Conducting Effective CliftonStrengths Workshops via Zoom, Part 1

Dean Jones, Senior Learning Expert at Gallup, was our guest on a recent Called to Coach. Dean brought his insights to the topic of virtual learning and the challenges inherent in conducting an effective CliftonStrengths Workshop specifically via the Zoom tool. He shared how you can navigate the technology component of virtual learning and key points to consider in order to deliver valuable, engaging learning experiences, in Part 1 of this 2-part series.

Access "Conducting Effective CliftonStrengths Workshops via Zoom, Part 2."

Below is a full transcript of the conversation, including time stamps. Full audio and video are posted above.

We've created the ultimate guide to improving teamwork in the workplace!

Jim Collison 0:00

I am Jim Collison, and live from our virtual studios around the world, this is Gallup's Called to Coach, recorded on April 3, 2020.

Jim Collison 0:21

Called to Coach is a resource for those who want to help others discover and use their strengths. We have Gallup experts and independent strengths coaches share tactics, insights and strategies to help coaches maximize the talent of individuals, organizations and teams around the world. If you're listening live, love to have you join us in our chat room. A link to it's right above me there on the live page. You can go to the YouTube instance, log into the chat room, put your questions there. If you have questions after the fact, we'd love to get an email from you. Send that to us at coaching@gallup.com -- again, coaching.gallup -- I'm sorry, coaching@gallup.com. And don't forget to subscribe right below Dean -- it's the subscribe button there on the live page. If you subscribe to us and click the notification bell, you'll get a notification every time we go live; kind of a nice reminder of when we have our live programs. Or, if you're doing what the cool kids are doing, you are listening to podcasts. So any podcast app, search "Gallup Webcasts" and find us there. Dean Jones is our host today. Dean's a, a Senior Learning Expert here at Gallup. And Dean, always great to have you on Called to Coach. Welcome back!

Dean Jones 1:18

Ah, thank you very much, Jim. I'm glad to be here. Really, really happy to be doing this and really excited to be able to be with everybody today.

Jim Collison 1:25

Our, our topic today is around conducting effective CliftonStrengths workshops. And we have a lot to say on that. You have, you have an extensive outline, and I think we're going to be delighted with what's coming. So let's, let's get started.

Dean Jones 1:39

Yeah, I'd love to, I'd love to dive into this. I wanted to start today, you know, I, I have been thinking a lot knowing, gosh, over the last couple of weeks, just knowing that we were all going to be together and that there was an opportunity for us to be together. And, and as I'm watching the chat right now and seeing all the people that I love that, that we've talked to -- Daniel and Merrill and Cheryl and, you know, just and Magriet. You know, it's, it's so, knowing that we were gonna be together, I wanted to talk a little bit about the time that we're in. Right. So before I dive right into leading these kind of virtual workshops, I want to talk a little bit about the time that we're in.

Dean Jones 2:17

I think the first thing that has been on my mind, and I guess on my heart, is I just wanted to make sure that all of you are healthy and safe and that you have what you need. I know that all of us are dealing with different circumstances as I talk to our folks, our Gallup folks, and and our coaches around the world, I know that there's very many different circumstances around the world. But, and as this is all kind of globally happening, we want to make sure that everybody's OK. And I want you to know that there -- probably not a day goes by at Gallup when we aren't all thinking about you and, and, and just and wanting the best for you, and wanting to make sure that you're all safe. So I want to make sure you know that, right? I want to make sure I said that.

Dean Jones 3:08

The other thing I started to think about, and, and, and it's really that I want to give you a challenge. And this sounds funny, but I've been reflecting about as we are in the middle of this pandemic, right, I've been reflecting about the last 10 years and the last 10 years of work that we've done around this. I don't think that there's ever been a more important time to be a strengths coach. So I think that right now, I don't know, I don't know what, as you, as you all confront the work that you do, but I don't think there's ever been a more important time to be a strengths coach. I think with this global pandemic is an equally powerful and frightening economic catastrophe that is just starting to unfold in the world.

Dean Jones 3:55

And, you know, I was watching the news here in the U.S. last week, 3.3 million people filed for unemployment. It's the largest single-week increase in U.S. history. And then yesterday, an additional 6.6 million people in the United States filed for unemployment. So in the last two weeks, 10, nearly 10 million people became unemployed. That's 10 million people who are at home now without an employer, wondering, How am I going to support my family, you know, without a paycheck? And questioning their value and their self-worth. Questioning, really like, like, how am I going to put myself to work now? Right? How am I going to contribute? How am I gonna bring myself forth again? That's in the U.S. alone. And we know that this is just the beginning of the impact that we'll see around the world.

Dean Jones 4:48

In addition, you know, there's people everywhere that are now working from home, juggling the responsibility of work with raising and educating their children, trying to take care of parents or family members, and sometimes now caring for ill family members -- while trying to adapt to doing all this virtually. Right. I don't know about you, but I have met more of my colleagues' kids and dogs this week than in recorded history, right. And, and it's been a joy. It's actually been phenomenal. And it's, I feel like I feel more connected and close to the people that I -- in my life than I ever have. Right.

Jim Collison 5:26

Neighborhoods have lit up.

Dean Jones 5:28

Yeah, I mean, like, you know, and it's, it's crazy, right, to your point. I mean, it's like I, I feel as I, as even as we connect with friends on Zoom around the country and around the world, you know, it just, it just feels like an important time to be connected, right. We also know that some people are busier than ever, you know, that people working in healthcare and government and grocery stores and other essential businesses and, and lots of people -- including maybe you -- are trying to figure out, How do I make my business or my practice work in this kind of new environment?

Dean Jones 6:01

So, when we started this 9-10 years ago, right, when we started talking about how to, how to do this, we weren't, we didn't anticipate any of this, right? We didn't think like, OK, there's gonna be a time when the, when the world is gonna need us, right? We were thinking mostly about our mission, right? How do we make CliftonStrengths available online? How do we start training strengths coaches around the world? We were thinking about our mission to really, with strengths, to be able to fundamentally shift human development, so that it's focused on what's right with people and not what's wrong; so that we could really unlock and unleash people's talents and contributions on the world. That was really what we were thinking at this time.

Dean Jones 6:45

But reflecting on it, I love the words from the Roman philosopher Seneca, when -- wrote when he said, "Luck is when preparation meets opportunity." And I think in -- some ways, I think it's lucky or fortunate right now that we have over 12,000 trained strengths coaches around the world, and literally around the world; encircling the globe, in nearly every country in the world. I think it's fortunate that you're there. I think as strengths coaches, you have -- now have a big job and honestly a big responsibility in front of you. Because I think right now, more than ever before -- and I say this, I know this sounds a little breathless -- but more than ever before. I think the world needs strengths coaches. I think that people need strengths coaches. More than ever before, people need somebody that can help them identify and name their talents.

