Managers dislike live online learning. It’s true.

Well, maybe not all managers, but some. And it’s with good reason, although it may have very little to do with live online learning per se.

I met with a DSM (District Sales Manager) at a large Pharma yesterday and had a very interesting interaction. Being a person who likes to know what someone’s pain points are (particularly as they relate to live online training), I asked him. He was forthright and honest and pointed to his single biggest issue with Live Online Learning: He now has to do more work – and he’s already overloaded.

Why would Live Online Learning cause him more work? Simple – he now has to manage his reps closer to ensure they have the skills they need. Where before he felt the trainer handled that, it now falls to him. How could this be?

In an in-person setting for sales training, an instructor can and will work one-on-one with a rep to do role playing, or just take the temperature of how confident and knowledgeable they are with the materials. Maybe in a breakout session, or in the hall, or a formal evaluation period. They can quickly and effectively determine where the rep is, capability-wise.

In a live-online-learning setting, there is a higher barrier to in-class on-the-fly evaluation of a reps skills. This barrier is due to a couple different things. First, based on the intimate nature of the environment, learners are often hesitant to raise the flag and say they don’t understad. And likewise, since learners are afraid to “hold-up” the class, they also won’t ask for more help. And similarly, at the risk of people fading out, facilitators may not want to take the time to make sure learners are fully absorbing the materials.

Also, in online settings, there may not be the informal time built in for checking in on skill assessment. And, in today’s technology landscape, the tools are not yet mature enough to facilitate informal interaction effectively.

So, what do we do to make DSM’s happy and relieve them of the training burden? Live Touch Points with reps on an ongoing basis. with small groups.   It’s an instructional design technique that is actually independent of the technology, but leverages the capabilities of distributed learning.

Training departments have been looking for a way to increase the volume and effectiveness of their training while decreasing impact to the field.  Do this:

1. Conduct a Live Online Learning session as a precursor to an in-person class.  Do Didactic work or something else.
2. Run an abbreviated in-person class to work on the soft-skills
3. Conduct a pull through Live Online Learning session for things that were missed or not fully grasped
4. 45 – 60 days later, begin 3 month “Live Touch”  30 min/1 hour sessions Live Online for competency reinforcement

DSM issue is solved, costs are reduced, learners are better prepared and Marketing messages are reinforced.

A place for creative collaboration – ideas?

We’re building a place for creative collaboration and we love ideas.  Here’s the thing:

Philosophers have spent centuries defining art and creativity.  Recently scientists and educators have taken to researching creativity.  But from a work standpoint, we don’t really need to understand the roots of the creative instinct, or how the mind works comes up with ideas and makes them real.

Importantly, creativity in the work environment is almost never a solo act.  We’re constantly creating with other people.  We’re doing what humans do: interact with other humans to change their world and add something to it. It’s really as simple as that for creativity in work: make something new together.

How that happens, the outcomes and the tools and processes we use however, vary widely. Maybe we use a white board, maybe draw on a piece of paper, or make a paper airplane. Maybe it’s a list of steps, or code, or a powerpoint deck or a business plan. If it’s electronic, we probably email it back and forth, we might share it online somehow. If it’s a physical object, we have to be in the same room typically.

At a conceptual level, two or more people arrive at a space in which they intend (premeditated or accidentally) to collaborate.  There is the genesis of what they are going to collaborate on (again, premeditated or accidental), a forum in which they will work and materials with which they will work. The participants put ideas into meaningful representations into the space that both can interact with such as audible sounds (words, music, noise), text (representations of language) or images and motion.  The space holds these items while the people manipulate, add, remove each item and form them to intersect with the other elements inside the space. The participants decide to stop the creative activity, and either clean up (where they space is formalized and fixed into the intended result), or leave it for another time (which may be the intended consequence).  The end result of the collaboration ready to be used as intended by the collaborative participants.

That’s a rudimentary outline of the creative collaborative process.  Note that it does not indicate in anyway the means by which people come up with creative ideas, or suggestions on how to best be creative. That’s something else entirely. What it does imply however, is that there needs to be collaborators, a space dedicated to the effort, material to work with and a way to have the final result of the collaboration fixed in some manner for further use.

Humans have been following this exact process for creative collaboration forever. It may have taken the form of working synchronously (typically in a room together, but recently over the phone), asynchronously (like sending a painting back and forth, or emailing a powerpoint deck), or jointly like a blog narrative.

But, we believe that while the human process will always remain the same for creative collaboration, that the tools we have available to us today are not adequate; particularly for synchronous collaboration, and most notably for distributed, real-time collaboration.  They are too defined in terms of their inputs and outputs, they don’t have enough interaction capabilities and they don’t allow for accidental synchronous collaboration with an end product.  Phew, that’s a mouthful.

We find that here’s what you need for real-time, online collaboration

1. A flexible, multi-person space where materials can be easily added from a wide range of sources that are apparently not-related and from multiple layers of human relation
2. A flexible space in which to manipulate those materials as you see fit
3. A space that allows for real-time, visually oriented human interaction
4. A method to create new spaces as needed to enhance the creative activity
5. A method to store the final products of the creative activity
6. An low barrier way for participants to join (purposefully or accidentally) and leave the creative space

That’s what we’re building anyway with the new version of Vusion.

