This is National Teacher Appreciation Week, an opportunity to celebrate great teachers. While attention is focused let me float an outrageous idea. Though I don’t have the workings of this proposal completely flushed out I hope to instigate a dialogue and let you continue the conversation. I believe teachers are underpaid. And underappreciated. Let me back up a sec: What brought this top of mind are commercials currently airing (and somewhat self-aggrandizing) for the energy industry. You might have seen them, featuring successful—and not unattractive—young professional engineers whose physics and math teachers opened their minds to a world in which they could exploit their passion inspired by their teachers that led to a career and a life. What if there was a way to address the inequities, in the process refurbishing education as a noble art and science and do it in such a way that avoids new taxes or municipal funding? Here’s what I believe to be a logical method of rewarding those kinds of instructors: Why not set up a system of tithing; a tangible way former students who by admission found a life because of a memorable teacher. Let’s adopt a method to turn over a very modest amount of money per ex-student, now contributor to a teacher or teachers. Not to the school or district—but directly. These endowments would be a royalty, a supplemental contribution to the teacher(s) who has gone beyond. Just think, the average major subject high school teacher sees over 4500 youngsters in a 30-year career; an elementary teacher, 900. If only a few students, who believe one or more teachers added to their lives would pony up a stipend, then teachers would not only reap a personal gain that would improve their economic station, but set the country on notice that we honor and will reward great teaching. The well-known educational ripple effect ("A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops." Henry Adams) would be a paradigm for the nation. What a culture change. No matter the political party, there’s no downside to supporting this. Well, maybe not all politicians would agree, especially the ones who had all bad teachers, right? In the short term, such a plan resolves very specific wants: Adjusting salaries to make teaching a more fiscally viable profession Addressing teacher evaluations currently based either on formal and mostly contractual agreements or high stakes test results; both of which are flawed metrics Diminishing the overplayed hand of the unions to level the playing field where mediocre and superlative instructors are paid equally based on years of service and graduate credit hours for courses having no bearing on instructional quality In the long term, we establish a system that will drive teacher’s efforts to create instruction that is more dynamic and draw out a more humanistic approach to the treatment of students. That’s not an accusation that teachers as a group do not try to develop quality lessons nor are they deficient in humanity. However, we’ve all been students and can recall quite clearly those teachers who had the kindness and compassion any parent would hope was doled out to their child during the school day. But we can also recall the harridans, shrews, and malcontents among a faculty to whom teaching was a job to be endured and gave over as little of themselves as they could get away with. So posit this: A 20-year biology teacher whose total salary based on service and coursework is $60,000 per year. Next door, also teaching biology, the teacher is receiving $60,000 but based on voluntary ex-student contributions, her royalties are yielding an annualized, additional $12,000. What does that say to teachers, the school and district and community? Moreover, it becomes part of a teacher’s portfolio of merit they can take with them if they decide to shop around for another position in marketplace for excellence outside their current district. The mechanics, as I said are in the formative stage banging around in my head. Case in point; I would like a value metric to balance these anomalies: Rewarding an elementary school teacher who inspired you to think more of yourself but had no direct connection (though some psychologists would disagree) with your choice of career. K-6 teachers see a disproportionately smaller cadre of students but arguably can be more formative shaping a child and effective at saving one in crisis. What about a teacher who mentors students but is not their actual teacher? He supported and counseled youngsters helping them overcome their self-doubts, lack of confidence, sense of otherness and enabled them to grow in to good spouses, parents and wage earners; how do we apportion those contributions? What about special education, teachers of the arts and other specialties who in some settings have very few students. Maybe this system would be unfairly slanted and biased against these professionals unless we look for a way to design in equity. Something to chew on. So here’s how this might work: Every year in the Valley School District 700 students graduate. Assuming they go straight to work or on to higher education, whether technical training or a collegiate experience they will be wage earners. Let’s just say the IRS, attaches form 1200A, Education Contribution Benefit Designation to every return. This document is a rubric with these elements: A space to name teacher(s) A series of metrics, say a Likert scale (1-5 or NA) where they could identify and rate teachers based on objective criteria. For instance, did the teacher on line 21 provide you with the information you needed to be hired in the field/job you sought. Or did the teacher prepare you for acceptance into a higher education program. Did the teacher help you create a portfolio or college essay that allowed you entry into your field of study? Another series of metrics would be subjective, though not less important. Any psychometrican can compose, scale, and provide weight with regard