Disruptive and innovative technology, new competitors, shifting employee needs, and fluctuating market dynamics means leaders need to upskill themselves to increase their confidence in leading teams, improve quick and decisive decision-making, and increase their ability to communicate, collaborate and lead with success. Virtual Reality (VR) is the training tool of choice for businesses who want staff to learn 4X faster (compared to e-learning or face-to-face instruction), retain up to 75% more knowledge and feel more emotionally connected to course content.
The Challenge
Disruptive and innovative technology, new competitors, shifting employee needs, and fluctuating market dynamics means leaders need to upskill themselves to increase their confidence in leading teams, improve quick and decisive decision-making, and increase their ability to communicate, collaborate and lead with success. Virtual Reality (VR) is the training tool of choice for businesses who want staff to learn 4X faster (compared to e-learning or face-to-face instruction), retain up to 75% more knowledge and feel more emotionally connected to course content.
Disruptive and innovative technology, new competitors, shifting employee needs, and fluctuating market dynamics means leaders need to upskill themselves to increase their confidence in leading teams, improve quick and decisive decision-making, and increase their ability to communicate, collaborate and lead with success.
Despite organisations spending $116 billion on leadership training in the USA annually, research indicates that only 11% believe their current training programmes are working and that a menial 14% of CEOs have the leadership skills needed to grow their business. Added to this burden is that 70% of employees believe there is a severe lack of leadership development in the workplace, and nearly 80% of organisations believe they are experiencing a significant leadership gap. These statistics indicate an extreme divide between current leadership training and its ability to create impactful leaders who add success and significance to their businesses.
Thankfully Virtual Reality (VR) offers a solution where we no longer need to rely on tools from the past to prepare leaders of the future. VR training is about promoting positive behaviour change, better learner engagement, faster learning cycles and increased skills transfer to real-world situations.
VR in Action
Recently, an organisation within the professional services industry sought to help its leaders navigate conflict management scenarios. Conventional training approaches didn’t have the intended impact they desired, so they turned to VR. The simulated experience started with the participant looking out from behind a desk in a workspace. From where they stood, they could see a stressed employee reprimanding a colleague over the phone. Next, in the simulation, the participant was invited to determine the correct course of action on how they felt the scenario would unfold.
Moving from one decision at a time, they could either intensify or defuse the increasingly tense situation in front of them. Through the immersive and life-like nature of the simulation, the participant could start to make informed decisions, apply an empathetic approach (or not) and understand how their choices impacted the scenario’s outcome. The automatic feedback also gave them an idea of where they went wrong and how they could improve the outcomes the next time they entered the simulation or had a real-life scenario to deal with.
The comfort of knowing that they could make mistakes and complete the simulation as many times over as necessary also allowed the users to feel more at ease and confident in what they were doing. Because the simulation was as close to a real-life experience as possible, they engaged in actions promoting positive behaviour and attitude changes that would never have been achieved using conventional training methods.
The Outcomes
The results of soft skills and leadership training using VR are astounding and speak for themselves. Individuals learn 4x faster than in-class training, retain up to 75% more knowledge and feel 3.7x more emotionally connected to what they have learnt.
Having an emotional connection to content means users are more confident in their abilities. And with this increased confidence comes a user’s ability to retain new skills, feel more satisfied in their role, have a greater connection to their workplace, and perform better at their jobs – all of which positively impact the organisation’s bottom line.
