The Distributed Way
The death of week-long trainings, flying in experts, and giant conferences is upon us. So is the possibility of a much better way of working.
There’s been a lot of fear for companies around moving to distributed work. However, this move is often quite positive. Distributed work improves how companies can work with experts on training, consulting, and ideation.
As your company moves into new versions of training, the point of distributed work is not to replace what you once had in the on-site version, but to do something that is even better. In this article, we’ll look at a few comparisons between the on-site and new distributed way of doing things to see the benefits of a distributed way of working. In addition, we will look at a few examples from On Your Feet to see how we work with companies as their trainers, and consultants.
Training
The On-Site Version: A long, single day that has the potential to be fantastic but often lacks follow-up and burn out usually occurs half way through.
The Distributed Way: Highly-interactive virtual sessions that are shorter, ideally feature the same teams returning for multiple sessions, and include content or coaching between training sessions. There is also a focus on “tools” that can lead to immediate action and new company norms.
At On Your Feet: We created HIVEs (highly interactive virtual experiences), that teach concepts and tools that people can use immediately. These virtual trainings go beyond the screen by using objects in people’s environment, getting participants on their feet, using improv forms to play and build energy. HIVEs also utilize the best functions of chat, video and breakouts. People leave this experience with actionable ideas in their heads, smiles on their faces, and feeling more connected to each other.
Ideation
The On-Site Version: A single “big ideation day” that is really fun and usually leads to great ideas, but tends to fade out after the day.
The Distributed Way: Takes the concept of a “big ideation session” and breaks it down into smaller live virtual sessions. This utilizes the power of quiet time, asynchronous work, and smaller breakouts between live virtual sessions.
At On Your Feet: We’ve been doing long-term ideation projects with companies well before the recent move to distributed work. Often, we add two extra components to the ideation. First, we have an On Your Feet expert in behavioral science or design join your ideation. Second, we use a format of ideation we call “start with _____,” which can be “start with science,” “start with experience,” or “start with the ending”. This provides the type of structure and focus that is especially needed in distributed work.
Culture & Teams
The On-Site Version: A single day or two of “culture” building, where good and fun stuff happens, but where teams rarely achieve lasting impact or full understanding of the concepts.
The Distributed Way: A culture plan that involves consistent short intervention moments. These include facilitating meetings, sourcing and sharing stories of company culture, and implementing tools that are designed to create new norms in the company.
At On You Feet: We have three programs that focus on culture: Better Teams, Values to Actions, and, most recently The Distributed Work Toolkit. These combine experiential trainings that are live or recorded, including follow-up strategies that produce lasting impact. We highlight positive examples of lessons learned in the session with “story of fact” guide books so companies have multiple of peer examples of what they want their culture to be.
Coaching, Consulting, & Experts For Hire
The On-Site Version: An expert comes to your site, gives a talk or workshop for a day or so, and then leaves.
The Distributed Way: Shorter, regular meetings with an expert who gives you exactly what you need in the moment — whether that be guidance, relevant science, an audit, tools, prototypes, a brainstorming, or just a chat.
At On Your Feet: The distributed way of work allows clients to access our team in unique ways. We can respond to clients from our multiple internal perspectives, be that business, science, art, or beyond.
Final Thoughts
Before the move to distributed work, businesses utilized experts inefficiently. They would hire them for one day trainings, expensive keynote lectures, and occasional fly-ins. But in truth, expertise is best used in shorter, consistent, and more regular bursts.
While moving to distributed work is hard at the start, we encourage you to embrace our mission, which is to experiment with less fear and more joy.
Learn More
For more on why distributed expertise is often better, more affordable, and why I am so happy to be ever more a distributed expert, check out my personal article “The Distributed Expert.”
Troy is a scientist with an artistic heart and collaborative spirit. Troy has a BA in psychology, a PhD from Duke University with famed behavioral scientist Dan Ariely, and is a former professor at the University of Oregon and former Disney Imagineer. Among many other things, he is now On Your Feet’s chief scientist.
