• MDI
  • German version
  • Contact us
MDI Management Development
  • Agile leadership
  • Lateral Leadership
  • Leadership Impact
  • Leadership Development
Select Page
Our journey of becoming CO2 neutral – reasons and tips

Our journey of becoming CO2 neutral – reasons and tips

by Alexandra Eichler, Gunther Fürstberger | Dec 10, 2021 | Leadership Impact, MDI Inside | 0 comments

MDI is CO2 neutral

The pandemic has made us more thoughtful.

Adult education in presence is connected with traveling. Often these are only short distances, but we also had seminar weeks where participants came together from all over the world. With the Pandemic Lockdowns, we switched to virtual delivery and realized that continuing education is fun and effective this way, too. Of course, it’s not quite the same. Still, we know from several of our customers that they want to continue delivering our programs virtually in the future.

If we conduct about half of the measures online, then

 

  • we reduce the CO2 footprint,
  • we save participants’ and trainers’ travel time
  • the company saves travel and hotel costs
  • we still get the opportunity to meet in person from time to time, exchange ideas, network and have great experiences in the real world.

We don’t want to say goodbye to travel either, as travel itself is an important learning tool. But we are striving for a balance between being present and online. It’s win-win-win! 

For the main lever travel, we want to make sure that

  • when choosing the means of travel, we give higher priority to the ecological impact than to personal convenience, e.g. public transport whenever possible.
  • the location of the seminar is deliberately chosen in order to optimize the average travel time of the participants.
  • the relation of travel expenses to implementation time is taken into account, e.g. a 2-day module instead of 4 half-days. Or if it has to be half-days, that these are, if possible, arranged in such a way that the trainer can supervise several groups one after the other.

Online meetings also cost energy and cause a CO2 footprint

but significantly less than most face-to-face meetings. While energy use could be reduced by switching away video, we strongly discourage this, at least for seminars.

Good video and audio transmission is what makes online seminars a truly effective alternative and prevents unnecessary travel. But here, too, we see a few levers we can pull:

Tips for hosting more sustainable online meetings

 

  • Video quality does not have to be excessive.
  • People who are in the same office can get together in one room and have a hybrid conference with the online participants.
  • The choice of technology has a massive impact on energy consumption: using a fiber optic line is several times more environmentally friendly than using 3G mobile Internet, for example.

Despite all efforts, MDI produces an annual CO2 emission of 119 tons.

To neutralize this, we support the following projects

  • We have neutralized our greenhouse gas emissions by purchasing certificates from the “VCS & CCBS Forest Conservation Brazil” project. Here we support the strict monitoring of the management of forests in Para.
  • In addition, we also wanted to do something at our site. So we also signed a bee patronage and are privileged to enjoy the honey of our bees as well.

MDI’s vision is to work on a sustainable leadership culture for a better world.

For us, sustainability includes several aspects, but ecology is a very central one. Growth can no longer be the main paradigm of economic activity. Renewable resources and the calculation of long-term environmental costs should be natural components of any corporate strategy.

As an executive development institute, we see ourselves as having a special responsibility here. In the sense of Walk the Talk, CO2 neutrality is actually an overdue requirement for us.

Authors:

Gunther Fürstberger

Gunther Fürstberger

CEO , MDI Management Development International

Gunther Fürstberger is a management trainer, book author and CEO of MDI, a global leadership development institute and managing director of Metaforum. His core competence is leadership in the digital transformation. He gained his own leadership experience as HR manager of McDonald’s Central Europe/Central Asia, among others.

  • LinkedIn
Alexandra Eichler

Alexandra Eichler

Senior Project Management & Management Assistance & Office Management

Alexandra Eichler  is not only a Senior Project Management, Management Assistance & Office Manager. At the same time, she is passionate about sustainability and demonstrates it throughout the MDI office. She has led the major Co2 neutrality project and completed it at record speed, setting many steps towards a more sustainable mdi.

  • LinkedIn

What might help you next?

Even more Leadership Development Content: 

Learning in the agile age: waterfall or cycle?

by Dominik Etzl | 28. June 2022 | Agile Leadership, Best Practice, MDI Inside | 0 Comments

What is the reality of learning in large companies today? We often see in a wide variety of companies that there is a department that is single-handedly responsible for designing training programs, then planning them through from A to Z in advance, with a strong focus...
Read More

Hybrid Leadership – Making the best of both worlds

by Gunther Fürstberger | 27. June 2022 | Leadership in the digital transformation, MDI Inside | 0 Comments

Hybrid Leadership - Making the the best of both worlds Even though the call to return to the office is noticeable in many places, home office has come to stay. For leaders, the task is to manage and motivate teams in a mix of presence, absence and making the best of...
Read More

3 P’s – The 3 success factors of hybrid leadership

by Dominik Etzl, Gunther Fürstberger, Peter Grabuschnig | 23. June 2022 | Digital Transformation, Leadership Tips, MDI Inside | 0 Comments

The 3 P's - The 3 success factors of hybrid leadership Basically, the concept of leadership in a hybrid set-up can be broken down to 3 main factors: Purpose, People and Performance. Each of these factors is an important piece of the puzzle that allows us to work...
Read More

The 3 biggest challenges of hybrid work

by Statements from the personaList community | 27. May 2022 | Customer Story, Digital Transformation, Leadership in the digital transformation | 0 Comments

The 3 biggest challenges of hybrid work - voices from the personalist.at community In the course of an Leadership Horizon Conference competition, some members of the personalist.at community asked themselves the following question - What are my 3 biggest challenges...
Read More

Next Work Monopoly – Playfully design your new workplace culture

by Michael Weiss | 25. April 2022 | Digital Transformation, MDI Inside, Training Insights | 0 Comments

Next Work Monopoly - Playfully design your new workplace culture In recent years, the world of work has steadily evolved from static office workplaces to more flexible work options, and the effects of the last year have made this transformation even more rapid. Due to...
Read More

The effects of home office

by Dr. Kilian Wawoe | 14. April 2022 | Digital Transformation, Leadership in the digital transformation | 0 Comments

An Interview on the effects of home office with Dr. Kilian Wawoe Dr. Kilian Wawoe investigated the consequences of the increasing numbers of home office days for people and companies and the effects of home office.  During lockdown, he found more than 600 articles...
Read More

6 things you can do to support your hybrid team

by MDI Guide - Hybrid Leadership | 22. March 2022 | Best Practice, Leadership Tips, Training Insights | 0 Comments

6 things you can do to support your hybrid team A hybrid environment brings change for all of us. We're often unfamiliar with certain transitions and can't keep up with the new pace. That's why it's even more important that you, as a leader, keep a cool head and take...
Read More

5 tips to increase trust when working hybrid

by MDI Guide - Hybrid Leadership | 22. March 2022 | Best Practice, Leadership Tips, Training Insights | 0 Comments

5 tips to increase trust when working hybrid Team cohesion and stability are more important now than ever before. Especially in a hybrid setup, where some new challenges await you and the dynamics of your team are constantly changing, you need to be able to trust each...
Read More

10 agile ways to make organizational learning more accessible

by Peter Grabuschnig | 26. January 2022 | Agile Leadership, Best Practice, learning effectiveness | 0 Comments

10 agile ways to promote organizational learning. In order to respond to the current challenges in an organization in the best possible way, different learning formats have proven to be strongly supportive in terms of implementation. These enable new knowledge to be...
Read More

Our journey of becoming CO2 neutral – reasons and tips

by Alexandra Eichler, Gunther Fürstberger | 10. December 2021 | Leadership Impact, MDI Inside | 0 Comments

MDI is CO2 neutral The pandemic has made us more thoughtful. Adult education in presence is connected with traveling. Often these are only short distances, but we also had seminar weeks where participants came together from all over the world. With the Pandemic...
Read More
How can VR help with leadership training?

How can VR help with leadership training?

by Anita Berger, Dominik Etzl | Oct 11, 2021 | Leadership Impact, Leadership in the digital transformation, Leadership Tips | 0 comments

How can VR help with leadership training?

Our Virtual Reality & Leadership Development Experts Anita Berger & Dominik Etzl talk in this Interview about Leadership Impact through VR.

Immersive learning through virtual reality

can help organizations address some of today’s key leadership challenges.

Why is virtual reality for leaders on the rise?

Dominik Etzl: Apart from the fact that VR is cool and is guaranteed to remain in every participant’s memory for a long time, VR leadership training solves a long unsolved problem: bringing virtual teams together in a (virtual) room where they can work together on problems and solutions – not just via the camera in front of the screen – but with full physical engagement and an almost face-to-face feeling.

What do new VR leadership trainings look like in practice?

Anita Berger: Some of the training experiences are designed to be “played” alone, practicing individual situations for yourself over and over again and constantly improving – for example, giving a presentation in front of a virtual audience or even the board of directors.

Other VR trainings involve the whole team and you can think of it more like a virtual escape room.

Others you do alone, but you have physical coaches next to you who guide you through the various scenarios and reflect on what you’ve experienced between VR experiences.

