Although I do have shorter  version of the SIY program available ​(there is a 1-day, half-day and keynote format)​, my strong preference is that my clients make the time needed to attend and complete the full 2-day SIY program and 28-day challenge. It’s common to hear that, ‘Our team is just too busy to take off 2 days for a training’, or ‘We just don’t have that much time.’ Is this true? At SIYLI, we believe that we choose how to spend our time based on our priorities. 

If your priority is to help your employees manage their stress or to improve their communication and collaboration abilities or feel more well-being in their lives, this will take time and practice. We’ve seen that a mindset of ‘we’re too busy’, which is quite common and understandable, only perpetuates the dynamics that may have inspired a client to consider the SIY program in the first place. When organizations make time for this type of personal and professional development, it sends an important message to their employees that they prioritize and encourage the expression of emotional intelligence within the organization. 

I also emphasize that the 2-day program is the full version of the program and goes into more depth and practice than the shorter versions. The half-day and keynote are intended as introductions to the topics of mindfulness and emotional intelligence, not as a replacement for the full 2-day SIY program. Also note that all of the data collected about the impact of the SIY program is collected from the 2-day version, so I cannot speak to the impact of the shorter program versions. There are certainly times with a shorter program is ideal, especially when a keynote or half-day is an introduction to the topics to see if there is more interest in additional programs, or when incorporated into a conference or team off-site.

This depends on your needs and interests. The SIY program has worked well for a variety of audiences:

• Leaders: SIY is a leadership program and works very well for executive teams and senior leaders. For some clients, the SIY program has been integrated into a year-long senior leadership training.
• Teams/ Divisions: the SIY program can be offered to a specific team or rolled out within a business unit or division of a company. Because the program creates a sense of connection and community over the two days, it can be a powerful program to share with teammates. You can take time at the end for discussion and brainstorming of if/how the team wants to carry on what they learned as new practices or team norms.
• Anyone/ Open-Enrollment: SIY started as an open-enrollment program at Google and has been successful there and in other companies. The program is open to anyone that wants to take it and draws a cross-section of participants from throughout the organization.
• New managers: This transition into management requires people to increase their self-awareness and their ability to understand and work with others, so the SIY program is powerful as a training program for new managers.
• Recent graduates: I’ve also offered the SIY program to recent graduates (e.g. as part of a post-college rotational program within an organization). It’s great to give recent grads a time for reflection and to build fundamental EQ skills early in their career.

For any audience, a piece of feedback I frequently receive from participants is that they feel really cared for by their employer since the SIY program addresses them as a full-person.

If you are looking for deeper organizational change or culture improvement, then starting at a senior level tends to work best since the tone for an organization is set at the top.

Yes! The 2-day program can be offered as two 1-days, 4 half-days or 8 short sessions. I do recommend that the sessions are not spaced too far apart– one week up to one month apart is ideal. If too much time lapses in-between sessions, it is hard to maintain momentum for the program and participants forget what they learned in the previous sessions.

SIY is designed to provide leaders with training based in mindfulness and emotional intelligence. This work improves focus, empathy and resilience – all of which are domains that can be deeply meaningful to both our professional and personal lives.

With this in mind, when I offer the program within organizations, I make sure to frame and tailor the activities in a way that is safe for participants. As a facilitator, I’m aware of the multi-faceted relationships that can exist within work spaces, and I will actively build in frameworks to create a comfortable environment where participants feel safe to learn, take space when needed and dive deeper into topics when they feel comfortable.
In a work environment, what is personal to share will naturally have different boundaries and participants are free to share as much or as little as they would like.