Recently the team at NetSpeed Learning had the opportunity to deliver a four-day hybrid and blended training program. Because none of our trainers and producers could be present in-person and onsite for the delivery, we carefully planned and rehearsed a fully hybrid delivery. The client brought 20 participants onsite. For most of the participants the training was a success. But there was one participant (let’s call him Andrew) who was not satisfied with the experience. In fact, he was downright angry. How did we know that? He completed the full program evaluation after the first day and provided scathing commentary. He participated in a superficial manner in the activities. He blamed a producer for his failure to complete an assignment.
I’ll admit that we felt defensive. After all, we had invested countless hours getting to know the needs of our client, customizing the course design, and ensuring there were no technical issues that might derail us. While the client’s managers thought it was a privilege for their trainers to attend this training program and they would welcome the chance to be together, Andrew felt that he didn’t need it at his level of experience. His angry resistance was compounded by the requirement to fly into the training location and sit in a training room with his colleagues, when he believed it was far safer (during a pandemic) for everyone to attend virtually. In his point of view, trust had been broken.
Andrew’s anger got me thinking about the nature of trust and psychological safety in hybrid and virtual training events. I think there are several trust factors that need to be cultivated:
1. Strong personal relationships
2. Shared objectives and goals
3. Open and transparent communication
4. Options for positive participation
5. Safety for dissenting or differing opinions
If I could press rewind on this experience, we might have added a survey of all participants prior to the training program to ask them to share their individual goals and let us know of any concerns they had about attending this hybrid program. That tool might have surfaced concerns or issues which we could have addressed prior to launching the training program. Perhaps our client might have let Andrew off the hook and selected a different trainer who was both open to learning hybrid facilitation techniques and comfortable with being onsite. Or perhaps Andrew could have articulated his goals (being a mentor for his colleagues?) and attended the training virtually rather than in-person.
In our next NetSpeed Nuggets session, we will explore the factors that create trust in hybrid learning environments. Join us at our complimentary session, Virtual Training: Building Trust and Psychological Safety, on Wednesday, August 3, at 1:00 pm ET / 10:00 am PT, as we explore six surefire techniques to increase psychological safety. Registration is required.
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Cynthia Clay
President/CEO
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I’m proud to be a contributing author to the 3rd edition of ATD’s Handbook for Training and Talent Development (edited by Elaine Biech). My colleague, Cindy Hugget, and I wrote the chapter, “Designing and Delivering Virtual Training.” In our chapter, we share five tips for designing for interaction and five tips for delivering engaging virtual training.
With 57 chapters, written by 100 thought leaders, this is a valuable resource for talent development professionals that you will want to have on your bookshelf. You can buy it at the ATD website or for Kindle at the Amazon website.
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Bring Cynthia Clay
to Your Next Virtual
or In-Person Event
Cynthia Clay delivers engaging, memorable keynotes that motivate people to take action. She combines humor, deep experience, and original insights to create interactive, engaging keynotes and workshops. She gets to know her audience in advance and customizes all content to meet her clients’ needs and energize the participants.
Here are some comments from a recent in-person conference:
“Great, applicable information. She is personable, fun, and informative.”
“Cynthia was very engaging and informative, and provided meaningful content related to the listed topic. She did very well engaging our audience.”
“The variety of activities and interaction was much appreciated. I also felt like the session had a wealth of useable information.”
“Very engaging! The presenter has great presentation skills.”
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Explore something new with one of our engaging and interactive virtual training sessions. |
NetSpeed Nuggets
Join us at the next NetSpeed Nuggets virtual session. These 30-minute, rapid learning sessions will introduce strategies and tactics that increase your effectiveness in the virtual workplace.
Virtual Training: Building Trust and Psychological Safety
Have you ever wondered whether the participants in your virtual or hybrid sessions were participating wholeheartedly? The mark of an unsuccessful virtual training event is the feeling of disconnection and isolation. As the virtual facilitator, there are concrete techniques you can use to increase trust and safety online. If you want to gain an easy flow of ideas, increase people’s willingness to share their ideas and opinions, and build trusting relationships in your virtual or hybrid training sessions, join Cynthia Clay to explore six surefire techniques to increase psychological safety.
Wednesday, August 3rd
1:00 pm ET/10:00 am PT
Complimentary
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Become a Certified Online Learning Facilitator
Now is the time to build stronger virtual facilitation skills!
This popular course has received rave reviews from participants as it provides a deep-dive into best practices for virtual facilitation and design.
Now it's your turn to rock the virtual classroom! The Sept/Oct course opens on Thursday, Sept 15 with the first webinar on Thursday, Sept 22nd.
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Become a Virtual Producer
Every virtual facilitator needs a capable virtual training producer.
As a skilled virtual training producer, you perform a critical role by supporting the virtual facilitator behind the scenes, manage the technology that can sometimes distract from the online learning experience and free the facilitator to focus on the content and the learners’ needs.
Develop your skills in our September Virtual Producer Training! Class starts Thursday, Sept 1. Pre-webinar assignments start Thursday, Aug 25th.
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