GUIDE FOR CLIENTS

ONLINE LABS

AFTER DESIGNING AND DELIVERING MANY LABS FOR OUR CLIENTS OVER THE YEARS WE HAVE DEVELOPED SOME RECOMMENDATIONS THAT WE WOULD LOVE TO SHARE WITH YOU TO MAXIMIZE THE INVESTMENT YOU ARE MAKING IN YOUR PEOPLE AND THEIR DEVELOPMENT.

PROMOTE RATHER THAN MANDATE

Having your Senior Leadership and HR promote learning opportunities and how they link to your companies overall goals tends to be the best way to encourage full participation in the Labs. Research shows that when learning and particularly when DEI training is mandated that impact can actually be quite negative and take away quite significantly from the outcomes you are looking to achieve.

PLAN TIME FOR PROCESSING

We ask that our clients allow at least 15 mins after each lab for participants to decompress and reflect on discussions, insights and learnings before heading back into the work again. This also gives participants the option of taking up the opportunity to ask a question 1:1 with our facilitators who will stay on the zoom after the lab for 5 mins to give time for this. Some clients will also plan to regroup after the lab to hold time to discuss the learnings further and talk through any learnings gained through implementing the learnings.

SHARE OUR PDF INVITE POSTER

Our design team will create a PDF Invite Poster for your Lab or series of Labs explaining what we will cover, who will be facilitating the session and what to expect. We encourage our clients to send this on to all participants in an email prior to the lab and to attached the PDF to the cal invite too.

CAMERAS ON

Where ever possible please be clear that these labs are immersive, that we will be in conversations with each other, sharing stories and working through challenges. This kind of work is best done when we can look each other in the eye, read body language and truly connect with our co-workers. We also include a note about this in the Tosha PDF invite poster that we provide for you to send out prior to the lab.

INCLUSIVE = INDIVIDUAL SCREENS

In support of creating an inclusive environment in our labs we have found that encouraging each person to join the lab on an individual screen is critical. We also include a note about this in the Tosha PDF invite poster that we provide for you to send out prior to the lab.

CONTEXT IS KEY

We ask that a representative from the client joins the labs and does a quick (1 min) intro at the beginning of the Lab to contextualize the learning in how the specific topic will support the vision and values of the company. This way of beginning each lab can have a powerful shift in how the group engage with the content and how quickly our facilitators can support impactful leanings.

For your first Tosha Lab the intro could cover:

  • Why this work is important to your company i.e. how does it relate to your overall vision or values

  • Why partner with Tosha i.e. creative/media industry experience, immersive approach, highly experienced facilitators from diverse backgrounds

  • What to expect e.g. what is the companies commitment to this work long-term, beyond this session

  • Clear hand over i.e. please welcome the [facilitator/s] from Tosha

  • For further Tosha Labs you may simply talk about the importance of the topic to your companies goals and then hand over to the facilitators.

FEEDBACK IS QUEEN!

We will provide a feedback link at the end of every lab we facilitate and we will also provide this link to our main Client Contact to circulate after the Lab too. Encouraging people to complete this very quick survey can have a huge impact on our ability to maximize the impact of the program we are designing for you and your people. Every client has particular learning needs and we love to tailor and continue to improve our labs for each of our clients on the back of the feedback we receive. At the end of larger programs we will also provide a feedback summary to share with Senior Leadership and/ or the company to show the impact of the investment you are making.

HANDOUTS + RESOURCES

We will provide a link to handouts for each Lab both to the main client contact prior to the lab and at the beginning of the actual lab so all participants can refer back to examples and models shared.

A link to the Tosha Resources page will also be shared at the end of the lab and as a follow up with our main client contact so that those who are interested in learning more can explore our recommended books, articles, podcasts and more.

Both links will remain live so that our clients can access these at any point in the future

If you have any questions about this or other aspects of how to maximize the impact of your Labs please get in touch with our team at Tosha and we will be delighted to support you.

EXECUTIVES OBSERVING ❎
RECORDING ❎

One of the key elements of our labs is to encourage honest conversations. For this to happen, we need to create an atmosphere of safety where attendees feel they can openly speak about matters that sometimes are uncomfortable and very personal. To ensure this to happen, we kindly ask not to have CEO’s, Executives or people in Leadership positions joining the lab as observers. For the same reasons, Tosha won’t be recording any session. In our experience, these elements disrupt attendees openness and therefore the whole experience is affected.