Training That Transforms: Embedding Coaching Moments Into Corporate Training with Alycia Zimnoch

Luis Malbas  
All right, welcome back, everybody. I can see a group of folks already in the room. Thank you so much. If you can, please just type in the chat where you're logging in from, say some hellos to to all of us here and, and that helps me make sure that the interface is working and that you can hear everybody here, or hear me and, and, and, oh, there we go. Renee Parker, hello from Maine, thanks Renee for for putting that in there. And wow. Ole Sugan from Nigeria, thank you for being here. Terry Christina's back. Ephra, hello, hello, hello, thanks. Thank you so much for participating in this event. All right, okay, we're going to go ahead and get started. I'm happy to introduce to our next speaker for our event, the Immersive Learning Conference. Alicia zimnock, I got that right. You did it. Good job. Alicia is a corporate trainer, transformational coach and communications expert with over a decade of experience in instructional design and coaching, she blends the science of learning with the art of coaching to create experiences that go beyond information and drive real transformation. Alicia has coached 1000s of high achieving women to find their voice and step confidently into leadership. Her engaging practical people first approach makes her a sought after guide for personal and professional growth. When I saw Alicia's submission to this event. Her focus was on reflection and and that impact on learning, not so much on like gamification and all these other technical things. So I was particularly taken by what I'd seen from Alicia submission. So I'm happy to have her as our second speaker for this event. And with that, I'm going to go ahead and hide myself from the screen and let you take over. Thank

