The content for this message is inspired by a special report, titled: From Home – The new normal, by Sue Weekes, published in the  latest Business Continuity Institute (BCI)’s Continuity and Resilience Magazine (Q4 2020), and is divided into three parts:

Part 1: The challenges business continuity (BC) practitioners experience

Part 2: The shift to online learning and development

Part 3: Connecting and keeping in touch

It has been almost a year since working from home was introduced as a business continuity strategy to keep organisations operational and functional.

Working from home is fast becoming the new norm; and as part of this arrangement there is a change to online learning and development which showed us the following over the past months:

• Initially delegates were wary of online learning and training platforms. Technologies like Zoom and Microsoft Teams were not part of the business as usual set up.
• Delegates and training facilitators were of the opinion that holding people’s attention for eight hours of online training would be challenging.
• There was a rapid shift in the approach to training practicalities like:
• introducing delegates and facilitators,
• format of training material,
• ice breakers,
• taking breaks during the training session,
• asking questions and
• creating opportunities for interactions.

Considering what we have experienced by working from home, it is evident that there had been a fundamental shift in individual skills, flexibility and confidence. In addition, the technology evolved rapidly to support online learning and development. It seems that the shift to online learning and development has been accepted by most as part of the new norm.

Looking forward to sharing Part 3 with you soon.