Dean Jones 7:39

There are people right now questioning, you know, What is my worth? And I think there are people that need somebody who can say, Let's -- let me not only help you identify those talents but give a name to them; who can help them appreciate those talents and claim them as their own; who can help people apply their talent in meaningful ways in the environment that we in -- that we're in. To be able to help their families, to help their communities and to really address the incredible challenges that we're facing now and, and we will face in the future.

Dean Jones 8:12

So, my charter to you, my, my call to you, really, is, my challenge to you is, I really would encourage you to look for the ways to lift people up around you with the gift of strengths. I'd really be looking every day for how am I going to use what I know -- and you all know more about people's inherent talent than 99% of the population. So I would really be looking at, How am I going to lift people up with strengths?

Dean Jones 8:42

You are trained to be able to recognize and encourage and develop talent. That is, that is who you are. You know how to recognize talent; you know how to encourage and grow and develop talent. The people around you need that right now. So I know that you're going through your challenges alongside everybody else. I know that -- I'm not a Pollyanna about that, right? I know that everybody's dealing with stuff. And I want to make sure that you know, at the same time, that you have this incredible, powerful gift to give the world, and I don't, I don't think the world has actually needed you more. So I think this is really the time. OK?

Jim Collison 9:24

Yeah, Dean, let me add to it too, as well. It's really -- it's a time that we've, we -- and I'm seeing this kind of happen in the communities -- that we kind of come together as a community and support each other. And so there's coaches out there willing to, to coach other coaches. We need to spend some time just connecting with one another. There's been regions in the world that are doing these kind of regional meetups on a regular basis. These are all really important connection points. And so if you're feeling alone or if you're feeling isolated or your business dried up, there are -- there's a whole community we've built around this. If you haven't joined that yet: facebook.com/groups/calledtocoach. I'll say it at the very end. But join one of our communities and connect with others. I think that's a really important thing to do during this time.

Dean Jones 10:06

Yeah, Jim, I think that's right on. I -- it's funny because one of the things I had noted that I wanted to make sure I say today is, I think that -- I think this is the time to lean into this community. You are part of a global community of practice with thousands of people. And many -- and I watch on Facebook as I, I read all the comments in Facebook. I don't always weigh in, right, but I'm reading everything that's there in the Facebook groups that we have. And, and, man, there are some people with extraordinary talent who are extending themselves to make sure that they provide that. We've got people in this community that know how to run a coaching business and can provide great coaching around that. We've got people that know how-- that are experts. I just heard from my friend Jen Selka yesterday. You know, there's people with expertise in how to deliver virtual trainings. There's people with technology expertise, and Jim has posted in Facebook, Hey, I'm one of them. I'm happy to help you. So I think it's time to lean into the community, and to really use the community to be able to get what you need and also to be able to contribute to others, right.

Dean Jones 11:07

So, so I want to turn to today's topic, right. So the topic today, I, you know, the way we advertised was we said, "Conducting Effective CliftonStrengths Workshops Via Zoom." So, and we're -- honestly where that came from was, is Jim and I, as we were watching the comments in the Facebook group and, and looking at what people were saying, we know that many of you are looking at How do I adapt the work I do in this new virtual world? How do I -- given with the circumstances that we're in -- how am I adapting? And honestly, I think, in a weird way, there's a silver lining here. I think that this -- we'll look back on this time as probably the greatest catalyst that any of us could have had to become more digital in the ways that we work and the ways that we connect with others and deliver, deliver the -- do the work that we do, right.

Dean Jones 11:19

So, so today, what I want to be able to do today is kind of talk through that with you. Right? And I am, I would tell you that I had a moment of tremendous humility yesterday, I realized, like, there are a lot of people out there that know a ton about this. So I want to give you kind of my contribution or my -- I'm gonna weigh in on this. But I am by no means the only one who's got tons of expertise on this. And, again, like, I think the community's got a lot to, lot to offer there.

Dean Jones 12:28

I do want to say a word about Zoom. We said in the title, kind of, "Via Zoom." Right. And I wanted to make sure that people don't take that as either the endorsement, right? Like, you know, we endorse Zoom! You know what I mean? Or like that there's a commercial that now appears for Zoom, right? The reason we said that is that is what we're using. Right. And I think, in many cases, I think a lot of you are very interested in how, you know, what are we doing around this? We're using Zoom; we had started using Zoom before all of this, right. And I kind of love the back story of Zoom, you know, how there was a guy that was with -- working in another firm, had ideas for this, decided to spin himself out and start a firm. And that's, that's how Zoom kind of was born.

Dean Jones 13:12

And here's the thing that I would tell you why we, why we would say, Hey, this is the technology, if you're gonna explore technology, this is a technology to explore. And we know that for the most part, it works globally. So for those of you who are coaching all over the world, for the most part, it works globally. We know there's some, some places where it doesn't and where it's not a great solution. And there are other solutions on the market that can provide that. It is great stable technology. So we know that, that around it, it's great stable technology. It's inexpensive, for the most part, right? So relative to the, to what you get, it's inexpensive. It's very accessible. It's easy to learn and use.

Dean Jones 13:52

So in terms of people, the, you know, with our, with our clients and our customers that are working on that kind of stuff, it's easy for them to, to get and to use, and to learn to use, and it's also got some great features for learning. So, like, as we look, and I know that they are working on, I've heard from our tech folks, that they continue to kind of invest and develop this platform, both the stability of this platform and also the feature set. So that's why we're talking about Zoom. But by no means is it the only platform and so, I don't want you to think like we think you should only use Zoom or like that, right? So you'll, you'll do what works. And you may find other ways of -- other platforms and other technology you use that work better for the folks that you work with. Right.

Dean Jones 14:37

So as I was preparing this session, I realized, gosh, there's just so much we could cover. As, as Jim said, like, even the edited version of my notes are 4 pages long here, right? So there's just so much we can cover in this topic, right? Let me tell you, here's what I'd like to do today. Right. So I'd like to -- one is, I want to give you just some high-level coaching about the technology piece first. So that's the first thing I want to give you is just some high-level, how to think about the technology piece.

Dean Jones 15:06

Then I want to provide some guidance and some, just kind of some, some high-level guidance, if you will, about designing and delivering workshops virtually. Because I think that'll help as you are thinking about, How do I create what I need to create? How do I build what I need to build? You know, that I think that'll help around that. And so I'm going to give you that. And then, if there's time left, we'll, we'll do some questions here. OK?

Dean Jones 15:32

So let me dive in on the technology piece first, OK. I think that -- and I just want to kind of talk about this piece. Because it's funny, I was telling Jim before we started, you know, as I was prepping for the session, and I started Googling, like, "Leading learning classes via Zoom" or like that and, you know, I was like trying to read what's out there right now. Right? And I was honestly surprised that gosh, 90% of what's out there is really about the technology, and not about the learning experience. So there, it's, there's a ton out there about how to use the technology. There's not as much out there, I think, about how do you create, how do you create the learning experience there?

