It may not be the best example of a well-run organization, but America’s professional football league does one thing well that most companies could learn from: training camp. See why we think getting your employees together and putting them through drills will not only make your team stronger, but also more competitive. .

The Case for Camp

Every year, fans of professional football hustle to facilities across the country to witness their favorite teams and players engage in strenuous physical exercises, skill-reinforcing drills, and strategic meetings. These “training camps,” held every summer, just before the start of a new football season, exist for five basic reasons:

• Get the team ready before the start of a new season

• Give new players an opportunity to prove themselves, make the roster, and earn a starting position

• Enable new players and coaches time to acclimate themselves to new teammates and systems

• Provide veteran players with time to practice and get back into top form

• Give fans an opportunity to preview the team and get hyped for the season

This training system apparently works: football teams have engaged in this annual ritual since the 1920s. Conditions have changed over time, but the basic principles have not.

So why don’t professional organizations and companies engage in similar annual training? We’re not talking about fancy corporate retreats, group seminars, or dreaded team-building exercises. We’re talking about practical opportunities to help employees focus on skills and strategies so that they, and the company, can perform better. 

Benefits of Annual Training:

Why Camp is Important

Most of us get so busy trying to keep business going that we forget to stop and review. We glance quickly at the big picture but don’t study it long enough to notice the cracks developing around the edges or the aging overtaking the image. Taking two or three days a year to gather as an organization or company and re-examine progress, flex and strengthen overused or underused muscles, and review and update strategies based on current talent and competition gives everyone that opportunity to stop, breath, and prepare for the future.

Gathering all the departments together once a year also reminds them of the importance of working together. Most departments get so focused on their assigned tasks and responsibilities that they don’t often think about the impact their actions have on the activities of other departments. Letting your “special teams”—marketing, customer service, sales, production, accounting, administration, distribution, etc.—come together to compare goals and strategies can help them make suggestions to streamline or improve relations between departments and with clients.

So when should your company host an annual corporate training camp? Ideally, in the month or two before the start of your busy season or before the start of your seasonal product or service cycle. This helps make sure that all departments are reading from the same play book about any new campaigns, initiatives, processes, etc., your department or your company plans to pursue.

Keeping your camp local makes it easier for everyone to attend without the burden of travel expenses, prolonged cut-off from work and clients, or childcare complications.  Send everyone key information ahead of time so that when you do start training you can spend your time together focusing on strategies, discussing potential problems, addressing concerns, etc., and not sitting through dry presentations on the stuff just makes good sense.

Skills and Strategies:

What You Can Accomplish at Camp

Although professional football players attend training camp for weeks, yours doesn’t have to last that long. You should be able to accomplish your key goals, which may include the following, in just a few days:

• Let rookies learn from the veterans.  Present your teams with case studies of great companies that thrived and great companies that died.  Ask your veterans to identify what each company did right and where each went wrong.  See what your company can learn from these discussions.

• Take the field.  In February 2011, CBS Money Watch’s contributor Dave Logan suggested that companies engage in skill-building exercises like this important competition game.  First, divide your group into smaller groups and ask them to define the perfect competitor, one that could put your company out of business in two years.  Consider how the company is run, where it is located, who works there, and what makes this company so devastating.  Then, mix the groups up and challenge them to come up with a plan to stop this fictional competitor from destroying your business.  According to Logan, when run well, this activity not only provides your group with a better sense of the competitive landscape, but it also helps identify ways to better serve your customers.

• Scrimmage.  Huddle up by department and challenge all groups to a catchphrase and design competition for your signature product or service or for a product or service that’s currently in development.  This allows all departments to feel more invested in what you do and to contribute based on their unique perspectives.  The winner?  The winner gets bragging rights, and if you want, a small trophy with the department’s name on it.

• Cross train.  Challenge employees to walk through an exercise with someone from a different department.  It’s easy to criticize others when things don’t go well.  Just ask the kicker who missed the should-have-been game-winning field goal why he missed when that’s all he does.  Sometimes unexpected complications and factors arise.  Seeing situations from another’s perspective not only creates better understanding, but it might also inspire suggestions and solutions.

• Conduct a skills challenge among the departments.  Make sure everyone still has a firm understanding of key and fundamental processes.  Make a game of it, but ensure that your managers haven’t lost touch with basic steps or considerations.  Keep everyone on their toes.  Pair your less experienced team members against your veterans: your newbies will learn the standards they need to reach, and your veterans will see what talent and competition is on the rise.

• Let your “fans” play, too.  One of the highlights of professional football training camp is the access fans have to players.  End your camp with an open house, allowing clients, members, or the immediate community an opportunity to see a part of your operations in action.  Better yet, invite them to be part of a special charitable opportunity: packing backpacks for students without supplies, collecting non-perishable food items for local families in need, collecting blankets or hygiene items for the homeless, etc.  Experiencing something together helps spark or develop your relationship with the people giving your company support.

Training camp is all about getting ready for what’s to come. If your company or your department never stops to look up, it might not be prepared to take the hits. Train wisely..

Not Your Average Summer Camp

 Unlike some corporate retreats you hear about, professional football camps are no joke when it comes to the amount of work players have to put into them.  In his July 23, 2014, article for BleacherReport.com, former Oakland Raiders and Baltimore Ravens player Ryan Riddle calls the physical grind of training camp “one of the most difficult challenges I’ve ever faced in my life.”

“Trying to balance this conditioning process without wearing down or injuring the players is incredibly complex,” he says, “especially when you consider each individual has their own threshold for wearing down.”

Is it worth it?  According to Riddle it is.  “It’s only natural that when you put a group of guys together in a challenging environment for months at a time, with a unified goal, some powerful bonds are formed,” he says.  “These bonds can last a lifetime, or they can be more temporary, but the memories and enjoyment that come from such interactions are extremely valuable.”

Very truly yours,

Milt