In today’s world of remote work and online collaboration, it’s no secret that professionals struggle to maintain effective communication, engagement, and experience utilizing technology. To prepare its workforce for virtual events, Manson selected six personnel to undergo an advanced Applied Virtual Facilitation (AVF) program to improve online learning and training for all employees.
Spearheading the effort, Manson’s Learning and Development (L&D) Department believes that teaching virtual facilitation skills and techniques to select personnel will create more effective and engaging online experiences for Manson personnel, according to L&D Director Thomas Barrett.
“The L&D industry has been conducting web-based training and virtual events for a long time,” Thomas explains. “My thought was to leverage L&D resources to make us all better virtual operators. As we move toward training in virtual classrooms, we want to make sure Manson facilitators—all subject matter experts in their respective fields—are prepared to teach and collaborate in virtual spaces.”
Determined to make a positive change for Manson’s workforce, Thomas sought out the help of Training Consultant Kassy LaBorie—a renowned virtual training expert in the L&D industry.
“Kassy is somewhat of an icon in the L&D industry, and it just so happened that Doug [Boehm, Environmental Health and Safety Training Manager] was participating in her monthly Virtual Facilitator hangout,” Thomas says. “Doug reached out and helped us get the conversation started.”
Together they developed a coaching program for the “Manson Six”: Doug, EHS Specialist Victoria Duong, L&D Specialist Carey Shannon, L&D Instructional Designer Annie Grattan, Project Engineer-Estimator Brett Diener, and Project Manager Ryan Gielow—together representing various departments at Manson.
To meet individual needs and foster the attendees' different stages of facilitation skills, Thomas and Doug worked with Kassy to develop a customized course for each of the Manson Six.
“The AVF program that I offer is mostly group-focused, but Thomas wanted a personalized coaching course for each individual,” Kassy explains. “We worked together to develop a new format that offers unique AVF training to individuals, regardless of what level of facilitator experience they had.”
After multiple brainstorming sessions to create the new course, the Manson Six and several members of Manson’s executive management team were invited to a kick-off workshop in late April 2024. The workshop illustrated a number of techniques to enhance the participation and effectiveness of online collaborative events.
“The kick-off workshop was held for the course attendees and executive management to meet Kassy and learn about the AVF course,” Carey says. “In that workshop, we learned several virtual facilitation skills and how the AVF course will help us become more effective facilitators.”
With the course then in full swing, each member of the Manson Six met with Kassy for three one-on-one coaching sessions over three months. The first session involved a self-assessment to determine their current level of proficiency and identify one or several skills they hoped to develop by the end of the program. Using this information, Kassy built six Individual Educational Plans to bolster each person’s skills.
“The one-on-one coaching created a safe space to be a bit more personal for both coach and pupil,” Doug explains. “It sparked involvement, thought, self-discovery, and elements of practicing skill. It became more personal.”
Following the self-assessment phase, the Manson Six worked individually with Kassy to learn best practices and techniques to keep audiences engaged and motivated with creativity and clarity. Some techniques include using annotation tools during presentations that allow audiences to ask questions or locate information by directly marking pictures or text on the screen. An example of this could be displaying a map of a business and asking people to mark muster points during emergency evacuations.
“What I learned from Kassy during our one-on-one sessions is that it is very important to make virtual lessons interactive for the audiences,” Carey explains. “Adults like to be engaged when they are learning something, and you can’t simply ask them what they think regarding a particular topic.”
After several months of virtual training, the Manson Six met with Kassy and Thomas for a final workshop to demonstrate virtual facilitation skills with a topic of their choice—a chance to display the skills learned during the AVF program. Topics included: Risk Assessment Code, Earthquake Preparedness, Fall Protection, Project Planning, and Utilizing Communication Software. At the end of the workshop, the Manson Six were each awarded an industry-recognized AVF certification and digital badge—representing the group’s effort to bolster the organization’s goal of promoting education.
“As with any certificate, it’s a symbol—in this case, of a program that has developed facilitation skills based on individuals’ needs, which has a high impact,” Thomas explains. “Any time people can get quality individualized support in the work they do, performance and satisfaction will surely increase.”
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