Making a virtue of virtual
Discussing trends with fellow facilitators, we agree that virtual is here to stay.?There are so many advantages, including:
Notice too how the elements reinforce each other. If I’ve enjoyed working from home and experienced a good virtual conference, I may be less willing to travel again – which will influence the decisions of the conference planners.
So it’s going to be important for facilitators to make smart choices, especially as the technologies get slicker and more seductive.
I’d like to see us make more sense of??these global opportunities. We can reach people across a range of different time zones, but that doesn’t mean we should insist everyone is available at inconvenient times when they may prefer to be sleeping.
Instead, we can make better use of asynchronous collaboration – before, during and after group sessions.
Probably the easiest and one of the most effective is to set up a shared document. With that you can:
One of the biggest complaints about the rush to take everything online was that we left too little?space around the meetings. Back-to-back meetings all day or the impossible demands of simultaneous sessions are unsurprisingly oppressive.
Allowing people to work more at their own speed and in their own time, with neat ideas such as shared documents, can offer more engaging, enjoyable and productive working.
Global Leadership Development Leader | Digital Wellbeing Coach | Executive Coach | FCIPD
3 年Music to my ears Paul Z Jackson! Making use of asynchronous collaboration, with a shared document, where people can reflect on the desired meeting outcomes and come up with ideas before they attend the event is a great way to collaborate across time zones and to benefit from the collective intelligence you can access virtually!
Facilitator l Speaker l Author dedicated to improving workplace engagement. Founder, Quality Service Marketing. Certified facilitator, LEGO? SERIOUS PLAY?
3 年Interesting, Paul. I was in an online workshop earlier this week with participants in North and South America, Europe, and Asia. When we finished the 1st module at 2 PM EST, it was 2 AM in Asia. It wasn't surprising that the Asian participant did not return for the 2nd module held later the same day. Workshop organizers and facilitators already understood this and will plan future workshops to accommodate different time zones. Fortunately for this program, attendance was voluntary, not mandatory - so participants knew what times they were committing to.
Dynamic Educator, Trainer & Speaker. Creating innovative ways for educational professionals to embed Social Emotional Learning into their daily routines easily and joyfully.
3 年I thought when we were back in person that virtual meetings would be for those times we couldn’t meet for some reason. I, like so many others, am so happy to work from home with people from around the country and around the world. It is nice to meet in person as well. I love that you’re helping people uplevel their online work, Paul. It’s here to stay.
Extending Invitations to Experience and Engage with Who and What Matters to You
3 年Thank you Paul. I appreciate the comments about "leaving too little space" and the practical suggestions for bridging time zone dissonance. Thank you.