Thank you to all those who entered our drawing to win one of twenty-five free copies of the second edition of Influencer by watching Joseph Grenny talk about the power of the Influencer model to change behavior at our local TED event. If you missed it, click here to watch the powerful transformation story of Jane, a young girl who grew up in poverty in the slums of Nairobi, Kenya. We had an overwhelming response, but the twenty-five lucky winners are: Arthur Johnson Jr. Chris Clark Chris Klenk Daniel Hiatt Deborah Carcutt Derek Applegate Elaine Rose Fidelia Herrera Roster Paul Pstivthnkn Kurt Ellis Lynda Sowell Lynette Vetsch Mauricio Soto Mnquaker Nicolas A. Reynolds Pat Hatcher Patty Skerl Randi Schmechel Rick Kotter Sharon Humphreys Sue Burge Dahl TJ Brensen Travis Cunningham Tyler Edmondson Vicky Smith If you won, please e-mail us at editor@vitalsmarts.com to claim your book. Related posts: Special Announcement: Influencer First Chapter Download Special Announcement: Introducing the Second Edition of our Bestselling Book, Influencer: The New Science of Leading Change

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Andrew Maxfield is director of the Influencer Institute, a private operating foundation that seeks to increase humanity’s capacity to change for good. Atilano, a new friend of mine in Mexico, smiles while he delivers bottled water from his bicycle to nearby homes and businesses. His is a small business by nearly every standard, yet it is a powerful component of his escape route from poverty. And it’s working. But that’s only half of the story. It turns out that there are several behaviors besides increasing income that lead a person to the outcome of a reliable financial surplus, and, eventually, to permanently improved economic conditions. Can you imagine what one of those behaviors is? You probably already know the answer—and it isn’t an exciting one. The behavior is: regularly write down every amount of money you take in and spend. People who make a habit (the intersection of ability and reliability) of regular financial record keeping know exactly how much they earn, exactly how much they spend, and can therefore take action if there is an imbalance between the two. Our work with small business mentoring organizations in Latin America verifies this fact: their very poor clients who start small businesses and keep daily financial records manage to escape poverty over time, sometimes rapidly. Those who start businesses but are sloppy with record keeping or neglect it entirely, may never get ahead—and often don’t. So here’s the rub, and it’s probably familiar: what if an all-important behavior is mundane? What if it’s dull, inconvenient, or psychologically painful? This is where we can all learn from Atilano. It’s true that the act of record keeping might be tiresome if you view it as taking away from income-generating work, family time, or whatever you’d rather be doing. But Atilano thinks of his kids and the example he’s setting. He reminds himself of the "why" behind the task. Believe it or not, he considers his ledgers a personal diary—evidence of his hard work and dedication to his family. Taken in that light, record keeping can be a celebration of sorts, a happy daily ritual. Can you think of a way to reconnect the task you routinely avoid to what you care about most? Can you link it to your values and vision and to people you care about? Finding the thread that links what you must do to the grander vision of why you do it can help drum up the motivation you need to do an unpleasant task. Of course, your personal motivation isn’t everything; you also need skills, tools, and social support—and those factors unquestionably contribute to Atilano’s successes. However, you and I can take a big step forward in our efforts to influence ourselves and others when we deliberately find meaning in life’s mundane but vital tasks. Related posts: Influencer Institute: Beating Poverty One Vital Behavior at a Time Influencer Institute: Introducing the Influencer Institute—And a Call to Action! Finding Fault with the Facts

I was working on another post about learned helplessness in learning that I had previously started but felt this was a bit more timely given the eLearning Challenge. I am postponing my other post until next week (or perhaps later this week) so I can get this off my chest. I may write more on each one further down the road, but we’ll see how that goes. One The navigation/timeline needs to be locked down so "learners" can see all of my wonderful content. Two I’m an eLearning designer so that’s the proper solution, never-mind doing a proper analysis to see if it’s even necessary. Three Just use next buttons to progress through software training, we don’t need to make an accurate environment. Four We need to cover all the learning styles to make sure everyone learns. Five Let’s create a virtual instructor led course, and an eLearning course, and a video, and a bunch of job aids. More is better right? Six For previous releases we had a few videos walking users through the application so we should do that again (when task based job aids would have sufficed). Seven This is a compliance course so they have to read everything. We can’t just put a box to select saying they’ve "read" it all.   Eight Mobile learning means we take the courses we’ve designed and put them on a phone, right? Nine From a consulting company: We’ve had a great deal of experience doing that for xyz companies, we can help your company do that too! (of course the problem isn’t actually doing it, it’s making the case and getting funding to do it which defeats the purpose of consultants) Ten Let’s test them on it, that will prove they learned it! Your Turn What are some of the things that you here and see that make you cringe? A lot of these things are very realistic and I see them everyday, I challenge you to share the most horrific tales of real things you see every day. You might also enjoy: Mobile Help Overlays - Ultimate Performance Support for Mobile Apps Touchscreen Toddler Reflecting On The Year - 2013

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Kerry Patterson is coauthor of four New York Times bestsellers, Change Anything, Crucial Conversations, Crucial Confrontations, and Influencer. READ MORE   Dear Crucial Skills, A couple of my employees tend to get all the other staff in an uproar. They constantly turn people against each other and pick on the newbies. How can I address my employees’ tendency to "stir the pot" and help them recognize the harm they’re doing to our work environment? Mitigating Harm  Dear Mitigating, Thanks for this interesting and important question. We’re often asked how to give feedback to direct reports who act in ways that cause problems. Sometimes these challenging individuals are described as having "bad chemistry" with their coworkers. On other occasions, they’re labeled "hard to work with," "troublesome," or even worse. In this case, the individuals in question cause uproars, turn people against each other, stir the pot, and pick on newbies. As their supervisor, it’s your job to do something about the bad behavior. But what? At first glance, suggesting that the individuals in question cause an uproar or turn people against each other may sound like a description of what they do, when, in fact, these particular words describe the effect not the cause. They behave in some particular way to cause an uproar or turn people against each other, but it’s impossible to decipher from these expressions alone which from millions of possible behaviors they enact. If you expect the individuals in question to improve, they’ll need to change their behaviors—swapping out the old and replacing them with new. As a leader, you’ll need to adeptly describe, in detail, what they’re currently doing to cause an uproar and the other effects you’ve described. Describing behaviors requires an understanding of exactly what the offending parties do along with the ability to describe their behavior in a way that is crystal clear. You have to see what others actually do and then metaphorically