Conducting Effective CliftonStrengths Workshops via Zoom, Part 2

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 the importance of knowing the technology component and of helping participants get that component right; how to facilitate effective participation, including the role of the chat room; and how crucial it is to prepare well, plus some Q&A, in Part 2 of this 2-part series.

Access "Conducting Effective CliftonStrengths Workshops via Zoom, Part 1."

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

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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 7, 2020.

Jim Collison 0:20

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, teams and organizations around the world. And that's never been more important. If you're listening live, we'd love to have you join us in the chat room. There's a link right above me there that'll take you to the live YouTube instance. There's a chat room there either to the right or below, and pop that chat out as well so you can see that as well as see the video. If you're listening after the fact and you have questions, you can always send us an email: coaching@gallup.com. If you are listening live, we'd love to have your live questions towards the end of the program today. So if you can save those till the end, that would be great. If you're listening on YouTube, right below Dean there is a little subscription button. Hit that and hit the bell. You'll get notified every time we go live on this channel, just another reminder of the things that we're doing out there, and when they're available. And if you're doing what the cool kids are doing right now, never more important to be listening to those podcasts. Any podcast app, you can find us just search "Gallup Webcasts" and you'll find all the webcasts that we do that are live. Dean Jones is our host today. Dean's a Senior Learning Expert here at Gallup. And Dean, great to have you back for Part 2.

Dean Jones 1:26

Ah, thanks so much. I'm glad to be here. Part 1 was great. It felt like we had just there was a lot of content in that one. But it also felt like we had lots of great questions and lots of great participation around that, so it was terrific. And I'm excited to be able to wrap this one up today!

Jim Collison 1:42

We had a couple -- a couple hundred join us live for that, which is what's more fun than a couple hundred of your closest friends joining in live. Give us a quick, just a quick review. What did we talk about in Part 1, and then where are we going in Part 2?

Dean Jones 1:54

Yeah, so last time that I guess the thing that I started out of so great to see all this names that I recognize in the chat already today. In Part 1, what I, what the thing that I led off with, which is this thing I feel so strongly about right now, which is I don't think there's ever been a time, a better time to be a strengths coach. I think that I think it is just so critical right now that what the world needs right now is strengths coaches, and that for those of you who are here, you're here and you're a strengths coach because you're somebody that has been, you're somebody who's trained to be able to recognize talent, to identify talent, to help people give a name and a language around the talent that they have, and then to be able to apply their talent in meaningful ways. And I think that that is a really unique gift.

Dean Jones 2:44

I would tell you that -- and this is my broad generalization, but that -- the strengths coaches that I know, the strengths coaches that I've met, to a one, everybody is doing this because they've got a real commitment to make a difference in the world. And they got a real commitment to, to people and to their talent. And there's lots and lots of different expressions, but every single one, you know, like that is the thing that I see over and over and over again. And I think that the world needs us right now. I think as strengths coaches, as people that are committed to supporting and developing the talent of others, I think the world needs us, and needs us in a way that -- and not just for some window like the next 6 weeks. I think that we are going to be spending a lot of time, over the course of the next couple of years, helping people be productive, helping people get back to work, helping people to be able to leverage their talent in meaningful ways. And so I think it's a -- this is a really important time. One of the questions that I got last time -- sorry, I'm not doing a very brief recap, but --

Jim Collison 3:48

Didn't expect it, to be honest.

Dean Jones 3:50

Communication No. 6! So one of the things that somebody asked me last time, and I thought it was a really good question, and it was -- it was like it had a great kind of like tough edge to it is like, are you really saying that we should be doing pro bono work, right? And I think, yeah, the answer is probably "Yes." Right? I mean, I, you know, the, I think it's a really important time where you should look at where you can contribute. And I think that this is a time where this is an important time to create goodwill. It's an important time to build relationships. I think people always remember who, who was next to them in the middle of a crisis, right. And I think it's an important time to be building those relationships. And I know that everybody can't just, you know, quit their jobs and spend all their time doing, doing as much volunteer work as possible, although many of us would like to, right? I think that, but I do think it's an important time for you to be looking at how can I use what I got and contribute it? Right. I think all of us need to be doing that around the world. I think it is, I think that when we were looking at this, there's no greater blessing than the fact that we've got now thousands and thousands of trained and certified strengths coaches around the world, literally encircling the globe, who can go to work on helping people in this way.

Jim Collison 5:08

Dean, I do want to say we've been creating workplace-specific content just for the coaches during this time. And if you haven't consumed that, it's in this Called to Coach channel. And never more important time to be thinking about the executive team, the managers and the leaders of organizations and those that you're coaching. And we've been giving you specific advice during this time. So make sure you're staying close to those; we've partnered with our workplace team to pull those in. And we've had some experts in there. Continue to learn and grow through those, through those opportunities. They may be a little nontraditional from what we've done in the past, but times are critical. And so we're making those available to you in that way as well. OK, let's, let's focus as we move ahead.

Dean Jones 5:48

No, that's great. I think, to your point, Jim, I think now is a time where many people in organizations are focusing on How do I engage and take care of the folks inside the organization? So people are like, ironically, working, like focusing a lot on development. Because this is an opportunity -- opportunity when customer demands and client demands may be a little lower. And there's a time when you really want to make sure that you're supporting people and keeping them engaged. And so that development may be part of that.

Dean Jones 6:19

So we spent the first part last time as we were talking about it, I talked a little bit about the technology piece, right. And in the title, we talked about "Leading Effective CliftonStrengths Workshops via Zoom." This is not an endorsement of Zoom. But this is the tool that we use, and we have found to be useful and practical. I know that many of you use it. And in fact, I know that many of you are helping others in this community to get more facile in using Zoom. It's not the only platform. And in some cases, there are organizations out there we know of that, that specifically won't use Zoom for one reason or another. So again, it's not an endorsement of Zoom. It's just, Hey, that's the technology we use. And I think there's a lot of reasons that it's very useful and very practical for a lot of the work that we do.

Dean Jones 7:07

I talked last time mostly about design. So I was talking a lot about design and, and, gosh, if there's anything you took away from last time, it's that all those great adult learning principles that you know, and that you're grounded in, still work when you move to a virtual environment. And so I don't think, again, it's not, we don't have to throw the baby out with the bathwater. The -- a lot of what we know and what you understand about adult learning is -- still, still works inside of this environment. The one thing though, that you need to think about as you think about design is what are the learning outcomes that I'm out to create? What's the purpose and the intention of the work that I'm doing? And how do I work backwards from that to make sure I'm engineering this or designing this, inside of fulfilling those learning outcomes inside of this, this world that I'm delivering inside of right?

