Ever wish you could create your own EHS e-learning course that fits your particular training needs and is based on your own site-specific information? You can, and this recorded webinar (below) shows you how. The webinar runs almost exactly an hour, and you can listen any time. If you’d prefer the same information in a different format, we’ve got the same information in a written blog post including lots of helpful screen grabs. Or hey, you can check ’em both out! Why not? Also, there’s a free Guide to Effective EHS Training below the webinar that you’re free to download if you’d like. Convergence Training is a training provider with a strong EHS offering. We make off-the-shelf EHS e-learning courses, several different learning management systems (LMSs), and more. Contact us to set up a demo, see full-length previews, or just ask some questions. And while you’re here, why now download our free Guide to Effective EHS training? The post How to Create Your Own Safety Training e-Learning Course-Recorded Webinar appeared first on Convergence Training Blog.

You cannot manage a network. As networks become the dominant organizational form, the way we think about management has to change, as well as the way those in positions of authority try to influence others. In a network society, we influence through reputation, based on our previous actions. This is why working out loud and learning out loud are so important. Others need to see what we are contributing to the network. Those who contribute to their networks will be seen as valuable and hence will have a better reputation and may be able to influence others. Management in networks is fuzzy. Here is how I define network management: It is only through innovative and contextual methods, the self-selection of the most appropriate tools and work conditions, and willing cooperation that more creative work can be fostered. The duty of being transparent in our work and sharing our knowledge rests with all workers, especially management. Image: adapting to perpetual beta Principles of Network Management 1. "innovative & contextual methods" = in the network era work and jobs cannot be standardized, which means first getting rid of job descriptions and individual performance appraisals and shifting to simpler ways in order to organize for complexity. 2. "self-selection of tools" = moving away from standardized enterprise tools toward an open platform in which workers, many of which are part-time or contracted, can use their own tools in order to be knowledge artisans. 3. "willing cooperation" = lessening the emphasis on teamwork and collaboration and encouraging wider cooperation. 4. "duty of being transparent" = shifting from ‘need to know’ to ‘need to share’ especially for those with leadership responsibilities, who must understand that in the network era, management is a role, not a career. Transparency is probably the biggest challenge for organizations today, and it can start with salary transparency. 5. "sharing our knowledge" = changing the environment so that sharing one’s knowledge does not put that person in a weaker organizational position. An effective knowledge worker is an engaged individual with the freedom to act. Rewarding the organization (network) is better than rewarding the individual, but only if people feel empowered and can be actively engaged in decision-making. Intrinsic, not extrinsic, motivation is necessary for complex and creative work A Framework for Network Management In the network era, organizations need to build their own unique model, based on some general principles, within their specific complex context, which only they can understand. There are no cookie cutters to organize for complexity. Improve insights - Traditional management often focuses on reducing errors, but it is insight that drives innovation. Managers must loosen the filters through which information and knowledge pass in the organization and increase the organizational willpower to act on these insights. Encouraging small experiments to probe the complexity requires an attitude of perpetual beta. Provide Learning Experiences - As Charles Jennings notes, managers are vital for workers’ performance improvement, but only if they provide opportunities for experiential learning with constructive feedback, new projects, and new skills. Focus on the "Why" of Work - Current compensation systems ignore the data on human motivation. Extrinsic rewards only work for simple physical tasks and increased monetary rewards can actually be detrimental to performance, especially with creative work. The keys to motivation at work are for each person to have a sense of Autonomy, Competence, and Relatedness, based on self-determination theory. - Relatedness "is the universal want to interact, be connected to, and experience caring for others". This is what it means to be a social enterprise, and why social learning is so important to help knowledge flow. Help the Network Make Better Decisions - Managers should see themselves as servant leaders. Managers must actively listen, continuously question the changing work context, help to see patterns and make sense of them, and then suggest new practices and build consensus with networked workers. Be Knowledge Managers - Managers need to practice and encourage personal knowledge mastery (PKM) throughout the network. Be an Example - Social networks shine a spotlight on dysfunctional managers. Cooperative behaviours require an example and that example must come from those in management positions. While there may be a role for good managers in networks, there likely will not be much of a future for bosses. Distributed authority -  Coupled with a willingness to experiment, distributed authority is needed to ensure the organization stays connected to its outside environment. People at the outer edges of the organization often can see the environment more clearly than those at the centre. Image: adapting to perpetual beta  

