I’ve been thinking about a scenario where I compare a transparent organization with a non-transparent organization. It sounds somewhat boring to compare the two, so I’ve been formulating in my head what it would like to do everything wrong. To put this into context, imagine working with a new application being developed within an organization. I use this example because it’s complex, lots of moving parts. This is a scenario that would cause problems right out of the gate, and for years to come. What better way to look at the success a working out loud mentality can bring you than to look at the alternative. Work in Silos The project begins in a secretive fashion with only those parties involved deemed necessary by the project sponsor. What better way to make sure nobody knows what anybody else is doing than to separate everyone’s work? There’s only one thing better than separating departments and putting them in silos, separate projects and put those in silos too! If everyone is in their individual silo then there’s no distraction, just focus, right? The problem is that there’s no inspiration, no cross pollination of ideas, and no honest feedback from the user. Now there’s a perfect environment for task doubling up to occur, nobody knows that somebody else is also working on the same problem! What’s better than the same effort being put forth on many fronts all within the same department sometimes? Make sure nobody has visibility into anybody else’s work, wouldn’t want to give away the surprise! Don’t Show Your Work One of the best ways I can think of to ensure your business partners are unpleasantly surprised is to show minimal updates, reduce communications to only touch-point meetings, and spring the final product on them all at once Prototypes aren’t important, neither are wireframes or getting a good handle on the user. Corporate applications are all difficult to use, why should this one be any different? Don’t let anyone see the mess that the development process involves. Instead, try to hide everything you’re doing until it’s time to unveil the final product, it’s sure to be loved! If we open the process to feedback and show our work, we’re sure to get bogged down and a product that’s not useful to the user. Besides, users don’t know what they want until we give it to them, nevermind the fact we didn’t think it through. Surprise Them There’s nothing better than giving involved groups a surprise right? Make sure they’re surprised! You’ve done a great job hiding the process and what you’re doing. We’re only showing them enough to keep them satisfied, but not to get an idea of the whole process and what the end product will look like. If you show the product along the way there’s bound to be confusion. If we involved those outside our department there’s sure to be too many "cooks in the kitchen". Oh, and not to mention feedback that bogs the project down to a snails pace. We’re the professionals after all, this is what we do. Better to keep things under wraps until the final unveiling. It’s sure to be a success if there’s minimal visibility and great surprise. Surprises are good right? What Now? Nobody saw it, only a few got to give feedback, no testing was done on real users. We’re far down the road to success, right? Good because we can’t change anything now. Everyone is going to have to be happy with what was done, no changes can be made now. At this point feedback is pointless, more of a formality. No major changes, just bug fixes. It’s a so-so product that satisfies the minimum requirements and isn’t all the great, but we got it done. After all the "successes" that have been delivered, everyone should pat themselves on the back for asking the wrong questions, getting great answers and ensuring the future will be filled with user frustration. Stuck With It Until the whole process starts again under wraps from all visibility, we’ll just have to deal with the monstrosity that was created. The next five years will be filled with solutions to try to fix all the problems which could have been overcome had a transparent working style been adopted. It will now cost more money to get out of the mess than the initial investment. Fix It It’s not an easy solution to fix these problems and styles of working. Working in silos and communicating with email is so engrained in the workplace, it takes a major shift in thinking to move outside of it. I had a conversation about this issue and here’s what a member of my PLN said, which I completely agree with: @technkl I’d assert that most teams think they’re actually transparent collaborators … But they’re really not … — JD Dillon (@JD_Dillon) November 17, 2014 Even organizations and people who think they are transparent, probably aren’t. Working out loud and being transparent to the organization is a sure way to get better ideas, have more feedback from the people that matter, and end up with a better application that is adopted. To serve the people that matter, the user, they need to see it and give feedback. It’s time to change the way the organization works. If things do not change, there will be a slow decline over the coming decades. Slowly people who are resistant to change may find themselves with nowhere to go unless they are lucky enough to find those few spots where status quo prevails (lucky for them, not the organization)! You might also enjoy: Search Is The Center Of Learning Command and Control Work Out Loud on Colors Storyline Template

