For almost 15 years we at Dale Carnegie, have delivered all of our trainings face-to face and we loved it! We had access to the Dale Carnegie & Associates Live Online programs and it’s dedicated platform but no specific requests from our clients, to deliver in this manner, even when travelling and accommodation was quite a challenge.
COVID-19 froze all of our ongoing training projects and just like everyone else, we found ourselves being pushed entirely towards online platforms, for both our business projects and team communication as well as clients communications and training deliveries.
We were fortunate to have all the know-how and delivery content ready for implementation so our entire energy was channelled towards mastering the new tools and learning how to deliver online. Despite our professional exposure and business experience, this totally different type of interaction, proved to be quite challenging and even intimidating for some of us. Multitasking while delivering Live Online and distributive attention (to content displayed, chat interaction, participants engagement just to mention a few), were skills that we had to master very fast in order to deliver at our organization’s international quality standards. Getting used to delivering trainings via Webex, felt as if we were this dancing type of party person who got grounded to doing origami, exclusively. All of our trainers benefited from online delivery training and got certified Internationally, along the way with our own Producer – the person behind the scene that makes sure that technology is flawless an all attendees get the same level of attention and involvement. In 4 weeks we have digitalized the bread and the butter of our business – training delivery as well as all of our administrative processes.
The memory of the big financial crisis that our company went through, in 2008-2009 made us feel somewhat confident in facing the new crisis and yet, as I write this, I am still surprised by how different this crisis is, by the scale of its impact on our Universe, habits, likes and dislikes. After a few months of transitioning through this pandemic, it feels as if the economic crisis from 2008-2009 was like a walk in the park (one of the many still restricted today.
Our first few months were very intense, as we were learning and adjusting on the go, while delivering Free Live Online Sessions, almost daily, for more than 2K participants that pushed our adrenaline levels and stretched our managing limits to new heights, and throughout each stage and above everything else (planned and unplanned), a sense of purpose, was the common driver and the main driver. We stayed together, strengthen our relationships and celebrated all the small wins and that helped a lot. We are grateful towards our clients who entrusted us to deliver Live Online trainings and have converted their development programs or start new ones altogether, in this manner, as that keeps us alive while providing a sense of playing an active role in the dynamics of keeping things rolling and evolving.
The development needs of our clients have changed. Leading virtual/remote teams, seasoned with everything from leading teams to presenting online and managing in the VUCA world… are today’s buzz words. In this VUCA World ( Vulnerability – Uncertainty – Complexity – Ambiguity), there’s a lot of emphasize on Emotional Intelligence and the management of one self and just as much, on adjusting to the Work From Home and Assertive Communication. Before the pandemics, clients were looking to implement development programs meant to stretch the comfort zone of their teams. Since the pandemic is taking care of that already, what is now the new requirement, is to learn the skills need to adjust to this “out of our comfort zone” situation.
Even though Live Online is the new norm and we are fully equipped to deliver as much as needed, we’ve also updated our premises to the new safety standards and are very eager to welcome participants again, for ‘in person’ or ‘face-to-face’ training sessions. We’ve extended consistently our training portfolio and feel aligned with the VUCA World but hey, how we miss the good old day gatherings.
