Lessons From Vienna: Is The Waltz Over For Classroom Training?

Vienna is warm in May: the parks bare witness to couples relaxing, some lost in their own thoughts as they contemplate the rivulets meandering by, whilst others rush past in a bid to keep pace with an ever-quickening world.  

Whilst attending a recent conference in the beautiful Austrian city, I challenged a colleague to meet me at 7.30am for a run in the park opposite the hotel.  When I arrived, he was wearing long cargo shorts, a heavy metal t-shirt and the type of trainers you may expect to better suit skateboarding: we shook hands and congratulated each other on not standing-up the other - no mean feat, considering the late nights and red wine! Contrasting with my running shoes, rugby shorts and lightweight t-shirt, I felt confident that this would be a good way to start the day; but the smug feeling of superficial superiority was soon to be smashed, as my colleague casually apologised for his attire - and that he wouldn't have dreamt of attempting his last half-marathon in such clothes.  Gah!

[...Pant!  Pant!  Cough!  Gah!]

It's the kind of jolting, affirming experience that isn't often available, virtually.  The running partner in question is, in fact, our lead facilitator for Live Virtual Classroom events and, in his spare time, leads much of our research into virtual learning media as a whole so, as we trundled along in the morning sun, he seems the perfect metaphore for a quandary which is facing many learning organisations today:  What role does F2F (face-to-face) learning hold in the 21st Century?

On the one hand, my colleague is a proponent of a futuristic view of learning: he has worked with, and produced points of view, on such tools as Saba Centra, Blackboard Collaborate, Sametime Unyte, Lotus Live, as well as virtual world experiences such as SecondLife and Unisfair Intercall.  On the other hand, here we are: running together during a 3-day face-to-face event in the beautiful, warm Summer sunshine of Central Europe - discussing some new ideas for the measurement of impact achieved by means of virtual learning.  The irony of the situation doesn't seem immediately evident to either of us.

Earlier in the event, I'd had the opportunity to rub shoulders with other colleagues, whom previously, I'd never met: including many of my own team!  Reflecting the multiculturalism common of many internal service providers, currently, my team consists of staff from India, Slovakia, Belgium and the UK; I'd met a couple of them previously, but for the majority, this was the first time of meeting - one of whom I'd managed, virtually, for over 4 years.  We had time to learn more about each other and to get out whiteboards and flipcharts and work through some of the tactical issues of the moment - both activities which seem to be more effective in person...  I was able to assess posture and body language when speaking and, perhaps as a result, able to comprehend a much greater percentage of their communicative effort - which, in turn, made all of us feel less stupid than at other points in our relationship.  So much value in the workplace comes from having the confidence to raise your hand and communicate your idea, that it's invaluable to build this capability (and I think this is contrary to the approach many take - hiding their linguistic insecurities behind Instant Messenger texts or emails).

'Fearlessness' (example) is a key theme running through the event: we enjoyed a wonderful day facilitated by Sue Liburd who, with sensitivity, warmth and passion, helped us to face up to the negative experiences in our minds, and replace them with positive stories of success.  The experiences in our break-out exercises were (at the same time) emotional, humbling, inspiring, personal and professional... Without exception, delegates emerged from that day feeling more positive, confident, understood and able to get their messages across.  But I can't help thinking that we could not have got anywhere near as engaged, via the User Interface on my laptop...

On the last day, as a group, we revisited some of the predictions we had made about our industry - and our own service offering - 5 years earlier.  On the face of it, some sounded wacky (heavy reliance upon virtual worlds for learning, see above), some sounded already dated (mobile learning); but we were pleased to have come so far in such a short space of time.  Common predictions for the future did not seem too unreasonable (greater saturation of learning via mobile devices, greater use of gaming to support learning) and some sounded mundane by comparison (better content management and linking of IP assets; better structuring of learning data to drive insight).  But, as I re-visit the day-to-day tasks and To Do lists that I'd managed to escape, the paradox about how we shall best deploy learning in the future is brought into sharp focus: I find that I have a report to produce on the evolution of learning media.  

Mobile learning, itself, has to evolve and keep pace with the speed of change!

5 years ago, we were eagerly anticipating greater dependance upon less formal, bite-sized learning on mobile phones.  With budgets shrinking, and especially with the effects of the contracted global economy, this kind of light-touch learning has brought our own organisation to deploy up to 70% of it's training content via eLearning platforms.  However, improved technology and analytical models have gone a long way to counteracting this trend: as, increasingly, learning organisations find more robust and innovative ways to demonstrate the value they provide to the skills of a workforce (and, therefore, to the bottom-line in the chart of accounts). CFOs and CHROs have been loosening the reigns on the impoverished learning organisations, and F2F is back on the agenda!  

Why?  Because certain types of learning depend much more heavily upon the ability of the individual learner to make meaningful connections.  Yes, I can learn many things via eLearning (from how to create a pivot table, to the cultural norms and traditions of my team-members offshore); but I cannot yet receive the kind of emotional bonds, real-life experiences, or simple conversations that make a learning environment complete.