Dean Jones 8:00

The -- if you just try to lift the what you do in an instructor-led classroom, and you plop it right down in the middle of Zoom, it's not gonna work as well. Doesn't mean that it -- that there's not, you know, a lot of the ways that we started out when we were starting out several years ago, 3 or 4 years ago, 5 years ago, and starting to do this, we were starting to deliver stuff exactly that same way. And we learned, right, that hey, look, you gotta you got to redesign it. And you have to think about it.

Dean Jones 8:26

Some of the things to think about, and I gave you this list toward the end of the last session, but some of the things that I think that as you're doing design that you want to think about: One is you want to think about the mode that you're using. So typically, as we, as we look at designing, we're changing most frequently. So in our courses, we try to change modes every 20 to 30 minutes, so that there's -- it keeps people engaged. It keeps it interesting. There's a kind of -- it becomes much more dynamic. So, and by changing modes, I mean, what is the delivery mode? So is it large-group presentation? Is it small-group sharing? Is it a paired sharing? Is it time for reflection? Is it time where we're working inside of materials or with digital or physical materials? So we're changing that mode on a regular basis, right?

Dean Jones 9:09

You want to think about the cadence and the pace of the session relative to the audience. And we'll talk about that a little bit today. I think that one of the things about leading online is that in order for it to be interesting, sometimes the cadence is faster than people are accustomed to. I generally think that people, people, there are people that have accused me -- just because I'm Activator No. 1, that I just like a fast pace, right? But I do think that one of the things that we've found is, is that if there's not a certain level of energy, and a certain pace and cadence that you've got when you lead online, the session feels like it drags; it feels like it's really long. So you have to have a certain amount of energy. Jim Collison, of all human beings, will tell you this, but when you're in -- the difference between being online and being in a classroom: When you're online, you got to generate more. You just have to generate more. You can't --sometimes you can get away with with in an instructor-led classroom (nobody would encourage you to do this, but) that you can, you know, as as you build momentum, the the class takes it or the group takes it, right. You really do have to be -- you have to generate more when you lead online.

Dean Jones 10:18

You want to think about, as you're designing these strengths workshops, where people are in their development. And I think this is true, if it's an instructor-led session, and I think it's true if it's online. I of course recommend the developmental milestones that we do in the Advanced Strengths Coaching course. I think that those are a great framework for being able to gauge where people are in their strengths development; how are they developing? And what are some of the things that we need to tackle as we work with them? But you want to be thinking about where are they in the development? It goes back to the learning outcomes, What do I want to accomplish here, right?

Dean Jones 10:52

The other thing, and we'll talk about this again a little bit today, is thinking about group size, and specifically about the instructor-learner ratio. So you want to think about that relative to the audience. What -- how much do they need? How much attention are they going to need? And that may be attention relative to their facility with the technology; it may be attention that they need relative to their mastery of the material. So we have, you know, internally at Gallup, we have a lot of sessions that are very big group sessions, where we'll have several hundred people on a session. We also do a lot of what we call learning circles that are small-group sessions, where we cap it at 8 people. So it's an online Zoom session, but it's, it's designed to be, by, by design, a more intimate setting where people can learn. And so you want to be thinking about, Do we have the right group size, right? And I think you have to also think about your own capability to lead and what group size are you particularly comfortable with, and where you've got the right facility?

Dean Jones 11:53

We talked last time about, What should I do offline? Using that kind of flipped classroom approach. So how do I do kind of the knowledge transfer so I don't have to do, so I'm not just lecturing online. So it's not like a webinar. So how do I use that flipped classroom approach? How do I, what are the, what's the stuff I should be doing offline, prior to the session or between sessions? What's the stuff I should be doing online? So discussion, practice, those things where I'm taking advantage of, we're all together in this kind of online format. Right?

Dean Jones 12:23

We talked about how to chunk the material a little bit. And then, finally, I think the, the piece -- and this is, I think, particularly important for to capture the kind of transformational quality that a lot of strengths learning has, which is allowing time for reflection, practice and integration. So you want to make sure there's plenty of time for people to reflect, right? And you're asking people to do some reflection before they come to a session. If you've got more than one shot at them, you're asking them to reflect on some things between sessions. So it just supports their -- in the integration of their, you know, their integration, their learning, so they're integrating what they're learning into their behavior. If they've got time to reflect, they've got time to practice, and they can listen to the sharing of others around that. That is super important.

Dean Jones 13:09

So those are some of the design things we talked about last time. I want to kind of change gears and talk a little bit about How do you prepare to lead? How do you think about leading in this environment? OK. So, around that, first of all, I want to give you the confidence just like your understanding of adult learning can transfer, also your leading skills as an instructor will transfer. So there's lots of, it's, it's a little different, but your leading skills as an instructor will transfer to this format. So what you know about standing in front of a room and being with people and having to generate in front of a group of people -- you count on that stuff's going to transfer.

Dean Jones 13:49

The other thing that I see, and this is really an interesting thing specifically for coaches, is I also find that coaches who do a lot of coaching -- particularly a lot of phone coaching -- have an ability to listen. They can kind of listen to what's hap -- in the silence and know what's happening. So they're that, that astute listening that one develops as a coach, that's also a great way to be able to transfer, right. And part of the reason that we encourage people when you're doing an online session that everybody turns on their cameras, is that it just gives us some visual cues, so we know where people are at. So you can read the room, just like you read the room when when you're in an instructor-led format, you're going to read the room just in the same way and you got some visual cues for where people are at. And so you've got some feedback around that; you can keep working with false, right?

Dean Jones 14:39

You want to continue to, just like you would in an instructor-led class, listen to what people are saying and listen to what people are not saying. And so, particularly in the format, it depends on the size of the group. But, and particularly this is true in a smaller group where you can see everybody and you can watch them as you're doing this. I know in Zoom, you can get, roughly speaking, about 25 screens in a window, right? So you can see -- of a group of 25, you can actually, if you're in that gallery view, you can look at everybody.

Dean Jones 15:11

As you're preparing to lead, one of the things I think is one of the biggest things, and Maika and I -- Maika Leibbrandt and I -- have talked about this a lot, you got to remember that when you're leading a workshop on Zoom in this kind of virtual environment, that it's not a performance, right, it's a workshop. So, and I think there's some of that that's true with instructor-led stuff, right? You're not there to perform; you're there to connect with people. So you're creating a learning space, and you're facilitating a learning space. So I think there's something about being in front of a camera that all of a sudden makes people self-conscious, right. And, and self-conscious in a different way than just being with people in a room. So you're not there -- you're not there to perform. What you want to be able to do is you want to be able to create a learning -- experience for people there to connect.

