Sofia Rufin: Powering the Development of Soft Skills Through Virtual Reality

5Discovery, 5 for the 5 senses, is the first platform of soft skills training in Virtual Reality. The company offers a wide range of out-of-the-shelf training modules integrating the best methodologies from the personal and professional development sphere.

5Discovery's mission is to support people to augment their capabilities using immersive technologies. This is especially crucial in the VUCA world, an ever-changing landscape where agility, social interactions, resilience, communication, and emotional intelligence are the key to
evolution.

Public speaking and pitching, negotiation, conflict management, interview preparation, media training, stress management, emotional intelligence, and disability or diversity awareness are some of 5Discovery's modules that create engagement through emotions and realism. It has been scientifically proven that immersive gamification with VR facilitates the learning curve by putting participants into actions, interactions, and emotions. This trend is growing relentlessly, such as the zeal to learn and grow. Thus, soft skills VR training means a rise in the ROI of training, which is clearly stated in PWC's analysis of July 2020, "The effectiveness of Virtual Reality Softskills training in the Enterprise."

An Insightful Leader Encouraging Virtual Learning

Sofia Rufin is the CEO of 5Discovery Virtual Learning. After spending a long and rich international career in IT and working for different software companies in sales and project management, she decided to orient her career to the leadership arena.

Fascinated by the personal development world, Sofia has been certified to distinct methodologies such as the process communication model, conflict dynamics model, positive psychology, mindfulness, agility and leadership program, and coaching model. She also acted as a professor and coach for the Executive MBA of the IMT Institute in France.

When Sofia saw that there was a lack of solutions to boost people's self-development, she founded 5Discovery to offer a new innovating experience to the learning world. She asserts that soft skills are the most imperative asset for human capital, today, and VR can leverage them
effectively.

Delivering Innovative VR Training for Soft Skills Development

5Discovery always begins its development processes with pilots by targeting a selected group representative and enriches its immersive VR experiences with their feedback and proposals. The company's pragmatical approach often confronts technology with human sensitivity.

5Discovery also listens to the changes in the world, what people say, like, or dislike to create new experiences and environments. For example, in today's society, inclusion and collective intelligence are key accelerators for growth. To this effort, the company has developed a
series of training VR Modules to recruit people with cognitive or psychic issues such as Asperger syndrome, bipolarity, or earing issues while bypassing pre-judgments and bias.

Moreover, 5Discovery has different scenes in VR to identify the singularity of disabled people and facilitate relationships and communication with them. The company also works on embodiment processes in partnership with universities to increase awareness.

Making Relationships Stronger with Technology

Sofia believes that digital innovation helps to create a connection with people more than ever. The current pandemic period points it out meaningfully. Along with in-person human relations, digital solutions are the key element to create and maintain relationships both in challenging and thriving times. Yet, technology should be 100% human-oriented and serve human interests, especially in the current ever-changing world.

Sofia further asserts that a positive mindset and empathy are some of the core soft skills that are the foundation of humanity's evolution. VR capabilities and magic approach should serve this objective, and 5Discovery does this perfectly.

Victorious Leadership Attributes

Sofia exclaims that a transformational leader must demonstrate:

• Agility, the capability to adapt to diverse situations and personality types.
• Empathy to understand people and define the best relational
• Communication skills to engage people with one's style by being natural, instead of versing to stereotypes.
• Creativity and visualization to create a world that fits both one's dreams and concrete expectations.
• Serendipity, as it is not possible to plan everything but essential to believe in core values and follow up one's dreams.

She also states, "Being yourself, boost your self-confidence and dare to do what you want."

Crafting Success Over Challenges

According to Sofia, managing different styles of people, from different cultures, at the international scale was one of the most vital challenges for her, especially when she was located in the UK, coming from France. For her, team cohesion and team spirit were significant priorities, exclusively with members working remotely from their home offices in different countries.

She also highlights that she did not find intricacies to lead a team of male pre-sales or salespeople in IT. "If you demonstrate good management skills and the necessary authority to be respected, there is a total acceptance, especially when you show qualities such as active listening, empathy, and non-judgment," says Sofia.

In many scenarios, Sofia had to fight against some stereotypes regarding gender among the executive teams and prove that a woman can be a great leader than a man with her particularities and personality. "We, as women, have probably to prove more than a man in a leadership role, at
least in some organizations," she said.

The Future of VR Learning

5Discovery explores various new ways to support people in their personal development. The company believes that there is still more to do to support disabled people, senior people, and in health management.

In the education field, 5Discovery already proposes real-time VR Rooms, where students or trainees can interact with each other and learn from the immersive context with pedagogical tools. When a person is confronted with a concrete environment, he/she learns faster and better with enthusiasm.

Moreover, 5Discovery is reinforcing its partnerships with prominent universities' laboratories to build efficient VR environments with intelligent interactions and experiences. For instance, the company currently is investing in VR Rooms to stimulate creativity by providing specific tools like Dschools but in a virtual mode.

Artificial intelligence will also help design tailor-made learning experiences and take training to the next step by individualizing the experience.