Dean Jones 16:15

So here's the -- excuse me -- here's the, here is the guidance, I think, I would give you, or the high-level coaching I'd give you around the technology piece. I think the goal in -- the goal in delivering these kind of virtual sessions is to make the technology transparent. You want to make the technology transparent. So people have their eye on the technology; they don't have their eye on the learning, right? So the goal is to get yourself and to get them as quickly as possible so that technology is transparent and you're just, you're just connecting with people, right? So part of that is making sure you got the right equipment and that you've got the right equipment and they've got the right equipment.

Dean Jones 16:59

Typically what we, when we recommend to people that are doing our virtual courses, we make sure, gosh, make sure you got a -- a good camera, right. And typically the one in your laptop is is more than adequate. You can also purchase an external camera inexpensively through, through Amazon. And there's a whole range. And if you're, if you're somebody who likes to spend money, you can find a way to spend a lot of money, right, but you don't need to. Right. The other thing we typically tell people is, Hey, it's good to have a headset, right? So, for the purposes of what we're doing now, we typically use a microphone and earbuds right? But it's good to just have a headset; that way people can hear you. And part of what you're trying to do again is make sure everybody can see and hear everybody else.

Dean Jones 17:43

One of the things that is -- I just consider kind of good hygiene for virtual sessions is that you kind of train people from the beginning that you, that -- they're gonna wear a headset and everybody's gonna turn on their camera. You know, in a webinar, everybody doesn't necessarily have their camera on, you know, and there's lots of web sessions where there's video, but they mute everybody's camera just for bandwidth considerations, right? But typically, in the workshops that I think for most of you that we'll do, given the number of folks, you want people to turn on their video. I always think not turning on your video is kind of like walking into a classroom with a bag over your head. Right? It's just, you know, it's kind of weird, you know. So, you know, I, you know, my advice to everyone is, don't be weird, you know! So I think you want to turn on your videos. So part of what you're trying to do is make sure you can connect with everybody and everybody can connect with you. So you're there to learn to connect. That's really the point, right?

Dean Jones 18:38

The second piece of advice around the just the technology piece, right, is, is to master the technology yourself. So if your attention is on the technology, your attention isn't on the participants. So it's hard to lead. It's hard to, it's hard to know where you're going. It's hard to read participants, it's just you, you want to make sure that you've got your attention fully on the participants and not on the technology. So part of it is doing enough work with the technology that you move through the 4 Stages of Competence, right? And, you know, if most of you know the 4 Stages of Competence, you know, it starts -- it ends with unconscious competence, right? You know, it starts with unconscious incompetence, right?

Dean Jones 19:22

So, but you want to kind of practice enough and move through the stages so you feel like you're facile with the technology. So you're using the technology and you don't have your attention on it. It's -- there is, as I said, online, a ton of stuff right now. I just noticed this morning that LinkedIn is making classes on Zoom available free. You know, like, there's a ton of stuff online to learn the features of Zoom. And Zoom, by the way, if you're somebody that, you know, is relatively facile with technology, you're just playing around with it, you can use the fea -- you can learn the features pretty fast. But this is a time to get some other coaches together or some friends together and get on Zoom and play around with it. Put everybody in breakout sessions; take everybody out of breakout sessions, you know, like to just, just to be able to kind of practice with the technology so that you feel comfortable and you don't have your attention on it. Right.

Jim Collison 20:13

Dean, let me, let me give one pointer on this: This would be a great opportunity to connect with other coaches and practice this. So get a group of 6 to 8 of you together; practice the -- this, these sessions. Get, move people around, somebody facilitate, transfer that facilitation, try screen sharing, do all the various features that are involved in that. That may be a great way to connect and just practice before you try to do it with your customer.

Dean Jones 20:36

Yeah, absolutely, Jim, I think Justin, just in chat, said "Hey, I think Zoom offers classes." Yes, they do. I just noticed those the other day. So, you know, I mean, there's just lots of resources out there right now. And the good thing is during this time, people are making those resources available at no cost or very, very low cost. So there's a lot out there.

Dean Jones 20:54

The other thing, and it's interesting, so, you guys all know Maika Leibbrandt from, from Theme Thursday and the other kind of webcasts that we do. Well, this is one of the things that Maika -- that we picked up from Maika, and, and I think is just a best practice, is one of these you want to be prepared for is helping people with technology. So as you're leading these kind of sessions, you want to make sure that you're prepared to be able to help people with the technology piece, because they're going to need help, right. And so you want to have a level of capability around it that you can kind of troubleshoot.

Dean Jones 21:24

I was laughing with my, with my manager at Gallup yesterday, the gentleman I report to, was laughing. He was like, "I love when you go into tech support mode!" right? You know what I mean? And so, I think we all, we just, you know, kind of deputize ourselves as tech support, right. And so, and so you should know it well enough that you can help people with the technology. Because one of the things -- and we know this from our courses that we're leading -- there's -- people have a range of comfort and capability around the technology. There's people like, "Hey, this is no big thing." And there's people at the other end of the continuum who are "Hey, gosh, you know, it just makes me sweat thinking about it!" And so, and you want to make sure that that's accessible for everybody, regardless of where they're at.

Dean Jones 22:06

The other thing that we would recommend, as you set this up, and this is just a really good, good notion is, is as you start leading these workshops, it's always useful to have somebody who can be a partner or a producer that can just be there with you as you're delivering. So one of our, like, one of our best practices in our courses, typically with our Accelerated Strengths Coaching course that's virtual now, right, that we have, we have two folks that are leading the course. But we also have somebody from our technology group that is on for the first like hour to be able to just help people get acclimated. So if people are having issues with bandwidth, or I saw somebody say today, was, was saying, Hey, look, you know, I don't you know, I'm having some difficulty right? to have somebody who can help kind of troubleshoot that stuff behind the scenes, so they can say, Hey, look, you know, call me and I'll help you, I'll help you troubleshoot it. So that you, as you're leading it, you can, you've got some support, particularly if there's a bunch of people that are having, having challenges.

Dean Jones 23:13

So having somebody they -- and typically what happens, I will tell you, in most cases, is it's the initial getting people connected that is hard. But once people are connected, then it tends to be smooth sailing. So but in the beginning, it can be a lot. You also -- another, another tip around this is you want to make sure at the beginning of any workshop, that you've allowed -- allotted time for that, right. There's going to be time, if you can ask people to show up early, that's always great and get connected early. And so you're getting people connected and raring to go so you can start on time. You just want to also know that there are going to be people that are going to have difficulty, and that's OK. And, and you want to make sure that that they're all set there. Right.