Dean Jones 16:01

So as we said last night, I think I mentioned, one of our, one of our course leaders, Danny Lee, had talked about how leading this kind of virtual course is a human experience, not a technology experience. You want to be able to do that. Part of what we always -- when I train course leaders; I've trained course leaders for the last 30 years, right? When I train course leaders, part of what we always tell them is you want to make sure you lead the course that's in the room. So that -- we say that, meaning like don't just lead what's on the agenda; don't just deliver some standard thing. You want to be connected with the folks that are in the room and, and be leading the course that's relevant for those folks. So that's the "dance" of being able to speak and being able to listen; being able to ask questions; being able to facilitate them asking questions. So you're leading the course that's in the room.

Dean Jones 16:53

You want to make sure that you are being authentic as you do this, and you want to make sure that you're granting space to people in their lives. I will tell you this funny thing, but as we've taken our courses virtual, one of the biggest questions people have is, it's kind of like, it's kind of like, Hey, my kids are gonna be there, my dog's there, you know, the doorbell is gonna ring. Like, is that OK? And in fact, that's, I think part of the charm and the unique pleasure of leading these kind of courses is, it's kind of like everybody's there right now in their home connecting. And, you know, I don't know about you, but I have met more of my coworkers' kids, my colleagues' kids and dogs. And, you know, I feel more connected to my colleagues than I probably ever have. And so because you're in your, you know, you're, you're showing up in people's houses and apartments, and you're, you're getting connected to folks. And your willingness just to be authentic and grant space for all of that is super important, right? It's just super important. Yeah, Jim?

Jim Collison 17:54

I've said this before. Kids are -- maybe even pets -- are camera-magnets. You turn the camera on, you've got your screen; they see people, and they just kind of want to see what's going on. And they don't, you know, they don't know. They just -- so they start gravitating towards the camera. If they can't, they start making noise so somebody will notice them so they can gravitate towards the camera. One of the tricks that I've used a lot over the last couple weeks, it's just let the kids in on the conversation early. And so put the headset on them. I talk to them for a few minutes, ask them some questions about school or How's it going? They get bored of me pretty fast. And then they're like, "I'm outta here!" Right?

Jim Collison 18:04

And it's a, but it's been it's been a technique that's actually worked out really, really well because now they know. They know what -- they're like, Oh, this is just a boring guy in here. This isn't really that interesting. But engaging in those situations, like you said, being authentic, engaging in those conversations. We've done tons of podcasting this way. We've been doing this for 6 or 7 years. It happens. So let it happen. Acknowledge it for what it is, and, and move forward with it.

Dean Jones 19:01

Yeah. I always laugh about the time that there was a guy. We were doing a Called to Coach, and there was a guy at my front door. And he kept ringing the bell; he wouldn't go away. And I was like, "Hang on. Hold that thought. I'll be right back." Right.

Jim Collison 19:15

Yeah. Well, in virtually I mean, if you were in, in if we were all together, there are times meetings get interrupted, right? There's times the phone in the middle of the table rings in the middle of the meeting, right? And nobody freaks out about it. They just hang up or whatever. Hello. And so let those, I guess, let those situations kind of happen.

Dean Jones 19:35

Yeah, and I think part, as part of this, you also know that -- and we talked about this a little bit last time, but -- you got to leave space for the technology too. The people are -- people, there's going to be a range of folks that have, that are either really facile with doing this, and can kind of troubleshoot their own issues. There's gonna be folks that just get lost and confused and flustered and upset because they, they feel like they should, you know, they feel like they should be able to do this and they can't do it or they can't figure it out.

Dean Jones 20:07

So part of it is you gotta, I, one of the tips I'd said is, gosh, at the beginning, you want to help get everybody oriented, get people grounded. If it's a big group, we really recommend you get somebody else on the line with you that's helping you troubleshoot stuff. And so that's really, and you just gotta leave space for the technology. Like sometimes, stuff happens, right? And particularly in this environment where -- I don't know about you all, but, you know, as I talk to folks around the world, it's like, it's like high -peed bandwidth is, is, can be a little dicey. Right? You know, all of a sudden, in the last couple of weeks, more than once I've had somebody say, hey, the internet went down in my neighborhood, I'm on my phone. You know, I mean, just stuff happens, right? So you want to be able to do that.

Dean Jones 20:51

Part of it -- and this is probably the best coaching that I ever got; I got this from the woman who mentored me and taught me how to lead was, Don't make anything wrong. Everything's fine -- you're just gonna have to include kind of everything, right? It's all perfect. It's all part of what should happen. And if you embrace it, it becomes part of the experience and part of the joy of the experience. And so, it's funny the -- there was a story the other night. So we were, we were on with a big group in Asia. There was a story the other night, that in one of our courses, we have people pick a, look through a deck of photos, right, and pick a photo that best represents their expression of their strengths, right? Well, they hadn't got -- for some reason, they hadn't got the cards to everybody, right? So they said that who -- the gentleman who was leading it said, said, Hey, listen, just go get some object in your house. And bring the object here and kind of talk about that, right. So it was one of those things where it was like it was sort of impromptu thing, but it was sweet, and it added this whole kind of cool dimension to the whole thing. It's just, it was just great. So it's that kind of stuff, right.

Jim Collison 21:59

It makes it personal. We were doing a webcast with Sofia Kluch, one of our Senior Data Scientists, and Adam Hickman. And Adam dropped out, just for whatever, and he was gone. And you could, you could freak out over some things like that. Or you can say, "Hey, we're just going to kind of keep moving. And Adam will come back." And we got him back in, and we finished the session. And so when those technology issues or whatever you have, those problems, the less you focus on them, and the more you focus on the intent, the better you'll be.

Dean Jones 22:27

Completely. Completely. There's also some stuff that I would say as you adapt to online delivery that I do think are a little bit different. Right? So one is I think you've got to help people to kind of set some norms, right. I always talk about it like good hygiene, right? Like what is good virtual hygiene, right? One is that you want to encourage people to turn their cameras on, right? You're -- because, because you're not watching a show, you know. Believe me, I don't know if you're watching the John Krasinski's "Some Good News" pod thing on YouTube, if you should -- if you haven't, you should. He's doing this thing. But that is like watching a show, right? It's just fabulous. But they're not interactive, we're not interacting, right?

Dean Jones 23:06

In the, in this kind of, in this kind of environment, you're interacting. And so you're trying to make -- I sort of described it this this way last time, you're trying to make the technology transparent. So that what's happening is, is that I'm no longer focused on the technology. I'm just sitting in a room with my friend, Jim, and 200 of our closest friends talking about stuff, right? And so part of it is, is you wanna, you want -- part of it is you want everybody to kind of turn on their cameras so you can see people. You also want people to, typically, to, particularly if it's a large group, is mute if they're not talking. I think when you've got 8 or 10 people on the, on the line, and people don't mute, it's typically fine, right? If you're, if you get a bunch of people -- I was on a call this morning that, that had, I don't know, maybe 75 or 80 people on the call. And there were folks in the background that didn't know that they weren't on mute, and they weren't muting, and like that, right?

