Virtual Reality Just Got A New Meaning In Consulting

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As the pandemic hit during Spring, offices were laid to waste, millions of workers sent to work from home, and whole industries turned upside down. It was time for “The Great Pivot”. Change of strategy. Change of products. New ways of delivering. It has been no different for Consulting which has a new virtual reality! In this article, we will share our tips on how to handle this reality. 

Most engagements now have a virtual element – both in the planning or delivery phase. While virtual planning is not much different from other virtual meetings the same cannot be said about virtual delivery. If you are doing training, for instance, you are working with completely different dynamics virtually compared to physical delivery. 

• You cannot see all the participants because you are likely sharing your screen
• It is hard to establish trust with participants when you cannot interact informally
• It is a struggle to keep their attention as there are many distractions vying for their attention
• You will be hard-pressed to randomly point out a participant to answer a question
• You are at the mercy of technology 

All these dynamics can be managed well though. However, it requires new skills, tools, and techniques to deliver a virtual experience that is both fun, rewarding, and engaging. 

How to deliver a better virtual experience 

Most will likely agree that we are in a short supply of skilled virtual facilitators as we are all learning by doing. Hence, it is important that we share our experiences and help each other learn. At Business Partnering Institute we have delivered many virtual training sessions as well as conference presentations in the past. Each has its own dynamics, but we wanted to share what we have learned works well when it comes to running virtual workshops and presentations. 

Skills

• Your presentation skills need to be sharpened even further as for instance, you lose most of your body language. To compensate, you must speak slower, clearer, and simpler than you would if you could use the dynamics of e.g. screens, flipcharts, and the audience.
• You should be very concise in your communication. We often use a top-down presentation style to ensure you present your most important points first. Why? Because you are at high risk of losing your audience at any given time so make sure they at least get your golden nuggets. That will likely also keep them around for longer to learn more!
• It might be obvious, but you also need to become a better facilitator since you need to keep the energy high and the audience engaged at all times. It is not enough to simply be an expert on your content and a good presenter. You need to stay on top of the situation and appear cool, calm, and collected while at the same time make an intimate connection with the audience.

Tools

• There are many tools you can use for virtual meetings but there are not that many that work well for virtual facilitation. We have found that Zoom works best not least because you can easily create breakout groups both at random and in set groups. Furthermore, you have full control of the breakout experience and can call back participants at your will.
• As you want to be sure to engage your audience early and often, we find that Mentimeter still works well in a virtual world. Another element is that data collection on a more anonymous audience is a great way to get to know them better. This is critical when you rely more on one-way communication.
• It can be challenging to ask questions in a virtual setting as raised hands are easily overlooked and you cannot speak up at random. You could use the chat but this also has multiple purposes. Therefore, using an app like sli.do will make it easy for participants to ask questions during the session especially if you are doing a presentation. 

Techniques

• Since you rarely get to know the audience as well as virtually as you do physically you need ambassadors in the virtual group that does know the audience. The best ambassadors are often the managers of the participants assuming you are speaking to a corporate team. They will not hesitate to point out specific people to answer questions or share their thoughts. Prepare them in advance of the event and agree on their role.
• Use the 5-minute rule when you prepare your script and presentation. The 5-minute rule basically says that you should never talk in one-way communication for more than five minutes at a time. Then you should find a way to engage the audience as otherwise, you will lose them. Good ways of doing that are asking questions, put a topic up for discussion, or run a menti.
• Have a co-facilitator that can bring different perspectives into the session. Simply being able to change the tone of voice and style of communication will help bring the energy level up. In addition, you can assign roles between the two facilitators i.e. one being the main facilitator and the other acting as a deep expert on the topic.

Clearly, many of these skills, tools, and techniques are also relevant for physical facilitation and presentations. However, they are much more important in a virtual world because you are limited on many other factors. We hope these tips and tricks will aid you on your journey to becoming a better virtual facilitator! 

Open door to new opportunities 

Virtual reality also opens doors to new opportunities. In a virtual world, geography means close to nothing granting you access to a new customer base. 

In the past quarter, we have run virtual training sessions for companies in the Middle East, a Mastermind group for a global audience, and presented at three conferences on the same day mind you in Denmark, UK, and the US! This is what pivoting is all about! 

What opportunities have you seen in the new virtual reality? Have you managed to pivot your offerings to keep you whole or did you lose a lot of business? What experiences do you have with virtual facilitation? What works well and what have you found challenging? We still see a large gap in the market for skilled virtual facilitators and believe we must all chip in to raise the level. If we succeed, the virtual reality might just become more prosperous than the physical! 

Close to 500,000 views on the blog! 

The readership on the blog continues to grow. Despite seeing a bit of a slowdown in Q3 due to the global roll-out of Newsletters it is still a world of difference compared to a year ago! The short-term goal remains to hit 500,000 in a quarter.

Another factor contributing to the growth is my entrance into influencer marketing. In Q3 I started a new collaboration with ValQ where we work together on 22 content pieces. These are centered around ten challenges for FP&A to solve in 2021. You should expect to see more such collaborations in the future where I will address real-world challenges that you are facing daily! 

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As always, I appreciate any feedback you have on my writing or any topics you would like me to address in the coming months! 

For Q4 I plan to finish the Agile theme that is currently running on this channel and launch a new series about Tech in Finance. On my other channel “Here is the Future of FP&A and Business Partnering” I plan to write about how to successfully implement business partnering in your company and share some impact stories. I am aiming for a strong finish to 2020 and I hope you will continue to follow me on the journey!

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Anders Liu-Lindberg is the co-founder, COO (Chief Operating Officer), and CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) at the Business Partnering Institute and owner of the largest group dedicated to Finance Business Partnering on LinkedIn with almost 9,000 members. I have ten years of experience as a business partner at the global transport and logistics company Maersk. I am the co-author of the book “Create Value as a Finance Business Partner” and a long-time Finance Blogger with 48.000+ followers.