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Tom Goad

ARE YOU WILLING TO TAKE THE RISK

SPEAKING FROM EXPERIENCE September 1979

How to Screen a Company for a Good Culture Fit

Tom is an executive coach and leadership development expert, globally helping six- and seven-figure income executives and their teams to optimize performance.Tom’s mission is to uplift and to inspire positive change in people. He has over 15 years’ cumulative experience helping others attain their goals regarding career and leadership—from the inside out.Tom is president of Energy Coaching Associates (Washington, D.C.) and is the corporate-wide leadership coach for K12 Inc. He is a member of the prestigious Forbes Coaches Council, and is an affiliated coach and trainer with other world-class organizations, such as the Ken Blanchard Companies and the Center for Human Capital Innovation. His clients include the U.S. Navy and other government agencies, corporations such as SAP, nonprofits like Goodwill Industries, and many talented individuals and teams. Tom is a Professional Certified Coach through the International Coach Federation and is certified on several personality assessments such as Hogan, MBTI, and Emotional Intelligence EQi 2.0.Prior to coaching, Tom was a seasoned leader and executive, contributing to the success of some of the most acclaimed educational media organizations in the country, including Scholastic Inc., CBS/Columbia Records, Time-Life Books, National Geographic, PBS, and K12 Inc. He managed large teams of professionals and pioneered the development of technology in education.

Tom DiGiovanni 

Tom Bux is an L&D manager for an online retailer’s fulfillment center, where he is responsible for the training and development of more than 400 employees. Bux works with local workforce development boards and learning organizations to leverage regional resources to empower employees in their learning and career goals. He is certified in the Five Behaviors of an Effective Team and DiSC.

Tom Bux

It is time now to take advantage of the inclusionary thinking traits that women bring to leadership roles.

Female Leadership Is Key to High Performance

Doers are the driving force for innovative ideas in business. Hiring them takes special effort.