Dean Jones 23:54

So the last thing I'll say about the technology piece is that, is that remember that being in a course, ultimately, is a human experience, not a technology experience. We did this thing with our, with our most of our folks, our colleagues in Asia the other night, where there were probably, I don't know, maybe 50 of us, maybe even more, on, on Zoom together. And we were talking about one of the things that some of our colleagues in Asia had asked about was, Hey, what's the experience as we've started to offer all of our courses virtually? Like, what are people saying, and what's it like and like that? And one of our course leaders, a guy named -- many of you may know him -- named Danny Lee talked about -- he said this brilliant thing that essentially being in a course is a human experience, right? It's not a technology experience or not, it's not like a video game. Right? You know, I'm not interacting with a technology. I'm interacting with other human beings.

Dean Jones 24:43

And what you're doing by offering workshops virtually is you're, you're using technology to create a learning space. So you're using technology to overcome physical distance and be able to connect with other human beings. And you'll always want to have the -- you'll always want to have your attention and your focus on that. And again, just to kind of come full circle, you want it to be such that the technology pretty quickly becomes transparent. And it's just a bunch of people together, connected in a virtual space, but a bunch of people together connected, who are having a meaningful conversation about their talents and their strengths. So that's really the goal around the technology piece. So I'm going to stop there, I think. I'm going to stop there. I think -- I want to, I wanted to talk about that piece. I do know, again, there's tons of resources around the technology piece, so, that are that are helpful and very useful. And I think and I would encourage you to take advantage of that, around that. Jim?

Jim Collison 25:40

Dean, I think the best idea that came out of the chat room as they were talking through this is a cofacilitator, a cohost doing this partnering. If you're a typically a solo coach, and you've done this solo, might be a great opportunity to partner up with another coach and do this together. We do this at Gallup in a lot of our training; they're facilitated by two people, not just one. We've moved back to that model as it's gone virtual. And that's been my model in podcasting for 10 years is I always have a cohost. It just makes things easier; you can, you can hand it off to somebody else. You can be fixing problems while somebody else is talking. You can be answering things in the chat room.

Jim Collison 26:15

Just remember, I think, as you're thinking about the technology, think about your favorite podcast, and then take the best of what they're doing in that and replicate it in some ways. Podcasters figured this out a long time ago -- how to make these things work and are interesting and in every -- they do in all kinds of different ways. There's not one right way to do it. But, but take from what the podcast -- what you've learned from podcasters, and there may be some great opportunities to infuse that into your learning like you never have before.

Dean Jones 26:42

Yeah, no, I think that's absolutely right. No, I think that's absolutely right. I think that the other thing, and I'm going to say something super-obvious here, but the more people that you've got in a workshop, the more likely you're going to have people that are going to have issues, right. So I think if it's a small group, you know, it's less likely you're gonna have folks that are, that are gonna have issues. If it's a big group, that's when you really do want to have that cohost or that partner, that producer that's able to help troubleshoot that stuff, you know, or a couple of those folks, right? That, you know, if it's a particularly large group, you know, you're just gonna, it's just the, you know, the law of averages; you're just gonna have that, right.

Dean Jones 27:21

So, so let's talk about the course design piece. So this is the piece I really want to get into is a little bit about design. So -- and there are really 3 things, you know, 3 things that I want to kind of anchor today on. I want to talk about design -- course design -- in a virtual space. I want to talk about your preparation to actually lead, and I want to talk a little bit about practice at the end, right. So 1) design, 2) preparation, 3) practice. OK?

Dean Jones 27:52

So first on the course design piece. This is the piece that I, that I want to make sure that you are anchored, anchored in. Because I know, I know many of you, have talked to many of you. And I know that you are a talented crew. You are a talented bunch. And I want to make sure like, I wanted to start by saying, Look, don't throw the baby out with the bath water. Don't, don't have it be this thing where "I'm in this virtual world and everything is different." No, it's actually not, right. So all the design principles of adult learning still work. You're still connecting with adults; you're still helping adults develop. So I want you to know that you can stand in everything you know about, about learning and development and adult learning particularly, right, that all those principles still work. So it's still critically important -- relevancy is still critically important. Do people think that the topics, the content that you're dealing with, is highly relevant? And, and people's attention spans I think are always perfectly correlated with the degree of relevancy and practicality in the work that you do.

Dean Jones 29:01

So if people are, no matter what's going on, right, if people think, "Gosh, this is super relevant for what I'm dealing with right now, and this is super practical -- it's something that I can apply" -- which we know are basic tenets of adult learning, then man, you're going to engage people for hours, right? I think the other piece is is you got to honor people, the learner's history and knowledge. So I think that's part of, honestly, I think for some people that teach adults, that's a detriment. For me, I've always found that that's the most exciting thing about adult learning is that everybody brings their history and their knowledge, and if you let people, they can, you know, kind of you, you tell people to "let it rip," you know that they will uncork that. And that becomes one of the cool, exciting dimensions of working with adults in this kind of context is them sharing all of their history, all of their knowledge, right.

Dean Jones 29:55

The other thing is, we know that adults are self-directed learners., And one of the cool things -- and and there's this gentleman that works at Gallup, his name is Buddy Steele, he's just a very, very, very talented guy. He's a very talented learning design professional. And he was, we were, we were typing back and forth on email yesterday. He talked about how, in online learning situations, it's interesting that what the research says is that, that, in many cases, the level of retention and integration is higher in online learning situations because the learners feel like they've got more control over the learning. And that's particularly true with like modules and self-paced learning, but, but it extends also to the kind of learning like this, where people feel like that they can, they're typing in chat, they can engage or not engage. They feel like they can throttle it up and throttle it back. And they've got lots of control over the learning, right? And so it really speaks to or plays to that need that we know adult learners have to -- for self -- to be self-directed, right. So I think that's really powerful.

Dean Jones 30:59

The other piece -- and you've heard me talk about this; you've heard other, others at Gallup talk about it, but one of the things that we created probably about, I don't know, 8 or 10 years ago, was what we consider kind of the fundamental building blocks of a course. And I've talked about, I know, I've talked about these in some of the summit sessions that I've led, right, but, but there's 4 fundamental building blocks that we've said that there are in a course, right. One is being able to introduce a concept to people, or a framework. The second is being able to tell a story. The third is being able to lead an inquiry. And the fourth is being able to conduct an activity. So 1) introducing a concept, 2) telling a story, 3) leading an inquiry and 4) conducting an activity. And those are ones that we created about 10 years ago, as a way to be able to, one is to be able to simplify the design of our courses. So we knew what mode we were using when we were doing that. And it was also, we also used it a lot to be able to train new leaders. So we could bring leaders in and say, hey, these are the 4 skills that you need to possess fundamentally at, at an entry level to be able to lead a course or a workshop. So we've talked about that a lot.

