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I received this somewhat shocking email a while back. A mother contacted me to let me know that, after I offered academic and social safety nets in my college class to her son, "allowing" him to fail was one of the best things that could have happened to him as he transitioned from high school to college. It contains a powerful message.  This student’s mother who emailed me (possibly unknowingly) has inspired me to care even more for my students by keeping my expectations of students high.  I’ve held on to it privately, but thought it might also inspire others in the field. This emails along with countless parent teacher conferences, phone calls, and communiques have solidified my view that students should always opt to take "tough" classes in HS and elsewhere.  The alternative, waiting for college to challenge themselves, holds fewer advantages for the kids. If memory serves, our conversation on this topic continued with a few more exchanges.  I think we witnessed each others struggle and walked away both having a better mindset on the topic of rigor in the classroom. Mr. Cooper, As a parent of a former (and current) student, I wanted to express my appreciation of the responsibility and consequences you are teaching your students.  My son, xxxxxxx, had you for government last fall  (as a senior taking a dual credit college course) and had a less than desirable outcome.  By him making a "D", he was unable to transfer the credit and disqualified him from taking an additional 6 hours in the Spring.  Knowing his receiving 12 hours prior to high school graduation was now non-existent was hard for us and him to swallow. Although I was disappointed at the situation (loss of $$ and time), I believe it was the best "shot in the arm" you could have given him.  Should he had taken advantage of his resources (such as coming to you or asking someone to look at his paper), the outcome may have been different.  As a parent, you can only talk about how to study, when to study, what happens if you don’t; but we are dealing with kids who think they have all the answers and "everything is fine" mentality.  It is when they live through the experience and walked in "the shoes" that they realize mom and pop have been there and they know what they are talking about! Today, Xxxxxx is a freshman at Xxxxxx in Xxxxx, getting his basics before he heads off to Xxxxxxx.  Based on his experience in your class, I truly believe he is doing better than if you had "given" him the "C".  The experience in your class made him realize that nothing is handed and everything is earned.   He is going to tutorials, having his papers looked at by his aunt (who is editor of a small town newspaper!), and has even been on the helping side of a classmate who was having difficulty in math.  He is still learning the process but he is headed in right direction and I have you to thank. In addition, I believe his experience has trickled down to Xxxxx who witnessed the outcomes of Xxxxxx’s shortcomings and think she is a better student because of it.  I am encouraged she will finish more positively in your class!   Thanks, Xxxxxx    Filed under: In The Classroom

MATH Give kids a number & task them with coming up with as many different equations or ways to get to that number. Then, in whole class group, have students mark through any equation they write that others did too. No points are received for equations that other individuals or teams wrote down. Only original equations ( ie. equations no one else wrote down) get a point. Do a few rounds to determine winner. Allowing all to participate in this competition works out the high & low kids brains. Striking through duplicate equations pushes kids to invent new, more complex ones. In more complex courses, give kids equations, bigger numbers, or complex variables that challenge that group. Students still have to come up with equations in competitive environment :) Other Areas The same idea can be used in other disciplines: synonyms, antonyms, characteristics of a (hero, villain, success, failure, etc,), elements of a culture, amendments, mnemonic devices, and so on.Filed under: In The Classroom

Managing diversity and inclusiveness has typically been a human resources function—though that tendency is beginning to change in many organizations. [...] The post Does Workplace Diversity Really Benefit Organizations? appeared first on .

Ah, the close. That part of the sales speele that determines whether your salesperson gets paid or not. No wonder [...] The post Making the Sale: Do Closing Techniques Really Work? appeared first on .

