The days of attending a group training session where during the course of the day, you were divided into small groups or pairs to work on an activity, sitting closely together and deciding what to write on your flipchart over a cup of coffee and those special conference biscuits or cupcakes may be gone for now but what does professional development look like in the ‘new normal’ world?
Since March 2020 we have been living in what seems at times to be a very surreal world where working from home (WFH) and using technology to see colleagues, friends and family has become the norm. We may be in various stages of ‘lockdown’ but for many the desire to carry on learning and invest in their own professional development still exists.
I have always advocated using a blended learning approach – where you have a mix of face to face discussions and dialogue with a tutor or trainer in a training room, some video clips to watch, a bit of independent learning and chatting with colleagues on the same course to compare notes.
The range and quality of online learning courses available to us has expanded over the last few years – I remember being involved in a project back in the 1990’s in Essex where we started to develop distance learning courses distributed on a 5” floppy disc. At the time it was pioneering work! Move on some 20 years and online learning is very different – it is quick to load, interactive, uses animation, video clips and text.
Until we can get back to full training room environments, or team building activities out on the sea or on land on an assault course, we have invested in a very broad range of e-learning courses and have also invested in Adobe Connect so we can have live virtual sessions – you can even pair up and decide what to write on your flip chart while having a coffee and cake all from the comfort of your home or office where you are practising social distancing!
We may find it hard but the ‘new normal’ ways of working and learning will soon feel very familiar and we will become comfortable with using technology.
How are you using the extra time you have that was previously spent commuting? It is easy to get into a routine and somehow ‘waste’ those minutes and hours just a few weeks ago you spent travelling to and from work. Why not use that extra time to invest in yourself?
Find out more about the learning opportunities we can offer –
Web: www.corporategrowth.org
Email: hello@corporategrowth.org
Call: 01379 308690