Dean Jones 24:02

So I think you want to establish some norms at the beginning; it's like, and, it's just by asking people to say, Hey, look as we get the technology set up, 1) is, please have your camera on, so everybody can see you, right and connect with you; 2) is, if you're not talking mute, right? And so that, so that there's some kind of norms about how we're going to participate around this. If you, you know, part of it is, is helping people know that they can give you some feedback, and that you're watching chat and like that, as you, as you start to do that.

Dean Jones 24:30

The other thing I think, and this is sounds funny, but one of the things when we train leaders at, at Gallup, one of the things we always talk about is that your job is to engage people in such a way that they want to participate, right? So you can never command people to participate. You never can demand that people participate. You always have to be -- you just have to be better than anything that's going on in their head or in their phone. Right. And so it's always a choice whether people participate. It's always a choice whether people participate. And you want, but you always want to encourage people to make the choice to engage, right?

Dean Jones 25:07

I think in this format, one of the things I notice really works here is it's OK to cold call on people. One of the things that happens that's a little weird, OK, so, that's a little weird is, is that people can't, it's not like being in a room with people, where you can read other people's body language. So you know when it's my turn to talk, and it's when it's their turn to talk; or when the guy that always talks is going to talk again. Like, that kind of stuff, right? You can read kind of the body language -- yeah, right, exactly. Yeah, exactly. Raise your hand if you're guilty. Yes. OK. So the, the, you can, you can kind of read the body language in the room so you sort of know, like, OK, it's my turn or I'm going to jump in now like that. There -- it takes a while to kind of transition to the, to that virtual kind of domain. So sometimes the beginning, you know, you'll be on these calls where -- on these Zoom calls with folks -- and people kind of talking over each other, trying to get in, they don't know, you know, like so you're trying to figure it out, right?

Dean Jones 26:07

One of the things for you as a leader is your job's to kind of facilitate that; to do a little air, air-traffic control and know, OK, who wants to do this? So I, you know, what I find myself, and I've seen some of our really great leaders at this, do is they cold call on people, it's like, "Hey, Jim, why don't you go first," right? "Are you OK with doing that?" And if people say, "No," honor their right to say "No," but you're going to be air-traffic control a little bit. Or it's like, Hey, Jim, then Bev, then Dev Patel, right? Like, like you're saying, OK, so you're going to air-traffic control so everybody that wants to share gets an opportunity to be able to share and to encourage people to share so you get the conversation started.

Dean Jones 26:48

Sometimes it sounds weird, but in an instructor-led classroom, asking people a question and then kind of having a little bit of silence kind of works. In this format, it doesn't work quite as well. So it's better to kind of prime the pump and get people going. Sometimes you'll ask, "Who'd like to share?" and you got a bunch of people that'll jump in, right? But then that, then sometimes they're talking over each other. So it's just useful for you to just know you're going to have to play a little bit more of a, a facilitating kind of role around that. Right.

Dean Jones 27:23

The, the other thing is, you want to remember that part of what works about this kind of format, is that people feel like they've got a little bit more control. One of the things we know is that retention is higher; engagement tends to be higher, because people have, have more control. So there's more ways that people can interact: They can chat during the thing. They can send signals through, through the Zoom stuff, right? So they feel like they've got more control. You don't want to take that away. But you want to encourage people to be able to do that. Right.

Dean Jones 27:50

A couple tips that -- I want to talk about a couple tips, and then we'll, we'll start taking questions here. OK. I want to talk about the beginning of a workshop and the end of a workshop. OK. So in the beginning of a workshop, I think you always got to leave room for some technology stuff. The other thing you want to do is you want to make sure at the beginning that people go around and introduce themselves, just like you do in an instructor-led workshop. You want to -- you want people to get connected right away, and you want to be able to facilitate that. Don Clifton used to say that people, people, the course doesn't start for people until they hear their own voice, right. And so you want to, you want to be able to do that.

Dean Jones 28:30

I was talking on, online I was talking with a gentleman here at Gallup, his name is Buddy Steele. He's one of our Learning Design Consultants; he's a terrific guy. And he said -- he typed me back, it's interesting. So I'm going to read this to you verbatim because I thought it was so good. He said, "Promoting -- comfort." Excuse me, let me start over. "Promoting comfort and safety in an online learning environment is directly linked to increased learner participation, which translates to improved learning outcomes and improved retention." We know -- and there's been the studies done to be able to validate this, that if you make people comfortable and safe, it's -- you're reducing the risk in the environment; you're creating comfort in the environment; that it's directly linked to their participation. And that, that is true in an instructor-led environment, and that's true online.

Dean Jones 29:19

One of the things you're up against online is that there's a lot of people who have a lot of anxiety about technology or uncertainty or not, they're not sure about how to participate in this. So I, by the way, I think that will, I think, a year from now, after we've gone through what we've gone through and Zoom becomes just part of our lives, you know, after you've had about, I don't know, I don't know how many virtual Happy Hours you have to have, or virtual church services or virtual, you know, brunches with your friends. But there's a certain point where this is just gonna be -- feel as natural as anything else, right? And then, then you won't have to deal with so much of that. But right now, we want to make sure everybody feels comfortable, right.

Dean Jones 29:59

So part of the way you do that is by encouraging everybody to introduce themselves and get connected online, so that they feel connected in this environment. And you've created that kind of environment where people can focus on the learning. The other thing that -- and this is, again, true in instructor-led workshops, and I think just as true or more true online, is, you want to remember that what they say to each other, or what they say to you, is worth twice what you say to them. So I've always said, as we've trained course leaders, if you say it from the front of the room, it's valuable, right? But it's twice as valuable if you ask a question, and they say it to you, or they're interacting with each other in the workshop, and they say it to each other. That's what you -- that's what's facilitating this kind of conversation.

Dean Jones 30:46

We now know, I mean, one of the biggest trends, if you will, over the last few years, in learning has been peer-based learning or social learning. How do we facilitate that kind of peer-based learning where people are learning from each other and that kind of social learning? I think that's the kind of environment you're trying to create in this kind of virtual strengths workshop, because insights are contagious. So if I have an insight about my own talents and strengths; I share that insight in a workshop. Somebody, it's going to provoke an insight for somebody else, right? And I always think it's like popcorn: It's like one pops, then another pops, and then all of a sudden everybody's popping in the room, right? So you want to make sure, you want to make sure as you're going through this, that people are -- have an environment where they feel comfortable sharing, and so that they're sharing the insights that they're having as we're discussing it. So that's a, that's a little bit about the beginning of the workshop.