Do you remember being a child and seeing your teachers out at the local grocery store? It was absolutely jarring, right? As a child, you thought, don’t they live at the school? In the same way, many senior leaders lock themselves in the corner office. Employees never see them—and never connect with them—expect on a business level. As CEO, I feel it’s my job to be visible to my employees, not only as a leader, but also as a human being. How do you do this? Here are three ways below: Walk the halls I learned this lesson from my father, John. Dad worked at Phillips Petroleum and in 1975, he was sent to run a manufacturing subsidiary. His job was to turn operations around at two brick factories. The general manager who ran the brick company was never on-site. In fact, he ran operations from a suite of country-club-like villas miles away from the industrial complex. He was described as aloof and dictatorial, and drove to the office in the latest model company Jaguar when he was required to be there. My dad operated differently. Upon arriving on site, he moved his office from the adjacent town onto the cramped, factory grounds. He took away the fancy company cars and gave everyone, himself included, the same Ford sedan. But most distinctly, my dad walked the factory floor daily. He talked casually with the workers, alternately telling jokes, bonding over a beer or two, and asking for their opinions about manufacturing issues. Productivity and morale improved and the company, once in danger of being shut down, was able to take control of their own destiny. Each day, I try to get out of my office and walk the halls. I take time to say hello to my employees in the hallways and in the break room. I ask them how their families are doing—their spouse, their kids, their pets—and what they did that week. I ask how the program we just completed went and if there was feedback. I casually check-in. By walking the halls, I’m able to build relationships. CEO’s, by the nature of our work, can find ourselves cut off from our employees in ways that make us unapproachable. By being visible and chit-chatting, I hope my employees feel that I’m available whenever they need. Be social and sociable I run a small company, so I know this isn’t feasible for everyone, but there’s nothing I love more than sitting down in our breakroom and having lunch with our employees. The conversation is about a variety of things, but it’s always entertaining. I also get to see employees who I don’t usually see because of the location of my office. During the recession, we saved money on our holiday party by holding a potluck supper at my house. When times improved, the suggestion of returning to a catered event at a nice restaurant was emphatically overruled. Everyone loved getting together in my home where they see the complete me, along with the dog, pictures of my kids and—when looking for the corkscrew—see that the boss has a "junk drawer" too! And no matter the social function, make that extra effort to connect with those you don’t often interact with at work. Listening to and telling personal stories in a personal setting builds bonds of teamwork and increased engagement. Get on social media Employees—not just the younger ones—are on social media. They are active on Facebook pages and will share big stories to their own personal networks. I’ll be honest, I’m not the best when it comes to social media, (throw me a bone and follow me on Twitter) but I understand its power. We don’t do business with any of the people below, but I do appreciate how they authentically engage with their communities on social media. Tom Erickson, Acquia Acquia CEO Tom Erickson personally answers almost every review made about his company on Glassdoor. What impresses me most is Tom’s transparency is that he even takes the time to answer the negative ones. He explains his positioning, talks about future opportunities, and thanks employees for their feedback. Employees—and prospective employees—see that the CEO is listening and let know their voice is heard. Santa J. Ono, University of Cincinnati University of Cincinnati President Santa J. Ono has a unique ability to genuinely connect with his students, alumni, faculty, and parents and bring the Bearcat community together—all via Twitter. If you scroll through his feed, you will see his replies to students inviting him to attend games, lectures, plays, and more. Yes, his tweets tout the university’s research achievements, but it’s when he reaches out to upset students to see if they can come to a solution together that really hits the mark. Santa took the helm in 2012 and enrollment grew to 42, 656 in 2013, and 43, 691 in 2014. I’m not sure if Santa’s tweeting is having a direct effect on this growth, but one thing is for sure, something’s working.   Don’t be an email that your employees just send a report to. As a senior leader, get out of your office and show your human side. The post Do Your Employees See You…as Human? appeared first on Ariel Group.          CommentsSean, I agree. Many times I have had those jarring moments of ... by Mary LahtiRelated StoriesHow to Influence Without AuthorityThe Employee Engagement EquationClaim It until You Make It 