hold up a mirror so they can see what they need to change. This can get complicated. When you suggest that the problem employees "stir the pot," the metaphor masks the actual actions they take. If you tell them they "stir the pot," they might know what you’re hinting at and change, but it seems unlikely. The same is true with expressions like "picking on newbies." You include a verb that hints of certain behaviors, but alas, also leaves a lot to the imagination. When I talk with people facing similar challenges and ask them to provide the behaviors (causes) behind the effects or vague conclusion they describe to me, they often can’t. Their conclusions are firm: "They constantly stir the pot." That part they feel strongly about, but when I probe for detail, they aren’t able to describe the behaviors the other person enacts. They remember their emotional reaction far more clearly than the actions that took them there. For instance, when trying to help a supervisor with a salesman who was "socially backward," I asked for a detailed description of what the salesman did. The supervisor explained that he was "a nerd, a geek—you know, a dweeb." The supervisor knew what he had concluded about the fellow, and was able to come up with synonyms, but couldn’t describe any actual behaviors. So I asked him, "The last time he did something you thought was nerdy, what exactly did he do?" "He looked like he had no confidence in what he was saying," the supervisor responded. (Also a vague conclusion.) "And what made him appear unconfident to you?" I continued to probe. "He stared at the floor. He started a sentence three different times. He spoke in a low voice. The minute the person disagreed, he backed off even though he was correct . . ." and so forth. At last, behaviors the other person might be able to recognize and replace. This is what the salesman needed to hear and correct. Most of us use shorthand negative adjectives along with vague outcomes when talking with others because such simple expression often works for us. "Quit teasing your brother!" you bark to your son. He knows exactly what he’s doing and what to do instead. He knows because you’ve told him before—focusing on his actual actions. "Yes, I know you said his new shirt was cool, but you said it in a sing-song tone and rolled your eyes—and that appeared insincere." You’ve described several versions of "teasing" to your son, so now when he does it, you can address it in shorthand. However, with direct reports, where we don’t have a long history and the specialized code that comes with it, we need to carefully observe others in actions, take note of the actual behaviors that aren’t working, share those in a direct and non-punitive way, check to see if they understood us, and then talk about replacement behaviors. I’m assuming you’ve watched your direct reports in action and have a whole list of undesirable actions they take, so you’re ready to hold a discussion in a way that will be helpful. Start by holding separate conversations—one with each employee. Privacy is essential. Select no more than one or two of the areas you’d like to talk about. You don’t want to overwhelm the other person. Start by describing the undesirable behavior and what you’d like to see instead. Share three or four example actions and take special care to focus on their behaviors, not your conclusions. Share actions you’ve personally observed—hopefully recently. Open the conversation for questions. Ask the other person if he or she sees it differently, and jointly develop a plan of action. Obviously, there’s a lot that goes into such a feedback discussion. Today, I chose to focus on one element that can turn a painful and vague discussion into a helpful feedback session. Focus on behaviors. Become skilled at both observing and describing them. Know the difference between a behavior and a result or conclusion. Help the other person see what he or she is doing, not merely what you think about him or her. Kerry Related posts: Finding Fault with the Facts Confronting a Coworker’s Temper Tantrums Confronting Destructive and Manipulative Behavior

It’s been a few weeks since I first wrote about Learned Helplessness in Learning but it hasn’t once left my mind. Even last week had some familiar mentions of it but without the name. What I gathered from DevLearn Tweets during Neil deGrasse Tyson’s keynote was that he spoke in part that kids are born scientists, but we beat it out of them. That sounds familiar to Learned Helplessness in Learning. Kids are curious, heck, all ages of people are! As formal education takes hold many of the curiosities are beat out of them by rigid instructions. Some are lucky enough to escape with some curiosity left, but most are not. So, it’s not specific to science. Kids are curious at all sorts of things including learning, but that goes away with years of discouraging exploration. There’s all sorts of things that can lead to the non-interest of learning and not even trying to find the answer. I think I’m most interested in trying to find an answer on how to undue or at least encourage these long embedded habits. So this time I’m exploring social as a solution to the problem. Social Learning This comes with its own set of challenges I admit, but it’s something that otherwise non-existent answers may come from. I must be clear that I’m talking about social learning in the technological sense of the term. Places like Twitter or Yammer rather than the water cooler or lunch with colleagues (although it could apply there also). Social is a great method to combat Learned Helplessness in Learning. While not the only method, and by no means a method that can be used alone, it will definitely assist in the change to self help. Social makes the tools available for users to explore and learn on their own, unfortunately the problem is rarely a lack of resources. The problem in learned helplessness is the motivation for people to WANT to learn. Or at least the problem of feeling overwhelmed with the vast number of resources. Giving them the tools is only one piece of the puzzle, the easiest piece. Social Motivation The challenging part to social learning is motivation. How do you motivate people to want to explore? How do you make them feel less overwhelmed in an information rich environment? Better yet, how do you motivate them not to default to calling a help-desk that costs you money? Pushing that person to look beyond the obvious and do a bit of exploration is a hard sell. There are many distraction out there, laziness is in excess, and there’s usually a phone number that’s easier to find than the answer itself. As you can see I don’t have a lot of answers on how to motivate people to be more social. All I can say is that you must find the benefit to that person. Make it easy to use and easy to find answers so they can do their job better. I know for me, my motivation to be more social has been to learn beyond my job description, making myself indispensable in shifting times. The popular Seek, Sense, Share framework and learning socially from Harold Jarche has been a driving force in my being more social. They are ways to find those answers and broaden your knowledge in a field you didn’t know you had interest in. Call to Action Learned helplessness in learning is a one way ticket to obsolescence in the marketplace. Being more social is one way to improve the chances that you, and coworkers, are not stuck within a bubble expecting others to bring things to you. I challenge you to keep an eye out for those that refuse to explore and learn new things. When you find somebody who is stuck in this rut, try to encourage action in working more socially. Encourage them to find answers outside their comfort zone and expanding those answers beyond what’s spoon fed from others. Speak Up I’d like to hear from you. What do you see as problems in learned helplessness in learning? Do you see any solutions for that? You might also enjoy: First Thoughts on Learned Helplessness Turn The Curiosity Back On How do you get people talking on an enterprise social network?