At Indiana Wesleyan University, faculty must be more than good teachers who happen to be Christians.  Integrating faith is much more than inserting a prayer or devotional thought at the start of each week's activities. ...Continue Reading »

God seems to delight in taking the ill-equipped, untrained, and unskilled and positioning them in a way that forces people to ask, "How could he or she have done that?" Joni Eareckson Tada is a...Continue Reading »

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Avoid the traps of revenue growth failure and configure your hiring and development systems to ensure your leaders are wired for growth.

DDI VP Andrew Gill looks at leadership through the lens of the upcoming presidential election.

Do you like to ride a roller coaster or go skydiving?Have you tried scuba diving or deep cave hiking?For many of us, these might be extreme experiences. We could not even begin to fathom the feeling or the emotions evoked by such adventures.As trainers, designers and learning specialists - we are scientists. We should build our own small learning behavior laboratory. By introducing new experiences to our learners, we help them discover newer and better ways to learn.Have your tried Google Cardboard?  More on Google Cardboard   AmazonAs part of my workshop Story-Based Learning, I bring in four pieces of the Google Cardboard and ask participants to play around with it.These are some of the participants' comments:"I walked around Paris. And I was there.""It was fun. I had to bend my body and twist my waist to follow my surroundings. Strange feeling but very interesting.""Just using my smartphone and a Cardboard allowed me to skydive. It was real.""Wow, I actually drove a car!"Affordable VR Tools It was a fascinating experience. I, myself, have never before interacted with a form of media which allowed me into another world through virtual reality. I remembered what Jane McGonigal said in her book, Reality is Broken, 2011.  My firm has done quite a few projects with simulation and scenario projects for the U.S. Department of Defense, using virtual reality. The large and expensive solutions would not be viable for small and easier to implement VR projects. Today however, with the Oculus Rift type of products we begin to see real possibilities. We may be seeing a new wave of inexpensive VR tools that can help low-budget and easy-to-implement VR training courses. We now see this in health-care, high risk toxic wastes handling and other uses.Accelerate learning new behaviors When I see a new technology, because of my background in psychology, organizational development and software design and development, I often find it exciting to see the behaviors associated with the technology as well as how it is adapted. So every opportunity I have, I find ways to conduct small, crazy and fun experiments. I am probably one of those "wanna-be scientists."Let learners experience a behavior. Google Cardboard, as a model, allows us to introduce new experiences to the learner. It is harmless, low risk, and takes a few minutes to set up.The Cardboard also uses the smartphones, which is what most of us have and are familiar with how it works. The Apps are free and easy to download.Having a micro-experience with Cardboard allows learners the opportunities to explore more advanced tools. The experience also adds to their confidence level and lowers the "anxiety" over trying new things.Conduct your own learning behavior LABWhy set up and conduct your own learning behavior lab? And why be a scientist?I am probably over-simplifying the role of a scientist. Essentially, these experts conduct studies on empirical data and arrive at useful conclusions. Before the heavy-lifting science, data gathering, analysis and research publications, they are constantly "testing, observing, and running scenarios" in their minds. The analytical and curious mind is what drives the scientific endeavor.As trainers, designers, learning specialists and technologists, we have to take a scientist's outlook. We can conduct action-research type of studies: which means studying actual micro-experiments and reporting our findings. I emphasize micros since this is easiest and most convenient to do while we are doing our tasks.Ideas for micro-experiments and researchThese are some examples.1. Testing Drones Find an area that your company or leaders are curious about. I recall a project we worked on with the U.S. State Department. One of the trainers bought a small drone and attached a camera. He then captured a video on some angles of a building that was hard to explain to trainees in terms of spotting possible threats. His video made it possible for him and his trainees to visualize some difficult situations and improved the learning and reduced the costs since now they were to avoid having to visit varied types of buildings physically. With this small experiment, today, part of their procedure is to use several drones for their training design and development.Try a crazy idea: Bring a small and simple drone into your workshop or ask your learners to try and fly the drone then ask them this question: "What new experience did you go through? What might be practical applications of your experience in using the drone? Share your own micro-experiences and stories.2. 3-D PrintersYou can actually purchase a small 3-D printer from Staples or Best Buy or Amazon for $250.00. In my workshops, I manage to insert a small experiment (of course I have several hours of preparation), where teams are asked to design a very simple idea using the software and then produce the simple product with the 3-D Printers. My goal is not necessarily to make them masters of the technology, but to make them learn an important idea: "constant trial and error" which is a very effective learning process.I often use this exercise to let learners, who are trainers and designers, understand that "people don't learn by following perfect procedures, but by constant trial and error." This exercise introduces learners to practical behaviors which are often only in their minds.Try a crazy idea: Buy a small 3D-Printer and conduct an experiment in your classes. Make it voluntary. Some will do it. The key is to let them share their learning (this is where you act as a scientist.) Share your own micro-experiences and stories.3. Balancing NailsHave your tried the Balancing Nail Puzzle? This is a low-tech and easy-to-do experiment. I use this to show that scientific theories like gravity can be taught through very simple life experiences. In the Story-Based Design Workshop, I often get participants who say "that there are concepts where it's hard to find real-life examples." I disagree with this notion and to show them an example I ask them to go through the process.Through this experiment I help learners undergo a real experience with an otherwise abstract concept.Try this crazy idea: Don't wait for a workshop to try ideas. Set up a small room or a table near your training department and call it a learning behavior lab. Ask your peers to suggest ideas on what might be good experiments to conduct. This will be fun to do. Share your own micro-experiences and stories.ConclusionOne of my favorite trainer and scientist is Bill Nye, the TV personality, science guy.   Now you see where my fondness for bow ties come from? Bill Nye is practical, simple and a micro scientist. He makes learning new and simple by inviting others to test or experiment on an idea.I think as trainers, designers, developers, learning technologists and specialists, we ought to be running our own learning behavior labs.References Google CardboardAmazonJane McGonigal, Reality is Broken, 2011Oculus Rift type of productsBalancing Nail Puzzle?Bill Nye, the TV personality, science guyRay Jimenez, PhDVignettes Learning"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"Ray Jimenez, PhD Vignettes Learning Learn more about story and experience-based eLearning

