impact can work in both web-based and in-person settings
virtual counselling – complementary, not inferior
How impact came to propose counselling services via internet-based tools?
Coaching and Conflict Management processes between clients and the coach or mediator depend on the quality of the interpersonal relationship. For decades, it has been “common sense” that in-person contact was the only acceptable setting to conduct these activities.
With the advances of network technology, impact started in 2015 to explore the opportunities these technologies could offer in a counselling context. impact based the development of its tools on research showing that the quality of “connection” in a virtual, internet-based encounter is not inferior to a personal exchange even in areas requiring a strong personal relation between the communicating parties.
Working through the pandemic has shown to everybody that internet-based communication, collaboration and also counselling are possible. It also has shown that the quality of a “virtual” work relations depends heavily on the way the existing tools are used, and on the skill and experience of the people using them AND on the coaching and mediation experience.
Today impact is following its mission to make coaching and conflict management available in settings where counselling that is limited to “classical” settings would be prohibitively expensive
virtual 2.0 – taking web-based counselling to the next level
more then two years of lock-down have sharpened our perception of the power and pitfalls of virtual communication. impact implements the lessons learned.
impact creates the technical environment and the required tools to provide support to managers wherever they operate. We started internet-based counselling in 2015, when scepticism concerning the validity of this approach was still widely spread. As coaches and mediators we work with a wide variety of tools to support each process. We took on the challenge to adapt classical tools used in in-person counselling to match them with the possibilities and conditions offered by the virtual environment, and to create new ones.
A virtual environment offers a host of possibilities that were not as readily available in a classical setting. It offers a wide variety of tools that visualise the steps that form a counselling process. This includes the access to supporting video and audio material, as well as the possibility for cloud-based documentation, which allows to share and co-edit exercises/ documents with an ease that had not been available in a paper-based environment.
Who benefits?
For settings requiring (fast) intervention in geographically separated corporate environments.
Benefits of “virtual” settings
Bypassing logistic hurdles our virtual services are a versatile and flexible instrument with an easy worldwide application.
PERSONAL
“Wherever appropriate in the process, and possible with reasonable effort, we are happy to work “face to face”, in direct personal contact. Especially in an early phase of internationalization, or in preparation for an international assignment, this may be the method of choice to get to know each other.
VIRTUAL
business coaching
Virtual coaching can be setup up anywhere and is ideally suited to support managers in locations in which classical coaching would be difficult to organize, especially in the managers native language.
mediation
Managing conflicts is most effective if organized early on. Mediation via virtual tools can be set-up on very short notice and is able to involve conflicting parties who are geographically separated. Cloud-based documentation allows a timely and transparent information flow to all stake holders and helps to make sure that all parties have the same understanding of an eventual final agreement.
training
Training is knowledge transfer, reflection, analysis, exercises, exchange, case work and practical application in this or any other order. A workshop is a well-designed sequence of phases each targeted to one of the above objectives each equipped with adequate learning tools. [M: This holds both for in-presence and for virtual trainings]. The accelerated development of virtual platforms as a consequence of the pandemic has made the use of a mix of different formats in virtual trainings possible, so that virtual workshops today can be (and should be!) [M: more] than a sequence of Power Point slides or polls. If at the end of a workshop day participants say that “there is a lot which they have to think about now” we know that we struck a chord. If participants say that the day went by really fast, we know, that we found the right mix.
WE BLEND
For all packages, programs and made-to-measure services pure as well as mixed formats of virtual/ in-presence are possible. We consider virtual and work in-presence as a continuum within which we’ll design the best format for your objectives.
For designing your specific mix, please contact us.