To get this ‘whole brain’ for project success requires intentionally clarifying the two opposite roles.  Let’s clarify:To show competence, the PM must help the PS answer these questions accurately with a shared, consistent message:How often do the PS and PM meet?How often does the PS meet directly with executive stakeholders?When will the project be completed and transitioned to operations? What will we have as a business when the project is completed that we don’t have now?  What will be the ROI (Return on Investment)?What percentage of hours of the whole project are being used to manage the project? (strong projects are 10 - 25%)Are all key stakeholders actively involved in the project?The PS must also ask the PM these questions, as his or her leader:Where is your Project Charter?What are the prioritization of the constraints of the project (Time, Budget, Scope / Quality)? Where are we on this project right now (percentage done - time, budget, scope/quality as appropriate to the specific project)?What do you need that I can get you?  What keeps you up at night?How can I help you improve stakeholder collaboration together and with us?

Our approach to high potential pools and programs isn’t working. It’s time to think differently.

Gain a reputation for always being the one with new ideas and solutions to problems and you’ll quickly set yourself apart from the pact. That distinction requires brainpower. But trying to think on your feet under pressure before an audience or offering answers off the cuff in a meeting doesn’t always represent your best thinking.  So what exactly does improve your chances for analytical thinking? 1.  Argue your case or prove your point in writing

...

Your organization spends a significant amount of time and money on employee development, but is it really worth the investment? Do your corporate learners actually remember the information and skills they’ll need on the job? In this article, we’ll share 7 tips for creating memorable online training courses. How To Create Memorable Online Training Courses Online training experiences are only effective if they are worth remembering. Corporate learners have to deal with busy schedules, distractions, and a variety of other issues that hinder knowledge retention. However, you have the power to create memorable online training experiences that leave a lasting impact on your employees. By doing so, you improve your online training ROI, increase employee productivity, and further the success of your organization. Online training experiences are only effective if they are worth remembering.Click To Tweet 1. Create A Spaced Online Training Strategy Hermann Ebbinghaus introduced "the forgetting curve" in 1885, which suggests that learners tend to forget information right after they acquire it. In fact, according to Ebbinghaus, roughly two-thirds of the information has vanished into thin air by the next day. However, you can outsmart the forgetting curve by spacing your online training over time. For example, employees participate in a customer service branching scenario, they proceed to another learning objective, and then, they come back to the previous one, by watching a customer-service related eLearning video that covers the same topic. Later in the online training course, they are asked to complete a customer service skills assessment to reinforce the ideas and concepts. Every online training activity increases knowledge retention and moves the information to their long-term memory. 2. Make It Practical And Personal The secret to remembering skills and tasks is being actively engaged in the online training process. One of the most effective ways to increase employee engagement is to make the online training experience personal and practical. Learners need to know that there is real value in what they’re learning and that every online training module and activity is custom tailored for them. For instance, a member of your IT department is more likely to participate in a troubleshooting online training simulation than a sales branching scenario. Your corporate learners are looking for targeted skills they’ll need in the workplace, not necessarily a "well-rounded" education. 3. Use Analogies And Real World Examples Analogies and real world examples involve a mental schema. Employees must relate new ideas to preexisting knowledge in order to strengthen this schema, which leads to greater knowledge retention. Analogies help them see the similarities between two related concepts, while real world examples tie into past experiences and cognitions. These learning tools also help to simplify complex ideas, as corporate learners are able to build on the foundation of a mental schema that they already have. In other words, they don’t have to start from scratch. 4. Add A Serious Game Changer Most people find it difficult to remember difficult concepts after they’ve completed their online training. However, these same individuals are likely to remember the emotionally compelling game they played the year before. eLearning games are entertaining, exciting, and engaging. They allow employees to build skills and master tasks without even realizing they are learning. There are two different routes to take: serious games and gamification. Serious games are similar to typical games, but offer some sort of educational value. Gamification is the process of adding game mechanics to your existing online training course design. For example, employees earn badges or points every time they complete an online training module. A great online gaming experience is going to stick with them, as is the information contained within it. 5. Incorporate eLearning Character-Driven Stories Long after we forget what the story is about or even who wrote it, we’re still able to recall every detail of our favorite eLearning characters. It’s important to have a well-crafted plot, but eLearning character development should be your main focus. Incorporate eLearning character-driven tales into your online training course design to form a deeper connection with your corporate learners. Make them feel for the eLearning characters and sympathize with their struggle. Include realistic elements that corporate learners can relate to, such as situations or obstacles they encounter on a daily basis. Include a good mix of intrigue and excitement to grab their attention. You may even consider hiring a professional writer to pen the story for you, or make it even more powerful by turning it into a narrated video for online training purposes with images and background music. 6. Pluck At Their Heart Strings Since we’re on the subject of music, a great eLearning soundtrack is one of the most effective ways to create memorable online training courses. Choose background tracks that convey the right mood. Add music to your online training simulations and scenarios to increase immersion. Figure out which emotion you are trying to evoke and then look for royalty-free tracks online. There are even a variety of sites that offer free music for your online training course. Just make sure that you use sound sparingly, as too much of a good thing can distract your employees. 7. Catch Their Eye Which are you more likely to remember: a text-based online training course that features bland colors, or a dynamic online training course that includes vivid imagery and vibrant hues? Chances are, your answer is the latter. Online training courses that boast a rich color scheme, graphics, charts, and compelling images are always more memorable. This is primarily due to the fact that they create an interactive and immersive online training atmosphere. On the other hand, you should avoid colors that are too bright or bold and cluttered page layouts. Only include visuals that are relevant and stick to a pallet of 3 or 4 colors. The goal is to make them remember the content, not to distract them with a busy course design. Is your online training course truly memorable? Or are employees going to forget the key takeaways the second they step away from the screen? Use these 7 tips to develop corporate eLearning courses that stay with them for years to come, even if you are working on a tight eLearning budget. Are you searching for ways to make your new hire online training more effective? Read the article 6 Tips To Create Online Onboarding Training Experiences That Stick to discover 6 tips for creating onboarding online training experiences that stick and ensure that your new employees are thrilled to join your company. The post 7 Tips To Create Memorable Online Training Courses appeared first on TalentLMS Blog.

