The frameworks (cognitive, emotional, and individual) suggest the following principles for content and learning:
• The learning should focus on important skills that the learner leaves with. Learning should make a difference in their ability to meet their own goals, and it should be actionable. Teaching just abstract knowledge or frameworks leaves people with what cognitive science calls “inert knowledge” that learners can pass tests on, but don’t access at appropriate application situations (it may be retained, but it isn’t transferred).
• The learning should provide compelling situations that drive learners to the knowledge, rather than rote memorization of information, and that requires the knowledge in ways that learners understand are important.
• The learning should be model-based, providing learners with knowledge and frameworks that guide performance. Our mental models–our understanding of how things work–are key to learning and any learning we design must:
o Rely on models the learners bring to the training
o Help learners create new models.
• The learning should be supportive. We need to scaffold learning, and provide support for learner persistence and completion.
• The learning should be set in a context that is meaningful to the learner. We want to incorporate the information that is available in the performance environment into the practice environment. This means we utilize available resources and not reproduce them in the learning.
• The learning should avoid unnecessary materials, and leverage learners’ existing understandings to minimize the amount of information we have to cover.

Practices

Those principles suggest the following practices:
• Our practice tasks should focus on the meaningful decisions we want our learners to be able to make after the learning experience. By framing the task in this language, we move the emphasis often provided by SMEs from one of knowledge (“they need to know this, and this, and…”) to one of skills (“they need to be able to do this, and this, and…”).
• Our language needs to address learners’ interests, and we explicitly need to
include support for the learners’ effort through the learning process.

Content

Given these principles, how should we design content? In this final section we will consider the design of:
• training objectives
• training elements (the progression from introduction, to concept, to example,
to practice, to summary)
• media usage (text, audio, graphics, etc.)
• interactive (games and scenarios)

The Power Selling E-Learning Experience was developed and produced in collaboration between Steven Power, the author of Power Selling: Consult and Collaborate to Gain Competitive Distinction, and Knowledge Anywhere, an industry leader in custom E-Learning solutions. These training innovators have collaborated in the past to develop and deliver the highly successful Hewlett Packard Consultative Sales Engagement training program which has enabled over 2,700 salespeople to become certified to sell HP products.

This E-Learning Experience integrates the latest web-enabled learning technology, personal interaction and sales management observation and coaching to assure the overall learning experience includes all the elements and tools included in the traditional seminar training event. The program offers an interactive user interface with easy navigation and engaging audio voice-overs and video clips by Steven Power. Personal interaction is a cornerstone to learning. The Power Selling E-Learning Experience engages participants in exercises and role play sessions in order to go beyond simply gaining knowledge to building skills. Sales managers are consulted on how to stage the participant’s role play session and how to observe, score and coach participants in each exercise and role play session thus enhancing and reinforcing the E-Learning experience.

Participants are tested for knowledge to hold them accountable for learning. Sales management is kept informed of test results via e-mail so they know where their reps need help and how their reps are progressing through the course.

Once a participant has completed the E-Learning Experience the course offers ongoing reinforcement of the training via:
A monthly Power Selling E-Zine with:

Plus, the course offers sales management integration consulting including:

This new sales elearning course is a unique experience for any sales team seeking a competitive advantage and wants a cost-effective solution. Contact Steven Power for a quick demonstration of this proven program at 805.650.1248.

http://www.powersellingexpert.com

The hosted vendor service option is also called SaaS.  SaaS (vendor hosted applications) stands for Software as a Service.  Vendor hosted applications/SaaS have become a very popular option in the last ten years. There are benefits to both types of configurations and it ultimately depends on the specific business case.

Licensing an LMS/LCMS

Licensing Learning Management System/Learning Content Management System software allows companies to have full control over their installation and system configuration.  They are able to internally monitor usage. In most but not all cases, it ends up being the most cost effective in the long run (over 5 years).  Generally, the disadvantages of licensing are higher upfront costs because of the purchase of the software itself, installation, set-up and configuration.  It also can take longer to deploy the system and IT employees may need training. Organizations must also pay ongoing personnel costs and training for internal operation and maintenance of the software.