In addition, a distinction can be made between those VR trainings that are tailored to one’s own company and learning situations and those that are standardized and can thus be used in a variety of ways.

In order to have the greatest possible impact, it makes sense – as is already known from face-to-face training – not to view VR leadership training as a stand-alone solution, but to integrate it into a learning process that includes a good mix of synchronous and

What opportunities and possibilities does VR offer?

Anita Berger: VR offers the opportunity to engage with a broad range of content topics in an experiential way from different perspectives in iterative loops.

Different perspectives: Currently at MDI we work with 3 roles:

  • the space travelers
  • the guides/coaches 
  • the observers.

All have the opportunity to immerse themselves in all roles.

The space travelers are the players who, if you use the soccer analogy, are supposed to be on the field scoring the goals. The space mission is about saving others.

The guides/coaches have the opportunity to help the space travelers accomplish the mission. They are the coaches on the sidelines who do not play themselves, but are instrumental in the success of the mission by recognizing and responding to what the spacewalkers need.

Observers are tasked with watching what is happening on the field and on the sidelines, and sharing it in debriefings. One can also use the role of observers for assessment or development settings.

After each mission, participants switch roles and therefore gather lessons learned from the different perspectives.

Iterative Loops:

As in real life, there are many uncertainties, knowledge, and information that must first be acquired. Participants experience certain phases as exciting, fascinating, frustrating or chaotic.

After each round, what is experienced is reflected upon, processed and placed in the respective context of the content. The mission is started repeatedly until it succeeds. Therefore, the knowledge gained from the previous mission can be implemented right away.

Content topics:

The Apollo mission makes it possible to work on various topics and sets of questions.

For example, if the content context refers to “Overcoming Disruption” the different phases of

  • “Fail Fast”
  • Learning Together”
  • “Performing together”

in the different missions can be experienced by the participants.

Reflection phase:

In addition, a content-related discussion can take place, for example on topics such as:

  • Dealing with and coping with uncertainty, complexity and (over-)demanding situations.
  • Performance as a (virtual) team
  • Leading (virtual) teams to performance, through communication, collaboration, inclusion
  • situationally adapted leadership
  • Strengthening (self-)confidence and resilience
  • taking and transferring responsibility

The novel setting offers attractive and exciting development opportunities for leaders at all seniority levels up to top executives and for entire teams.

Can you actually learn better with VR?

Anita Berger: It’s best to let the results of studies speak for themselves

  • Learning takes place up to 4 times faster than in a traditional seminar setting.
  • VR learners are up to 275% more confident in implementing what they have learned after training
  • a 40% improvement over classroom training and
  • a 35% improvement over e-learning training.
  • VR participants felt 3.75 times more emotionally connected to the content than face-to-face learners and 2.3 times more than e-learners.
  • Three-quarters of participants surveyed said they had a wake-up call during the VR course on diversity and inclusion and realized they were not as inclusive as they thought.
  • During VR learning, participants were significantly less likely to drift off with their attention.
  • In the PWC study, participants in the VR setting were up to 4 times more focused during training than their e-learning peers and 1.5 times more focused than their face-to-face training peers.
PwC VR Soft Skills Training Efficacy Study

Virtual Reality for Leaders | Hands-on VR Workshop on 26.11.2021

In this compact hands-on workshop, we will show how leaders learn immersively using VR.

Experience three exciting perspectives for leadership & development in one day:

As an active participant, as a coach and as an observer.

Secure your workshop seat now!

What technology and requirements do you need for implementation?

Dominik Etzl: Until recently, the hurdle to working with VR in your own company was relatively high.

In addition to the special VR hardware from Oculus, Vive, or Sony, for example, you also needed a powerful PC to start the system in the first place. In addition, there were a lot of cables and sensors. If, on top of that, you didn’t have a permanent VR room available, but had to set up and take down again and again, or even move to a different location, you can imagine that this was partly off-putting and only suitable for a niche.

However, these times have largely been history since 2021 the latest. Nowadays, you can buy a powerful VR set starting at €350 and it includes everything you need in terms of hardware to get started. Processing power and sensors have been built into the headset in the latest models, e.g. the Oculus Quest 2, so that a PC, cables or external sensors are no longer necessary.

This makes it very easy and uncomplicated to set up and transport – even for those who have no experience with VR. In the past, it was still common to rent VR hardware – today, a purchase makes much more sense in most cases, because the price difference is cancelled out by the effort. The only requirement is now a room of about 2.5 x 2.5 meters per player, which can easily be found in most offices.

Can every company afford this?

Dominik Etzl: As already written above, one can distinguish between those VR training experiences that are tailored to one’s own company and those that can be purchased in a standardized way.

Which one is right for one’s needs depends primarily on whether the skills that are to be learned with it concern very specific processes in the company, or whether it is about, the general ability to collaborate, agile principles, handling resistance, etc.

Whereas the former usually requires several months of production time and corresponding financial resources, VR leadership training aimed at general soft skills is already available at a slightly higher normal daily training rate. Then you also have trained VR experts to ensure that the VR training is effective. 

The original german article was written for magazintraining by

Anita Berger

Anita Berger

Executive Coach, Consultant, Trainer & Managing Partner MDI

Anita Berger is an executive coach, consultant and trainer specialising in leadership development and international human resource management. She is a partner of MDI Management Development International. For more than 15 years she has worked in management and leadership positions (among others as HR-
Director at Coca-Cola Hellenic and HR Manager at Konica Minolta Business Solutions).

  • LinkedIn
Dominik Etzl

Dominik Etzl

Trainer & Solution Development Manager MDI & Manager Metaforum International.

​Dominik Etzl is Solution Development Manager and Trainer at MDI Management Development GmbH and Managing Director of Metaforum International. His focus is on topics of digital transformation, as well as OKR (Objectives & Key Results), agile leadership and lateral leadership. His goal is to support managers in leading a valuable contribution to their environment: on an individual, corporate and societal level.

  • LinkedIn

What might help you next?

Learning in the agile age: waterfall or cycle?

by Dominik Etzl | 28. June 2022 | Agile Leadership, Best Practice, MDI Inside | 0 Comments

What is the reality of learning in large companies today? We often see in a wide variety of companies that there is a department that is single-handedly responsible for designing training programs, then planning them through from A to Z in advance, with a strong focus...
Read More

Hybrid Leadership – Making the best of both worlds

by Gunther Fürstberger | 27. June 2022 | Leadership in the digital transformation, MDI Inside | 0 Comments

Hybrid Leadership - Making the the best of both worlds Even though the call to return to the office is noticeable in many places, home office has come to stay. For leaders, the task is to manage and motivate teams in a mix of presence, absence and making the best of...
Read More

3 P’s – The 3 success factors of hybrid leadership

by Dominik Etzl, Gunther Fürstberger, Peter Grabuschnig | 23. June 2022 | Digital Transformation, Leadership Tips, MDI Inside | 0 Comments

The 3 P's - The 3 success factors of hybrid leadership Basically, the concept of leadership in a hybrid set-up can be broken down to 3 main factors: Purpose, People and Performance. Each of these factors is an important piece of the puzzle that allows us to work...
Read More

The 3 biggest challenges of hybrid work

by Statements from the personaList community | 27. May 2022 | Customer Story, Digital Transformation, Leadership in the digital transformation | 0 Comments

The 3 biggest challenges of hybrid work - voices from the personalist.at community In the course of an Leadership Horizon Conference competition, some members of the personalist.at community asked themselves the following question - What are my 3 biggest challenges...
Read More

Next Work Monopoly – Playfully design your new workplace culture

by Michael Weiss | 25. April 2022 | Digital Transformation, MDI Inside, Training Insights | 0 Comments

Next Work Monopoly - Playfully design your new workplace culture In recent years, the world of work has steadily evolved from static office workplaces to more flexible work options, and the effects of the last year have made this transformation even more rapid. Due to...
Read More

The effects of home office

by Dr. Kilian Wawoe | 14. April 2022 | Digital Transformation, Leadership in the digital transformation | 0 Comments

An Interview on the effects of home office with Dr. Kilian Wawoe Dr. Kilian Wawoe investigated the consequences of the increasing numbers of home office days for people and companies and the effects of home office.  During lockdown, he found more than 600 articles...
Read More

6 things you can do to support your hybrid team

by MDI Guide - Hybrid Leadership | 22. March 2022 | Best Practice, Leadership Tips, Training Insights | 0 Comments

6 things you can do to support your hybrid team A hybrid environment brings change for all of us. We're often unfamiliar with certain transitions and can't keep up with the new pace. That's why it's even more important that you, as a leader, keep a cool head and take...
Read More

5 tips to increase trust when working hybrid

by MDI Guide - Hybrid Leadership | 22. March 2022 | Best Practice, Leadership Tips, Training Insights | 0 Comments

5 tips to increase trust when working hybrid Team cohesion and stability are more important now than ever before. Especially in a hybrid setup, where some new challenges await you and the dynamics of your team are constantly changing, you need to be able to trust each...
Read More

10 agile ways to make organizational learning more accessible

by Peter Grabuschnig | 26. January 2022 | Agile Leadership, Best Practice, learning effectiveness | 0 Comments

10 agile ways to promote organizational learning. In order to respond to the current challenges in an organization in the best possible way, different learning formats have proven to be strongly supportive in terms of implementation. These enable new knowledge to be...
Read More

Our journey of becoming CO2 neutral – reasons and tips

by Alexandra Eichler, Gunther Fürstberger | 10. December 2021 | Leadership Impact, MDI Inside | 0 Comments

MDI is CO2 neutral The pandemic has made us more thoughtful. Adult education in presence is connected with traveling. Often these are only short distances, but we also had seminar weeks where participants came together from all over the world. With the Pandemic...
Read More
Redefining the workplace as a new area of impact

Redefining the workplace as a new area of impact

by Marina Begic | Jul 28, 2021 | Impuls series, Leadership Impact | 0 comments

Impuls Series - The Future of Workplace Learning

Part 4 with Marina Begic: Digital Business Development Expert and Senior L&D Consultant

Our Digital Business Development Expert and Senior L&D Consultant Marina Begic is currently focusing intensively on “The Future of Workplace Learning”.