We’ve all been there. You’re sitting in what feels like a never-ending meeting, and some brave soul calls for a bio-break. At last! As you leave the confines of the room—perhaps over a cup of coffee, powdering your nose, or reaching for a snack—you say what you really think about the presentation to one other coworker. Or maybe you share the latest football score. Or a joke you heard in the bar the night before. The weather. The soaring price of milk. Whatever it is, you’re finally speaking your truth, showing what you’re passionate about, sharing an unguarded moment…and building a relationship. How can we recreate those shared moments in the virtual world? Because it is in those seemingly insignificant moments when we often unknowingly build relationships, get to know someone and most importantly, build trust. As Tsedal Neeley says in his recent HBR article, Global Teams That Work, creating these shared moments is important, especially when the social distance is far and the emotional connection is high. Think about all of the moments you get to build a relationship and get to know someone in the bricks and mortar world: the pictures in their office, what time they come and go, the car they drive, what’s in the car they drive, how they take their coffee, what they eat for lunch. You learn the simple truths (or untruths) about them that are shared in the break room, in the elevator, over a cigarette, standing at a shared printer. Truths that can only be known—and shared—in those "shared" spaces and moments. Can we build trust and relationships virtually? People say it can’t be done. Certainly not in the same way, but you can come pretty darned close if you make an effort. We underestimate the amount of effort required, which is why so many virtual relationships fail or feel dissatisfying. Here are things I do in my virtual practice to build strong relationships: Make time to check in with virtual colleagues. My colleague Kate Nugent talked about this is in a blog last year. I encourage you to make it a personal check-in. Really listen. Stop multi-tasking. If you’re checking-in on web chat or via email, stop and absorb the information your coworker is sending you. It’s not only your job to listen to them (within the business context of the conversation) but think what this means personally to the other person. Listen to appreciate. When a person speaks, you can you hear the other person’s personal values and strengths in what they are saying. Be sure to reflect back what you heard so they know you were listening and you appreciate their point of view. Book a time for a virtual coffee break. How could you replicate a shared drink at the bar at the end of the conference in the virtual world? Step outside, away from your desk and computer…and then make the call. Get out of the office to have a virtual meet-up. Do something un-virtual. What do you get in the mail? Bills? Do you ever get anything good? Send a handwritten note (mail will still deliver from Boston to Tokyo!), or send them a bar of their favorite 80% chocolate to a virtual coworker. Emailing a link to a relevant blog or an article will still show you were thinking about them, but mail will stand out. Share office celebrations with virtual team members. Make sure remote workers know about the birthdays you’re celebrating, the engagement, baby shower, promotion, new hire or other event. Make the announcement personal and include a picture (think "Facebook"). If there is a cake, send your virtual workers a cupcake so they can share in the celebration too. Next time someone passes you the milk before putting it back in the fridge because they know that you will want to use it too, think hard about what you need to do to recreate that moment (and all of its myriad of sub-text) in the virtual world—a "deliberate moment," as Tsedal describes them, of building relationship. The post The Virtual Coffee Break: The Importance of Relationship-Building Moments in a Virtual World appeared first on Ariel Group.        Related StoriesThe Employee Engagement EquationHow to Influence Without AuthorityCommunicating Virtually? Body Language Counts 

As an entrepreneur, you founded your business because you are passionate about the product or service you provide the world. However, on the road to success, you probably found that your time spent... Visit site for full story...

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) reports that it receives nearly 25,000 wage and hour complaints per year and the number of FLSA (Fair Labor Standards Act) cases filed in the federal court is more... Visit site for full story...

Guest post by OnDeck The Federal Reserve Bank of New York reports that the average small business owner spends roughly 33 hours looking for a small business loan. That’s a significant time away from... Visit site for full story...

