If a picture is worth a thousand words, it is easily worth an hour of training. As the time available for training continues to diminish, organizations need to be creative in how information is communicated to learners. An innovative solution to a challenging training project is to use visual learning, or communicating through images and video, instead of traditional training methods. While many training sessions have focused on interactivity and the benefits of sound in training, few have focused on how visualization of concepts can increase attention and transfer of knowledge. In a recent webinar I hosted with the Association for Talent Development (ATD), we started by polling our audience to learn more about their preferred learning styles. This is what we discovered: During our session, we covered a lot of information. Here are some of the highlights and some samples: Modalities Infomercial This training modality is a short animated video incorporating graphics, sound, animation and text to communicate a message. Think of this as a moving infographic. Infomercial Sample: The Planning and Scheduling Game Video Live-action video can be used to communicate a message that might normally be communicated through email or town halls. To maximize effectiveness use a green screen to combine this modality with an infomercial. Video Sample: The Craft Skills Crisis Audiocast While this modality may seem out of place, an audio cast can include imagery for the learner to view while listening to the script. This is a lower cost option to a video or infomercial. Audiocast Sample: Intro to the Refinery Quick Reference Card A quick reference card is a static job aid that uses graphics to convey information. Challenge yourself to create an image that gets your message across instead of using tables and text. Quick Reference Card Sample: Learning Modalities Map 3D Animation There are times where we want to have our learners see a piece of equipment or a scenario that is challenging in real life. 3D animation allows us to create that experience while showing the learner multiple viewpoints simultaneously. 3D Animation Sample: Forklift Module (It is chock full of 3D) Infographic When creating charts and graphics, consider a more creative approach to data by using images and colors to convey information. Infographic Sample: GP Strategies Annual Report 2013 (Page 2) Creativity Don’t forget to think creatively from both a learning standpoint AND a graphical standpoint. Here are some of the tips we discussed: Content Review your content before you begin. Try to figure out a logical flow and a theme to tell your story. If you think of your content as a story instead of facts, you will tend to drive a more creative solution. Template Templates don’t have to mean slides that all look the same. Templates speak more to thinking creatively about the colors and graphics you employ to tell your story. Interact Remember that interactions aren’t just about clicking on the screen. Interaction is about the learner interacting with the content. Interaction is all about inspiring thought and getting the learner involved in your story. Assess Assessments don’t have to be included in everything we do. Assess to protect the learner proceeding before they master prerequisite knowledge. Or assess to give the learner feedback. When needed formally assess learners to ensure comprehension and skill acquisition. Tools and Links I brought up a few tools in our discussion and the attendees kept the comments section busy with other great links. Below is a comprehensive list of the links discussed grouped by topic. Infomercial https://www.videoscribe.com https://www.moovly.com/ http://wideo.co/ http://goanimate.com/ Animation http://xtranormal.com/ http://www.powtoon.com/ http://www.animaker.com/ eLearning Tools http://lectora.com/products/snap-e-learning-tool/ https://www.articulate.com Infographic http://piktochart.com/v2/ http://www.easel.ly/ http://visual.ly/ Graphic Design https://www.canva.com/ Color Schemes http://design-seeds.com/ http://www.colourlovers.com/ http://colorschemedesigner.com http://paletton.com Graphics http://picol.org/ https://thenounproject.com/ http://www.123rf.com/ https://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/ http://stokpic.com/ http://www.freefilehunt.com/ https://unsplash.com/ http://www.vecteezy.com/ http://www.morguefile.com/ It was a pleasure to virtually spend time with everyone who joined. Please keep the dialogue going in the comments section below. I hope to see you again in the webisphere soon!

With advancements in core HR technology over the past several years, organizations are increasingly adopting and integrating robust talent management systems and product suites. Incorporating a holistic system within their talent strategy helps companies meet objectives that often include external enablement, talent development, retention, and compliance. However, despite organizational goals spanning the entire talent management spectrum, (learning continues to be the leader) and still has the strongest influence. It is the engine that drives virtually all other Human Capital Management processes. During a recent webinar, I provided easy-to-understand insights on the following best practices as they relate to learning within your talent management strategy: Determine how learning can be incorporated into all aspects of your organization’s talent management strategy. Ensure your processes are defined, aligned, and accurate before implementing, upgrading, migrating, or expanding functionality. Leverage social learning. If you missed the webinar, a recording is now available. But if you’re looking for the Reader’s Digest version, I wanted to offer a quick look at some of the key takeaways: Utilize learning to support the complete employee lifecycle. Incorporate learning into every aspect of your talent management strategy, and use it! Ensure your processes are defined, aligned, and accurate before implementing, upgrading, migrating, or expanding functionality. Leverage social learning: Provide opportunities for learners to be more engaged by driving networking and sharing opportunities. During the session, a number of questions came up, and while we were able to address most of them, we weren’t able to get to all of them due to time. Below are those questions and my best answers. This is an ongoing conversation, and I encourage you to keep the questions coming in via the comments section at the bottom of this page. Q: If all I have is learning but want to start expanding to other talent modules, what do you recommend or what do you feel is the best thing to implement next? A: The best fit with learning that I have seen is performance and goals. It is just so easy to align objectives and performance goals in an individual employee’s annual review cycle with the learning that will help them achieve those goals. And of course after a performance review, when the employee and their manager have identified skills gaps, it’s just as easy to determine the learning required to close those gaps. Coming in at a close second to performance and goals is succession planning.  Utilizing learning to educate and provide knowledge for potential successors is such a straightforward way to prepare them for their future role. Q: As a learning provider how do we change the paradigm of the HR community? A: It can be incredibly difficult to align HR with learning management. There is a subset of decision makers in the industry who have witnessed or been educated on how key HR processes such as performance and goals, compensation, and recruiting blend so easily with learning, but others within an organization’s HR team who haven’t been exposed to that type of talent management or organizational development strategy sometimes do not understand the overlap. If a shift is necessary to bring HR and learning closer together, do it gradually. Don’t try to overhaul the entire process at once, but try to create some type of pilot or prototype that demonstrates a single HR process aligning with learning, and carry that forward to the point where the value of associating learning and HR becomes clear, not only to the stakeholders but also the employees. Then bring another HR process into the mix, and so on. Eventually you’ll have learning integrated with HR in a way that seems like they were made for each other. Q: How do you get buy-in to purchase a Learning Management System? A: Building a business case is critical. Work with key stakeholders to determine requirements of your current learning strategy and initiatives, what your pain points are, and what isn’t working. Do an analysis of major players in the LMS market and document how they can meet the requirements and eliminate the pain points of your organization. Present your findings to leadership along with a future state analysis of how processes would increase in efficiency if there was an LMS managing the learning processes of your organization. If you can clearly demonstrate ROI and the cost savings over time, which may be quite immediate in some instances, that will also support your business case. Q: Do you have suggestions of companies/LMS vendors who offer interactive learning content? We are trying to offer ‘run of the mill’ content but I’m not having a lot of luck with identifying suppliers. There are several very good content providers to support "off the shelf" training content, such as Skillsoft, Adayana, BankersEdge, and Corpedia. Some are incredibly diverse in their array of offerings and don’t have a specific concentration, while others are industry-focused and can cater to finance, construction, technical training, and other specialty topics. If you are seeking a content vendor that can create custom content specific to your organization, you won’t get "run of the mill" content. Instead, you’ll get content that is designed from scratch with your organization in mind, and everything about that content will be catered to you and your learning content requirements. This will ensure consistent vision and delivery throughout your program. One major content development company is GP Strategies. Custom training design, development, and delivery have been the primary focus of GP Strategies for nearly 50 years. As such, our cache of best practices, proven processes, and lessons learned is unequalled, making us one of the rare experts that can deliver the strategic perspective you need to realize lasting and continuous improvements in performance.

