I spent this year’s birthday training online. This training turned out to be a birthday gift, meeting my new criteria for a welcome gift, as my husband and I have agreed for some time now that we don’t give each other objects, but experiences and experiences. This training was just such an experience. Experiencing something new. Something uncertain, unknown yet exciting. Like a place you haven’t been to yet, but which someone has told you beautifully about and left you longing to visit.
Online partnership.
My colleague and I had already been in the virtual room an hour earlier to make sure everything was ready and working. Just like in real life, we discussed what the partnership would look like during this remote training. We told each other how we felt, what we needed for ourselves and the group, and what support we expected from each other. I like this moment of training, when we focus on ourselves for a while, find our center, see what we need and how we can help each other. This moment is the emotional foundation of all training.
And then people started coming in.
Some much ahead of schedule, logging in smoothly, with no problems. Others lagged behind, struggling with vision and phonics at first and then asking about every technical element, lost for a moment in their screens, icons and options. Somehow we expected it, so we were calm, patient and explanatory, and after 30 minutes we had everyone in the room, in full swing, versed in what the training would look like, what are the ways to interact with them, what tools we would use, and what rules we would agree on so that we would work well together. Among other things, we asked for cameras and microphones to be turned on (except for brief moments when we have background noise) so that we could see and talk to each other all the time.
The participants were wonderful: engaged in the topic, in the discussions, in the exercises.
Forcibly, they sometimes started talking together, but quickly gave way to each other. They listened with interest and shared their thoughts and insights. After a while, I began to forget that it was remote training. There was contact, there was understanding, there was a bond. There was a group dynamic. People, at first fully correct, professional and “in presentation mode,” began to show their natural selves, make jokes, talk about their needs, and ask deep, personal questions. This is very satisfying and rewarding for me as a coach. That’s when I have the greatest sense of what I’m doing.
Technology in the service of knowledge.
Technically, we used everything the platform offers: discussion in a common room, presentation with animation, video, writing on a whiteboard in real time, allowing all participants to write on the whiteboard at the same time, voting, working in smaller rooms in pairs and in subgroups, chat, sending attachments via chat. The feedback was rewarding: “it’s good that we all saw each other”, “optimal selection of the amount of theory for the exercises”, “the right balance of listening to doing”, “working in smaller rooms, it was very engaging”, “changing people during the exercises in pairs and smaller groups helped to get to know each other better, I felt that for each exercise I was selected the most appropriate person for it”, “the form of discussion interrupted by exercises allows for better focus”.
Final impressions: not such a scary devil as they paint him.
People are interesting and kind, and it is worth helping them to be so. What was important, and what helped us a lot, was the thorough preparation, thinking through every practically module of the training and subjecting it to a thorough analysis – how to carry it out remotely to make it effective and attractive. In addition, long hours were spent testing every possible feature of Zoom. Tinkering with options, checking what works when you’re a Host, and what works when you’re a Co-Host. Everyone tried everything. We work in two coaches with full back-up. What this means for us is that each trainer has a full set of materials (presentation, supplementary materials, instructions, surveys, etc.) at his or her place, but also a full set of skills to handle everything that happens. That way, if one of us has any technical trouble, the other person steps in and works. So far, it’s working out well for us, and each successive training course gives us +1 to our “passability” level. If you want to know more contact us .
