How to Run Seminars and Workshops, 4th Edition

Chapter 12Taking Your Training Online

Did you ever wake up one day, and realize you had become the old man standing in front of his yard shouting, “Get off my lawn!” That old man is set in his ways, and he's not tolerant of new ideas. When it comes to online training, I understand this man all too well. It's never too late to try new things, nor is it too late to recognize that there is a time and a place for online training.

I want to be emphatic when I say this: I have never been a fan of online training. This form of training has been knocking at my door for years, and I've done a magnificent job of hiding under my sheets, hoping the knocking would stop. I have been bred to present information in a certain way, and I wish the intruder would stop knocking at my door and just go away. However, if I'm going to be a thought leader on training, I need to learn about new forms of training and point out the strengths and weaknesses of each innovation that comes along.

I have a vivid memory of being 22 years old and selling life insurance and of watching the changes occur within the insurance industry. I actually consider myself fortunate to have sold when there were no laptop computers. You didn't show up at a client meeting with stacks of illustrations under your arm, you showed up with a rate book and a yellow pad of paper. But technology has a persistent way of not going away because it does one thing that many of us forget to do; it evolves. It gets better. It conforms to its ...