The Challenge The staff at St. Joseph’s Health Care London didn’t talk to each other. Yes, they exchanged words, but when problems were serious and emotions were involved, many side-stepped core issues. Not only was this behavior unproductive and disrespectful for employees, it was potentially dangerous for patients. The organizational development staff identified a training course that might help, especially in the interests of their main concern, patient safety. They also knew they needed an executive champion who could persuade busy physicians and nurses to participate. So they approached Dr. Gillian Kernaghan, a veteran family practice physician who was then the hospital’s Chief Medical Officer. She agreed something needed to be done. "Only 50 percent of meetings were productive," remembers Kernaghan, who is now the hospital’s President and CEO. "We had a lot of ‘Groundhog Days,’ where we talked about the same thing and didn’t find common purpose or get to actions that were agreeable." Kernaghan describes an environment where people wouldn’t speak up and sabotaged decisions that were made in the real "meeting" that happened in the hallway after. "People pushed through their agenda by using power words like ‘patient safety,’ ‘evidence-based,’ and ‘family-centered,’" she says. "The implication was, ‘If you disagree with me you’re obviously not patient centered.’ Essentially, others couldn’t speak up because they felt shutdown." She also observed the initiatives that grew out of those limited discussions were less effective, leading to "rework" and "I told you so" comments even though people hadn’t spoken up in the first place. "We needed to not only teach people to be nice to each other, but we also needed to get results by teaching them how to follow up and follow through," she says. "We knew that if we could transform the way we communicated, our staff would be happier and more productive, and ultimately, our patients would be safer." So when she was asked to champion physician training that purported to address those needs, she agreed, knowing that in order to be an effective voice, she had to be "integrally involved." So she registered to become a certified trainer of Crucial Conversations. The Results: Read our case study to learn how Dr. Gillian Kernaghan used Crucial Conversations and Crucial Accountability Training to earn accreditation with exemplary standing, improve employee satisfaction scores, and see a significant improvement in holding others accountable. What St. Joseph’s employees have to say: Read this guest post to see other ways employees at St. Joseph’s Health Care London have used Crucial Conversations and Crucial Accountability Training to change their culture. Related posts: Success Story: Crucial Conversations Training Improves Nurses’ Ability to Address Disruptive Physician Behavior Case Study: Influencer Training Helps Tennessee Health System Achieve 100% EHR Adoption Success Story: Nebo School District Uses Influencer Training to Improve Student Performance

I’ve been sitting on this idea for a while. First it sat in my idea pad for several months and now I’ve been writing random thoughts down for at least a month. I’m finally doing something about it and writing about generation mobile! What’s more important than millennials, generation x, y, z, lmnop? A generation of people who work mobile, travel mobile, and in general live mobile. They don’t belong to a specific age group. They don’t even fit into a compartmentalized category, they just love to live free of wires, but connected to the world. Unless you live under a shell, you’re bombarded by generational hype every day. Usually about millennials and baby boomers. I’m sick of it, really I am. I’m sometimes classified as a millennial and sometimes as gen x. Well, I don’t care what generation I’m classified as or what anybody else is, I love technology and I love mobile. I’m more digital literate than most kids today, and I know many others who are too. Leave all that propaganda behind, just give me a mobile phone and a mobile friendly web and I’m happy. Don’t make me go into isolation away from my family because you think I wouldn’t want to do that activity from a mobile phone. I do! I want to do everything on my phone that I’d otherwise have to do on a computer had this been 2002. I wrote about this desire of the modern web to be free from the notion that only certain activities are preferred on a mobile phone: Stop Trying To Predict Mobile Users Needs Dividing the World Rather than dividing groups into generations based off of age, it seems wiser to divide them into generations of lifestyle choices/desires. We are living in the era of mobile where vast swaths of the population are bucking the trend of being tied to a desk. Freedom and balance is valued over everything else across the span of ages. We should be speaking about generation mobile. A growing part of the population who live, work, and play untethered from everything. The most defining generation of the 21st century is not classified by age, it’s classified by the desire to be free. Embrace the change while not disturbing those that don’t wish to change. Generation mobile extends all reaches of age and thanks to cheap technology, can even extend beyond wealth. Learning to Be Mobile Many groups and industries are doing things right in the shift towards catering to generation mobile. Marketing, User Experience, financial, and airlines all have organizations who are doing great things. Learning & Development is definitely behind when catering to generation mobile. The focus on moving to work with generation mobile can’t be to focus on creating content for mobile devices only. Content creation is a small piece of the puzzle for L&D to move into mobile. The focus for those interested in catering to generation mobile should be in curation of resources and discussion around ways to improve performance. Given a choice, I would rather learn about diversity and inclusion through discussion and exploration over a formal course presented by L&D. Fostering conversations and curating resources that help employees do their job better is the most important role mobile can play for L&D trying to work with generation mobile. What do you think are the most important roles for learning in generation mobile? You might also enjoy: Stop Trying To Predict Mobile Users Needs Mobile Help Overlays - Ultimate Performance Support for Mobile Apps Mobile Performance Support - Make It Simple!