According to our recent poll, social networks are becoming increasingly hostile, with 78 percent of users reporting rising incivility online and two in five blocking, unsubscribing, or "unfriending" someone over an argument on social media. Specific findings include: 76 percent have witnessed an argument over social media 19 percent have decreased in-person contact with someone because of something they said online 88 percent believe people are less polite on social media than in person 81 percent say the difficult or emotionally charged conversations they have held over social media remain unresolved Social media platforms aren’t the problem, it’s how people are using them that is causing a degradation of dialogue that has potential to destroy our most meaningful personal relationships. Here are five tips for communicating both candidly and respectfully on social media: Check your motives. Social media hasn’t only changed the way we communicate, it has modified our motives. Ask yourself, "Is my goal to get lots of ‘likes’ (or even provoke controversy)?" or "Do I want healthy dialogue?" Replace hot words. If your goal is to make a point rather than score a point, replace "hot" words that provoke offense with words that help others understand your position. For example, replace "that is idiotic" with "I disagree for the following reasons . . ." Pause to put emotions in check. Never post a comment when you’re feeling emotionally triggered. Never! If you wait four hours you’re likely to respond differently. Agree before you disagree. It’s fine to disagree, but don’t point out your disagreement until you acknowledge areas where you agree. Often, arguers agree on 80 percent of the topic but create a false sense of conflict when they spend all their time arguing over the other 20 percent. Trust your gut. When reading a response to your post and you feel the conversation is getting too emotional for an online exchange—you’re right! Stop. Take it offline. Or better yet, face-to-face. For additional advice, including ten things NOT to do when communicating via social media, download our free e-book, "When Crucial Conversations Go Social: How to Handle Heated Discussions via Social Media." Related posts: Antisocial Networks? Hostility on social media rising for 78 percent of users Antisocial Networks? Crucial Applications: How to Hold Slacking Coworkers Accountable

They’re not learners, they’re people. I don’t know if this has any value in stating but it’s something that’s been rolling around in my head for a while. I often hear people referred to as learners, or "my learners" when talking about the audience. It seems odd to me to refer to people in a way that assumes the action that they will get from your creation. I can’t think of another industry that does the same. The most common term I hear for other industries is ‘user’. User seems a better term to refer to people that will be using your course. To assume they’ll learn is a bit presumptuous and in most cases I’d argue just isn’t true. When was the last time you learned something from compliance training? So, let’s start treating people as people, not learners. They aren’t learners unless they’re learning, which isn’t something we get to decide. Once we stop referring to them as learners, it’s easy to realize they are people. They might not be interested in what we’re creating. If we find a course boring then they will too. Just because it’s a course and they’re taking it doesn’t make them a learner. It means they’re required to take it and they’re using it for some other reason (access to application, compliance, meet somebody else’s requirement, etc.) Recognize they’re people, they don’t want to take that compliance course. They find it as boring as you and I do, therefor let’s not waste their time. Let’s figure out what the least we can do for them is as a person, not a learner. You might also enjoy: Ten Things That Make Me Cringe Expand Your Skills Second Screen Revolution

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Joseph Grenny is coauthor of four New York Times bestsellers, Change Anything, Crucial Conversations, Crucial Confrontations, and Influencer. READ MORE Dear Crucial Skills, I was recently elected leader of a 30,000 person district in Kenya and my leadership is under threat. For the last three weeks, we have had constant rainfall here. There is water everywhere, rivers have burst their banks, crops have washed away, most roads and bridges have been cut away, and several school buildings and homes have been blown away. Quite a number of deaths have been reported in the process, and most families’ homes no longer offer a good environment for living, as water is oozing through their ground floors. Soon, a malaria outbreak will follow as a result of mosquito bites. Too much water means crop failures and is the beginning of real hunger! Some begin to question or threaten my leadership. What immediate solution can you give me to lead under such a situation? Signed, Leadership Crisis  Dear Leadership, Kenya is a second home to me. I have met some remarkable leaders in your country from whom I’ve learned a great deal about human influence. I am happy to hear of your concern for the people you have been asked to serve. I have some very strong opinions about what you need to do to make a difference and solidify your support at this critical time. In times of threat, people need to know two things from their leaders: You care about my problems. You are competent to help. When people believe these two things about you, they trust you. If people trust your motives and your ability, you have their support. Now, that’s easier said than done. When everything is broken, what do you do first? How do you show your concern when 1,000 things need attention? If you go to work on five of them, those who feel the most pain about the other 995 will think you don’t care. Furthermore, if you try to work on too many things, you will squander your finite resources while making little progress—thus undermining trust. So what can you do? When Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf was re-elected as president of Liberia, the country was in a precarious situation. But she did three things that influenced trust in a remarkable way: 1. Go on a listening campaign. Be visible. Be accessible. Listen a lot. Empathize. Do your best to develop a theory of which problems you should address first. This step must not take so much time that people see you as politicking rather than taking action. However, it is crucial not just that you understand people’s concerns, but that they believe you understand. 