How many times are you hearing apologies for poor use of technology during online calls?

‘Sorry, I haven’t quite got the hang of Zoom’. Well, we don’t want to hear it – for at least three good reasons.

1. I reckon that you really should have the hang of it by now. If you are creating training or learning sessions, particularly if they are paid-for, you need to have a basic level of competence before you position yourself as someone who can deliver a session via the chosen tech. That’s not to say you shouldn’t – it just means practice and do your research, as with any skill.

2. Sometimes participants can see when it goes wrong, and sometimes they can’t. Either way, their experience is not enriched by hearing your commentary about how bad you are at technology. It simply drains their confidence in you as the facilitator of the event that they have (probably) chosen to attend. What else are you bad at, we may start wondering…

See previous post… Encouraging constructive conversations online – Virtual facilitation #6

3. And finally, it’s not serving you well to reinforce this ‘poor-me’ story about your shortcomings, telling yourself you can’t or you’re not very good. Instead, have a go at embellishing the story of your technical competence. You have a computer and you more or less know how to use it. Practice before your session so you know where the controls are. And focus on the more rather than the less, both in your ambitions for the session and in your running (internal and external) commentary. In the long-term you will gain confidence from your successes. And your participants will gain confidence in you.