There has never been a better time to become an instructional designer. eLearning has gone from a niche market to a multi-billion dollar industry, and modern LMS platforms give you expressive capabilities beyond anything available (at any price level). Those two factors combined however, just mean that it’s easier than ever to become an instructional designer ― not that it’s equally easy to become a **good** one. That still takes passion, study, and practice. If you’re up to the challenge, in this post we’ll tell you a few more things to push you in the right direction. 1. Find the right balance To build a successful online course (or anything else for that matter) you need to make the right compromises and use your resources appropriately. Regardless of who makes budgetary or management decisions in your enterprise or educational organization, part of your job as an instructional designer is to know how to balance scope (how many things you can include in your course), cost (your budget), and time (your deadline). 2. Know thy audience Instructional design is not about showing off how much you know (that’s what has made many a professor fail). It’s about catering to your target audience and their needs, skills and sensibilities. A busy enterprise employee will probably want you to cut to the chase and just give him what’s relevant for his work. Small kids will probably need things explained in the simplest possible way (and with pretty pictures and nice interactions). People registered for advanced fast-track courses, on the other hand, will want you to cram as much detail as possible. 3. Content is king When you’re thinking of your course design, you might be dreaming of artful templates, elegant typography, fancy interaction models, cool multimedia and innovative UIs. All of these things are good (when not overdone). But they shouldn’t be your priority. When it comes to eLearning, content is king. And when we say content, we mean textual content, the good old dependable stalwarts of nouns, verbs, adjectives and the rest. The "design" in "instructional designer" is not about adding graphic elements, decorations and ornaments. It’s about designing a course to be effective. In other words about writing and/or organizing your content, knowing what to cut and what to emphasize, and generally knowing how to shape the material you have available into a coherent whole. That’s your job as an instructional designer. Even if you’re working in a small shop that also makes you assume the role of graphic designer, you should keep in mind that these are two separate roles, and that instructional design takes priority. 4. Know thy job As an instructional designer, even if you don’t come directly in contact with students, you’re still essentially an educator. If you want to be a great one, you don’t just have to know your field (e.g. physics, programming, math, etc.). You also need to know how to break it down and present it to the students, that is, you need to think like a teacher. If you have a degree in teaching or some related experience, this might come easy for you. If you don’t, try to watch great teachers on the job to learn from their delivery and from the way that they approach their material. There are also tons of books on teaching, instructional design, and pedagogical best practices and techniques that you should be aware of and take into account when designing your courses. 5. Learn your tools While content is king, delivery matters too. It’s what accounts for the difference between a dead-tree training course (aka, a book) and an eLearning course. So get to know your eLearning platform and its capabilities. Don’t be afraid to experiment with your LMS. Try different techniques and approaches by building smaller test courses and lessons. With an LMS, even if you mess up something you can always change it later, or even delete it and start anew. Stay on top of web (and mobile) technologies too, as you can leverage those in your course designs and LMS templates to present your information in more innovative and engaging ways. 6. Learn to listen An instructional designer’s work can never be judged in isolation, e.g. by some panel of critics agreeing that your course is great. This might work for modern fine art, but it doesn’t matter at all in any field where you’re offering a service to a paying audience. What matters is how your learners receive your course, and whether it works for them. To perfect your courses you need to listen to your users, watch them as they study your training material, and take into account any complaints and suggestions they might have to improve on your original design. 7. Don’t fall in love with your material Instructional designers often get too emotional about their work, ignoring obvious flaws or user complaints (e.g. about it being unclear or too advanced for the target audience). Don’t be afraid to scrap or redo some course element you were fond of, if it proves problematic for your audience, or if some new approach is required. Just because you’ve toiled hard to produce a course or lesson, it doesn’t mean that it’s perfect in its delivered form. Nothing is that good that cannot be improved further. Besides, as we hinted at before, you’re not the best judge of your creative output: your students are. Conclusion Being a successful instruction designer is not an exact science. Similar to being a successful teacher or a great writer, it’s more of an art. In this post we’ve tried to give you a few rules to start you on the right track regarding the mastery of that art. The rest is up to you. Go create great stuff. The post 7 things you need to be a successful instructional designer appeared first on TalentLMS Blog.

As companies strive to move from good to great, they can’t neglect the start of their leadership pipeline - frontline leaders.

This week’s Fierce resource was originally published on The Huffington Post and outlines four ways to revamp your work culture to help retain and attract new talent.A 2015 study by Deloitte found that more than 50% of millennials say they would take a pay cut to find work that matches their values, while 90% want to use their skills for good. This shift has made company culture one of the most important factors in attracting top talent to a business. The challenge is how you maintain a balance between satisfying new talent and keeping your current employees happy.4 Ways Smart Leaders Are Shaking up Their Culture recommends creating a collaborative learning environment where employees can engage with leaders at all levels of the company, at their own pace. This will ensure organizations’ talent delivers on business outcomes today and in the future, while also creating a more inclusive environment for all employees.How are you developing your next set of corporate leaders?"The old view was that managers deliver on work outcomes and their employees attend training classes to pick up new skills. That idea must be flipped. Yes, attend the training classes, but the manager has an essential role of developing talent, increasing the capability of her team, and teaching. Many organizations would say they have this expectation today, yet this intent must be reflected in how managers are selected, promoted, measured, and rewarded and how their time is spent."Read the article.The post Fierce Resource: 4 Ways Smart Leaders Are Shaking up Their Culture appeared first on Fierce, Inc..