Do you like to ride a roller coaster or go skydiving?Have you tried scuba diving or deep cave hiking?For many of us, these might be extreme experiences. We could not even begin to fathom the feeling or the emotions evoked by such adventures.As trainers, designers and learning specialists - we are scientists. We should build our own small learning behavior laboratory. By introducing new experiences to our learners, we help them discover newer and better ways to learn.Have your tried Google Cardboard?  More on Google Cardboard   AmazonAs part of my workshop Story-Based Learning, I bring in four pieces of the Google Cardboard and ask participants to play around with it.These are some of the participants' comments:"I walked around Paris. And I was there.""It was fun. I had to bend my body and twist my waist to follow my surroundings. Strange feeling but very interesting.""Just using my smartphone and a Cardboard allowed me to skydive. It was real.""Wow, I actually drove a car!"Affordable VR Tools It was a fascinating experience. I, myself, have never before interacted with a form of media which allowed me into another world through virtual reality. I remembered what Jane McGonigal said in her book, Reality is Broken, 2011.  My firm has done quite a few projects with simulation and scenario projects for the U.S. Department of Defense, using virtual reality. The large and expensive solutions would not be viable for small and easier to implement VR projects. Today however, with the Oculus Rift type of products we begin to see real possibilities. We may be seeing a new wave of inexpensive VR tools that can help low-budget and easy-to-implement VR training courses. We now see this in health-care, high risk toxic wastes handling and other uses.Accelerate learning new behaviors When I see a new technology, because of my background in psychology, organizational development and software design and development, I often find it exciting to see the behaviors associated with the technology as well as how it is adapted. So every opportunity I have, I find ways to conduct small, crazy and fun experiments. I am probably one of those "wanna-be scientists."Let learners experience a behavior. Google Cardboard, as a model, allows us to introduce new experiences to the learner. It is harmless, low risk, and takes a few minutes to set up.The Cardboard also uses the smartphones, which is what most of us have and are familiar with how it works. The Apps are free and easy to download.Having a micro-experience with Cardboard allows learners the opportunities to explore more advanced tools. The experience also adds to their confidence level and lowers the "anxiety" over trying new things.Conduct your own learning behavior LABWhy set up and conduct your own learning behavior lab? And why be a scientist?I am probably over-simplifying the role of a scientist. Essentially, these experts conduct studies on empirical data and arrive at useful conclusions. Before the heavy-lifting science, data gathering, analysis and research publications, they are constantly "testing, observing, and running scenarios" in their minds. The analytical and curious mind is what drives the scientific endeavor.As trainers, designers, learning specialists and technologists, we have to take a scientist's outlook. We can conduct action-research type of studies: which means studying actual micro-experiments and reporting our findings. I emphasize micros since this is easiest and most convenient to do while we are doing our tasks.Ideas for micro-experiments and researchThese are some examples.1. Testing Drones Find an area that your company or leaders are curious about. I recall a project we worked on with the U.S. State Department. One of the trainers bought a small drone and attached a camera. He then captured a video on some angles of a building that was hard to explain to trainees in terms of spotting possible threats. His