As companies do more virtual training and less classroom training, experienced classroom facilitators will often have to switch from one environment to the other. Professional training skills will transfer, but delivering a virtual instructor-led training (VILT) course requires some additional skills. It is also common for VILT courses to be delivered by subject matter experts instead of professional facilitators. Either way, the person who will be facilitating the course will benefit from some basic training on how to keep a virtual session engaging. Here are some tips that will help new VILT facilitators prepare for success in the virtual classroom: Ask someone to be the second presenter, or "moderator," for the session. If the moderator is a subject matter expert, they can answer questions through the live chat window while you present. In addition, the moderator can: Handle technical questions one-on-one with attendees. Keep track of any questions coming in, and notify you discreetly if you should break for questions. Signal you to speed up or slow down based on attendee feedback. Provide time cues throughout the session to keep you on track. Review your slides, and be sure to read the instructor notes. Facilitator guides for VILT often contain detailed notes about how to present each slide as well as the key points to cover. Print a copy of the slides and the facilitator guide. If for any reason you lose your network connection, you’ll still have your notes and a moderator can drive the slides for you. Also, it may be easy to work off of a hard copy of the notes, and you’ll have a place to make handwritten notations that you want to include in the next delivery. Keep the visuals on the screen moving. Since learners won’t see you, their only visual connection to the course is your current slide. If nothing happens on the screen for a long time, you might lose their attention. Use lots of slides with just a little information on each. Build your bullet points. Use annotation tools like the laser pointer or checkmark to draw attention to the screen. Decide your strategy for handling questions ahead of time. Will you stop every time someone raises their hand? Will you have scheduled Q+A breaks? Will you have the moderator answer all of the questions until the end? Know what you will do and inform the attendees. Use your voice to keep the attendees’ attention on you. Use everything you’ve got: Smile. It will change the way you sound. Stand or sit up straight, and convey lots of energy. Vary your tone. Nothing will ruin your message like a monotone speaking voice. Get louder to add emphasis. Don’t ramble off topic. Treat this as a performance. Rehearse what you are going to do and say ahead of time, and stick to your teaching points. Practice, preferably with a coach who can provide helpful feedback. Experienced classroom trainers make great virtual trainers. As with any new skill, it just takes a little practice until it feels natural.

Should learning events be both designed and facilitated with synergy being an integral part of the experience? How can group dynamics best be leveraged to yield exponential and enduring rewards? During a recent GP Strategies’ 20-minute webinar I explored tactics, strategies, and payoffs of synergistic learning experiences from both design and delivery perspectives. More specifically I discussed: The classic definition of synergy and how you can apply it to learning experiences that you design and deliver The three Cs of a truly synergistic learning experience from both design and facilitation perspectives: Content Curation Cultivation And finally, a fourth C: Continuation and the importance of follow-through and application If you missed the webinar, a recording is now available. But if you’re looking for the Reader’s Digest version, I wanted to offer a quick look at some of the key takeaways: Collaboration is key for buy-in and continuation; a sense of ownership and belonging make and keep the experience dynamic. We can learn as much from our participants as they can learn from us. Involving participants in the design and engaging them throughout the delivery makes learning transfer more efficient and effective. For learning to be truly synergistic, it must live on beyond the static classroom event; continuation is key to leaving a ‘learning legacy". The webinar was a discussion designed to trigger an ongoing dialogue around both synergy and collaboration in turning learning "events" into continuous improvement processes. I’d like to continue the discussion here by answering some of the questions that came up during the session. I will also encourage you to give your thoughts and opinions in the comments section at the bottom of this post. Q: Are learning management systems also a good platform to host informal, as well as formal learning?­ A: Several LMS platforms now either include or integrate social media components. Leveraging social media can increase levels of engagement. There are now also "aggregator" vendors, such as degreed.com, that are emerging in the market. Q: How would you recommend I start encouraging a culture of collaboration with my teams? Right now our initiatives are fairly siloed­. A: In a Harvard Business Review article, Lynda Gratton and Tamara J. Erickson offer eight ways to build collaborative teams. Some of those include building a strong sense of community, clearly- defined roles, but granting latitude in how the task is performed, and building on "heritage relationships", where at least a few people on the team know one another. Q: You’ve shared some great tips pertaining to social and collaborative learning for blended and instructor led learning. Do you recommend any specific methods to creating synergy in web based eLearning? A: Involve participants - or those already in the role of the participants - from the outset of the design. Encourage open-ended feedback on the courses and act upon that feedback. Whenever possible, proactively follow up (especially with the first cohort of participants) with dialogue that extends beyond a simple post-course survey. Q: Seems to me that there’s always a mountain of content available to us as learning designers. What suggestions, if any, do you have for enabling our sponsors and clients to value the cultivation and curation of the content? Context, too! A: You raise a great point with this question. SharePoint lists are just one platform that allow site visitors to rank the value of a learning resource that you and your team have curated. Linking items to discussion boards where participants can add additional comments and review the resources in more detail will give sponsors insight into what the client community thinks of the resources they are being given. The rating and ranking of relevance from the community of learners will also place a ‘real-world’ perspective on the context of the artifacts being curated. Q: Can you please give the list of resources you mentioned during the session? A: I quoted from Liz Wiseman’s book, Rookie Smarts, citing that learning is more important than knowing and that learning cycles are spinning faster than ever now. We also mentioned synergy in relation to Habit 6 from Stephen Covey’s classic, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Finally, we referenced a quote attributed to management guru Ken Blanchard, who points out that "none of us is as smart as all of us". With that notion in mind, I encourage you (our most important resource in keeping this event synergistic!) to keep this discussion alive and growing by posting your thoughts and comments below, tweeting about it using the hashtag #gpwebinar and joining the discussion on the Learning Trends LinkedIn group.    

We’re never going to enter into an instructional design situation where everything is perfect. There are several reasons for this, but in the end, it often boils down to human foibles and communication breakdown. I’m going to start first by going into the human foibles section of the problem. Tempting as it may be, we can’t just push this off entirely on the training manager or the SME. Instructional designers can be part of the issue too. Looking at myself, I know that one of my more prominent flaws is my tendency to get preemptively (and usually very unnecessarily) defensive. Someone might make a purely casual comment and the first thing that will come to my mind is some dark implication that they’re making and ways to counter it. My defensive tendency usually goes straight towards the explanatory route, where I justify myself, oftentimes when there’s no need to do so. What’s important about having recognized this issue is that now I can work to minimize the impact it has on me, my projects, and those around me. Since I know that I tend to be defensive, I can work to lessen the impact by making sure to put extra work into researching the background of the project and clarify any areas that I might be feeling less certain about. That way, if any questions or feedback should arise, I will feel as prepared as can be, having things thoroughly researched and alternate options if necessary to reduce frustration. This method of approach is not uncommon. Winston Churchill famously prepared for his speeches with relentless research, being sure to see things from his opponent’s side so that he could be sure to address and eviscerate their arguments. (This also helped him ensure that he wouldn’t be caught off guard and helped him to deal with his severe stutter.) Looking at our own personality foibles and how they might affect our work, as well as ways to address them, is only half of the battle, however. When working with the perspectives and opinions of the potential learner, training manager or customer, particularly new ones, it’s necessary to look at things from a different viewpoint in addition to our own. It’s often the case that those requesting instructional design won’t really have an idea of what they want until they see what you’ve done and then decide it wasn’t the right direction, or that it needs a set of continual tweaks, or any of a myriad of other things. It’s much like when someone flips a coin to decide between options. Before the flip, they might have thought that they were neutral; they’d be fine with either option. But it’s not until the coin is in the air that they realize which side they hope lands face up. Often times it’s difficult to form a tangible picture of what the vision is, much less express it. As a best practice, I suggest presenting them with a few prototypes to help them narrow down what they’re aiming for. When working on learning projects, not only is it necessary to try and see things from a different perspective, but to communicate continually through the whole process and understand their vision in order to cut down on unnecessary redesign time. In working to understand these needs, and creating an open line of communication, we then begin to overcome the difficult gap that can often arise. I’m not going to go so far as to say that things are hopeless without an advanced degree in psychology and communication. Both parties, even with their mutual flaws, can sync together in order to create something that is near pedagogical perfection. By addressing the two areas where things are most likely to go wrong: human flaws (yours included) and communication (specifically the dangers of doing it wrong), you can take two wrongs and make it right.