Are there things you would like to see in it specifically?  We’re always looking for input on what to add to our products!

SPBT Workshop on Live Internet training

We mentioned at SPBT this year we’ll be doing a couple sessions, one of which is a post conference workshop on how to really, actually, truly conduct successful live Virtual training (PDF, scroll down). Even with all the buzz around live Internet training, there is still a lot of fear around doing it right.  The most common concerns we come across are 1: getting the technology to work, and making sure learners are engaged for extended periods of time.  There are others too but those are the biggest.

The holy grail of live Internt learning is a blend of addressing those two concerns.  And doing it over 8 hours, across 5 days, for hundreds of learners.  And yes, we’re here to say, it’s not only possible to get through it, it’s possible to do it really really well.  Test scores prove it. Qualitative survey results prove it.  Sales stats prove it.  We’re not kidding.

But HOW do you do it?  For trainers and training departments attempting to go down that path, it seems very daunting.  The hurdles appear to be many.

1. I don’t even know what technology to use, where to get it, how to cobble it together and get it to work.  Forget it.
2. I know that when I sit in on a webinar, I tune out in 10 minutes – max.   Nobody will pay attention for 8 hours.
3. As a trainer, I won’t be able to see what the learners are doing – surfing the web, playing with dog I hear barking… are they even there?
4. I feel really really strange talking to a camera (and seeing myself).  Do I really look like that?
5. I’ve heard I have to overhaul all my materials – it’s going to take months to get through compliance with that.

BUT – those issues are all very easy to over come. No, seriously, we mean it.  They are.

The SPBT post conference workshop is a nuts-and-bolts session for those managers and trainers on the hook to make it work.  You can do it.  This workshop will show you how.  Things like:

1. Selecting an online learning platform
2. How to setup the trainer learning space
3. How to conduct a virtual training session
4. How to engage learners consistently over time
5. How to get the kind of feedback that will help your program

If you need to execute live Internet training, this is the session for you.

Your virtual training can be better… really!

We’re the first to say that nothing can replace being in-person.  If there was, there wouldn’t be any need to go to the beach for vacation!  The same can be said for training, communication, collaboration and conferences.  However, with such a clear cost value proposition to Directors and Vice Presidents, virtual everything is virtually a reality.

Most training managers and departments tend to think that live, instructor lead Internet based training is a distant second-class citizen to in-person training.  That only if you really really really had to, would you EVER consider doing training virtually. It’s understandable since most teams that try it have a bad experience.

But, we’ve found that it doesn’t have to be bad.  Others have found that too. And, interestingly, you can do things with Virtual training and collaboration that you couldn’t do in-person in terms of course design and reinforcement. Wait, I’m getting ahead of myself.

Virtual live training can be all it’s supposed to be.  It can be engaging, fun, personal and effective.  People can stay with their families, stay in the field, hit their quotas, and even exceed them.  Here are five simple foundational things that will help:

1. Make it feel in-person and personal: Use all your engaging techniques that you leverage in the class, but with the online platform you use. Set your virtual class up like a physical class.  Play games, do intros, do breakouts, flip charts, perks, etc.
2. Technology should be invisible.  Use a producer, prep your learners and your facilitator. Make them practice together before they learn.  The technology can be made invisible if you work at it. And the payoff is huge if you do.
3. Use 20-10-5 for presentations. Don’t overhaul your materials, just shuffle them.  A four hour didactic presentation online is a recipe for failure.  Do 20 min presentations with 10 minutes of teach-back and 5 of Q&A.   Change it up regularly and make sure people are engaged.  You have to work harder at engagement, you just do.
4. Engage or go away.  You have to get people interacting more in a virtual setting that in-person. Make them raise their hand, or answer a poll.  Call on them to comment – but give them the time to actually comment – it’s harder than it seems – dead space online feels ten times longer than in-person.  Use that to your advantage.
5. Use multi-way video. There is nothing more engaging than knowing you’re being watched.  When possible, have as many participants’ cameras on at any one time.

Oh, there is one more…keep your class size under 25. Anything bigger and you might as well lecture.

Attend our SPBT workshop(s) on virtual training

We’re very excited to be going to SPBT Conference at Rosen Shingle Creek in Orlando; of course. The conference is May 9th – 13th. And, for us this year is super special since we’re presenting two separate workshops on  Virtual Training.

The first is a Director level view of Virtual training – benefits, tips, how to get started. We’re co-presenting with one of our large Pharma clients, and hitting a ton of valuable data around success measures: qualitative survey results, hard cost savings and revenue impact.  It’s going to be pretty amazing. If you’re going to be there and care at all about Virtual Training, don’t miss it!

Also, we’re running a full day, post-conference deep dive on how to successfully execute a live, virtual training session. Check out the link:

Effective Training Delivery in a room made of Pixels!

Our senior trainer will be delivering a power-packed session ideal for the trainer or training manger who has to deliver and get it right.  It’ll be chock-full of good information on how to be successful in a virtual training environment.  Be ready to get your hands dirty in this one!

We’re looking forward to seeing you there, but if you can’t make it, please let us know and we’ll see what we can do about a follow up at a later date.