Fast and targeted learning, especially for leaders, is becoming increasingly important in an intensifying digital and agile world. Therefore, Marina shares her personal learnings with us. We kicked the series off with these topics:

  • The Future of Workplace Learning – Digitization Boost
  • personnel developers as trusted guides
  • self-directed learning needs more than just an LMS!

 

Hey, Marina is a member of our LinkedIn expert group

If you would like to exchange thoughts and ideas about “Agile Leadership Development”, please send us a request. We are looking forward to you and your valuable impulses!
Join us now!

Redefining the workplace as a new area of impact

The call for more flexibility in combination with home office and digital collaboration is giving rise to new forms of organisation. New technologies and digitalisation are leading to new forms of work and employment that are detached from space and time and also require the redesign of physical workplaces.

Just as learning technologies and processes will be built around employees as users, the office will also be built around users in the future.

In the future, we will mainly enter office spaces for two reasons:

  • Due to psychosocial needs, i.e. to exchange informally with colleagues and not to be alone
  • Because of the technical assistance systems, not primarily to work there. What used to be the printer, which was absolutely necessary for getting work done, will be the holodeck in the future. Holodecks are rooms that create simulations and virtual worlds by means of holographic projection. We may not be able to create rooms like those in Star Trek in the near future – but VR and MR technologies already provide the necessary technology to create immersive learning experiences.

Arguments for face-to-face training

A still unbeatable argument for face-to-face training so far is the possibility to leave the workplace, the mobile phone and the laptop stay off, so that one can really concentrate on the new topic.

Another argument for leaving the workplace when learning is that there are too many distractions when learning virtually at the workplace. It is simply too tempting to check one’s e-mails and work through one or two things “on the side”.

In addition, leaders tend to schedule their employees for appointments immediately before or after the training.

The office of the future

The office of the future supports its users in their current needs. And these are no longer open-plan offices for working together, because we have learned that we can also work well virtually.

So in the future, when reorganising office space, not only meeting and communication rooms should be considered, but also theme rooms, rooms for experimenting and learning in equal measure.

Functional feel-good ambience has been proven to increase performance. In future, the office must support human performance by offering a promise of learning and achievement.

In-depth literature | personal recommendation:

 

Personal Magazine plus:

Arbeitswelten (working worlds)

 

The Human Factor@work. Industrieverband Büro und Arbeitswelt e.V. (IBA)

New Work Order

Marina Begic

Marina Begic

Digital Business Development Expertin und Senior L&D Consultant

Marina has been working on new, effective learning methods and the future of corporate learning for over 15 years. In her current role, she is responsible for Digital Business Development at MDI, where her focus is not driven by the current buzzwords, but primarily on the feasibility of digital transformation for clients such as Erste Group, Lenzing, Semperit, Deutsche Bahn, Andritz AG, Uniqa, Mayr-Melnhof, Frequentis, RHIM. Her greatest strength is bringing loose ends together, which she impressively demonstrates time and time again with her big picture view and multi-dimensional approach. Her greatest passion is to provide learners not only with an experience, but also with real, lasting value for their real challenges.

  • LinkedIn

Digital training formats for leadership development

We help make leadership development more agile with our digital training formats:

  • E-learnings
  • e-consulting
  • Blended Learning Journeys
  • Virtual Leadership
  • virtual reality
  • digital learning transfer

– we have just the right thing for your needs!

Explore now!

What serves you next?

Our journey of becoming CO2 neutral – reasons and tips

by Alexandra Eichler, Gunther Fürstberger | 10. December 2021 | Leadership Impact, MDI Inside | 0 Comments

MDI is CO2 neutral The pandemic has made us more thoughtful. Adult education in presence is connected with traveling. Often these are only short distances, but we also had seminar weeks where participants came together from all over the world. With the Pandemic...
Read More

How can VR help with leadership training?

by Anita Berger, Dominik Etzl | 11. October 2021 | Leadership Impact, Leadership in the digital transformation, Leadership Tips | 0 Comments

How can VR help with leadership training? Our Virtual Reality & Leadership Development Experts Anita Berger & Dominik Etzl talk in this Interview about Leadership Impact through VR.can help organizations address some of today's key leadership challenges.Why is...
Read More

Redefining the workplace as a new area of impact

by Marina Begic | 28. July 2021 | Impuls series, Leadership Impact | 0 Comments

Part 4 with Marina Begic: Digital Business Development Expert and Senior L&D Consultant Our Digital Business Development Expert and Senior L&D Consultant Marina Begic is currently focusing intensively on "The Future of Workplace Learning". Fast and targeted...
Read More

Virtual Reality for Leadership Development

by Aline Depoorter | 22. June 2021 | International leadership development, Leadership Impact, learning effectiveness | 0 Comments

Virtual reality for leadership development on the riseIt's high time we use VR learning in leadership development. That's why MDI Management Development International and Jenson8 are partnering to transform leadership development through virtual reality. The new "VR...
Read More

Five Characteristics of Agile Leadership Development

by Gunther Fürstberger | 22. June 2021 | Agile Leadership, International leadership development, learning effectiveness | 0 Comments

What does the future of agile Leadership Development look like? MDI CEO Gunther Fürstberger has answers and shows you five helpful Characteristics. In the past, leadership development was mainly carried out in the classic mindset of project management. To achieve...
Read More

Personnel developers as trusted guides  

by Marina Begic, Stefan Diepolder | 21. June 2021 | Impuls series, International leadership development, learning effectiveness | 0 Comments

Part 3 with Marina Begic (Digital Business Development Expert and Senior L&D Consultant) and co-author Stefan Diepolder (Content Curator and Digital Learning Expert) Our Digital Business Development Expert and Senior L&D Consultant Marina Begic is currently...
Read More

Agile-based Competence Management – Learn and evolve with change

by Josef Wegenberger, Oliver Wegenberger | 18. June 2021 | Agile Leadership, International leadership development, learning effectiveness | 0 Comments

Authors: Josef Wegenberger, Oliver Wegenberger Society for Business Psychology and Organizational DynamicsLet's put ourselves in the shoes of a company from the 1980s. TECHNIK AG is a typical large company with several thousand employees. The order situation is...
Read More

Self-directed learning needs more than just an LMS!

by Marina Begic | 20. May 2021 | Impuls series, Leadership Impact, learning effectiveness | 0 Comments

Part 2 with Marina Begic: Digital Business Development Expert and Senior L&D ConsultantOur Digital Business Development Expert and Senior L&D Consultant Marina Begic is currently focusing intensively on "The Future of Workplace Learning". Fast and targeted...
Read More

Successful collaboration through mentoring, attentiveness and empathy

by Peter Grabuschnig | 19. May 2021 | Leadership Impact, Leadership Tips | 0 Comments

For example, the function of mentoring or virtual mentoring and, strongly linked to this, the key qualification of attentiveness.By the way, Peter shows you in our new e-learning course successful virtual collaboration & mentoring step by step!Successful...
Read More

How can I mix my own Resilience Cocktail as a leader?

by Aline Depoorter, Marilena Maris | 25. March 2021 | Impuls series, Leadership Impact, Leadership Tips | 0 Comments

with Marilena Maris: economist, personnel developer and executive coach. Hello Marilena, thank you so much for taking the time to answer our questions. We are convinced that you, as an expert, can provide insightful answers!   The increased virtual working, the...
Read More

Virtual Reality for Leadership Development

Virtual Reality for Leadership Development

by Aline Depoorter | Jun 22, 2021 | International leadership development, Leadership Impact, learning effectiveness | 0 comments

Learning better with virtual reality

Virtual reality for leadership development on the rise

It’s high time we use VR learning in leadership development.

That’s why MDI Management Development International and Jenson8 are partnering to transform leadership development through virtual reality.

The new “VR for Leaders” portfolio includes solutions for recruiting, assessment and leadership development.