Dean Jones 32:10

Now, how those get done in a virtual environment is a little different, right? So it's not exactly -- if you try to do it exactly the same way that -- try to do it exactly the same way as you do it in an instructor-led classroom, in many cases, it'll be a bust, right? So it's what I mentioned, Jennifer Selka a minute ago. She used a word in her email that is called "skeuomorphic." I had not heard of this word. But "skeuomorphic" is when that that something imitates the design of something, but, but it doesn't fully imitate, imitate the functionality. I guess it's a word that's used a lot in visual design or, or user experience design, right? But it's that kind of thing where, if you just try to pick up an instructor-led course and plop it into a virtual environment, it can be kind of a bust because you can't do those things in exactly the same way. And so that's part of what we'll talk about a little bit today is what are the things you want to have your eye on around that, right?

Dean Jones 33:10

The other thing I just want to remind you is we -- is to reinforce that this, that all the design, design principles of adult learning still work, is that you got to remember that learning design always starts with who the learner is. So the more you know about the learner, and the same is true in a virtual environment, the more you know about the learner, the better that you'll be able to design to them. So their level of sophistication, their, their level of sophistication, their comfort with technology in this environment, where they are in terms of strengths development. So -- excuse me -- it's so important to know who those learners are, so that as you think about what you're designing, you're designing to who those learners are, right? So, all that stuff still works.

Dean Jones 33:57

And at the same time as you start to kind of think about designing for a virtual environment, there's some things that you can do that I think make that really powerful and unique. One thing is to be really clear about what the intention and purpose is of the learning that you're designing. So as I said before, you start -- you always start with who the learner is. But then you pretty quickly, and this is always the question that I ask, is, What are the learning outcomes? Why are we doing this? What, what do we want to accomplish here? You want to be clear that you're very much anchored in the intention and purpose. And in, in a lot of ways, you're sort of when -- when you design, you're sort of reverse-engineering back from what is the outcome that we want? What are the learning outcomes? What is the purpose that we want? We want to reverse engineer back to that.

Dean Jones 34:50

As I said before, excuse me, you don't just deliver your workshop the way you do in person. You have to actually transform the workshop inside a virtual delivery. And it starts with being able to anchor yourself in what's the intention and purpose? What's the outcome you're out to do? Right? I am laughing because when we first started going out and calling, calling folks and telling them, Hey, we're going to, we're going to be doing the accelerated course -- we're going to be, virtually, there was one guy who said, said, "Gosh, will it just be a 4-day webinar?" I couldn't think of anything that was worse.

Jim Collison 35:32

Well, and I think that's what a lot of people do is they think like, they just take exactly what you did in person and replicate it online. And that's just not -- I mean, we've got to kind of think differently about how would we do this differently if this situ -- I was, I was really proud of the work that we did as we kind of struggled through this to ask those questions of How could it be different? We took a lot of the things we learned by doing all of these Called to Coach, Theme Thursdays, all these -- the stuff we -- and applied there to make a difference. So be resistant to that of just taking what you currently have and morphing it to the exact same thing, just online. I think our schools are finding out that doesn't work either. And they're starting to get really, they're starting to get really good. I'm hearing stories come out from parents about how they're doing these quick 15-minute connects with the students; how they're restructuring the homework to be a little bit different. Right. We still have a long ways to go. But yeah, it kind of needs to be rethought.

Dean Jones 36:27

Yeah. I always think about it. The analogy that I like to use, and I learned this from some of my colleagues that work in Southeast Asia is, you know, when you translate something into Thai -- into the into the Thai language -- you can't just say OK, well, this word means this and this word means this. The Thai language doesn't work that way. And I don't claim to know much about it, but the way it's been described to me, when you're translating something into Thai, you almost have to rewrite it in the language so that it communicates the same purpose. It's not just word-for-word translation. It's really thinking about reinventing it inside the Thai language.

Dean Jones 37:03

And I think the analogy really holds here that you're thinking about, Hey, I'm just not going to just, just pick it up and try to do the same thing online. What I'm going to do is kind of reinvent it inside of this mode. And what's cool about this is, while, while I think, in many ways, you can with, with the technology we've got, with Zoom, you can, you can accomplish many of the same things that you would accomplish in an instructor-led classroom, right? There's lots of -- you can still do large-group presentation; you can still do small-group discussion; you can still do paired sharing. A lot of the kind of basic things that you would do in an instructor-led classroom, you can still do inside of Zoom, right? But there's also a whole layer of things that you can do on top of that, right.

Dean Jones 37:48

So, so you want to be thinking about How do I, how do I take advantage of everything that I'm doing that's working, and then how can I take advantage of some of this technology to be able to enable people to participate in kind of new and interesting ways that enhance the learning, right?

Dean Jones 38:05

The other thing, and that I would encourage you to do, many of you could probably lead a seminar in this, but is to really make sure you're using what's described -- what's called the flipped classroom approach. The flipped classroom approach is just a simple approach that says, Hey, instead of trying to, instead of lecturing to people, instead of trying to deliver information online, that you do that in other ways so that you maximize the time you have together. So in the flipped classroom approach, typically you'll do something like deliver, ask people to watch a video or to read something prior to being together. Then the time you have together, you focus on those activities that connect each other. So a discussion or an activity that we're doing together that allows us to be able to use that information, right.

Dean Jones 38:50

I've always said that learning is always 3 components: there's knowledge transfer; there's skills development; and there's behavior change. And, and I didn't think of that -- that's, that's my version of Bloom's taxonomy, right? Is there's always, there's always kind of those 3 levels that, that is the work that you've got, right? Knowledge transfer; skills development; and behavior change. And the -- in the flipped classroom approach, all you're doing is saying, Hey, we're going to take that knowledge transfer piece, and we're not, because that's just downloading into your brain, right? We're going to take that out of the experience, and have people do that as part of the preparation there, if they're willing to do that, and if they're able to do that, and, and, and so that the time we have together is more meaningful.

Dean Jones 39:33

And so I would encourage you to check that out or to use that, incorporate that in the work that you're doing. So as I said, you know, in in, in that kind of a virtual platform, you can do a lot of the things that you typically would do in an instructor-led classroom, and, and it does it well and it does it very elegantly, honestly. So you can still do large-group presentations, incorporating PowerPoint and like that. You can still do small-group discussions, and those are very meaningful, and I think part of the learning, I think, for a lot of leaders -- I've seen our leaders go through this -- is, is that they put everybody in a small-group discussion. And sometimes in a virtual platform, you can't see the people; you have to actually go into their small group to know where they're at. And so I, you know, like one of the challenges I think we run into with leaders a lot is they don't allot enough time for the small-group discussions. So helping you to be able to manage the cadence of that around small-group discussion in a virtual platform, it feels different, I think from the leader's perspective.