Hosting an LMS/LCMS

The advantages of a Hosted Learning Management System/Learning Content Management System model are usually lower upfront costs, no installation required and shorter deployment times.  There are also no ongoing costs associated with employing technicians (IT personnel) to maintain the product.  Software upgrades and fixes are done automatically by the vendor. The company has the option to ramp up quickly or reduce usage if their business expands or contracts. In this scenario, depending upon the usage plan, companies can sometimes pay as they use the service (pay as they go). Generally, the disadvantages to hosting are the company has less control over the LMS/LCMS and maybe less-cost effective in the long run (over 5years).

Running the Numbers

So you say hosted (SaaS) is the way to go. But not so fast, you really need to look at the costs spread over a five year period.  Heck, you may even impress the guys in accounting! Below is a sample cost worksheet:

Sample Hosted vs. License LMS/LCMS Worksheet

 Hosted vs. License LMS/LCMS Calculation Assumptions and Observations

The worksheet above assumes that some of the add-on modules are included in the hosted application, but some may not.  The worksheet also accounts for personnel costs. It is by no means exhaustive and exact.  It needs to be crafted to reflect your company’s requirements. It also assumes that maintenance and support is included in the hosted arrangement.  Keep in mind that in the hosted scenario, there may be additional charges related to bandwidth usage, especially if your courses are large, graphic intensive and need to be streamed.  Finally, it’s important to compare costs on a per-user basis.

Typically the decision to license a Learning Management System/Learning Content Management System versus using a hosting service is made not a cost basis but due to other factors such as isolated networks (from the internet) or for mandated security policies (DOD).  Generally, costs over a 5 year period are comparable on a total cost per-user basis.

Good luck!

About Bob Goldschneider:

Bob Goldschneider has over 25 years experience in corporate training and educational services.  He has served as Director of Educational Services and Director of North American Sales and Service for the Open Software Foundation. He built their Educational Services division from the ground up into a multi-million dollar business. He also served as Director of Educational Services at Apollo Computer and Training Development Manager for Wang Laboratories, where he managed a staff of over 50 instructors, course developers, video producers, and graphic designers.

About SyberWorks

SyberWorks, Inc. (http://www.syberworks.com) is a leader in providing Learning Management Systems and custom e-Learning Solutions for Fortune 1000 corporations, higher education, and other organizations. Located in Waltham, Massachusetts, the company serves the multi-billion-dollar e-Learning market.  Since 1995, SyberWorks has developed and delivered unique and economical solutions for creating, managing, measuring, and improving e-Learning programs at companies and organizations in the United States, Canada, Europe, and other countries.

http://syberworks.com/articles/licensevshost.htm

However, is it the elearning function’s job?  Let’s start from the contrary position.  Formal learning helps novices become practitioners, and that needs to happen.  However, if we consider the range of individual ability, it goes way beyond novices, through practitioners to experts.  And there are learning needs for these folks, including mentoring, performance support, and collaboration. We could abandon that to other groups, maybe letting IT run knowledge management and supporting social infrastructure, and allowing product or service teams to provide information about their offerings, and sales to support their folks.

The problem is, we know how well that works (or, rather, not).  The information from the functions is hard to find, not well organized, and not well-written.  IT is more concerned about keeping a secure and stable environment than empowering people.  And who better to support organizational learning than the learning function?  Yet there are a lot of established ways that technology can help along the whole range of expertise.

That may seem like a lot of responsibility, but no one’s suggesting you need to take it on all at once.  More important is to take it on step-by-step, with an awareness of the larger picture.  And note the upside: the more you’re facilitating activities that go beyond just competency training, and supporting individuals to contribute in richer ways to organizational success, the more you’re becoming not just a cost-center, but a major contributor to organizational strategy.  This is the path to relevance, and a seat at the table.  Your executives should be seeing the need for accelerating the knowledge work that contributes most to the bottom line, and you are offering a viable path.

Let’s acknowledge that these are tough times.  The learning function, like everyone else, is being asked to do more with less. And, of course, traditionally training is the first to go. Counter to all that is the notion that the best action to take in tough times is to develop internal capacity, to be poised when things get better.  Which is admittedly an optimistic approach, and the reality is your organization may be concerned more about mere survival.

However, there are significant steps that can be taken that are relatively inexpensive, and offer a strong potential upside; the proverbial low-hanging fruit.  What are these steps?