You learn better with VR

  • 4x faster training than in the seminar room.
  • 275% more confident to apply learned skills after training.
  • 375% more engaged with the content than learners in the seminar room.
  • 400% more focused than learning via e-learning.
Learn even more >

Using new technologies

The most important issue for L&D leaders right now is not just introducing new technologies to improve engagement and enable virtual delivery of programs, but rather using new technologies that will make a real difference for your teams.

Send leaders into space

Sending leaders into space may sound a bit like a stretch, but sending your teams into a completely foreign environment could be the best thing you’ve ever done for your talents.

Because it’s

  • the future,
  • it’s sustainable,
  • scalable
  • and can even be implemented solely virtually.

Immersive learning can help organizations address some of today’s key leadership challenges, such as identifying soft skills, retaining talent, and improving employee engagement.

VR learning can be 

  • anywhere,
  • at any time
  • and can be conducted in any country in the world.
YouTube

By loading the video, you agree to YouTube's privacy policy.
Learn more

Load video

The pandemic promotes new ways of learning

The pandemic has pushed HR to find ways to solve the problem of distance learning, as well as ways to still

  • Create closeness at a distance,
  • build trust,
  • improve communication
  • and improve collaboration.

These issues are not new, and long before COVID came along, HR and L&D leaders were wondering if it was really still necessary to get on a plane, take two to four days out of the office, stay in a hotel, and get everyone together to do a team-building exercise?”

New VR leadership training

The new leadership trainings offer an immersive environment that feels real to participants, as well as

  • Assessment,
  • Coaching,
  • Leadership,
  • Team building
  • and other L&D elements

Through machine learning, artificial intelligence and validated psychometrics, the multiple immersive applications enable leaders to learn by doing, not just seeing or hearing. So virtual reality makes content come alive, not just digital!

YouTube

By loading the video, you agree to YouTube's privacy policy.
Learn more

Load video

* PWC REPORT 2020

More Digital training formats for leadership development

We help make leadership development more agile with our digital training formats:

  • E-learnings
  • e-consulting
  • Blended Learning Journeys
  • Virtual Leadership
  • virtual reality
  • digital learning transfer

– we have just the right thing for your needs!

Explore some more now!

What serves you next?

Our journey of becoming CO2 neutral – reasons and tips

by Alexandra Eichler, Gunther Fürstberger | 10. December 2021 | Leadership Impact, MDI Inside | 0 Comments

MDI is CO2 neutral The pandemic has made us more thoughtful. Adult education in presence is connected with traveling. Often these are only short distances, but we also had seminar weeks where participants came together from all over the world. With the Pandemic...
Read More

How can VR help with leadership training?

by Anita Berger, Dominik Etzl | 11. October 2021 | Leadership Impact, Leadership in the digital transformation, Leadership Tips | 0 Comments

How can VR help with leadership training? Our Virtual Reality & Leadership Development Experts Anita Berger & Dominik Etzl talk in this Interview about Leadership Impact through VR.can help organizations address some of today's key leadership challenges.Why is...
Read More

Redefining the workplace as a new area of impact

by Marina Begic | 28. July 2021 | Impuls series, Leadership Impact | 0 Comments

Part 4 with Marina Begic: Digital Business Development Expert and Senior L&D Consultant Our Digital Business Development Expert and Senior L&D Consultant Marina Begic is currently focusing intensively on "The Future of Workplace Learning". Fast and targeted...
Read More

Virtual Reality for Leadership Development

by Aline Depoorter | 22. June 2021 | International leadership development, Leadership Impact, learning effectiveness | 0 Comments

Virtual reality for leadership development on the riseIt's high time we use VR learning in leadership development. That's why MDI Management Development International and Jenson8 are partnering to transform leadership development through virtual reality. The new "VR...
Read More

Five Characteristics of Agile Leadership Development

by Gunther Fürstberger | 22. June 2021 | Agile Leadership, International leadership development, learning effectiveness | 0 Comments

What does the future of agile Leadership Development look like? MDI CEO Gunther Fürstberger has answers and shows you five helpful Characteristics. In the past, leadership development was mainly carried out in the classic mindset of project management. To achieve...
Read More

Personnel developers as trusted guides  

by Marina Begic, Stefan Diepolder | 21. June 2021 | Impuls series, International leadership development, learning effectiveness | 0 Comments

Part 3 with Marina Begic (Digital Business Development Expert and Senior L&D Consultant) and co-author Stefan Diepolder (Content Curator and Digital Learning Expert) Our Digital Business Development Expert and Senior L&D Consultant Marina Begic is currently...
Read More

Agile-based Competence Management – Learn and evolve with change

by Josef Wegenberger, Oliver Wegenberger | 18. June 2021 | Agile Leadership, International leadership development, learning effectiveness | 0 Comments

Authors: Josef Wegenberger, Oliver Wegenberger Society for Business Psychology and Organizational DynamicsLet's put ourselves in the shoes of a company from the 1980s. TECHNIK AG is a typical large company with several thousand employees. The order situation is...
Read More

Self-directed learning needs more than just an LMS!

by Marina Begic | 20. May 2021 | Impuls series, Leadership Impact, learning effectiveness | 0 Comments

Part 2 with Marina Begic: Digital Business Development Expert and Senior L&D ConsultantOur Digital Business Development Expert and Senior L&D Consultant Marina Begic is currently focusing intensively on "The Future of Workplace Learning". Fast and targeted...
Read More

Successful collaboration through mentoring, attentiveness and empathy

by Peter Grabuschnig | 19. May 2021 | Leadership Impact, Leadership Tips | 0 Comments

For example, the function of mentoring or virtual mentoring and, strongly linked to this, the key qualification of attentiveness.By the way, Peter shows you in our new e-learning course successful virtual collaboration & mentoring step by step!Successful...
Read More

How can I mix my own Resilience Cocktail as a leader?

by Aline Depoorter, Marilena Maris | 25. March 2021 | Impuls series, Leadership Impact, Leadership Tips | 0 Comments

with Marilena Maris: economist, personnel developer and executive coach. Hello Marilena, thank you so much for taking the time to answer our questions. We are convinced that you, as an expert, can provide insightful answers!   The increased virtual working, the...
Read More

Self-directed learning needs more than just an LMS!

Self-directed learning needs more than just an LMS!

by Marina Begic | May 20, 2021 | Impuls series, Leadership Impact, learning effectiveness | 0 comments

Impuls Series - The Future of Workplace Learning

Part 2 with Marina Begic: Digital Business Development Expert and Senior L&D Consultant

Our Digital Business Development Expert and Senior L&D Consultant Marina Begic is currently focusing intensively on “The Future of Workplace Learning”.

Fast and targeted learning, especially for leaders, is becoming increasingly important in an intensifying digital and agile world. Therefore, Marina shares her personal learnings with us. We kicked the series off with the first topic, “The Future of Workplace Learning – Digitization Boost”.

By the way: Soon we will have more on the future role of L&D experts and trusted guides in part 3!

Hey, Marina is a member of our LinkedIn expert group

If you would like to exchange thoughts and ideas about “Agile Leadership Development”, please send us a request. We are looking forward to you and your valuable impulses!

Join us now!

Self-directed learning needs more than just an LMS!

During the pandemic, we all experienced what is already possible with E-Learnings and how quickly we can switch from face-to-face to virtual training. Those who already had a learning management system (LMS) in place probably found it easier to make digital learning materials and videos available to their employees and co-workers. At the same time, the learning curve was also very sharp, as we quickly learned what possibilities digital learning solutions offer and where the limitations are.

“LMS is supposed to promote self-directed learning”-this is a phrase I hear again and again from L&D departments and leaders when asked about the purpose of the LMS. The responsibility of learning should lie with the employees themselves.

What is self-directed learning anyway?

There is no standard definition, so here is an attempt to summarize it:

Learners should take the initiative on their own accord, grasp their own learning needs and learning goals, and select and apply the appropriate learning content. The mere availability of content in an LMS based on a PDP (Personal Development Plan) is therefore not sufficient to bring forth self-directed learning. Learning is a social phenomenon that needs a holistic approach.

An LMS is well suited to provide a predefined process with the appropriate content at the right point. If you don’t have too high expectations of the LMS, it can still be a very useful tool when used correctly.

However, if you want to sustainably change the learning culture in your company and develop it further in the direction of agile learning, you should not back a large, expensive horse that may no longer be usable in a few years, but rather try out many smaller options using sprints.

70:20:10

The 70:20:10 model, which is often used in leadership development, brings us closer to the fact that we are always and everywhere learning, especially through our work (70) and from others (20). In the future, there will be an increasing blending of the three “ways” of learning, i.e. formally (10%, Education), through interaction with other people (20%, Exposure) and informally through our own experience (70%, Experience).

Learning is the Work. (Jarche, 2013) 

The education portion, i.e., the formal part of learning, will increasingly be used and accessed where it is needed. The technical requirements for this are already in place.