2. Prioritize. Having listened deeply, set a small number of concrete and time-bound goals. When President Johnson-Sirleaf finished her listening campaign, she announced some very specific commitments she would complete in the first 150 days. If your community is smaller, you may want to set a tighter timeframe—perhaps seven-day, thirty-day, sixty-day, and ninety-day goals. For example, President Johnson-Sirleaf committed that within 150 days, her administration would: Put 6,000 young people to work on road maintenance and beach clean-up projects. Open 150km of feeder roads, linking thirty communities in two counties. Open 150 new sanitation facilities. Complete eleven reinforced concrete bridges. Open seventy-five community wells in three counties. Be sure you only make commitments you have the resources to keep. People will understand that you can’t do everything. As you announce these commitments, you are defining the terms by which people will begin to trust you. If you have listened well, and choose things people find important, they will let go of those things you have not committed to do and calibrate their future trust for you on the terms you set. 3. Go public. The next thing President Johnson-Sirleaf did was make weekly progress reports to the country on her commitments. This accomplished two things: 1) it put pressure on those whose job it was to deliver these commitments; 2) it built trust as people saw steady progress over the 150 days. Every week, Liberians were reminded what they could (and could not) expect from their president. And they learned that she had the leadership competence to fulfill her commitments. Within 150 days, three-fourths of the commitments had been met. Not a perfect record, but far better than people had seen from previous administrations. If you listen well, prioritize carefully, and go public with both commitments and progress, you can demonstrate to your community that you care about their concerns and that they can trust you to deliver. I wish you the best in your leadership and service. Thank you for caring enough to put yourself in such vulnerable circumstances at such a crucial time. Warmly, Joseph

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?

I was working on a combined post with two distinct parts. One part a reflection on my new Udemy course called Catapult Your Career: Building Your Website Portfolio. The second part a reflection of all my posts from the past year. Well, I decided to split them into two posts for the final few days of 2014 with just one day to spare. I’ve done a lot this year and learned a lot. I’m closing out 2014 with a bang after working tirelessly for a month trying to put out the highest quality Udemy course I could. It was a lot of content but I wouldn’t say I rushed it, I just pushed myself hard. Many days I would get done with my 9-5 and within 30 minutes be back at it for another eight hours. Not only that but many weekends I was doing 16 hours days. This isn’t my ideal situation and I’m the first to admit I don’t do well past a 40 hour week (I’m a believer in the 35 or less hour week). I made an exception because I was driven to get this course done. What drove me? Quite a small thing possibly. For new instructors on Udemy publishing their course within 30 days of signing up, Udemy will publicize it for you on their social media accounts. I think most people would have done a small course in their spare time of around 30 minutes, but I had an idea and wanted to bulldoze through it. It was exhausting to say the least, but it was worth it. I got it done, worked through it, and now won’t be rushing anything like that for a long time. I’ve written about it, shared portions of it, and talked about it the past month on Twitter, chat2lrn, PKMchat, and elsewhere. But I’m sure many still don’t know what it’s about because my social media reach is still small. Here’s my brief explanation: At its root it’s a how-to setup a WordPress website but it goes into so much more detail on how to create it to benefit your personal brand. It’s Alive I published it for review Friday evening just past midnight my time (GMT -8) and Udemy opens the course at that point, they just don’t put it on their marketplace until final review. Now it’s time to begin promoting the course and I’ve done several things to do that and will continue to do more. During my creating of some of the lectures I had some content that wasn’t well explained in the typical screencast method of the course. I wanted try out an online application called Powtoons that had been circulating the eLearning world a while back. I created a few videos which in the end I’m satisfied with, but they came at the price of dealing with the shortcomings of Powtoons. It’s not an application I’d recommend. I was able to create a promo spot for Udemy and have also posted it on YouTube to later use in Twitter and Linkedin. It was fun to work on and I got my messages fine tuned down to less than 30 seconds, which is not that easy. I’ve ended up with three videos as a preview of the course, two being animated. I’m also going to use the second video as a promotional video, it explains my top three reasons to set up a self hosted WordPress site. I also wrote this on the homepage of the website I created in the course (Nick Leffler’s Portfolio & Blog) Those reasons are as follows: One You’ll be in control of your website and personal brand from beginning to end. WordPress.com, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc. can’t offer that to you. Two The power of customization. You can customize your website however you want without limitations. You get to choose your theme, your content, and your plugins. Three You will never have an ad on your website unless you choose to have one. No ads, ever. Those are my three big reasons, although there are many more I’m sure. I’m hoping the video I created for my reasons aren’t too long because it clocks in at a minute and a half. I may revisit it soon to shorten it a bit for another promo video though. I’m starting out more basic on promoting my course with a few videos, Tweets, and the normal social media stuff. I may venture out a bit further as time goes on and I’m able to refine my course a bit. Try It Udemy is a great platform and it’s been a great experience. While I know courses aren’t the answer for a lot of things, there still is a place for them. As far as it goes with Learned Helplessness of Learning, I’m not sure how it fits in. I feel like it fits into the part of people wanting to help themselves and find the answers to their problems though. So, if you want to stay relevant in your career, promote yourself, and seek ways to push your industry forward, create a website to promote your personal brand! It’s worth the investment. Check out the course. Up Next Tomorrow I’ll finish my reflection post where I revisit each of my past year’s posts and write a small blurb about them. It should be interesting to recall what I wrote about and see what has come of that at this point down the road. I do know I’m still aware of #ResolutionNow and making those small leaps forward, or perhaps they’re just a small step. Either way I’m moving forward. Learning, evolving, and changing the way I think every day to make my work just a little bit better one day at a time. The post Closing Out 2014 With A Bang appeared first on Nick Leffler's Portfolio & Learning Insights. You might also enjoy: Rethinking The Holiday Rush Work Out Loud - Don’t Just Share What You Did Learned Helplessness of Learning #chat2lrn

