In Person Learning Is Here To Stay!....with some caveats

  

*...with some major caveats

Welcome to all! The question has been posed - especially in a post-COVID era - has the era of in-person learning ended? My take is not at all - but the past 5 years have accelerated some trends and the nature of in-person meetings.

I was inspired to write this by Priya Parker who presented at ATD23 in San Diego. Her take is that - in general - the nature and goals of in-person gatherings has changed. I agree with her - and some thoughts on how that affects Learning & Development posted below.

We Must Bring Intentionality To Our In Person Events - in short, trainees need to understand why they are there and that this can't be a Zoom Call or an eLearning. Activities like live practice, relationship-building, networking and others that emphasize group collaboration and interaction benefit tremendously by being in-person and are difficult to replicate online.

at the same time...Low Engagement Learning My Be Best Online. Training that requires minimal interaction may be best done online - some examples include compliance training, individual study and information recall. This helps your trainees by making things more convenient for them and if there is minimal benefit to being there in person, take advantage of technology.

Consider Using A Combination of Both - I know it's a "cop out" answer but the change is that, as you plan, incorporate the why into your planning. At our company we have a immersive leadership development program - outline/thought process below:

• Kickoff - Virtual - this is about sharing program info and calibrating expectations, doing this online makes sense since there is little benefit to being in person vs over Zoom
• 360 Reviews - 1:1, live - we try to do these in person as much as possible because things like body language, posture and positioning matter during these debriefs. Additionally being in person allows for us to extend hospitality which encourages trainees to open up and also helps us build relationships before out events
• Immersive Workshop - In-Person - we emphasize practice and simulations that bring groups/teams together and make the in-person experience valuable and enjoyable for participants. They also are away from their laptops helping them to invest time in themselves
• 30 Days Post-Connect - Virtual - here individuals share their experiences and best practices about how they have applied what they learned on the job. Since relationships are strong and individuals present back (mostly) one at a time, virtual works well here

Thanks for reading! TL;DR - if you take one thing away, consider your in-person time wisely and maximize the things you can only do or have a big added value live vs. virtual.

Happy Training!