Adaptive Systems or Learning Experience Platforms (LXP)

This also demands systems that continuously adapt to users and their needs. Adaptive systems or learning experience platforms that deliver easily digestible knowledge nuggets independent of time and place and at the same time memorize learning preferences and suggest meaningful new learning content.

From the user’s point of view, one could have skipped the development step of the inflexible LMS and started right away with so-called experience platforms. But be careful, not every LXP is a real experience platform. Giving the user an active role in the learning process beyond clicking things through should be a minimum requirement and not a promoted further development on the market.

What can also hinder the learning process in connection with an LMS implementation are

  • A long implementation process: it is not uncommon for it to take several years from the search to the roll-out of the software. Usually, a requirements catalog is created for months with 15 different stakeholders/sponsors (who are usually not the direct target group at all).
  • The search is on for the perfect solution that meets all the technical criteria and, by chance, also provides exactly the right content for the company.
  • Work is done according to the waterfall principle instead of the agile principle, i.e. the system is not deployed until all functions run without errors.

If the target group cannot be continuously tested and adapted, there is a high risk of failure.

What can current LXP platforms provide?

  • Current LXP platforms such as eloomie, Rallyware, HLX, and StoryShare offer not only learning content, but also an integrated authoring system for creating your own e-learning, enable self-service content curation and content sharing, and thus also touch on social learning.
  • Learning platforms should offer cross-platform content as part of their standard program and suggest suitable Netflix-style content based on user behavior using artificial intelligence.
  • The Leapsome platform uses an analytics tool to continuously determine its own training needs and links daily business, tasks, goal management, and feedback. However, the option to integrate third-party content is missing here.
  • So LXP also pay attention to the active and social components of learning, experience and exposure.
  • But only 25% of U.S. companies have a learning experience platform in place, and according to the Haufe Benchmarking Study from 2020, LXP is still not very widespread – for 62% of respondents it is not even a term.

For those who don't yet have an LMS and want to promote self-directed learning, here are 9 tips for doing so:

1. use existing systems: existing intranets or communication platforms/channels may not be able to perform all LMS functions; however, they probably can do more than you think. Text, images and even videos can be easily integrated at one point or another in almost all companies these days. So first knock on IT’s door and have key users show you the functionalities of existing systems. Besides, nobody wants the 25th program – no matter how useful and interesting it is.

2. content ALWAYS before infrastructure: don’t wait for the LMS to be announced in 6 months to deliver content that is currently relevant to your employees. By then, the content may even be outdated. There is certainly a solution, e.g. intranet, social media company group, monitors in production/break halls or simply link via email/SMS to Youtube channel. It is important to bring the message as close as possible (barrier-free) to the target group.

3. Iteration before perfection: It is better to publish content in small bites, i.e. microlearnings in 3-5 minutes, in different channels on a regular basis. Work in sprints for both software/infrastructure and content production, get feedback from target audience and move on. Even if it is tempting in terms of price, rather make up shorter license periods. Content that is no longer needed in a year is then still too expensive even discounted.

4. relevance: Think well about what content to go out with first with your target audience using e-learnings. How relevant is the content to the target audience? Is it “only” legally relevant (mandatory training) or does it also solve a problem for the target group. How do I communicate to the target audience that this content is relevant? Here it pays off to devote a little more time to this, even when designing the content of the e-learning: If, for example, a standard content is purchased, one could quickly use cloud-based authoring tool to create a personalized framework with introductory words to the WHY or even a short intro video with the CEO. You can also work with the sandwich method. A mandatory content (like IT security) packed between two more exciting contents.

5. good news spreads fast: but only if enough employees know about it and can spread it. Therefore, start with content that is relevant to a larger audience. So what brings the fastest quick-win, creates the greatest impact, increases business value? It is therefore advisable, for example, to prefer Outlook training for all employees to e-learnings for C-levels.

6 Mix & Match: Even if at first glance it appears to be easier to work with a large one-stop provider that covers all functionalities and often already provides a lot of content, it is nevertheless more difficult to navigate a large ship in times of change. You will never be able to cover everything from one provider. Optimal is a mix of purchased standard content, partially or completely self-produced and professionally produced content. I always recommend starting with a few selected pieces of content rather than releasing a library with hundreds of pieces of content without any control.

7. involve the target group (empowerment): not only by means of a one-time needs assessment at the beginning, but on an ongoing basis. The production staff probably knows better than the L&D department how to improve the production line and how to present that. Have project groups produce their own content and give them tools to create and share short videos themselves with short “How to make a Microlearning” training. Call competitions, create innovation awards, provide access to video/authoring tools.

8. strategy roadmap: Even an agile learning journey needs a north star, a mission. Therefore, select partners strategically. What is the goal of the LMS implementation? Because management wants to digitize the company? Is there a strategy for it? What is to be changed as a result? In what time frame? What problems will it solve – short, medium, or long term? Does it really need an LMS for this, or maybe something else already? What goal does the digital learning content pay towards? A strategy roadmap helps with orientation. At this point, it can be helpful to bring independent external experts on board. Either just for the strategy or also for content curation and personalized production.

9 Communication first: Communication is half the battle and the key to success. Really. Period. An e-learning strategy must always be accompanied by a communication roadmap and sufficient transparent communication. But what is “sufficient”?

The following approach can provide guidance:

  • At the beginning of the project: 70% communication for 30% message.
  • In the development phase: 50% communication for 50% message
  • In the maintenance phase: 30% communication for 70% message

That sounds like a lot of work to you? It is!

But e-learning is not introduced to make things easier for the L&D department, but for everyone else 😉 The good news is, however, that you don’t have to do the communication work alone and actually can’t do it at all. You need trusted experts called trusted guides to do it.

More about the future role of L&D experts and trusted guides will be available shortly in the third part of my impulse series

Marina Begic

Marina Begic

Digital Business Development Expertin und Senior L&D Consultant

Marina has been working on new, effective learning methods and the future of corporate learning for over 15 years. In her current role, she is responsible for Digital Business Development at MDI, where her focus is not driven by the current buzzwords, but primarily on the feasibility of digital transformation for clients such as Erste Group, Lenzing, Semperit, Deutsche Bahn, Andritz AG, Uniqa, Mayr-Melnhof, Frequentis, RHIM. Her greatest strength is bringing loose ends together, which she impressively demonstrates time and time again with her big picture view and multi-dimensional approach. Her greatest passion is to provide learners not only with an experience, but also with real, lasting value for their real challenges.

  • LinkedIn

Digital training formats for leadership development

We help make leadership development more agile with our digital training formats:

  • E-learnings
  • e-consulting
  • Blended Learning Journeys
  • Virtual Leadership
  • virtual reality
  • digital learning transfer

– we have just the right thing for your needs!

Explore now!

What serves you next?

Our journey of becoming CO2 neutral – reasons and tips

by Alexandra Eichler, Gunther Fürstberger | 10. December 2021 | Leadership Impact, MDI Inside | 0 Comments

MDI is CO2 neutral The pandemic has made us more thoughtful. Adult education in presence is connected with traveling. Often these are only short distances, but we also had seminar weeks where participants came together from all over the world. With the Pandemic...
Read More

How can VR help with leadership training?

by Anita Berger, Dominik Etzl | 11. October 2021 | Leadership Impact, Leadership in the digital transformation, Leadership Tips | 0 Comments

How can VR help with leadership training? Our Virtual Reality & Leadership Development Experts Anita Berger & Dominik Etzl talk in this Interview about Leadership Impact through VR.can help organizations address some of today's key leadership challenges.Why is...
Read More

Redefining the workplace as a new area of impact

by Marina Begic | 28. July 2021 | Impuls series, Leadership Impact | 0 Comments

Part 4 with Marina Begic: Digital Business Development Expert and Senior L&D Consultant Our Digital Business Development Expert and Senior L&D Consultant Marina Begic is currently focusing intensively on "The Future of Workplace Learning". Fast and targeted...
Read More

Virtual Reality for Leadership Development

by Aline Depoorter | 22. June 2021 | International leadership development, Leadership Impact, learning effectiveness | 0 Comments

Virtual reality for leadership development on the riseIt's high time we use VR learning in leadership development. That's why MDI Management Development International and Jenson8 are partnering to transform leadership development through virtual reality. The new "VR...
Read More

Five Characteristics of Agile Leadership Development

by Gunther Fürstberger | 22. June 2021 | Agile Leadership, International leadership development, learning effectiveness | 0 Comments

What does the future of agile Leadership Development look like? MDI CEO Gunther Fürstberger has answers and shows you five helpful Characteristics. In the past, leadership development was mainly carried out in the classic mindset of project management. To achieve...
Read More

Personnel developers as trusted guides  

by Marina Begic, Stefan Diepolder | 21. June 2021 | Impuls series, International leadership development, learning effectiveness | 0 Comments

Part 3 with Marina Begic (Digital Business Development Expert and Senior L&D Consultant) and co-author Stefan Diepolder (Content Curator and Digital Learning Expert) Our Digital Business Development Expert and Senior L&D Consultant Marina Begic is currently...
Read More