Simple steps

Deeper eLearning.  First, most of the elearning is, frankly, not as well done as could be expected.  The low-hanging fruit here is an elearning review, looking at sample content and working backward through the design processes to tighten up the definitions around the components.  Regardless of whether it’s in-house or outsourced, there almost always are opportunities for improvement. Mind you, I’m not talking about better production values, but instead really getting at the cognitive and affective components that make learning experiences really stick.  Most designers don’t know the nuances, sadly, yet tightening up the templates is an easy step to take, resulting in learning that will work better.  If the team is under your control, setting up a workshop to detail the thinking that goes into the revised templates will work better, but even just an update to your provider’s model will help both learner engagement and final outcomes. 

Portal optimization. Another missed opportunity is not coming to grips with the proliferation of portals. It’s not uncommon their to be a plethora of portals in even medium-sized organizations, which consequently get underused. Two problems exist: there are so many portals people don’t know where to go, and when they get there, the portals aren’t organized well nor kept up to date. Consequently, the benefits originally intended to be gained from portals get lost.  Reviewing your organization’s portals and developing a plan to consolidate and optimize the user experience is a major opportunity to improve employee productivity.

Going mobile.  Going more informal, real potential exists in the increasing ubiquity of mobile devices.  Many now have devices that can play audio, or even video, and access web-based content.  While more interactive experiences can be designed, the platform differences mean that mobile may be more involved than you think.  However, there’s probably a lot of content that could already be made available for mobile delivery with minor tweaks, and the opportunity is big.  Off-time access has proved useful for engineering groups to listen to each other’s white papers, firms to capture significant speeches, and share captured learning events, all as podcasts.  Videos have been used to support service technicians and sales folks improve their field performance.  Finally, access of content can serve both convenience and context-based access.  Naturally, more optimized uses are possible, but just providing such access meets an untapped opportunity.

Getting social.  Another opportunity is to consider the use of social media to help support capturing and sharing knowledge.  Firms have found big benefits in enabling conversations internally and with customers.  Customers will self-help and help each other if there is an effective approach in place.  And internally, conversations can be conducted more broadly, lessons learned can be shared.  The installation of a social learning environment is relatively easy, but more effort is required in nurturing the environment to achieve critical mass.  The benefits however, – employees finding the needed expertise, sharing answers, collaborating to solve problems and create new opportunities – are huge.  Enabling and optimizing the flow of employee communication is the key opportunity to capitalize on knowledge work.

Modelling content.  A further step from here is to systematize around not just the content development process, but the content models.  This is moving towards content governance, standards, and tags, starting with separating the content from it’s delivery format. The opportunity here is to maximize efficiency by eliminating redundancy, and providing opportunities to start offering personalization and mass customization.  This systematization provides the foundation for smart business going forward, and also is an enabler for mobile in particular.

The point is that, no matter where you are, there’s a next step available.

A step above

Of course, ideally you’d survey where you are today, look across these opportunities, take in the broader context, and prioritze these not just for the immediate step, but in order that they systematically build capability in your organization.  The point is to build an over-arching strategy that gives you not only tomorrow’s next step, but next month’s, and next year’s, and…  With such a strategy in hand, you’ve got ammunition to talk to the business leaders, and start taking the leadership role that you’ve been entitled to but have neglected. 

While these steps vary some in their costs, all have specific steps that can create improvement on a very reasonable budget.  And the status quo is not an option: the imperatives are real, and those who don’t address it head on are doomed to be left in the dust.  The take home lesson is to take a next step, whether it’s one of the tactics, or to first put the tactics into a prioritized order.  So what are you waiting for?

OJT is usually quite cost-effective, because it focuses on the tasks at hand, and requires no equipment beyond what the company already provides.  It’s also much less disruptive than other forms of training, because employees aren’t removed from their duties, but are instead trained for their work while doing it.

The actual training is usually done by a manager or supervisor who is coaching employees while they work.  Supervisor feedback tends to be immediate, and trainees often improve their job performance quickly.  Employees also feel more confident about their job performance when they are being coached by supervisors, and on-the-job training is a good way for new employees to build relationships with their comrades.

Problems to Avoid

There are, however, potential issues with on-the-job training.  Supervisors and experienced employees may not have the needed skills for training other employees.  Often, supervisors or managers were promoted because they were good at performing or managing their own work, but this doesn’t guarantee that they also possess the skills or ability to coach new employees.  Not everyone is a born teacher.