This week marks the start of the last quarter of 2015. Yes, that means you have three more months to achieve what you set out to do this year. Does that make you feel excited…or overwhelmed?Many leaders I am talking with are overwhelmed with planning for 2016, while working to simultaneously close out this year strong. It is a constant juggling act at this time of year. Throw in the holidays and family obligations, and it is surprising that many of us can achieve what we do!When you are feeling overwhelmed, the biggest Fierce guidance is to lean on our principle: Tackle your toughest challenge today. And yes, that means this moment do what you need to do - not tomorrow, or the next day. It is about having the conversations you need to have right when you know you need to have them. It seems difficult, yet it is very simple. And when you get in the discipline of approaching your greatest issues this way, it is game changing.This week’s tip is to set aside time and write your top three goals to achieve by year end. Whose help do you need to achieve them? What do you need to keep doing? Stop doing? What conversations do you need to have?As Eckhart Tolle in The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment said, "Any action is often better than no action, especially if you have been stuck in an unhappy situation for a long time. If it is a mistake, at least you learn something, in which case it’s no longer a mistake. If you remain stuck, you learn nothing."So come on. It is time to act, my friends…no procrastinating.The post Fierce Tip of the Week: Write Your Q4 Goals, Now. appeared first on Fierce, Inc..

Employees who report feeling valued by their employer are 60% more likely to report they are motivated to do their very best for their employer. (source) Advice from Joseph Quitoni, Corporate Director, Culture Transformation at The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center: When organizations have a culture of service excellence, they can provide employees with a greater purpose well beyond the basic functions of a job. The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company’s culture of service excellence rests on its Gold Standards. The 12 Service Values—that are an integral part of the Gold Standards—drive employees to think about their greater purpose rather than their day-to-day tasks. Many of the Service Values create an environment that emotionally engages employees. For example, Service Value 9 states: "I am involved in the planning of the work that affects me." This principle invites our employees—known as our Ladies and Gentlemen—to volunteer ideas, approaches and solutions in those areas where a meaningful contribution can be made. When leaders involve their employees in the planning of the work that affects them, it shows that leaders respect the opinions and contributions of their employees. This in turn contributes to a sense of "pride and joy" in the workplace resulting in organizational success. ∞ Join us for a one-day symposium on November 12th. The day includes a Ritz-Carlton executive panel with Herve Humler, president & chief operations officer of The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, L.L.C. The Blog Post Significant Stat: Feeling Valued appeared first on The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center.

I guess like everyone else I have been following the GOP candidates show closely. Because of my interest in leadership, I am less focused on the ideological issues than of which of the candidates are most likely to be successful in the top leadership position of the US Presidency. The age-old issue is this; if you have been successful in one leadership position, will you be as successful if you move to a leadership position in a totally different area? Nope, I’m not talking about, moving from one company to another or from one industry to another. What I am talking about is moving from one sector to another; private to public sector; military to political; nonprofit to private and so on. In this context an ‘insider’ is one who has stayed inside a sector and an "outsider" is one who has moved from one sector and wants to move to another. Before I go there, just a quick summary on what little we do know. In the private sector we know that company insiders usually do far better than outsider. The only time outsiders do better is when the culture is so inbred that it needs someone who shakes things up completely. Sergio Marchionne in Fiat/Chrysler is such an example, but he’s definitely one of a kind. We also know that when leaders move from the private to the public sector, it’s usually unsuccessful. Ross Perot is a good example but there are many others. The objectives and styles are so different that it’s a rare person who has the mental agility to be able to make the change. The reverse, moving from the public to the private sector is always almost a bust for all the obvious reasons. Moving from the private sector to nonprofits is similar. Usually people fail. Bill Gates is an exception. But then he runs his own nonprofit organization instead of being an employee so probably here the exception proves the rule. Just look at how unsuccessful Mark Zuckerberg has been with his donation to the school system in Newark. Again moving from nonprofit to private sector is almost always a bust too. Moving between nonprofit and public sectors seems to be different since neither operates according to the rules of efficiency and profit so the change is relatively easy. But to the extent that a nonprofit does try to run efficiently or at a profit, the transition is going to be that much more difficult. So you have to look at the characteristics of the organizations involved. There’s another transition that most people are not aware of that’s equally problematic. That is the transition between large and small organizations, such as a large private sector company and a startup. These moves usually fail although there are honorable exceptions. Moving from a large organization of any type to a startup almost always ends in failure and even moving the other way isn’t much better. So with all this in mind, how would the main GOP candidates stack up if they actually were elected to the august office of the US presidency? Trump: A true outsider. Only ever been in the private sector; no public sector experience whatsoever; always owned his own company; never had to submit to a board or real corporate governance. Almost certainly a massive bust if he ever got to POTUS, which in any case I seriously doubt. Fiorina: she is apparently a private sector type, then on the surface she wouldn’t fit either. But that’s a serious misreading of her true background. Almost her entire professional career was in Lucent, part of the old AT&T and a regulated industry, essentially run like a government department. That’s why she failed in HP - no true private sector background; actually she was a private sector outsider. So she’s really an insider. She would fit pretty well in my opinion. Carson: Seen as an outsider. That is totally mistaken. Entire career in government aka hospitals. An insider. He would do fine as POTUS. Rubio: Entire career as politician, definitely an insider. Known to be profligate and careless with money. So he would be totally in his element as POTUS. Kasich: almost entire career as politician; fits in perfectly as insider. Bush: with some short exceptions, always a politician so consummate insider; no problems fitting in as POTUS. Christie: One of the rare cross-overs. Started off as lawyer in private practice then moved into government as prosecutor and then into politics. An outsider who has made good as an insider. Probably the highest level of mental agility of all the GOP candidates. Of course that has no bearing on whether or not he’ll be selected as the GOP nominee. So there you have it. The only true outsider is Trump and he would fail miserably. The rest are insiders and would fit in well. Christie is the only one to make a successful transition from outsider to insider. Of course that doesn’t mean any of the above would be a great or even a good President. Just another perspective.            Read More

