When you work in an industry long enough, you get the feeling you’ve gained great wisdom and have seen pretty much every situation there is to see. Well, as you might guess, I felt like I had reached that pinnacle. At least until I received a call from one of our customers who ask me if I could stop by and discuss a project they were evaluating.
When I arrived, we sat down in a conference room and began to review an e-learning curriculum that had been developed and expanded over the last several years. The training was well done and designed around a local talent who played the role of Brenda in the training courses. Brenda was the sage person of wisdom who put the training in context and provided a consistent presence across the fairly large curriculum. So, the training was very good, Brenda was professional and provided the insight and continuity that were critically needed, and it seemed all was well. I began to wonder why I was sitting there.
Well, the answer to my question came shortly.
It turned out Brenda had developed a keen sense of the value she was providing to the client and was gradually increasing her fees to reflect this success. The client was in a bind. Brenda was as much a part of the company culture as the company picnic or the bad jokes the CEO would tell at the yearly kickoff meeting. This was clearly a difficult challenge. Everyone agreed that Brenda should not make as much money as the senior vice president of finance but no one was quite sure what to do about it.
Then in a moment of what could only be described as divine inspiration, the chief learning officer was reading a magazine article about the use of virtual characters and avatars in online training. The solution to the problem became clear. The client would have to develop an avatar called virtual Brenda who would say what they wanted, when they wanted her to say it, and only for the cost of a voice recording. It was brilliant. The client asked me if I could develop this character and what would it cost.
I think it was at this point that a chill began to run down my back. Workforce downsizing and outsourcing were realities of today’s business environment I had come to accept. But the prospect that now we might have to compete for our jobs with virtual people who had no mortgages, tuition payments, or egos that grew with their success was a little more than I was ready for. But as the consummate professional, I put that aside and we began casting and auditioning our new Brenda. For continuity, I’ll include a few of the candidates here and you can judge for yourself who might be a strong applicant.
So, in the end, Virtual Brenda took here rightful spot in the training curriculum, the non-virtual Brenda went on to other more fulfilling career opportunities, and everyone was reasonably happy. Reasonably happy except during those rare moments when I think a Virtual Mark may be out there somewhere auditioning for my position.
Our Virtual Brenda auditioners. Which one would you chose?
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