to the value of these traits. For instance, did the teacher in line 24 provide the emotional support you needed when you were in crisis? Did s/he mentor you influencing you in a positive way that has made you a better person? Can you appreciate the differences among cultures, countries, and people unlike yourself? A space for supporting statements whether written by the constituent donor or other material provided as evidence the teacher is eligible for a contribution benefit. A space to work out the amount designated to be apportioned to the named teacher(s). Perhaps none of the above except the name of the teacher and the amount to be contributed. If you teach for 30 years, regardless of level or subject you will have influenced, not just taught content to thousands of youngsters who are now adults and hopefully earning a living. Every year the numbers of ex-students enters the workforce and are added to the roles of possible ‘donors.’ Kind of like compound interest! I would propose each contributor/donor be obligated for life, with contingencies of course. This serves two purposes; contributing is understood as a very serious commitment with long range consequence and contributions end only if the individual is out of work or retires; furthermore, it ensures the amount cannot fluctuate downward (unless circumstances such as the above occur) so the teacher can budget and rely on that income well in to retirement. Most importantly, I believe the contributor can add a teacher’s name at any time for as we mature it is only from a distance do we begin to fathom the impact a teacher has had on our lives. OK, some of you might define this plan as merit pay or reimbursement of extraordinary value. Others will see it as a ‘tip’ -a surcharge for what should have been the norm in the first place. I see it more like a legacy reward for a lifetime of great service recognized by customers… AND an immediate way to shake up the profession by the scholars hood and wake up potential. We can declare non too subtlety that, with some inspiration, even if in the form of—gasp—money, teachers can be moved to higher levels of overall performance. Finally it shakes up the worst offenders in the education realm—schools of education whose teacher prep programs are at the least out of touch… and at the worst criminally deficient allowing virtually anyone who pays tuition, is drawing breath and can prep for the tests into the classroom. You know the adage…what do they call the one who finishes last in medical school…doctor. That’s the plan. Talk about it, argue over it, but don’t pass it by. We rank far below even the poorest countries on many education scales of measurement. I believe a major reason is teaching and our myopic view of schools. The public coffers are empty and education at all levels is being starved. Here’s a place to jump into the dialogue. Or not, but I hope for better. Lastly, I believe I have the chops to write this; I taught K-12, was a university professor and a school administrator in urban settings. I’ve seen education from inside and as a corporate educator working with schools throughout the world. I’ll end on a positive note. I want to thank Miss Libman my first grade teacher at PS 194 in Brooklyn for her compassion and humanity. Miss Nurnberg who found my talent for art in grade 6 and allowed me extra time at the easel, also at PS 194. Frank Pelligrini who insisted I not turn in less than perfect work and rejected much of my efforts until I got it right, and last but not least, Dr. Peter Bohan, now gone, whose inspiration and love of subject made me a life-long learner and seeker. I would gladly tithe to any and all.

Who hasn’t been the recipient of the exhortations of motivation? It seems everywhere; used to suggest, cajole and inspire workers. Indeed exhort all of us to get out in front of a task and get going. I remember, I think, a professor or mentor of mine in the education business who consistently said that motivation, a mental state, is not what we want to create. No, he said, what we really want is movement. Movement is measurable, while motivation lies within us affected by a variety of mental attitudes and internal prejudices. Whereas movement can be evaluated against expectations or scales of achievement, motivation is opaque to the organization seeking its presence. This may not be news, but in the context of leadership and management, the misapplication of either motivation or movement in an opposing context can often lead to problems. Furthermore, with the push towards the nurturing of talent; talent management as its referred, it’s worth a look at how these states might be aligned to justify the effort, time and resources placed in readying current employees for more responsibility. The End of Motivation? No discussion of motivation can take place without clearing up the idea of incentives. Leaders continually seek ways of extracting more or better from their minions, only to find most systems never seem to yield consistent results. Incentivizing workers of any level with rewards, extrinsic or intrinsic seems to work only when there are simple goals to achieve and solid rules to guide performance. The problem of if-then reward schemes is a narrow focus on the task at hand. In many studies, incentives have been shown to effectively kill creativity. In sales and mechanical tasks, incentives may work but only sometimes, and not for long. However, as Daniel Pink has noted, as soon as performance requires any additional cognitive skill (e.g. reasoning) even a larger reward leads to decreased performance. He notes that the London School of Economics has found financial incentives can result in a negative impact on overall performance. And not to be overlooked, robotics are increasingly eliminating the types of work for which incentives would prove even marginally valuable. So what to do? Firstly, let’s accept motivation for movement lies in the realm of management and