Written by Fraser Marlow and Kristen Bakalar  Performance management is a business process that appears stuck in a bygone age. This activity remains broadly disliked, cumbersome, often demotivating, and a major waste of time. Moreover, it most often falls short on what it was designed to do, which is to manage performance. Managers, individuals, and executives alike have little faith in the process when it comes to assessing and ranking individual performance. Fraser Marlow (head of our leadership practice at BlessingWhite) and I teamed up for a webinar to share the new approach currently being implemented by pioneering firms that want to get back to the heart of performance management using a collaborative and coaching-based approach. We shared insights from BlessingWhite’s recent research report to help attendees: Learn why performance management is falling short of its primary goal of sustaining performance Find out what pioneering organizations are doing as an alternative what model might be best for you Explore six guiding principles and a four-phase plan to make the switch If you missed the webinar, a recording is now available. But if you’re looking for the Reader’s Digest version, I wanted to offer a quick look at some  key takeaways: Few organizations still have a need for a rank-and-yank approach to managing performance. Rather than focus on ‘setting the bar’ the focus should be on helping each employee tap into their full potential and set their own bar. Companies that ditch the rankings usually do themselves a great service as they are able to shift the conversation towards coaching and developing, increasing performance going forwards rather than documenting what has been. This transformation takes strong leadership at the OD level and new skills for managers and individuals. During the session, a number of questions came up, and while we were able to address some of them, we weren’t able to get to all of them due to time. Below are those questions and my best answers. This is an ongoing conversation, and I encourage you to keep the questions coming in via the comments section at the bottom of this page. Q: How does a manager deal with the employee who drives the conversation but has a wildly unrealistic view of their performance­? A: The same question could be asked from the perspective of an employee: "How do I handle a performance conversation when my manager has a wildly unrealistic view of my performance?"  These irreconcilable perspectives do come up from time to time.  Our general advice is as follows: Make sure that regular, candid conversations are taking place - much easier to do course corrections over short intervals than hit an impasse at the end of the year. Utilize this conversation as a coaching moment. Ask the employee about their ambitions, and how they will get there.  Inquire about what training or development they will need to achieve their lofty goals.  Ask questions to try to understand their innate drivers - is it prestige, challenge, money, etc. that makes them think they are ready for this big leap in their career.  By understanding their drivers, you may be able to redirect them into something that is more attainable, yet satisfies their needs.  In the end, it may be necessary for you to delicately tell this person that their career goals are not quite in line with their performance or ability, but I highly recommend following that up with some ways they can improve their performance, knowledge, or skill.  For example, a training course, a book to read, a mentor, coaching sessions with you, etc. Sometimes using a 360 or 180 degree process provides more perspectives. In leadership development we prefer this approach because a leader can build a more complete perspective of her or his ability to lead while listening to multiple feedback providers. If worst comes to worse, bring in an independent observer or mediator who can help broker the conversation. An effective external observer (from the HR group for instance) can sometimes help identify any subjective intra-personal issues that are having a negative impact on the manager-employee relationship. Q: I agree with the comment that employee satisfaction is not only bonuses, etc. My question is about how this fits with Maslow’s hierarchy of needs when an employee is not able to meet the basic needs with their salary. A:  As we described during the Q&A session, perspectives on salary can be quite diverse.  We see many cases where several employees on a team make approximately the same salary, yet compensation is only an issue for some of them.  In the end, individuals have varying thresholds when it comes to their basic needs, and in this case, their salaries. Ultimately, if the company is paying below market rates and employees are dissatisfied with this, the best the manager can do is acknowledge that compensation is an issue, and look for factors that are within his or her control, that together, the manager and employee can work on. Q: Can you please share tips on HOW TO shift manager and employee beliefs from ‘management’ to participative and employee driven?  I’m concerned that our culture is so embedded in fear of stepping out that we need to make this change safe and forward focused. A: As discussed during the session, changing the culture is a significant undertaking.  If the managers in your organization are heavily attached to their role as ‘boss’, have little intention of sticking their head out or trying something new, then moving towards a culture of ‘manager as coach’ will take a lot of effort. In the employee-manager dyad, it may benefit both parties to help the manager see the benefits of a more participative employee (innovation, ownership, accountability, productivity, willingness to take on more work, etc.), so he/she may be more willing to ask questions that ordinarily wouldn’t be asked.  For example, asking the employee what he/she wants from his/her career.  Sounds like in your organization, this question would not typically be asked.  It may feel like a risk, but taking a small step like this may open the door to more free flowing conversations. In the broader sense, I would suggest you start by discussing the impacts of this culture with your senior team. Whatwould the benefits be of gradually shifting towards a more collaborative and team-focused approach? If you do have the support for undertaking this journey together, consider the trust/skill continuum as discussed on the call, and think about how you might start to empower individuals and managers to begin driving their own conversations.  Which parts of the process could you start to take away without causing the managers to feel widely exposed? Share the idea with people in the company, but communicate that this is not an overnight change.  You will be gradually liberating people from the forced conversations that an old-school performance approach might drive, and providing them with gradually more freedom to decide how best to spend that time and what topics to explore.  The commitment from senior leaders in this regard is paramount. Q: How does this process look in financial services industries? Aren’t there different key drivers? A: In theory, every organization would incorporate their key drivers into their performance management systems and/or their coaching relationships.  If you are moving from ‘traditional’ performance management to more of a coaching relationship between managers and employees, the key drivers still play into the approach; but in the latter case, the manager is coaching towards key drivers, as opposed to measuring people on key drivers. In industries with quotas, sales goals, or other quantifiable measurements, there is inherently a rating given.  But these numbers aren’t in a review format, where you are rating the employee’s performance, as much as it is an agreed-upon goal that has either been achieved or not achieved.  When it comes to managing performance, however, we’d still recommend the manager coach the employee towards those goals (forward looking), and help them succeed along the way, rather than waiting until the end of the year/quarter/month and looking backwards at performance.  By then it’s too late. We would also like to highlight our ‘hot off the presses’ research report The Challenges of Leading in a Regulatory Environment which articulates many of the dynamics of leadership currently at play in financial services and banking in particular.  You can download a copy of the report here. Q: How can I connect compensation to performance without rankings? This is a common question: organizations do not want to do away with pay-for-performance nor do they want decisions around merit increases to seem arbitrary. The general philosophy here is that performance conversations should focus on performance.  Weaving in the immediacy of compensation (or promotion) into a performance conversation distracts from the core focus.  If the employee knows that at the end of the conversation, they will be told if they get a 5% increase or no increase at all, they are much less likely to be candid, explore areas of improvement or discuss areas where they need support.  The conversation becomes a ‘salary increase justification’ discussion with both manager and direct report caught in a negotiation of why that final decision was reached. What pioneering firms have done is give managers more discretion around the allocation of a pool of money to their teams, but organizations have also  made their managers more accountable for making sure merit increases are justified.  For example, without ratings, compensation decisions are no longer simply based on a one-to-one matching.  Managers across a department may come together to discuss and agree on where differential salary increases should be applied. But at the end of the day, what our research indicates is that regular feedback and ongoing performance conversations throughout the year are the best antidote to any nasty surprises when it comes to salary adjustments. Q: Where on the website can I find the conversation guidelines that Fraser mentioned?­ The following past editions of BlessingWhite’s eNews will provide details on these.  If you want to explore these more in-depth I would recommend BlessingWhite’s book The Engagement Equation. 3 Conversations You Need to Have With Your Team written by Mary Ann Masarech. Stop the Insanity: Conversations to Help Performance SOAR written by Leah Clark. Create a Coaching Culture in 10 Minutes written by Kristen Bakalar. Q: How do you feel technology affects managing performance?­ A:  Many companies have rolled out new technology to simplify the old-school performance management process.  This may remove some of the pain of formal ranking and documentation.  More interesting approaches are those that take a social approach to reviews, or allow a two-way dialogue around what ‘good performance’ looks like. At the end of the day, you need to evaluate the system and the conversations that it will drive and ask ‘does this fit with the type of culture we are trying to build?’  If the answer is "no" something needs to be tweaked.  Most companies that are leading the way have changed the core of the program, which is the conversation between the manager and the employee; the forms, technology, system, etc. are secondary. Q: What about the legal perspective - doesn’t the legal team require documentation? A: Most legal representatives that we have talked to welcome moving away from the formal documentation approach.  If an employee’s performance slips to the point that the legal team needs to be involved, too often they are faced with a documented history that indicates that the employee has been ‘satisfactory’ or even ‘exceeds expectations’.  This makes the company’s case for dismissal that much harder.  In addition, what we are recommending does not alleviate the need for performance improvement plans or other legal-related documents.  Those are extreme cases.  What we’re proposing is for the masses, not the exceptions.