video made it possible for him and his trainees to visualize some difficult situations and improved the learning and reduced the costs since now they were to avoid having to visit varied types of buildings physically. With this small experiment, today, part of their procedure is to use several drones for their training design and development.Try a crazy idea: Bring a small and simple drone into your workshop or ask your learners to try and fly the drone then ask them this question: "What new experience did you go through? What might be practical applications of your experience in using the drone? Share your own micro-experiences and stories.2. 3-D PrintersYou can actually purchase a small 3-D printer from Staples or Best Buy or Amazon for $250.00. In my workshops, I manage to insert a small experiment (of course I have several hours of preparation), where teams are asked to design a very simple idea using the software and then produce the simple product with the 3-D Printers. My goal is not necessarily to make them masters of the technology, but to make them learn an important idea: "constant trial and error" which is a very effective learning process.I often use this exercise to let learners, who are trainers and designers, understand that "people don't learn by following perfect procedures, but by constant trial and error." This exercise introduces learners to practical behaviors which are often only in their minds.Try a crazy idea: Buy a small 3D-Printer and conduct an experiment in your classes. Make it voluntary. Some will do it. The key is to let them share their learning (this is where you act as a scientist.) Share your own micro-experiences and stories.3. Balancing NailsHave your tried the Balancing Nail Puzzle? This is a low-tech and easy-to-do experiment. I use this to show that scientific theories like gravity can be taught through very simple life experiences. In the Story-Based Design Workshop, I often get participants who say "that there are concepts where it's hard to find real-life examples." I disagree with this notion and to show them an example I ask them to go through the process.Through this experiment I help learners undergo a real experience with an otherwise abstract concept.Try this crazy idea: Don't wait for a workshop to try ideas. Set up a small room or a table near your training department and call it a learning behavior lab. Ask your peers to suggest ideas on what might be good experiments to conduct. This will be fun to do. Share your own micro-experiences and stories.ConclusionOne of my favorite trainer and scientist is Bill Nye, the TV personality, science guy.   Now you see where my fondness for bow ties come from? Bill Nye is practical, simple and a micro scientist. He makes learning new and simple by inviting others to test or experiment on an idea.I think as trainers, designers, developers, learning technologists and specialists, we ought to be running our own learning behavior labs.References Google CardboardAmazonJane McGonigal, Reality is Broken, 2011Oculus Rift type of productsBalancing Nail Puzzle?Bill Nye, the TV personality, science guyRay Jimenez, PhDVignettes Learning"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"Ray Jimenez, PhD Vignettes Learning Learn more about story and experience-based eLearning

We discuss the trends and issues we observed during the weeks of February 16-18, 2016 as we flipped resources into our Flipboard magazine (http://bit.ly/trendsandissues). We have three trends that we discuss. The first is, again, continued news virtual reality. Virtual reality continues to be a topic that is being discussed. The recent Mobile World Congress […] Tags:   Del.icio.us Facebook TweetThis Digg StumbleUpon Comments:  0 (Zero), Be the first to leave a reply!Copyright © Trends & Issues [Episode 58 Trends for February 16-28 VR, Software Updates, Online Education, and OER], All Right Reserved. 2016.