Dean Jones 31:37

The end of the workshop, I think, is equally true, and I think you need to help people. One of the most important things -- and Adam Hickman always teases me because he, he says that he plays a drinking game during my Called to Coaches -- for every time I say Bloom's taxonomy, he drinks, right. So I do think it's important. We know that a high-level thinking function, if you go back to the basics, right, in Bloom's taxonomy, a high-level thinking function is synthesis. And I always think at the end of learning, you have to help people with synthesis. And it's not enough that you feel like intuitively they get it. People need to express it. I always think it's like, that thing where people say, "Hey, I took that hill," right? They can point to the hill, and they can say out loud, "Hey, I took that hill. That's something I learned as a function of this." I think it helps people to be able to own it. It helps people to do go through that thinking process of synthesizing what they've learned and being able to claim their learning.

Dean Jones 32:34

So I think it's really important as you're wrapping up these workshops, that everybody has the opportunity to be able to synthesize, What did they learn? And what are they going to do differently? And the kind of questions you want to make sure you're asking is, What did you learn today? Like, what did you learn? And I think part of it is you have to help people that it's like, no, What did I hear what -- not, What did I hear for the very first time? That's a different question, right? But what did I learn? And, and, What am I going to do differently as a function of what I learned today? And so that people have a chance to be able to communicate that.

Dean Jones 33:09

Now that might be, if it's a small group, everybody gets a chance to share that. It might be that everybody types it into chat. And can, can say that. But you want that process where people explicitly can say, "Hey, this is what I've learned. And this is how -- this is what's going to change for me as a function of that." And that's an important part -- that synthesis is an important part of making sure that things land. I also think it's always a gauge for you, as an instructor, to be able to say, Hey, look, you may have had an intention that people were going to learn X, Y or Z. But you can always hear it in people sharing whether that, that got across there, right. And particularly with virtual, as you're learning to deliver in virtual, some of what you intend may ... may not make it across the net, right?

Dean Jones 33:54

So you want to make sure that you're really listening to, as people share "Hey, here's what I got today. Here's what I learned today. Here's what I'm gonna, what I'm gonna do differently," that you're really listening to that because that, that's a test for you of How am I doing in terms of leading these? Am I able to communicate and generate and facilitate in such a way that I can, I can generate the kind of insights that I'm committed that people have? OK?

Dean Jones 34:25

Last thing I want to say about this, OK, and then, then we'll, we'll go to some questions. I, this is a skill. So this is a skill to be able to do this. And we know that there are people that are talented teachers. I know that for myself, I, like, I look back, it's sort of funny. This was a big epiphany for me that was actually -- came out of a -- I was listening to our CEO at Gallup, Jim Clifton, speak and it was an epiphany I had just listening to him talk about. He -- one of the things he always asks people is, What's the thing you can do better than anybody else? You know, What's your, where's your natural talent? And I realized, like, gosh, for me, one of the things that's a gift of mine is teaching. And I look back to when I was a kid, like literally, like, 6, 7 years old. And I was like, like, one of the most fun things for me was to practice teaching; was to play teacher, right? I'm like, it's like, you know, I know that it's that, it's that notion that early on in your life, your talent gets formed, right.

Dean Jones 35:25

And so I think that this is a, you know, the people that get drawn to be strengths coaches, on some level, have a gift and a talent and a calling around this, right. I also know that leading in this environment is a skill that you develop. So part of it is, is practice is going to really make a difference. You're also -- when I talked about this last time -- you may have to start out with a smaller number of folks that you feel comfortable being able to lead to; where you can manage what you need to manage to be able to do that, and then work your way up. Right. So there, as you get comfortable with the technology; as you get comfortable leading in this format, your capacity will grow. Right? And you'll find yourself just, it'll just be sort of natural for you.

Dean Jones 36:11

So you have to be patient with the process of learning. This is learning, right? And this is learning, and you may not be great at this overnight, and that's OK. It's completely fine to practice and have some good, you know, some good messy failures, you know what I mean, that you learn a ton from and you think about. OK, you know, like, everybody in my life knows I love to debrief. You know what I mean? What worked; what didn't work. And I'm always thinking about, OK, what am I -- what did I learn from this? What am I gonna do different next time? So, OK.

Jim Collison 36:42

Dean, let me, let me give an example of that really quick while you --

Dean Jones 36:44

Please, yeah, that'd be great.

Jim Collison 36:45

While you take your breath.

Dean Jones 36:46

Yeah, please.

Jim Collison 36:46

Early on in Called to Coach -- and actually it was on the Theme Thursday side of things. I think in Season 2, we took live calls. So Maika and I thought it'd be a great idea: Hey, let's get live interaction. We'll put a link out there, get folks to call in live. We found out it was wasn't as great as we thought it was gonna be, because it was horribly distracting. And so that was one of those things, those episodes are still out there; you can watch them. And I used every ounce of my Communication talent to make sure that it wasn't as bad as they actually were. But it was, it was difficult and it was rough. And we got halfway through the season. And we're like, Hmm, maybe we're not going to do this anymore. And it just wasn't working for us. And so I think it's OK to try some of those things. Try something new. You'll never know where it's gonna go. Give it a try. Maybe try it in a safe environment first, where you can kind of test it out. Hey, is this going to work? Is this going to work for me?

Jim Collison 37:37

Something that you see, and I see a lot of this going on right now, where you see a particularly effective influencer or teacher or trainer, and you try to copy exactly what they're doing and do it, good to try -- just realize you're not them. And so that, try it, figure it out, see what works for you. Take what does work for you and move it forward. But -- and then, to your, to your part about partnerships, right. There may be some areas where you just need some partners to help you in some areas. And we've been saying this for a long time, even before all this virtual, you know, stuff happened. You might want to get a partner in this to kind of help you with the technology. For you and I, that's, that's my role is to make sure all this technology stuff works for you so that you can come on and do some incredible teaching. It's one mode of the way we do this here at Gallup. We don't teach certified ASC courses through a podcast, right? We have a different mode for that because it works better in what we're trying to do. But to get a lot of information out, for some coaches, this mode works out pretty well. By the way, it's available as audio only; it's available in a transcript. So we do have multiple modes that are available for this program.

Jim Collison 38:46

Rachel had asked earlier, When you're prepping people for these sessions, Dean, what's your advice on how much do you prep them? I mean, is it, is it sending out links? Is it sending out tutorials? I mean, what, what's your advice on that?

Dean Jones 39:02

Yeah, I realized, as we were talking about this, a couple things about prepping. One is in terms of -- to answer your question about prepping people -- I think you got to gauge your audience, right? So always -- learning always starts with the audience. So one of the things we did, we did an orientation the other day for people that are in our virtual courses, right. And I know that a lot of people, again, there's like this range. So there's people that did all their graduate work online. So this is like a no brainer for them. There's other people where this is the kind of the first thing. And I think it's useful, know your audience. So you may need to do a session before the session that's just about the technology, where you're just getting people -- you're walking people step by step through, OK, here's what to do. And so to be able to do that.

