Marketing Your Training Offerings Through an Internal Conference
If your organization has a “catalog” or prescribed curriculums, a wonderful way to engage with potential attendees is to hold a yearly “internal conference.”
Schedule a day which mirrors a professional development conference and invite all employees to avail themselves of the informative, free training sessions. Establish tracks, such as technology, leadership, service, etc., and within those tracks schedule one-hour previews of the various courses to give potential students a taste of what attending the full-blown offering might be like.
In order to determine what content to highlight, think about the “ah-ha” moments in each class. Impress your internal conference attendees with things they may not know (wow, I need to take this class in order to find out…), interactive and engaging topics (this seems like it will be a fun class to attend), and previews of how their on-the-job performance will be enhanced (I really should learn more about financial reports if I want to move in to management).
As participants leave the preview, ask them to complete an evaluation form, just like you would at a professional conference. On that form ask them if they would like more information about the topic, if they would refer a colleague to take the class (and that person’s contact info), and of course ask them for their own contact information.
Now you have accumulated a “marketing list” of interested and engaged employees for future class offerings and you’ve also determined what topics are most in-demand in your organization, for the coming year.
Colleges are not teaching what businesses need
According to a research study done by the University of Phoenix and EdAssist of 501 managers and 533 workers from diverse industries:
93% of managers believe college should teach soft skills such as how to think, learn, and communicate - and 75% of workers agree
96% of managers felt that technical training and job-specific skills training was the employers responsibility
Managers want training in using virtual tools; in order to do their jobs better
While 87% of managers say that online meeting tools such as WebEx and Lync are mission critical, only 10% say they're competent and confident using those types of tools.
Source: Virtual Leadership - Closing the Distance, in Training Magazine, May/June 2015
Recent and Upcoming Speaking
We recently presented a workshop on Adult Learning Theory to the Kubota University Summit
Next up: On October 6 we'll be presenting at the Online Learning Conference in Denver on the topic of Achieving Optimal Learning Outcomes via Virtual Learning Platforms
L:ater this fall, in November, we will be speaking at the Brain Matters 2015 Conference: Pushing the Genius Button, debuting our new whitepaper linking leadership development to thinking skills
The Value of External Alliances when You are a One Person Training Department
In an earlier post, we talked about the value of creating internal advisory committees in order to help you to determine and prioritize what training is needed in your organization. In this excerpt, we continue in that vein, discussing the value of external alliances.
Relationships with people who are external to your organization are valuable because they will look at your situation in a different light and undoubtedly offer a different perspective. One excellent source of peers who are external to your company is through industry organizations.
Industry organizations are where you will get the most accurate information and feedback about how your industry is implementing training. You'll be able to ask other training professionals in your industry segment about the results they achieved when they implemented training on a particular topic, and in addition, you'll get a sense of what the industry overall feels is important in terms of developing the workforce for the industry.
For example, Maintenance Solutions, the trade publication of the facilities management industry, includes a semi-monthly column regarding training needs and priorities. The October 2004 edition included an article titled "Training Spotlight: Electrical Systems, "which states, "Safety training is a continuous effort that is best done with frequent, short, job-related meetings," and continues, "Safe work performance begins with each technician knowing the personal protective equipment (PPE) he or she should wear and how to adjust and wear it correctly." If you work in the facilities management industry, you don't have to identify what training is essential or even what content should be covered in the training. Your industry is doing it for you!
In addition to having knowledge about the training needs of the industry, joining industry groups and having contacts within the industry may save you from having to reinvent the wheel. Of course, you'll want to validate that an industry need is indeed a need for your organization as well.
Belonging to an industry organization will provide you with a kind of support that you will not receive anywhere else. You can find industry organizations by using a search engine. Type the name of our industry and the word association into the search field. For example, a search on telecommunications association returned, among many others, the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association, and Industrial Telecommunications Association.
Funky fonts in WebEx? Try this tip...
If your organization has its own "branded font" (and this is especially prevalent when using branded PowerPoint templates), you will often find that WebEx will display odd things on your slides such as words falling out of tables, headlines breaking where they did not break in the original PPT, etc.
The best fonts to use for smooth WebEx integration are Helvetica and Arial. Rather than muddle through each slide, simply go to your master slides and change the fonts there. You may still have to do some refinements, but it is still a much faster approach than editing each slide individually.
Online learning is gaining in "popularity"
Interest in online learning is growing rapidly, while interest in traditional education is waning. From 2012 - 2013, distance education enrollment rose 1.8% compared with a drop of 4% in overall higher education enrollment according to the US Department of Education.
What does this mean for us? As trainers? It means our new hires are coming to us already equipped to be successful while learning virtually.
Train Managers? Naw, they don't need it.
Managers are the most undertrained and under-appreciated employees in corporate America according to a study conducted by Kelton Research and Root, Inc. of 205 Training / HR executives.
Some survey highlights include:
32% of respondents don't feel their company views managers as critical to success (who DO they think is critical, would be The Training Doctor's next question)
Reducing overhead and making technology upgrades are prioritized over manager training investments (57%, 48% and 28% respectively)
69% of respondents believe their organization's senior leaders don't believe there is a strong link between effective manager training and business performance
83% of respondents report that less than ¼ of their training budget (if any!) is allocated to manager training
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At the World-Changing Ideas summit in 2014, Google's vice president, Alfred Spector, pointed to research showing that even average students can reach the top 2 percent of their class if they have a personal tutor to adjust lessons to individual learning needs.
Source: Chief Learning Officer Magazine, May 2015, Your Brain on Learning
Adults Learn Best Through Experiential Techniques
One of Malcolm Knowles basic premises is that adults learn best through experiential techniques. In other words, hands-on, active engagement in the learning process produces better results.