Since the advent of mobile computing, learners are able to access training and performance support materials virtually anywhere at any time. However, it typically remains the responsibility of learners to proactively search for learning and determine when they need it. Now, imagine a slightly different scenario where learning and performance support materials present themselves to the learner based upon the learner’s physical location. In that scenario, a learner might be about to use a piece of equipment and be reminded of annual safety training requirements, or a new employee might be in a building lobby, reporting for his or her first day at work and be given onboarding support materials. These types of mobile learning may already be available to your learners today, but the ability to notify them is typically limited to passive methods such as email. iBeacon technology represents an opportunity to alert your learners to available learning and reach them at the point of need. During a recent webinar I explained this new technology and discussed why it represents an exciting new dimension in the learning spectrum. More specifically I provided easy-to-understand insights on: iBeacon technology and how it works How iBeacons are currently being used How iBeacons might fit into learning and why they may be important If you missed the webinar, a recording is now available. But if you’re looking for the Reader’s Digest version, I wanted to offer a quick look at some of the key takeaways we offered: Beacons represent a new dynamic in the mobile learning landscape and present us with unique opportunities to reach learners at the moment of performance need. As with any technology on the learning landscape, they should be considered one aspect, or delivery modality, in a larger training program or strategic roadmap. Also, because beacon development is fundamentally custom mobile app development, consideration needs to be given to the full mobile development lifecycle. This includes the same considerations for program integration, data integration, usability, and security that would be made for any mobile app development project. During the session, a number of questions came up, and while we were able to address most of them, we weren’t able to get to all of them due to time. Below are those questions and my best answers. This is an ongoing conversation, and I encourage you to keep the questions coming in via the comments section at the bottom of this page. Q: You were mentioning providing media-rich information through iBeacons. What are your thoughts on using iBeacons in collusion with augmented reality?­ A: This is an exciting angle to beacon development and since our session together I’ve already seen an example of how beacons might figure into Augmented Reality (AR). If you get a chance, have a look at a new product called Pixie which is a proprietary, beacon-like product that uses the same communication protocol (Bluetooth Low Energy - BLE) and AR to show you where your lost objects are located. This example can be further extrapolated to the onboarding example that I discussed where your mobile device could be used to help visually guide you to the known location of a beacon, then AR keys could be used to offer context for sensitive data. Q: What is the range of a beacon signal?­ A: Ranges are going to depend on environmental conditions (objects in the way, walls, etc) but the advertised limits range from 50 meters to 300 meters. The beacon ranging registers on a mobile device as being within one of three thresholds: Immediate - Within centimeters Near - Within a few meters Far - Greater than 10 meters Q: ­I’ve been following this topic for some time, however it appears that truly useful apps are lacking, especially for easy to set-up and use learning tools such as the museum and scavenger hunt examples.­ A: It is true that there are relatively few examples in the wild, and even fewer examples related to learning. We see beacons as a promising new technology, but like many new technologies, commercial applications are driving a lot of the innovation and investment. Read our white paper on the topic for some examples that we’ve identified. Q: I’ve heard that my smartphone can be used as a beacon, is that true?­ A: It is true that your BLE-capable smartphone using iOS 7+ or Android 4.3+ can be set up as a beacon. Q: Do iBeacons have any limitation on the number of devices to which it can interact with at the same time? A: Beacons broadcast their signal continuously so they don’t have a limitation on the number of local devices that can detect them. You are only theoretically limited by the number of people and devices that can fit in a physical location. Q: Do you have any examples of how iBeacons can be used in the manufacturing industry? A: Unfortunately we don’t. At this point our investigations have been limited to pilot programs. However, one of the examples that we hypothesized during our discussion was the idea of using a beacon on an industrial device to provide real-time training and support. This seems like a very viable application. Q: Are iBeacons expensive to implement? A: The beacons themselves are relatively inexpensive. However, a couple of things to consider are: Cost to develop the mobile app Cost to maintain the beacons after deployment (they typically have a shelf life)

For many years now, eLearning has been a tool in the training toolbox; however, some organizations still struggle to determine the best uses of eLearning. Unfortunately, it seems to be a great solution to resolve challenges such as the need to reduce travel and expenses, combat large class sizes, and reduce the "seat time" for onboarding training. However, we often forget that in many cases we have simply changed where we are spending money or where the employee’s "seat time" is spent without actually impacting the training solution. During the recent webinar To Use eLearning or Not to Use eLearning, I gave insights and best use cases for eLearning. If you missed the webinar, a recording is available, but in this post I will offer more information on the practical application of eLearning. When considering eLearning, it is important to keep the content and mission in mind. Take a close look at the knowledge that you need to transfer to the learner. What is the end result you are looking to achieve with the training intervention? If the answer to this question leads you to eLearning, then that is the right reason to move to that modality. Let’s look at a few scenarios in which we could consider eLearning as a potential solution: Process Change If you have an existing process in your organization where a small component is changing, you have a few options: Pull everyone together to communicate the change and distribute documentation to support implementation. Create a short burst of learning communicating the change and send via email to desktop and mobile computers. Both methods are effective, but eLearning will communicate your change quicker and more efficiently while giving you tools that can be reused for remediation. Procedures If you have a procedure that is lengthy or confusing, you have a few options: Create a large diagram that includes the process flow that individuals can follow in conjunction with the document. Create an interactive PDF that allows the learner to click through the process flow to drive to the details of the procedure. Again, both methods will achieve your goal, but the interactive PDF option will drive learners to a solution faster and more efficiently. Didactic Content If you have a large amount of content that you currently deliver in textbook format with diagrams and illustrations and that can often use additional explanations: Deliver the training instructor led or virtually to explain difficult concepts using animated diagrams in a series of PowerPoint slides. Create an eLearning module that uses animation and interactivity to explain difficult concepts. This module can include knowledge checks to ensure learners master one concept before building upon it. Using eLearning gives you the ability to bring complex diagrams to life while ensuring the learners are tracking through the content that you are unable to convey easily with a textbook format.  The next time you are looking to train your teams, keep in mind the content that you are looking to communicate and the outcomes that you need. A great solution to your next training need may be eLearning. During the webinar, several questions came up and I’d like to continue the discussion here by providing my answers. I will also encourage you to give your thoughts and opinions in the comments section at the bottom of this post. Q: Can you recommend some free tools for 3D creation? A: http://xtranormal.com/     http://www.powtoon.com/     http://www.animaker.com/ Q: Are there any times when eLearning isn’t a good solution? A: When you are looking to build a community or having one-on-one interactions with people, you need to think carefully about using eLearning. While it is possible, with leveraging social collaboration and virtual tools, sometimes in person is best. The same applies to hands-on instruction in a technical environment. While you can introduce technical concepts, nothing will really replace the hands-on experience through structured on-the-job training. Q: Can you recommend a software simulation tool for creating Try Me? A: Articulate has incorporated a really great screen-capturing tool into their software. It is really intuitive and gives you a lot of options for publishing. For more information, click here. Q: Is there such a thing as too much eLearning? A: There absolutely is. One of the biggest challenges with eLearning is that often we go a bit too far, converting our entire instructor-led training into eLearning content. A blend of different modalities is best; keep in mind how your delivery method reaches your desired outcome while presenting the content clearly. Q: What do you do for offline audiences? A: For offline audiences (unless your LMS supports offline viewing), the best options are printable courses. Be sure to include the narration and all the subscreens when creating your printable course. Often the final storyboard can easily solve this challenge. Q: Can you explain more options for a blended learning approach? A: For more information on blended learning approaches, take a peek at my webinar from November 2014. It includes a rapid analysis approach to create a truly blended curriculum. You can view that webinar by clicking here. Check out this quiz from ATD to help you decide if eLearning is a good fit for what you are trying to accomplish.

