How to run training and conduct meetings in the Virtual World
Krisztina Lőrinczi
Covid forced us to spend most of our time in the online world. A lot of us had to learn how it works by trial and error. No organization or human being was fully equipped with tools and techniques in mid-March 2020 when Covid-19 changed our life from one minute to the other. Let me share with you what I have learned about how to be successful in virtual interactions.
Do you remember your last face-to-face interaction before the announcement of the lock-down when you did not think your life would change radically? Do you remember your first frustration when you had to run an important meeting in the virtual world and there was a lack of engagement even though you were well prepared?
As a trainer, I first thought that soon everything will return to normal, I was happy to have a little “break” when the lockdown was communicated on March 13th. Fortunately, I appreciated having less work (at that time I traveled 2-4 times a month), and I enjoyed having more spare time than usual. Soon reality kicked in and I saw that Covid-19 was here to stay for a while. My trainer colleagues and I had to unlearn, relearn and learn some new ways of teaching, training, and facilitating workshops.
I had a terrible experience during my first training in which an internal training manager wanted to control the way I was running the program. She did not want to have any breakout sessions and she wanted to limit the individual reflection time of the participants to two minutes. I had 22 participants, which is a large group in the virtual world. Since I was just learning how this works, I gave in and accepted her “rules” and it did NOT go well. I felt terrible. After having a lot of brainstorming calls with my wonderful colleagues about how to run workshops efficiently, we created our own set of tools and best practices which we are happy to share with you.
If you are interested in learning about what I consider as best in the world of virtual training, keep reading.
I have learned most of my tools from the evaluations and verbal feedback of my participants. They absolutely LOVE the work in smaller groups called “breakout sessions”. They feel much more confident sharing their thoughts when they are not together with 20+ other colleagues but rather with only 4-5. The engagement becomes very lively and afterward, they are happy to share their main points. It is beneficial if they know beforehand that they will be asked to do so. This means that selecting a spokesperson is an additional task for them that should be communicated before sending them into their subgroups.
I learned from a dear friend of mine that in the online world you always have to transmit energy, enthusiasm, and clarity. You cannot expect the same from the receiving end, your participants. Sometimes you have to wait until the end to get some recognition. Under clarity I mean you have to be 100% clear about what you want to share. The likelihood that people will ask questions in case they don’t understand is low, much lower than in the face-to-face world.
Using different devices such as a flipchart, annotation on your screen, a lot of open-ended questions like “On a scale from one to ten, how clear is this exercise to you?” or “What would you prefer, a break now or to finish sooner?” is key. Involving participants is even more crucial than in the “real world”.
Another important success factor is whether you are standing or sitting while you are talking as the facilitator. (Which is better, standing or sitting? What are the impacts of standing or sitting?) All this counts a lot when you do what, and why.
A lot of our clients could not imagine that a real leadership development program could be run in Zoom or on any platform. Our internal research tells us that participants are not just fully engaged and committed, but they are finding that an additional advantage of the program is that they can spend quality time together. Since Covid-19, most team members are working individually from their homes, so virtual training where they can see each other is a unique gift that is even increasing their loyalty to their team and organization. They feel that they are listened to and cared for.
If you want to hear more tips, contact us, and we will be happy to discuss virtual learning further with you.
Feedback and Leadership Development
Krisztina Lőrinczi
As a trainer and coach giving feedback have been a big part of my life. (And as a mother of two teenagers, obviously as well). Most training participants dislike and even hate role-plays and situations where they have to see themselves in their own mirror. It is a real challenge and a great responsibility to introduce and facilitate such an exercise. I remember, a few years ago, 15 minutes before the start of training, one of the managers of my participants called me and said Krisz, please leave out all the role-play parts, my team members don’t like it…or you can do them, but 8 out of the 10 participants will refuse to do them…. What do you do in such a situation when 80% of that given training was designed, including a lot of feedback…?
When feedback is done well, this is the absolute best part of the training for them. I have read over 7000 training evaluations. Learning about our own strengths and areas of development is something that participants report as the most valuable part of training. How is it done well? I have observed many trainers and coaches giving feedback and gained my own view on what is considered good and great in the world of feedback.
What are the ingredients of great feedback?
First of all, it has to have a great intention. The leader or trainer who gives feedback has to know and share what their intention is. Obviously, a good intention should be positive and positively phrased. For example: “I would like to spend some time to talk about your performance because we as a company are counting on you long term as you are a great contributor.” Feedback has to be honest and genuine. It has to come from the heart. Every time I start feedback, I fully focus on the person, on the positive connection between us, and put all my other topics in a drawer that I lock for that time. The person giving feedback has to believe in the strengths of the Coachee which should be shared before the areas of improvement. I believe in the proportion of 5:1—sharing 5 strengths and one or at the most two areas of improvement. Of course, it has to sound natural and authentic. If it seems like a training method, the receiver will feel it, and in the end, there is more harm done than gain.
Emotional intelligence is one of the most important parts of feedback. Every single second there must be radar observing the receiver: what feelings am I am causing and accelerating? What is the impact? The initiator has to adjust his style, rhythm, intensity, and sometimes even the goal during the feedback. Maybe the goal was to share a performance gap, but during the coaching/feedback, it turns out that the receiver is lacking a sense of belonging, engagement, or even a vision. So the initiator has to include a pre-step. Other times, even more advancement can be achieved because the initiator realizes that the receiver is more open than assumed.
I found the combination of training and constant feedback in leadership development beneficial. Participants (existing or potential leaders) are getting used to the special combination of the two during the program “Assess to Select and Train to Achieve.” At the end of it, it becomes second nature which then is the base for so many further parts of their job. In my 19 years of work as a trainer and facilitator, I have not seen as many thankful pairs of eyes, and I have not heard as many commitments as at the end of our journey where they could really recognize what they should change if they want to achieve more. Our trainers give their maximum attention to how a great feedback conversation is made. It is a piece of art that has to be done with a lot of experience and care. In our Train, the Trainer certification is spent on fine-tuning those 35-40 ingredients that are needed to create a masterpiece of feedback. If you are interested, we are happy to discuss this fascinating topic with you!