distinct from leadership. The traditional definition of management says if you want compliance then create a linear system of compartmentalized tasks and add people adequately skilled to so function. Then stand back and measure, doling out cash to the top performers. The disconnect between this conceit and the new working environment fails to account for the types of problems so prevalent now—devoid of a clear set of rules, or a single solution or only one right answer. More often than ever before, business problems demand more right brain, conceptual activity. When challenges are mystifying and abstract, if-then reward systems/incentives don’t work. Since most jobs that demand compartmentalization and linearity are so easy to outsource (or robotize), tradition bound incentives, or motivation through rewards are useless. Nevertheless, what about managers who must raise the performance of workers, achieve cost/time/efficiency savings, another top, or bottom line positive changes? Science and Business There is a mismatch between what science knows and business does. For instance, we know, and studies show when people want to succeed because the problem matters, because it’s important or interesting or because it is bigger than themselves, they require no external rewards to perform at high levels. An operational paradigm that recognizes mastery, autonomy, and purpose will encourage workers to respond with energy to the types of business challenges in today’s workplace. If managers want workers to perform up, then the challenges and types of work that must be solved have to be designed to respond to these human factors. Is it the job of managers who require relatively simple tasks to be executed to re-form the jobs not into compartments of interchangeable elements but to something more interesting? The answer is yes. If we need new managers capable of thinking this way than that’s where talent management learning might start. Remember it’s not the manager who does the work…but managers need to set conditions where others can and do to their utmost abilities. Some might say this is starting to sound like leadership. But leaders themselves are too far distant from actual work. Why Managers Need to be Leaders The 20th century business model erects a formidable wall between management and leadership. Yet in this century it should be clear anyone in authority—having the responsibility to move (not just motivate) people to perform must embody both managerial skills and leadership qualities. When companies speak of talent management they still, in most cases, make distinctions among the types of employees who earn or receive the types of learning that prepares them for one role or the other. That distinction might best be obliterated. If managers are incapable of leadership perhaps they should not be managers. Not to be harsh but given the types of conceptual as well as practical business challenges that will engage enterprises big and small if there is no leadership in management (and the converse it true) success will be most difficult. Workers as people are different; those who guide their tasks had better be aligned to their ways. Leadership Is Too Far Upstream We know leadership has two distinct functions particularly in large enterprises; imbuing the business mission with vision and tone and setting priorities and policies. However to change performance I suggest unless a leader is in total control—think Jack Welch or Steve Jobs—they are too distant—to far upstream from the action to make a difference in how people move and their commitment to performance. Even Jobs, perhaps the most hands-on of any modern executive even with supreme governance required intermediaries, subordinates…managers to transfer his visions into reality. Without direct control of how problems are phrased and scoped, organized and aligned, leaders may exude all the power their words can muster but won’t help a local team produce better or faster solutions. Here’s a descriptive chart breaking down leadership and management from different perspectives:     Leadership   Management Core Art Science Visionaries Technicians Process Upstream-Strategic Downstream-Tactical Personality Driver Charismatic Pragmatic Foundation Situational Empirical/Formulaic Modality Front, top, prior to action Within or during action Structure Ideas, theory Hands-on, get it done Action Thinking Scheduling Metric KPIs FTEs Skill Motivation Movement The Talent Management Function There’s no question leadership is vital to any enterprise. In addition, leaders can come in all shapes and sizes, talents, strengths, weaknesses and deficits. Many companies thrive with lousy leadership—but none can survive without skilled managers, especially those who can meld some of the qualities of leadership into the organizing behaviors of managing. I suppose the final tally of all the characteristics in the chart can be boiled down to the simple idea that talent management learning programs should be less focused on building leadership and more attuned to managerial competence. Bringing management into a 21st century paradigm will directly encourage people to do great work. Employees will move towards excellence when problems support autonomy, permitting their own way of working out a problem, provide opportunities and tools to allow mastery to flourish and offer a clear purpose that serves the greater service. Incentives, no matter what type are contradictory to this type of cooperative milieu. Managers who are skilled in creating this type of work situation, who have received the education and training they need to create such an environment will be the backbone of every successful enterprise. Shifting resources from building leadership qualities for leaders only to ensuring hands on managers have the skills and knowledge, techniques and tactics they need, will lay a foundation to ensure the survival of the enterprise even as leaders wash in and out with the tides.