Attracting Doers to Your Organization

The first step to engaging an online audience is to learn the delivery platform inside and out, backwards and forwards, and upside down. In fact, by not knowing the features of the online technology, facilitators and trainers have likely already lost their audience because they probably have participants on hold while they figure out how to upload the slides, share the desktop, or get the mic to work. Here are some important tips to help you “master the tech so you can ignore the tech” and focus on your event’s ultimate purpose, such as sharing information, teaching new skills, and so forth. What Is the Goal and Who Is the Audience? Always begin with the end in mind: What is the goal of the live online event? Whether a meeting, webinar, or virtual training session, when designing the overall event and its activities, think about what goal you are trying to achieve and any objectives that support it. Is the event meant to be informative, experiential, or fun—or all of the above? In addition, consider carefully the audience and the context for the event. Do participants know each other or are they complete strangers?Are participants experienced leaders, peers, new hires, or the general public?Are participants advanced in their understanding of the subject matter for the event, or are they relative novices?How experienced are participants with the live online platform?How much time is allotted for the event: 45 minutes to an hour, two hours, or three hours with multiple breaks? With answers to these questions, you will be well positioned to consider which features of the live online platform can be used for each part of the program. Without answers to these questions, it is easy to make mistakes such as using a feature just for the sake of it or providing a false sense of interactivity for the participants. Take the event seriously; it will be obvious which technical features to use. The Importance of the Producer A producer who helps with delivery is critical to ensuring that the live online event is seamless. The technology requires too much attention to expect the presenter to engage the participants and present the content—and manage all the technical details and inevitable problems at the same time. If the technical details are most important, leaving the content and participant engagement as secondary concerns, the participants will log off and ask for a copy of the slides. The producer provides a second set of hands, focusing primarily on the technology to ensure that all the features of the online platform work smoothly and as planned. Focusing on how to open the poll, highlight a point on a slide, or set up the breakout groups means the facilitator is not focusing on the participant experience intended by using each of those features. Let the producer worry about the technical details. See What the Participants See Even the most experienced in running and supporting live online events might struggle to see the event from the participant’s point of view. That is, unless they can actually see it from the participant’s point of view by being simultaneously logged in as a participant on a second (or even third) computer. A savvy facilitator or producer will use this technique to: check for lag between the facilitator’s actions (advancing a slide and rearranging screen real estate) and what participants are seeinghelp participants troubleshoot an issue they are having with the interfaceimprove the program for the next time based on the live experience seen from the participant’s point of viewaccurately provide directions on where participants should look, what they should see, and how the program should operatepresent confidently and under control with the knowledge of exactly what presenting looks like to the participants. At a minimum, a second monitor is needed to give another point of view. But to truly see and interact with a different system, use a second laptop. It could also serve as a back­up if anything goes awry with the main computer. If some participants are attending the live online event using a smartphone or tablet, consider also using one of these devices to gauge their experience. Audio: Using Phone or Using Computer Whether using Adobe, WebEx, or another online meeting tool, make it a priority to learn the exact setup of the audio choices. Additionally, make sure to always present from a clear connection or line, eliminate all background noise, and use a hands-free headset in order to easily interact with all the features of the online event. One of the quickest ways to lose the audience is to have poor audio quality. Don’t let that happen. Here is an audio checklist to ensure that the event’s audio is engaging: Does the platform use teleconference, VoIP (computer audio), or both?If using a teleconference, is it an integrated teleconference provided by the platform?If using a teleconference, is it an integrated teleconference provided by a third-party teleconference provider? Does this third-party integrated teleconference also work with the breakouts?If using a teleconference, is it a third-party, nonintegrated teleconference? What are all the telephone controls that can be pressed using the telephone buttons? Does this teleconference also include subconferencing for manual audio breakouts? What are the controls to initiate subconferencing?What are the muting and unmuting controls? Is “mute on entry” available? How can individual connections be muted and unmuted? Can all connections be muted and unmuted? Does this also mute the facilitator?What are the backup plans? What teleconference lines could serve as an alternate if the one that’s going to be used stops working? What is the plan if the VoIP stops working? Before declaring the audio ready, don’t forget one last important detail: participants almost always need help understanding how to connect to the audio. Be prepared with a slide or send them the information in advance. Have the producer ready 30 minutes early to help participants connect to the engaging sound of the event.**Editor’s Note:** This post is adapted from the new book by Kassy LaBorie and Tom Stone, Interact and Engage! 50+ Activities for Virtual Training, Meetings, and Webinars. Check it out for a detailed checklist of producer competencies, platform feature checklists and descriptions, and a wealth of virtual training, meeting, and webinar activities that drive interaction and engagement. In this book you will:explore the popular delivery platforms (Adobe Connect and WebEx Training Center) inside and out, backwards and forwards, and upside downdiscover how to start events off right and bring them to a fitting end, while achieving the event’s goals in the middledelve into what facilitators and producers need to do before, during, and after an activity.