ABOUT THE EXPERT Steve Willis is a Master Trainer and Vice President of Professional Services at VitalSmarts. READ MORE I was recently reviewing a training industry report for 2012. There were all kinds of bar, pie, and other hunger inducing graphs serving up all kinds of information. It highlighted overall spending (≅ $55.8 billion), the average amount spent per employee ($1059), how many hours the average employee spent in learning and development activities (41 hours per employee), the types of training products and services (too many to name here), and even who was receiving training by level in the organization. Wading through all this data got me thinking about my own 2012 year in review: How many sessions I conducted, the number of organizations I worked with, the different countries I had trained in, and the mix of programs I delivered. And while all these numbers are interesting and useful, the number that caused the most meaningful introspection was the percentage of people who walked away from my sessions having had a meaningful (dare I say life-changing) learning experience. This last one got me thinking of what it would take to increase that percentage in 2013. What should I improve about the way I prepare for each session? Which delivery skills would be highest leverage to practice? Do I need to do more in order to master the skills from the programs I deliver? So I want to leave you with the question that’s been on my mind, "What will you do to increase the percentage of people who have a meaningful learning experience?" You have the opportunity to positively impact lives with each session you conduct. Now, go get em! Related posts: From the Road: So Much Training From the Road: The Importance of Propinquity From the Road: What Happens in Training, Stays in Training

This post was originally combined with yesterday’s post, could you imagine? Too much. It has been an eventful year though, so it’s only fitting that I have two eventful posts. On With The Show I’ve made the last two months of the year an extremely prolific writing two months (for me). The reason I made it more prolific? I was well behind where I wanted to be for number of posts for the year. My goal was to write at least every two weeks which would have put me at 26 posts for the year. I wouldn’t have done 26 but my last minute decision to split these final two posts into two did it. Really they should have been separated to begin with though. I didn’t make that number last year although making small steps towards it has helped me get there. Twenty-six posts is a hard number, but one post every two weeks isn’t so bad even though they’re the same thing. I did have a large gap in posting of over a month but I will make it a goal next year to not let that happen again. If I foresee a problem with my next post due to scheduling of events then I’ll have to write it ahead of time. Now for reflecting. I’m going to link to each of my posts then write a brief summary of what I remember of that post and the key highlights for it. I’ll try to stay brief and simple. Second Screen Revolution - January 6 I’d had this idea on my list of things to write about for a long time and I started out the year with it. Good way to start the year really. I’m still using two screens, sometimes three and dealing with distractions is still part of everyday life. Rather than fighting the screens and failing, embrace them and find a way to work with them. Tweet Your Way to Conference Success - January 20 I’ve been an advocate for live-Tweeting and such for a long time. No surprise I had to write about it. There’s nothing better than to instantly take notes, share with the world, and teach back to co-workers than to live-Tweet a conference. It’s a win-win if you go about it the right way and then there’s no loss of information. I can’t think of a better way to spend a conference experience. Mobile Performance Support - Make It Simple! - February 24 As I was trying to gain traction with mobile help overlays in my organization, I also was thinking about their importance in the overall L&D community. Beyond mobile performance support, I think there’s a clear message everywhere that everyone should be doing everything they can to simplify everyone else’s job. If L&D can have a part in bringing clarity to the workplace, a great service has been done. Stop Trying To Predict Mobile Users Needs - March 12 The initial move to a broader mobile audience had a lot of research saying that mobile apps and sites should only cover the most likely information to be used while mobile. I say that’s impossible. Mobile Life is huge now and there is a vast audience of people that don’t just want to do certain tasks in mobile, they want to do it all. I’m one of those users and there’s nothing more annoying than having to go to a computer. if there’s a competitor that offers me everything right on my smartphone, I’m going there. Search Is The Center Of Learning - March 25 When I want to learn something new, I don’t go hunting through topics, or categories, or web pages. I immediately open that page with a great big search box on it and type something in. Whether it’s YouTube or Google I want to find it quick and easy without erroneous results. That almost definitely rules out the SharePoint search functionality. Where Do We Go From Here? - April 8 I remember this one very well. I was on a mini-vacation and read Jonathan Kettleborough’s post about alignment requiring clarity. It brought a vivid image of a steering committee in a dark room coming out and telling their reports to move forward and spread their word. The problem is there is no clarity in that way of sending a message through the company. It becomes a game of telephone and sometimes the lines above you never even call! An enterprise social network is a great way to send a message forward immediately to everybody and without the loss of clarity. So, it’s leaders responsibility to make sure everybody knows what the goals are so that everybody can align. Nobody can separate themselves from the business goals, especially L&D. Reflecting on the National eXtension Conference (#nexconf) - May 16 This was a great experience at the conference, and an even better one going over my Twitter notes and