WLP274: Getting Comfortable With Online Workshops
In today’s episode we take a deep dive into the world of online training, and how this has changed and continues to evolve.
Catherine been the director of the Virtual Training Team for the past 4 years, and is very active on LinkedIn, through which she met Pilar.
For her, setting up the company was initially a lifestyle choice alternative to a career of face-to-face training, and she has grown an international team around the design and delivery of online workshops, along with a train-the-trainer service for organisations and practitioners.
Over the past year, her work — like everyone else’s — has both changed and stayed the same. Some of their big clients reduced investment in training while in survival mode at the beginning of the pandemic, but plenty of new businesses needed help to get started with online training for the first time. And this included kinds of training that were not traditionally delivered online, like how to use products in the field rather than the typical ‘soft skills’ workshops, and even physical skills.
Catherine Nicholson
Catherine and her team had to learn new skills to facilitate this, but they’ve cultivated a value of innovating and creative problem-solving. Whether this meant co-training with colleagues, or filming with multiple cameras to demonstrate physical equipment, they found ways of meeting their client’s needs.
They also helped clients to transition their preferred methods, like flip charting, to virtual dimensions — creating comfort and continuity for those bringing established training experience into the online sphere, and helping them appreciate the additional dimensions that digital collaboration can bring to it. Some people need extra support to gain confidence with the technology, but as Catherine pointed out things can go wrong in physical training anyway — participants are understanding and patient, and all you really need to do is get comfortable sharing a webcam feed and some slides.
Another challenge with online training has always been generating meaningful interactivity, and this hasn’t changed — open questions sinking without trace, dealing with awkward silences, and so on. But they train people on managing this and working around it, as well as adjusting expectations.
But the biggest mindset challenge they have to overcome with trainers they are training is an underlying perception that online will never be quite as good as ‘real’ colocated training. Setting the scene by apologising for this is never a good start — as some people did when events were abruptly transitioned online — and we should celebrate the advantages and differences of the digital medium instead.
Catherine enjoys delivering their monthly open train-the-trainers course, which brings a diverse range of participants. But they do a lot in-house too, and has noticed a consolidation of platform choice around a Teams/Zoom split here. She likes the simultaneous translation functionality in Teams as it’s really straightforward, and she recommends digging into the different options and tools both has to offer to tweak and optimise the meeting space.
Both of these apps update frequently and Catherine and her team need to stay on top of updates and ways to get things done, and make sure they can best prepare and support their coaches before and when they go live with events — to ensure consistency of delivery, while enabling each to bring their unique flair to each session. They use a WhatsApp group as a perpetual backchannel, and coaches provide live support to each other globally.
To learn more about Catherine and the Virtual Training Team check out their YouTube channel (which includes loads of guides and support for your own online training), and do connect with her on LinkedIn.
35.50 Pilar’s thoughts on hybrid working
The flexibility of Catherine’s online training support leads to reflections on the hybrid workspace, and the importance of not making assumptions about what will suit people best or the best place or situation to get things done.
For example, some people might enjoy concentrating on deep work surrounded by the buzz of co-workers In the office, while prefer online from home for collaboration. Real flexibility will embrace the potential for either or both, and recognise the varying needs for social bonds and connection that the office promises. Some people will prefer the continuity of working in one place, while others are craving the stimulation of varied environments so long denied them during lockdowns.
So we need to be careful not to pre-judge what people want and why, and remember that flexible work, remote work, does not mean working from home. Forward-thinking employers will recognise this, and subsidise third spaces too, from local desk rental to coffee shop sessions, acknowledging personal preferences alongside the constraints of safe occupation levels in the offices long left behind.
We have always talked about ‘office-optional’ working at Virtual Not Distant, but this has never been such a complicated question! Clear communication, transparent decision-making, and acknowledgment of this complexity, will be a good start.
Keep an eye on Pilar’s Twitter at midday (UK time) on Wednesdays, for ongoing discussions of this and similar themes. It’s a rapidly evolving debate, and we’d love to know what you think.
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