The rule of 2
You need 2 trainers to deliver an effective remote training course. Many organisations are cheerfully banking Covid cost savings from having a largely or wholly home-based workforce. But this isn’t a one-way street, as my good friend and gifted trainer, Darren Laskier, explained to me last week.
Training online should allow more participants per course, but also means that their involvement & engagement needs active encouragement. This can be achieved through chat; asking for and encouraging questions, comments & clarifications. However, monitoring & responding is a job in itself and doing so – and ensuring that the feedback from the floor is captured & reflected in the content being delivered – requires a second person. Alternatively, the larger group could break out into virtual syndicate groups. This can be very effective at fostering engagement and reinforcing learnings, but requires multiple facilitators.
Good trainers have – like all of us – adapted to different ways of working over the past few months. And in some senses remote training delivery can offer advantages over a traditional approach, but at a cost.
These are tough times for most firms, but cutting the L&D budget could be doubling damaging if training’s being done remotely!
