If you’re going to take part in a live online training course, it’s a good idea to try to minimise distractions in advance and let others know that you won’t be available. But there are always going to be some things you couldn’t have planned for, especially in this new era of regular homeworking. We’ve probably all seen some of the ‘work from home fails’ uploaded to the internet recently….and who could forget the children interrupting this BBC news interview back in 2017?
We’ve encountered a few of our own examples in our online leadership and management training courses over the last few weeks. Whether it’s a neighbour drilling next door, barking dogs or cats who want to get in on the act by sharing the screen, these little quirks seem to have become a normal part of our working lives and we’ve all become very tolerant of them – in a way that we might not have done just a couple of years ago.
Take one of our delegates recently who had a challenge not dissimilar to the above clip when his young son entered the room asking for some bread to be sliced for him. Although he was politely asked to wait and was briefly satisfied with a reply of “soon”, no-one minded the interruption and it definitely raised a few smiles.
It happens to us all
Even our trainers haven’t been immune to the odd amusing glitch. One, who shall remain nameless, spent the first couple of moments of an online training course outlining the schedule for the day and wondering why he was getting little reaction from the delegates. Unfortunately his audio wasn’t turned on.
Incidents with regard to clothing, or lack of, also seem to be quite common, particularly in the current hot weather. Although it’s not something that we’ve personally witnessed (yet) and our delegates have no doubt been thankful that their peers have always remembered to replace any items of clothing they might have removed during the breaks in order to cool down.
Positive outcomes
Our own experiences and those of many others do now seem to indicate that there’s very widespread acceptance of the vagaries of undertaking live online training from home. But far from devaluing the experience, it can result in more positive interaction and help everyone to relax, which can only be a good thing for online learning.
