Franchise companies face several particular challenges that include developing a strategic partnership relationship with their franchisees and standardizing their banner requirements across the network. One of the most common approaches used by many franchisors is to hold quarterly or annual conferences for their franchisees. Whether by mutual obligation or on the franchisor’s initiative, it is not easy to motivate attendance and above all to optimize the added value of such reunions for the network as a whole. Neuroscience inspires several relatively easy strategies to achieve that.
Everything in Good Time
Many franchisors structure their conferences in a way that allows them to build a positive franchise image and to cover a maximum of topics. Time is money for franchisees and meetings become costly, therefore priority is given to such topics as achievements, progress, comparative analysis, etc. Yet neuroscience teaches us that the more complex new information is, the more energy and effort it requires from the brain to process it since new neural circuits must be created. Since general information content usually requires little energy as we can rely on previous experiences or similar data stored in our memory, it should be scheduled at the time when the brain is more likely to be fatigued. Whereas presentation of demanding topics such as identifying challenges and solutions, new training content, major changes to come, etc. should be planned when the brain is rested and alert.
The Importance of Themes Debunked
Many franchisors set a theme for each conference and build their content around it, be it franchisee autonomy, standardization of services, evolution of the business model, etc. However, this approach has many pitfalls that limit the optimization of impacts for the network as the retention and recall of the content presented this way fade off over time. To maximize the amount of information that will be remembered, the brain must encode it to make it easily accessible later. Unfortunately, the statistics do not prove the effectiveness of the current methods of learning transfer: only 47% of people believe that they apply their learning in their jobs immediately after the training. This level of application falls to 12% six months after training and to 9% after one year.[1] To boost the Return on Investment of franchise reunions, we suggest several strategies inspired by neuroscience and specifically based on the AGES model (Attention, Generation, Emotions, Spacing).
Attention
There is a direct relationship between attention and learning. Attention has limits: we can pay full attention at most for 20 minutes at a time. Attention is also susceptible to interference: in our world of technology, many stimuli disturb the attention of franchisees even in the conference room. Since quarterly conferences usually last for one day and annual conferences extend from 2 to 3 days[2], it is important to find ways to stimulate the interest of the participants throughout the event. It is more efficient to ask everyone to switch off their mobile devices and offer breaks during the day to catch up with email. Many people believe they can be more efficient if they address issues by email while listening to the presentations. But multitasking goes against learning optimization. Studies show a significant drop in performance as soon as a person’s attention is divided between two or more tasks. Another strategy to sustain attention would be to vary the content delivery format in order to maximize the level of engagement: introduce periods of codevelopment or networking, avoid lengthy presentations, have more than one speaker to deliver the content, invite experts, promote experience sharing and interactivity to mix theory and, for example, success stories from individual franchisees, and encourage them to find solutions to issues as part of experiential activities through healthy fun competition (competition improves attention).
Generation
Our memory is a network of multiple microconnections allowing us to refer to our previous knowledge and experience. In fact, some elements are classified in a certain way to make it easy to find relevant information later. All new information that we consider pertinent will be added to this vast web of data for future use. The more valuable your franchisees believe the information is, the easier it would be for them to link it to the data stored in their brain. Thus you should prioritize the content that would be most useful for the franchisee, and not only based on what you consider important yourself.
Emotions
There is a strong correlation of vividness of a memory and the emotionality of the original event. [3] Many franchisors use the negative emotions of anxiety or fear to generate that emotional involvement, for example, presenting statistics on the most alarming market trends, competition or the network’s performance. While it is easier to invoke negative emotions and it works as a tactic, positive emotions would be much more efficient, since people feel more engaged when they receive recognition and reward. Make your meetings enjoyable and fun, and use negative information as an opportunity for interactive workshops to generate ideas and to help franchisees make connections between the new information and their reality. You can also invite an inspiring personality to speak at your event who could motivate and mobilize your franchisees, which will leave a stronger emotional footprint.
Spacing
Studies show that spacing information sessions rather than cramming all content in one intense meeting would lead to a higher retention level of new information. Organizing the main topic into smaller learning blocks delivered throughout the duration of the conference would be much more effective than one marathon session. It is difficult to say what would be an optimum timing of spacing between learning blocks, but it is safe to say that any spacing is better than no spacing at all. The brain has more time to assimilate new data and to build the necessary connections in order to understand and retain the information. Some suggestions: send out the information to be discussed to the franchisees prior to the conference, organize and deliver it in smaller blocks throughout the agenda, plan a follow-up session with management advisors and, during future communications or meetings, take the opportunity to collect feedback and thus refresh the key points.
The take-home message is that by designing your conferences in line with the natural functioning of the brain, your franchisees are more likely to use the new skills and information in their daily lives in the long term, thus optimizing the ROI of your conventions.
[1] http://www.affairesrh.ca/gestionnaires/solutions-gestion/fiche.aspx?p=433839
[2] www.franchising.com/articles/maximizing_the_benefits_of_your_franchisee_convention.html
[3] Dr. Lila Davachi, Dr. Tobias Kiefer, Dr. David Rock and Lisa Rock, NeuroLeadership Journal, Learning That Lasts Through AGES, 2010.
