Virtual Workshops That Actually Engage Employees

A lot of time and money goes into corporate training—but not nearly enough comes out of it. In fact, companies spent $130 billion on training last year, yet only 25% of programs measurably improved business performance. Having run countless training workshops, I’ve seen firsthand what makes the difference. Some teams walk away energized and equipped. Others… not so much. If you’re involved in organizing training—whether for a small team or a large department—here’s how to make sure it actually works: ✅ Do your research. Talk to your team. What skills would genuinely help them day-to-day? A few interviews or a quick survey can reveal exactly where to focus. ✅ Start with a solid brief. Give your trainer as much context as possible: goals, audience, skill levels, examples of past work, what’s worked—and what hasn’t. ✅ Don’t shortchange the time. A 90-minute session might inspire, but it won’t transform. For deeper learning and hands-on practice, give it time—ideally 2+ hours or spaced chunks over a few days. ✅ Share real examples. Generic content doesn’t stick. When the trainer sees your actual slides, templates, and challenges, they can tailor the session to hit home. ✅ Choose the right group size. Smaller groups mean better interaction and more personalized support. If you want engagement, resist the temptation to pack the (virtual) room. ✅ Make it matter. Set expectations. Send reminders. And if it’s virtual, cameras on goes a long way toward focus and connection. ✅ Schedule follow-up support. Reinforcement matters. Book a post-session Q&A, office hours, or refresher so people actually use what they’ve learned. ✅ Follow up. Send a quick survey afterward to measure impact and shape the next session. One-off training rarely moves the needle—but a well-planned series can. Helping teams level up their presentation skills is what I do—structure, storytelling, design, and beyond. If that’s on your radar, I’d love to help. DM me to get the conversation started.

You can deliver big, efficient PD in only a small amount of time. Here's the strategy... Assign prework. No, it’s not a revolutionary idea. Yes, it can revolutionize your meetings. When done well, prework can incorporate all seven principles of adult learning theory: 1. Adults must feel safe to learn. Thoughtful prework builds trust in the facilitator and provides clear expectations for how participants will be expected to engage. Increased clarity = increased comfort. 2. Adults come to learning experiences with histories. Prework that activates participants’ past experiences and knowledge sets them up to be sense-makers. 3. Adults need to know why we have to learn something. Prework provides the perfect method to communicate purpose without taking time from your session. 4. Adults want agency in learning. Differentiation in session can be tricky at times, but is much easier to do in prework. 5. Adults need practice to internalize learning. Front-loading knowledge-building in prework = more time for application in session. 6. Adults have a problem-centered approach to learning. Prework is a great opportunity to allow participants the time and space to consider application to their unique context. 7. Adults want to learn. Providing prework puts learning in participants’ hands. When thoughtfully designed and communicated, it activates participants’ curiosity and their core human need for competence. A warning: Prework can also be a waste of time. No strategy or tool is inherently transformational. It comes down to how you implement. A case study: I teach a virtual 1-day coaching workshop. Our live learning time is just 4 hours. We have big learning goals and consistently meet them (97% of participants say it met or exceeded expectations). The 4 hours we spend together are very purposefully designed. Yes, I am a skilled and experienced facilitator. But the prework is just as important to the success of the session as those 2 factors. To synthesize their prework learning, participants complete a 3,2,1 reflection where they capture the following:   3 new things you’ve learned 2 ideas you are still thinking about 1 concept or strategy you have already tried or will prioritize trying Toward the beginning of our time together, participants break into small groups and share their reflections. By the end of this short activity, multiple core human needs are met, and participants are actively enrolled in their learning. This allows us to jump into skill-building so participants emerge from our time together able to do something meaningfully different than when they arrived. Worried that people won’t complete their prework? Remember: adults want to learn. Competence is a core human need. Do your part well and trust that they will do theirs. How do you use prework? Is there something new you might want to try?

Mastering Virtual Training: A Wake-Up Call I used to love remote work—great balance, great flexibility. But after facilitating the same class in-person and virtually, I saw stark differences: ✅ In person: Natural engagement, easy interaction, real-time feedback. 🔄 Virtual: Quieter participants, hard-to-read expressions, trickier to gauge. At first, I was frustrated. Was the lesson even landing? But here’s the truth: Virtual isn’t going anywhere, and neither is in-person. If we want to be great trainers, leaders, and communicators, we have to master BOTH. That’s why I focused on making virtual training more interactive: 💬 Ensuring everyone could use chat & reactions upfront 🙋 Prefacing questions with “drop your answer in chat or raise your hand” 🔄 Using unpacking questions for those who unmuted 🎯 Calling on participants who hadn’t engaged yet 🤝 Sending people into small groups 📖 Asking for volunteers to read infographics 🖍 Using a whiteboard for real-time highlights 👀 Watching for body language (as tough as it was!) So, I’m curious—what strategies have helped you make virtual training as impactful as in-person? Let’s trade strategies! 👇 #Leadership #Training #VirtualWork #RemoteWork #ProfessionalDevelopment

We were wrong. What works in a room doesn’t always work online. When Jeff Gothelf and I started teaching online, we thought we could just adapt our in-person classes to video conferences. Turns out, that doesn’t work. We had to rethink how we structure lessons in order to keep people engaged, and create an interactive experience that actually helped them learn. Here’s what made the biggest difference: 1. Shorter is better (shoutout to Teresa Torres for this one) → People can sit in a room for a full day. They won’t on Zoom. → Schedule multiple shorter sessions instead of one long one. Keep them engaging—not just with the facilitator, but also with the content and each other. 2. Ditch lectures → What works in person often falls flat online. → We moved lectures to short pre-recorded videos as homework and used live sessions for discussion and exercises instead. 3. Use small breakout rooms → Large-group discussions rarely work well online. → Breakout rooms let teams collaborate and bring back key insights. 4. Cameras on, mics off → It sounds simple, but setting expectations upfront keeps energy high. → Everyone keeps cameras on. Mics stay muted unless you're speaking. 5. Choose the right tools → Mural/Miro for whiteboarding, Slack for between-class discussions, and Zoom’s breakout rooms for collaboration. → The right tools make workshops feel more interactive. Online workshops can be just as engaging as in-person ones—you just have to adjust for the medium. What have you seen work well?