With learning budgets still being squeezed, more and more organizations are adopting the virtual classroom as ‘business as usual’. Properly facilitated, the virtual classroom can be an engaging, comfortable and accountable learning environment – a far-cry from the passive, one-way haven multitaskers have learned to love. Here are six lessons to ensure your virtual facilitation success.

Do a different kind of homework.
The virtual classroom has a different kind of energy that requires your attention before you start.  Because participants can’t see each other and “catch” each other’s enthusiasm, it’s up to you to set a positive high energy tone from the very start. Develop a ritual to focus and energize yourself a few minutes before your session takes off.

Pull up an easy chair.
The social connecting and rapport-building that makes people comfortable in the face-to-face classroom won’t happen here without some prompting. Take the extra effort to make personal connections with and between participants. Create comfort by outlining clear expectations for how to participate and the role you will play in encouraging involvement.

Add some pop to your talk.
The energy you project will be reflected back to you by participants…good, bad or ugly. Think of your voice as your energy instrument with infinite range of tone, inflection and pace. Use your voice to make up for energy lost through the absence of body language and facial expression.

Get everyone talking.
The natural turn-taking that occurs in face-to-face discussions is compromised virtually. The visual cues are missing. Open questions directed to the whole group may generate silence not because participants are disinterested but because they are waiting for someone else to take his or her turn. Let people know how you want them to respond and call on people by name generously.

Dish out the details.
When participants are confused about what they are to do in the virtual world, you can’t walk over casually to clarify. Clear, specific directions are even more critical in this venue – with visual support through slides and ‘print-your-own’ style handouts.

Fend off awkward moments.
Awkward moments – like consistent latecomers, off-base comments or negativity – magnify in the virtual classroom. Work diligently to keep things focused and to turn glimpses of negativity into positive problem solving. Minimize attention to latecomers – why take valuable time from those who arrived on time? Try even a few of these virtual virtuoso lessons and enjoy the beautiful learning you and your participants will create together.

Written by DesignArounds, your one-stop learning and development partner. © 2010. For more information about DesignArounds’ products & services, visit us at www.designarounds.com.

Need more help in this area? Our program, The Invisible Meeting, offers additional tips for achieving success in the “virtual world”. It illustrates six techniques that that turn a conference call into a productive, collaborative group session.

People often underestimate their own abilities to be creative, and because of this, they’re afraid or unwilling to stretch their imaginations to look at their lives or work from new and different angles.  The discussion questions below can be used in any type of session on creativity, innovation or brainstorming. They can be used to help make any or all of the following points:

- Creativity is not something we learn; it’s something we’ve forgotten but can relearn.
- Creativity is within us all; we must learn to stop judging ourselves and take risks which free our imaginations.
- A willingness to explore creative solutions is a reflection of our desire to effect positive change in ourselves, our teams and organizations.
- It is important that we support and build on ideas from all team members.
- Creativity can become an everyday part of our lives–we just need to look around and see the world in different ways.
- Teams and organizations need to identify those things that stimulate creativity and those that dull it.

Now, here are 10 discussion questions you might want to use in a session you’re facilitating on creativity:

1. Name creative people you know or have heard of–they don’t have to be famous.  What are some of the things they’ve done that you consider creative?

2. What are some of the creative things you’ve seen children do?  When you’re with them, do they make you more creative?

3. What’s the last creative thing you did?  When did you do it?  If it’s been a long time, why?

4. Mary Kay Ash, the founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics, said “We fail forward to success.”  What does she mean by this?  Can you think of examples in your life where you “failed forward”?

5. According to Pablo Picasso, “Every act of creation is first of all an act of destruction.”  What do you think must be destroyed?  Is it possible to apply Picasso’s creative philosophy to your workplace?

6. Your manager comes in and says, “We need an answer to our problem of overstocked inventory. See if you can think of a good solution.”  Does this approach stimulate or inhibit your creative juices?  Why?

7. Creativity can often lead to conflict and instability. Why do you think this is? And why then might you want more creativity in your life or organization?

8. If you were told you’d be given $500 for coming up with the best solution to an organizational problem, do you think you’d be more or less creative? Why?