Dean Jones 39:45

I also think it's important to make sure that people -- for a lot of people we ask, people join early. And so joining early, so there's time to kind of troubleshoot that stuff, go through that. We're going to allow time for that. But I want to make sure everybody feels comfortable getting connected and knowing what to do. I think it's also really important that you tell people what equipment they need, OK, to be able to connect. You know, the 4 things we always talk about: You need a good computer. Right? So it could be a Mac; could be a PC; doesn't matter, right? But you need a computer. You need a high-speed internet connection. So that's pretty ubiquitous now, but not to be taken for granted. Doesn't have to be a wired connection; could be a Wi-Fi connection. You need a webcam. Could be the one that's embedded in your laptop. You know, the -- I have one that Jim recommended that I buy, that's an external one. And then typically, you want to ask people -- we tell tell people, you want to make sure that you've got a headset. You know, like, I love to use these earbuds. They don't always, you know, the Bluetooth is not -- we were fiddling with them before the session today, right? The easiest thing is, ask people to buy a headset, right? And that way you can really hear people; there's no echo or no static like that. There's a mic from that. Everybody can hear, they can hear everybody else when they're speaking. There's no echo. It's great, right? So setting those kind of expectations right up front.

Dean Jones 41:07

You also want to make sure you set the expectation about, Hey, this is not, this is not a performance, right? I -- typically, the other thing is that typically, we wouldn't record this. So we're recording this now, obviously, for distribution, but in a learning session, you're not going to record that unless you've got everybody's participation to -- in order to be able to do that. And if people are nervous already, the notion that it's going to be recorded makes them more nervous. So I would, you know, typically speaking now, sometimes you'll have engagements with clients where you promised, Hey, we're going to record this. Make sure you let people know up front that you're doing that. So if somebody doesn't want to talk during the session or participate, they have the option to be able to do that, from both a legal standpoint and just a courtesy standpoint. Right. But it's, it's better to be able to do that, right.

Jim Collison 41:56

Let me, let me get another question. Every Strength Counts asks, What's a good way to bring people back to teaching -- this is a little advice for us, maybe -- when they've gotten so involved in chatting about it? So in this, in this mode, right that we're doing it -- and of course, we encourage chat room participation, and some folks can get, you know, in the presentation mode where it's just you and I, we get, we get all kinds of things going on in the chat room. Some advice on that if you're going to use this style?

Dean Jones 42:21

Yeah, I think, here's the thing you got to remember that's kind of funny. OK. And I will tell you, this is sort of taking a little bit of a tangent, but I'm somebody who's worked remotely either all or part of the time for the last 20 years. Right. And one of the things that is different about people that are connecting remotely is the, when you're all together in person, there's sort of unstructured time and then there's structured time, right? Like when you're going to a meeting, right or to a learning session, in, in the, in, you know, in the real world, right? In real life, right. There's a, there's unstructured time.

Dean Jones 42:57

So there's the time when we're there and we're showing up and we're putting away our coats and we may be getting breakfast and we're finding our seat and all that kind of stuff. And the navigating and all the, Hi, how are you? Or I'm Dean and who are you? And all that kind of stuff, right, that is the sort of unstructured time. That's part of actually the learning experience. So that's part of us getting connected, getting oriented, getting grounded so that, you know, like, I always tell course leaders, you know, there's always that first part of the, of the course where people have to judge and evaluate you, right? They need to look at you and, you know, like, I'm gonna like that guy, or that guy is definitely not my kind of person or, you know, why did he wear that today? Or you know what I mean? You know, they're kind of doing doing their job, like judging and evaluating and getting kind of grounded in the room and like that.

Dean Jones 43:45

The same thing is true online. So you don't want to shut that off. You want because that's part of the experience for people, right? And at some point, you got to kind of call people to order, right, to be able to say, OK, hey, let's, and it's time, right? There's a time to be able to do that. But it's great to make sure that you're allowing enough space for that, not just at the beginning, but on the breaks, around that, because that's part of the experience that people are going to have. Right.

Dean Jones 44:12

The other thing I will tell you is, and and I don't know that I've said this in this context, but I'm gonna say this, is, I really am a big, I'm really big on preparation. Like Jim knows, like, I don't just get on, get on Called to Coach and wing it. I probably spend 2 hours for every hour that we're here, and I write copious notes about what I'm going to cover, right. So I'm, I'm, as I'm sitting here talking to you right now, I'm looking at Jim and I'm looking at the chat, but I also have my notes up in front of me. So I'm, I'm looking at, OK, what is the content that I want to get delivered? Because I want to make sure that I'm focused on Hey, what's the sequence of stuff that I have promised to cover and then I want to make sure I'm covering with everybody. So I, you know, I was trying to remember the name. I'm blowing it on this quote. It's one of my favorite quotes. I think it was Duke Ellington, but I may be wrong, famous jazz trumpeter, who said, "First I learn all the notes, and then I just blow." Right?

Dean Jones 45:11

I, I am big on learning all the notes, right. I'm big on that you're going to prepare, and I think it's a, I think it's something you do as a sign of respect for the people that you're working with. It's a way of honoring people that you are prepared, right? And that you've gone through, you've thought through it in a really thoughtful way. You've prepared enough so that when you're there, I think preparation creates spontaneity. I'm more relaxed, because I know where I am. I know what I prepared. I'm, I'm ready to go. Right. So I think preparation creates spontaneity and I think it's super important, I think, particularly -- I don't know about you, Jim, but when I first started working in this kind of format, I was in my head a little bit, right? I was thinking about the technology and I was thinking about Oh, I'm on camera. And what does that mean? And people are looking at me, and, you know, like, you know what I mean, silly, right? But we're, as human beings, we're silly sometimes, right? So having the preparation helped to kind of pull me out of all that to know, OK, here's the job I'm here to do.

Jim Collison 46:15

Yeah, and preparation and practice are very similar in this, so that the more you practice it, the more you get comfortable with it. I don't ever freak out now when something goes wrong technically. I've had it all happen. So I kind of know, OK, it's gonna be this, it's gonna take about this long or it's gonna take that or we'll get this figured out; that confidence in it. And I think as instructors, if you're going to do your own, you know, where you're leading the sessions, you really, really need to be good at the technology. Because it is a thing. You can't punt and say, Oh, I'm not good at technology. Well, guess what? You're in a mode that requires you -- or you find someone like me to take, take care of all the technology for you, right? You get a producer who's gonna be in there, who's taking care of the technology for you. If you just can't get up to speed on it, you don't want to, you don't feel like it's good use of your time, whatever, good, you'll need to hire somebody or get somebody to help you to get that done.

Jim Collison 47:07

So that practice, Dean, of doing it over and over, I've seen it all. I've seen every single thing that can happen here, for the most part. And, and the practice is, is really important. There was a question out there.

