Quotable: Heidi Grant Halvorson
Mastering new skills is not optional in today’s business environment.
“In a fast-moving, competitive world, being able to learn new skills is one of the keys to success. It’s not enough to be smart – you need to always be getting smarter.”
Heidi Grant Halvorson, author: Nine Things Successful People Do Differently
Training Doctor in the media this summer!
The Training Doctor was featured in the Staples Small Business Hubarticle, 4 Ways Apple Devices Can Help your Small Business
Also, the founder of The Training Doctor, Dr. Nanette Miner, was featured in an article from The American Express Open Forum, Successful Entrepreneurs' Secrets toMastering Work-Life Balance.
What's the Difference between Gaming and Gamification?
Game-based learning is the use of a game to teach. Gamification, on the other hand, only uses a few elements of games. A learning game is a self-contained unit. There is a definitive start, game play and ending to the game. In a learning game, the learners know they are engaged in a game activity and at the end there is a “win state.”
Source: www.trainingindustry.com/magazine Training Industry Magazine-Spring 2014
Here is a sample of a "game" we use to teach overcoming objections in a sales curriculum - feel free to copy!
Step 1 - Divide your group in to three: Team A, Team B, Team C
Step 2 - Each team is given 5 minutes to discuss among themselves and come up with the 5 "hardest" objections they have encountered when selling "x" (this assumes a group that is already selling a product or service and you are enhancing their abilities).
Step 3 - Conducted as a round robin. Team A "announces" one of their Top 5 Hardest objections. Team B has a few moments to discuss among themselves and come up with what they believe to be an appropriate response. Team C also discusses among themselves because they have the ability to "challenge" Team B's answer
Team B then provides their answer to Team A. If Team C thinks their answer is better, they can say "we would like to challenge that" and provide THEIR answer to Team A. Team A then decides "the winner" and a point is awarded.
The process then repeats with Team B providing one of their objections to Team C and Team A having the ability to challenge.
This should take about 45 minutes to conduct. The Team with the most points "wins" and everyone wins by having at least 2 great rebuttals to all the tough objections.
We're not name droppers... but....
TrainingIndustry.com just announced its Top 20 Training Content Developers and three of our clients are on the list! Congrats!
Training is essential for public safety!
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has suspended the repair station certificate of Aviation Service, Inc. (ASI), a Lexington, Kentucky-based aircraft repair station.
The FAA alleges that ASI failed to establish an Employee Training Program (ETP) that met FAA regulations. The FAA notified ASI numerous times between July 7, 2011 and October 9, 2012 that its ETP did not meet FAA regulations.
After ASI failed to modify its ETP, the FAA issued an immediately effective action to suspend ASI’s certificate, determining that an emergency existed related to the safety of the traveling public.
An FAA-approved ETP is critical to ensure that employees performing maintenance for a repair station are capable of completing such work.
The suspension will continue until ASI develops an ETP that the FAA approves.
Source: AviationPros.com
Training in Decision Making Crucial to Business Success
According to a survey of 562 US based senior-level business, human resources, and management professionals, conducted by AMA Enterprise (a division of the American Management Association International) - a fear of failure or making a mistake often causes employees to avoid taking responsibility for their actions.
The solution? According to 46% of respondents: Training in decision-making and problem-solving which will, in turn, lead to more confidence in taking responsibility.
You Can Stop Doing Performance Reviews - Let the Peers do it
In The Crowdsourced Performance Review: How to Use the Power of Social Recognition to Transform Employee Performance, Eric Mosley argues that social recognition, a practice in which many people use social media to consider and recognize an employee's performance on a daily basis, can improve performance more effectively than either the one-on-one performance review or 360-degree feedback.
Does "Social Media" Limit our Ability to think Independently?
The word "social" has shifted its meaning and has been redefined within the last five years. Today, it often defines social networks, media and marketing. The bubblization of society poses great opportunities to segment people by interests and other characteristics, which in turn, can over-expose people to like-minded peers and distance them from those who think and operate differently. - ManpowerGroup
Enabling Your Workers to be Trainers
In 2007 Iron Mountain (records management company) was suffering from over-expansion (it had acquired 250 companies in 10+ years) and needed a way to get everyone performing in a similar manner. Training started with the drivers and couriers since they were closest to the customer and, after designing a curriculum, the training was implemented via a peer-trainer-coach approach.