Alycia Zimnoch  
you so much, Luis, I appreciate that. I am thrilled to be here and to be learning from all these cool minds that are really brilliant about the tools and technology. I think what we are all able to experience over these next couple days at this conference is really going to be fun to be able to go back and implement with all of the resources. So I'm grateful to be here. Luis, thank you for having me and for what you have built with tldc. I think you know I'm relatively new to this community, but just seeing all of the resources that you have, it's really beautiful what you have built. And then beyond that, the community you know, as I'm sitting here live, seeing other presentations, and I'm seeing the chat where people are so lovely and engaged and stuff, that's such a good signifier that there is actual depth of community. So I really appreciate you having me, and I'm excited to chat with you all today. We are going to be talking about training that truly transforms my expertise. Really comes from coaching, and this concept of how coaching can be embedded into learning experiences that can lead to transformation. So this is what we're going to kind of get through the next 30 minutes or so. I'm going to show you some coaching specific principles. I'm going to give you some examples of how that can be applied in immersive education, not necessarily specific, but more high level examples, and then I'm going to just share with you some fun resources for you to continue looking at if this is something that seems fun for you. Now, don't worry, I already took notes. I know many of you are you got two screens going, or you're listening to this while you're working on a billion other things, so I took notes for you. If that's something that you're interested in. By the end of this, you can let me know. I'll email it to you, or I can get it to Luis, and he can distribute it that way as well. So before we get rolling, I mentioned that I am relatively new to this community, so wanted to just introduce myself. My name is Alicia. This is my family. Of course, the thing I'm most proud of in my world is my family. Perhaps you are as well. I do have master's degree and did the things you know, was a career counselor, higher education, leadership development and talent development, things like that. I was, I am a wife, a mama to these two sweet little girls and a small business owner. I work in digital marketing, and really have been able to incorporate my work in learning design to create e learning products for digital learners. And had started this over 10 years ago before it got cool, and now it's kind of cool, and so it's been fun to witness that transformation in the industry. And of course, that comes with high. And lows my fun fact, and I want to hear from you guys, what is your fun fact. Mine is that I am a former Miss California, and I have the pageant wave to prove it. So I'm a former Miss California. It's fun, I think, when you are meeting new people and wanting to build connection to hear what's their fun fact. So could you please in the chat, tell me what is your fun fact? Like, what's the thing that when someone says, like, tell me something I don't know about you, or what's the interesting thing about you? Can you put it in the comments in the chat here, so that we can see it and that we can get to know you too? One of the things I love to do is to use timeless principles, things that we know are true, things that we know they will work no matter what industry you apply it to, these are the things that will work. Know what no matter what vertical you're in, they're just true. These are your timeless principles, but then applying it to modern solutions, because you just can't go wrong, right? If you have a timeless principle that you know works, and you apply it to a modern solution, it's likely going to work there too, and that's something that I have really used throughout my career. Is constantly looking for where is something that we know is true, and how can we apply it here, I'm going to take a moment to just look at these that you guys are putting in, because these are fun. Let's see my wife still doesn't believe that I learned how to play the bag times that was good. Oh, a school band director, I played an 80s cover band. Oh, that is a good one. I was named after a lifestyle brand. Laura, Daughtery, wow, that is very cool. These are fun. Well, it's great to meet you guys. I thank you again for having me here, and I hope that I'm able to help you see how using these timeless principles of coaching can help to improve the transformation that's experienced through your immersive learning experiences. So let's dive straight in here. I'm curious if you have ever personally worked with a coach before? Have you ever worked with somebody before, a fitness trainer, a career coach, anything like that, where you've hired somebody to coach you, if so, type in the chat, maybe it was one of these. You could use the letter combo for that, or you could just tell me, what was it? I have actually hired all of these in my life, personally, I've personally hired a career and executive coach. I've personally hired a life coach. I've also not not just these, but also hired a business coach. I've hired a marriage coach and a sleep coach. When we were trying to do toddler sleeping with my toddler, I hired a coach for that because I really was like, this is something I can apply to any industry. I need a coach for this. Looks like lots of you have done those types of things before. It's fun to hire somebody. My experience has been that it's fun to hire somebody to guide you through something that may otherwise feel somewhat daunting or feel far away like the gap is just too big. How could I possibly and so it's fun to get that coaching support. When we think about a coach, it you might not be at all surprised to learn that there is about 99% satisfaction for individuals and companies when they hire a coach, and also the ROI on hiring a coach is significant. This study says seven times. So that's pretty that's kind of a big deal. That's a huge ROI to be able to hire somebody as a coach and then to get a result. That's that big, and it really is, because of the fact that they are treat their focus. A coach is focused on the lifelong transformation that somebody can experience over time, and that transformation happens through identity changes. Now this is not something that you're probably all that new to. You're probably so far like, Okay, this adds up. Yes, of course, of course, but when transformation is what we really need to happen, especially in corporate markets, places, and really when the stakes are high and a big new thing is happening, we need everybody to adopt the identity development that the change in who they are as related to whatever the thing is that they are learning. In the previous presentation, Elizabeth alluded to how oftentimes learners can just go through the motions. And that's true, right? You've probably seen that in your work too, that they go through the motions they learned the things they take the quiz at the end, check, check, check, okay, I can say that. I know that, but are they really owning it enough to actually implement it in real life, especially in high stakes situations. And so that's what coaching can by infusing coaching into your programs, that's what it can really help you do. So let's look at an example. I'm going to share with you a couple of examples in real life because. You know, immersive education is about kind of getting people to have a real life experience without having to have the real life experience. So we keep it safe, but we keep the emotions high, and that allows you to feel like it is real, right? And so I want to ask you if you could think I'm going to share with you two quick stories, but I want you to think for yourself. When did you experience a coaching moment that you believe truly transformed you, like it changed who you were, like just because you had that moment with that person, it radically shifted who you were, and if you're willing to share that in the chat, I would love to hear your story as well. I'll share with you a first story that's just kind of fun and carefree, and then I got a story that's a little bit more hits home, perhaps. So my first experience, I hired a this was in my early, I think I was in my early 30s. I hired a personal trainer, and I was like, I really want to be so strong. I want to be like, you know, unstoppable, so I hire this personal trainer who whose technique was specifically for bodybuilders. And I was, like, all excited, like, I'm gonna wear the bodybuilder is gonna be so fun. Well, in bodybuilding, one of the things that you do is you do low reps, but you put a huge amount of weight on, and the goal is to get maybe six, maybe eight at most reps. And if you get eight reps, then the next set, you're going to put on a lot heavier weight. So the goal here is just get push it up as many times as you can. And so I can't recall exactly it might even leg press or something that I was doing I was actively doing. Okay, 123, I got to four, five, I got to my fifth rep. Now, remember, goal is six to eight, but I was like, I was like, I physically cannot crunch this bar, push this thing up. I just cannot do it. And you know what coach does? He gets right in my ear and he goes, You listen to me. You have one more. I see it, get it, I'm like,

