Remote learning comes ALIVE

REMOTE LEARNING COMES ALIVE?

By Danielle Grant

Global reach from a home office – the new normal?

It seems the whole world has suddenly not just discovered, but accepted that training, and moreover, general working, done remotely, is a ‘thing’ – who would have thought it six months ago?!

This is a paradigm shift in working that will remain with us into the future, and what is increasingly being termed the “new normal”.  

What are the implications and imperatives for training and development? How, you may ask yourself, can a remotely delivered model work, since the value of working in a supportive co-learning environment is such an important part of any such experience?

LeaderShape Global, has developed as a global organisation without a centrally located HQ over the past 10 years, with partners in five continents.  As the responsible Director, I have been tasked with developing, training and upskilling all our worldwide partners.  This was a challenge for which we needed to find an effective solution, and it became a focus of my Master’s Degree research that I completed in 2013.

Principles for blended learning – delivered at distance!

My mission (which I chose to accept – without a self-destructing tape!) was and is to deliver blended, transformational leadership learning to people in diverse cultures, positions and personal circumstances, so they would be able, in turn, to deliver the same to their local clients.  I had already learned about and developed online interactive ‘bite sized’ learning to introduce concepts in our Transpersonal Leadership journey, (described in “Leading beyond the Ego”, 2018, Grant, Knights et al).  This was designed to prime the learners’ brains and begin the process of seeing how it applied to their own lives and contexts.  This is done at the outset, prior to group workshops, by means of a series of self-paced LMS (Learning Management System)-enabled, learning modules.  Taking some inspiration from Prof. John Medina (BrainRules.net), we have applied as many sensory hooks to learning as possible, addressing the widest range of styles.  This means that the online modules include videos (which have often been chosen to provoke emotional responses) audio, articles and quizzes /self-assessment downloads, so it offers more than just visual and auditory stimuli. 

But just watching, or even a deeper participation in the e-learning experience, does not, in and of itself, create embedded brain-friendly learning. Therefore, to address this need, after each learning experience, the participant is explicitly asked to answer reflective questions that get them to apply the ideas to their own context.  This part addresses the value of priming the brain to start to integrate new thinking and observation.  Consider a situation in which you have decided to purchase a Mercedes.  Up until this point Mercedes cars were not something you especially noticed – they were just another car. Having made that decision, your brain is primed to notice Mercedes – suddenly you see lots of them on the road, don’t you?  This is equally true of any learning.  (This phenomenon is light-heartedly known as the ‘Jennifer Aniston Neuron’ - https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn7567-why-your-brain-has-a-jennifer-aniston-cell/). By offering some insights and pre-work, you create a ‘noticing and learning’ state in the brain.  Far more effective than lots of chalk and talk input and homework… 

The blended learning process we use is encapsulated in the image below, showing how the e-learning, the online ALIVE? (Accelerated Learning in a Virtual Environment) Masterclasses and action learning ALIVE? calls, dovetail with in-work action creating the essence of work-based learning which embeds for the long-term.Beyond e-learning to virtual learning communities.

However, any online, self-service learning, requires more than that, especially if you are seeking to change attitudes, perspectives and behaviour as well as develop soft skills.  It requires emotional engagement with others and direct application in to the workplace. Learning through sharing insights with others deepens perspectives and offers real examples that can create a shift in perceptions and ultimately, results in different ways of working.  Over the spring of 2020, across the world and all sectors, meetings shifted to video conferencing in the heat of the Covid-19 global restrictions.  Whilst people adopted these at a time when face-to-face meetings were not possible, it still did not, in the main, alter the way meetings were run.  Most teleconferences are so unengaging that the distraction of a message or email popping up becomes welcome, rather than the virtual meeting being one that enables insights or creates a learning community.

The effectiveness of this is down to the facilitator.  They need to be attentive, engaged, able to draw threads of meaning together from the contributions of each cohort member, so the insights are deeper and more extensive than just everyone listening to each other.  The surprise for each participant, that is always so satisfying, is the realisation that whilst they work many thousands of miles apart in different industries and come from different backgrounds, what connects us, in the human condition, is far greater than the differences between us.

The principles above are at the heart of our transpersonally driven, remote learning approach.  It can be challenging for the facilitator to maintain the energy levels and process as well as draw together the messages so learning is maximised.  But this is what is needed to transcend the ‘distance’.  These learnings are the seed corn of a whole revolution in shifting learning to a virtual environment whilst retaining the warmth and human emotional connection provided by social learning.

Over the past 5 years our overseas partners, and more recently, our accredited Transpersonal Leadership Coaches have experienced this transformational learning approach and undertaken powerful personal development journeys.  Given the burgeoning need for this type of learning, driven in the immediacy and aftermath of the C-19 worldwide crisis, it is apparent that it is an increasingly crucial journey and skillset for learning professionals and coaches. 

In the future all learning will be this way, perhaps?