Time also can be a huge issue! Supervisors and mentors may not have the time to spare to  help new employees. And since on-the-job training usually follows no formal procedure or specified content (other than the task at hand), supervisors and mentors will need still more time, to pass on the extra knowledge, skills, and  business context that employees will need to solve future job problems and respond to business changes. So upper management must give employees who are doing this training the time they need.

During on-the-job training, trainees also need time to practice the skills they must learn.  In turn, supervisors and trainers must prepare adequate drill materials for trainees, and provide feedback early and often in the drilling process, to prevent trainees from acquiring unwanted job behaviors. So again, upper management must make sure that everyone gets the time they need.

An often-overlooked issue that can plague on-the-job training is company lingo. Trainees must receive a clear, consistent understanding of the concepts and terms used in their organizations. And even when an employee says they understand a word or concept, they may not.  They will often say they understand to avoid looking incompetent. So supervisors and mentors must keep this in mind, and constantly repeat and reinforce the terms and concepts that new employees must learn.

And on top of all the above, supervisors and mentors are only human. They can easily pass on their own counter-productive habits to other employees…and must work hard to avoid doing so.

OJT Development Techniques

Usually, OJT employs one or more of the following four techniques:

·         Coaching—This one-on-one interaction is usually done by a supervisor or someone outside the company, and is often prescriptive and corrective in nature.  It helps the trainee understand their strengths, weakness, and areas of improvement, and tends to be applied for a fixed amount of time until the employee is deemed proficient.

·         Mentoring—This too is an ongoing one-on-one technique that’s usually done by a more experienced company executive or supervisor.  The mentor works with the trainee to find their strengths, weaknesses, and areas of improvement.  The mentor provides feedback and guidance, and points out areas that may have been overlooked.

·         Job Rotation—This approach allows trainees to practice and become proficient in various aspects of the work at hand, or different roles within the company.  It helps employees because they are exposed to different work areas and learn about various company functions.  (It’s also a great opportunity for employees to try out different functions, to see what they like or don’t.)  The company also benefits, because job rotation diversifies worker skill sets in critical areas, and helps the company respond to unforeseen events like vacations, flu epidemics, and catastrophes.  Job rotation also fosters organization-wide goal- and objective-sharing, because employees better understand each other’s job responsibilities.

·         Job Instruction Techniques—There are many great online resources to help you plan, prepare, and implement on-the-job training. But most models ask trainers to plan, present, trial, and follow up.  The plan consists of a written breakdown of the work and of your training objectives.  In the trial stage, the plan is presented to the trainee(s), who are asked to try it out…with regular follow up during the process. There are variants to this method and it can be either streamlined or made more complex, depending upon the business case and the tasks to be learned.

How Can LMS and e-Learning Tools Help?

Learning Management Systems (LMSs) and e-Learning authoring tools can help with all parts of on-the-job training.  Depending on your organization’s needs, you can use an LMS to track and manage one or more parts of the OJT process, including:

.

·         Registering trainees

·         Scheduling training

·         Storing and delivering reference materials (such as company procedures, concepts,  and terms)

·         Delivering regular practice drills

·         Testing and evaluating job competencies being learned

·         Collecting and storing training results

·         Delivering and collecting follow-up employee surveys

·         And, more!

About the Author:

Mary Polley-Berte is Director of Customer Support & Training at SyberWorks, Inc., in Waltham, Massachusetts. Mary is a graduate of Boston University and resides with her family in New Hampshire.

About SyberWorks

SyberWorks, Inc. (http://www.syberworks.com) is a leader in providing Learning Management Systems and custom e-Learning Solutions for Fortune 1000 corporations, higher education, and other organizations. Located in Waltham, Massachusetts, the company serves the multi-billion-dollar e-Learning market.  Since 1995, SyberWorks has developed and delivered unique and economical solutions for creating, managing, measuring, and improving e-Learning programs at companies and organizations in the United States, Canada, Europe, and other countries.

http://syberworks.com/articles/ojt-article.htm

When I had written the article, “Recession Proof your Training Organization,” for the Chief Learning Officer back in May of 2008, the recession was just beginning.   Now, a year later, with better understanding and realization, I still strongly stand by the key points I stated in the article to help make your training organization thrive through this tough time:

1.       Right Size Now

2.       Demonstrate Clear ROI from your Training

3.       Deliver High-Quality Programs, On Time

4.       Outsource Noncore Activities

5.       Choose the Right Training Modality

For your training organization to survive the current recession and support long-term success, it’s crucial to understand what all of these points mean.  However,  I dropped the “right sizing point” since all organizations already reduce the size of their teams, and I doubt there is much “right sizing” left to complete.