Nobody grows up intending to be an instructional designer—a teacher, a professor, maybe, but not an instructional designer. Most people haven’t even heard the term until they decide to go to grad school or have worked in business for a couple years. Across (and even within) organizations, staff in this role often are alternately referred to as IDs (instructional designers) or ISDs (instructional systems designers). And to further confuse things, there’s a plethora of alternate titles for instructional designers: training specialist, learning architect, educational technologist, training and development consultant, learning experience designer, and course developer to name a few. So Just What Is an Instructional Designer? Instructional designers design instruction. They don’t just write instruction; they design it. They design instruction, be it an instructor-led course, eLearning, a job aid, video, or interactive simulation, based on principles of how people learn and use a systematic process. They design training from a learner-centric perspective, not teacher-centric, and focus on what the target audience needs to know and do in order to improve their performance and achieve goals. Of course, a subject matter expert (SME) can design, develop, and even deliver instruction. But IDs add value beyond SMEs on projects because they help make training more efficient, focused, and impactful. IDs help SMEs to think about new and better ways to present content and give learners practice. They also typically know more than SMEs about new technologies and how to apply them effectively in learning contexts. Then What Is a Content Developer? ContentDeveloper.com defines a content developer (CD) as "a member of the creative class involved in the creation, aggregation, or distribution of intellectual property designed to inspire, educate, persuade, entertain, or inform the user." As content has moved more from print to digital, there’s been an explosion of content available to us and in the number of people calling themselves content developers. Within the training industry, a content developer is the person who makes sure all the words are right (from both communications and technical perspectives) in whatever type of learning solution is being developed. Content developers work as partners with IDs to ensure good-quality writing, adherence to client style guidelines, and efficient management of content changes. They apply information design on top of the IDs’ instructional design. Sometimes a CD might do most of the content writing for a course; other times, the ID. In either situation, these two roles serve as cross-checks and sounding boards for each other to make sure that what is being developed communicates well to the target audience. Can’t Both Roles Be One Person? Certainly there are lots of "one-stop shop" IDs or CDs out there in the world. And, many do good work. They are individuals who do it all from start to finish—analyze needs, interview SMEs, outline courses, draft content, create eLearning, build PowerPoint decks, edit and test their deliverables—and voilà it’s training. But when people are a Jack/Jill of all trades, they’re often a master of none. It Takes a Village… Ideally, when developing learning solutions, a collaborative team is formed. The ID is the master of applying learning principles to solve job performance problems, and the CD is the master of using words to communicate clearly and appropriately to the target audience. In addition, there’s typically a media developer who’s the master of visual or multimedia design and development, and a project manager who’s the master of team coordination, timelines, and risk management. Overlap in any or all of these roles can occur. What’s key is that each role has a primary area of focus and expertise. When these roles work together in collaborative teams, the synergies between them create a better, more effective product. Together the team applies design thinking, a way of approaching problems and ideating solutions, to determine appropriate training. And, of course, teams must work in partnership with their clients as they design and develop training. That insight from and validation of client SMEs and stakeholders are critical to ensure that good instructional design, writing, media development, and active learning strategies have positive business impact. Through rapid, interactive collaboration and user testing, teams help create learning solutions that move from good to great. It’s the combination of roles and perspectives, rather than one role alone, that results in solutions that better meet learner and business needs.

Leigh MortimerProduct ManagerCarer’s Allowance The public beta of the Carer’s Allowance service went live this week. The service helps people claim money for giving care to those who need it most. It’s been quite a journey, but I’m very proud of the service - and the team - who have put it together over the last 18 months. About the Carer’s Allowance Unit The Department for Work and Pensions’ Carer’s Allowance Unit is based in Preston, Lancashire. From there, around 600 people make sure that new claims for Carer’s Allowance are dealt with quickly, and the needs of existing claimants are handled with skill and compassion. They’re great people. The old online claim service When we started working with DWP to identify exemplar projects, Carer’s Allowance came top of the list. The existing service was built seven years ago, and had been left pretty much untouched since. It received around 30% of new claims and just under 1% of reports of change of circumstances came in that way. It was not so great, but it was the ideal candidate for an exemplar, and we made a start on initial discovery workshops last September. Building the new service One of the first hurdles we had to clear was proving that agile could work. DWP had had experiences with some projects described as ‘agile’, but which weren’t. They were, understandably, a little wary. We proved our worth with an alpha, which took a specific user journey through from start to finish. It could be used by a small group, and provided insight into the entire claim from start to finish. GDS collaborated with DWP digital services folk and the Carer’s Allowance operational staff, iterating every week. Inside seven weeks we had a properly coded prototype. Alpha to Beta The prototype served as a powerful catalyst. We secured funding for the beta in May, thanks to the help of Kathryn Baxendale - the Carer’s Allowance Unit’s ‘go to’ person - who has been a major contributor to the achievements to date. In fact, full time commitment from a group of Carer’s Allowance operational staff has been critical - and they’ve been brilliant. Many of the folks who took part in early workshops continue to work with the core delivery team every day. Stakeholder involvement was considerable too. Manchester Carers’ Forum in particular have provided test space and a broad range of users every week. Dave Williams, who runs the organisation, has been a star. Seeing groups like them play a part of the development and see the effect of their feedback has made them great advocates for the service, and we’re hoping to continue that as we explore assisted digital support. Taking it live It took nine weeks to build the beta. We worked in 2 week sprints, testing with users every week and feeding back into the development. It was, and continues to be, truly Agile. The old service will be switched off as soon as the new one goes live. Over the past 18 months the DWP staff who’ve come on board have been amazing, support from GDS has been brilliant, the technology partner - Valtech - has nailed it and the new service really is world class. The Carer’s Allowance digital service has shown that Agile delivers; and delivers good.

Carer’s Allowance Digital Service takes its ten thousandth claim Last week the new Carer’s Allowance Digital Service took its ten-thousandth new claim. Feedback from service users continues to provide pointers on how we can improve the experience and make the process more efficient. Our Google Analytics installation is generating great insight in the way the service is being used - most interestingly, around 30% of claims are being completed on mobile devices. Although this is consistent with broader trends in web access,  we initially thought that the audience for this benefit would be reluctant to use mobiles and tablets. We were wrong. However, the responsive design is paying dividends as there’s no need to make apps or alternative versions for smaller-screen devices. The ‘change of circumstances’ reporting feature has also gone into the live service - although usage is relatively low, there’s a great opportunity to get users to report changes in care arrangements, finances and contact information in a far more efficient way. We’ll keep you posted.

