Most staff developers see themselves as facilitators of the learning process – knowledge is distributed throughout the organisation and the learning process happens when people successfully collaborate with others. The role of the facilitator is to encourage this process by providing a clear framework for discussion, creating opportunities for dialogue to occur across different groups and communities of practice. Sounds great doesn’t it? If only it were that easy!

In reality, availability of the right people at the right time is often a major issue and what appears to be a successful outcome for the group who attended can subsequently be undermined by the absence of key individuals. This is where collaborative meeting software comes in, by offering a solution that enables people to be involved in a facilitated meeting, irrespective of their geographical location and existing diary commitments.

By necessity the first round of interviews was done by phone. Candidates had already gone through several screening steps so this was to be a high powered interview. The aim was select four of seven candidates who will go on to face-to-face interviews and then two who will spend a half day on-site.
Sheila and I looked for ways in which online collaboration software (in this case FacilitatePro) could transform a rather awkward phone conversation with a candidate and nine interviewers to an engaging and efficient interaction.

We have just published a white paper entitled Designing Interactive Webinars to add to our webinar and article series on collaborative learning in the virtual workplace.