With all the thinking about self-directed learning and learned helplessness of learning lately, I can’t help to think that curiosity needs to be turned back on. Somewhere between 4th and 8th grade formal education turned the switch of curiosity off to create the expectation that information is delivered to you. There’s a few anomalies to this phenomenon, but they’re few and far between. It got me thinking about how people get complacent in their job. They get comfortable and stop trying to learn new things. New things are learned only when somebody tells you to or there’s a new job you have your eye one. That’s not good enough. Just like the time to develop your professional network is not when you’re looking for work. It’s not time to learn something new only when somebody tells you to. Those that are the most helpless to learn for themselves are also the one’s who have shut themselves off from the world of learning. Or at least they have a firm belief that the only place for learning is a place where someone is teaching you. So, how do you reach those people with the valuable information that learning is the work and the work is learning? I see a lot of great information out there from a lot of smart people, the problem is that it’s going to people who are already interested in learning and growing. How do we reach the one’s who have already shut themselves off? They only look internally within their organization and department. They’ve shut themselves off and willingly put themselves in a silo. Some of the smartest L&D minds are on Twitter and in blogs, the problem is they aren’t reaching the one’s who need it most, those that have learned to be the most helpless in learning. The audience they’re reaching is already trying working to change things, an audience who is already seeking more answer and more information. How do they reach an audience who isn’t looking for help but needs help the most? How do you convince those that believe learning only takes place in a classroom otherwise? I’m always mulling these questions and I’m looking forward to having discussions about them tomorrow on #chat2lrn. Everybody in the discussion will be in the same state of mind that learning is life, so nobody who needs to be reached will be reached, but that doesn’t make the discussion any less important. Even if we can’t figure out quite yet how to reach beyond those few willing to be curious, I’m confident some great conversations will happen around the things we can do to create those small changes that matter. The biggest challenge in a L&D persons career is how to turn that natural curiosity back on in a person who has no interest in being reached. Take the Learned Helplessness of Learning and turn it back into the natural curiosity that everyone’s born with! I’m looking forward to having a discussion with you and hope you leave a comment here as well. You might also enjoy: First Thoughts on Learned Helplessness Social and Learned Helplessness in Learning Learned Helplessness of Learning #chat2lrn

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Joseph Grenny is coauthor of four New York Times bestsellers, Crucial Conversations, Crucial Accountability, Influencer, and Change Anything. READ MORE Dear Crucial Skills, How do you hold your peers accountable when you don’t have the support of their supervisor, or in some instances the support of your own supervisor? I work with a person in a cross-functional team who is disorganized (he loses things on a regular basis and asks me to resend things), unprepared (we show up for a meeting and he’s still setting up equipment so we have to wait to start the meeting), and shows up to meetings late or doesn’t show up at all. Sometimes, when I come into his office, he is working on a project for his personal company, but he continues to complain that he has too much work and can’t get our projects done. Because of the workflow, I field a steady stream of complaints about him where I’m literally left saying, "What do you want me to do? I’m not his boss." I’ve tried discussing things with him directly and I’ve tried discussing things with his supervisor, but no one will hold this person accountable and I’m not allowed to. What do I do? Out of Ideas  Dear Out of Ideas, You’re off to a good start. I’m impressed that you have attempted to directly address the issue with him and with his supervisor. Nice job. To help you think about any remaining options, let me suggest five levels of influence you can use when dealing with problem peers. Use them in order. In other words, don’t move to #2 until you’ve effectively attempted #1, and so on. 1. Content. The first time you have problems, present them immediately and directly to the individual involved. Don’t wait for it to happen again. Don’t wait until it really ticks you off. Do it right away. Remember also to do it skillfully—create safety, master your stories, etc. For example, the "content" conversation you might have would address "You did not send me the report by Wednesday as you committed. What happened?" 