In the seventh episode of the series, our superheroes try and solve another of the most common problems facing industry professionals - today it's mundanity.

Mandy and the Mundanity Monster!

Mandy is diverted from being a full-time coach to being a regional manager and finds the ‘Mundanity Monster’ has taken over the monthly manager meetings in the Bored Room. Her goal is to improve performance, get managers working as a close knit team and put themselves in their customers’ shoes.

She decides to breakout from the formal Bored Room and finds another with comfortable seats and a coffee table – but it’s not enough to defeat this monster. Mandy poses secret, random questions to the managers. They don’t know why Mandy wants to know their favourite food, favourite film, and their favourite motivating song and they’re not supposed to tell anyone – curiosity is burning up their inboxes.

Mandy goes the extra distance and finds everyone’s favourite food, downloads their favourite songs and gathers pictures of film posters. 

At first the Mundanity Monster was in control; "The meeting started as usual" says Mandy. "I produced the nibbles and everyone started to tuck in as I told them at the end of the day they’d compare findings; the winner would be the person who connected the right ‘favourite things’ to the right person. At that point, the mood of the meeting changed and everyone became very engaged with one another...and very secretive. People were even eating food they didn’t like to throw others off the scent. In a break we listened to the songs, which provided much amusement and some questionable dancing. To end the meeting I showed them the film posters and and they had to guess who’d chosen which film. 

"Like our mundane meetings we achieved our outcomes but also learnt more about each other and bonded by being out of our 'comfort zone'. We recognised that although we all work for the same company and have the same targets and goals, we are all different. No two people came up with the same three choices. But two choosing the same food became a learning point; sometimes we assume one customers’ needs are the same as the next because one or two things match, but underneath they’re all different. We recognised not to make assumptions about our customers or colleagues based on a small amount of information. We also learned questioning techniques and importance of body language and communication.

"A couple of months on, the managers’ performance has increased, they are better at identifying customers true needs and most importantly cannot do enough to help and support each other.”

Mandy used curiosity, environment, movement, visual, auditory and gustatory input, individual needs, competition, co-operation and novelty to defeat the Mundanity Monster, make her meetings more brain-friendly and achieve her goals. What can you do?

Mandy is an internal coach for a financial institution and attended an in-house ‘How to be a Brain Friendly Trainer’ workshop. She said ‘I was invited onto the course through my employers. As a coach rather than trainer I assumed that not all of the material would be useful for me personally. This was definitely not the case. I learned how to bring my coaching sessions to life and gain real buy-in from those who are learning. I have already put some of the techniques into place and am seeing positive results. So although this course may be perceived as a ‘trainer’ course, it is perfect for those who develop others in any arena.'

Learn all these options and far more when you join us at www.howtobeabrainfriendlytrainer.com