rehashing them into a great reflection piece on my experience. I still have an idea on my list to explain my process on how live-Tweeting these events is the absolute best way to take notes, spread the message, and share with others all at the same time. I have my whole workflow worked out and it worked flawlessly here at this conference. A Self Imposed Barrier - May 21 Writing is a challenging thing when there are no deadlines and it’s up to you to do it. I wanted to bring forward some of my barriers that I’ve consciously recognized and try to help myself recognize others. This was recently brought back front and center to my mind by Tanya Lau who recently commented on it and some good discussion occurred on those things that keep us from doing the things that help us the most. First step is to recognize a self imposed barrier, second step is to find ways to remove that habit and keep pushing forward. MOOCs Have a Long Way To Go - June 23 After completing my second MOOC, I decided I needed to document my thoughts on the experience. While there’s some great information in MOOCs and much to be learned, it’s also easy to get lost in the sea of information and lack of motivation. More interaction is needed to increase motivation and give MOOCs a more personal touch. It’s too easy to skate through them without ever coming into contact with anybody which also makes it easy to skate right out of it and drop the course. How I Got Here - June 30 We all have our story of how we got to be an Instructional Designer, eLearning developer, etc. This is my tale of how I made it to where I am and got interested in doing what I love every day. I’ll keep pushing forward and innovating in any way I can. Innovating is just taking each thing you see everyday that can be improved and making it a little bit better. That’s how I see it. Expand Your Skills - August 14 Just coming off my month hiatus with not a single post in July, I started back up with something that’s been on my mind a while. How can you stay inside a silo and not look to external influence and still do good work? I don’t think it’s possible. These are some of the places I look to for inspiration, although I also keep myself open on social media to people of all types of backgrounds and interests. The Biggest Fad of L&D - August 20 I could talk about the topic of MOOCs forever. There’s so much there and it’s always irked me that the "creator" of the modern MOOC said they were a failure. Well, maybe for his goal but to say they’re a failure is the biggest lie of the century. Who cares if people drop out? They get what they want! Companies will start picking them up as a viable option for workplace learning too! They’ve been an amazing success and while there’s much to be desired, they’re a great start. Work Out Loud on Colors Storyline Template - August 25 The post brought my highest traffic to my website ever due entirely to Articulate being such an active community. While not an all time high traffic post, it’s done well over time. Nothing much here but a template I created in Storyline and shared it with the community. I enjoy sharing my work. There’s no joy in keeping it all locked away. I’m even sad when a course goes into an LMS, it seems like such a waste. Mobile Help Overlays - Ultimate Performance Support for Mobile Apps - September 22 I still hope to see L&D become a larger part of this type of performance support. UX Design is the big owner of this currently and I think L&D given research and thought and not doing the same-old is well positioned to bring this to more apps and do greater things with it. I hope the many bad examples I’ve seen doesn’t have L&D behind it. Although to be fair I don’t think the great examples have L&D behind it either. This is something that seems a bit too cutting edge for your typical L&D department today. What Will Learning Look Like In 2024? - October 6 We will have super brains that we can plug information into sort of like the Matrix. Okay, not what was meant. I saw this in reality of how things probably will be, and the way I’d like to see it look, they’re very different. People will still be calling people who took a course their learners though! Sad. First Thoughts on Learned Helplessness - October 16 The topic that has been dwelling on my mind ever since had to originate somewhere! Here it is. I recalled a story that I still recall to this day about at teacher who sadly never even tried to learn or play to learn. This was the norm rather than the exception. I’m still mulling on these ideas and how L&D can play a role in empowering people to learn and explore rather than controlling it. Ten Things That Make Me Cringe - October 29 L&D is a great place to be for me, but a backwards place at times too. This was an answer to an eLearning Challenge posed on the Articulate eLearning Heroes challenge. The most important thing that I think annoys everyone? Compliance training! It’s absolutely useless and isn’t going to save your butt in the case of a lawsuit anyway. Everyone’s time is wasted and upper management (the one’s who really need to take it) don’t take it. Social and Learned Helplessness in Learning - November 3 Along with all the thoughts on how Learned Helplessness is a disease of learning as much as anything else. I also thought about how L&D was helping to promote that disease rather than cure it by controlling the learning experience. Being social and sharing experiences seemed to be a great way to become less reliant on the training event and more self directed in seeking out answers from others. They’re not learners, they’re people - November 12 This post was based off of a Tweet I made a while ago after seeing excessive use of the word learner and the phrase "my learners". People learn, everyone learns, nobody belongs to you and you can’t assume they will learn anything from what you’ve done. So, I still see learners everywhere but this remains one of my favorite posts. Recipe For Disaster - November 20 It’s impossible not to see the obvious mistakes of the process an application (usually enterprise) was created using. It usually ends with a product that’s IT centered, not human centered. Well, I had to recreate the process that leads to these horrible applications, courses, anything really. It’s usually the same process of silos, miscommunication, lack of information sharing, withholding the product until the end (or alpha), then being stuck with it until an attempt is made to fix it then the process happens all over again. Generation Mobile - November 26 This one somewhat stems from a post earlier in the year about predicting mobile users needs. Stop it! Still. There’s no such thing as gen X, Y, Z, etc. and all the wrong that goes with that. There’s a generation that’s going mobile and it crosses all age groups, financial