2. Pattern. When it is clear that a pattern is emerging, you must have an entirely different kind of conversation that leads to different kinds of solutions. Many people misunderstand pattern conversations. They think it simply means addressing, "You failed to get me the report on time the last four weeks in a row" as opposed to, "You got the report to me late again this week!" This is true. You must be sure to raise the right issue, but you must also be sure the agreements you come to at the end address the true nature of the pattern. For example, "I’m sorry, I have been really irresponsible. I will do better next week. I promise!" is insufficient. You must stay in the conversation longer to understand what general causes there are and to develop solutions you believe will address those general causes. For example, if the person is disorganized, what will they do to get more organized? If they are overcommitted, how will they manage that? If they see this as a low priority task, what will change next time? If the only thing that changes is they want to avoid another crucial conversation with you, you’ll get temporary motivation but nothing sustainable. Be sure to solve the pattern problem. 3. Relationship. This is also a conversation you have directly with the individual. Notice we’re at influence level three and we haven’t had to involve anyone else yet. However, the nature of the conversation changes each time. At this level, you are no longer trying to solve the pattern. Rather, you are discussing ways to restructure the relationship around it. The person has repeatedly demonstrated an inability and/or unwillingness to keep prior commitments. At this level you must say, "I need a different way of working together—one that does not put you on my critical path. I want to be clear that this isn’t the way I want it. I would much prefer to work in the way we have attempted, but if conditions change to restore my trust, let’s go back to that relationship. However, until I have that trust, here is what I will need to do . . ." Relationship problems are often solved by developing new boundaries or roles that work for you. The key is that these new boundaries must be explicitly shared with the other person—not simply taken behind his or her back. For example, we often start doing others’ work as a workaround to their weaknesses without letting them know we are doing this. That is acting out rather than talking out the problem. Influence level three is candidly discussing with them the steps you will take to ensure you have control of your destiny. For instance, if part of the problem is someone’s abusive behavior, this could include letting him or her know that until you see changes you will not have contact with him or her. Relationship conversations are often the level at which you must involve other stakeholders—the person’s boss, your boss, HR, etc. But again, you must let the person know that you have exhausted your options and will need to be honest with those who have responsibility to address the concerns—or who may be affected by them. 4. Upward Influence. Level four is sometimes needed as part of level three. Let’s say the person on your cross-functional team was responsible for logistics and you are at the point of using other resources to get that done. You should now hand the influence problem over to the person who should own it next—your coworker’s boss. Don’t do it in the form of blame or to vilify the person. In fact, do it gracefully, acknowledging that you may be part of the problem in a way you weren’t aware of and are open to feedback if the person’s boss discovers something you had not seen. At the same time, let him or her know what you’ve attempted to do to solve it and why you need to take the steps you’re taking. If your boss will be affected by the actions you are taking, you may need to involve him or her as well. Once again, be careful that you are not engaging in gossip or trying to undermine the other party. Check your motives. Simply let others own the part of the problem they need to own, while taking steps you need to take. Let them know the natural consequences of the problem—without overstating them—and why your response is necessary for your own quality of work life and results. 5. Renegotiate Work. The fifth level of influence is needed if the problem persists and your coping strategies fail to help you ensure a reasonable quality of work life as well as control over your results. If this happens, you may need to have a "relationship" conversation with your boss. Perhaps your boss and others have failed to address the accountability problem with the other person in a way that continues to cause problems for you, you may choose to ask for a different assignment, more organizational distance from the individual, or reduced commitments on your shared project. You may say, "I can continue to work with Jack, but I will need more flexibility on our deadlines due to the unpredictability of his contributions." Sometimes, the best way to influence your boss or others in leadership positions is to help them experience the consequences of the problem you are facing. Busy people don’t like to take on new problems, so it’s often the case