Is webinaritus affecting your business?
Johanna (Anke) Smolders
People and Culture | Performance Management | Talent Management | Leadership | HR Transformation | Learning and Development | Likes to challenge what is and inspire what could be..
With our overloaded agenda’s and more e-mails inbox than a person could digest, companies are looking for new ways to engage with their employees. New communication platforms or intranet sites are preventing future e-mail tsunamis from happening.
However a new (internal) communication tool called webinars is slowly making progress to take over your agenda. When webinars are not well designed, webinaritus might occur.
How to recognize webinaritus?
Have a look at below list of symptoms to check whether you suffer from it :
- You receive invitations for webinars without knowing why
- You join these meetings, just because you are afraid to miss out on anything
- You decide to stay, not because you are triggered by the content, but because this allows you to simultaneously work on your e-mails
- You get sleepy and annoyed and check if there are other participants present that you know
- You connect with an attendee separately, asking if he is still awake and how his weekend was
- Together you make it until the end and before you dial out, you ask for a copy of the PowerPoint.
How does webinaritus spread itself?
The cause for webinaritus can be found in the disability from presenters to stay connected with the attendees. When content is not designed for the virtual space, people tune out. A mistake often made is to use the same PowerPoint for classroom teaching as well as for virtual presentation.
Another factor that stimulates webinaritus is when too much focus is on the technical skillset. Often IT departments or vendors provide the technical set-up or creates meeting links but after that you’re on your own. Last but not least, the human (soft) skills are often forgotten. Presenters do not train their voices or questioning techniques before stepping on the virtual stage.
How to prevent webinaritus?
Make sure your presenters are well prepared. Challenge webinar-vendors to not only support with the technical set-up, but also on the content development. And, last but not least, create a safe learning environment for virtual presenters to practice and exchange. Organize regular guinea pig sessions to test software, audio and or webcam use.
And yes, you can also contact me to join in your fight agains webinaritus.