Virtual Training

4Experience Is Everything

As our virtual training business exploded, many of my peers in our industry segment called to ask (and learn) about how we’d so quickly pivoted from in-classroom training to virtual. After I shared my story about building our virtual training studios, the responses that followed were typically along the lines of:

• “Wow, you are way ahead of the curve.”
• “Your timing was impeccable.”
• “You are so far ahead of everyone else.”
• “You really got lucky.”

I heard “You got lucky” a lot. Even from my own family. Trust me, in the moment, with so many other training companies taking it on the chin because they were not able to switch to virtual, I felt lucky.

But it wasn't luck. It was the cumulation of years of observation, experimentation, and hard work. A long time ago, we had recognized that virtual instructor-led training was important, and it was a methodology that we would need to master to be competitive in the future. We understood what didn't work, and why people have an aversion to virtual training. We also knew what we didn't like about delivering virtual training.

We were convinced that the biggest obstacle to gaining wider adoption of virtual training was the experience. Too often, VILT felt impersonal, low-energy, two-dimensional, and uncollaborative. For most learners it was about enduring a painfully boring and awful experience rather than engaging in actual learning.

The good news is that it's possible to control most of the things that make virtual ...