groups, and cultures. Turn The Curiosity Back On - December 10 Thinking back on my experience in the DevLearn backchannel this year and my new interest in Learned Helplessness of Learning. Neil Degrasse Tyson spoke a little bit about kids being scientists before we steal the curiosity from them. Well, everybody has had every bit of curiosity taken from them through years of being bombarded by formal learning. You can only learn in a classroom between these hours, that’s what we’re told. I wanted to put a name to this and understand that it’s L&D’s role to turn the curiosity back on, not lock it behind bars. Learned Helplessness of Learning #chat2lrn - December 17 This was my first experience into the other side of #chat2lrn which I have been participating in for almost two years. It was a great experience and one I will not soon forget. Also, on a topic that I will not soon stop writing about. Who knows, it may end up being its own category on my blog I like it so much! Rethinking The Holiday Rush - December 22 I don’t know if this one requires too much reflecting on as it was so recent, but I’m still going to make this my last one. Just before the big end of year holiday rush happens I changed gear and was in a different type of rush. I was finishing up my course on Udemy called Catapult Your Career: Building Your Website Portfolio. It’s done and up and I’m proud to say I did it all in less than 30 days while still maintaining at least a slight amount of quality See You In 2015! It’s been a great year and I’m proud to say I’ve accomplished more than I could imagine. There’s still a lot of work to be done though. I look forward to 26+ posts next year and I’m already trying to think of my next topic for a Udemy course, how I can improve my current one, and what great things this year will bring into my life. The post Closing Out 2014 With Learning Reflection appeared first on Nick Leffler's Portfolio & Learning Insights. You might also enjoy: Closing Out 2014 With A Bang Reflecting On The Year - 2013 Learned Helplessness of Learning #chat2lrn

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Kerry Patterson is coauthor of four New York Times bestsellers, Crucial Conversations, Crucial Accountability, Influencer, and Change Anything. READ MORE Listen to Kerrying On via MP3 Listen to Kerrying On via iTunes During the month of July, we publish "best of" content. The following article was first published on May 21, 2008. When I woke up that bright and sunny morning, I never suspected that I’d burn down my bedroom. But some days just don’t go as planned. It was a Sunday morning and this meant that later that evening the entire Patterson clan would plop down in front of their fifteen-inch black-and-white DuMont TV and worship at the altar of the Ed Sullivan Theater. For those of us living at the far edge of the U.S.—and at the far corner of Puget Sound to boot—Ed Sullivan provided a lifeline to the bigger world of hip happenings and top-notch entertainment. Who knew what menagerie of singers, dancers, acrobats, and comedians Mr. Sullivan would bring us! Would it be Elvis or even the Beatles? Surely the ventriloquist Señor Wences or the puppet Topo Gigio would grace the stage. It was Sunday, it was sunny, and all was well. And then came the bomb. Mom sat me down and explained that she and Dad would be attending a volunteer meeting that evening and that I’d have to chaperone in their stead. Chaperone? I was a fourteen-year-old kid. Whom was I supposed to chaperone? It turns out that a friend’s daughter, who was attending the local college, wanted to buy her first life insurance policy, and Mom had volunteered our living room for the sales presentation. Unfortunately, since Mom and Dad would be gone, I’d have to hang around. Without my dampening presence, who knows what lecherous shenanigans the insurance agent might attempt? And, as if listening to an insurance salesman wasn’t going to be bad enough, the meeting was to take place during the sacred time slot of the Ed Sullivan show! When the appointed hour finally rolled around, I squirmed impatiently while the insurance fellow yammered on about "contingencies" and "risk aversion" until I could take it no longer. With one swift move, I slipped unnoticed into my bedroom adjacent to the living room. This put me out of range of the insurance talk, but left me with nothing to do. After carefully studying the skin on my elbow for a couple of minutes, it hit me. Under my desk was a large bowl of rocket fuel I had recently concocted and set aside. Now would be the perfect time to turn it from a dry powder into a solid mass by melting it down and then letting it solidify. I had never performed this operation before, nor did I have the necessary equipment on hand, but I had heard that transforming the powdered fuel into a solid block gave it more stability. I quickly fashioned a Bunsen burner out of materials I found in the bathroom. A Vaseline lid, a wad of cotton, and a couple of jiggers of my dad’s aftershave lotion—and voila! I was ready to cook. Next, I poured a generous portion of the fuel into a Pioneer chemical container that consisted of a cardboard tube with a flat metal bottom and a pop-out metal top. The cardboard would provide me with a safe place to grip the container, while the metal bottom would take the flame and melt the fuel. Within minutes, I gingerly held the jury-rigged beaker above the Aqua Velva flame and was merrily melting the powder. Sure, I’d be missing Ed Sullivan’s guest star, Richard Burton, as he performed a number from Camelot, but I was advancing science. What could be more important? Then, with no warning whatsoever, the powder hit its ignition point and burst into a frightening torrent of smoke and flames, scorching the wallpaper above my desk and burning a hole in the ten-foot ceiling. I couldn’t drop the blazing tube or it would have careened around the room and set the drapes and other flammables on fire. So I gritted my teeth and held the flame-spitting cylinder firmly through its entire burn. For a full minute, the fiery tube charred the wall and ceiling while dropping blazing bits of debris on my arms and legs—burning holes in my shirt and pants and leaving behind pea-sized scars. The rest is a blur. When it was finally safe to set the container down I bolted from my bedroom and threw open the front door to vent the house. A fire truck loaded with highly animated fire fighters rolled into our driveway and it wasn’t long until several of them were screaming at me for being so stupid as to—well, cook rocket fuel in my bedroom. Apparently, not being able to swing their axes or shoot a single drop of water into our home had really ticked them off. One angrily threw open the parlor windows when I asked him what I could do to get rid of the smoke. Another glumly