Filed under: In The Classroom

Mahatma Gandhi said it best: "Man becomes great exactly in the degree in which he works for the welfare of his fellow-men." When business and healthcare organizations make service their highest priority, they’re valuing their customers. However, their commitment to service generates further good when it extends beyond the boundaries of the workplace. Here are three ways organizations can increase the magnitude of their service and improve the world: 1) Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs give employees the opportunity to volunteer and provide service to their communities. Achievers, an organization committed to driving higher employee engagement, notes on their blog that "organizations with well-defined social responsibility programs can improve their brand reputation, attract more job candidates and customers, and increase employee engagement." The social and environmental responsibility program at The Ritz-Carlton is known as Community Footprints®. Employees at hotels around the globe participate in local activities that support child well-being, hunger and poverty relief, and environmental responsibility. The mission of Community Footprints states: "At The Ritz-Carlton, we have built a legacy of extraordinary service. This tradition extends into our Community Footprints program and inspires us to impact the lives of others. Every contribution we make is an opportunity to leave an imprint on our communities. It is through this collection of imprints that we can make a meaningful difference." Community Footprints volunteer events take place around the world—and are even woven into executive meetings. Recently, Herve Humler, President & Chief Operations Officer of The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, L.L.C., convened 90 Ritz-Carlton General Managers for a three-day conference at The Ritz-Carlton, San Francisco. To kick off the conference, the General Managers spent the afternoon with nearly 200 students at a high school that serves low-income communities in the Mission District of San Francisco. In 11 classrooms, small teams made up of two Ritz-Carlton General Managers and four students collaborated on issues impacting the hotel industry such as identifying the biggest area of water waste at a hotel and presenting one strategy for reducing consumption. The teams worked together to generate and evaluate ideas, agree on potential solutions and create two-minute presentations. Students gained real-life problem-solving and collaboration skills, and through the expert guidance of our General Managers, they were also able to refine their presentation skills. 2) IMPACT 2030 IMPACT 2030, Corporate Volunteering for Sustainable Development, is a global private sector-led initiative in collaboration between the United Nations and other stakeholders. The purpose of IMPACT 2030 is to "advance the practice of employee volunteering, and create real and sustainable change." IMPACT 2030 notes that corporations are "uniquely poised to respond to the needs of a rapidly changing world." The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company is the first Founding Partner of IMPACT 2030 and is partnering with many global companies, including IBM, Google and Tata Consulting Services. Sue Stephenson, Vice President of Community Footprints at The Ritz-Carlton, commented that "We’re all very excited about the possibilities of this global program that will leverage the skills and experience of employees to help address some of the most critical issues for our planet. It is about the power of our people to create real and sustainable change." There are several ways that companies can partner with IMPACT 2030. In addition, stakeholders from civil society, academia, philanthropic organizations and the public sector are invited to join the IMPACT 2030 network. 3) The Global Goals One hundred ninety-three world leaders committed to the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals, known as the Global Goals, on September 25, 2015. These 17 Goals focus on ending extreme poverty; fighting inequality and injustice; and addressing climate change over the next 15 years. The 17 Goals are universally applicable, and every country is establishing indicators to track the progress of each goal through 2030. The new goals replace the Millennial Development Goals and as this video humorously explains, finish the work that was already started. Organizations can help engage, educate and inspire their employees about the role they can play in impacting the Global Goals. IMPACT 2030 has supported the creation of the Global Goals Employer Hub, which offers organizations tools and suggestions for participation. Organizations can also share information on the website about their projects related to the Global Goals. Together We Impact the World Eliminating poverty, cleaning oceans, making cities safe, and reducing inequality among countries and between people may seem like unachievable goals, but as United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, has noted: "Volunteerism … is among society’s most vital assets." By marshaling their resources and working together, organizations will play a role in bringing about sustainable societal change and make the world a better place. ∞ The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center offers advisory services, courses and presentations to organizations that wish to benchmark the award-winning business practices of The Ritz-Carlton. Your organization can learn about The Ritz-Carlton methodology for customer service, employee engagement and leadership development. We also guide organizations through a multi-step process in order to achieve sustainable culture transformation. The Blog Post Service Without Borders appeared first on The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center.

