Zynia - Motivational metaphors for Training and Development

Zynia Ltd is made up of four trainers from different backgrounds working in various fields of training and Human Resources and with different specialities. We all have our own businesses and we’ve been meeting together on a quarterly basis for a number of years as a consultant networking group. As independent trainers it can be lonely so we support each other; exchanging ideas, encouraging one another, testing out new ideas and through each other we’re able to get honest views and constructive and positive feedback.

In 2001 it all came together at the December meeting. When you’re self employed there’s no-one to have an office Christmas party with so we always make this meeting a social event! A storyteller was invited along whose brief was to entertain and to help us think about storytelling in our own fields. The storyteller did just that with stories that had links with training and development.

Everyone was enjoying the stories and then, you know what it’s like when a number of people have the same thought and nobody needs say anything; it was as if a light went on and it was obvious that we were all thinking the same thing. We all tell stories as trainers and communicators so why can’t you get stories in audio format? This would be useful for other trainers and managers who may not be so confident or experienced in training or development, those who may not be used to using story and metaphor in this way and indeed, just to introduce another voice and style to a session especially when one is training alone.

We started brainstorming how we could develop this idea and through market research we found that there were manuals and books for use in training with stories in them but there were no specifically designed stories, in audio format, for the training and development market. So we decided to develop the products and service.

We asked ourselves why we tell stories. We do so to help people make sense of complexity, to give context to facts, or to spark a discussion. It may only be three lines, a little anecdote or tale that brings the dry theoretical point to life. We’d already been doing it – now we wanted to help others utilise this powerful tool too.

That’s where we started.

Why Zynia? We wanted something that was a short and powerful name that could become a brand name. The word Zynia actually came through ploughing through the dictionary, coming up with words that caught our attention. A zinnia is actually a showy flower; it caught our imagination and we varied the spelling; hence the name Zynia.