that when you share your accountability concerns they minimize them by avoiding thinking about them in more visceral ways. Level five lets them experience it more palpably as you communicate what you will need in order to work in this low accountability reality. None of the above advice is a magic pill—it is simply the logical process you need to pursue in order to take responsibility for your own life and your own results. If you do so in a 100 percent respectful and 100 percent honest way, you will have far more influence than you might think. And if things don’t improve to your satisfaction, you must take responsibility for either accepting a situation you can no longer influence or removing yourself from it. I wish you all the best. Joseph Related posts: Holding a Slacking Coworker Accountable Holding People Accountable Holding a "Charmer" Accountable

I recently had my first experience on the other side of chat2lrn last Thursday with a co-authored guest post and questions with Mark Britz. I’ll start off by saying it was an amazing experience. But then again what experience with Chat2lrn isn’t amazing? I approached the chat2lrn crew with the topic Learned Helplessness of Learning. Mark Britz brought the topic to my attention in October and I’ve since written on it several times. My first thoughts I wrote about in the blog post First Thoughts on Learned Helplessness. I then wrote about it in the post Social and Learned Helplessness in Learning. That led into bringing the topic to the chat2lrn crew and brining Mark into it so we could work together on bringing the chat to life. If you noticed, you’ll see the name Learned Helplessness of Learning wasn’t the original name. Mark used the term Learned (Learning) Helplessness and I used the term Learned Helplessness in Learning. We had a discussion on which made the most sense and arrived at Learned Helplessness of Learning. So, regardless of the term you see, as long as it has Learned Helplessness and Learning in it then it’s the same topic. Questions Shortly after Skyping with Mark and Lesley Price of the chat2lrn crew, Mark and I were busy at work authoring the questions in Google Docs. I think the questions went through about 10 different drafts and weren’t finalized until the week before chat2lrn. The more iterations you go through, the higher quality the final product is what I always say. The questions we started with during chat2lrn are as follows: What experience have you personally had with Learned Helplessness of Learning? #LHoL What examples of #LHoL have you seen displayed by others? How is Learned Helplessness of Learning similar and/or different from the concept of learned helplessness in general? Where does Learned Helplessness of Learning come from? What are the short-term and long-term effects of #LHoL in the workplace? What can organizations do to combat learned helplessness of learning in the workplace? What role can data play in helping people overcome #LHoL? How do we help people not return to old ways of thinking and "doing" learning? i.e. how do we encourage a new habit? Even the final list of questions changed a bit once chat2lrn started, this is just a sign of how dynamic chat2lrn is. Questions aren’t timed, they just go with the flow of the conversations people are having. The order of questions changed, some questions got dropped. I was participating in the chat and found that I was even misreading some of the questions and answering them wrong! When you’re in a chat you get caught up in the discussion and sometimes it’s hard to keep things straight. Chat Time Chat time was hectic but fun as usual. There were many divergent discussions going on which is a sure sign it’s an interesting and broad topic. I’m glad others thought so also. Chat2lrn is a dynamic discussion as I said before. The crew has a "backchannel" using Skype with discussions about the order of questions, if questions are dropped or rearranged. This backchannel discussion makes for a dynamic chat because questions are fed to participants when it makes sense rather than pre-timed. I was too busy at times to even see what was going on in the Skype chat so the chat2lrn crew had to take some liberties with the adjustments on the go, but it turned out great. Tweet chats are a wonderful activity to take part in. They’re a whirlwind of discussion, ideas, and inspiration. For a not so great multitasked (is anybody?) I wasn’t able to handle the backchannel very well. I did get a great deal out of the discussion though and will be reading over the curated Tweets many times. Lots to Mull On There were great discussions going on around the topic and I have several things to think about, and write about in upcoming posts. I recommend catching up on the entire chat with curated Tweets from the chat. Even after the chat I was receiving great information to think about in comments and elsewhere such as this one from Tanya Lau: Learned Helplessness of Learning is such a broad topic which gives me a lot to think and write about. It is so close to how L&D operates in many organization too. From the problems it presents to the different ways to solve