The Psychology Behind Training Your Team In Person

As we navigate this brave new world fronted by AI and suffused in mild ‘the robots are coming’ hysteria, the human touch has never felt more critical.

This is especially true in the workplace, where connectivity and team dynamics can be lost to an ecosystem of Teams messages, video calls and online webinars. By all accounts, the evolution of such technology saw us come together at a time we needed it most, but five years on from Covid and I can’t help but feel the subtle art of conversation needs to be restored.

In my ten years at WPR, I’ve delivered training sessions to everyone from CEOs to sales teams to product specialists. And in my humble opinion, the training sessions held in boardrooms yielded far more than those that saw me appear as a square on a screen.

Now don’t get me wrong, there is a time and place for online training, often rooted in necessity and logistics, but I have a real soft spot for an in-person session, be it at WPR towers, a client’s office, or another venue.

Psychology backs me too. The human brain thrives on its environment, and the gains of an in-person session are numerous:

1. in the room, in the zone

If your team is in the room, they are part of the action. The signal to your brain is sent: I’m here, I’m present, I’m ready to hear what this person has to say. That email ping, Teams message or WhatsApp notification can wait because I’m committed to the here and now, physically and mentally.

This creates an automatic sense of motivation and a willingness to stay connected to the subject matter. Physical presence = accountability and participation, which increases both understanding and enjoyment.

Psychology at play: Humans respond to the real time environment they’re experiencing, not to mention novelty, so take them away from the screen

2. Mob Mentality

When you get a team of colleagues in the same room, there is an undeniable buzz that bounces off the walls and brings people together, ultimately leading to greater engagement and buy-in. Many a time I’ve experienced convivial competition over whose LinkedIn SSI score is better and a kind of camaraderie that simply cannot be replicated on-screen.

You can hardly unmute yourself, use the ‘raise hand’ function on video chat, and apologise for interrupting Dave to make a light, offhand comment. The set of actions required to talk can make it such that whatever you have to say must hold some degree of gravitas, leading to an unwillingness to speak up, to be light and open — the opposite of what a training session should be.

Psychology at play: Humans love other humans, part of our deeply rooted DNA that saw a pack mentality ensure survival — get us together and we thrive

3. Trainer Rapport and Support

As much as I love training in all its forms, the greatest relationships are built when I’m in the room, walking between tables and supporting individuals on burning questions, enabling a deeper explanation of what’s just been discussed.

I like to set tasks to keep momentum and energy high, and teams invested. This sort of hands-on learning is so much easier when you have the support (and accountability) of the trainer in the room with you.

They can call me over, show me their screen, pull up an example, all without the clunkiness that might come from trying to screen share (cue “Can you all see that? Oh wait, that’s the wrong document, hang on…”). Plus, the group dynamic means more questions are asked about each other’s approaches, more examples are shared, and crucially, there’s more willingness to set minds to the task at hand.

Psychology at play: Human brains respond better to a physical person they can see and build a relationship with — keeping them motivated and on-task 

At WPR we love delivering training, and have done so for a wide range of teams and industries. There’s nothing we enjoy more than sharing our knowledge with our clients and helping them get the best out of their people. Take a look at this example of how we supported a client via training recently.

If you’d like to learn more about training opportunities, or social media strategy in general, feel free to reach out to Alex Dixon, our senior social media strategy director.

The author: Alex Dixon is a senior social media strategy director at WPR who specialises in using LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and X to keep clients ahead of the curve when it comes to social media marketing.