The ascension of Zoom is arguably one good thing that came out of
the COVID-19 pandemic. If it was unsafe for
people
to meet in-person, we could meet online virtually! More than that,
meeting via Zoom wouldn't incur lost time traveling long distances to
go to meetings, or the expenses of airline tickets and accommodation.
When I learned that many of
Werner's transformative
programs
(which have long been known to be best delivered in-person) were being
delivered online virtually (and were working successfully virtually), I
was skeptical. Would you not have to be
present
in-person for transformation to occur?
Being together,
present
in-person, is the
Petri dish
for transformation - at least, that's what I would have
thought.
Before COVID-19, almost all of
Werner's programs
were delivered in-person. Then after COVID-19 there was a shift in ie a
recontextualization
(I
love
that
word)
of the possibility of meeting and
participating inWerner's programs
via Zoom ie the line between "real" and "virtual" had begun to blur. In
some sense, Zoom can also be an in-person real meeting if we were to
include being together in-person when in different cities. The
key here: "in some sense" ie in some context
(the context is
decisive).
While for a lot of
people,
participating
in
Werner's programs
in-person will always be de rigueur, the silver box, the way
it's s'posed to be, I can
think
of at least three advantages of
participating
in
Werner's programs
online virtually - which aren't as readily available in in-person
deliveries. These are the three:
The first is when
participating
online virtually, an entire screen can be pinned, giving us a
close-up
study of the current speaker's
face.
And transformation
shows up
in
the face.
You can literally
observe
it evolving in the speaker's
face
on-screen in even more detail than if the speaker was across the same
room as you in-person. The second is you can
participate
online from just about anywhere on
the planet,
rendering online virtual
participation
much more readily available than
in-person
participation.
The third is transformation best belongs in life
at home.
When you
participate
in-person, you're in the venue location, from where you take
transformation
home.
And yet when you
participate
online virtually, you're alreadyhome.
So is there a qualitative difference between everything
Werner's programs
promise (and which can be counted on) to deliver online virtually, as
opposed to delivering in-person? Is there a difference?
Werner
listened
intently when I asked the question. I asked: "How does the online
version of
the Forum
compare with the in-person
Forum?".
He replied:
That the online
Forumisthe Forum,
altered my perspective on many things, chief among which is that being
together,
present
in-person, may not be the main
Petri dish
for transformation after all - which would inhibit if not preclude
all online deliveries of
Werner's programs.
Instead, perhaps the main
Petri dish
for transformation is simply conversations ie speaking
and listening - which would include both online and in-person
deliveries of
Werner's programs.
What the ascension of Zoom has made available for us, is the
integral technology with which to deliver
the Forum
online - as
powerfully
as (maybe even more
powerfully
than) delivering it in-person. Tech's legacy is still in question. But
in facilitating delivering
the Forum
virtually, it has fulfilled its promise.