it, there’s no one answer to it all. That was even more obvious after participating in chat2lrn. Guest Post After the questions where for the most part authored, I wrote a first draft of the post. It then made some great advances as Mark and I collaborated on it. Many of the sources we drew from came from Mark’s original post on the topic Learned (Learning) Helplessness. If you haven’t read Mark’s post, do it now, and then reread it again. I have read it about 10 times and it still leads me to new thoughts and new information. It has spawned three posts by me, another one in the works, and a chat2lrn discussion and guest post. Mark and I summed up how Learned Helplessness is defined and attempted to link it to the more focused topic of Learning. You can read the chat2lrn post Learned Helplessness of Learning on the chat2lrn blog. Join the Discussion If you haven’t ever been in a Tweet chat, it’s time to join in. They’re a great place to get new ideas, expand your world, and meet a lot of great people. I hope the topic of Learned Helplessness of Learning has piqued your interest as it has mine. If you write about it I would love to read it. I hope the discussion and awareness of it continue to grow. The best way to combat Learned Helplessness of Learning is to bring attention to it. Continuing the discussion is the first step to figuring out how we might empower people to take their future, their exploration, and their learning into their own hands. Featured image attribution: By Jean Marc Cote (if 1901) or Villemard (if 1910) http://publicdomainreview.org/2012/06/30/france-in-the-year-2000-1899-1910/ [Public domain or Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons The post Learned Helplessness of Learning #chat2lrn appeared first on Nick Leffler's Portfolio & Learning Insights. You might also enjoy: Social and Learned Helplessness in Learning First Thoughts on Learned Helplessness Turn The Curiosity Back On

In every organization, you’ll find renegades who break rules or fail to live up to their end of the bargain. We call these troublemakers "The UnAccountables." They create problems that are so stubborn they require extra vigilance. Watch our new video to see a showdown between one manager and his unaccountable direct report. To prevent showdowns like this from happening in organizations across the world, we’re pleased to announce the release of Crucial Accountability Training, the update of our popular Crucial Confrontations Training course. New features include: New and updated video-based instruction Streamlined content in a new flow that’s easier to learn and train Updated Crucial Accountability model Learn more about the course, watch more videos, and play our game to see how well you do when it comes to holding others accountable. Related posts: Special Announcement: Meet the UnAccountables—Introducing the New Crucial Accountability Companion Course Crucial Applications: What’s New in Crucial Conversations 4? Special Announcement: Introducing the Second Edition of our Bestselling Book, Influencer: The New Science of Leading Change

The holidays is always the busiest time of year. Everyone is out and about doing last minute errands and trying to get that last project out the door before going away for the year. My rush has been a bit different this year. While it still has that normal rush at work trying to get projects out the door, I have a new rush for December. This one is specific to this year and it’s caused me to write one last post before Christmas that I wasn’t planning on writing. I wanted to make the rush just a bit more rushed. My rush has been my Udemy course I’ve been working on since Thanksgiving. When you sign up for Udemy as an instructor, they give you an offer to publicize your course on their social media accounts if you publish within 30 days. Looking back at when I signed up and given the pursuit of such a large topic, I did it all wrong. I signed up so the last rush to get my course reviewed and completed is right during the holiday rush. This is how my holiday rush has been flipped upside down. It’s not the normal stuff, I’m not trying to run last minute errands or doing last minute shopping. Instead I’ve been shut into a dark room recording and editing video. This sounds worse than it is though. It may be overwhelming and exhausting, but it’s a labor of love. New Tech I also got a do some playing around with new tech. Not the coolest tech (for me anyway) but nonetheless tech. My plan was to use the microphone on my iPhone ear-buds. I knew this would present some problems including not the highest quality recording (although it was not too bad). I ended up splurging and purchasing a Blue Snowball mic which now made me see how much better my recording could sound. I even rigged up a box with a blanket inside where I put the mic and covered it to reduce echo. It was quite the contraption but worked well considering the alternative of tinny audio. I also got to go through from beginning to end setting up a new hosting service. I used GoDaddy for this one, which was a good experience, just a bit too many promotions. I still maintain and