🎈The First Ever Retreat I Hosted
I am writing this in a 7-bedroom mansion in the middle of farmland.
Yesterday, I said goodbye to 20 diverse humans—from CEOs to university students. Over the last four days, we played, learned, cried, and laughed.
This was JoyCamp 2.0—the most valuable event I have ever hosted. And this is my post-hoc analysis. Read on for insights on how to host impactful gatherings that leave participants with real skills.
For the first time ever, I stepped into an educator role. For years, I hosted parties. Participants would arrive, feel good temporarily, and then go back to their ordinary lives, waiting for the next party. No skills. No behavior change. Little impact.
If I truly wanted to spread joy in the world, I had to change my approach. My belief is that joy is both a skill and a muscle. How can I expect people to actually change if they don’t have skills?
JoyCamp 2.0 bridged the gap—a fun and serious learning environment, leveraging the best research on information retention.
Here’s what I learned:
Give your participants specific guidelines and rules.
Have you heard of Vipassana? It’s a 10-day silent meditation retreat with dozens of rules. Don’t follow the rules? You get kicked out because you’re harming others’ experiences. Vipassana was my inspiration because it had a massive impact on me. The controlled environment was designed with a goal in mind. Rules are the way to shape your attendees’ experience.
I failed to give participants clear, enforceable guidelines. Even though I implemented a social contract that everyone signed as they arrived, some people didn’t follow it, and I failed to enforce it. As an example, one person was in the basement on their laptop during the workshop. This wasn’t cool, but I didn’t do anything about it.
I also failed to include guidelines for how to behave in our classroom environment. Some participants took up space without intention—or what they shared was irrelevant to the lesson at hand. I could have fixed this proactively by communicating guidelines for how to take up space with intention and ask relevant questions. I could have also clarified that the retreat was a classroom environment, not a self-expression environment.
If someone in a formal learning environment suddenly started sharing personal stories that were not relevant to the material, it would be disruptive. This is what happened multiple times during JoyCamp.
Greet your attendees in a way that reinforces specific social norms.
Our greeting was hilarious and intentional. Participants were greeted with a scientific “vibe-check.” We pretended to do a medical assessment on them and then declared that they were “off the charts.” Participants then signed a social contract and wrote down something they intended to leave at the door. Finally, they picked up a Nerf gun and fired it at a gong. Yes, a gong.
The experience set the right expectations and social norms. It made people laugh and invited self-reflection. The lesson here is to intentionally design the greeting experience. What behaviors do you want to encourage at your event?
Redirect the focus of the group with authority.
Be a generous authority. This was one of the lessons taught during the retreat. I also embodied it during the lessons. I led the group with a firm hand for the benefit of the participants. We followed the schedule and got more value. Some participants perceived my generous authority as dismissive. But what was really happening? I was redirecting the group’s attention to the learning material.
Creating an intentional learning environment is very different from a free-expression space. JoyCamp is healing for most participants who attend, but it is not designed to be a conventional healing space. It’s a learning space. This is a big distinction.
Prioritize practice time over lecture time.
Lectures powered by powerful stories are engaging and moving. But we know from the science of learning that deliberate practice beats lectures. Deliberate practice is when participants get to practice skills with immediate feedback. In my next JoyCamp, I will reduce lecture time and expand practice time. It will be more of a Joy gym as opposed to a Joy classroom.
In a Joy gym environment, people are working out their joy muscles, ideally with a spotter. The spotter is giving feedback on their “form.” This is the environment I want to create at the next JoyCamp.