Agile-based Competence Management – Learn and evolve with change

by Josef Wegenberger, Oliver Wegenberger | 18. June 2021 | Agile Leadership, International leadership development, learning effectiveness | 0 Comments

Authors: Josef Wegenberger, Oliver Wegenberger Society for Business Psychology and Organizational DynamicsLet's put ourselves in the shoes of a company from the 1980s. TECHNIK AG is a typical large company with several thousand employees. The order situation is...
Read More

Self-directed learning needs more than just an LMS!

by Marina Begic | 20. May 2021 | Impuls series, Leadership Impact, learning effectiveness | 0 Comments

Part 2 with Marina Begic: Digital Business Development Expert and Senior L&D ConsultantOur Digital Business Development Expert and Senior L&D Consultant Marina Begic is currently focusing intensively on "The Future of Workplace Learning". Fast and targeted...
Read More

Successful collaboration through mentoring, attentiveness and empathy

by Peter Grabuschnig | 19. May 2021 | Leadership Impact, Leadership Tips | 0 Comments

For example, the function of mentoring or virtual mentoring and, strongly linked to this, the key qualification of attentiveness.By the way, Peter shows you in our new e-learning course successful virtual collaboration & mentoring step by step!Successful...
Read More

How can I mix my own Resilience Cocktail as a leader?

by Aline Depoorter, Marilena Maris | 25. March 2021 | Impuls series, Leadership Impact, Leadership Tips | 0 Comments

with Marilena Maris: economist, personnel developer and executive coach. Hello Marilena, thank you so much for taking the time to answer our questions. We are convinced that you, as an expert, can provide insightful answers!   The increased virtual working, the...
Read More

Successful collaboration through mentoring, attentiveness and empathy

Successful collaboration through mentoring, attentiveness and empathy

by Peter Grabuschnig | May 19, 2021 | Leadership Impact, Leadership Tips | 0 comments

Successful collaboration, whether in a virtual or real environment, is defined by several important aspects.

For example, the function of mentoring or virtual mentoring and, strongly linked to this, the key qualification of attentiveness.

YouTube

By loading the video, you agree to YouTube's privacy policy.
Learn more

Load video

Leadership E-Learning

By the way, Peter shows you in our new e-learning course successful virtual collaboration & mentoring step by step!

Let's get together!

Successful collaboration through mentoring, attentiveness and empathy

Position yourself as a mentor in the team

Most leaders, as well as employees, are unaware that part of their job is to teach others. Be it explaining the new process, training the new employee or showing the colleague the new software program. Collaboration also has a lot to do with passing on and sharing knowledge. A teammate who is unfamiliar with a topic is likely to ask the more experienced colleague for help. But often that’s not the case and she doesn’t ask because she or he may be afraid of appearing incompetent or perhaps disrupting the colleague’s work.

That’s why it’s so important to position yourself as a mentor on the team. You need to make others feel that they can turn to you if they don’t know something – that way you avoid mistakes. In turn, everyone will then have an open ear for you if you ever need something.

Because as a leader, you pay attention to many other things besides your own operational tasks. For example, one employee may be sick; another may want to talk about a possible termination; the e-mail inbox is literally exploding; the presentation for the next management meeting is also not yet ready; and then the quarterly figures are also below target. Tony Robbins always reminds me of this qoute “Where the focus goes, the energy flows.“

Prioritizing needs increased attention

Prioritizing, focusing on what is important, not getting distracted, and making clear decisions even in stressful situations are all skills that require increased attention. The greatest challenge we face in our daily work and as leaders is how to deal with attention. This means, on the one hand, to distribute our own attention carefully and disciplined and, on the other hand, to pay more attention to how we support others in directing their focus to the relevant things.

Attention depends strongly on motivation

Since attention is strongly dependent on motivation, it is first and foremost important to find out what motivates. It is easier to pay attention to things that give joy. If you want to increase your own attention span, I advise you to pay attention to what causes you to lose it. This can be obvious things like email notifications or phone calls, colleagues showing up without an appointment or the “binging noise” of a new chat message.

It’s important to always be aware of things like your mind wandering or losing focus. Having a clear head for what’s in front of you helps immensely. Just 10 minutes of mindfulness training a day can work wonders.

The “principle of rotating attention”

One way to sustainably focus one’s attention on important issues is the “principle of rotating attention” by Gerhard Mantel, a leading music educator and famous cellist. It is actually used for rehearsing difficult passages in music, but can certainly be applied to everyday leadership. Mantel describes that by looking closely at individual patterns, interesting and error-avoiding details open up to the player. Specifically, it is a matter of looking for three to five things that one would like to work on with special attention. This technique can also be used well in leadership work.

Strike a balance between focusing and de-focusing

Being attentive and resisting distractions has many benefits, but also takes a lot of our energy. It is important that we create a balance between focusing and de-focusing. Stress plays a big role here; if you have too much pressure you can’t focus well. But this also happens when you have no or too little pressure. Especially as an leader, it is important to get into balance here by, for example, allowing yourself enough breaks through meditation, a walk in the woods, or just sitting in silence for 5 minutes and letting your thoughts flow. Often it is the simple things that give us energy again.

Empathy – an attentive approach towards others

So far we have mainly talked about our own attentiveness in terms of concentration. Another important point is an attentive interaction with others, which according to business psychologist Daniel Goleman is particularly relevant for leaders. This is about the ability of empathy, i.e. understanding how other people think, empathizing with others and what other people need.

Empathy is the basis for any development of functioning relationships and is therefore relevant for convincing other people, influencing them or even generating attention. The focus is always on the other person.

We want to be seen and perceived by others

Getting attention from others is one of our basic human instincts. We want to be seen and perceived by others. The first question you should ask yourself if you want to get the attention of others is what do they get out of giving it to me? Therefore, it is important to create value for the other person, to share relevant and valuable content and to let our counterpart actively participate.

Of course, you can increase attention through activation methods such as asking questions, figurative language, storytelling, information deficits and much more, but as long as the content has no relevance and no added value for me as a participant of a meeting, I will probably wander off with my thoughts faster than the presenter would like.

Thinking exercise - How do I generate attention as a leader?

So before you start thinking about what online tools you could use and what fun games you could incorporate into the presentation, take some time to think about who your audience is and what makes them tick. What problems do they have? What challenges? What answers do they need?

Once you have an idea of this you can think of stories and metaphors, pick up examples from everyday work, etc. The mixture of the benefits of the content for your participants and the appropriate activation methods will then certainly keep them engaged.

Grounded and mindful leadership despite stressful situations

Being mindful of moments is just as relevant for a leader as it is for employees. Tuning into the here and now through meditation and thereby grounding oneself can be very helpful, especially in stressful situations, especially when important decisions are pending or the pressure is very high. It is often enough to concentrate on your own breathing for one or two minutes. Breathing consciously into the belly, for example, has been proven to reduce stress in the body. Through mindfulness, one also recognizes that some things just take their time, which can be enormously relieving for leaders and their teams. The basis of mindfulness is to perceive without judging and thus also protects against hasty decisions.

Especially for people who are very driven by their emotions or tend to overwork themselves, mindfulness training can be a wonderful method to do something good for themselves and thus further develop their leadership skills.

Peter Grabuschnig

Peter Grabuschnig

Trainer, Coach & MDI Partner

Peter Grabuschnig is a successful trainer, mindset coach and consultant. As a partner of MDI- Management Development International – he supports leaders worldwide in their development.

He has trained more than 40 nationalities in recent years and is considered an expert in training design. With his Webinar Guru Framework he has developed a tool that helps to design training content for successful and activating virtual learning.

  • LinkedIn

Digital training formats for leadership development

We help make leadership development more agile with our digital training formats:

  • E-learnings
  • e-consulting
  • Blended Learning Journeys
  • Virtual Leadership
  • virtual reality
  • digital learning transfer

– we have just the right thing for your needs!

Explore now!

What serves you next?