Dean Jones 47:20

Let's take some of the questions cause I'm just, I was just, I was just noticing: There's a bunch of great questions in the chat here that I'd love to see if we can take.

Jim Collison 47:28

Mark asked this a little bit earlier, and I'll throw it to you. And we'd also been getting some answers in the chat room. Again, this is what's great about this is, is the chat room can have its own conversation while we're having one. And then, for a lot of people too, they often feel like, well, I can only listen to it once and you're like, No, you can go back as many times as you want. If it was, if it was good, and you were looking for a section, you can also also go back and -- What have you learned that you didn't think about 12 months ago, Dean? I mean, I think that's a great question for you.

Dean Jones 47:58

Yeah, it's a great, it's a great question. I wish, I probably will think of a great answer probably an hour from now. Right. But I would tell you, I think that, I think, as I've gotten more comfortable kind of in this format and with working with people, for me, you know, like, I've gotten much more comfortable with the technology. I will tell you, it has reinforced for me that preparation is super important. It has also reinforced for me that I can go faster than I thought I could, that there's, that I can give people content, particularly in a format where it's recorded, where I can give people content because I know people are going to go back and and look at that again. I'm more tuned into, I think I'm more facile in terms of being able to fit as I'm doing this with folks at Gallup is to be able to, to facilitate participation. So to make sure Hey, we're going to do this and this is what's going to happen. I find that I'm more relaxed and less self-conscious when I do that.

Dean Jones 48:56

So all those things I think are different than the last 12 months ago around that. So I don't know if that's a great answer. There's probably better answers in the chat, but that, I will tell you that just it's this piece where I think as you -- it's the thing I said before about it's a skill, I think is, is really is really an important piece. In some ways, it feels like, in some ways it feels like instructor-led, where I feel like I've got to be able to reinforce stuff with people and, and know that. But I can also get, get the kind of feedback, and I'm more relaxed in that. Right.

Jim Collison 49:30

I think I learned that I was really glad we started doing this 7 years ago, like, in this, in this time, I was like, man, I am really, really glad that I didn't stop. And, you know, there were times in there where I thought, Well, I don't know if this is really reaching people or whatever. And, you know, maybe we'll wind this thing down. And, and I'm really glad we didn't. And Kim, you know, says it's these kinds of statements that keep me going. She says, I listened to Friday's session on my run right before this call; it was helpful. And everybody comes to this medium kind of in their own way, which is great. Some will listen to it as they're walking or they're cooking or they're, you know, taking the dog, maybe a little yoga on the deck. I don't know why you'd listen to this and do yoga, but maybe you do. In their car -- there's still folks who have to commute; we didn't all -- everybody didn't get to stay home. And so it's that helpful medium in this case.

Jim Collison 50:01

And I would say, Dean, as we think about people taking learning, online learning, it's not just about that session, either. But how are you going to connect with them afterwards? Or what kind of support will you provide for them for questions? Or how will they connect together as a community? If you're putting a cohort of learners together, how will that cohort connect with each other? I think those, those opportunities that may happen in a classroom, if it's going to be in person, have to be accounted for in some way. I've been a part of, for the last two decades or so, online groups, you know, whether it be in bulletin board services in the old days, or in Discord today, where we learn more from each other than we'd ever get during the podcast. You know, it's those, it's those, it's those perimeter conversations that happen where somebody is an expert in one area. And I learned so much with just from folks in that community. And so I think you have to provide opportunities for people to connect. That's why we have a Facebook group or we have a LinkedIn group, right, for people to connect and work with each other. So I think that's what -- if you'd asked me what I learned? I think that's, over the last 12 months, pretty glad we're still doing this.

Dean Jones 51:34

Oh, yeah. I mean, it really has been, it has been a great learning experience. Let me hit some of these other questions in the last few minutes here, because I think there's some kind of cool questions. Somebody asked a question about, Hey, what do you do with worksheets or handouts, right? I'm gonna give you my opinion about this. I would send it to folks in advance as a PDF and ask them to print them out. I will tell you that we've found that some some people are comfortable, they've got a big enough screen, they can have digital content up along with the Zoom call, and they can flip back and forth. And that's great. There's a lot of folks that just aren't there yet. And it's easier for them if you sent them the PDF in advance. And you want to be kind to home printers, not a lot of graphics, right, that people can print it out in advance so they've got it, and they can work manually, right? Or ask people to bring a notebook and if you're gonna have exercises, do it that way. But so that people can kind of be working, working physically while they're trying to attend to this. I think that feels, for most people, right where people are right now, I think that feels more natural for folks. Right?

Dean Jones 52:38

I love the question about, I think somebody said, Ralph said in chat, I actually found that online, I'm more responsive and less in lecture mode. I will tell you, I think a lot of people are that way. And that, that they feel like as they're watching people and connecting with people, there's just sort of a -- it feels, it feels manageable for people once they get comfortable with this. I think that's really, really powerful.

Dean Jones 53:04

I think there's some questions about changing gears. And I think, Jim, you asked me the question about How do you help people to be able to change gears? One of the things that I think is important, I think this is important with instructor-led workshops, as well as virtual workshops, is that everybody's got an intention coming into it. So one of the things that we always talk about when we're designing this stuff is giving people an opportunity to declare some kind of intention for themselves. And you know, if you if you, if you read about the power of intention, there's lots of study that's gone on about the power of intention, and intention really focuses people.

Dean Jones 53:38

And so I think it's great to be able to, at the beginning of a session, have people be able to say, Hey, what do you want to get out of this? Right? What have you got, what have you got at stake here? What do you, what do you want to accomplish as a function of being in this session today? And to be -- that you're remembering that, right, so you can remind that. You know, "Jim, I know you were working on XYZ," right? Or "I know that that was super important to you." One of the things that is, is useful to say if Jim says, "Hey, I really want to be a better manager," right? "And I want to be able to use my strengths to be able to do that." One of the things you, as a leader can say is, "Gosh, how many other people -- just raise your hand or type in chat -- how many other people have the same kind of commitment out of, or they want to accomplish that out of the work that we do together?" So I think that's really, I think that's an important piece, right?

Dean Jones 54:25

And that helps when you're bringing people, when you're trying to bring people into the work, right, it's being able to harness their intention, and remind them of their intention or talk about, like, how that fulfills their intention. It's a natural way of helping, of, as an adult learner, is helping them create relevancy and practicality around what you're learning. One thing that does show up, I think there were a couple comments about, Hey, what do I deal with in low-bandwidth areas or people's bandwidth dies like that? We've seen this a lot. Sometimes just, just turning off the video portion for a while will help, and so that they're doing, they go to audio only. It's not ideal, but it's better than somebody just drops out. So sometimes one of the things that resolves those bandwidth issues is just, just turning off the video portion of it. So they can see you, but their video is not uploading. And sometimes that resolves it for a period of time.