I will dive into more detail, and also add another key point, which is to reuse the content you already have.

1. Demonstrate Clear ROI from your Training.  Simply saying that you are delivering a great training product won’t cut it these days. You have got to be able to prove your value to the company in hard, cold dollars, demonstrating an uncontestable return on investment for every penny in your budget.  If you cannot measure the ROI, you might want to question why you are doing the project before someone else asks the question. When in doubt, work on projects that drive incremental revenue or reduce costs within the next six months.

2. Deliver High-Quality Programs, On Time, that Align with Business Objectives.  During corporate belt-tightening, all things perceived as “fluff” should automatically go. Take a good hard look at the programs you offer— how well do they align with the two universal goals of increasing revenue and cutting costs? Clearly, any training that improves employees’ critical skill sets will be a must-have, such as compliance programs and other mandated training initiatives. This is what will allow you to stay in the game.

But for other programs, keeping them may be something you will want to reevaluate. Inspecting your organization for indications that training quality is slipping, and fixing those issues fast is critical. In many cases, Pulitzer-quality text or sophisticated graphics are less important than timely delivery, which lets the organization start realizing value immediately. A perception of being slow and unresponsive will doom your group, even if there are really good reasons for these delays or changes.

3. Outsource When it Makes Sense.  Like anything else, outsourced training has its pros and its cons. Bringing in contract training resources saves headcount and related fixed costs, and often allows you the flexibility of offering training programs that would not possible with just your in-house staff. However, on the other hand, outsiders often lack the industry or company-specific knowledge necessary for effective training in your particular market niche. A good solution is maintaining a small core of trainers to manage internal coordination and provide subject matter expertise.

 4. Choose the Right Training Modality.  Studies have shown that training effectiveness is heavily dependent on the way material is presented. Some topics, like diversity awareness or interpersonal communications, are best taught in a traditional instructor-led classroom setting. Others, like introducing new product features or regulatory compliance, can often be covered faster and more easily with an e-course. Webinars work well for other topics that require discussion in addition to content, such as an overview of an issue with a question-and-answer period following.

Selecting the best modality for your various training offerings demonstrates to senior management that you are a good steward of tight dollars. By explaining why one delivery method is superior to others, you substantiate your role as a leader, and prove your personal value to the company. You might point out, for example, that switching your new-hire training from an instructor-led to an online format trims orientation time by an entire day, at a savings of $1,000 per person (see the Training Calculator). Once again, this underscores the need for credible metrics and a value-driven approach to training.

5. Reuse the Investment in Content that Already Exists.  Most of the budget for developing new online training relates to the content creation.  As we work with large organizations, we usually find they have an abundant of content in the form of presentations, recorded webinars, white papers, etc.  However, often times, the content needs to be trimmed down, organized, the interactivity needs to be added, and the assessments needs to be built.   These organizations have spent historical dollars in developing the content, so this presents an opportunity to leverage their investment.   In addition, re-using and enhancing the existing content will support the turnaround time

I am in high hopes that my next follow-up article will relate to supporting your organization during the faced-paced time of the recovery.

Biographical Note:  Charlie Gillette is Managing Director of Knowledge Anywhere, an online training company in Bellevue, WA:  www.knowledgeanywhere.com.  email: charlie@knowledgeanywhere.com

1. Read a book.
2. Watch a video.
3. Attend a speech or workshop.
4. Enroll in an online course

Now suppose that in addition to being more knowledgeable you wanted to become skillful at something. It could be anything like golf, karate, selling refrigerators, negotiating, making presentations, etc. The point is you want to become truly proficient. Your objective is not just to know something; you want to be able to do something, and do it well. If skill is your objective, then your only option is to practice with an expert coach under realistic working conditions until you achieved fluency.