with the most strength possible, I push it up. I got my six rep, and I was like, wow. And, and, you know what happened was, yes, I got that six rep, but more than that, I changed who I was, because now I got this beast mode activated, you know, it was like, all of a sudden I stepped into that identity of like, whoa. No longer am I like a ballet dancer. Now I'm a bodybuilder, and the identity transformation allowed me to own that aspect of who I am. I can't wait to hear your stories. I hope you would communicate something in the chat for us, because it'd be so great to hear what you guys have been through. One of my other stories I'll share with you. I was in grad school in my in my 20s, and I was kind of like the Know It All grad student, and so, you know, oh, I'll just handle this myself, and I'm not gonna work in group projects. I was very much had this sort of independency, and really wanted to just do all the things my own. I actually thought that I could at the time, and I specifically remember when that changed for me, because I was taxed with a project. I was a grad student, had an like an assistantship, and in that environment, I was asked to create these things, these cards, note cards that we were going to be using at the college level with these students. And so I created them, and I was supposed to my next step was that I was going to send them to my the assistant in the office who was going to review them and then send them to the print shop. Okay, well, I just finished the project, and I knew how to send these to the print shop, so I just sent them to the print shop. I just totally skipped that one step, right? It wasn't until a week or so went by, they get the things back from print. And now it's time for me to go to my assistantship again. And I walk in all proud and cheery, and my supervisor brings me in and sits me down and says, Alicia, I noticed that you went ahead and sent these off to print, and I'm curious why you did that. And I said, Oh yes, well, I was taking initiative. I said I finished the project, and I knew that they were ready to go, and so I just went ahead and sent them off. So he says to me, Did you have anyone look at these? No, I did not. Well then, and he pulls them out. There are so many typos in these cards. If there were 100 cards, there probably were 30 of them that were absolutely unusable because of format errors, things that were just cuckoo. I just did it way too fast, and then I sent it to print. In that moment, he said to me, you have to honor process. Process is here for a reason, and everybody has a place on the team. And that is when I became a new person. I had that shift of, Wow, that's so true that I if I attempt to shoulder all of the things, I won't be as impactful, and then we'll have. Have a we'll have to redo all the stuff that Alicia couldn't do, because Alicia can't do it all. And that's why there's a value in team. And so I learned that lesson the hard way, but it 20 years later. That specific meeting in that environment is something that is still with me, that memory remains. So every time I try to, you know, do the thing on my own, or just skip the steps, or whatever. That's the memory that comes back. It's an identity shift that transformed me.

