Why Trainers Hate Virtual Facilitation and How to Get Over It Wayne Turmel
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More and more training is happening virtually, but instructors aren't always comfortable moving from the classroom to the desktop. Wayne Turmel talks about why, and how to overcome that resistance. Join him on LInkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/wayneturmel/ or at https://www.remoteleadershipinstitute.com/
Audio Transcript Auto-generated
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everybody. This is Wayne Turmail from the Remote Leadership Institute,
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and I want to talk about something that's going on
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right now that not a lot of people want to
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cop to.
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But here it is.
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During these Covad times, a lot of companies have changed
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the way they do training in their organization, and there
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isn't a lot of in person training in classroom stuff
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going on.
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And that's creating a bit of a crisis for people
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who are good classroom trainers.
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They're being asked to move to tools like Zoom and
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some other things, and they're not really comfortable with that.
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So I want to talk really honestly for a minute
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about why good classroom trainers don't really like virtual facilitation
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and how they can kind of get over it.
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So let's start with why it's happening right if people
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can't get together.
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But we still need to train people.
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We have to do something.
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And you know the learning doesn't always get the job
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done. And there's lots of reasons, right?
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Virtual instructor led training.
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Obviously, there's no travel, it's easy to do and it's
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still a synchronous training event.
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You get at least some of the interaction that we
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get in a classroom because learning is social, its social
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for the warders is social when you're interacting with the
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instructor. And so there are a lot of good reasons
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to move to virtual instructor led training.
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Here's the problem.
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We still hate it.
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So why why do good classroom trainers not particularly like
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virtual instructor led training?
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Well, there's a bunch of reasons if we think about
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why we like being in the classroom.
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We love the interaction.
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There's an energy that goes on.
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There's an energy transfer.
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You know, when you see the light bulb go on
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for trainers, that's part of our motivation.
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And by the way, it's fun for us.
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Unlike most people who don't like to speak in public,
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most classroom trainers we get an endorphin rush being at
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the front of the room that we don't get when
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we're sitting in front of a webcam.
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And also, here's the other thing.
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We feel really, really uncomfortable.
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Why is that?
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Well, let me give you this analogy.
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You ever drive late at night in the pouring rain,
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you're trying to find an address, and you have to
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turn down the radio so you can see better.
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That's what happens when we try to deliver training in
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an online environment.
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All the things that we do naturally.
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Scanning the audience, checking for understanding, hearing their reaction, adjusting
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to the mood in the room.
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We still have to do all of that.
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And, oh, by the way, we have to remember which
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button to push and how do we make this work?
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And Dad, we use the white board and it becomes
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so much inside our skulls that we turn down the
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radio so we can see better, and we wind up
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not using a lot of the tools that help us
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be successful.
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So here's the thing.
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Yeah, we don't like it and we gripe about it
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and all of that.
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But if you're already doing classroom training successfully, you have
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what you need to succeed.
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Now. What do I mean by this?
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Well, you know what makes adult learning work right?
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You need a good way to deliver content Prezi.
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Or however you're delivering the course visuals allow you to
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do that right?
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You've already got that.
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You've got the content experience.
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You know what you're talking about and how to make
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it relevant to your audience.
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We know that interaction and social accountability is important, and
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if you use your Web platform well, you can get
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some of that.
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You can get riel time discussion processing, and you can
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keep your learners actively involved.
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You already know how to do that part.
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You need to make online facilitation work.
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So what you need to do is ask yourself, What
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would I do in an ideal learning environment?
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And then what's the closest I can come to that?
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So if you're using and I don't care what platform
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it is, zoom WebEx, whatever it is you've got away
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toe have people raise their hand.
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You have a way to have them vote.
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You have a way to engage them and get them
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to answer questions.
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And there's white boards and all kinds of tools, and
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you can build it into the course where if you're
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using president, for example, you can build the questions and
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the pauses and the interaction into the presentation itself.
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You can put it in the notes as a kind
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of leaders guide to yourself, but the number one thing
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that you need to do to make all of this
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work is you need to practice, and it takes about
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half a dozen times of using the tool in conjunction
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with delivering the content for it to become muscle memory.
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At which point, just like when you're driving, you can
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drive with the radio.
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You can push the button and listen for responses at
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the same time, but you need to get over that
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learning hump.
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You need to practice and practice, by the way, is
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not going through your presentation muttering yourself.
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It means using the presentation tools in real time with
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your content so that your brain in your body sink.
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There are ways to get interaction.
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We've all been on that call.
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So who's got a question?
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Nothing. Crickets, Tumbleweeds.
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There are ways that you can help condition your audience
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to be more responsive.
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The first is to set expectations early.
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This is how this is going to work.
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Get them to push buttons and right in the chat
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and speak up and contribute.
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The earlier you get them involved, the easier it is
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to keep them involved.
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If they sit, pass him for 40 minutes and then
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you expect them toe leap into action it's just not
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going to work.
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You also need to offer multiple ways to interact.
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Not everybody is comfortable speaking up.
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Some people are gonna want to use the chat feature,
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for example, or they're gonna want to find different ways
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to contribute.
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Maybe, you know, they're working breakout groups, but they won't
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necessarily speak up in a larger group.
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We need to do that.
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And so you need a questioning strategy.
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And again, you can use your presentation tool, whatever it
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is Prezi outlook, whatever to build those different types of
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questions and seek those different types of responses.
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So, yeah, we're not crazy about presenting online.
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But what I have found in over 15 years is
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that once people start tubes, think about the possibilities and
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less about the constraint.
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Our instincts will kick in.
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Once you've learned the tool, you can relax and go
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back to doing what you do, which is communicating your
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knowledge and helping people learn, which is why we do
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this. If you found this useful, that's great.
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I'd love to hear that you can connect with me
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on linked in Wayne Turmail.
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You can join us at the remote Leadership Institute.
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There's lots more information there.
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Remote leadership institute dot com Thanks to present for giving
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us the chance to do this video and good luck.
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Stay saying don't let the weasels get you down.