, uh, to switch and transition into our agenda. Whereas something like what you just asked, what's important to you in this conversation, it could be 40 different answers. And if I'm the facilitator, what am I supposed to do with that? Because now people might be sharing things that are really, really important. And I need to respond, I'm I'm responsible for 40 different takes on on my question. And so I think that there's some work that we could probably do for folks, with folks, thinking through how to partner in better ways in that learning.

SPEAKER_02 31:25

What's interesting about what you just said reminded me, and and maybe this is what we leave listeners, one other thing we leave listeners with is it doesn't have to be that let's go around the room. It can be turn and share with the person next to you, fill in the blank. So you're doing all those same things. People are entering into the conversation, they are activating their RAS system. Um, and so consider that as an option too, that it doesn't always have to be the opener, everyone go around the room.

SPEAKER_00 31:56

I love it. I think we'd actually end on that. I I think the the that is a great takeaway is considering how you do a warm welcome rather than not just if or or or what it is, but how you're doing it, so that people still get to the sharing and warming their brains up part, connecting neurons part, and at the same time is a more useful uh uh amount of time and effort for everybody involved. This has been the Beyond the Training podcast, where we go from really good intentions, like you know, just learning a little bit more about folks before we get started on our agenda to great impact and making sure that we're using the information that we learn, uh, that we gather to uh stack on top of uh learning that we already have so we can do even greater work. And we want to know what are the boxes that you're stacking, what what neurons get connected for you today in today's conversation? Send us an email at impact at seven-focus.com. Let us know how this episode landed on you, or send us a text or uh chat at us in all of our social media. We're on uh TikTok for as long as we can be. We're on Instagram, we're on LinkedIn, and so we want to hear from you. And uh we really appreciate you listening and being a part of this conversation. We will see you all next time.