Dean Jones 40:30

You can still do paired sharing, so you put people essentially into groups of 2 so that people can share. And that, as we all know, one of the great things about that is is that in a paired-share, in a workshop environment, everybody gets to talk; everybody gets to share; and everybody gets to connect with somebody else. And I think particularly in the, in a strengths course, you want our strengths workshop, you want people to be able to do that, because a lot of the learning -- you know, Don Clifton, Dr. Clifton said this, which is the learning happens when you're connecting with other human beings. And so that kind of paired sharing or small group sharing becomes incredibly meaningful and, and really helps kind of create the kind of self-awareness that facilitates people really mastering their talents and strengths.

Dean Jones 41:17

The, the other thing you can do -- other things you can do in this kind of environment is review physical or digital materials. So you can incorporate that people are reviewing, taking time to review physical material or digital material. In some cases, the way we've done it is to have that material happen prior to them participating in a workshop. In some cases, we say, Hey, we're going to take a break. So we're going to take 20 minutes now. This is an opportunity for you to go, during these 20 minutes, we'd like you to go read this, right. Or we'd like you to review this, and when we come back, we're going to talk about it, right. So give people kind of a natural break around it and at the same time, there's, there's time to kind of investigate the material that you're working with, right.

Dean Jones 41:57

And then of course, you want to make sure you're incorporating reflection, practice and feedback. So part of any kind of soft skills training, any kind of training where self-awareness is an important component, is people are going to need time for reflection. And sometimes that's overnight, you know, if it's a 2-day training or like that, or between the sessions that you've got, they've got time to be able to reflect; they've got time to be able to go and practice something intentionally. So a lot of times in our manager courses that we offer, it's we ask people, Hey, go practice this with the people that you manage, right? So like that, and to be able to get some feedback on it.

Dean Jones 42:36

One of the things that I think is unique and different, right, is one of the ways we design our courses is to be able to change modes roughly every 20 minutes. Right. Now, I say that and I know that the tendency is that people will turn that into the law, right? "You must change modes every 20 minutes, or else you know, the world comes unglued," right? That's actually a guideline, not a law. The idea here is, is you're changing modes frequently to create engagement, to create interest and to be able to reinforce the learning. We all know, you know, there used to be sort of the conventional wisdom around webinars was people could tolerate about 45 minutes. And then, then you were basically baked, right? They were done, take them out of the oven, right. So, you know, basically, we try to change -- every 20 to 30 minutes, we're trying to change the mode so it feels like it's keep -- there's a sufficient variety to manage people's engagement and interest.

Dean Jones 43:32

The other things you can do with Zoom that I think are really powerful here are to be able to take advantage of the technology, right? So, I mean, it's simple. We're all doing this right now. But you know, chat is so incredibly cool and powerful, because everybody can share and everybody's sharing while this is all happening, right? So it's cool that, and it's kind of funny, it creates a level of interest in activity that's engaging for -- engaging as it's happening. So I always think, you know, it sounds funny, but I always think, Hey, I'm doing great when I'm leading the workshop if people are all chatting while it's happening, right? Because I know people are engaged, right? And, you know, and I can also, when I'm watching the chat of people talking about the weather, you know, versus talking about what's happening, you know what I'm talking about, you know what I mean? I know how I'm doing, right. There's a good barometer.

Dean Jones 44:25

So I think it's -- chat is phenomenal and adds this cool kind of dimension to everything we're doing. So I think, gosh, you want to really encourage people, like, let it rip. You know, we want everything you got. We want your comments. We want your questions, you know, let it go. The other thing is polls. Zoom has a great polling feature where and, and, you know, we I we have talked about and priced technology that you can incorporate into classrooms to take polls. And, and honestly it's it's sort of weird and cumbersome in an instructor-led classroom, and it's super-integrated in, in a virtual classroom.

Dean Jones 44:59

So to be able to take polls, see where everybody's at, what's your, you know, and it's a great polls as simple as like, Hey, I'm about to talk about a flipped classroom. I'm going to give you a poll right now. I just want to know your level of familiarity with that. So I know the level of depth that I should explore. You know, is this a new concept to everybody? Or is this something everybody's cognizant of and has incorporated into the work they're doing? Right? So that helps me to be able to gauge, like, Where is everybody? So I can pitch the learning to the level of competency that's directly in the room. So that polling feature is terrific.

Dean Jones 45:31

Typically, you have to set those up in advance. So you have to, you have to plan to say, Hey, this is how I'm doing, right. The other thing that Zoom has that's kind of interesting is a "reactions" feature. How's everybody doing? You can, you can hit the "thumbs up"; everybody gives you a quick thumbs up. You can hit the applause button, you know. So those reactions are super useful to get a gauge, particularly if you get a big group, to get a gauge on how this is going. There's also, in Zoom, there's a place where people can provide feedback on the pace and the cadence. And this is, I will tell you, I think the toughest thing for course leaders as they adapt to virtual development, right, is one of the big challenges is, is cadence. I think sometimes people, people lead too slowly. I'm going to talk about that in a minute. I think sometimes people lead too slowly.

Dean Jones 46:20

So, and you, participants can give you feedback: Hey, go faster, go slower on this. Hey, I need a break now, you know, so, so that you can use all of that technology and incorporate all that technology. And that adds another great layer to the work that you're doing. OK.

Dean Jones 46:39

So I want to talk a little bit. So delivering workshops over Zoom is what's described in learning circles as synchronous delivery, right. And that's contrasted with asynchronous, which is like a self-paced module that you do. There's lots of discussion around online learning right now, particularly, as this is, this environment that we're in has created a catalyst for all of this, right? We do know that, particularly with asynchronous learning, that there is -- there's -- it dramatically can increase people's retention and support integration, right. And over the last few years, many of you that worked inside organizations, there's been a resurgence in people interested in kind of self-paced modules or asynchronous learning. So, there's been organizations out there that have great kind of suites of self-paced modules. Probably the biggest innovation in the last 3 or 4 years has been incorporating really, really slickly produced video into these. So you know, it's kind of like there, there used to be, in a lot of self-paced modules, kind of some cheeseball video, you know, that, that, you know, looked like, you know, industrial films from the, from the '80s, right, you know what I mean?

Jim Collison 47:51

Really poorly produced.

Dean Jones 47:53

Really poorly produced. Yeah, and, and one of the kind of cool things that you see now is really slickly produced videos in some cases. Another enhancement that in these kind of self-paced modules has been, has been using celebrities essentially. Right? So using people that were masters of their craft, or were celebrities in some way, shape or form or experts in a particular area to be able to do that. Those are the two things that you really saw happening. The challenge is, is that one of the things that's kind of caught up, and I just read this yesterday, is one of the things that's kind of caught up with those self-paced modules is they've, they haven't yet overcome the challenges is that there's with purely asynchronous modules, with just self-paced modules, the completion rates are really low. That people just don't get through them. Right. And they don't complete them. It's, for a lot of organizations, getting people to do them is like pulling teeth and getting them to complete them is even harder.