Sometimes this is not an easy thing to achieve. Since so much of today's work is knowledge-based, how does one teach that in an experiential way? Here are some ideas from designs we have created for our clients:
Teaching a Multi-Faceted Process
This manufacturing client wanted its assembly-line workers to understand how the product was "created" long before it arrived on the factory floor to be assembled. From the inception of an idea in the R+D department, through creating a design + prototype via CAD/CAM, on to requisitioning, provisioning, ordering, acceptance of components, kitting and, finally, arrival at the assembly area. Since many of these steps were esoteric, the design of this content piece was quite challenging. In the end and entire process was re-created in a role play manner, using Legos as the component parts and teams at each stage in the process. We even added in a QC check for good measure.
Teaching Product Knowledge and Service Skills
A retail organization was introducing a new product line which required salespeople to be experts in knowing the particulars of the product. At the same time, the client wanted to beef up customer service and selling skills. The client did not want these taught as separate concepts (e.g. first product knowledge, then customer service skills). The resultant training was in the form of a game-board-grid, with product knowledge along the vertical axis and customer service / selling skills along the horizontal axis. Participants would chose a grid on the board and the trainer would explain how the two intersected or complemented one another and then the learners were challenged to demonstrate how the two might "sound" on-the-job.
Teaching Financial Analysis
A global insurance brokerage firm needed an elite group of salespeople to be able to understand financial documents in order to sell to the C-Suite. Rather than simply explaining the different types of financial reports (profit and loss, cash flow, 10K, etc.) and hoping the salespeople could translate that knowledge to their accounts, the participants were tasked with bringing the annual report for two of their clients. Then, as the instructor taught about each type of report and what to look for as "red flags," the participants looked to their own reports to interpret information that was pertinent to their clients / their work.
When tasked with designing training, always ask yourself, "How can I make this more experiential and participative? How can the learners really engage with this content?" This is not an easy task but is always worthwhile (nay, essential) for better adult learning outcomes.
The Next "Generation" of Learning
Generation means that people need to make their own meaning, literally generating their own links while learning, not just passively listening to ideas. We need our brains to create rich webs of links to any new concept, linking ideas to many parts of the brain.
Using different types of neural circuitry to link to an idea is the key. Meaning, we should be listening, speaking, thinking, writing, and other tasks about any important ideas.
Source: Your Brain on Learning, published in Chief Learning Officer, May 2015
Online Learning Conference Coming Up!
Have you checked out the Flipped Classroom concept that Training Magazine is promoting for their upcoming Online Learning Conference (Oct 6 - 8)? Check it out - it has some great resources that you can check out even without being a registered participant for the conference such as 8 recorded webinars on topics such as social media, video, eLearning and more.
If you are attending - be sure to visit the site and access the great handouts and videos being posted by the speakers. And if you are registered - we'll see you there!
How to Improve Training Recall? S P A C E O U T Learning
Long-term recall is far better when we learn information over several sittings, and any amount of spacing appears to help a lot. The longer we need to remember information, the more the learning should be spaced out.
Source: Chief Learning Officer Magazine, May 2015, Your Brain on Learning
Successful Virtually Delivered Training Is Dependent On...
Many organizations are using virtually delivered training programs due to companies’ widespread geographic locations and the just-in-time nature of delivery that the synchronous platforms allow. Unfortunately, not many organizations are doing it well.
At a minimum, there are three key components for successful virtually delivered training. None is more important than another – all must be created, tested, and executed to perfection. The good news is: all are completely within your control.
Content
Many organizations are moving what used to be delivered in a classroom to an online format. This requires translating concepts and content into a new format. The face-to-face class simply cannot be replicated in the online environment, so it is important to make critical decisions about what to keep, what to distribute in another way (such as reading or an e-learning module), and what to deliver in another way (such as on-the-job coaching).
Virtually delivered training, by default, is blended learning. There is no way around it. Not everything can be delivered successfully in a synchronous online environment, nor should it be. For example, reading a case study might be done during 5 minutes in the face to face class, but it is not a good use of online time. Therefore the case study should be read at another time (what to distribute in another way). Doing some work asynchronously (independently) and some work together, during the online session, is the very definition of blended learning.
Materials
Materials are critical in the online environment. This include slides, because it is a very visually-oriented delivery medium; Participant Guides, because very often a learner will be the sole individual enrolled in a class at his/her location, and the learner needs some sort of reference material or supporting documentation in order to follow along in the class; and scripted Facilitator Guides to ensure the training achieves the intended learning outcomes while ending in the allotted time (virtual, online training is very tightly timed).
Most especially, when it comes to slides, get rid of the PPT templates, get rid of the bullets, and create visual, engaging “canvases” for creating.
Mastering Technology
Luckily, technology is rather fool-proof these days unless something is done that purposefully interferes with its operation. Like most physical skills, using technology only gets better with practice. A best-practice is to always rehearse the delivery one or two days in advance of the scheduled class. No matter how many times a facilitator has delivered the same session, it’s always a good idea to practice it –in the synchronous environment – to be comfortable with the tools, their location, their execution, and their results (e.g. does it look better to highlight a particular piece of text, or underline it?).
Creating and re-designing training to be delivered via a virtual technology can be a daunting task.
There are many details to be aware of and manage. If you find yourself being overwhelmed, concentrate on these three things and you will more than ensure your success.
Adobe Connect Tip
Load your files to the Shared Content Library first, then load to your share pod from the library. This prevents errors when the pptx is "converted" for Adobe Connect use.
One common conversion error is bullets that don't have space between the bullet and the text (even though your slides, in PowerPoint format are perfectly bulleted).