Back to the training room – a brief reminder of the good times

Like everyone else in the training game the world over, I found myself banished to the virtual world of Zoom at the start of the pandemic. And I gradually got used to it and developed the skills to make it work.

But however hard you try, it’s hard to get by the lack of casual spontaneity compared with having real people working together in a real room.

So it was a breath of fresh air to be back working on a client’s premises last week. All I had to do was cycle my Brompton across London, so I arrived feeling refreshed and energised.

I entered the building with my face mask, but the small group sessions enabled good social distancing and we were able to dispense with the coverings with everyone’s agreement. 

The subtlety of body language and proper chat across the group made the training experience so much richer for the delegates – and the trainer. Videoing performances in the room and playing them back on a big screen gave high definition to both the activities and giving feedback.

I had forgotten how good it was to chat in the breaks – and reduced time pressure also enabled us to deal with individual concerned and issues without getting anxious.

While virtual training will always save time and money, we lose a lot in translation from live to virtual. Concerts and theatre are a shadow of themselves on a screen, and so is training.