Digital Masters are the organizations that use digital technologies to work differently. They employ strong digital and leadership capabilities to get closer to their customers, empower their employees, and improve their business processes. When organizations attain digital mastery, they show a clear performance advantage. Digital Masters are significantly more profitable than their competitors and have greater achievement, more money for investment, and more engaged employees. The benefits to digital mastery are great, but many organizations struggle to adopt and use digital technology. By following the step-by-step guide detailed by George Westerman, Didier Bonnet, and Andrew McAfee in Leading Digital, executives can successfully transform their organizations into Digital Masters. In today’s rapidly changing business environment, organizations that know how to successfully utilize digital technologies show greater profit, performance, and productivity. The roadmap to digital mastery includes the following components: Create a compelling customer experience. The most visible aspect of digital capability is how an organization engages with its customers. Organizations must go beyond their traditional websites and mobile apps to change their customers’ experiences. To do this, they must follow the four levels of digital mastery, transitioning from Beginners, Fashionistas, and Conservatives to Digital Masters. Reinvent business models. Digital Masters have an advantage over their competitors because they rely on new business models, such as reconfiguring delivery methods, creating new products, and reinventing entire industries. Craft a digital vision. Vision is what sets an organization’s aspirations, and Digital Masters create visions that focus on customer experiences and operational processes. Engage the organization. A vision cannot become a reality without energized employees. Digital Masters use distinctive engagement strategies to get employees excited about digital transformation. Govern the transformation. Once vision and engagement are in place, organizations need governance to keep transformation on the right track. Digital Masters use committees, leadership roles, and shared digital units to provide strong governance. Build technology leadership capabilities. Keeping a transformation moving forward requires a strong relationship between an organization’s business and information technology leaders. By fostering these relationships, Digital Masters encourage cultures that continually create valuable digital transformation opportunities. Frame and fund the digital challenge. Creating a digital advantage takes effort. Digital Masters put in the effort by building awareness, understanding the starting point, and crafting a vision — then aligning the senior executive team around it and funding the transformation. Sustain the digital transformation. It can be difficult for an organization to keep its transformation going. Digital Masters sustain transformation by building foundation skills, aligning incentive and reward structures, and continually monitoring progress. To learn more, please visit http://www.bizsum.com

Imagine if every person acted like a lady or gentleman….. Etiquette Tip: Ladies and gentlemen are are caring when in leadership roles. The moment you become a leader, you not only have to manage processes and projects—you have to manage relationships. While it’s easy to lose sight of your employees in the midst of day-to-day operations, you should take time to connect with your team. Your relationship with your personnel can greatly impact productivity and employee engagement. Learning about employees, letting them know that they are important and that their contributions are valuable will help motivate and inspire your team. At The Ritz-Carlton, our Employee Promise recognizes that our employees—referred to as our Ladies and Gentlemen—are our greatest resource in our commitment to service excellence. When leaders at The Ritz-Carlton show genuine care, they are modeling the genuine care expected of all of our Ladies and Gentlemen. In addition, by caring and engaging with staff they can better fulfill the Employee Promise of "[nurturing] and [maximizing] talent to the benefit of each individual and the company." ∞ The motto of The Ritz-Carlton is "We are Ladies and Gentlemen serving Ladies and Gentlemen." This motto sets a tone of goodwill and grace for all. The Blog Post Etiquette & Engagement: Caring appeared first on The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center.