We’re a small group of DWP’s new trainee developers - we’re getting ‘hands-on’ DWP as an organisation is working to develop its digital capability and we’re a small group within the department that’s getting really hands-on to develop the skills and experience we’ll need to make the next generation of DWP’s digital services. ‘Make’ is the important word - we want to be able to build, run and iterate services that customers prefer over, say, paper forms or phone calls. This means coding, understanding and applying a true dev-ops approach and, most importantly, making sure we’re always fulfilling user needs. We’re the first group of trainee developers beginning this journey; left to right in the photo: Paul Bowman Ian Tidmarsh (Me) Nathalie Harrold Mike Morris Adrian Stone Donna Kirk. Paul Anderson We’ll be sharing regular updates on what we’re learning and making, and how we’re working with the Government Digital Service. If you have any questions, use the comments box and we’ll get back to you.

We can bring new ideas from user research and staff suggestions into the service quickly and frequently. Since we launched the new Carer’s Allowance digital claim service last October, we’ve made 12 full releases. Each of these has included one or more major improvements to make the service easier and quicker to use. Not all improvements need a full release and we’re constantly identifying minor improvements and fixes that can be completed without interrupting the service. This also means that we can quickly introduce smaller changes identified in our weekly user research sessions and suggestions from staff in the Carer’s Allowance Unit here in Preston. For example, some of the changes have made previously optional information mandatory in certain cases. By providing this information in the claim the department doesn’t have keep going back to the customer for additional details - this helps make the claim process quicker. We’ve also made the last page of the claim better to ensure customers understand what happens next and how long it should take. In common with all the 25 digital exemplar transactions, finding a good way for users to pick dates continues to be challenging. Our constant user research is helping get to the right answer. Our latest improvement is one that users won’t see at all, and that’s exactly the point. The technical term is zero downtime deployment; it just means that we can swap the current Carer’s Allowance digital claim service for a new version without interrupting claims in progress. It also means that the team don’t have to get up in the middle of the night to do releases - so this improvement has made them very happy too. And all this is helping us get it right. One customer recently emailed us to say: I went onto the site last night and filled the form in and sent it off, all done within 20 minutes. I couldn’t believe it, it just seemed so easy But we’re not complacent; making great digital services is about one thing. Improving. Continuously.

We have started a 4-week Discovery exercise for Carers Allowance Phase 2.  A core team of experts from key areas will be locked together in a room in Preston exploring options for transforming the Carers Allowance service by addressing such things as possible replacement of the back-end service. We will also be bringing in subject matter experts as we investigate a wide range of dependent areas before producing a Strategic Outline Business Case for approval. So far we have defined the vision for a transformed service and started a detailed analysis of the existing end-to-end process for claims and changes of circumstances.

In January we completed an introductory training course in programming. The trainees - Ian Tidmarsh, Nathalie Harrold, Mike Morris, Adrian Stone, Donna Kirk and Paul Anderson (all from IT Project Directory) - now have an understanding of the fundamentals and principals of programming in a basic language. DWP is working to develop in-house digital skills and we’re a small group within the department that’s getting ‘hands-on’    We are the first group of trainee developers at the beginning of this exciting and innovative journey to develop our digital in-house capability to be able to offer another I.T option to the business and are pleased to be the path finders for future teams. The trainees are getting really ‘hands on’ building the skills and experience they will need to become developers including taking part in a workshop with GDS which gave them an introduction to how GDS work and how GDS link into the different Government strands. The trainees are using Raspberry Pis (a low cost credit card sized single board computer device) to practise and consolidate their learning to date and to further develop their skills in programming techniques. The group are using Raspberry Pi computers to consolidate their learning and practice their skills. Their next steps will be to look at programming within various languages and then move into live environments working on small systems. They are also planning to expand the trainee programme. To find out more read their blog on Gov.uk which will be regularly updated.  

Posted by Harry Hertz, the Baldrige Cheermudgeon I was in Chicago this week.  As in many cities, I had the opportunity to take a few taxi rides. Also, as in many cities, there was a placard with useful information posted for you to read to help understand the fare structure. As usual, it included information such as the rate per mile, charges for additional passengers, and the add-on fee for trips to the airport. It also had a fee I had never seen listed before. The fee for cleaning up vomit in a Chicago taxicab is $50. That made me really curious about why that fee is called out. Is vomiting a common occurrence in Chicago cabs? Do the drivers drive recklessly to encourage that action? (Mine did not.) So, I did a little research and found that this was at the request of drivers, who could not previously force a fee on "hurling" passengers. Furthermore, the same ordinance allowing this fee has been enacted in Austin, TX and Savannah, GA. Naturally, my next thought was how does this placard entry relate to the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence in the area of customer focus? The only relevant questions I could find were: How do you enable customers to seek information and support? How do you enable them to give feedback on your customer support? What are you key means of customer support, including your key communication mechanisms? How do you determine your customers’ key support requirements? So, what is my message to you? Much as I love Chicago, wouldn’t you rather come to Baltimore, enjoy some delicious Maryland hard shell crabs, and attend the 25th anniversary Quest for Excellence conference on April 7-10, 2013? And not have a "gut-wrenching" experience, but be intellectually stimulated? See you in Baltimore!

Posted by Christine Schaefer MESA is a fast-growing small business that will soon receive its second Baldrige Award crystal. How did this provider of pipeline corrosion-control services and materials become a national role model for performance excellence? MESA’s CEO Terry May answered this question recently in a video interview that will be presented at the Baldrige Program’s upcoming 25th Annual Quest for Excellence® Conference in Baltimore. In the following excerpts, May first describes his company’s strategic efforts to expand its service business, developing its workforce as a foundation for growth: Through our strategic planning process, we recognized an opportunity to get into the pipeline integrity area, and in analyzing that we were trying to decide if that’s really a direction we wanted to go because that move really was the first move in expanding our service offerings. . . . What [the expansion] required for us was a pretty significant investment in talent, in learning new skills, bringing on some additional people and developing a software tool. In the interview, May also described his company’s focus on customer and supplier relationships: First of all, when we talk about great relationships it’s not just our customers. We extend that relationship thing to our suppliers as well, and we believe that those relationships are what are going to make the difference between us and our competitors. . . . what creates a great relationship . . .  starts off for us with quality and service . . . beyond that we want to be friends with our customers and our suppliers. We want to have personal connections. Those relationships provide opportunities to grow. They also provide opportunities to recover from issues. May also detailed his company’s approaches in the areas of workforce environment and development: MESA has five strategic objectives of which [being] a great place to work is only one. Some of the others include great service, great relationships, world class performance, and we don’t believe we’re going to be able to achieve those if we don’t have a great place to work . . . our core principles, integrity, respect, community, and fun, . . . provide a foundation [for] the type of environment we have here. . . . a place to work that people enjoy coming to . . . they have a place to learn, they have a place to grow, it’s a place of opportunity, and it’s a place to contribute to something a little bit bigger. Most of the skills at MESA are learned after people come to work here, with some exceptions. . . . We’ve got a commitment to development and training that goes beyond just the current positions. We train for future positions as well, and when we evaluate talent we would much prefer to hire from within and move people up. So it’s a challenge for a small organization, but as we grow we’ve created additional opportunities that allow us to continue to move people around. May described the value of Baldrige this way: First of all, it’s a proven business management model with lots of examples and successes—role models that you can look at. From its beginnings directed at manufacturing, it has expanded to include all different sizes and types of organizations and . . . evolved and adapted over the 25 years to meet current organizational and other challenges that have been presented. [The Baldrige Criteria] present in a structured, documented fashion those requirements that, when consistently followed, will result in business or organizational success and performance. Hear May and leaders of the other three 2012 Baldrige Award-winning organizations share more about their best practices and journeys to excellence at the 25th Annual Quest for Excellence® conference. And view an online video featuring MESA here.

