Corporate training is the lifeblood of any organization because it focuses on improving and retaining the most important resource any business has – its people. Corporate training programs both educate and motivate, increasing employee skill sets that can then be deployed in the business while also demonstrating to the employee their value to the organization and its willingness to invest in their growth. But how much do companies invest annually in corporate training? More than you might imagine. According to the 2015 State of the Industry report by the Association of Training Development, businesses spent an average of $1,229 per employee per year on learning with more than 32 hours allocated to instruction. That’s serious time and money and it highlights why any investment in corporate training needs every advantage for maximizing the employee’s training experience. The facility, trainer, and curriculum are obvious key factors in the success of any corporate training initiative but there is one thing every corporate training program has in common – break time.
How many training managers, consultants, facilitators or department heads ever consider how to turn break-time into a teaching moment? What if you could continue the learning experience right through a break in the training day? Now that would be a corporate training idea worth knowing, especially if it as easy as ordering, Chocolate Pizza®.
Say what? Chocolate Pizza? What is “Chocolate Pizza” and how on earth can it benefit my training environment?
First, the what is it question. Chocolate Pizza is a gourmet chocolate specialty created and trademarked by, Chocolate Pizza Company, Inc., in Marcellus, New York. Family-owned and operated for nearly 3 decades, current owner, Ryan Novak, is a 27-year-old CEO who started with the company as a dishwasher when he was 15 years-old. Novak is Central New York’s equivalent of Willie Wonka and his new 10,000 sf production facility transforms nearly 200,000 pounds of chocolate annually into dozens of very unique, delicious and impressive gourmet chocolate gifts for business and personal occasions. Chocolate Pizza is his signature product.
What is, Chocolate Pizza? Brace your taste buds for a one-way ride to confectionery heaven. Chocolate Pizza starts with a homemade English toffee. Novak uses a recipe from his hometown that dates back to 1919 and cooks small batches of toffee that is then stretch, cooled and ground fine. Scoops of the tiny golden nuggets are then blended into tempered, high quality milk or dark chocolate. This mixture is then ladled into real pizza pans, put on a shaker-table to remove trapped air and topped with pecans, almonds and walnuts or a rainbow of chocolate candies. The loaded pizza pan is sent down a 30-foot cooling tunnel where they emerge ready to be sealed and packaged in a custom pizza box. It is a one-of-a-kind gourmet gift that has been enjoyed by Hall of Fame athletes, Supreme Court Justices, Speaker of the House, A-list celebrities and legions of chocolate fans on 6 continents.
Are you with me so far? Great, now here is how Chocolate Pizza can become the surprise gem of your next corporate training event.
It’s mid-afternoon and your participants are falling into the post-lunch lull period where attention spans wane and productive training starts to slip. You give them a 15-minute break to stretch and get refreshments and snacks but instead of going out into the hallway to find a basket of this morning’s leftover blueberry muffins or dry granola bars or the cookie tray that was on the front desk counter when you walked in image they see a table with pizza boxes.
Instant intrigue and curiosity. Could they really be giving us cold pizza for afternoon snack? But the brave (or the hungry) among the group venture over and see that the box contains, Chocolate Pizza.
Bingo! Everyone gathers now and dives into the various flavors and toppings of the most unique chocolate treat any of them have seen. Break-time becomes a social moment with participants enjoying breaking up the pizzas, trying different flavors, raving about the delicious taste and asking each other why they never heard of this before. Energized (and with a gentle sugar buzz), they return to the classroom alert and eager to praise the genius who decided on providing a gourmet chocolate-break. Take a bow – you earned it.
But aside from the smiles that are now in the room, the really creative facilitator will turn that post-break buzz into a learning moment about exceeding expectations or creatively marketing two familiar concepts … pizza and chocolate. What did participants first think when they saw pizza boxes? Did they pre-judge the experience? How did the discovery of something unique and appealing start the interaction among the group?
Then, tie it into your company. Should we be looking at our business differently? Are we missing opportunities because we pre-judge how things appear? How can we create that “wow” factor? Maybe, we should be giving Chocolate Pizzas as corporate gifts to our best customers or potential clients as a unique ice-breaker or thank you. Now, that would get their attention, for sure.
The idea of integrating Chocolate Pizza with learning first came from Novak’s dad who was a human resources executive and leadership coach. He wrote an article titled, “Thinking Outside the Pizza Box,” for Training Magazine (12/10/12). Chocolate Pizza Company has grown significantly since that time but the appeal of the idea to a magazine that caters to training professionals underscores the value of bringing something different to the training table. Feed them, and they will come.
After all, if you are going to invest thousands of dollars and many hours training your team, it’s probably a good idea to buy them a couple pizzas – just make sure they are Chocolate Pizzas!