Okay, so here's why this works. This is a coaching principle that works. It's the combination of pause and reflection. Pause and reflection are key elements to integrating anything into the work that we do. Let's imagine, for example, you never take time. For those of you that have children, let's imagine you never take time to just pause connect with them and say, Huh? I see that. You know this thing is happening. I see you're throwing food on the floor. We don't throw food on the floor. Here's what we do instead. It's the pause and reflection that gets the results. When you think about your specific transformational moments. It's in the pause and reflection where transformation, internal transformation and ownership actually begins to happen. This is where presence, identity, belief, growth, mindset and ultimately, transformation are able to happen. Now reflection is sometimes gets a bad rap in design, but also in especially in immersive, immersive experiences, because it feels like it's like a detour, like, oh my goodness, we got to take time to, like, write a journal about this. Or, you know, how's that really going to how are we going to even be able to to analyze that in the future? But really, it is not a detour to learning. But in fact, the path that you must walk in order to get to true transformation, immersion, without reflection is as if you were to read a book, and then you just never even think about what it actually meant. That's what that would actually feel like. So I'm going to quickly talk about how these might look and how you might be able to weave them in, and then we're going to look at some specific examples. So the pause is essentially a brief, but non skippable. So for those of you that are that are creating immersive experiences where a an avatar or a person's going through an experience, this would have to be something that they're not able to skip. They have to go through not around, right? And it's a reflection point. And so this is something that is, let me give you some examples of what this might look like, supervisor, one on ones. That would be like a real life experience, not a and VR experience or something like but we do this in real life right post launch, Team debriefs, where you get everybody together. How did it go? What did we think that it up? That's a reflection moment where you just pause and you actually have have space to do this. It's the moment where you and your spouse get to share about what happened today. It's hard when the person that you're living with you don't see them for days and days and days, and then finally, the weekend hits and you're like, wow, what have we been doing? Like, how are you You know, so it's those pause moments, and building those into our lives, picking up your kids from school. If you have an opportunity to do that, and you get that chance to really like just take a break. It's that 10 minute commute or 20 minute commute where you just get to that's the pause. Now the reflection opportunity is equally important. This can come in the form of coaching questions or journal prompts, even commentary, meaning somebody else is describing what you just did in that situation. That's kind of what my example of me as a graduate student, my supervisor was really just describing to me what I did, and it wasn't until that moment that I discovered that my action was actually not the best thing to do, right? So this would be if a supervisor asked you for a report that you were working on what worked and what didn't work, and then you have to reflect on, well, how did that really go? A mentor asks you, What do you want to achieve in five years from now? Huh? Well, what do I want to achieve? You're reflecting on these things, right? Even your vision board, okay? 2025, goals. This is a portion of reflection. This is an opportunity for you to look and see. What do I really want to create here? Maybe your toddler is just like, not brushing her teeth. If you have toddlers at home, you might recognize this. They're standing there making silly faces in the mirror, and this I use frequently. I'm like, okay, honey. Now I see you. We're in here to brush our teeth, but I see you making silly faces, and immediately she's able to be like, Oh yeah, silly faces. Okay. She gets her toothbrush and moves on, okay. These are all real life examples of reflection, and they work. It works in real life. It can work in immersion experiences as well. Okay, so let's look at some examples of how this could look. First. Right? I want to share with you these coaching moments. These are opportunities for you to work things in to the projects that you're already working on. So imagine the things that you're already working on right now, and think about how can you add intentional questioning? I'm going to give you an example non player character coach. This would be like an avatar that would appear, but isn't actually a participant, more of just a mirrored reflection, reflection portals, guided journaling, pause and process. We've got a lot of these, and we are going to be looking at a few key ones as examples. Okay, so let's start first with the choice checkpoints. Okay, let's imagine that you're doing an ethics training, and the situational dilemma here is to report unethical behavior. So how this might be used is the learner might make a choice, or be faced with choices, and then before the learner, the outcome plays out, or before the learner even chooses, they might say, pause. Why did you make that choice, and what influenced you? Was it logic, fear or empathy? Now, as you can see, these aren't quiz questions, right and wrong, but it's a genuine like, Oh, let me check. Let me pause and reflect on where is that coming from for me, so that I can apply this to my real work. When I get out of this immersion, when I take off the goggles, and I get back into my real world, and I need to actually have this skill set, you're able to actually change the identity, okay, it helps to clarify decision rationales, and it surfaces the internal cultural biases that someone might not even be aware that they have themselves and, of course, deepens their own alignment with their own core values. Okay, intentional questioning. Oh, this one is so much fun. So this, let's take, for example, sales enablement training. Let's say that they're doing a role play simulation, simulation on objective handling, okay, objection handling. This might look like a prompt that rises and says, what would this look like in your next pitch? Or what don't you like about this, or which part of this pushed you out of your comfort zone? And this is going to help the learners to develop their own self awareness of their own weaknesses, in their belief system, but also in their abilities to do things you know, okay, let's look at another one pause and process activities. So let's imagine safety and operations training. There's a virtual reality simulation inside of a manufacturing line. Emergency, okay, high stress situation, high stakes situation, the need to act now. Okay, so the simulation can pause and offer something like this, a 32nd voice memo, where the person can say how they're feeling in that moment, why they might make a choice, and when they're asked something like, what decision was the hardest for you and why? Now we're able to track real technical judgment of like, what was the, you know, maybe you had to prioritize the machine and the person, or the two people that are in the emergency situation, or, you know, the product, or who knows what they do. They know what their subconscious is already doing. This, we are able to help them pause and reflect in order to help them internalize what they're really learning and apply it. It gives them confidence and clarity. In the end, okay, let's look at one more example I think I have for you here, the non playing character coach. This is one of my favorites, because I remember that feeling of having the coach around me. If anybody here has played athletic sports before, you know, like, if you are on a collegiate team, especially you you know the value of coach. Coach is that person that challenges you. It's that person that is able to support you, that sees in you the growth potential. It's less of the judge who's going to see whether you or not you get it right, but more of the person that's going to encourage you along the way. So this idea of the non, non playing character coach role is that they're able to sort of sit there with you and ask these questions. Okay, so let's say after a decision is made, but before the scene plays out. And this could also be done after the scene plays out, uh, the this person might ask something like, Why do you think you reacted that way? And what does it say about how you view this person or this situation, and then you allow the learner to apply through text or through voice memo, to really be able to feel like they are able to defend themselves, but also reflect like, yeah, where did this come from? Um, why did I say that? Or why was that my natural response? And so it helps to then integrate what am I really learning here into, instead of just the knowledge, it's really getting deeper. So I have a framework for you here, the coach framework, C, O, A, C, H. These are just, this is kind of just a fun way for you to use this lens of coach to look at ways that you might be able to use this in the work that you're doing right now. So the first is to look at curiosity and start with wonder. I wonder if I wonder when, and you're asking yourself, from the learner's perspective, what is going on there? What are they experiencing right now. And how do we give them an opportunity to share that ownership This is huge, is to really invite them to agency, take responsibility for this action that you took, take responsibility for your thoughts and the feelings that you really have behind that. It allows for action to make it real. So this is we're looking for places that we can actually infuse this, instead of just waiting till the end of the simulation and then, you know, I'm imagining you're taking off the goggles. And now we sit in a circle and we're processing it, but let's build that in, if possible, so that they have that experience in the moment to just Whoa. Hang on. I'm learning something new. I need to pause and reflect on this, to really let it sink in connection, to build that belonging so that they feel that ownership of I agree with this. This is now one of my values, too. And then, of course, habit, anything that we are teaching people we want them to be able to translate it from that immersive experience or the educational experience. We need them to be able to do this. We need them to actually be able to implement this in places where we might not say, Oh, by the way, this is where you're doing it. Now, they need to just be able to do it, especially these soft skills that we're teaching. We need them to be able to just roll with it. But you have to own it. You have to have been transformed in order to do that. Okay, so I've got some fun examples of some coaching bots that exist out there. There's one called coach bot, which sort of is like a chat GPT for coaching better up coach hub and chat coach are all using this concept of creating a coach in order to serve you in your goals that you want to achieve. And so these are just some fun examples of things that if you are wanting to dig into it more could be something to do. So next time that you are designing a program, don't just ask, what are they going to learn and experience? But rather ask, Where will they pause and reflect?

