Reflecting on my conversation with Joe, there are so many things I love about his approach to labs.

The first is that his story about how a training session inadvertently turned into a lab demonstrates some really cool aspects of learning – from both the mentor/educator perspective and from the student perspective.

Joe explained a situation where software for training stopped working, just broke. As a mentor/teacher/ Joe opened it up to the students. Ego was taken out, and they turned instead to working on a solution.

And the students we fired up about really using their skills, not just to provide a solution, but an elegant, efficient one. There was a natural curiosity there that couldn’t have happened otherwise.

And that to me is the beauty of practical, hands-on training. We get to choose our own adventure rather than clicking through the one prescribed to us.

And I have had conversations with clients and potential clients this week – it seems labs are such an essential element of training and learning, especially for software.

You always need some sort of direct instruction/coaching, but then, go play. Go experiment. Go create. I would love to see cloud native virtual labs become more standard in learning, and Joe and his team are doing their part to bring that to some of our clients – and doing it very well I might add!

Next week I will have Ruth Gotian, CLO of the Weill Cornell School of medicine on the show – looking forward to that!