Posted by Dawn Marie Bailey It’s no surprise to anyone that the economy has been bad. And in the education sector, where healthy budgets mean that teachers have the needed supplies and students have the adequate guidance to learn, a bad economy can be especially bad. The Baldrige Performance Excellence Program has been interviewing past Baldrige Award recipients to ask if they are still using the Criteria for Performance Excellence and what the Criteria have done for them; we call these interviews "success stories." At Iredell-Statesville Schools (ISS) in North Carolina, a 2008 Baldrige Award winner, the economy’s impact on the budget has been bad, but with the help of the Criteria, senior leaders have put processes in place and tightened up those processes. This has helped the district to be more competitive for grants and embed its culture of continuous improvement. "Our district’s commitment to quality has served us well," says Brady Johnson, superintendent, Iredell-Statesville Schools. "This is particularly true in the wake of the recession. In spite of draconian budget cuts, and the loss of 11 percent of our workforce, our students’ performance continues to improve. I attribute this to our focus on the Baldrige Criteria and our commitment to continuous improvement." Read more about ISS’s story. (See right-hand column and scroll down to the story "A Vision to be Among the Best.") Participate in special topic sessions on how to use the Baldrige Criteria to survive and recover from the economic downturn at the 25th Annual Quest for Excellence Conference.  

Posted by Christine Schaefer The City of Irving, Texas is only the second U.S. city to date to have earned the prestigious Baldrige Award for performance excellence. How did the 68-square-mile city in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metropolitan area earn this national distinction? Irving’s city manager Tommy Gonzalez answered this question recently by first describing the importance of strong leadership, including providing good direction for employees, and maintaining a focus on customers, the workforce, and results: "[W]e have strong leadership here. We have great servant leaders throughout our executive team. They really are focused on how can we provide the best service [and] how can we listen to our employees and really focus on their efforts. . . . We owe our employees good direction. We owe them good management, good leadership . . .  . And the Baldrige Program,  . . . really speaks to all of that. It speaks to leadership. It speaks to the processes and good management principles. It speaks to results, the customer focus, the workforce focus. . . . [Using the Baldrige Criteria] gives you this direction, and it challenges you to greater heights. And you need to respond and do that." Gonzalez then compared his city’s achievement of the high performance needed to win the Baldrige Award to successfully climbing the world’s tallest mountain: "And so, the way you’re recognized is if you meet those heights, if you climb that mountain. You know, it’s Mt. Everest of the leadership management world." He also used the mountain-climbing analogy to describe the focus on continuous improvement and alignment between organizational processes and results that are part of using the Baldrige framework: "So what’s so great about the Malcolm Baldrige Program is that it [has you] talk about . . .  how hard it was to climb. Let’s talk about all of the mishaps you might have had along the way and all the should have, could haves, all the almosts . . . you know, that person could have fallen off the mountain. You can do the same thing, you know, running an organization. . . . Do you remember when we got better at that program? That’s why we got that result. That’s why we got to the top of the mountain." Next week, Gonzalez and other city leaders will tell more about their Baldrige journey to excellence and present their best practices at the Quest for Excellence® conference in Baltimore. At that event, the city and the other three 2012 Baldrige Award winners will officially be honored by the President or one of his direct reports. You can view a video featuring Irving here.

Posted by Christine Schaefer Is there any greater honor for Baldrige Award-winning organizations than to receive a tribute from the President of the United States? How about receiving more than one? Current and former U.S. Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton each honored the performance excellence of Baldrige Award recipients early this week at the annual award ceremony and Baldrige 25th anniversary gala celebration, respectively. The Presidential remarks are highlights of the Quest for Excellence® Conference that began on April 7 in Baltimore. "I’m so pleased to help honor this year’s prestigious [Malcolm] Baldrige National Quality Award winners—four organizations that are relentless in their pursuit of a better, brighter future," said President Obama in his videotaped remarks at the award ceremony Monday morning. "I’ve always said that our free market is the greatest engine of prosperity the world has ever known," said the President. "And that engine is powered by our dreamers, our risk takers, and our innovators." Baldrige Award Ceremony, April 8, 2013; photo by Eddie Arrossi The President then recognized the role-model work of the four 2012 Baldrige Award recipients:  Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, Grand Prairie, Texas (manufacturing) MESA Products Inc., Tulsa, Okla. (small business) North Mississippi Health Services, Tupelo, Miss. (health care) City of Irving, Irving, Texas (nonprofit) "These honorees exhibit the kind of job-creating innovation that’s always kept our economy growing and vibrant and prosperous," said the President. "So congratulations to this year’s award recipients and thanks to all of you for recognizing and promoting excellence and innovation." In a separate videotaped message presented at the Baldrige Program’s silver anniversary gala on Sunday, former President Clinton said, "I’m glad to join you in celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Malcolm Baldrige [National] Quality Award and to recognize this year’s honorees." "Since 1987 the Baldrige Award has helped invigorate our nation’s economy by advancing competitiveness and ensuring quality of performance in all sectors all across our country." In congratulating the four 2012 Baldrige Award winners, Clinton then said, "All of you represent the best of our industries and challenge us to build a stronger, more thriving economy." Former President George H.W. Bush and the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum also sent letters in celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program and Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. Those and other congratulatory letters are posted on the Baldrige Program’s Web site at http://www.nist.gov/baldrige/25th/letters.cfm/.  

Posted by Dawn Marie Bailey Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control "What a journey this has been," began James E. Berry, president of 2012 Baldrige Award winner Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control (MFC). In the 1990s, with major consolidations in the defense industry, everything changed in MFC’s environment. The manufacturer of missiles and sensor systems had to prepare and stay at the forefront of these changes. In 1997, MFC started its 15-year journey of continuous improvement with the help of the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence and a Baldrige coach. Use of "Baldrige sustains and maintains a succession of learning; a model to stay out front of constant change. It helps an organization to reset if its process are not as efficient as they should be," Berry said. "We look forward to continuing the constant improvement." Berry said MFC provides the most reliable missile systems to people engaged all over the world. Over the last 15 years, 108 events have been 100% successful, therefore creating efficiencies and saving in excess of $3 billion for the U.S. government. Baldrige and its Criteria have helped MFC stay focused on its system. "The Baldrige process has revelations in it," he said. "If you’ve been in a business for a long time, another set of eyes [Baldrige assessment against the Criteria] can literally shock you by pointing out what you missed." MESA "MESA is made up of truly tireless workers who all deserve to be up on this stage," said Terry May on accepting MESA’s 2012 Baldrige Award. "Another big thanks goes to the people who pay our bills and drive our business: our customers. . . .  We hope receiving this award demonstrates to them just how much we care about our organization and theirs." May also thanked the Baldrige community for the Criteria, its concepts, the best practices, and the continuous feedback since MESA started its journey over ten years ago. "We know now that we wouldn’t be the organization we are today without [the Baldrige community]. You helped us become a world-class organization, and for that we thank you." MESA began its Baldrige journey ten years ago, a journey that May said has been a "continuous learning curve," helping to shape and improve the small business. "This recognition, however, is not the end of our journey to excellence. It’s another step—a major step—in our ongoing pursuit of performance. It is proof, to you and to ourselves, that we are a world-class organization." This blog will continue with ceremony presentations from North Mississippi Health Services and the City of Irving, Texas.  

