One universal aspect of the coronavirus issue is the decrease in in-person connections, which has left many executives wondering how to attain the same intimacy and calibre of cross-functional dialogue, problem resolution, and behavioural change—without sitting across the table. It is not sufficient to just “cut and paste” in-person events into online ones. Content developed for in-person events is not always well adapted to virtual forms, and good remote meeting facilitation is not a common ability. Still, the demand is as acute as ever, so some organizations have gone back to the drawing board and approached the problem from the ground up. What does a successful remote capability-building program look like? What are the most critical components of such an effort? 

Collaboration in a remote-working setting is challenging in many ways. Along with the material, virtual training must emphasize technological proficiency and problem resolution. Training on business-case building at one multinational industrial corporation required small teams to synthesize raw data, access a whiteboard-style collaborative website, and collaborate through videoconference to value an initiative. As a result, participants not only acquired the essential components of a business case, but they also enhanced their capacity to cooperate digitally. We believe that businesses that use this approach to successful virtual training—and mix it with safe, high-impact in-person experiences—will see a multiplier effect in the impact and longevity of altered behaviour’s. 

There is even evidence that virtual environments can provide experiences that are comparable to or better than traditional in-person training. Our study with learners over the last six months demonstrates that a well-designed virtual program may match or even outperform in-person offerings in terms of efficacy. Indeed, 87 percent of learners who participated in newly tailored virtual experiences agreed that they were at least as effective as in-person events. Virtual workshops can be useful tools for organizations as they recover from the pandemic (exhibit). 

The experience of one South American multinational logistics company teaches us how to maximize the effectiveness of virtual workshops. Prior to the pandemic, the organization was planning a two-year full-scale business restructuring. A key component of the project was ensuring that staff had the skills and capabilities needed to enable a successful transformation. 

Then came COVID-19. It would have been easy to put off the shift as economic and health concerns mounted. Instead, the group opted to adopt a long-term approach to the business and proceed. Business leaders recognized that they would need to quickly shift their intended approach to capability building from in-person to virtual learning. Three of the guiding concepts they used to build and conduct virtual workshops were as follows: 

Choose interaction over content. When training sessions fail, the traditional post-mortem report concludes that “death by PowerPoint” occurred. More than ever, the quality of facilitation and breadth of discussion, rather than any unique material on a slide, determine the success or failure of a remote-learning experience. One full-day in-person training, for example, reduced the number of slides used from approximately 80 to approximately 20. The majority of the time was spent in small groups, where participants explored thought starters that assisted them in co-creating critical insights. Employees’ experiences were improved as a result of the engagement and debate. 

Take advantage of technology. Rather than apologizing for the technology up front, the company embraced it and created excitement among participants. Facilitators, for example, insisted on everyone participating in video and made significant use of smaller, intimate breakouts. Because the organization had never utilized videoconferencing previously, this training gave finance analysts the opportunity to observe their business colleagues for the first time, forging new connections. Individuals who had been on phone calls for years suddenly had the opportunity to spend hours together learning, laughing, and chatting in a secure setting. Effective virtual programs can tear down silos that have been built up over time in just a few days, influencing how employees communicate and connect even after the workshop is done. 

Make your leadership clear. Because in-person workshops are difficult to organize, leadership engagement in traditional workshops is either non-existent or very limited. This strategy will not work with newly lean remote workforces that are fatigued, worried, and seeking leadership. Virtual workshops can help to bridge the leadership-employee gap more efficiently. Because there was no need for travel, the organization was able to obtain multiple hour-long blocks of time with the CEO and other senior officials to talk face-to-face with employees and participate in the program. “I chatted with my boss’s boss more today than I have in the last two years combined,” said one of the company’s buyers.