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Give Your sales training a Second Life!
by Anders Gronstedt, Ph.D, President, Gronstedt Group
I don’t usually strike up conversations with furry animals on exotic islands. But here I was, talking to a lynx with a brown furry tail and whiskers named “Peretz Stine.” He took me around the island and told me all about Intel’s new strategy for training 3rd party software developers.The human behind the friendly Lynx is Paul Steinberg, Intel Software Solutions Group, who spearheads community and learning activities for the Intel division. He leads regular “meet the expert meetings” in Second Life. The lynx is his “avatar,” his cyber self.
After a few minutes in a Second Life meeting, you’ll see why this virtual world is heralded as the videoconferencing and webinar killer. It is internet in 3D. And it takes interaction and collaboration to unprecedented levels. Gartner Group estimates that 80% of active Internet users will be in non-gaming virtual worlds like Second Life by the end of 2011. IBM is investing millions of dollars in learning projects at 25 Second Life island. Hundreds of universities, including Harvard and INSEAD teach classes in Second Life for credit.
Internet in 3D means that you’re moving your avatar around in a three dimensional world. With the recent launch of voice in Second Life, you can now talk straight to your computer via a headset. As you move around, the sound seems to change direction, all at an extremely high sound quality. You can also chat or IM, gesture and change appearance. IBM uses virtual worlds for training new sales reps in China to connect with colleagues and role-play sales conversations.
If you still don’t have your own avatar, it’s time to visit www.secondlife.com to sign up for a free account, download the client software and create your own virtual alter ego. Feel free to send me an email and get a short tutorial on how to sign up. I opted for jeans clad younger, slightly physically enhanced version of myself. (You might need to enlist your kids in this part, my kids did such a good job of creating an avatar that looks like the real me that a business acquaintance recognized me by my avatar when we met for lunch for the first time.) Or you might create something all together different. Add wings. Become an anthropomorphic animal (called "furries"). Or take on the persona of your favorite movie star. As frivolous as this may seem, companies like IBM are finding it to be an important icebreaker in virtual training sessions.
Don’t let the video game look deceive you. There’s no purpose, no score, no winners and no levels of difficulty. It isn’t a first-person shooter game, but a first-person thinker game. The ability to visualize objects in 3D is perhaps the most obvious appeal of Second Life training. Car companies can let dealers kick the tires and drive a new car. Pharmaceutical companies can take doctors on a journey through the veins of the body to explain a new cardiovascular medication. And computer companies can magnify a chip or minimize a city to explain the flow of bites and bytes. Participants can walk or fly around and inside 3D objects.
But, for all the razzle-dazzle of its 3-D modeling capabilities, Second Life is ultimately about social networking. The ability to get together remotely to talk, roll play, interact with experts and peers, sharing experiences and frustrations, is the real appeal of Second Life and other virtual worlds. Just talk straight into your headset and other participants in your avatar’s surrounding will hear your voice in 3D.
Once you’ve learned to walk, fly, teleport, chat and talk, you’re ready to go to a real business meeting. Visit our weekly meetings every Thursday at noon-1.00 PM at the Gronstedt Group’s Train for Success. You’ll get a virtual coffee, watch slides and video and talk to peers. After your first meeting you’ll realize how the playbook of sales training has changed for ever.
Second Life is only one of a new suite of emerging electronic technologies that include podcasting, wikis, blogs, video-based simulations, widgets and social network sites, all of which are changing the face of workplace learning..
Anders Gronstedt, Ph.D. (anders@gronstedtgroup.com),aka “anders Wildcat” in second Life, is president of the Gronstedt Group, which helps companies like Dell, Jamba Juice, Volvo Cars, Ericsson, and FedEx improve sales and work place performance in Second and Real life.
[PRINTER FRIENDLY VERSION]
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September 2007
Give Your Sales Training a Second Life!
There Is No Place Like Work: Seven Leadership Insights For Creating a Workplace to Call Home
Authors: Dr. Sheila L. Margolis and Dr. Ava S. Wilensky
By Book Reviewer: Robert Klein
Stop Acting like a Seller and Start Thinking Like a Buyer
Authors: Jerry Acuff, with Wally Wood
By Book Reviewer: Renie McClay
SMT Annual Conference
November 12 - 14, 2007
Fairview Park Marriott
Falls Church, VA
Click Here to Join the SMT Family
SMT Welcomes Our New Members
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Mary Elliott Bassett, Worldwide Director, Sales and Customer Training, Entertainment Imaging, Eastman Kodak Company
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