Training in the time of COVID-19

In the last 2 weeks I have had the privilege of working as part of a small team to deliver innovative and emergent face to face training to over 800 people in 8 days.

As trainers and facilitators, we've all had experiences that we considered challenging at the time. Whether it be inappropriate room set up, AV issues, poor quality flip-chart paper, the wrong 'tip type' of the marker pens, awkward tables, dim lighting...the list goes on and on.

This last fortnight I encountered challenges and circumstances in the training room I could never have expected until now.

I have been with the Flight Centre Travel Group for 14 years but just two Friday afternoons ago, I was one of thousands to be temporarily stood down. On the Saturday morning, as I was still processing all that this would mean, an opportunity arose for a training role that I knew would be exciting and challenging in equal measures. I wanted to say yes to any opportunity that came my way and and it was also a chance to utilise my skills at this unprecedented time. By the afternoon, I was successful in my application and on Monday morning, I had hit the ground running.

The task was to train a 2 day program (normally delivered over several weeks) to approximately 800 people in groups of around 100 at a time. It was complicated by the social distancing laws in action, no available on-train, no facilitator notes and completely unfamiliar content, which was changing by the day. The outcome of all of this was very positive - to deliver 800 people to an essential role to help hundreds of thousands of Australians in this crazy time.

As a facilitator I am all about high energy, connection, movement, interaction and lots of fun! I knew that in the current climate, this was going to be tough.

As one of the very few people in Australia to be training large groups face to face in the current environment, we had to consider a large list of challenges to manage the health and safety of everyone in the room. Many of these emerged only after we had started.

Here's a few examples to illustrate the situation:

• Every participant needs to be at least 1.5 metres apart at all times, even on breaks
• Nobody can share a pen
• Microphones can't be shared
• Unable to roam around the room as the trainer (restricted to stand at the front). This was possibly the hardest part for me!
• No touching (including high 5s!), no games, no kinaesthetic props, no flip-charts, no paper
• No group work or learning teams for connection
• Long breaks due to the time it took to manage the logistics of social distancing, food service etc.
• Time spent policing the social distancing - for many participants, it was their first time out of the home once these measures had been in place

Other role related challenges:

• Restricted to 'Death by Powerpoint' as modules were mandatory and participants did not have access to personal computers. This also meant that we completed self-directed modules on a central screen and worked through them together in groups of 100
• Several weeks of content had to be sliced and diced into 2 days to ensure participants had the essential skills to start their roles ASAP
• Participants were not able to take any notes they took in training onto the job afterwards

So what could I control?

I could control how I showed up every day, the energy I brought to the room, encouraging movement (on the spot), humour, laughter, empathy and being grateful for the opportunity to not only have a temporary role, but to be a part of such a dynamic and ambitious project. Where I had no influence on the design, I had to focus all of my efforts on the delivery.

This experience forced me to call on every trick in my tool kit. I drew on my experience of delivering consumer oriented training and my knowledge of thinking preferences (HBDI) and personality type (MBTI) to maximise the participant's experience.

I've used more hand sanitiser in the last two weeks as I have in my entire lifetime. It was fascinating to be with so many large groups of people in one space and to never hear a single cough or sneeze! They were the healthiest cohort I've ever trained!

It's been such an incredible experience to see such a diverse mix of people from all roles and industries coming together to get involved in the same essential work. We really are all in this together.

Bring on the day when we are all face to face again in training sessions, conferences, workshops and team meetings. I am looking forward to the high 5's and hugs! This experience has changed training for me - I won't take the simple things for granted any longer.

Thanks for the opportunity to share my story. Look after your loved ones, stay safe and wash your hands!

Steve