With the current world Pandemic (COVID-19), the world has moved most of its functions from offline, to online. We now live in a world of technology, supported by the fact that our daily activities are now accomplished virtually. A big and tremendous change is prominent around team building and gaining presentation skills, for those that need to be carried out virtually. Being split into two separate parts, a respected program coordinator of Hochschule Fresenius, Matthias Nelke, organized and put together a virtual workshop to highlight the importance of virtual team building. As the workshops took place on the 1st and 4th of March respectively, they were designed to cater to addressing the importance of three key points leading to group, and individual, success in virtual presentations. The magical recipe to succeed, as explained, are having a strong combination of a powerful Narrative or story, efficient delivery, and appealing design.
With the continuously changing dynamic of the world of work, shifting all the functions of the world from a physical one, to that of a virtual one, can be extremely overwhelming. The HR Daily Advisor suggests that organisations have a mandated series of actions to ensure that the virtual teams being employed have the right skills and tools to remain effective and productive (Miller, 2018).
A few of the many virtual leadership skills were highlighted by the HR Daily Advisor to benefit the productivity of a firm. They include: the need for skills in technology utilisation, being proactive when it comes to remaining in contact with the team as dispersed, having and learning communication skills, showing trust across the team, having realistic expectations while remaining self-motivated. These skills were heavily reflected and possessed by all TAVEC participants during the workshop, and a run-through of students works were evaluated.
To highlight the parallels between the advice provided by the HR Daily Advisor and the conducted workshop, the importance of being able to communicate a story, creating visuals and mental structures for the audience. The respected host further dissected the importance of a narrative, breaking it down to explain that an effective story needs variety, depth and perspective.
It was highlighted that there are 4 potential delivery outcomes, based on the modulation of the presenter’s volume and speed of speech. It’s safe to say that the host possessed an extremely passionate tone, delivering the messages to the workshop participants. Furthermore, a table was used to highlight the main areas of focus, not only to deliver a message virtually, but also to exhibit the team sportsmanship evidently, through communication within the team.
As the main theme of the TASC conference, taking place on 24th March, is to exhibit “Digital Distributors and Change Makers”, the students proved to have dived into different areas of projects in business. This was realised as the students had a chance to receive tips or feedback by doing a rough run-down of their presentation. Proactive and instantaneous tips and solutions were strategized and discussed during the workshop, further proving the strong dynamic relationships that the whole team has been able to build, virtually. As a team, TAVEC is extremely excited for attendants of the conference to also dive, with each group, into the diverse topics that each has decided to explore further.
Overall, the workshops were a success as it ended on an extremely enthusiastic note, with extremely motivating and positive feedback provided by the main hosts, Matthias Nelke and Lena Mewes.
As students thoroughly studied and dived into topics of diversity, inclusion, intercultural competence, business communication, leadership and entrepreneurship, each participating group consists of students from Hochschule Fresenius, and Adelphi University.
As known, the TASC will highlight the set of soft skills that all TAVEC participants have accomplished during the academic term. Although all TASC participants will receive a certificate of participation, the winning team will have the opportunity to receive a travel grant to visit the other university!
Conference participants will include faculty, students, experts from the field, business leaders and relevant decision makers, as well as general audience. We are extremely excited to be in a Zoom room, with all of you, and to inaugurate the conference on an extremely positive note!