Allen Training Associates Ltd.
  • Home
  • In-House Training
  • NLP Training
  • About
    • Contact
    • Testimonials
  • Blog

Soft Skills and Technology

22/4/2014

1 Comment

 
Picture
In the last few years, the use of YouTube, webinars and podcasts has created a very credible rival to class-room based training. For a long time, many people engaged in soft-skills training (communication, leadership, management skills etc.) fought a defensive battle arguing that these skills could only really be delivered face-to-face, since they are, at the core, skills to do with people interacting with one another.

However, as we work more with distributed teams and use these technologies to communicate, lead and manage, then surely our training environments can, and should, adapt in line with these new methods of communication? I look at my own team, which includes a network of many associates, none of whom are co-located with me. We rarely meet up in person, doing the vast majority of our interactions through a mixture of media and communication channels including Skype, telephone, email, webinars, teleconferences, video-conferences, Facebook etc.

There is a place for both face-to-face training AND the use of new media to deliver soft-skills training. I personally took some persuasion. As a self-confessed Luddite I have long resisted the use of YouTube as a learning vehicle. However, increasing evidence of its importance to those around me convinced me that if I am to appeal to all learning styles effectively, then it was time to stop my ostrich impression and start to embrace the possibilities that are constantly emerging.

In our recent programme, From Crisis To Clarity, designed for professionals facing a career change, we created a fully-blended environment, involving:
- live interactive webinars including both teaching new material and live coaching of participants.
- recordings of the webinars made available to listen to offline.
- discussion forums to allow participants to interact with each other.
- confidential real-time messaging to allow participants to discuss their personal progress in private with the tutors.
- face-to-face meet-ups to allow participants to work together in person.
- a variety of video recordings of interviews with relevant experts.
- audio recordings of coaching exercises so that participants could listen and work through the exercises at their own pace and in their own time.
- written material available on-demand to support the learning process.

For a technophobe, I've certainly come a long way! What new ways of learning and communicating have you integrated into your own leadership and management? I'd love to hear about your experiences.


1 Comment
Agatha P link
1/5/2021 05:35:45 am

Hi great reading your post

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    About our blog

    A miscellany of articles and opinions on communication, leadership and management topics.

    Archives

    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    September 2016
    August 2015
    July 2015
    March 2015
    May 2014
    April 2014
    February 2014

    Categories

    All
    Communication
    Goals
    Grief
    Leadership
    Management
    Multi Media
    Multi-media
    NLP
    Positive Psychology
    Presentations
    Procrastination
    Public Speaking
    Teamwork
    Technology
    Values

    RSS Feed

    Telephone; 0800 612 4164
© 
Allen Training Associates Ltd. 2022
  • Home
  • In-House Training
  • NLP Training
  • About
    • Contact
    • Testimonials
  • Blog