Counting Down My Top 10 Favorite Learning Experiences and Sharing Advice for New L&D Professionals

#7: Leading from a Distance: 4 Principles to Building Committed Remote Teams

Photo by Boris Mayer on Shutterstock

Recently I wrapped up an article series focusing on the four essential elements of impactful learning experiences. When facilitators execute these elements successfully, learners leave their training sessions feeling informed, engaged, entertained, and inspired.

I was eager to author another series but was drawing a blank on a topic. As I began reflecting upon my early years in the postsecondary classroom and more recent years in corporate training spaces, several learning experiences stood out to me.

While a late night talk show host gig is probably not in my future, I decided to compile a list of my top 10 favorite learning experiences.

Miss the previous entries on my list? View those articles and many others here.

I hope that by sharing my work, I spark your imagination, inspire you to experiment with new approaches, and encourage you to pitch audacious ideas for your learning projects. At the end of each article, I‘ll offer a few suggestions for you to consider.

#7: Leading from a Distance: 4 Principles to Building Committed Remote Teams

With the country in the grips of Covid, companies shuttered their offices and issued work-from-home directives. For numerous organizations, including the one where I worked, that arrangement didn’t change once the pandemic ended. Faced with this new and now permanent way of working, managers who were previously accustomed to engaging with their team members in a physical office needed a different set of skills to lead their remote employees more effectively.

Photo by TheStandingDesk on Unsplash

I designed, developed, and facilitated this 4-hour instructor-led virtual learning experience for people leaders who managed a minimum of four remote direct reports.

The course consisted of five modules:

Module 1: Introduction Module 2: Establishing a Healthy Culture Module 3: Promoting Effective Communication Module 4: Fostering Productive Collaboration Module 5: Encouraging Meaningful Connection​

During the session, learners:

• Assessed and rated their remote teams in the key areas of culture, communication, collaboration, and connection
• Engaged in activities, exercises, and small group discussions with their peers to embed their learning
• Applied introduced concepts to devise solutions for their remote management pain points and challenges
• Created a preliminary action plan to successfully implement remote management strategies with their teams

Following the session, learners were encouraged to:

• Ask their team members to anonymously assess and rate their team in the areas of culture, communication, collaboration, and connection
• Meet with their teams to discuss the assessment results and complete their action plan based upon their team’s feedback
• Access the remote management playlists in the LMS to explore additional resources and continue their learning
• Attend an optional 45-minute follow-up session to share their insights, successes, and opportunities

Why This Experience Makes My Top 10

Reason #1: I used a whiteboard activity to generate interest.

I created a whiteboard in Microsoft Teams that was associated with the meeting session. On each sticky note, I typed the name of one of the registered participants. One week prior to the session, I emailed my participants with a link to the whiteboard and instructions for the activity.

I asked them to use the text tool to type two or three of their remote management pain points on their assigned sticky note.

Microsoft Teams Whiteboard Example

This simple activity encouraged learners to start thinking about the concepts we’d discuss during the course. More importantly, they could easily visualize the pain points they shared in common. And receive some degree of consolation in realizing they weren’t alone in feeling the way they did. Their counterparts were also navigating similar struggles.

Reason #2: I included multiple ways for learners to engage.

This was a 4-hour virtual session with a 12:30 pm ET start time. The session logistics posed a few hurdles for which a plan for continued engagement would be important.

• Virtual format: In virtual sessions, the facilitator competes for the attention of their learners against the distractions of checking their email, replying to an IM from a team member, or turning their camera off to complete other work.
• Duration: In addition to being a virtual experience, the 4-hour duration presented a challenge. Even the most experienced and scintillating facilitators understand how difficult it can be to maintain their learners’ attention and focus for 4 minutes. Let alone for 4 hours.
• Start time: The start time also posed a slight challenge. Because our workforce was distributed around the country, my learners were joining in the early morning, at lunchtime, and all points in between.

Photo by Vitaly Gariev on Unsplash

What was the secret to success for this session? A carefully-paced schedule of individual and group activities paired with strategically-timed stretch breaks during and between each module. I deployed a pattern of instruction, discussion, and activity, though not always necessarily in that order.

Here is an example of how I used this approach during Module 2 of the course.

MODULE 2: ESTABLISHING A HEALTHY CULTURE

After welcoming learners to the session, I introduced intentionality as the theme of the class. I explained that leading remote teams is not drastically different from leading an on-site team. However, managers need to be more intentional with their remote employees because they lack the immediacy of dropping by their cubicle or the convenience of seeing them grab morning coffee in the breakroom. Following a review of the course expectations and other agenda items, we jumped into the material.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Remote Working

“We can all agree there are numerous benefits associated with remote work.”

1. Instruction: Review of the top 5 benefits and the top 5 drawbacks of remote working taken from a USA Today survey of 667 remote workers
2. Discussion: What are your overall impressions of the survey results? What, if anything, surprised you?
3. Group Activity: I shared the Pain Point whiteboard that learners completed prior to the session. I asked learners to review their colleagues’ contributions and use one of the built-in reaction tools (e.g., heart, green checkmark, thumbs up) to indicate one or two pain points shared by their colleagues they were also experiencing.