Reflection is not a detour from learning, but it is, in fact, the path to true transformation. So now, if you are interested in this, you could email me and I'll send you the PDF of these notes. I also have for you in here a list of a bunch of really cool questions. Let me I have this phenomenal book Greg burskin buskin who wrote that's a great question, a book that's a great question, and it's this gigantic book of great questions, coaching questions, reflective questions that could be useful as you're coming up with, like, Well, what do I say here? What's this? What's this character going to actually say in this moment? And in that book, it's divided by, you know, if we're talking about values and if we're talking about ethics, and if we're talking about personal development, things like that. So you could be able to use that to come up with some of the content of like, what are we saying here? And in this PDF, I also have a list of those for you as well. We'd love to connect with you all as well. So please feel free to find me and follow me on LinkedIn. That would be great place to connect. That's the end of my presentation. Luis, do we have any questions?

Luis Malbas  
I didn't see any questions. I this. This really is poignant. Like, I I'm because, like, my brain is sort of spinning, because there are these elements, like nowadays, especially in training, where I feel like there's a lot of content that's been created, like using, using technologies like AI, of course, but I think that, like for me, that the thing that I'm searching for, and especially like in building this community, are just these human elements, you know, and pausing and reflection like I feel that those are very, very human things that that I think could potentially just go missing in a lot of content that's being created nowadays. And so I love this idea of being able to, like integrating that in there, because then it I can see where the immersion becomes more relevant. Because if you're adding. And these human elements into it, like using reflection as a training device and coaching then, then it does it. I think it communicates more to to the learner. So thanks for this. This is really thought provoking for me. Cool.