When you do something repeatedly – trying to perform up to an explicit standard – your mind and body get the “feel” of doing it proficiently. And the “feel” of doing it is the skill. If you don’t acquire the feel, you haven’t acquired the skill. Further, the feel is acquired only by using the skills to produce a real result: A good golf stroke, a sale, a successful negotiation.

Coaching the actual performance shortens the time it takes for an individual to become proficient enough to achieve the desired result repeatedly. Eventually, the new behavior becomes a preferred and self-chosen way of behaving.

Yet, when it comes to interpersonal-skills training in the business world – the teaching of so-called “soft skills” such as listening, leadership and teamwork, practicing with an expert coach under realistic working conditions is the least chosen development method. And that is the real reason behind the endless hand wringing in the corporate training field about how hard it is to get “learned” skills to transfer from the classroom to the job. It is also the reason that in difficult economic times, the training budget is often the first one cut, and it’s our fault

Training vs. Education
There is a great deal of difference between training and education, though the vast majority of trainers are not aware of it. Educating is not the same as training. For most people, there is no causal relationship between education and performance. There is, indeed, a causal relationship between training and performance. Knowledge isn’t power. Competence is power. Power is the ability to create a desired effect and that is performance.

To educate is to increase intellectual awareness of a subject. To train is to assist someone become proficient at the execution of a given task. Many wonderful things can be said about education, but education doesn’t cause competence.

Try making a youngster competent at riding a bicycle by sitting her down at the kitchen table and explaining how to ride a bicycle. Try taking a one-hour golf lesson from someone who uses typical online “training” methods. He’ll meet on your computer screen far from the golf course, talk to you about a golf swing for 30 minutes, show you his swing for 10 minutes, let you take make-believe swings at an imaginary golf ball for 5 minutes, then ask you to write an “action plan” describing how you will apply what you’ve “learned.”

Skeptics will protest that some people who receive education in soft-skills areas actually do turn out higher performance as a result: They do, in fact, get better at selling or influencing or working in a team. And this is true-for maybe 10 percent to 15 percent of the trainees. In fact, that 15 percent were already skillful before they attended the latest online educational offering. If you take anyone who is already competent and add more education, you often will get better performance to some degree.

What about the other 85 percent or 90per cent? It make no sense to pretend that the training department’s job is simply to deliver some information about skills (The Five Key Practices of Famous Leaders, The Ten Fabulous Values of Team Players), and then abdicate responsibility for proficiency to the person’s manager/supervisor. If you accept the title of “trainer,” your task is to make people competent, not just more aware. Blaming managers because the “skills” you supposedly imparted in your educational event failed to transfer to the job site is irresponsible.

Real Training For Real People
Begin by abandoning notions of what people ought to know or what sort of attitudes they ought to have or even how people acquire knowledge. Instead, ask, “How does one acquire skillfulness?” The most efficient and effective way to acquire skillfulness is straight forward: 1) Spend a little time educating about the results to be achieved and the skills to be executed in order to obtain those results. 2) Spend a lot of time practicing, with a coach who can reduce trial and error time, until fluency is achieved.

In the hands of a good trainer or coach, Step 1 takes up 5 percent to 10 percent of the allotted time. Step 2 takes up the other 90 percent to 95 percent. Step 1 is purely education. Step 2 is training.

If the student isn’t doing it, it isn’t training. A day spent talking about skills will not make anyone skillful. Nobody gets the “feel” for real execution, done to a specific standard of competence, and if they don’t acquire the “feel,” they don’t acquire the skill.

Even if you agree with these points you may say: “Fine, but all of that would have to be done in the field. It can’t be done in a classroom. And even if it weren’t too expensive and difficult to put that many expert coaches in the field, we don’t want our trainees practicing on real customers. So how we do make them proficient before we send them into the real job environment?”

There is a way.

How to Do It

To do real training in soft skills, start by taking a tip from advocates of “action learning”: Invite people to a meeting room for a genuine working session—into which some coaching will be added. You can provide some online pre-meeting assignments and education to maximize your work session time.

The purpose of this working session is to evaluate and make decisions about ideas for improving the business: Real ideas for real improvement that will make a real difference to the company. Ask participants to bring their own ideas to the meeting. Stipulate that these ideas must meet two criteria. First, the people in the meeting must be capable of implementing them; that is, someone in the room must have the authority to give a real yes or no to the idea. Second, if adopted, the improvement must be both measurable and capable of producing financial consequences for the business within 90 days.