WBT Systems launches Social and Mobile Learning Survey for Associations Survey to gain better understanding of trends, usage and attitudes towards social and mobile learning Dublin, Ireland, March 2012 - WBT Systems, the leading provider of eLearning software to associations, has just announced the opening of its latest survey to assess trends in both social learning and mobile learning within associations. WBT will use the feedback from the survey to make available a complimentary report that provides an overview of social and mobile learning, including insights around strategy, tools, usage and innovation. Significant advancements in technology in recent years have sparked major changes in learning design and delivery. BBy carrying out this study, WBT hopes to glean some interesting insights into how associations are approaching learning in this area, what they are doing today and planning for the future, what their understanding of social and mobile learning is. WBT will use this information to ensure it builds efficiency and effectiveness into its learning technology for the future, based on market demands and requirements. The concise two-part survey, which has a ten-minute completion time, has been designed for professionals employed in associations, professional bodies and institutes, and specifically those with visibility of the learning function. The survey will remain open for a four-week period and all information gathered is confidential to WBT Systems. All respondents will receive a complimentary copy of the findings, to be published in the July timeframe. This upcoming survey on social and mobile learning follows other recently published reports in the area of Association Learning, including - "A Practical Guide to Online Learning", "Open Source or Commercial LMS?" and "eLearning in Associations, comparing the UK and US." All reports, including the Social and Mobile learning survey may be accessed from here. To encourage survey participation, WBT is offering all qualified Social and Mobile Learning survey respondents a chance to enter a draw to win a Kindle e-Reader.

We are very excited to be sponsoring a webinar with Tagoras on Thursday, September 24 at 1pm EST. Jeff Cobb and Celisa Steele are co-founders of Tagoras, two experts in the market for continuing education and professional development and will be joined by our own Mike Bourassa, Director of Business Development to present the session.   Great content is only part of the equation for successful online education—most organizations also need a way to effectively deliver the content, track participation, and manage credit and certificates. The right technology can mean the difference between a big success and a big headache, but the selection process can be daunting. In this session, Jeff, Celisa, and Mike will discuss a time-tested, 7-step process for selecting a learning management system. Attendees will leave the session with a clear understanding of how to lead their organization in choosing the right LMS technology and will receive a checklist of key issues and questions to consider when running a successful selection process.   Sign up for the free Webinar at https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/6479971047690643713.

  We are proud to sponsor the 2015 NiUG Discovery Conference that will take place October 12 - 14, 2015 this year in Arlington, VA at the Crystal Gateway Marriott.   Every year, NiUG International, the largest independent, not-for-profit, iMIS user’s group organize this great event to bring together users, administrators and suppliers to the Associations market.   The first day of the NiUG conferences are full and half day training topics, followed by two days packed with general and breakout sessions during the users conference portion of the event. Don’t miss out on the largest iMIS conference of the year, showcasing case studies of what you can do with iMIS, new functionality and MORE!   You can register for the conference on the NiUG website.   See you there!

By John Leh, CEO and Lead Analyst at Talented Learning. It wasn’t that long ago when associations’ main revenue was annual membership dues and annual tradeshow revenue.  That has all changed over the last five years and now learning and continuing education has become the primary line of revenue. Every conceivable profession has regional, national or global associations that compete for members.  Whether you are a radiologist, electrician, beautician, nurse, lawyer, architect, accountant, teacher, surgeon, arborist, engineer or Christmas tree farmer in PA, there is an association for you.  In the US alone, there are 86,054 associations according to the American Society of Association Executives. In most of these career choices there are continuing education requirements for professionals to earn and maintain their license over time.  Associations create and sell the content for professionals to satisfy their continuing education requirements at every stage of their career. The backbone of the association training business is the Learning Management System (LMS).  Not a traditional employee LMS, but an association LMS.  Because they share some common features, many people believe they are the same, but they are not. Employee LMSs are geared towards compliance and HR issues, but association LMSs are about making money.  Associations’ training for business focus requires enhanced LMS functionality in the following areas:   Association LMS Differentiators User attraction - Associations are not the only type of organization that sells continuing education content.  They have competition from universities and for-profit training providers targeting the same professionals.  The association LMS must provide features that attract users and entice them to buy.  