Alycia Zimnoch  
Thank you for sharing that. Yeah, I think it's you know, we, we all are, I think, really looking for like, how do we just make this stick? How do we just get it so that, in the end, it works for whoever's learning whatever we want them in the end, to make sure that it sticks, so that they they actually experience change. And, you know, this is such a key component to transformation, true trans identity development, you know, really, really becoming it. Yeah. So thank you, Luis, for appreciating that absolutely. So

Luis Malbas  
anybody else have any questions out there? Yeah, and I was interested to see that slide to where you had recommended those. Can you go back to that slide. In fact, screenshot, yes, those AI, yeah, coaching bots, yeah, I am really interested in and taking a look at those. Wanted to screenshot that. Okay, got it, because I'd love to know, like, just how they react. Like, I mean, how effective do you think they are? I mean, well,

Alycia Zimnoch  
there it's so generative. AI is still generating. I think Elizabeth sort of pointed to this, like it's not like it's creating, right? And even though we can ask it to create a table format or something, we're not going to be able to ask it to. It's not human yet. So, you know, we really do have to be the creators. But when you are engineering a prompt in a way I've done, I've done prompt engineering for my small business, and you can do it in a way that carries the tone of a coach, and what type of coach, and give it that sort of idea for how you want it to reply. And I have seen huge amounts of success in the way that I've engineered the prompts to be different and that they are like successful. They're doing the thing. Also. A lot of these companies are using specific frameworks, again, the timeless, the frameworks that have always worked, and they're now teaching their bot to respond based off that specific, you know, transformational, you know, framework. And so I really do think that they are spectacular because of that in teaching like time management and, you know, the general things that people in the world are trying to achieve. Interesting,

Luis Malbas  
yeah, because I know that there are a lot of people that use tools like chat, GPT for therapy, yes, they can probably function well as for coaching, too. I just have never, you know, gone in that direction with with any of these tools. Yet, I have a question from Renee here. Any ideas for communicating about reflection in a digital game? I resorted to have a notebook handy, but I think I could do better.

Alycia Zimnoch  
Interesting. So Renee, you're trying to ask the participants to reflect, and you're inviting them to have a notebook handy. I think that's how I'm understanding it. And so how else can we communicate that they ought to reflect is, I think that's what she that's what they're communicating. So reflection is something that those of us who have been in we tend to value reflection from an educational standpoint. So those of us who come from education and value that, like most of us here in this room, we like reflection because we know that it works. But for those that are trained technically or are not, not, maybe not as excited about the idea of learning. You know, we all get excited about that. We'd like to see that we are passionate about the transformation that we can see unfolding in front of our eyes. When someone didn't know something, and now they do, and it's so exciting. We like that. So we love the reflective component. But some people are kind of like, Ugh, don't make me like reflect on this. So calling it something different could be useful. And you know, think about what, what do the people in your the industry that you are designing for? What are they excited about? If it's not reflection, then consider something else. It you might say something along the lines of, like, I would encourage you to have a, I often invite a notebook or a digital, you know, alternative. So it could be a Notes app or something on their phone, you know, so that they don't see it as, oh, that notebook, and then they're scrolling. I never used a notebook before. You know, we'll get your digital app or get whatever out that you and. Instead of calling it reflection, and say, you know, and write down some of the creative thoughts that you're having as you experience this training. And so maybe they're more attractive to Oh, yeah, I have creative thoughts all the time. I'm going to write down the creative thoughts that I'm having during this experience, you know. So you're reframing it in a way that is something that is attractive to them, instead of calling it reflection, I don't know if that is helpful. Renee, if you have anything more specific than perhaps, I could, you know, if you want to share something more specific, I could go a little bit deeper. We could connect in a different environment. Kim says, I'm curious about how learner reflections are responded to, oh yeah, and the training sessions you've described, who listens to the voice memos? When is feedback given to each learner? I guess I'm trying to mitigate the how and the why is apparent. Good. Kim, so love this. How are we going to use all this stuff? And do we need to use all this stuff? And like, imagine now we've got all these voice notes floating around. The pause and reflection. The way I view it is that it's more for them, although it could be easily, you could you would be awesome to grab all of that data and then mine for like, what part of this did they not get? Or where are they confused? Or if a training program doesn't work, that could give you a ton of insight as to why, maybe there was a prequel that they needed, and we didn't know about that until we heard all of their thoughts in their head. And now we realize, like, yikes, we got to go back and retrain this whole other thing, you know? So I, I guess that it it depends on who you're training and the level of and also the time that you have in order to reflect on the process yourself, and if it would add up to be valuable to have that feedback yourself. But I think even if you don't ever touch the feedback, it will be valuable to the learner. It will be valuable to the participant of it to just have that moment to pause and reflect.