Posted by Dawn Marie Bailey North Mississippi Health Services "I am honored and humbled to accept this award on behalf of the 6,200 employees, over 500 physicians, 200 volunteers, and our Boards of Directors," said John Heer, chief executive officer and president of 2012 Baldrige Award recipient North Mississippi Health Services (NMHS). Heer said that NMHS’s core competency-"People Who Provide a Caring Culture"-is not simply a statement; it’s the health care system’s commitment to improve people’s lives. "Working in the nation’s epicenter of poverty and morbidity, we accept the responsibility that our role in our community’s health extends beyond the walls of our hospitals, clinics, rehab centers, and facilities," he said. NMHS’s Baldrige journey started in the mid-1990s. "When we started, we realized that it wasn’t going to be easy, but at the same time we realized that it was something we had to do," said Heer. "Simply settling for second best is not an option in the health care field, and the Baldrige process provides a guide for becoming the best." Heer said the health system continually focuses on its vision to be the provider of the best patient-centered care and health services in America. To accomplish that vision, Heer said, "That’s where the Baldrige Criteria come into play. These Criteria are time-tested and force you to focus on the right things, no matter your industry. We continually encourage those with whom we speak to adopt the Criteria to become the very best they can be. We tell them that the process is hard and will expose their weaknesses, but it will enable them to achieve greatness. And because the Criteria are results oriented, they will improve all of their outcomes." Heer added, "While there is a tremendous amount of uncertainty and unrest in the health care environment today, one thing remains-we are charged with providing the best care in a safe environment for our patients and their families. They expect and deserve all our best." City of Irving, Texas "When you think about government at any level-city, state, or federal-you don’t normally use the words efficient, competitive, or cost-effective," said Tommy Gonzalez, city manager of the City of Irving, Texas. "But that’s exactly what the Baldrige process has done for Irving." Seven years ago, the city did something unique-applying private-sector principles to government operations. "By doing so," Gonzalez said, "we positioned ourselves to weather whatever storm came our way. And little did we know we were about to face huge economic and political challenges in the city." When the city embarked on its performance excellence journey, employees wanted leadership and direction, and residents and businesses wanted improvements. He gathered the managers and told them he wanted Irving to be the best city in the country. "They listened and as a team really acted on those words," Gonzalez said. Today, Irving is only the second city in the country and the largest to receive the Baldrige Award. Gonzalez said the City of Irving accomplished this during one of the nation’s worst economic downturns with no layoffs or furloughs, and it increased service levels at the same time.  "Together, as a team, we shook things up. We broke down silos and built multiple cross- functional groups. We enabled two-way communication with employees and our customers. . . . We worked toward a common goal and embraced a common vision. And because of that, Irving is a cleaner, safer, and better city." Gonzalez added, "Thank you again to the Baldrige organization, not only for this tremendous recognition, but for giving us the Baldrige Criteria to guide us. Looking at your organization through the Baldrige lens is truly a transformative process. And, as we all know, the journey continues. We all are committed to this great country and sincerely appreciate Baldrige’s drive to help ensure America’s continued competitive edge." See ceremony presentations from the other 2012 Baldrige Award recipients: Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control and MESA.

Posted by Dawn Marie Bailey For a leader of a role-model health system, the secret of success is an aligned culture, said CEO and President John Heer of 2012 Baldrige Award recipient North Mississippi Health Services (NMHS). "Create a culture/environment that is aligned with your employees’ personal mission statements. . . . It all starts with the people." Speaking at the 25th Annual Quest for Excellence Conference®, Heer said that NMHS employees come to work every day to take care of people-to improve the health of the people that the health system serves, as well as the health of the people in the region. "Their compassion, care, and yes, even love for those we serve never cease to amaze me," he said. "People have strong predetermined mission statements. Health care is not a job, it’s a calling." He added that in surveys of health care professionals, the vast majority say they got into health care to help people and to make a difference-not to make money. At NMHS, to create an aligned culture/environment, a leadership system was created based on a balanced approach tied to the mission, vision, and values. This is not rocket science, said Heer, but rather, a good roadmap. When he came to NMHS, Heer was drawn to the health system because it was one of the few organizations that had "smile" as a value, he said; in other words, the system had tied a basic human emotion into corporate thinking. The NMHS values spell C.A.R.E.S.: compassion, accountability, respect, excellence, smile. In addition to the values, NMHS’s founding principles (vision, innovation, agility, and community stewardship), which go back to the 1930s, align with the core values found in the Baldrige Health Care Criteria for Performance Excellence, Heer said. Use of the Criteria led the health system to struggle with a new concept-what is its core competency? Thinking through this Baldrige concept helped NMHS focus on the most important thing it does as an organization: "People who provide a caring culture." Heer said NMHS has created a servant leadership culture-one that stresses open doors, open communication, and transparency/no secrets; is results-oriented; has "no-excuses" accountability; is founded on listening and learning; includes leader rounds of staff members as well as patients; and has a weekly CEO e-mail. This focus on the values, founding principles, servant leadership culture, and communication has resulted in everyone at NMHS being aligned across the entire system. This could be the reason that a third-party database of more than 700 national hospitals ranked NMHS in the 99 percentile for overall job satisfaction and 20 percent higher than the national rate for employee retention. In fact, the Baldrige examiners agreed. Heer shared that in its Baldrige feedback report, the result of its application for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, NMHS scored in the 90-100 range in the workforce focus and results items in the Criteria-truly remarkable scores. NMHS’s secret has kept it right on track toward its vision of being the provider of the best patient-centered care and health services in America. How has a focus on culture helped you meet your vision?

Posted by Dawn Marie Bailey "MESA was a growing successful company before we heard the word ‘Baldrige,’" said Terry May, CEO and president of MESA, a 2012 Baldrige Award recipient. "But something happened between 2002 and 2006 [when MESA began weaving Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence principles into its business model], we transformed ourselves from a good company to a world-class organization." Speaking at the 25th Annual Quest for Excellence Conference©, May said that MESA has been in business over thirty-four years, starting with just one person in 1979 and growing to a successful, sustainable organization of 150 employees across seven regional headquarters. MESA, a leading supplier of cathodic protection systems and pipeline integrity solutions that provides materials, fabrication, engineering, integrity, and installation services, has received the Baldrige Award twice (2006 and 2012), the Oklahoma Business Ethics Consortium’s 2012 Compass Award, and Baldrige-based Oklahoma Quality Award in 2006, among other recognitions. "I’m a small business owner who has made a career of striving for excellence while building a great team [called One MESA]," May said. Following the path of providing superior value through people, passion, products, processes, profitability, and professionalism (MESA renamed its ‘mission, vision, and values’ to ’purpose, path, and principles’ to create a buzz), the One MESA team has found the value of working together, with revenue increasing from $26 million in 2002 to $56 million in 2012. The key is "work really hard, work really hard, and don’t give up; hard work, team work, and a touch of innovation and luck" has led to MESA’s success, May said. Adding that the small business has had to reinvent itself several times. The organizational principles of MESA must mirror those of senior leaders, May said. "We identify, talk, and model [the principles of integrity, fun, respect, and community]. This is the job of leaders- ensuring that this philosophy is clearly communicated and accepted throughout the organization. But acceptance isn’t good enough at the leadership level. Commitment is the better word," he said. "We became very good at writing [Baldrige state and national] applications and hosting site visits, analyzing feedback, absorbing the OFIs [opportunities for improvement], and analyzing performance. As we learned the value of OFIs , the benefits of segmentation and benchmarking, and the meaning of systematic and ADLI [Baldrige Criteria evaluation factors: approach, deployment, learning, integration], we got better." MESA continues to expand on its primary advantage: its ability to outperform competitors with superior service and quality. "If you want to challenge that statement," he said, "Don’t take our word for it. We just got our second Baldrige Award. Take that, competitors."