Top Pick
Can Virtual Hard Skills
Training Soften People?
Using virtual upskilling to imbue
understanding and empathy
By Corinne Casagrande
Learning is a humbling experience that also requires
humility. Studies have shown(1) that intellectual
humility helps people acquire knowledge through
reflective thinking (such as spotting your own errors),
engagement, curiosity, and open-mindedness.
Creating a culture of learning and intellectual humility
for the team at Broadbeam is a priority for me. As
a performance advertising agency, we react to new
information as it comes in every day, and we can’t
cling to our initial ideas. We change strategies and
tactics mid-campaign to adjust to consumer, market
or competitor actions.
Learning is an important part of Broadbeam’s ethos.
We hire intellectually curious people. Pre-pandemic,
most of our learning came from each other. However,
how could we preserve our culture of learning through
the isolation brought on by remote work?
Whether you are in the marketing industry or simply a
fan of Mad Men, you might have noticed that people
who work in ad agencies tend to be open to the new:
new trends, novel experiences, the next big thing.
Fanning the flames of curiosity is not a challenge
for management.
Marketing also attracts creative people who are
strong communicators. It is hard to be good at
advertising without being good at getting a point
across. However, rewarding communication skills
can have other cultural impacts: If celebrated people
are very good at repeating ideas, who is putting the
drudge work into battle-testing, or even creating
them? And are these thorough thinkers getting the
credit they deserve?
Virtual learning helped Broadbeam improve the
culture in both ways: by keeping continuous learning
alive and by pushing us to improve on more exacting
skills they were deficient in. Though we prioritize soft
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