Virtual Events: Master the Tech So You Can Ignore the Tech

Participants in online meetings, webinars, and virtual training events want and need them to be great experiences. But what do great experiences look like? The business buzzword answer is that it’s all about participant engagement—and for once the buzzword is on track.A great online meeting engages all participants, while still achieving the meeting’s objectives. A great webinar that gets information to stick engages participants as much as possible with a large audience. And a great training event engages learners so that they retain knowledge, gain new skills, and see the desired behavior changes and performance improvements.Engagement in live online events looks essentially the same no matter what the context: meeting, webinar, or training event. Here’s a breakdown of the clear difference between an engaged “participant” and a disengaged “attendee”:Engaged Participants: Focused and attentive Active Enthusiastic and eager Spontaneous Curious and inquisitive Ask questions WillingDisengaged Attendee: Uninterested Passive Bored and frustrated Reactive Indifferent Goes through the motions ResistantPut another way, meeting facilitators need to stop running their online meetings like a typical marketing webinar, where they read PowerPoint slides to a large, mostly passive audience, only allowing for a few questions if there’s time at the end. It doesn’t work.Likewise, webinar facilitators need to stop assuming their webinars can serve as robust training programs. Such events have large audiences and don’t allow for collaboration, hands-on or other realistic practice, expert coaching, and so on—the interactions needed for robust training to take place. Facilitators are setting participants up for disappointment and failure if they expect anything more than knowledge-level learning from large-audience webinar events.And if training event facilitators are expecting rich learning outcomes—changed behavior and improved performance—they need to design live online training in a way that enables such results. Some basic guidelines for more effective results includes:limit the participants to a reasonable number (a maximum of 16 to 20) break out the audience into even smaller group activities engage via audio, chat, and whiteboarding.In other words, facilitators and designers need to think of the event in the same way as any other in-person training event.Well-designed online activities—aligned with and in support of the event’s goals—are critical to maximizing engagement. They provide structure and purpose to interaction and collaboration, and keep facilitators from becoming captive to the features of the live online platform tool.For instance, facilitators need to avoid using a poll just to break up what is otherwise a lecture-driven webinar or randomly asking a question in chat in the middle of an online training event. Otherwise, they are simply falling victim to “shiny object syndrome”—the “Ooooh! Aaah! That feature is nifty. I’ll use it!” response. Facilitators should not use a tool for the sake of using it. Rather, they should use it in support of the goals of the meeting, webinar, or training event.Here are some general types of activities for use in live online events.Warm-Ups and WelcomesAs with in-person meetings or classroom training events, participants need to prepare before they use the available tools. Welcome and warm-up activities are perfect for starting an online meeting, webinar, or training event. They ensure an on-time start, open the session with a purpose beyond asking participants to sit and listen, and help set the stage for interaction and collaboration. In addition, they function as early technical checks. What’s more, they help ensure successful communication process among the participants, the producer, and the facilitator once the event starts and content-focused activities need to begin. After all, teaching participants how to use the chat feature only distracts all involved when reviewing the meeting agenda or the training objectives.Ice BreakersAfter a Warm-Up/Welcome activity, ice breakers are vital to creating an environment in which participants feel at ease enough to share opinions, ask questions, and learn something new. Because the online tools are still new for many people (even after a solid welcome or warm-up activity), participants need an additional way to connect with others who may be remotely connected and geographically dispersed. Ice breakers in an online event ensure that the participants are truly comfortable, engaged, and ready to interact. And ice breakers are especially import¬ant for anyone who joined the program late; they now have a second chance to learn some of the tools and get involved.Content-Centered ActivitiesWhether you are facilitating an internal or external virtual meeting, a large-audience webinar, or a more intensive virtual training event, great activities are a key to interactivity and engagement. The goal is to convey information in a way that will stick or practicing new skills, such activities can be the most memorable and impactful segment of the event. They should also be the centerpiece of the meeting’s agenda or the webinar’s or virtual training’s instructional design.ClosersOne of the biggest mistakes made in an online event is failing to leave enough time to properly bring the session to a close with a memorable wrap-up activity. Planning a closing activity for the online event will leave a lasting impression, one that ensures that the time spent in the event was well worth it. Closing activities engage participants to contribute their own thoughts and ideas on how they’ll take the knowledge and skills learned in the online event into their own environments.CelebrationsRecognizing important milestones, or celebrating holidays and birthdays provide themed opportunities to throw “virtual celebrations.” Such activities can inspire online participants and make them feel honored to have been part of building and maintaining a virtual team. Enjoy, create, and celebrate!****Editor’s Note: This post is adapted from the new book by Kassy LaBorie and Tom Stone, Interact and Engage! 50+ Activities for Virtual Training, Meetings, and Webinars. Check it out for more examples of activities that have proven to increase engagement and results, as well as additional virtual classroom, meeting, and webinar tips. Click here for a free chapter of this book.

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