Dean Jones 48:50

So in some ways, I just read yesterday that actually the, the use and the adoption of that has started to, has sort of peaked and is going down. They expect it to decline for the next couple years, just because people are moving away from that kind of pure self-, self-paced training. Why do I say that is because it reinforces the value for many of you that you don't have to do, don't have to build self-paced training. The kind of workshops that many of you will lead that are these synchronous or live delivered workshops are incredibly valuable and engaging.

Dean Jones 49:26

There's two things that we know, or three things really that we know, that make, that really make these particularly impactful, right. One is if they're blended learning. So making sure that the, that when you're putting together a workshop like this, that it feels like a blended learning package. That is, that you're incorporating different modes of learning that help reinforce the learning. So there's something to read; there may be one-on-one sessions. You know, the kind of way that we do it is we have you do an assessment before; we ask you to read some stuff before; we give you digital materials and physical materials; there's a one-on-one coaching session after it. There's instructor-led components; there's practice components. So using that kind of, the, the notion is, and you all know this from an adult learning standpoint, is that you're using, you're using different modes that reinforce each other. So that heightens the level of retention; it heightens the integration and behavior change that you get from the learning.

Dean Jones 50:24

The other piece is, is that you're doing it in a cohort. So creating cohorts, where we know that cohort-based learning has higher completion rates, and that you have, again, higher retention and higher integration, higher, higher levels of behavior change. And it's just as simple as your learn -- there's, there's peer-based learning, but there's also somebody who's holding me accountable. So I'm going to show up for the workshop tomorrow. And if I haven't read it, I might be in a small-group discussion where everybody else has read it and I got nothing to contribute, right? So it has me more inclined to kind of do that prework or kind of do that homework from the last session, because I know people are counting on me to do that, right. And particularly, if I've got a relationship with those folks, that's going to increase the level of kind of, kind of peer pressure or group accountability that's gonna support me in doing the work I need to do to make it a meaningful experience. So the second thing really -- first is blended learning; second is cohort-based learning really helps.

Dean Jones 51:21

The third thing is social learning. And man, there's a lot of stuff right now about social learning. Social learning started to become a buzzword a couple years ago. And it's essentially just the value of learning from peers. And I think particularly no more is that more relevant and interesting than in a, than in a strengths workshop. You really want people sharing as much as possible in those workshops. So that's where small-group sharing and paired sharing and group sharing really makes a difference -- particularly in introductory strengths workshops. You want to hear from a lot of people talking about their strengths, and where they see their strengths in their life, like that. That helps people get the vocabulary of strengths really embedded. So it's super important. And that's, it's just, it just reinforces when you're doing this online, you want to make sure that you're building in great opportunities for that kind of social learning, right. And certainly, there's very sophisticated platforms that allow you to be able to facilitate that. But there's also kind of just putting people together and letting them connect, right?

Dean Jones 52:24

As you're des -- so as you're designing your workshop, here's some of the things you want to think about. I'm going to recap this section, and then I'm going to change gears here. You want to think about the modes you're using, right? So what are the modes you're using, and am I changing modes frequently enough? You want to think about the cadence and pace of the session relative to the audience. So that again, the more you know about the audience, the more it'll give you what you need to do, in terms of the cadence and the pace of the session. You want to know where they are in their development. And this is where I really lean into the, those developmental milestones from the Advanced Strengths Coaching course, right? If you haven't done it, of course, I'm telling you, you should do it, right. It's just great learning -- it's great learning, but those developmental milestones are a great touchstone for knowing, OK, where are people in terms of their ability around strengths coaching, right?

Dean Jones 53:08

You want to think about the group size. And one of the things about the group size -- just like, the same is true when we have people lead instructor-led sessions is there -- that we know with course leaders, there's a certain group size that you can handle, right? And so, like, if your first workshop is 150 people in on Zoom, I would say, Man, you're just, you're a masochist. Right? You know, you want a -- a small start. I know that particularly like with academic programs in higher ed, typically, they -- now granted, they charge a lot of money for those programs -- but typically, in, in a lot of the best practice higher ed organizations, institutions, they try to keep class size to like 10 people for virtual courses. So there's a very, you know, so that the instructor-learner ratio is highly optimal. Right.

Dean Jones 54:01

You also want to think, as you're designing, about, what should I be doing offline for knowledge transfer? What should I be doing online for discussion and practice? And how should I be chunking this material? Some cases, you've got a group and you've only got one shot with this group. They, they've said, Hey, I want you to come in, want you do an introduction to strengths; we're giving you 2 hours, let it rip, right? Or, in some cases, you may have more than one shot at the group. And so how do you chunk the material? What's the, what's the amount of time that you want to have be -- between sessions? We know that if the, if there's too much time between sessions, people lose momentum. We know that if there's too many sessions, you lose participation, right? So part of it is figuring out, for this particular audience, what's the, what's the right amount of time between sessions and what's the right number of sessions to be able to do that?

Dean Jones 54:50
And then finally, you want to think about, How am I allowing time for reflection, practice and integration around this? We know those kind of insights are super important around, around this. They, they really fuel self-awareness here. So last thing I would say on this is, I think you want to make sure that you're helping people with synthesis. I think your, your, you want to make sure that in the design of what you're doing that you're helping people with synthesis around this. So it feels like that -- I think that's one of the most important pieces as you leave people is that you're, you're asking people to ask themselves, you're having people share, What did I learn? What am I going to do differently now based on this? That, that kind of, that needs to be explicit from people. So people need to be able to say that explicitly; they need to also hear others saying that, because that is how -- they'll steal from other people. That's important learning time with other folks, right, to be able to do that. Jim, we've got more to cover, but I'm just looking at the time. I think we're gonna let me, let me just say one thing to wrap up and then maybe we can talk about about some of this on a future session. OK? That work?

Jim Collison 56:02

OK, sounds good. Yeah, you bet.

Dean Jones 56:03

OK. So the, the last thing I'll say for today is I just want to make sure that you know that, that leading courses, designing and leading courses online is a skill. OK? This is a skill, and you're going to need practice with this, right. And one of the things I want to encourage you all to do is to be patient with yourself. This is a process of learning; you may not be great at it overnight. And so it's, I think you've got to be patient with yourself. And the truth is, is others will be patient with you. And that you may not be great at it overnight, but you will be able to master it. And the more you practice, the more you master it. So as we said earlier, I think one of the important things right now is to make sure you're setting yourselves up with lots of opportunities, low-risk opportunities to be able to practice. This is where to get together other strengths coaches, and you all practice on each other. You know, "OK, I'm going to be the host this time. This is how I'm gonna do it." But you want to make sure that you're, you're set up on that. Right.