What we call online learning, or eLearning, is not one single thing, but many. It’s like with cats, tigers, panthers and pumas. Sure, they’re all felines, but at the same time there are major differences in look, size, eating habits, natural habitat, and, last but not least, cuteness. Online learning can similarly be divided into several different types, based on various factors, such as whether it concerns educational or corporate use (online schools vs corporate training), the mode of consumption (web based, mLearning etc.), or even the scope of each individual learning unit (e.g. microlearning). In this series of posts we’ll examine how TalentLMS fares for each and every variety of online learning, starting with Compliance Training. Why Comply? First things first: what is this "compliance training" thing, and why should you care about it? Well, compliance training refers to the process of educating your employees on all the local and international laws and regulations that apply to their job positions, as well as any company policies that they have to comply with. Compliance training can be state mandated, if for example you can’t work in an industry without going through it; only necessary for working with particular clients, like if you apply for public tenders, supply the military; only necessary for operating in particular markets, in the case that you have to comply with local rules to sell your products to another country; or even completely optional but nice to have, such as training in business ethics, social responsibility and racial discrimination issues. If your company or parent company, in the case of a franchise or an enterprise with multiple facilities and subsidiaries, has its own internal guidelines, those should be considered a part of compliance training too, distinct from the general training in specific business skills. How TalentLMS handles Compliance Training At the heart of it, compliance training is not that different than most other forms of corporate training. As with anything else, it’s still based on specific learning materials that you have to incorporate in an online learning course. Which, incidentally, is where TalentLMS shines, allowing anybody to easily design, implement and deliver a comprehensive compliance training program (or, rather, programs). Create compliance training content… TalentLMS’ course creation tools, like the content editor, the advanced importing engine which allows you to leverage all kinds of third party files, from Word docs to videos, and its excellent support for tests, quizzes and surveys, make it easy to produce full blown compliance training content. …or buy ready-made content For compliance training in topics that are common to most businesses or even industries, you might find that you don’t even need to create anything. See, TalentLMS has a built-in learning content Marketplace, which, among other things, includes lots of professionally-made compliance training courses that you can just buy and immediately use in your LMS. The available courses include anything from generic material such as "Disability Awareness", "Bullying in the Workplace", "Professional Ethics", to specialized compliance courses for specific industries, like "Asbestos Awareness", "Work safely in the construction industry", "Excavator Training", and more. Certify compliance. Having your employees take compliance courses is not enough, especially for the law. You also need to make sure they have digested and understood the material, and keep track of their compliance related training and certifications. This is where TalentLMS’ built-in support for Certificates will come in handy. With TalentLMS you can create as many certifications as you need, configure their behavior, create custom reports to see statistics on certificates awarded based on course completions, and, of course, customize them to match your business branding (colors, logo, etc). (For most state related compliance training cases, you’ll only need to track which users have which certificates from within your learning platform. For other cases, where you want to print and hand out certificates to your employees, TalentLMS flexible certificate design will be handy). In cases where compliance is achieved after the employee passes not one, but multiple courses on different subjects, which is quite common in several professions, TalentLMS allows you to have certificates to be awarded upon course completion, or upon the completion of a set comprised of multiple related courses. Just make each course a pre-requisite for the others via the course’s "Availability rules" configuration, and have the final course award the certificate. And when the law, or the company, requires expiring certificates and re-examination, like what doctors, pilots and several other professions have to go through to retain their licenses, TalentLMS offers "time-limited" (auto-expiring) certificates — including the ability for admins to manually revoke any user’s certificate from within TalentLMS’ management page.   Legal protection In today’s litigation-heavy climate, it’s unavoidable, especially for larger businesses, to occasionally get involved in lawsuits with employees or customers. TalentLMS’ certificates and attendance logs can serve as proof that you have informed your employees about labor safety, customer protection laws, gambling rules, sexual harassment issues, ethical issues, etc., in case of legal dispute. Of course, consult with your legal team first to ensure whether this applies to your jurisdiction. Microlearning the microcompliance? Well, microcompliance is not actually a thing, but utilising microlearning for compliance training is. Of course, some compliance training material is (and is required by law to be) bulky and unreadable. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t assist your employees in digesting it by offering them a more lightweight, and more engaging microlearning version of the most important points. That’s doubly true when training your employees in non-mandatory, but nowadays essential topics, like sexual harassment and racial discrimination issues. Microlearning can help you highlight the gist of each issue, and teach your employees the professional behavior to which they are expected to comply. And since microlearning works best when done from a mobile device, and on the employees’ own chosen time and place, it’s a good fit for trying with TalentLMS for iOS and (soon) Android. The fully mobile client app to the Cloud-based TalentLMS service offers almost the full functionality of its desktop counterpart, but with a simpler, streamlined interface that makes microlearning shine. Plus, with support for content download and periodic progress syncing, it can work equally well online and offline. Conclusion In this post we had a look at what compliance training involves, and how you can do compliance training with TalentLMS. Stay tuned for the rest of the series, as we’ll continue to examine each and every kind of training that TalentLMS caters to. The post The many faces of eLearning #1: Compliance training with TalentLMS appeared first on TalentLMS Blog.