Jim Collison 55:19

I kind of wish the space would go to a low bandwidth, but, but video mode, where maybe that picture changes every 15 seconds, you know, in low resolution. That would be a good medium for folks, just so they still see them. I don't know of a service that does that today. But it would be nice everyone, so maybe if they put a picture of themselves, if they, if it's not gonna work that way that they take a picture of themselves and post that. If it's going to be a long session, like over a couple days, maybe they change that picture more frequently. So just some opportunities to kind of make it more personal, to see the individual on the other side to make that happen.

Dean Jones 55:59

Last one I wanted to kind of talk about here, Jim, is somebody asked the question in chat. Sorry, I'm not, I'm -- the chat's moving so fast I'm not remembering names today. I apologize. So, somebody asked a question about, Hey, I how do I adapt this to one-to-one coaching that I do with people? And I think that's great. I think that's a great question. I think we could probably do a whole session just on that one, right. I think one is, is that -- so I'm going to give you some, some, this is, this is some advice based on, on, on my experience, my experience with coaches, right. In some cases, you may not want to, right. So there's, for some coaches, it's better to just do telephone coaching rather than to have this visual medium. I know a lot of coaches where they, you know, it allows them, just by being, you know, like, I know a lot of coaches who close their eyes. So they're on the phone with somebody; they'll close our eyes, so they can refer -- as they're listening to somebody, so they can really focus on hearing that person.

Dean Jones 56:56

And so, and, you know, the great, great coaches that I've known are just such, such master listeners, right? They can hear -- in the quality of their voice, they can hear what's going on. So you're adding a visual medium to an auditory medium when you, when you do this. For some coaches, adding that, that, that visual medium adds a whole nother dimension, where you can read people's body language, you can see people's faces. That really helps for a lot of coaches to be able to do that. Right. But by no means do you feel like you have to do it that way. Right? And, and the cadence and the tone and the -- is going to feel different in a coaching session, just like it does in in any other kind of coaching session where you're not going to talk as much. You're going to be prepared with questions you want to ask to someone to be able to listen to them and guide them. So the person that you're coaching is going to do more of the talking and that. You do have to prepare in the same way you prepare for a coaching session, where you know where somebody is; some of the things that they said in the last session; what are the kind of questions you're going to ask? All the normal kind of preparation you would do for a coaching session, you want to be able to be equipped to be able to do that. Right. So I think that's some sort of tips around that.

Dean Jones 58:14

One thing I'll say, in closing, and then we'll, we'll wrap here is, is that there are a lot of people that have some good expertise around this. So in our community, this is, I said this last time, but I think this is an opportunity where you really want to lean into the community. One of the things that I have seen pop up in the last couple weeks is a lot of folks who say, Hey, I've been doing this for a while; I'm really good at this aspect of it, or I'm really good at this other aspect of it. And for a lot of folks, they are offering that to the community. And so I would just keep your ears open. I think this is where our Facebook group or our LinkedIn groups are a good place to hang out. And just because there's a lot of those folks who have expertise are willing to share it. And you always want to just kind of map that onto what works for you and what will work for the folks that you work with, to know, is that something I should adopt and take advantage of? Or is that something that is probably not right for me?

Jim Collison 59:06

Ah, some some great advice. I'm sure questions that didn't get to answer, some feedback in there as well. We appreciate you guys coming out, being a part of this. And if you do have questions, or you've got comments you want to get to us, just send them -- send us an email: coaching@gallup.com. Either put Dean or my name in the, in the subject, and they'll get that to routed it to us as well.

Jim Collison 59:28

We'll remind everyone to take full advantages of all the resources we do have available, now in Gallup Access and on our gallup.com site, so to gallup.com/cliftonstrengths. If you log in through there, it'll take you right to your Strengths Dashboard. So kind of a great way to get all the resources in one place. There's a lot there. And this may be some time. You know, Dean, everybody's been talking about watching Netflix. And I'm kind of like, Guys, we don't have time to watch Netflix. Like, you really should be using this time to be learning. Like there's great learning -- if you haven't spent some time auditing the site, in other words, going out out there and getting some idea where things are at; what's available to you. There are a ton of resources, we literally spent thousands of hours of putting things out there for you. So make sure gallup.com/cliftonstrengths will get you there as well. Don't forget that you can subscribe while you're out there, subscribe to the CliftonStrengths Community Newsletter. We put that (out) every month; some great information for you, just kind of keep you up to date on what's going on here in the strengths community. It's at the bottom of every page. So get signed up and registered today. I mentioned if you have questions, send it to coaching@gallup.com. If you like these live events and you want to attend more, just follow us on Eventbrite. So go to gallup.eventbrite.com -- super easy. Create an account, follow us there, you'll get a notification every time I post them. And during the week, I post about 4 of these a week. So you want to make sure you're staying up to date. I give you 2 or 3 months' worth of warning. So really no excuses, just saying. Dean, we've currently gone virtual for the summit and, and that's brand new, and availability there. The same price for everyone coming in. It's going to be completely virtual. Folks can now register if they want to get all that information: gallupatwork.com has all that information. Would you add anything to that, Dean, from a summit experience?

Dean Jones 1:01:10

No, I just think, here's the thing that -- I say no, and then yes, I'd like to add something. Sorry. The, that I think this is gonna be an incredible experience. Because the the price is so low for it right now. So it's so, it's so accessible for people. It's going to be one day of incredible learning. And so, and the thing that's cool is is that all the people that want and have said, Look, I want to get a taste of this or I want to participate in it. Now is the time to be able to do this. It is, it's going to be phenomenal. It's going to be a phenomenal day of learning. There are breakout sessions, there are keynote speakers. It's going to be a phenomenal event. So I literally think every single Certified Coach should sign up for this. I think you should -- this is one, bring your friends, right? Because, again, it's -- relative to the learning that you'll get -- relatively inexpensive; great, absolutely great learning that you're going to get that that day, and just a great opportunity to grow -- to learn and grow. So I think it's gonna be a big, I think it's going to be important. So I also think that, that we are doing virtual courses around it. So one of the things that if you haven't taken the Advanced Strengths Coaching course, that's going to be around it. So I would highly recommend that if you haven't taken that, you take that. Because that's gonna be offered virtually for the first time around the summit. So that's a, that's a big one as well.

Jim Collison 1:02:32

Lots of questions around that. There's a big gigantic FAQ that's out there. So if you've registered and you need to know what to do; if you haven't registered and you need to know what to do. If you need to know what to do, you have hotels and you need to know: gallupatwork.com, scroll down. There's a big FAQ that has all that worked out. And then if you have questions and you still don't know, gallupsummit@gallup.com is the email address and you can send that team a note, as well. I want to thank you for joining us today. And with that, we'll say, Goodbye, everybody.

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