Dean Jones 57:05

The other thing is, you want to make sure that you're leaning into this community, as we said. This, you're part of a global community of practice of strengths coaches. And there's, I know, like, as I read Facebook, lots of people want activities, right? Like, what are the activities you do online? I think Beverly, the Beverly was like, "Hey, I gotta do a virtual session. I was gonna do a crossword puzzle. You know, there's got to be something better than that." You know what I mean? Like, I think we're all asking. But I think that's where connecting with other coaches on Facebook and in all the in the meetups that you do, we just converted the, the meetup that we have here in Bentonville [Arkansas]. We just converted that to a virtual meetup. Right. So in all the ways that you are connecting with other coaches, those are the kinds of things you want to ask. And that's where the, where you can really lean into the community. This is a good time, and a good place for sharing, right? There's lots of expertise in this community, so you can lean into those coaches. Right.

Dean Jones 57:59

And, and finally, just to kind of, to bring the thing full circle, I want to make sure that you wake up every day, knowing that you've got something that the world really needs right now. That you're, you really do, you know, if, if you said, Hey, we're going to train an army, you know, we're going to train -- I don't, I don't particularly like military metaphors. But, you know, if, you know, if you're going to train an army, right, you know, we got, we got over 12,000 people that we've trained now. That we can say, Hey, these people are trained to go help the people around them, you know, around the globe, to be able to, again, to be able to understand what they understand and be able to name what their talents are, and to be able to help them convert those talents into strengths that the world needs. Right. And that's, I think, the work -- I think that's the work that there is to do. OK, so, well, Jim, I'll throw it back to you. I think we'll -- there's some other other stuff I've got to say. I feel like there's always other stuff I've got to say. Activator No. 1; Communication No. 6. There's always more.

Jim Collison 59:02

There's always more. As we were prepping, you and I were preparing for the show, it was, "You know, I want to get all the way through this."

Dean Jones 59:07

I want to get it all in!

Jim Collison 59:08

OK, that sounds good. I think, just as a reminder, you know, the 3 things you wanted to talk about, right, were, were course design or design, then prepare to lead. So we made it through the design piece. And of course, there's other things that bleed into that. But prepare to lead and practice. We will -- I'll try to get you scheduled here pretty quick next week sometime so we can get that also done and presented. There were some comments in the chat room about transcripts, yes, those would be available, something to follow along with if you want to watch it again.

Jim Collison 59:34

Oftentimes, in this mode of learning, the chat room can be very distracting. This is the -- it's good and bad. You know, I think if you were in a course, this is where that skeuomorphism or whatever that word was where -- skeuomorphic -- where it would never work in a classroom. Right? You couldn't have people talking; that just, but it kind of works here. But yet I do notice a lot of folks get -- you get, you get distracted. You're trying to type; you miss things, right? So it's a great opportunity to go back and review, right, in a quiet time, go back 1 hour, take some notes, spend some time getting that done. And so we'll spend some time coming back around, get these produced, get it out for you. Lots of information and lots of ways to do it.

Jim Collison 1:00:13

I will say this, if you have questions on any of this, just ping us like, get that information in the Facebook group. Send me an email: jim_collison@gallup.com. If you don't want to do, or if you're not on social, join us in the LinkedIn group. Whatever that might be, connect with us. Ask those questions. I've been particularly interested in your technical questions. So if you're having trouble with your microphone, or a camera, or what, what kind of computer do I need? Or how do I set this up? I've made myself available to you for those individual questions. Many of you ask, Couldn't you just do a webcast on it and get it over with? No, because there's about 8,000 different configurations that can be done on the technical side. And I would just rather help you out kind of one-on-one. Dean, anything else before we wrap it? We've got a question about discovery -- CliftonStrengths Discovery Train the Trainer materials that I want to run by you, but anything, anything else on this?

Dean Jones 1:01:04

No, you know, here's the thing is, why don't we do this is, out of today. Is if you guys, if everybody who's here or listening to the recording, if you have -- so next time I'll talk about this, the whole notion of kind of preparing and leading this kind of thing, right? So I want to, I want to kind of get into that world. But if there's questions that came out of today, so you're like, Hey, that didn't make sense to me. Or, you know, I love, like, or, Hey, could you talk about this or that kind of stuff? I would love to have any of your questions and comments. I, I read those and all take those very seriously. I love, I love feedback; you know, even hard feedback is good for me. You know, so, so all that. I think the best place for that is probably in Facebook. So if you want to put that in Facebook. You're also welcome to connect with me on LinkedIn and shoot that to me that way. Reach out to us, as, as Jim said. The other thing that is coaching@gallup.com is always a great way to get us feedback, right? So if you're, if you got something and you want to just shoot a note to coaching@gallup.com, the gang that manages that gets that to Jim and I pretty fast, right?

Jim Collison 1:02:11

Yeah. And they monitor it a lot. So if you, if you have feedback, say "Feedback for Dean Jones." They'll route that right to them to make sure that it gets there. But our email addresses aren't that hard to figure out either. So just saying. Just saying. Well Dean, here's what I'm gonna do. Let me close this because there's a lot of great evergreen content in here. And then, if you're listening live, we've got it -- we'll take some time for some -- are you OK on time, Dean, to stay?

Dean Jones 1:02:35

Yeah, perfect.

Jim Collison 1:02:36

OK. We'll take some specific questions that, that may pertain just to this time here after the show. So let me just remind everyone to take full advantages of all the resources we have available -- never more important than right now: gallup.com/cliftonstrengths. That's the kind of your landing page for everything going on CliftonStrengths. A lot of great resources that are available there. Sign up for the CliftonStrengths Community Newsletter while you're there. Get our monthly update that's everything going on. Dean mentioned it. If you have questions, send us an email: coaching@gallup.com. Don't forget to follow us on Eventbrite. Like if you want to know, like, Hey, I want to know when this next session is. We're going to spin this up thing pretty fast. Go follow us on on Eventbrite right now, so gallup.eventbrite.com. Just head over there, create an account, follow us. Every time I post a new event, you'll get notified of that. OK. So a great way to kind of stay up with us, as well. Join us on our Facebook group. We mentioned that: facebook.com/groups/calledtocoach, or on LinkedIn, maybe you're not a Facebooker. On LinkedIn, search "CliftonStrengths Trained Coaches" and that will get you -- find the group and then I'll let you in once you request access. We are grateful that you are out there and excited to be able to bring this content to you today. We'll be back with some more. If you're listening live, stay around in the chat room. And with that, we'll say, Goodbye, everybody.

Dean Jones' Top 5 CliftonStrengths are Activator, Focus, Woo, Strategic and Relator.