You’re on mute!

The story of how L&D helped save the day during a pandemic.

If you’ve been a delegate, on even just one virtual call in the last few months you’ll have heard the now infamous words (it’s now even a meme) ‘You’re on mute!’

Now whilst this is comedy gold and let’s face it, the virtual gift that just keeps on giving, it’s also the result of something amazing. Every business around the world, from global giants to sole traders had to quickly adapt the way they communicated if they wanted to survive. People needed to learn something new. And learn it quick.

For those who worked across learning & development teams in every corner of the globe it meant something huge, and of course, because life is never that easy, some were ready, and some, were caught a little off guard.

Suddenly, there’s an urgent demand for virtual training, online learning and the small matter of millions of people wanting to know where the mute button was and where their shared screen had gone?

What this did, in a funny old way, was to give L&D teams an opportunity they’d always been waiting for.

“Now’s your time to show us what you wanted that fancy zoom licence for…”

Every L&D professional readied themselves, slowly setting down their wheelie bags full of chewed pens, dubious blutak, stretchy toys and crumpled name cards and instead reached towards that one toy they’d always wanted to play with more. The precious thing. The screen. Finally, the door was wide open to show just how effective using virtual learning could be.

It’s pushed open the door to blended learning solutions.

Now anyone who has suffered the pain of a large family FaceTime call (why does Nan keep shouting at the screen?) Or that moment when Teams just simply refuses to screen share even though 11 other people are all mentally willing it to work just to stop the dreadful small talk that comes with it, will have spotted a gap. Not everyone is a techy, and when you need a certain level of ability to master a virtual call, that can cause problems.

What in turn has happened, is amazing for Learning & Development. Most people, in some form or another, have now joined and survived a virtual call. They had to learn, and that’s made our lives easier. A barrier, that was readily thrown in our way was instantly removed. Most people now do know how to join and engage on a video call.

And that, also means we just took large strides forward in embracing technology for learning. The impact? Because if Grandad can master a WhatsApp video call and a face filter, then there’s no longer any excuse why people in your organisation can’t join a webinar and learn on Zoom.

L&D teams everywhere should be leveraging the shift to virtual learning with the realisation that most types of training can work on a screen and in a breakout room.

This doesn’t mean we never leave our homes again. It doesn’t mean face to face training is dead. It means that the door to truly blended solutions is now wide open, and the quicker you embrace it, the wider that open door will stay. Trust us, we want blended training, we want classrooms, and we want to see people again just like you do.

Virtual training delivery isn’t going anywhere, and whilst for some it’s a relatively new skill it will prove to be one of the biggest jumps forward in how learning is delivered around the world.

It’s proved that you can share a company culture, induction and even wellbeing, via a screen.

Imagine the wide-ranging content that has been streamed using the internet and Wi-Fi networks in the last year or so. New languages, onboarding plans, birthday parties, home schooling, exercise, interviews and disciplinaries, yoga, arts & crafts, quizzes, mental health awareness and a multitude of soft skills and development programmes… the list could go on for many more pages than we have available here.

Once again, the screen has shown that we can do some things differently than we imagined. In some cases, it might not be the perfect solution, but it worked. In others, it’s opened eyes and ears to new ways of working that are much better. Imagine in a time of pandemic, not being able to have a video call with someone in your team struggling with their mental health, or even being able to allow them to join a webinar to try and help them through it. It simply doesn’t bear thinking about, and yet, we probably wouldn’t have done it before. We’d have saved it for an in-person chat.

It’s allowed L&D teams to show ‘em what we’re made of.

As every business adapted at speed its L&D that generally saved the day. We proved ourselves as problem solvers, we adapted, trimmed, taught and manipulated virtual solutions to fit our needs.

How many L&D teams will suddenly have been responsible for their own content, and assisting many others in the conversion process? How many will have suddenly had to train others how to design, deliver and make a webinar impactful? This was our moment to shine.

What should now be the case to argue is the value of getting L&D involved in the business needs earlier on and allowing that creativity and solution focus to come out before the problem has already happened.

Hopefully, it’s helped your business see that L&D do more than just ‘do fancy PowerPoints and training courses’.

For many companies of course they already saw the value of L&D and have embedded their superpowers across all levels of the organisation they’re in, but for those who have struggled, or needed a cheeky way into the conversation, this is it.

Virtual learning is here to stay.

Virtual learning is here to stay, so if you haven’t used this crazy world that we find ourselves in to remind those around you the power Learning & Development can have, strike now, before your window of opportunity closes.

Or until someone in Finance cancels the Zoom licence. Don’t let that happen.