6 superheroes who will power up your virtual training skills

Let’s play a game.

It’s called “Name that Superhero.” Here are the rules…

Look at this list of superheroes below:

a. Captain America
b. Ant Man
c. Wonder Woman
d. Spider-Man
e. Black Panther
f. Batman

Now try to match each superhero above with their correct description below. Go!

1. This superhero does not have superhuman powers, but instead relies on high-tech gear, martial arts, and superior intelligence. They also have a sidekick.
2. This superhero has strength, agility, and can break steel with a single hit. Their shield makes them resistant to destruction.
3. This superhero has enhanced senses, is able to run at unbelievable speeds, can sense fear and lies, and can see in total darkness.
4. This superhero has genius-level intellect, and they can shrink and grow objects.
5. This superhero has super speed, excellent sight, and can sense other people’s emotions. The Lasso of Truth is their signature weapon.
6. This superhero has superhuman strength, speed, agility, coordination and balance. They also have wrist-mounted web shooters.

Keep reading, and you’ll confirm which superhero pairs with each of those six descriptions.

And believe it or not, each of those superheroes can teach us something specific about what it takes to be a virtual “super trainer”…

1. Batman

What does he have that we need to have as virtual trainers?

A sidekick. But our sidekick isn’t necessarily named Robin. Our sidekick is our producer.

They help manage everything behind the scenes, put out technical fires, answer private questions from participants, organize breakout rooms, etc.

In short, the producer is critical to helping you as the trainer focus on your primary job: engaging your participants with your content.

2. Captain America

He has a shield that protects him from harm. And so do we.

As trainers, our shield that protects us and our participants from boredom, lack of retention, lack of application is... good instructional design. In other words, using learning models like CORE, CPR, EAT, CIO, 90/20/5, etc.

We dive deep into those instructional design models in our three-day workshops, “Interactive Virtual Trainer” and “Train-the Trainer Bootcamp Online.” You can sign up at bobpikegroup.com!

3. Black Panther

He has enhanced senses. And as trainers, we need to appeal to our learners’ senses.

This is critical for helping learners to stay engaged and retaining our teaching content. For our three-day webinars, we mail each participant a resource box ahead of time that contain smelly markers, dice, candy, chips, stress balls, etc.

4. Ant Man

He can shrink and grow objects. And we need to shrink and grow different parts of our content.

When we’re training, it’s important to shrink our content down to what is Need-to-Know (aka what learners will need to know in order to succeed in the next 30-60 days). Then we need to shrink our Need-to-Know content down into small 20-minute chunks, which helps learners chew on it and gives them a chance to process it.

5. Wonder Woman

She has her Lasso of Truth. As trainers, we need to communicate truth in a way that draws people in, like a lasso would.

Our lasso has a number of strands that all work together to draws people in and rope their attention.

Those strands are soft openers, openers, storytelling, joking, videos, Zoom tools, using resource box items, simply being yourself as a trainer, etc.

6. Spider-Man

He shoots web, and we need to send our participants to the web.

Send them on web-browsing scavenger hunts, ask them to do research on their own, utilize external gamification and quiz tools like C3 Softworks, UMU, etc.

Be sure to keep an eye out for other blogs in this series, giving you even more tips to help you become a virtual super trainer!

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