The Anniversary Lessons

Happy anniversary. For many of us it is one year since our offices shut down ‘temporarily’ in response to COVID-19. One year later, we are still at home, with many companies moving to make remote work permanent for their employees.  

I recall the scramble before the shutdown. As the company’s learning person, it was my responsibility to ensure each employee had a level of proficiency with Teams and/or Zoom. I had two weeks to design, develop, and implement training on these remote conference tools while I could still present in person. Talk about your rapid instructional design. 

Those weeks and the intervening weeks have presented many lessons not just in training during a pandemic, but how to take advantage of the opportunities to prove the value of learning to the organization. Here are four lessons I adopted. 

Capitalize on the Numbers 

I have been conducting virtual classes for over a decade and never saw enrollment and attendance numbers like I did during the first months of the pandemic. My clients were hungry for whatever training they could receive to have an advantage in the recession that the pandemic spawned.  

I took this as a challenge. What could I do to prove the value of training that the company was providing to a group which might never have attended an online session if not for the crisis? It forced me out of my online presentation comfort zone and in search of how to make my classes more engaging, interactive, and worthy of my participants’ attention? That question also made me a better presenter going forward. While my attendance numbers have dropped off, they are still higher than my pre-pandemic numbers, which I credit to, as we say in the real estate industry, a strong repeat and referral business. 

Be the Value Add 

My current position has me presenting how the tools of the company can benefit our customers. However, as engaging as I make the class, retention of what I taught will fall off dramatically in the hours and days following the class. That is why I offer my email address at the end of class with an offer to let me know when the participants use the tool and if they are encountering any difficulties. I repeat that offer in a follow-up email which contains a link to the class recording. 

I cannot say many take me up on the offer, but for those that do, I have made the point that the company is there for our customers’ success beyond the web conference. This provides me another touchpoint with the customer and an opportunity to understand their challenges more deeply, which can be incorporated into the next class, creating a cycle of improvement. 

Go Beyond the Training Class 

While this initiative was in process before the work-at-home order came, it was perfectly suited for the situation our customers found themselves facing. If one of our franchisees wanted specific training for their people, they could request of their brand representative, who would then alert myself and others to the need.  

It almost seems counterintuitive. Should we not try to reach as many people as possible? Not if you view it as planting a seed. By working with a specific franchisee, I am getting to know them, their leadership, their people, and their challenges. I am connecting with my customers on a deeper level, which can allow me to target my training, granting a clearer window into how my training can affect their bottom line. How many times do we want to get into higher levels of Kirkpatrick, but don’t have the opportunity to do so?  

Don’t Be Afraid to Learn 

Without denying the devastating toll the pandemic has wrought, it has also been a time for opportunity. While I had primarily trained virtually over the past several years, many of my colleagues had not. They were mostly in-person learning trainers or designers. Those in the organization who were not training, but held many in-person presentations, were also struggling to adjust to a virtual world. How could they adjust rapidly to a computer monitor where you could not shake hands? There were quite a few requests to talk in those early days. 

I expected to be the trainer in many of these conversations but found myself often in the role of learner. Instead of viewing this as a training, I viewed it as a collaboration, gaining more knowledge than I imparted. It made me a better trainer, a better designer, and provided me with an opportunity to collaborate with some whom I might never had the opportunity to in different circumstances. 

As we are told many times, we are not out of the woods quite yet in this public health crisis. For some of us, the world has permanently changed. I no longer have a desk in a building 20 miles away from my house. My commute is now from the bedroom to the home office with three dogs as my only traffic jam.   

In my coaching practice, I often tell others to focus on what they have gained instead of what they have lost. On this anniversary, I see that I have gained more than I realized and am looking forward to the lessons the future holds.