stared at my bedroom and shook his head while muttering, "Boy, are you going to get it when your folks come home!" And then my folks came home. As the fire crew backed out of our driveway and the insurance salesman and frightened college girl bolted from the scene, Mom and Dad slowly approached. Watching a fire crew pull away from your home is never a good sign when you’re the parent of a teenage boy; however, it did give my folks a hint as to what lay ahead. As the two walked stoically into my bedroom and surveyed the damage, Mom stated, "You realize, of course, that you’re going to have to set this right." I did. I paid for the repairs out of my college savings. And then, Mom said something that was so quintessential "Mom" that I’ve never forgotten it: "What did you learn from this adventure?" Most parents, when faced with the smoldering shell of a bedroom would have grounded their careless son through social security. Or maybe they would have hurled threats, pulled out their hair, or perhaps guilt-tripped their soon-to-be-jailed juvenile delinquent into years of therapy. But Mom simply wanted to know what I had learned from the incident. It wasn’t a trick on her part; it was how Mom treated debacles. For her, every calamity was a learning opportunity, every mishap a chance to glean one more morsel of truth from the infinitely instructive universe. So I talked to Mom and Dad about ignition points, research design, precautions, and adult supervision. I meant most of what I said. I even followed my own advice and avoided catching any more rooms on fire. In fact, save for one minor screw-up a few months later during a routine rocket test where I accidentally blew off my eyebrows (leading to an embarrassing few days where I was forced to darken my remaining forehead hairs with eyebrow pencil—not cool for a guy in high school), I averted further disasters of all types. But what I didn’t avert was the bigger message. Mom wanted me and my brother to be full-time learners—ambulant scholars if you like. It was her central mission in life to turn us into responsible adults who learned at every turn. While the masses might bump into the world, take the occasional licking, and then endlessly complain, she wanted us to bounce back with the question: What does this teach us? While others carped about effects, she wanted us to find the causes. Our classroom was to extend beyond the halls of academia and down any path our journey took us—even into the occasional charred bedroom. The implication of this message to parents and leaders alike is profound. It’s the adult’s or leader’s job to establish an environment where their charges can learn and grow (even experiment) without fear of being grounded through social security. This isn’t to suggest that either the home or the corporate learning environment should allow individuals to run about willy-nilly—heating up rocket fuel without a single thought as to what might go wrong. I had been irresponsible, and I was held accountable. But I had also been experimenting with rocket science, and Mom didn’t want to stifle this part of me. She wanted me to experiment, and this called for calculated risks. She saw it as her job to teach me how to make the calculations, not to set aside my test tubes and chemicals. So let’s take our lead from the ambulant scholar. Should our best-laid plans run afoul, may we have the wisdom to pause, take a deep breath, and ask: What did we learn from this?

The Challenge Something was missing. That’s what Wanda Hayes determined when she sought input from the faculty and staff of Emory University after arriving as the university’s new director of learning and organizational development. She was looking to enhance the university’s training offerings, and one topic kept coming up. "I talked with a lot of our key stakeholders and it was clear people wanted more around conflict management," she says. A formal needs assessment survey yielded the same result. So did feedback about an existing leadership program run in partnership with the university’s highly ranked business school. "At every level, people said conflict management is what we need," Hayes remembers. So she and her team started looking for a training component to add to the management and leadership development programs and to anchor the new general education curriculum they would soon launch. Human resource staffers had used VitalSmarts Crucial Conversations Training at a previous healthcare employer and Hayes was pleased to bring the course to Emory University. "There are a couple of things that make Crucial Conversations stand out more than others," she says. "It’s very action-oriented, not just information about conflict. And there’s a lot of skill practice in a safe environment." She was also impressed that the content, while hitting conflict management head on, doesn’t stop there. It was a perfect companion to the university’s year-long training program for new and experienced managers and supervisors, which covers setting objectives, performance reviews, performance problems, collaborating, and holding others accountable. "Crucial Conversations addresses all of those topics, teaching people how to have effective conversations, stay engaged, and get results," she says. Emory began including the course in the new Manager and Supervisor Development Programs, then proceeded to roll out additional programs that included Crucial Conversations for administrative professionals. Later, Crucial Conversations was added to the existing leadership program for high-potential, high-level administrative staff. Ultimately, it was also included in a new year-long leadership program for faculty leaders. The course has become a cornerstone for programs that are designed for intact teams, as well as for general enrollment. To build excitement for the new offering, the university brought in Crucial Conversations coauthor Ron McMillan, who conducted separate sessions with senior leaders across campus, human resource leaders, and faculty leaders. With the course embedded in the University’s learning offerings, three members of Hayes’ team were certified to deliver the training. They teach the two-day course with seven to ten days in between to practice and complete assignments. By the end of 2012, close to 1,000 Emory employees had completed Crucial Conversations. The Results Read our case study to learn how Wanda Hayes used Crucial Conversations Training to increase employees’ and managers’ ability to better manage conflict, hold the right conversations, and get the right results. Related posts: Success Story: VitalSmarts Training Helps Canadian Hospital Transform Its Culture Success Story: Crucial Conversations Training Improves Nurses’ Ability to Address Disruptive Physician Behavior Avoiding Conflict is Killing Your Bottom Line