​When you are a PM, you are always looking for ways to make things more efficient. You look around for risks and problems, mitigating them as quickly and cheaply as possible. You listen very carefully to your stakeholders for not only what they say, but what they don’t say. In a sense, you are gazing back over the pieces of the project puzzle and trying to figure out how to get the puzzle done. You are always looking back at what has happened on the project.When you are a PS, you are always looking for new strategies to drive business success.  What are other people, other companies, and your competitors doing? You like new ideas and strategies. You listen very carefully to other leaders, and you race against each other to the next best idea. New ideas create a competitive advantage.  It’s not your job or charter to figure out all the details- someone else will do that. You are always looking forward at what could be.It’s hard to collaborate if you are on two different playing fields. The PM focuses primarily on what is, looking back at things that have already happened on a project. The PS focuses primarily on what could be looking forward at things that haven’t even been thought of yet. The worlds they peer into are opposite. In a meeting, the PS may dread the endless micro-details of problems that the PM shares while the PM can’t figure out the details of what the PS really wants other than a vague, beautiful future. The relationship can break  because of these biases. Conflict is not a given, though. Because their views are opposite, the PS and PM also have the opportunity to leverage each other’s’ views and fill each others blind spots.  Together, in collaboration, they can make a whole brain, perfect for project success.   

