5 reasons to improve breakout experiences
Breakout sessions are excellent resources that can be used to foster impactful conversations, brainstorm big ideas, or simply network and chit chat with your peers. While breakout sessions offer many unmatched benefits, if not facilitated correctly, they can be mundane or even boring.
Improving your breakout sessions so they are inclusive, inviting, and impactful is imperative. In this article, we will cover the basic principles of breakout sessions, best practices you should keep in mind when hosting your next breakout session, and 5 reasons why you should improve your breakout experiences immediately.
What is a breakout session and why are they important?
Breakout sessions are small-scale gatherings where meeting attendees are divided into smaller groups in order to discuss and express their ideas on a certain topic. Where the overarching meeting may host a larger group, breakout sessions are designed to divide these larger groups into smaller, more curated groups, making it possible for everyone to get involved and have more meaningful conversations.
Breakout sessions provide teams with the space needed to dive into relevant topics while simultaneously providing them with the tools necessary to curate a more engaged group. Improving your breakout sessions will make it possible for you to create a space where teammates can come together to ask meaningful questions, host in-depth conversations, or get to know each other on a more personal level.
Best practices to keep in mind when hosting breakout sessions
Improving breakout experiences is important for a variety of reasons. Choosing the right space and facilitator is crucial to a successful breakout session as participants will feel more comfortable and be more inclined to participate in the conversation if they feel comfortable with the breakout facilitator. Ultimately, the main objective of your breakout session should be to create a space where participants feel comfortable sharing ideas, conversing, and pointing out observations. You should work towards creating an inclusive space that fosters an open dialog.
Improving your breakout experiences can do wonders for your organization. Here are 5 reasons why you should immediately work on improving your breakout sessions:
- Heightened engagement
Employee engagement can be defined as the level of involvement and enthusiasm in which employees bring to the table in their work and workplace. Unfortunately, many organizations fail to engage their employees which can ultimately lead to employees feeling overwhelmed, overworked, or even burnt-out. Improving your breakout sessions to engage employees is key in creating a happy, healthy workplace culture.
Employees that are engaged are happier and more inclined to collaborate and produce quality work when compared to their counterparts. An increased level of engagement will help strengthen your organization's culture, reduce staff turnover, increase productivity, strengthen working relationships, and positively impact your organization's bottom line.
Ways in which you can supercharge your breakout sessions to be more engaging include leveraging:
- Games
- Lightning talks
- Goal setting sessions
- Speed networking events
- Ask me anything or AMA sessions
- More meaningful conversations
When working remotely or embracing a hybrid model, it can be difficult to foster meaningful conversations. Improving your breakout sessions is a great way to foster more impactful conversations between your employees. Improving your breakout sessions will provide you with the opportunity to foster an environment where participants can chat, brainstorm, and collaborate in a more comfortable and intimate space.
Breakout rooms allow employees to participate in active discussions around relevant topics. Hosting these conversations in small groups allows employees to share their individual perspectives on how they will apply what they’ve learned in the breakout session to their everyday tasks. Working on improving your breakout rooms will help to create a safe space where employees can share without judgment or fear of repercussion.
- Impactful learning experiences
Providing your employees with educational and training experiences is crucial for their long-term development and breakout sessions offer an excellent opportunity to educate your employees on new subjects or deepen their understanding of an existing subject. Education and training are critical for employees to improve their expertise and abilities. Not only do these opportunities enrich your employees’ experiences in the workplace by helping them expand their knowledge, but it also benefits the organization.
There are numerous ways in which you can improve your breakout experiences by incorporating learning opportunities. Breakout sessions allow teams to break off into smaller groups that can then be led by industry or subject matter experts.
- Bonding and networking amongst employees
Employees don’t always get the chance to network, bond, or chat beyond work. Luckily, improved breakout sessions provide the perfect environment to foster networking opportunities and employee connections. Solid employee connections help make the workplace more enjoyable. Close-knit teams are known to be more productive, and efficient which ultimately increases job satisfaction and overall happiness.
- Better collaboration and cross-departmental communication
Breakout sessions provide an outlet that makes it possible for team members and different departments to come together to brainstorm and collaborate on shared projects via breakout session tools like shared documents, virtual presentations, or online whiteboards. Cross-departmental collaboration allows for more efficient use of resources and a better understanding of the organization as a whole. It also helps build trust between employees and departments.
Transform your breakout sessions with Remo
Remo is an immersive virtual event and meeting platform that empowers you to recreate natural interactions in any type of gathering, from global events to remote work meetings with your peers. Remo makes it possible for you to connect with others in real-time by providing you with the tools you need to immerse yourself in an event, host round table discussions, create a workshop, or brainstorm with your teammates. Improve your breakouts experiences with Remo today.
