Feeling Claustrophobic? A guide for L&D Teams to remain engaged over Christmas.

It's a funny period this time of year. It beings on the last Friday before Christmas and ends on the 2nd of January.

A twilight zone where the days are dark and almost everybody is using up the last of their annual leave. The office is empty or you're working from home. It can be a frustrating time of year, but when handled with a little attention it can be a fantastically reflective and productive time of the year for the team.

So what can you do to keep yourself engaged over the festive period?

Admin!

That's right, the wonderful world of the bottom of your to-do list.

When there is nobody about it's the perfect time to stick in your headphones and do the worst of the admin that you've been putting off all year. From sorting out the course catalogue on the LXP to, reviewing workshop content or finally working out how you'll encourage your team to stick the same naming conventions for files and folders.

Christmas is the perfect time for this.

Stakeholders

Who's the stakeholder that you find most difficult to work with? Who's the stakeholder that never shows interest? We've all got/had one. Christmas can be a great time to think this over. If they're in the office why not set up a meeting / go for a coffee? Make the time to understand if the indifference is born out of the fact that they don't understand the function or the fact that you're doing a great job.

Knowing will help focus your attention in the right direction in the new year.

Content

Create some. Get back to basics. Flex those (for us, Learning & Development) muscles that have atrophied over the year. When the office is that empty you will have time to work on your content creation rather than content delivery, attending meetings, getting approvals, integrating systems or any of the 100's of other tasks that can hinder this throughout the year.

Learning Something New

While the office is quiet, get your headphones in and do a course on LinkedIn, watch a TED Talk, read an HRB article or finally work on how to use the 'If' query in Excel. It is the perfect time of the year to learn something new.

Connect With Someone New

So there's you, 2 people from accounts, 4 from sales, an EA and a director. Why not take the lead and send a group email asking if they want to go for lunch, or even better go and talk to them. Quiet periods can be a great time to make new connections at work. Networking in this way can help you build goodwill for future projects.

Depending on your circumstances these activities might end up being virtual. In this case, put an intro meeting in the person's diary and run it virtually or create a virtual event to bring groups of people together.

Goals

Decide what you want to achieve next year. Create a goal, then break it down into actions. Most importantly take the time to understand why you want to achieve the goal. Then put a rough timetable to the actions. The timetable will change, so don't aim for certainty, aim for direction for the new year.

Reflect

Take some time for yourself. Write out a list of all the things you've achieved; no matter how small you think they might be and save the achievements to a folder or note.

When the new year kicks in the to-do list gets long again, or you feel overwhelmed, look back on the list of all the things you achieved last year. Trust me, I used to save successful cold calls (way back when I was a salesperson) and listen back to them when I was having a hard day. It helps provide drive and gives you confidence.

I hope you enjoyed the read. Have a great Christmas and a happy new year!

#learninganddevelopment #christmas #newyear

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