This includes functionality such as browsing content before logging in, ecommerce promotions, dynamic audience grouping and marketing automation. Power Cloud - Every type of LMS is available in the cloud, however, associations need a power cloud.  Since they sell and deliver content globally, have large numbers of users, significant concurrency requirements and sophisticated integrations to AMS or ecommerce systems, associations need a top-tier global hosting solution offering much more flexibility than your typical employee LMS.                           Domain Segmentation - Associations are not homogenous.  Many are comprised of regional or national chapters that may be tightly or loosely affiliated with the mother organization.  Each regional organization may need to localize content, have their own content, share content, have different price points, registration requirements, taxation rules, integrations and business process.  An association LMS can provide a centralized umbrella to manage the needs of the whole and the diversity of the local. AMS Integration -Associations have association management systems (AMS) to manage their members and their activities.  The typical AMS is member facing and has been in place long before an LMS.  The AMS sells members, tradeshow attendance, books and shares some common features with an LMS.   An association LMS needs to be able to integrate with an AMS to do things like share a catalog of course, ecommerce engine, CRM and reporting engine.  Since every AMS is different and every association has deployed their AMS uniquely, the association LMS needs to have extreme flexibility to support many scenarios. Business-to-business eCommerce -eCommerce is a lot more than installing an "add to cart" button and having a shopping cart.  Most associations sell to both organizations and to individuals.  Organizational or B2B LMS ecommerce requires features like bulk purchasing, debit and credit accounts, access codes, tokens, bulk user upload and content assignment, timed access, tailored notifications and easy-to-use delegated administration. Traditional LMSs struggle with all of that. Taxation - In the US, we don’t have a tax on training or services, but globally that is not the case.  Every national jurisdiction has their own rules on what is taxed at what rate.  If you are a global association selling content in 70 countries and dozens of currencies, this is a gigantic administrative nightmare.  The LMS must keep track of the different rules and integrate with backend accounting systems.   Integration with Avalara or similar can provide the taxation management piece of the solution. Reporting and Analytics - Every LMS has reporting and analytics but associations need more.  They need reporting that is specific to the accreditation bodies to which they belong.  Every accreditation body has their own processes and standards that an association LMS needs to support.  Additionally, many accreditation bodies require psychoanalytical reporting that proves the efficacy of the content such as pre-posttest comparisons and statistical test item analysis. Complex Continuing Education - Corporate LMSs allow you to assign credit for course completion but stop there.  Association LMSs go much further and manage the complexity of state and national accreditation jurisdictions including managing differing credit types and value per course, credit validity duration, certificates and accreditation body reporting.  This is an advanced set of functionality that LMS vendors do not build unless they are specifically targeting associations.   Conclusion There are 600 LMS solutions in the world, but less than 20 specialize as Association LMS’s.   It is important if you are an association to specifically define your LMS requirements using the above as a guide on the level of functionality you require.  Specifically call out what your AMS currently does and exactly how you envision the learning piece integrating into the AMS and broader member ecosystem.  Knowing the specifics of your LMS complexities and using that as a tool to qualify potential LMS vendor partners is the best way to find an LMS for your association.   Do You Want to Learn More About the Association LMS? We have the perfect webinar for you on October 7th, 2015 @11am EST — "Top 10 Features of an Association LMS Webinar."  Join myself John Leh and Mike Bourassa, Director of Business Development of WBT Systems as we share best-practices learned from decades of association learning technology experience. This isn’t some old boring webinar.  We’ll dig into the key differentiators of an Association LMS, show you examples, discuss case studies and share best practices.  Please register even if you can’t attend and we will send you a link to the session recording. Hope to see you there!   About the Author John Leh, CEO and Lead Analyst at Talented Learning, LLC. John is an independent learning technology analyst, blogger and CEO of Talented Learning.  After spending 20 years in the learning industry and selling over $50,000,000 worth of learning management system (LMS) solutions, John now consults with organizations to wisely find and buy the best LMS solution for them.  John has personally reviewed 95 LMS solution in the last 18 months for suitability in association and other extended enterprise uses. You can follow John at TalentedLearning.com.

Reblogged from THE WRIGHT STUFF: This is a repost of an article written by Rachelle Wooten and posted on TeachAmazing.com.  This a great article and really hits the mark with these 7 characteristics which fit for both teachers and administrators. After reading this, you should ask yourself ... Does this describe me?  And if it does ... GREAT -  Keep up the good work! But if you're honest, and it doesn't ...  Read more… 581 more words Innovation can't be systematized, but this is a good start.

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