This past Monday we got a call from one of our clients. As a top-tier business school based in London they were making a number of difficult decisions last week. One of those, for the safety of their students, was to cancel all face-to-face sessions, including our leadership skills development workshops. Topics included Coaching as a Leader, Advanced Presentation Skills, Listening to & Observing Others, and Using Stories to Engage and Inspire Others. All were scheduled for Saturday. And they were ringing us to say that they couldn’t go ahead.
This client partners with us because we focus on bridging the knowing-doing gap. Our mastery level facilitators get top-notch feedback from bringing our content to life through an experiential approach. So, even though we have worked with this business school and they’ve trusted us to unlock further leadership potential in their students for over 15 years, the thought that we could hold these workshops in another way – virtually – hadn’t crossed their minds. It was hard for them to imagine we could get the same outcomes in a remote environment.
In times like these, it’s easy to see roadblocks.
To us though it was an opportunity to get all of the students, from wherever they are in the world, into a virtual space just as intimate as any classroom. And make sure they could continue to hone their skills from home, at a time when leadership skills are more important than ever.
We made the offer to run our workshops online and get the same outcomes with our carefully crafted approach to virtual learning. Questions were answered, the roadblocks disappeared for our client and 5 days later we were live.
Bringing our years of experience with virtual learning to each student’s table, we delivered our key concepts, got them into virtual breakout rooms to collaborate on exercises, and finished with the opportunity for everyone to have a deep dive one-to-one session with their facilitator to make sure they got exactly what they needed.
On Saturday, we ended up running 9 live virtual workshops simultaneously. And from the comfort and safety of their own homes 46 Executive MBA students walked away from their laptop with skills that will help them continue to lead their teams and navigate the days we have ahead.
With continued uncertainty we will all need to reflect on the status quo, challenge our own assumptions about what’s possible, and closely align with our teams – even if they’re further away than ever – to find solutions to our problems.
Almost anything is possible with the right skills and a bit of ingenuity.
Everything we deliver in person we can deliver virtually with you. If you or your team wants to unlock more leadership skills, even while in lockdown, check out what makes us different.
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