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team training and development

In a divided world, give your teams the power of unity

without...

Red concentric circles with a glass of flour and an orange bulldog clip

The Big Idea

Inspired by tradition.
Designed for today.

Breaking Bread learning events are a dynamic training and development experience for growing teams who know that happy, healthy, relationships are the key to lasting success.

Divided we fall...

Change brings stress. Stress leads to incivility, isolation, and conflict. Which all lead to more stress. 

This cycle creates headwind upon headwind for growing companies, such as: 

↑37%

Absenteeism due to isolation and loneliness in the workplace1

$25k

The cost of a single act of rudeness to a business.2

$11bn

cost of employee turnover in the US each year3

$200bn

annual cost of workplace stress for U.S. employers4

United we rise

On the flip side improving connection, communication, and friendship brings a whole raft of improvements, including:

↑21%

increased profitability of engaged teams vs their disengaged counterparts.8

582%

return on investment in employee wellbeing ($5.82 for every $1 spent)10

69%

employees likely to stay with a company for at least 3 years after a great onboarding experience11

44%

of people with a best friend at work would recommend working at their company12

Your people, your business and your bottom line need less conflict, more connection.

But how do you fix it?

Yesterday’s methods are not working for your scattered, burned out, and anxiety-ridden teams.


Nobody wants another awkward Zoom ‘social’ or a 7-hour seminar on how to write an email.


You need something specific to the issues you’re facing now.

You need a Breaking Bread event

A Breaking Bread event takes the traditional, life-affirming joy of sourdough baking…
A red chilli pepper

and mixes in highly effective training methods, with remote-first delivery.

A red chilli pepper

So your people build bonds that give them – and your business – the strength to succeed

– all in an inclusive, non-confrontational, flexible environment, designed specifically for today’s teams.

Photo of man on a Zoom call holding baked sourdough loaf up to the camera

You no longer need to choose between wellbeing, teambuilding, or skills training.

Breaking Bread lets you have your cake bread and eat it too

Baked-In Learning

Unabashedly fun. Wildly effective.

Breaking Bread events combine connection mindset and skillset into a process that feels like play (and sticks like, well...dough!).

Bake In

"Everything I dough, I dough it for you."

Not Bryan Adams
The skillset and mindset training embedded in the Breaking Bread experience are 'baked in'.

Breaking Bread transports participants to a sensory space that is deeply linked to early learning, safety, and comfort. Dovetailed with powerful discovery strategies and appreciative inquiry, your team will enjoy an unforgettably unique and lasting learning experience.

Even better, those skills are reinforced and reactivated every time a participant bakes, talks about baking, or engages socially using methods learned at the event.

Engage

"Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn."

- Benjamin Franklin
Breaking Bread events create community – fast – through a level of engagement that is unmatchable. When participants connect in real time, kitchen to kitchen, something magical happens. Walls come down, curiosity and shared purpose begin to bubble up. Things get cooking even before we get baking!

Baking sourdough helps us tap into the power of active learning. by keeping hands and bodies moving - in a physically undemanding way. Combined with the fresh setting and a novel task, our bakers are present, attentive, and open to learning and connecting – without a drop of Zoom fatigue!

Relax

"All stress inhibits true and effective learning."

- Michel Thomas
Baking sourdough bread is a calming, engaging, and wildly satisfying way to spend time. It’s also a wonderful gift to share.

Every culture has a unique bread that they celebrate, and baking together expands on that unique sense of security, nurture, and comfort. As a mediator and experienced trainer, I make sure that the environment feels like a fine celebration - safe and welcoming.

Which is especially important, because “a relaxed learning environment can provide effective retrieval cues, as well as improve learning.”

Reward

"When storing memories, your brain prioritizes those experiences that are the most rewarding."

Columbia University, 2018
Breaking Bread offers multiple layers of reward: recognition and appreciation, skills that improve relations at work and at home, and a fun day of relaxing and creating connections that will last and benefit the entire team.

And, of course…what better win at the end of the day than a fresh-from-the-oven, deliciously tangy sourdough loaf? When projects feel long haul and intangible, it’s amazing to have something YOU created – to butter up, to post on socials, and to share with friends.

Employee recognition can create 4x the engagement at work, 5x a sense of being connected to the company culture, and make employees 73% less likely to experience burnout.

Moreover, people learn better and faster when there’s a reward involved, because our brains prioritize memory storage and retrieval from rewarding experiences.

The Process

Designed for repeatable, predictable results

There are four key stages, which lead us through a strategic, step-by-step process to create the right event for you

Stage 1

Design

In Stage 1, we create your personalised, strategic ‘recipe’ to get the results you need.

From understanding your specific goals, challenges and values, to training and experience design, through to post-event needs, this is where we set the scene for success!

Stage 2

Pre-event

Beyond the logistics of invites, tech prep and baking kits*, this stage also includes a crucial “It’s Alive!” sourdough starter revival session.

That first gathering doubles as a chance to manage any nerves, concerns or questions before the day.

* Participants receive a kit ahead of time with most of what they will need for the day, as well as some fun “surprise and delight” treats

Stage 3

Bake Day!

No surprises here: the group meets and bakes sourdough together.

The final experience depends on your ‘recipe’, but will always include destressing, connection building, and fresh, warm loaves of sourdough.

Stage 4

Post-event

First things first: bragging rights! Bakers can post pictures of their achievements to social media, internal networks – or even send a surprise loaf to a colleague.

And we discuss surveys, findings or discoveries, as defined in your recipe design.

Event design

When it comes to designing the content of the 'Bake Day', Breaking Bread allows for almost limitless flexibility!