Luis Malbas  
I can tell you that guy, when I was producing live conferences, one of my goals at every event was to make sure that I made that there were spaces for people to go to, to reflect in between sessions, because you're getting thrown so much at you and and I recall, like, when I was working events, the people that I felt had the most successful conference experience says they're the ones that would go, like, head out to the swimming pool and sit at a table, and then you'd see them taking their notes and just like, kind of, I guess, you know, sort of downloading everything, like letting, like, just writing as much as they could about what they just learned. And I think that's one of the reasons why I felt like reflection at my events was so was so important.

Alycia Zimnoch  
Yeah, yeah. I love that. And I do think that, you know, even if no one ever heard those thoughts from them, right, for for themselves, it is valuable. And then, you know, it could be something where they create, you know, depending on what type of design you're creating, what type of work, for example, an onboarding experience. Oftentimes this is very valuable, as you're going through the steps of onboarding or over the first 90 days, to have a weekly touch point. And these are things that we do on pen and paper. It's just we don't think about doing them in the immersive experience, because we love the we're we're so concerned about the EXP, the actual immersion and the actual learner experience, that we forget about, like, uh, don't forget. Like, they actually have to remember this stuff on the other side of it right, not just kind of like, know which one to check, but then not really translate it to real life. And so thinking through, I think a great way of approaching this is also to consider, if you were going to do this without the like, if you were going to do this just within a room of 20 people, how would you do it without any technology at all? And it will give you the insights to, how am I going to present this with the immersion, immersion experience, you know, an example for this might be you, you set the scenario, there's a big team meeting, you show the, you know, a video kind of simulates we're in the office setting, and we've got the time on the calendar and like, yikes, the meeting is coming up. There's maybe some mysterious kind of unsettling music that gets us to feel what they might be feeling. I got to have this big conversation with my employee today. The assistant reminds you about it. Okay? And then there's the avatar employee. They come in and sit down, and the top of your list is you need to confront them about arriving late, and so then pause, okay, you're going to confront this person. They're going to be because they have been arriving late. How are we going to handle this? What? Choose your opening line. Okay, now you chose your opening line. How do you feel about that? What did you What do you think they're going to respond like? Okay, now. Let's watch it play out. And then, okay, they watch it play out. Now, on the other side, how did that work for you? Do you want to try something different? Okay, let's try something different, you know. So I think thinking of it as if this were real life, what would I do? And then that's going to bring open a whole bunch of opportunities to just by reframing it in your own mind. Very interesting.

Luis Malbas  
I know that in the next session, we're going to be doing some group role play and and things like that. So so that'll probably align well with some of this. Some of this too. So Excellent. All right. Any more questions? Anyone else? Just take a look here. I'm not seeing anything. Alicia, thank you so much for being a part of the event and sharing with us. This is absolutely great. It was wonderful to meet you. I hope that we see you again. We just did a coaching and mentoring event just a couple months ago, and this would have been perfect for that as well. So if we if that one comes around again, I'll definitely have to reach out and see that's

Alycia Zimnoch  
actually how I found the organization, yeah, because this is stuff that I'm incorporating in my work right now, and so was looking at ways that others were working on these types of things too, and found your organization through that. As I'm, you know, transitioning from small business into corporate world. That's how I discovered your and I'm so grateful again. Luis, thank you for all that you do. Thank you Renee and Laura and Kim and Claire and Mike and everybody who was participating in the chat. That feels good for the speaker the presenter. So thank you guys for participating. Luis, thanks again for having me. Yeah,

Luis Malbas  
absolutely. Thanks everyone. Um, let's see one. Uh, it's 12pm Pacific, and that would be 3pm Eastern. I not quite sure if I'm pronouncing her name right, but I think it's heli. Heli. Nehama ozermi talking about group role play, the most powerful learning tool most facilitators avoid. There's going to be couple poll questions in there, and, of course, the role play. So I think we're going to be needing some volunteers, so please come back and participate and we'll see you then. Thanks, everyone. You.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

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