Our journey of becoming CO2 neutral – reasons and tips

by Alexandra Eichler, Gunther Fürstberger | 10. December 2021 | Leadership Impact, MDI Inside | 0 Comments

MDI is CO2 neutral The pandemic has made us more thoughtful. Adult education in presence is connected with traveling. Often these are only short distances, but we also had seminar weeks where participants came together from all over the world. With the Pandemic...
Read More

How can VR help with leadership training?

by Anita Berger, Dominik Etzl | 11. October 2021 | Leadership Impact, Leadership in the digital transformation, Leadership Tips | 0 Comments

How can VR help with leadership training? Our Virtual Reality & Leadership Development Experts Anita Berger & Dominik Etzl talk in this Interview about Leadership Impact through VR.can help organizations address some of today's key leadership challenges.Why is...
Read More

Redefining the workplace as a new area of impact

by Marina Begic | 28. July 2021 | Impuls series, Leadership Impact | 0 Comments

Part 4 with Marina Begic: Digital Business Development Expert and Senior L&D Consultant Our Digital Business Development Expert and Senior L&D Consultant Marina Begic is currently focusing intensively on "The Future of Workplace Learning". Fast and targeted...
Read More

Virtual Reality for Leadership Development

by Aline Depoorter | 22. June 2021 | International leadership development, Leadership Impact, learning effectiveness | 0 Comments

Virtual reality for leadership development on the riseIt's high time we use VR learning in leadership development. That's why MDI Management Development International and Jenson8 are partnering to transform leadership development through virtual reality. The new "VR...
Read More

Five Characteristics of Agile Leadership Development

by Gunther Fürstberger | 22. June 2021 | Agile Leadership, International leadership development, learning effectiveness | 0 Comments

What does the future of agile Leadership Development look like? MDI CEO Gunther Fürstberger has answers and shows you five helpful Characteristics. In the past, leadership development was mainly carried out in the classic mindset of project management. To achieve...
Read More

Personnel developers as trusted guides  

by Marina Begic, Stefan Diepolder | 21. June 2021 | Impuls series, International leadership development, learning effectiveness | 0 Comments

Part 3 with Marina Begic (Digital Business Development Expert and Senior L&D Consultant) and co-author Stefan Diepolder (Content Curator and Digital Learning Expert) Our Digital Business Development Expert and Senior L&D Consultant Marina Begic is currently...
Read More

Agile-based Competence Management – Learn and evolve with change

by Josef Wegenberger, Oliver Wegenberger | 18. June 2021 | Agile Leadership, International leadership development, learning effectiveness | 0 Comments

Authors: Josef Wegenberger, Oliver Wegenberger Society for Business Psychology and Organizational DynamicsLet's put ourselves in the shoes of a company from the 1980s. TECHNIK AG is a typical large company with several thousand employees. The order situation is...
Read More

Self-directed learning needs more than just an LMS!

by Marina Begic | 20. May 2021 | Impuls series, Leadership Impact, learning effectiveness | 0 Comments

Part 2 with Marina Begic: Digital Business Development Expert and Senior L&D ConsultantOur Digital Business Development Expert and Senior L&D Consultant Marina Begic is currently focusing intensively on "The Future of Workplace Learning". Fast and targeted...
Read More

Successful collaboration through mentoring, attentiveness and empathy

by Peter Grabuschnig | 19. May 2021 | Leadership Impact, Leadership Tips | 0 Comments

For example, the function of mentoring or virtual mentoring and, strongly linked to this, the key qualification of attentiveness.By the way, Peter shows you in our new e-learning course successful virtual collaboration & mentoring step by step!Successful...
Read More

How can I mix my own Resilience Cocktail as a leader?

by Aline Depoorter, Marilena Maris | 25. March 2021 | Impuls series, Leadership Impact, Leadership Tips | 0 Comments

with Marilena Maris: economist, personnel developer and executive coach. Hello Marilena, thank you so much for taking the time to answer our questions. We are convinced that you, as an expert, can provide insightful answers!   The increased virtual working, the...
Read More

How can I mix my own Resilience Cocktail as a leader?

How can I mix my own Resilience Cocktail as a leader?

by Aline Depoorter, Marilena Maris | Mar 25, 2021 | Impuls series, Leadership Impact, Leadership Tips | 0 comments

Interview about: "Why we all need our own resilience cocktail"

with Marilena Maris: economist, personnel developer and executive coach. 

Hello Marilena,

thank you so much for taking the time to answer our questions.

We are convinced that you, as an expert, can provide insightful answers!  

The increased virtual working, the constant availability, and the simultaneous coordinating of one’s own household nowadays is draining the energy resources of many people and especially those of individuals in leading positions.

So, you might assume that currently good resilience skills are more and more needed and building resilience is the key to a balanced work life.

Marilena, I know that you have been working with thousands of leaders and experts in the past year on resilience. Can I bluntly ask you if this is the next “trending” topic? 

This might even be true and honestly, it’s one of the trends I consider really useful 🙂 If we look around, we see that the past year has given us plenty of opportunities to deal with huge challenges. In these kind of moments, it is legitimate to look out for proven strategies and ideas on what to do next. Since resilience is backed both by science and experience, it’s pretty much bullet proof.

That’s why I am not surprised about the popularity of the topic. One thing I want to underline in this “hyped” conversation, though, is that resilience is not just coping with stress. Actually, resilience is the ability to deal with a critical situation in such a way that you generate success, growth and sometimes even joy. 

If resilience is so popular and bullet proof, does this also mean it’s easy to achieve? If we look around, it seems like there still are many leaders and experts struggling. 

Fair point. Theoretically, resilience is simple: it’s about how we react to a stimulus, like a challenging situation. In this reaction, there is usually a key moment, some call it even a turning point. If we get that right, it all becomes so much easier. Practically, there is a beautiful and complex combination of what we think, how we feel and how we act under pressure. And that is really really challenging, especially when you are under pressure. 

Consider that daily we make between 20.000 and 60.000 decisions, hopefully the best ones. Those decisions rely on thinking and behavioral patterns and we are mostly not even aware of that, because we work quite a lot under pressure. So challenging how we “normally” do things is not really something which comes easy to many people, for sure not on a day full of back to back meetings and the whole saga. 

So for the ones who are still struggling, how can we break down the complexity and build up resilience?

Let’s use a simple analogy. If I would give you the best cocktail in the world, how would this cocktail be? 

It depends, right? It depends on what you think about cocktails, how you want to feel when you drink them and which ingredients are there available to create them. And then it depends on  the specific situation, sometimes a fresh non alcoholic smoothie is all we need … and sometimes we go for the Tequila Sunrise. Other times we are up for experiments like designing a totally new cocktail.

Bringing back this cocktail analogy to resilience,

you can make sure that you develop your “cocktail mixing” abilities (your thoughts, feelings and the sharp understanding of what is needed in every situation). More so, you also need to make sure that all the ingredients of the cocktail are available or easy to access. The “ingredients” we need for the resilience cocktail are key factors, like emotion regulation, impulse control, smart problem solving (“causal analysis”), empathy, positive thinking and proactively going for challenges as well as our self efficacy. In real life you might observe that some of these key factors are easy for you and others aren’t. Work on the ones you find more challenging, that’s what will bring you the best results.

Now the cocktail idea sounds good. But it also sounds like a lot of work and nobody really has the time these days.

That’s true, time is not always on our side. Yet we need to invest time and energy to get outcomes. In my work, I make a deal with all the leaders I work with. They commit to 10-15 minutes a day to build up resilience and if it’s not working for a few weeks, they can stop anytime. So far, nobody stopped this deal, quite on the opposite 🙂

The principle behind is simple: building up resilience is preparing for a marathon, not for a sprint. We need good habits and we build up those habits daily, until they become “no brainers”. So just imagine that for 10 minutes daily, you would challenge something which is not doing you a favor any longer. It may be a bad habit like smoking or it may be a big fear like the fear of change. It may be the decision to make a short walk versus allowing pandemic news to ruin your mood.  The catch is simple: instead of ignoring the issue, you focus and start actively dealing with it. Daily. For as long as it takes.

And the last question: is building up resilience only depending on what we do? What about the external factors? 

Honestly yes. We will always deal with external factors, some will be more useful than others. Yet how we handle them is totally up to us. This is a provocative remark, I am aware of that.

Let’s take the most famous example, Viktor Frankl. He was one of the most brilliant minds the world can get on psychotherapy and his work started to be really incredible while he was trying to survive several concentration camps of World War II. He had to fight for his life and survive the loss of his wife and parents. And he chose to find ways to turn this horrific externally triggered challenges into a work which became a legacy. 

Viktor Frankl sums it up quite well: “Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to chose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom”.

Marilena Maris

Marilena Maris

Business economist, personnel developer and executive coach

Marilena Maris has been working with leaders and experts, on-site or virtually, in over 30 countries since 2008. She passes on her knowledge in the form of workshops, key notes, international programmes, coaching and training. She is particularly concerned with productivity and sustainable performance, also known as achieving results and keeping our sanity. She is also a shareholder and partner at MDI, holds a Master of Science in Executive Coaching & Training from the University of Vienna, and a BA in Business Administration from the International University of Applied Sciences in Krems aswel as several international certifications. She loves travelling and lives both in Austria and Germany as part of a patchwork family of 5 kids.

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn

What serves you next?