The basic recipe

Like a classic sourdough loaf, every Breaking Bread event incorporates the key ingredients of sourdough baking, relationship building, and stress management.

And just like a classic sourdough loaf, that has a simple, satisfying charm.

This unadorned version is great for ongoing wellbeing perks and appreciation, with a side of cringe-free relationship building.

Special ingredients

The process allows plenty of room for special ingredients, too. Because while we might all be facing global changes, we’re still ultimately running our own race.

Click on the ingredient jars to see how you can add more flavor to your event.

Connection skills training

As an experienced comms trainer, I can help your people make connection a habit, not an accident. Skills include:

  • Communicating under stress
  • Managing emotional states
  • Rapport-building & calibration
  • Negotiation
  • Public speaking

Conflict resolution and difficult conversations

Conflict has always been a feature of high-pressure, high-stakes situations.

As an experienced mediator, I can create space for fruitful, managed discussion to help find better paths forward.

Onboarding

Don’t just say it. Show new starters how much you value them.

Help them make connections, learn the ropes and tap into the culture – without another 20 stilted Zoom calls.

Ideation & creativity

Give your teams the right mental space for creativity – whether for product design, strategic thinking or problem-solving.

Employee listening

It’s harder than ever for leaders to gauge the sentiment of their teams.

Using the highly effective tool of appreciative inquiry, I can help your people express themselves in a non-confrontational, confidential environment.

Celebrations

Help remote teams create a sense of occasion, whether they’re coming together to mark a big win, a milestone or a holiday.

Connection skills training

As an experienced comms trainer, I can help your people make connection a habit, not an accident. Skills include:

  • Communicating under stress
  • Managing emotional states
  • Rapport-building & calibration
  • Negotiation
  • Public speaking

Conflict resolution and difficult conversations

Conflict has always been a feature of high-pressure, high-stakes situations.

As an experienced mediator, I can create space for fruitful, managed discussion to help find better paths forward.

Onboarding

Don’t just say it. Show new starters how much you value them.

Help them make connections, learn the ropes and tap into the culture – without another 20 stilted Zoom calls.

Ideation & creativity

Give your teams the right mental space for creativity – whether for product design, strategic thinking or problem-solving.

Employee listening

It’s harder than ever for leaders to gauge the sentiment of their teams.

Using the highly effective tool of appreciative inquiry, I can help your people express themselves in a non-confrontational, confidential environment.

Celebrations

Help remote teams create a sense of occasion, whether they’re coming together to mark a big win, a milestone or a holiday.

And here are some example 'recipes'

Boosted Onboarding

Help new starters learn the culture & values, bake in connections – and learn, for example, how to manage stress for better communication. Your new team members become savvy ‘keepers of culture’ right from the start!

Chopping board with salt, flour, water and 'ingredient' tins for connection and onboarding

Aligned & fired up project teams

New project, but a team with old beef? Help clear the air, align everyone to a vision, and set things off on a strong trajectory.

Chopping board with salt, flour, water and 'ingredient' tins for ideation and conflict resolution

Away days, offsites & retreats

In a multi-day event, there’s a chance to take things to the next level! Celebrate achievements, learn connection skills, share news & updates, kick off new initiatives, and take time to hear what employees are thinking and feeling, with a multi-day session designed to be varied, inspiring and refreshing.

Chopping board with salt, flour, water and 'ingredient' tins for ideation, connection, listening and celebrating

Let's Break Bread!

I really want to find out more about you! But I'll get things underway by introducing myself here. Or you can jump straight to getting in touch

Meet your host, Nancy Hand

I work with growing businesses who want to take advantage of change by building strong, happy teams – instead of battling through it, hoping for the best.

Nobody wants a fight. People want to get along, but…

It’s tough to keep civility and relationships harmonious when you’re already trying to deliver a thousand projects at a million miles an hour.

And it’s really tough to connect and communicate when you’re under heroic amounts of stress. 

Comfort and stability in times of change

Sourdough bread became the ‘Big Thing’ when the pandemic broke out and turned our worlds upside down, and I knew exactly why.

For about the last 5,000 years, bread has been the “staff of life” – the most basic and reliable source of nutrition in the world. Every culture has a bread they celebrate. It has represented life, safety, support, and most importantly, community.

Baking and sourdough has been a lifelong source of connection with my family. Now it is my reliable ‘go to’ as an icebreaker and relationship builder wherever I might be in the world.

No half-baked measures

The only way to create unity and shared vision is to first bring people to a place of agreement and understanding, and then build upwards and outwards from there. 

I founded Breaking Bread to help teams do just that. Through this process, your people learn how to create, mend, and strengthen connections in a way that bakes enthusiasm and resilience into your business culture. People who’ve learned these skills develop a natural ability to be the ray of sunshine, even in darker times.

Connection is a way of life

My communication expertise is multifaceted. It’s largely based on more than 35 years of real-world experience and formal training in communication, learning, and behavior underpinned by extensive experience in contract law, mediation, dispute resolution, negotiation, and coaching. 

But it’s also rooted in my own culinary heritage as a south Louisiana daughter of a food scientist, a foodie (know thyself!), and sourdough baker.

We’re all more than our work…

When I’m not training and baking in the kitchen, you might find me…

Hiking, with my husband Will

Taking photos (geaux Tigers!) 

Growing dahlias (forever smitten!)

Enjoying travelling & treats

Loving these doggos

Socializing! (natch…)

Let's talk

Connection is my thing! So let's start ours off now...

Send me a question

Let's talk

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