will continue to maintain my website on InMotion Hosting which has been great also. I ended up purchasing a year of my website and a new domain for it which is nickleffler.com. I also have plans to buy a month of PowToons to create some short video promotions and a few of the "lectures" that don’t have visuals. Udemy Marketplace I’ve only taken once course on Udemy before becoming an instructor. Taking a course was a pleasant experience. After hearing about the course creation process and reading Ryan Tracey’s experience, I knew I wanted to try it out. It took me a while to get an idea and I hadn’t even thought about it again shortly after reading Ryan’s post in August 2013. The day before (or morning of) Thanksgiving I got the idea of helping people create a personal brand website. I want to help people create a website like mine which can be used in conjunction with social media to promote their personal brand. I’ve been happy with the Udemy tools to create the course. Although Udemy definitely tries to push videos over any other means of instructing. They push it so much that they require that 60% of the material is in video form and at least 30 minutes. Experience and Exploration I’m having a great time exploring the Udemy instructor tools. Beyond that, I’m also enjoying exploring all the other technology I’m getting to use. I’ve had Camtasia for Mac for quite a while but haven’t put it to good use. I’m happy to learn more of the intricacies of it and also use the new iOS recording tools built into it. It’s also given me the opportunity to play with other new tools like GoDaddy hosting. I had only experienced it with a secure certificate a few years ago. Another thing I’m looking forward to playing with and getting to know a little bit is PowToons. It looks like a great tool for me to creating some short promotional videos and more intriguing lesson videos. Beyond that, it’s a great experience being able to collaborate on Twitter with people about the project. Everything I’m creating belongs to me, nothing proprietary so I can share anything I want. I’ll definitely be using it on my portfolio and as experience on my LinkedIn profile. In just a short month I’ve come a long way and done a lot just in my spare time. Here are the steps I went through in creating my course: Sign up for Udemy as an instructor and introduce myself to the tools. Form my course idea better, making it unique, and determine who my target audience is. Create the title of my course that describes it’s purpose. Write objectives and determine promotional materials I’ll need to create. Put together the course outline and collaborate in a Google Doc with my Twitter PLN to fine tune it. Begin scripting each of the videos, I started with about 34 unique topics. As I scripted I modified the outline more combining and removing topics, I ended up with 24. Edit the scripts and prepare for recording. Record each script while going through the setup process. Edit videos, review them, and publish them to Udemy as I go. This is the step I’m still currently on. Create videos which don’t have visuals in PowToons. Once all videos are publish I’ll submit it for review by the Udemy team. While review is occurring I’ll create promotional materials. Once the course is approved and published it’s time to begin promoting it and make sure the entire experience is smooth. View The Outline It’s been quite a project so far but a lot of fun and I expect the fun won’t end even after I publish my course. There’s plenty more about the experience to write about so I may revisit after I’m done. I was able to share some of the scripts on Twitter for people to view and I’ve been making my process as clear and transparent as possible. Being able to be open and transparent about this project has been great. It feels like I don’t have anything to hide and that I can gather feedback from anybody. Toward’s Completion I’m coming down to the last week of this project. I still don’t know if I’ll reach the deadline of December 29th but am going to keep going until I reach the day. The post Rethinking The Holiday Rush appeared first on Nick Leffler's Portfolio & Learning Insights. You might also enjoy: Closing Out 2014 With A Bang Flash is Dead (Well, Sort Of)

According to our recent poll, three in four employees quickly attribute their coworkers’ bad behavior to lack of motivation while only one in ten consider ability deficits. As a result, they avoid holding problem colleagues accountable, engage in costly workarounds, and perpetuate the very problems they detest. Those who think more generously and carefully about the cause for others’ misbehavior are far more likely to speak up. They are also more disposed to explore potential motivation and ability barriers to their coworkers’ performance, and often report success in resolving the issue. Here are three tips for holding coworkers accountable by correctly diagnosing their bad behavior: 1. Identify the right problem. When approaching your coworker, think "CPR" (Content, Pattern, Relationship). Our natural inclination is to talk content—the immediate offense. But if and when your coworker continues to behave poorly, it’s time to talk about the pattern of bad behavior. If the infraction continues, talk about the long-term damage the pattern is having on your relationship of trust and dependability. 