Frequently asked questions

We welcome skeptics! The SIY program starts with an introduction to mindfulness and some of the science behind it, so theprogram works well for people that are new. We have people practice a few different mindfulness practices to get a sense oftheir own personal experience and see what works best for them. It’s great to have skeptics ask questions so that we candiscuss what concerns they might have. Our only caveat is that we recommend that people opt into the SIY program, rather than being required to attend.

Although we do have shorter programs available (there is a 1-day, half-day and keynote format) , our strong preference is that our clients make the time needed to attend and complete the full 2-day SIY program and 28-day challenge. It’s common for us 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. We 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 we 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.

For the 2-day SIY program within companies, we recommend a class size of about 50 people, but a range of 20-80 participants can work well. With fewer than 20, the experience can feel too intimate or high-pressured, and with too large a group it can feel too anonymous and be hard to have any individual questions or concerns answers. That said, we have worked with smaller groups when it’s a team that works together (e.g. an executive team of 11 people), and with larger groups (up to ~100 for in-company programs).

This depends on the client’s 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 (in one case, SIY was early on in the year and both the leaders and their coaches attended the program) ● 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: We’ve also offered the SIY program to recent graduates (e.g. as part of a post-college rotational program within in 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 we 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 an organization is 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 arranged as two 1-days, 4 half-days or 8 short sessions. We do recommend that the session 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 has been taught is a wide variety of industries and in many, many countries around the world and the program seems to work quite universally! We do always try to tailor the language and examples of a program to meet the needs of a particular organization and tie the SIY content to what the participants are experiencing in their day-to-day life. We do strongly recommend that participants get to opt into the program, rather than being told that they need to attend. A short program (like a keynote or half-day program) can be a required part of a larger event because it is more of an introduction to the topics, but the full 2-day program should be held for participants that chose to participate. Industries that SIYLI has worked with include: technology, manufacturing, healthcare, government (local and federal), consulting firms, banks/financial institutions, large and small non-profits, schools (teachers and staff) and universities (facility, staff and students) to name a few!

We are very delighted to know that you are a mindfulness champion. We would love to work with you to bring goodness of mindfulness to your organization. If you have the ability to pilot the program for your own team, that can be a great starting place. For a pilot, it’s ideal to invite a few people from HR or Learning & Development to participate as well to help build the case for ongoing programs. In addition, showing program evaluations/testimonials and the results of the pre/post assessment from participants within the organization is very helpful. Another approach is, we can discuss and figure out who to speak with in the organization. You might start with your direct manager, or to meet with someone in the HR or Learning & Development department. We can give you documents, information such as data deck and the business case deck with them. Additionally, we can to come to your office and present about SIY.