How can you follow up with remote teams after a workshop?

Welcoming feedback and suggestions from the remote learners and implementing the "best suggestion for improvement" in the future programs will help in creating more engaged and involved remote teams. Setting up a virtual team meeting following the workshop, to discuss, debate, give suggestions for improvement, will help in gathering valuable insights on the completed workshop and in improving the future workshops / training sessions. Based on the training needs received from the teams relevant training programs can be planned for the future.This will increase the morale and the involvement of the remote teams thereby making them feel more included. Recognizing and rewarding the best participant will help in active participation of teams.

Feedback is often the only catalyst for growth. A feedback survey allows you to get information from the source and collect data. By requesting help and input from those who are there, you create more buy-in and engagement for future projects.

Share a brief email highlighting key learnings and resources, leading to a Feedback Survey to reinforce and check training concepts for remote teams.

Beyond a traditional satisfaction type survey, another evidence based tool is the post, pre-post, knowledge gain survey. To do this create several knowledge statements related to the training. For example "I understand the legislation on respectful workplace and bullying" or I can write a script in Python". Then provide two responses using a Likert scale, one for "before the workshop" rated high to low, and the other "after the workshop" rated high to low. You can then measure the difference in scores and report on the % increase in knowledge to measure 'learning gain'.

Follow ups in a focus group or 1:1 are much better than an email survey auto-generated post workshop. People want to be seen and heard, they want to feel like what they have to contribute matters. Never underestimate the power of these feedback sessions.

One way to follow up is to assign a project or task that allows team members to apply the skills and knowledge gained during the workshop. Assign a project that is relevant to the workshop topic and aligns with the team's objectives. Set clear expectations and deadlines, and provide support and resources as needed. As well, encourage collaboration and feedback among team members, and follow up regularly to monitor progress and offer guidance. This approach allows team members to immediately put their newly acquired skills to use, promoting continuous learning and improvement. It also helps to reinforce the workshop's lessons and create a lasting impact on the team's performance.

There is a lot to say about standing next to the podium. There you can observe reflection not only for an introspection of data but also a vicarious one too. Where gratitude for how you acquired the achievement somehow became fruition. So lucid you get to share that experience with others, through the look of one’s beauty beheld eye, a confidence boosting warm embrace or simply words which build on this new experience. An idea would be to post in a shared chat, where others can react to it, and there each person can post their personalized feedback for others to see but most importantly to emote those sentiments therein, for future nostalgia. Be sure to include photos from the experience… create intentional growth for yourself!

Consider having a Teams channel where you can post about “what they thought about the workshop” questions. You can also send a survey form after the workshop if you don’t have a dedicated teams channel. Even before the D-day of the workshop, schedule a slot in their calendars for post-workshop feedback.

You could consider asking them to put together an action plan at the end of the training to consider how they plan to implement the new learning into their daily role. Then arrange follow up meetings with them to discuss how the action plan is progressing. During these meetings, you can measure the success of the knowledge transfer and can address any additional learning that needs to take place through a coaching type discussion.