Although I'm retired I still read newspaper ads about employer/ employee relations. One "tool" that I see advertised and discussed to enhance workers' performance is motivational seminars for employees. I went through many of these seminars (compulsory attendance) on and off site at various employers in the course of my career. And frankly I can't recall getting any thing out of these bulls--t sesions. Possibly it's because we employees were required to be there, but whatever the reason, they certainly didn't motivate me or provide genuine tools to improve my performance. And I don't see that they improved departmental teamwork which is supposed to another benefit of these meetings. In short, I think that just about all of these seminars are con jobs and that snake oil "Dogbert" organizers con employers into buying into them. DP members, what's your take on these seminars? Have they helped you?
In my real life company, our salespeople often have sales meetings with the intent of constantly motivating them and getting them out there to productively sell our services. Generally speaking, you need to keep your employees motivated in order for them to have job satisfaction and to have them continue to be productive. This can be done with training sessions, free lunches, monthly parties, etc. If the motivational seminars could be done under a company package for all of my employees, I would take a look at it and perhaps try it out once. As long as it's just a 1 to 2 hour seminar every couple months or so and not too costly, I'd really have nothing to lose.
What I was trying to get across in my OP, Ikaruga, is that speaking at least for myself, I never needed motivational seminars because at the very least keeping my job was the an incentive to do my best, and at the most the prospect of bonuses and other awards likewise kept me from slacking off. As I stated in my OP, I didn't get a thing out of those motivational seminars, especially the one presented by outside vendors. Proof of this is that I don't remember anything that the any of the speakers said--not a one. If there had been anything worth keeping, it should have stayed with me for life. BTW training seminars are a whole 'nother thing. I've always felt that these sessions truly worthwhile if the trainer knows his/her stuff. After all, why wouldn't I have wanted to enhance my professional skills?