Making virtual a reality

How do you ‘bring people together’ for a great learning experience, if your business is spread across different locations, without wasting a lot of time and cost of travel?

We’ve been working with Norwegian-based global media company Schibsted Media Group to deliver virtual instructor-led learning sessions for their divisional leaders in 40 countries. We think it’s a good example of how learning is changing - a truly engaging virtual learning experience that defies the norm.


A far cry from standard ‘virtual PowerPoint presentation’ webinars, we’ve created four-hour virtual learning experiences, which feature many of the accelerated learning principles that are normally reserved for a classroom. Yes, that’s right: we keep virtual attention span for four hours!

It’s definitely a challenge to create a virtual learning program that can keep people engaged for that length of time, and to do that we have leveraged face-to-face facilitation styles, though facilitated virtually, to help drive a higher sense of engagement across the distributed audience. Participants engage in virtual break-out sessions for small group discussions, and they benefit from experiences such as one-to-one skills practice with an actor-facilitator. But they do it all at their laptop or tablet, without any need to travel.

The key to an effective virtual program lies in the design.  All too often the discussion on virtual learning is concentrated at the ‘delivery’ stage of the program – in other words what can we do to save money on time and travel.  This often results in learning designs that were intended for face-to-face interaction being distilled to a more passively delivered learning platform – at the risk of compromising the learner experience. With virtual in mind from the start, however, it is possible to think creatively about the selected technology and how it will add to the learning outcome and save money on the program.

The core focus of keeping participant needs as a priority drives us to challenge assumptions about learning and to think more holistically about how things can work better.

While the pace of technology is changing, it’s important to remember that it’s ultimately about putting the technology to work for us, not the other way around. We’re really proud that we’ve defied convention and created such an effective virtual learning experience. To read more about our experience in re-defining virtual learning at Schibsted, check out our story in Training Journal.

Learning is changing… and so are we!

Todd

Lending a Hand

It’s a phrase we all know. Whether you’re being asked to lend a hand, or offering to lend a hand, it’s one of the most rewarding ‘give and takes’ that comes with having a circle of friends and family around you. You are not alone, you have someone to help you and rely upon. And, indeed, someone who needs you. These acts of helpfulness seem to be all around us, particularly at this time of year. We think nothing of being asked to ‘lend a hand’ when it comes to even the smallest of tasks – helping out with dinner, wrapping a present, or even the dreaded...’can you give me a hand with these lights’.

Yet, for others, the concept of needing a hand is a very serious matter. Research data indicates that there are as many as 1.3m people living in the US with some form of amputation, with hand or partial hand loss being the most prevalent. Yet, it is estimated that only 50% of those affected receive any form of prosthetic service. These numbers, obviously, grow exponentially on a global scale, where combinations of land mines, disease, and birth complications result in even more instances of hand loss.

Recently, our HF/Demos team in Australia designed and deployed a Helping Hands program, in conjunction with a partner called Odyssey Teams. This program, a 10-week Advanced Leadership Program for Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, took traditional team-based learning to a whole new level through a workshop that guided participants through assembly of prosthetic hands. In the program, participants built prosthetics for children who have lost limbs in land mine accidents. In total 6 hands were built by the team, and have already been shipped to change the life of a child somewhere in the world. A perfect outcome that symbolizes so much about the spirit of cooperation and helpfulness that so many leaders strive to attain in their teams.

As learning specialists, we often spend countless hours contemplating, with our clients, the precise requirements for new skills that are needed to drive team improvement and business result, often concentrating on the very predictable subjects of delegation, performance management, time management, etc. Oftentimes, all that really matters is how well the team works together and demonstrates what can be accomplished when there is a shared purpose that all can rally around.   I am proud of what our team in Australia has accomplished with this innovative program. It is an inspiration to what can be achieved through more progressive learning, and how a differentiated experience can lead to real enhancements in team dynamics.

If you’d like to learn more about the Helping Hands program please watch the video clip.

As we are asked to lend a hand to someone this season, let that be a reminder to us of the greater need that many in the world face, and the more literal translation of the  phrase, ‘lend a hand’.  

On behalf of the entire Hemsley Fraser team, I hope that all of you has a joyous and safe holiday season!

Todd