9. Think of several things you do as part of your regular “routine” (e.g. what you eat, what time you wake up in the morning, when you exercise, the people with whom you socialize at work).  Which would be the hardest for you to change?  What habits would you change first if you thought it would be easy?

10. When you’re in a group, what type of behaviors help stimulate your creativity? What type of behaviors or comments diminish it?

Material excerpted from the Leader’s Guide to the training program Team Creativity.

Need help in this area? Are there things going on in your organization today that would benefit from a creative problem-solving effort? The inspirational case study shared in The Magic of We sets the stage for individuals, teams and departments from throughout the organization to work together on finding solutions.

Despite all we’ve heard recently about the differences between the four generations in the workplace, a new book flies in the face of the conventional wisdom on the subject. Jennifer Deal’s research shows that regardless of age, we all want the same things: respect, trustworthy leaders, and opportunities to grow. (And nobody likes change.)

The conventional wisdom about generational differences in the workplace is mostly wrong, according to a new book by Jennifer J. Deal, a research scientist with the Center for Creative Leadership.

The shorthand used to describe the four generations that now make up our nation’s workforce goes something like this:

    • The Silent Generation (born before 1946) values hard work
    • Baby Boomers (born between 1946 and 1964) value loyalty
    • Gen Xers (born between 1965 and 1980) value work-life balance
    • Generation Y (the generation just entering the workforce, also known as Millennials) values innovation
       and change.

Or, in terms of negative stereotypes, the Silents are fossilized, the Boomers are narcissistic, the Gen Xers are slackers, and the Gen Yers/Millennials are even more narcissistic than the Boomers.

Not so, says Deal. She argues that the generations now of working age value essentially the same things. Her findings, based on seven years of research in which she surveyed more than 3,000 corporate leaders, are presented in her new book, Retiring the Generation Gap: How Employees Young & Old Can Find Common Ground (Jossey-Bass).

“Our research shows that when you hold the stereotypes up to the light, they don’t cast much of a shadow,” says Deal. “Everyone wants to be able to trust their supervisors, no one really likes change, we all like feedback, and the number of hours you put in at work depends more on your level in the organization than on your age.”

Clearly, people of different ages see the world in different ways. But Deal says that’s not the primary reason for generational conflict. The conflict has less to do with age or generational differences than it does with clout – who has it and who wants it. “The so-called generation gap is, in large part, the result of miscommunication and misunderstanding, fueled by common insecurities and the desire for clout,” says Deal.

Summary of Deal’s Findings

• All generations have similar values. For example, family tops the list for all of the generations. The most striking result of the research, Deal says, is how similar the generations are in the values that matter most.
• Everyone wants respect. Everyone wants respect, but the generations don’t define it in the same way. In the study, older individuals talked about respect in terms of “giving my opinions the weight I believe they deserve,” while younger respondents characterized respect as “listen to me, pay attention to what I have to say.”
• Leaders must be trustworthy. Different generations do not have notably different expectations of their leaders. Above all else, people of all generations want leaders they can trust.
• Nobody likes change. The stereotype is that older people resist change while younger people embrace it. These assumptions don’t stand up under the research, which found that people from all generations are uncomfortable with change. Resistance to change has nothing to do with age; it has to do with how much you stand to gain or lose as a result of the change.
• Loyalty depends on context. It is said that younger generations are not as loyal to their organizations as older workers. But the research shows, for example, that the amount of time a worker puts in each day has more to do with his or her level in the organization than with age. The higher the level, the more hours worked.
• Everyone wants to learn. Learning and development were among the issues brought up most frequently by people of all generations. Everyone wants to learn and to ensure they have the training to do their job well.
• Everyone likes feedback. According to the research, everyone wants to know how they are doing and to learn how they can do better.

For additional information, visit the Center for Creative Leadership Website at www.ccl.org

Article by: The Canadian Management Centre, a highly recommended provider of business development courses and marketing seminars. Canadian Management Centre is a leader in professional development with accounting courses in Ottawa.

Need more help in this area? Please Respect My Generation lets you examine the different world-views and life experiences of the 5 generations now in the workplace, while highlighting the strengths of each group.  Viewers see how to focus on finding common ground, respecting one another and striving for cross-generational collaboration.