In other words, you don’t want ideas such as, “Let’s change the cafeteria’s vending machines.” That might be an improvement, all right, but it’s unlikely to produce a measurable ROI within three months. Your online pre-work gave them a quick educational overview of the skills that would most likely help them gain the commitment and support they’ll need to implement their ideas.

Next you must also clearly define what “skillful” means – not just what the skills are. For instance, you are skillful at “showing respect” if you can acknowledge another person’s point of view so well that the person begins to feel they are being taken seriously within 15 seconds.

Make this introduction as succinct as possible. Then put everyone to work on the task of trying to gain commitment and support from one another. Coach them while they do so. Make them do it over and over again, until at least 85 percent of them have become proficient at the skills and have achieved concrete desirable results.

An obvious “desirable result” is that a participant gains the needed support and approval for a good idea. A less obvious but no-less acceptable result is that the participant becomes persuaded that his idea is flawed, but accepts this with no hard feelings; that is, the participant and his “adversary” agree that the idea is a nonstarter, and emerge with their relationship undamaged or even strengthened.

You can stop worrying about “reinforcement.” Why? Because we all naturally keep doing what works. We only need the goading or encouragement or reminding of managers when we can’t produce the results we want.

Online “training” is acceptable and even preferred when the desired outcome is to educate.

Doing the real training is required and perfectly feasible, even with large groups of people when the desired outcome is acquiring skill and proficiency. This approach – Educate briefly, then train at length – is the method of martial arts trainers. It’s the method of sports teams. It’s the method of coaches in the performing arts. It works.

This formula almost always achieves measurable success, regardless of the skills you’re trying to develop: Selling, leadership, teamwork customer service, problem-solving and so on. Instead of seeing slight improvements in the performance of those 15 percent of trainees who were already capable, you’ll send 85 percent out the door with genuine skillfulness instead of mere awareness.

The group is producing real initiatives that will make or save money, your company can expect a very healthy return on investment within three months. These outcomes are critical in these difficult economic times. And nobody will have to ask you again if your training actually makes a difference.

G. Thomas Herrington and Patrick T. Malone are co-authors of the new book Cracking the Code to Leadership and Senior Partners at The PAR Group, an international training firm headquartered in Atlanta. They may be contacted at info@thepargroup.com.

I work for a company called Knowledge Anywhere that does (among other things) custom content development for e-learning. When we develop a course, content development is often a large part of the effort, and one key decision is who will write the content. Sometimes we write the content ourselves, based on source content provided by our clients, and sometimes our clients write content. Both approaches work well, and both approaches can be problematic. It depends on the situation.

So here are some things to consider if you’re working with a company like ours and aren’t sure who should write the content.

·         Do I alone have the expertise to write the content? This is the key question, because if you have to write it, you have to write it. Generally, our clients need to write content if it’s highly technical or if a writer with the specialized knowledge required is not available or it would be too expensive to secure. (Writers with specialized skills can command high rates.) Or, the client may need to write the content if it relies on specialized knowledge available only within their organization; for example, an evolving go-to-market strategy for a new product. In some organizations only one or two people have this information and it changes frequently, which can be a tough environment for a writer.

·         Do I have the time to write the content? Be honest. Most people don’t. Successful content writing requires focused blocks of free time, an uncommon commodity in most jobs. We frequently see clients volunteer to write content, with the best of intentions, then they struggle to get it done, because they don’t have the time. Writers block may be a factor as well.

·         Can I write content that’s suitable for e-learning? In other words, can I write a course that flows, has interactivity that enhances the content and is within my organization’s capabilities and budget, has good assessments, etc.? Can I communicate with the team that will be coding the course? The type of course you’re writing matters here. It’s much simpler to write a PowerPoint that will be converted straight to e-learning using a tool such as Adobe Presenter then it is to write a storyboard for a highly interactive course. The expectations for the final product are lower, too.

·         Do I have very definite ideas of what I want the course to be like? If you know exactly what you want, then you may want to write the course yourself. In the end that may be easier then iteratively working with a writer to get to the same point.

We consider these same factors when considering a project, because we don’t want to put ourselves in the situation where we can’t succeed.

