Leadership Skills & Training
Find out how we can support your Leadership & Continuous Improvement Programmes.
I’ve been asked to share my experience of lockdown and some “top tips” on virtual training. Three months ago I knew nothing about Zoom, and hadn’t really bothered getting to grips with Microsoft Teams. But then everything changed……!
I wouldn’t call myself a complete technophobe, but let’s just say I’m often late to the party when it comes to new developments. I resisted social media for many years! But I’ve come to realise that there is a great power and opportunity in the digital world for our business, and many others. Quite simply it’s a choice of use it well and thrive, or miss out on opportunities and struggle to survive.
How has this lockdown affected me? Well I appreciate that I’m very lucky in where I live (Gower Peninsula) and that I have a nice garden (including a veg patch) but I’ve found that the digital workspace has massively improved my work-life balance.
There are also really clear environmental benefits. Last year I did just over 10,000 work miles in my car – equivalent to just over 2 tonnes of CO2. I flew to support customers in Korea and Taiwan three times throughout 2019 as they prepared to challenge for the prestigious Shingo prize for Enterprise Excellence. That’s between 15 and 30 tonnes of CO2 depending on how you calculate it. That’s a lot of CO2! I’m delighted to say they achieved a Bronze and Silver Medallion at their two sites. You can find out more about the Shingo Prize here https://shingo.org/ or listen to my recent webinar here https://sapartners.com/webinar-intro-to-shingo/.
We’ve talked in our business about environmental issues and our carbon footprint, but it’s always seemed too difficult to do. Our customers have always wanted us onsite to support them. But now we’ve proven that it’s possible to be as effective virtually.
As a company, we pride ourselves on our interactive workshops and training. We make our activities engaging and memorable, so in the first few weeks I concentrated on learning how to achieve this virtually. I don’t think that “normal” as we knew it will ever return. I envisage a massive increase in home working now that we’ve shown that it is effective.
Whilst unspoken, many companies resisted home working was quite often a ‘trust’ and communications issue. But this time has truly shown that people can be trusted to do the right thing and also be highly productive in the home environment.
As the Head of Leadership Training at SA Partners I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about how we can deliver in the virtual workplace. And also and more importantly how we can follow up with our delegates to help them to apply that learning in the real world. So here are my top tips based on what I’ve learned so far about live virtual training sessions:-
It’s also good to think about how to develop a community spirt within your group, particularly if your training runs over several weeks. In Leadership roles having a group of people that you connect with, can bounce idea off or ask for support is really beneficial.
To keep people engaged I use regular polls, discussions, games, videos, quizzes and breakout activities throughout my sessions. I’m also happy to ask people questions if they have been quiet for a while! I find it works well to allow a 5 minute break every hour, and where sessions are more than 2 hours long I allow a longer break for a leg stretch.
To find out more about our Virtual Leadership programme – https://sapartners.com/leadership-development-programme/
We also offer Virtual Shingo training here:- https://sapartners.com/programmes/virtual-training/
If you would like to discuss this in any way please do drop me a message.
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