Frontline employees have to apply and pass an interview for the training-coach positions. These positions are in addition to their "regular" jobs (although they do get additional pay). Once chosen, coaches spend a week in training in Atlanta GA learning everything from lift-gate operation to how to speak with customers.
By the end of 2013. Iron Mountain had 400 certified coaches; coaches must recertify each year. Some of the organizational benefits realized since the inception of the peer-trainer-coach approach:
Turnover has fallen 15%
Worker-compensation claims dropped 4.5 million in the first year
Document scanning errors have dropped 85% from their peak
35 coaches have been promoted in their "regular" roles
TD Commentary: There are so many win-win outcomes from this case study. First, using peers as trainers benefits the credibility of the trainer and the training curriculum. Second, using workers who have volunteered to become trainers means you have passionate trainers. And third, this approach is hugely cost effective - in addition to the fact that the trainer-coaches receive a "bonus" for training (not a salary), there is no way any organization would have a "workforce" of 400 trainers.
Kudos to Stacy Henry, Director of Learning, and her team for coming up with this ingenious approach to getting training to the front line in an economical and expedient way.
Source: Workforce.com November 2013
Need to prioritize training needs? #1 - Critical Thinking!
For organizations trying to prioritize training needs, one of the largest and most pivotal gaps is in the area of critical thinking.
Critical thinking is the raw material that supports the ability to plan, organize, solve problems, make decisions, and innovate, and right now, organizational demand far outweighs employee supply.
Judy Chartrand, Ph.D. in A New Level of Thinking; Training Magazine Nov/ Dec 2013
Success when Training Multi-Linqual Audiences
The virtual learning environment is a heavily auditory environment. The primary means of communication is through audio which is supported by visuals. The least successful format for transfer and comprehension of information is in an auditory manner.
Therefore, here are some tips that can be utilized in order to have a more successful auditory environment when teaching an online class.
Tip #1: Say Less
It takes people longer to process information auditorily. Therefore you want to give them less words to process. You can either say “I’d like for you to take out your workbooks and turn to page 52 in order for us to review the chart;” or you can say “Turn to page 52 in your workbook.” In the online environment, the latter is preferable.
Tip #2: Be Direct in Your Language
In alignment with the suggested dialogue in the first example, take out all the superfluous words from your vocabulary. Be very purposeful in your word choice and very direct in the way that you speak. For example: Please respond to the poll you see on the right of your screen vs, in a moment you’ll see a poll appear on the screen. It contains 5 choices. Choose the on that you think best answers the question posted.
Tip #3: Repeat Instructions more than Once
When you are about to engage in any kind of interaction, give the instructions at the start of the interaction and again at the end. This alerts the people who are paying attention at the start and those who were lagging and need the instructions in order to go forth and execute the activity. For example: In a minute you’ll go to a breakout room and discuss these three questions with your teammates, I’d like one person to take notes and another person to report back to the larger group when your breakouts are done. Keep in mind you have three questions to answer (repeat of the instructions) in those 15 minutes, so pay attention so that you have sufficient time to discuss each one.
Tip #4: Say the Exact Same Thing the Exact Same Way
Because this is a medium in which people have a hard time quickly grasping what you are communicating, you don’t want to further confuse them by changing the message. Simply say it again. Poor example: (1st time) Please respond to the poll you see on the right side of your screen; (2nd time) On the right side of your screen you’ll see a poll that has three questions, please choose only one. Instead, simply repeat version one as many times as necessary for the learners to grasp what you are asking them to do.4
When you watch what you say, you can assist your learners in being more accurate in the work that they do in the virtual learning environment.
Residential Education is the "new" College?
Heard Round the Watercooler: Residential Education
Residential Education is used when referring to college and university campuses.
As opposed to MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) which are offered by elite colleges and universities, but the courses are taken online.
Why We Need to Reform Education in America
You MUST invest 20 minutes in this TedTalk on Education featuring Sir Ken Robinson on Why We Need to Reform Education in America.