Example of Whiteboard Annotation Activity

The Commitment Pyramid

“Let’s look at a model we can use to address the challenges you identified on the whiteboard…”

Commitment Pyramid

1. Instruction: Introduction of the commitment pyramid; review of the four components
2. Discussion: How do you envision the pain points we identified in the earlier whiteboard activity fitting within this framework?
3. Individual Activity: Learners completed a simple assessment to rate their team on each level of the commitment pyramid using a scale of 1 (poor) to 5 (excellent). They also identified the one area on the pyramid where their team was doing well and the one area where they believed there was opportunity for improvement.
4. Quick Discussion: Was that activity difficult for you? Why or why not?
5. Small Group Activity: I assigned learners to breakout rooms in groups of three. I tasked them with taking turns to share (1) their name and role; (2) the one area they identified where their team was doing well and why; and (3) the one area they identified where their team could use improvement and why. Learners had 15 minutes in their breakouts.

Organizational Culture and Team Culture

“Let’s dive deeper into the first level of the commitment pyramid. Culture is foundational. Returning to our house analogy, if the foundation is not solid, anything you build upon it will lack the required support. And the structure may ultimately fail. The same holds true for your team. For this reason, we’ll spend proportionally more time discussing culture to set the stage for the remaining topics.”

Photo by Dragana Gordic on Shutterstock

1. Chat/Discussion: What does a healthy organizational culture look like to you? What specifically would you expect to see or experience?
2. Instruction: Review of the 15 characteristics of healthy organizational culture
3. Discussion: Which one of these characteristics resonates most with you? And why? (segue from organizational culture to team culture)
4. Instruction: Definition of team culture (read by volunteer)
5. Chat/Discussion: Which words or phrases in this description stand out to you? Why is team culture important?
6. Instruction: Categories of team culture
7. Discussion: Reflect on your experience on a team with a positive culture. What did that feel like for you?
8. Group Activity: I used Slido to run a word cloud activity. I asked learners to describe their team’s culture in one word.
9. Instruction: Six principles of highly effective team cultures
10. 10-minute Break

An action plan transforms a learner’s intention to apply their learning on their job into an organized detailed strategy for execution.

Reason #3: I incorporated an action planning component.

Returning from the scheduled break, we ventured into the action planning segment of Module 2.

Photo by Kit (formerly ConvertKit) on Unsplash

1. Instruction: Demonstration of how to create effective SMART goals; review of steps in the action plan along with examples
2. Individual Activity: I gave learners 15 minutes to brainstorm one goal to establish (or strengthen) a healthy culture on their teams. I emphasized that the goal didn’t have to be grandiose; they could start with something basic. I encouraged learners to jot down notes in their participant guide for Steps 1 through 3 in their action plan. And in such a way that would be helpful when they revisited the document later to add details and further refine their plan.
3. Small Group Activity: I sent learners back into breakout rooms for 10 minutes. But this time only with a partner. I tasked learners with (1) introducing themselves; (2) sharing their challenge, SMART goal, and tasks; and (3) providing helpful feedback on each others’ goals.
4. **10-Minute Break **(before moving to Module 3)

At the conclusion of the session, I reviewed several key next steps with my learners. One of those included completing and executing their action plan over the next 45 days.

Guidance for New L&D Professionals

Based upon my work in this session, consider these suggestions as you design, develop, and facilitate your next learning experience.

Photo by Tzido on Bigstock

1. Get your learners excited about the training with a pre-session activity. Like the coming attractions shown before the feature film, your activity should get your learners excited about (or at least mildly intrigued by) your session. Be mindful that the activity doesn’t feel like work. It shouldn’t be cumbersome and should be straightforward. For example, you might ask your learners to complete a short online assessment to determine their primary leadership style. Or, ask them to watch a brief video or listen to a podcast clip which introduces the themes of your training in a unique way. Or, you might have them complete a survey.
2. Track the level of engagement. The rule of thumb for virtual training, like the session which is the subject of this article, is to incorporate interactive elements every 3–5 minutes. You’ll want to use a diverse blend and sequence of activities to maintain your learners’ interest. I’ve found it helpful to create an engagement table. You can easily do that in a Word or Excel document. In the first column, I list the number of each slide in my presentation. In the second column, I specify whether the slide includes engagement. If it does, I describe the type of engagement in the third column. This method enables me to track whether I’ve included sufficient interaction and whether I am overusing or underusing any one approach.
3. Include an action planning component. An action plan assists in learning transfer and knowledge retention by ensuring learners exercise the new skills and apply the new information they’ve gained during the session immediately to real-life work situations. I suggest creating a generic action plan template that can be customized as needed for the courses you design and facilitate. Your learners can integrate their action plan within their Individual Development Plan and discuss their progress toward accomplishing their goal during regular conversations with their managers.

Read the #6 learning experience on my Top 10 favorites list.

[embed]Counting Down My Top 10 Favorite Learning Experiences and Sharing Advice for New L&D Professionals #6: Adapting Your Communication Stylemedium.com

**4N Learning Consultants** provides comprehensive Learning & Development services. As your trusted instructional design partner, we will work closely with your team to provide original content for your sessions. We also facilitate interactive in-person and virtual learning experiences for groups of all sizes, focusing on leadership development, talent management, and power (soft) skills. Contact us to schedule a free consultation today.