Virtual Experiential Team and Leadership Development Platform
Lead Participant:
BLUESKY EXPERIENCES LTD
Abstract
This innovative project focuses on the necessity, to support remote leadership and team working during and post Covid 19\.
The project will disrupt the experiential training sector with the first virtual platform to host experiential leadership and team building activities, allowing organisations to equip their teams with an effective self-directed learning or facilitated programme.
Additionally the online experiential training programmes will enable leadership and team development programmes to become accessible to many more teams and organisations.
The project has a number of clear objectives; to develop an easy to use, online platform containing experiential training programmes, enabling facilitated or self-directed learning for remote leaders and teams.
The online training program has its foundations in our face to face experiential learning programmes and the value they provide to the learning achieved by leaders and teams. It is vital that the virtual experience creates a similar level of experience stimulating real behaviours, meaningful conversations and learning points, supporting improved leadership, performance and team resilience.
Covid 19 has increased the level of remote working and is highlighting the many challenges teams are having to overcome. Such as, how do we cultivate team spirit without face to face interaction? How do we onboard new team members effectively? How do we communicate effectively, agree on a common language and approach?
Our experiential programmes will work to support teams in developing action plans to combat these challenges and increase productivity for their organisation through effective remote working.
This project moves to support the new way of working, post Covid 19 with an innovative approach, equipping leaders with new knowledge and helping remote teams leverage their strengths and overcome the challenges of remote team working.
An additional benefit of this online programme is that it will support the creation of a blended learning approach for teams who are also engaging in face to face workshops post Covid 19\. Through the use of technology, learning commitments and actions will be captured for reflection and use, an important part of the team development process often overlooked in purely face to face training.
Finally, this unique platform and training programme will promote efficiencies in training, improve diversity and inclusion in organisations, engage a broader UK talent base and improve opportunities for returners
Additional Information
As a result of learning in the design phase the platform we will now be build on our own bespoke platform rather than a subscription based platform. It will also be developed with the capability to enable us to integrate and host team working games that have been developed by third party providers. This will provide our clients with a wider range of choice supporting their developmental needs and provide planning of longer term interventions using the learning and development platform much earlier than planned.
The combination of developing our own platform and integrating third party providers also allows us to focus on the development and learning content as well as usability.
In addition we are now developing video conferencing using Zoom and breakout rooms as part of the platform functionality. This visual aid will add considerable value for the participants and the facilitators, allowing everyone to see each other’s body language which is so important when discussing team dynamics and communication.
The ability to use breakout rooms-will enable teams to work independently in sub groups on the same activity simultaneously, as well as host discussion groups, providing space for rich conversations especially in review sessions.
Through a period of sustained testing we will receive feedback from users of the platform (end users, admin and facilitators) we will use their comments to help prioritise the feature backlog, giving greater weight to those features that have the most positive impact. If we find that the current feature set is hitting the mark, we will introduce some of the features that we have already designed, and are now included in the product backlog.
The project will disrupt the experiential training sector with the first virtual platform to host experiential leadership and team building activities, allowing organisations to equip their teams with an effective self-directed learning or facilitated programme.
Additionally the online experiential training programmes will enable leadership and team development programmes to become accessible to many more teams and organisations.
The project has a number of clear objectives; to develop an easy to use, online platform containing experiential training programmes, enabling facilitated or self-directed learning for remote leaders and teams.
The online training program has its foundations in our face to face experiential learning programmes and the value they provide to the learning achieved by leaders and teams. It is vital that the virtual experience creates a similar level of experience stimulating real behaviours, meaningful conversations and learning points, supporting improved leadership, performance and team resilience.
Covid 19 has increased the level of remote working and is highlighting the many challenges teams are having to overcome. Such as, how do we cultivate team spirit without face to face interaction? How do we onboard new team members effectively? How do we communicate effectively, agree on a common language and approach?
Our experiential programmes will work to support teams in developing action plans to combat these challenges and increase productivity for their organisation through effective remote working.
This project moves to support the new way of working, post Covid 19 with an innovative approach, equipping leaders with new knowledge and helping remote teams leverage their strengths and overcome the challenges of remote team working.
An additional benefit of this online programme is that it will support the creation of a blended learning approach for teams who are also engaging in face to face workshops post Covid 19\. Through the use of technology, learning commitments and actions will be captured for reflection and use, an important part of the team development process often overlooked in purely face to face training.
Finally, this unique platform and training programme will promote efficiencies in training, improve diversity and inclusion in organisations, engage a broader UK talent base and improve opportunities for returners
Additional Information
As a result of learning in the design phase the platform we will now be build on our own bespoke platform rather than a subscription based platform. It will also be developed with the capability to enable us to integrate and host team working games that have been developed by third party providers. This will provide our clients with a wider range of choice supporting their developmental needs and provide planning of longer term interventions using the learning and development platform much earlier than planned.
The combination of developing our own platform and integrating third party providers also allows us to focus on the development and learning content as well as usability.
In addition we are now developing video conferencing using Zoom and breakout rooms as part of the platform functionality. This visual aid will add considerable value for the participants and the facilitators, allowing everyone to see each other’s body language which is so important when discussing team dynamics and communication.
The ability to use breakout rooms-will enable teams to work independently in sub groups on the same activity simultaneously, as well as host discussion groups, providing space for rich conversations especially in review sessions.
Through a period of sustained testing we will receive feedback from users of the platform (end users, admin and facilitators) we will use their comments to help prioritise the feature backlog, giving greater weight to those features that have the most positive impact. If we find that the current feature set is hitting the mark, we will introduce some of the features that we have already designed, and are now included in the product backlog.
Lead Participant | Project Cost | Grant Offer |
|---|---|---|
| BLUESKY EXPERIENCES LTD | £74,525 | £ 74,525 |
People |
ORCID iD |
| James England (Project Manager) |