2. Make it motivating. If the other person is able to do what’s been asked, but chooses not to, start by making the invisible visible. Talk about the natural consequences—both good and bad—he or she cares about. What are the effects of his or her behavior on other employees, customers, share owners, etc.? 3. Make it easy. If you find out the problem is not due to motivation, then it’s likely due to an ability barrier. Maybe your expectations aren’t realistic. Maybe you didn’t provide him or her with the right tools. Maybe he or she is constrained because of bureaucracy. Whatever the constraints, discover them and make changes. The goal is to make it as easy as possible for your coworker to meet the expectation. To view an entertaining video about unaccountable coworkers, access an online game to test your accountability skills, and learn more about our new Crucial Accountability Training, visit vitalsmarts.com/unaccountables. Related posts: Crucial Applications: How to Hold Slacking Coworkers Accountable Holding Peers Accountable Without Management’s Support Holding a Slacking Coworker Accountable

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Cricket Buchler is a Master Trainer. READ MORE How do I handle participants who do not appear to be engaged in class? It’s so easy to get triggered by participant behavior in class, believing the way she’s acting is proof that she’s not taking the class seriously or that he doesn’t mind that his problem behavior is negatively impacting those around him. I’ve learned to give benefit of the doubt up front. Need some help? Here are some ideas to get you moving in that direction: Not taking notes? They don’t have a pen. (This happens more than you think. Bring extra pens). Refuses to engage? They feel worried about exposing a sensitive issue with colleagues. Texting or leaving class a lot? Their managers could be pinging them with urgent issues they do not feel empowered to ignore. Having side conversations? They’re talking about their insights and all the ideas that are sparking for them in an effort to really put the concepts into practical context. Set expectations up front. Don’t underestimate the power of ground rules. Try asking the group for their help in building ground rules by saying early on to the group: "Have you ever been in a class that disappointed you for some reason? Consider your pet peeves in a training environment and let’s see if we can avoid hitting those triggers for each other. What advice would you offer each other to ensure the highest quality learning environment? Let’s build some ground rules together." I always pre-write my ideas on a flipchart. Then after the group comes up with their ideas I show them my list and add any additional ideas they come up with to it. Mine looks something like this:  Our Promise to Each Other Maintain confidentiality Return from breaks on time Silence phones/ Turn off computers Avoid texting under the table Avoid side conversations Take regular breaks (Ask, "If we pause every 1.5 hours, is it fair to ask that you reserve texting/emailing/calling for the breaks? Will that work?) Have fun!  After displaying the list of ideas I ask the group if they are willing to commit to this list of ideas saying, "Is there any reason any of you might have a hard time committing to these promises? Ok, then. So if we run into challenges with these, I’ll be sure to have a crucial conversation with you about that. And in fact, since this session is all about driving accountability, I’d like to challenge any of you to speak up to each other should anything be getting in the way of your learning. Ok? It’s a great way to practice what we’re learning in here!" Once you have permission to have a crucial conversation with them later, it’s easier to approach any issues that might come up. Speak Up Using Your Skills "I noticed you haven’t been writing. Are you having a hard time coming up with ideas?" "I’ve noticed you’ve returned late from the breaks this morning. Can you help me understand what’s going on? (when addressing a side conversation in front of the whole class) "Sara and Kate… Questions? Thoughts to share?" "I’m seeing that you’re on your phone in class. Something going on?" Use the Power of Tools and Space Display ground rules on the wall and refer back to it, checking back with the group to see how it’s going. Change where people sit each day. Move them around for exercises to break up chatty groups. Display the timer in your presentation software for breaks and tell them you’ll get started the second the timer dings. Always start on time. Download VitalSmarts viral videos from YouTube and display them after breaks to entice people back on time. Related posts: How do I handle participants who are quiet or who don’t participate? How do I respond to participants’ concerns about participating in training? What are some ways I can further participants’ learning after the training?