Learn and Save launches with more than 15,000 online tutorials for consumers. Along with the tutorials, consumers will have access to related information and coupons so they can save money if and when they need to purchase related products. Learn and Save corporate sponsors benefit because the Web site provides them with a new and enhanced way to engage directly with their customers.

“Our vision is to provide tutorials on a wide range of topics where each tutorial is matched to savings opportunities that also match the subject and content of the tutorial,” explained Charlie Gillette, chief executive officer of Learn and Save. “We have designed the site so it is simple, safe and convenient to use. We recognized that as economic conditions continue to tighten, people are looking for ways to save money. Tutorials married with coupons help meet that need by allowing consumers to get instructions in a safe online environment while taking advantage of savings and connecting with other experts to maximize the use of their products.”

According to Gillette, companies also benefit from reaching consumers who are already interested in their specific products and ideas. “Corporate sponsors are really excited about Learn and Save because they can engage with people who have a demonstrated interest in a particular topic or product. They’re presenting ads or savings directly to a consumer who has searched for ‘how-to information’ and this group of people simply has a much higher propensity to buy.”

Consumer and corporate reaction to the site has been overwhelmingly positive as Learn and Save sits at the intersection of the acute need for consumers to save money, businesses looking for improved methods to engage consumers, and the growing use of videos on the Internet.

“As an avid coupon clipper, I’m always on the lookout for ways to spend my dollars more efficiently and appreciate hearing helpful tips about products I’m considering purchasing,” said Kayla Sando, Learn and Save customer. “I love that Learn and Save provides me with a one-stop destination where I can learn about the topics I like while at the same time gain access to relevant coupons.”

Learn and Save tutorials provide consumers with free instructions on activities and topics that best suit their interests – whether its how to taste wine, prepare for a job interview or taking better digital pictures, ­there is likely a how-to tutorial on LearnAndSave.com addressing that topic.

Imagine you are a consumer looking for information on backcountry skiing and snowboarding. By watching the “Basics of Backcountry Travel,” tutorial submitted by REI, the national outdoor retail organization, you can learn helpful tips about the four main modes of backcountry travel and what items you should bring on your trip.

Companies selling to other businesses also will benefit from LearnAndSave.com. Kent Hellebust, general manager with AccessLine explains. “At AccessLine we are committed to helping businesses select the right phone system. We are participating in the Learn and Save community so we can provide business decision makers with information about what they should be looking for when they select a PBX. Our tutorial focuses on how they should approach making this important decision and what features and functionality to consider before committing to a system.”

Learn and Save enables organizations, including manufacturers and service providers, to connect directly with consumers or business decision makers in a value-added way. With sponsored tutorials, organizations can provide a quick and effective way for people to learn about their products and services. These tutorials help organizations reduce product returns as well as consumer calls to customer service contacts. By providing detailed information online, consumers are less likely to pick up the phone to ask a customer care representative for help. In both cases, businesses can improve their bottom line.

“The Learn and Save concept has interesting potential,” said John Montgomery, chief operating officer, North America, GroupM Interaction. “It is evident that consumers value this kind of short form instructional content and combined with the Learn and Save business model, could generate meaningful audience engagement.”

The debut of Learn and Save aligns well with consumers whose New Year’s resolutions are to learn something new and save money. Categories spanning across numerous topics include business and finance as well as health and fitness – both popular picks for achieving New Year resolutions.

The Learn and Save development team is lead by Bill Allocca, a former senior member and technology leader in the e-commerce software division at Amazon. With more than 10 years experience at Amazon, Bill brings a deep understanding of consumer and e-commerce related Web sites to the Learn and Save team. To learn more visit www.Learn and Save.com.

About Learn and Save

Learn and Save (www.Learn and Save.com) was created as a wholly owned subsidiary of Knowledge Anywhere. Knowledge Anywhere started in 1998 and is a leader in the corporate e-learning market. Learn and Save will be headquartered in the greater Seattle area and co-located with Knowledge Anywhere (www.KnowledgeAnywhere.com). Learn and Save will have offices in Bellevue, Wash. and Minneapolis with client business development managers throughout North America.

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For more information, please contact:

Charlie Gillette, Learn and Save, (425) 454-4454 ext. 3801,

Charlie@LearnandSave.com

Jennifer Gehrt, Communiqué PR, (206) 282-4923 ext 112,

jennifer@communiquepr.com