I am confident you received several notices from firms outlining their responses to the COVID19 pandemic. I helped draft a few. Don’t worry, I will not be repeating the good advice that appears in those announcements.

Rather, I will quickly report on unexpected benefits from recent training and coaching we delivered remotely that were originally planned for the typical classroom face-to-face format.
1. The Zoom technology worked without a flaw. Other platforms we have used have been laden with problems with video and audio connections.
2. With stay-at-home advisories in place, people had the time and opportunity to reflect upon and focus on skill building associated with the training. This helped close the common and hideous learning-doing gap where well-intentioned people return from training and are faced with fires they have to extinguish right away. Their good intentions to apply training concepts in real time are forever lost.
3. I heard a physician make the point that physical distancing is a better phrase than social distancing. Work teams still need to socially and emotionally support one another, especially during this period of crisis and uncertainty. The remote training helped provide a platform for supporting one another. One participant observed how good it was to hear people laugh again.

Thus, the COVID19 pandemic may have a silver lining and present a good opportunity for skill building and team support via remote training.