At the end of June, my trainer colleague Andrew and I had the opportunity for the first time to hold one of our leadership trainings not via a video call or in a seminar room as we are used to. Instead, our participants and we met in virtual reality. This was made possible by the potential development program of a large German automobile manufacturer and opened up completely new ways of communication and interaction for us.
Each of us was given an individual avatar with which we could move freely in a state-of-the-art virtual training academy. Working in the virtual environment was a pleasant change from sitting at a desk and in front of a screen, since not only my Diana-avatar, but I myself had to move actively in order to interact with the virtual environment.
Especially for the international participants from France, Spain, Great Britain, Italy and Norway, this way of coming together for a leadership training was very helpful, as there were no travel costs and travel time involved.
Our virtual training academy was located amidst snowy mountain peaks and allowed us to conduct interactive group work on a sunny rooftop terrace while enjoying the magnificent view over the virtual Mondsee lake in Austria. In this atmosphere, it was easy to work on various models around leadership, the Gallup Strenghts Finder personality test, and coaching skills necessary for leadership.
As a crowning conclusion to the successful training, the joint virtual cocktail at the end of the day was, of course, not to be missed.
While leading the leadership training in virtual reality, I became very aware of the advantages of this type of collaboration:
✅ VR enables a new kind of interaction and closeness, especially for international and spatially separated groups.
✅ VR offers a pleasant change from alternative technologies such as video conferencing or internet telephony
✅ VR creates a personal atmosphere that enables fireside chats with the CFO, for example
✅ VR encourages movement and activity at work, as opposed to sitting rigidly in front of a computer
Many thanks to Circle4x for providing the VR expertise, hardware & software and technical support during the training. Thanks also to IBC – International Business Coaching, my cooperation partner for this program without whom this wonderful experience would not have been possible.