Our journey of becoming CO2 neutral – reasons and tips

by Alexandra Eichler, Gunther Fürstberger | 10. December 2021 | Leadership Impact, MDI Inside | 0 Comments

MDI is CO2 neutral The pandemic has made us more thoughtful. Adult education in presence is connected with traveling. Often these are only short distances, but we also had seminar weeks where participants came together from all over the world. With the Pandemic...
Read More

How can VR help with leadership training?

by Anita Berger, Dominik Etzl | 11. October 2021 | Leadership Impact, Leadership in the digital transformation, Leadership Tips | 0 Comments

How can VR help with leadership training? Our Virtual Reality & Leadership Development Experts Anita Berger & Dominik Etzl talk in this Interview about Leadership Impact through VR.can help organizations address some of today's key leadership challenges.Why is...
Read More

Redefining the workplace as a new area of impact

by Marina Begic | 28. July 2021 | Impuls series, Leadership Impact | 0 Comments

Part 4 with Marina Begic: Digital Business Development Expert and Senior L&D Consultant Our Digital Business Development Expert and Senior L&D Consultant Marina Begic is currently focusing intensively on "The Future of Workplace Learning". Fast and targeted...
Read More

Virtual Reality for Leadership Development

by Aline Depoorter | 22. June 2021 | International leadership development, Leadership Impact, learning effectiveness | 0 Comments

Virtual reality for leadership development on the riseIt's high time we use VR learning in leadership development. That's why MDI Management Development International and Jenson8 are partnering to transform leadership development through virtual reality. The new "VR...
Read More

Five Characteristics of Agile Leadership Development

by Gunther Fürstberger | 22. June 2021 | Agile Leadership, International leadership development, learning effectiveness | 0 Comments

What does the future of agile Leadership Development look like? MDI CEO Gunther Fürstberger has answers and shows you five helpful Characteristics. In the past, leadership development was mainly carried out in the classic mindset of project management. To achieve...
Read More

Personnel developers as trusted guides  

by Marina Begic, Stefan Diepolder | 21. June 2021 | Impuls series, International leadership development, learning effectiveness | 0 Comments

Part 3 with Marina Begic (Digital Business Development Expert and Senior L&D Consultant) and co-author Stefan Diepolder (Content Curator and Digital Learning Expert) Our Digital Business Development Expert and Senior L&D Consultant Marina Begic is currently...
Read More

Agile-based Competence Management – Learn and evolve with change

by Josef Wegenberger, Oliver Wegenberger | 18. June 2021 | Agile Leadership, International leadership development, learning effectiveness | 0 Comments

Authors: Josef Wegenberger, Oliver Wegenberger Society for Business Psychology and Organizational DynamicsLet's put ourselves in the shoes of a company from the 1980s. TECHNIK AG is a typical large company with several thousand employees. The order situation is...
Read More

Self-directed learning needs more than just an LMS!

by Marina Begic | 20. May 2021 | Impuls series, Leadership Impact, learning effectiveness | 0 Comments

Part 2 with Marina Begic: Digital Business Development Expert and Senior L&D ConsultantOur Digital Business Development Expert and Senior L&D Consultant Marina Begic is currently focusing intensively on "The Future of Workplace Learning". Fast and targeted...
Read More

Successful collaboration through mentoring, attentiveness and empathy

by Peter Grabuschnig | 19. May 2021 | Leadership Impact, Leadership Tips | 0 Comments

For example, the function of mentoring or virtual mentoring and, strongly linked to this, the key qualification of attentiveness.By the way, Peter shows you in our new e-learning course successful virtual collaboration & mentoring step by step!Successful...
Read More

How can I mix my own Resilience Cocktail as a leader?

by Aline Depoorter, Marilena Maris | 25. March 2021 | Impuls series, Leadership Impact, Leadership Tips | 0 Comments

with Marilena Maris: economist, personnel developer and executive coach. Hello Marilena, thank you so much for taking the time to answer our questions. We are convinced that you, as an expert, can provide insightful answers!   The increased virtual working, the...
Read More

What leaders can learn from adventures

What leaders can learn from adventures

by Michael Wigge | Jan 11, 2021 | Leadership Impact, Leadership Tips | 0 comments

Michael Wigge explains what leaders can learn from adventures based on his adventures and the six aspects of the leadership acronym

In today’s world, leaders face many challenges as the marketplace changes rapidly and the competencies of a successful leader must be diverse. In my contact with leaders in my role as a soft skills trainer for stress management, leadership and motivation, I have often noticed these aspects as leadership challenges.

  • Industry change through globalization, digitalization
  • Leadership changes through digitalization: leading employees in other locations and countries 
  • Internationalization of employees with intercultural challenges
  • Leading generations X,Y,Z with changing demands
Author, speaker and challenger Michael Wigge

Author, speaker and challenger Michael Wigge

supports employees and leaders in improving motivation, resilience, stress, time and change management.

Award-winning motivational speaker, Michael Wigge, specializes in documenting incredible challenges. How to Travel the World for Free, How to Barter for Paradise and How to Travel Europe Blindfolded are just three of his seven shows. Based on his experiences, Wigge began performing motivational speaking engagements and started CMW Coaching & Speaking. His most successful corporate keynotes are Challenge-4-Change Leadership Success and Challenge-4-Change Sales Success

Successful Leadership in Challenging Times

What is the best way to strengthen yourself as a leader for these changes?

In my leadership motivation presentations, I usually go through the LEADER acronym, which vividly covers important aspects of leadership

LEADER acronym

  • L-Listening
  • E-Embracing Change
  • A-Accepting Failure
  • D-Development
  • E-Entertainment
  • R-Relationship Building

These six aspects of successful leadership play a role in the current context more than ever.

Based on my adventure background with my self-experiments “How to Travel the World for Free” (Tonight Show, NBC) and “How to Barter for Paradise” (Honolulu Star-Advertiser), I have experienced myself how the six aspects of the LEADER acronym are very important aspects of meeting great challenges.

When I traveled to the end of the world without money,

Listening

became a great exercise for me, because the more I tuned in to people on the 35,000 kilometers through the world and listened to them and their life stories, the more I was helped. After all, I needed food, accommodation and rides every day for free. And isn’t it similar in the corporate context that employees want to be heard by their managers in their needs and desires?

A recent study shows that the attention span for listening in our society is just about eight seconds. At the turn of the millennium, it was at least 12 seconds. Thanks to digitalization, we are becoming more and more accustomed to short messages and fast information. How can we listen to our employees, especially in times of time pressure?

Embracing Change

is certainly the big issue in today’s leadership. What was relevant yesterday is often no longer relevant today. Production cycles, market trends and consumer behavior are taking place in shorter periods of time than before digitization. The ability to step out of the comfort zone again and again in order to adapt to the new is now required.

I like to use the example of Kodak here, how the former photo giant and world market leader failed to recognize the signs of the times and failed  in  digital photography. This started the end of the giant –

Lack of change = insolvency.

I myself felt the pressure of change every day on my journey without money to the end of the world. In order to get free food, travel and accommodation in different places and countries, I was forced to keep trying new things. Because while the “tell a joke for a free roll” exchange worked brilliantly in Belgium, Americans were into completely different things.

To lure them out of their shells (to help me), I offered out-of-the-box services in the open street in Las Vegas and in San Francisco, like “pillow fight for a dollar” or “the human sofa for a dollar” (my back still hurts…) And these stunts helped, because 300 Americans who did a pillow fight with me one after the other financed a $300 flight to Costa Rica for me with a dollar each.

The rules of free travel were, of course, very different again in South America and Antarctica – so change pure and simple, so I felt like a traveler in the form of a chameleon myself.  Corporate leadership is less about pillow fights (I suppose), but the required degree of change forms a clear parallel between leadership there and my adventures.

Accepting Failure

Accepting failure was also incredibly important as I kept starting promotions for free barter deals that didn’t work out. So trial and error and then on to plan B.

Development

Developing is as important for managers as it is for adventure travelers. If you stay in your comfort zone, two things happen: stagnation or even regression (old patterns can return, which were thought to have been overcome long ago) as well as a lack of motivation.

After my adventure challenge “How to Barter for Paradise” I experienced exactly that. Success briefly made me too passive to challenge myself further. The lack of motivation came quickly. This is exactly what leaders need to avoid. That’s why my motto is “CHALLENGE-4-CHANGE” – challenges and further development as the key to success and motivation.

Entertainment

Without entertainment my challenges would be unthinkable. I made it to the end of the world mainly through humorous stunts without money: pillow fights with passers-by for a dollar or working as a British butler for the German ambassador in Panama – being funny was the key to success here.

Networking

I calculated how many people I approached on this trip. It must have been 7,000-8,000 (!) in 150 days, or 50 contact attempts per day. Networking, the absolute foundation of my challenges – and perhaps of your professional challenges?

With these and other experiences I bring the LEADER requirement to the audience in a playful way in my (German) motivational keynotes. You can find my last LEADER talk from my presentation in the USA there as well.

Your (pillow throwing) Michael Wigge.

What serves you next?

Benefits of OKR

What are the benefits of the OKR system?

What are the benefits of the OKR method and how does it work exactly? MDI trainer and OKR master Susanne Spath gives us an introduction and a story to visualize the OKR method.

Read article

Agile leadership orientation and basics

Agile leadership - orientation and basics

There are plenty of agile methods – but what are the benefits of each method? MDI trainer Alexandra Sock talks about her agile leadership seminar, which gives you an overview of different agile methods.

Read article

Scrum& Agile leadership

Scrum & Agile leadership

Scrum is one of the oldest agile methods and is the mother of all agile methods in many people’s opinion. Susanne Spath is OKR master and Scrum certified gives us an introduction to this method and tells us for whom it makes sense to implement Scrum.

Read article

« Older Entries

Information

  • Imprint
  • MDI company website

Social Media

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn

© MDI Management Development Institute, 2020