The Surprising Benefits Of Virtual Training
Have you been in 'Zoom-land' for the last few months? My family recently caught me 'zoom waving' in real life (a ‘zoom wave’ is that exaggerated, screen-constrained, muted hand wave we all do to say ‘hello, good to see you’ in an online meeting). If I never hear the words ‘your microphone is muted’ or ‘new normal’ ever again I'll be very happy.
As you can imagine for someone who’s spent the last 20 years of their life getting on planes, flying to conference venues and speaking to large gatherings of people there has had to be a serious shift in how we do things around here. My new office set up speaks to that.
We have had to use Webex, Teams, Skype, Zoom and a few other B tier contenders, and for me the winner, hands down, is Zoom. Security scare stories aside, all my peers who are very good at online meetings prefer Zoom.
An unexpected consequence of the lockdowns we have all been experiencing is an increase in intimacy and shift from content-based delivery to context-based delivery. This seems quite simple but it’s really quite profound. Give me 250 leaders in a conference room and it’s great. Give me 25 in a zoom room and it’s also great. Not the same and not 'instead of' but definitely 'good different'. Flying me to Dubai (I live in Sydney) for 25 senior executives seems luxurious; zooming in early evening though and it’s a doddle (ie easy thing to do). As such we have been able to bring a level of intimacy—and, dare I say, efficiency— to our work that you can't achieve en masse. And the shift is from ideas that inspire (very important and why we will gather again when we can) to experiences that transform and this shift is really worth some serious attention.
An unexpected consequence of the lockdowns is an increase in intimacy and shift from content-based delivery to context-based delivery.
Three (okay 5) ideas:
1. Don't shorten your online session times
Rather improve the quality of the connection. Online is not a lesser way to connect but a different one which has serious benefits. Big, loud, brash people don't have as much impact online (how sad) but quieter more reflective people are speaking up and contributing more (that's a win). Leaders we work with are reporting better thinking, better collaboration and more authentic leadership in the online meetings when run well. The Alpha Bravo Rah Rah has its place, but it’s not all over the place. Zooming is bringing out better collaboration, meritocracy and engagement. We have, interestingly, found a sweet spot with 90-minute masterclasses with three distinct class sizes; 15 people, 50 people and up to 150 people, each format delivering fantastic results. Each audience size changes the dynamic but each class size has a set of positive opportunities you can seize. Here is a list of leadership, work and culture masterclasses we have been running for our clients.
Lean in
A program for small business owners showing them what to do with the commercial realities of the COVID-19 crisis.
Rise up
A motivation talk to leaders about lifting the level of conversation in and around them so they can operate above the line during tough times.
Go live
A program for people delivering virtual presentations helping them increase engagement and create a buzz online.
Head strong
How to keep your head in the game, a presentation on high performance mindsets and resilience.
Homework
How to get things done and stay productive while leading and working from home.
Online is not a lesser way to connect but a different one which has serious benefits.
2. Facilitate more and present less
We are teaching our leaders to use fewer Powerpoint slides and more drawn diagrams. Less talking at and more talking with. Getting really good at balancing your telling, showing and asking is more important now than ever before. This becomes more about commanding the context than controlling the content. In lockdown I have been working on a new book with the working title Meta-Lead: 12 tools for leading in the decade of disruption; one whole section is dedicated to the idea of facilitating being a leadership super power. Download this worksheet of questions and frameworks I created to help leaders be better at facilitated discussions online or off.
Getting really good at balancing your telling, showing and asking is more important now than ever before.
3. Be more networked than ever before
Whether it’s ant colonies, bees, the internet or our immune system, we see that networks have the ability to adapt better than other organising structures. Complex adaptive networks are known to have great survivability. They shift resource allocation rapidly, they share critical information in real time (no hoarding or silos) and they can survive the death of various nodes in the network without the whole network going down (Amazon S3 anyone?). We run our Thought Leaders community very much like a complex adaptive network: 1000 leading thinkers operating 'together-alone' in a decentralised leadership model, so that they can bring great ideas to those who need them in a way that makes a difference. If you think writing a book, mentoring, coaching or speaking and teaching is your thing then join us. You can find out more about how we are being inspired by the company we keep while helping clever people be commercially smart here.
I don't think we are worse off or compromised because of the move to online and virtual meetings. Right now we have the chance to take advantage of the lockdowns and virtual mandates. Let's develop better engagement, let's develop our leaders and ensure that we make lemonade out of what's happened. Two other relevant ideas as we start to #rethink2021.
Networks have the ability to adapt better than other organising structures.
Hybrid Zoom is not good
Soon we will have some people in meeting rooms while others are on Zoom. Don't be in a rush to do this, my experience is that the five people in a boardroom have a worse experience than the individuals at home. One client of mine made sure everyone took the day we ran my training workshop (2 hours on Zoom) to work from home, even though those in one state could have met in person, and that they actually took the afternoon off to reflect and make decisions following the workshop. They then did an online awards night which was fast and fabulous. This is a better learning and reflection model anyway. I am going to put it out there that a lot of the problems historically with executive training workshops are a result of being in a room, on site or off, crammed together with bad food, too much content, and very little time to absorb and translate what was shared.
Soon we will have some people in meeting rooms while others are on Zoom. Don't be in a rush to do this.
Live, in person, has to be better
When you do get a chance to bring a group of people together live and in person you really, really need to think about the quality and design of the flow of energy and sessions. Do not, I repeat, DO NOT return to taking your top 25 execs to a stunning location only to lock them in a room. Don't return to a conference model with too many delegates stuck in rooms that barely hold them in chairs we'd never have at home, listening to boring speaker after boring speaker reading a slide deck we could all have absorbed in a third of the time. Don't be driven by the historical meeting model, completely rethink what the currency and outcome you are looking for is. If you can deliver content via pre record and you can increase engagement through masterclasses then what can you now achieve at a physical gathering that you could not previously? Let's get through this shitty situation and come out better on the other side. I for one, and the clients I am working with, are using this moment to get rid of the old ways of operating, refreshing how we do things and choosing to redesign how we will engage going forward so that we are positioned to thrive in 2021.
#thrive2021, #reboot2021, #reset2021, #lead2021
Don't be driven by the historical meeting model, completely rethink what the currency and outcome you are looking for is.
In all things, lead yourself first before you try to lead others and lead change by leading better thinking.
Onwards!