If you want to be a great leader, you must make personal growth a conscious choice and a continuous journey. In the book I wrote with Mark Miller, Great Leaders Grow, we say that growing to a leader is like oxygen to a deep sea diver: without it, you die. Not a physical death, of course—but if you stop growing, your influence will erode and, ultimately, you may lose the opportunity to lead at all. Simply knowing how to do your job today doesn’t secure your success tomorrow. It’s important to keep up with today’s rapidly changing work environment so that you can offer new ideas to keep your organization successful in the future.  Make time to read books and articles, watch videos, and listen to podcasts or audio books. Talk with peers or work with a mentor outside your normal work circle. Sign up for an online course or a workshop at your company. Join an association or a special interest group. The learning opportunities are endless—however, the time to invest in these activities is not. Many organizations enjoy a slower pace during the summer. Or maybe you take your vacation during the summer. Either way, why not utilize some of that time and make this your summer of learning! My wife, Margie, loves listening to audio books. She listens to business books, books that support her photography hobby, mystery novels, and a lot more. The great thing about this is she can do it sitting on a plane, riding in a car, or taking a walk—just about any time. I encourage you to do the same. Use some of your downtime to invest in your own knowledge. Take a book or article you’ve been meaning to read on that long flight or even to the beach. Listen to a podcast while you are exercising or sitting somewhere quietly enjoying the view. Get up a little earlier than usual and watch a TED talk online. Keep in mind that your learning doesn’t have to be focused on your work. Trying new hobbies is a learning experience and exploring new interests stimulates your thinking in general. You might think of a great idea for a home improvement project while you are practicing your golf swing. And that yoga class you’ve been promising to try for the past few months might provide the relaxation and focus you need to come up with an original recipe for dinner that uses healthy ingredients your family enjoys. Be creative and open to life’s opportunities—because when you stop learning, you stop leading!

In previous newsletters, I have shared with you the overwhelmingly consistent research (Gallup, Standish Group and more) that tells us that the #1 factor driving project success is a supportive, present Project Sponsor (PS). Ironically, most of the Project Managers (PM) in our workshops do not have this kind of relationship with their sponsor, and many don’t even know who their sponsor is. As my coach Mike Donahue says, the conversation is the relationship.  If you as PM are not having real, authentic and shared conversations with your PS regularly, the project will struggle. And quite possibly fail.  The truth is that most sponsors don’t know how to be a sponsor.  The PM doesn’t know how to be a sponsor either; they have plenty to do with their own responsibilities. In truth, some PMs don’t know how to do their role, either, and not having a sponsor just adds to the confusion. This drives frustration, guilt, avoidance, lack of conversation and poor decision making. The PS is supposed to play the strategic role, keeping the project connected to the business problem the project deliverables are designed to solve.  Lacking strategy since the PS is not being strategic, PMs run in circles screaming and shouting, delivering what they can and not what they should.  In this LearningFlash, as we celebrate Independence Day, I’m challenging you to be here now and lead on your projects. Lead your project teams, lead your stakeholders, lead you Project Sponsor and lead the way.  This month, you’ll read:Two Different Playing FieldsIt’s Not Leading if No One is Led: The PS and PM Roles1 + 1 = DONE: Collaborative PM/PS Strategies Kick Off: Scenarios to PonderRMA Contest: Last Months $100 winner and this month’s challenge

Each month we are going to publish a challenge. Send us an email explaining why you are the best at that challenge and how you solve it. If you win, we'll splash it all over social media, print it in the next newsletter and send you a $100 Amazon card. Email info@russellmartin.comFor clarification, each winner can only win once every six months so everyone has a chance for moola. July's Challenge: What innovative ways have you helped Project Sponsors and Project Managers work together more effectively?  OPTIONAL BONUS question which means it might strengthen your odds for winning:: How do you measure where you are on a project and communicate that to all? ​