ELearning course development requires you to borrow artifacts and intellectual material from the Internet all the time. This includes linking to external resources. But, can you use them without attributing the original author or the materials you have borrowed? Definitely not! In this article we demonstrate three scenarios of fair use of copyright materials. As subject matter experts in our departments or as training managers, we have a substantial amount of knowledge to share. With the passage of time we accumulate a lot of working knowledge as well as passive knowledge that needs to be shared within the organization. Before you think of the topic of your next course, know that your knowledge can only be credible if you offer verifiable sources that agree with your statements in the course. A course is a series of statements that need to be valid, accurate and current. Simply developing a course using content from different resources is not enough. And if you do use multiple resources, you need to practice legal citing and attributing practices for all copyrighted works. This includes images, graphics, content, audio and every imaginable multimedia that supports your course. As an eLearning developer, you need to know about the various copyright and public domain intellectual works available for your use in your courses. Needless to say, these resources will not only save your time and money (you won’t need to hire graphic artists to create images and photographs to support your eLearning content) you will also be able to earn trust and credibility as an eLearning developer. The key is to be able to integrate the relevant intellectual property in your eLearning course using appropriate citation and attribution methods. According to Burgunder (2011), "Intellectual Property can be defined as something owned by a person or an entity. There is both tangible (physical) and intangible (intellectual) property and both are just as important and legally binding." Most of the time we get images from Google, with a sinking feeling that we might be stealing someone else’s work. Watch the video Copyright and Fair Use: Education, Digital Media, and Beyond - Live Workshop, and you will know that this feeling is not wrong! There are several intellectual property resources available in the Creative Commons websites that enable the usage of intellectual multimedia with recommended methods of attribution: 1. Attribution 2. Attribution - Share alike 3. Attribution-NoDerivs 4. Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 5. Attribution-NonCommercial 6. Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs When using artifacts from these resources, be sure to attribute them in your eLearning courses according to the instructions provided in the logo. Sometimes you may come across material that says it is free of copyright, but that is very rare. Copyright free implies that the multimedia artifacts have been made available for public use in any way (commercial or educational) without any restrictions. These resources typically fall in the Public Domain. Sometimes the author still wants you to attribute them when using their copyright free works. Go through the above mentioned six methods of attribution in the Creative Commons website to learn more. When creating eLearning courses for your organization or training institute, you are, without any doubt, using artifacts for both educational and commercial purposes. This means that you hope to make a profit off of your educational materials. Using intellectual property without the correct permissions and attributions will get you and your organization into a lot of legal trouble. Copyright holders reserve the right to sue you with hefty penalties for using their intellectual property without their permission. Most organizations do not have memberships with stock-free image websites so that multimedia avid eLearning developers like you can integrate elements in your lessons and assignments without worries. For these reasons, you need to educate yourself and your learners about copyright restrictions and rules when using them within your eLearning environment. Many educators and eLearning developers naively think that as long as they are not "selling" any intellectual property, they are not infringing any intellectual property boundaries. The use of an online element is truly a situational decision. It has a lot of variables that need to be figured out before using the artifact appropriately. Let us look at some examples of how you can use online resources to create compelling eLearning courses. The following are the three examples of resources to be used in an eLearning environment and to be attributed as per licensing requirements of Creative Commons (if available). Notice our rationale behind the fair use implementation in each scenario. 1. Introduction to Databases Source: MERLOT Copyright: Yes Creative Commons: Unsure Fair use method: This is a Stanford University MOOC that is freely available. I plan to register in this course to access notes for teaching my own database class at Higher Colleges of Technology. I plan to use this course for educational purposes only. When developing power point notes or eLearning modules I will attribute this resource in the references section the following way: Wisdom, Jennifer. Introduction to Databases [PDF]. Retrieved from Stanford Web site: https://lagunita.stanford.edu/courses/Engineering/db/2014_1/about 2. Leadership image for the course Fundamentals of Leadership. Source: Flickr Copyright: No Creative Commons: Some rights reserved: share Fair use method: Attribute the author of the image with link to the webpage containing this image. 3.Marketing image for the course Technology Based Marketing. Source: Flickr Copyright: No Creative Commons: Some rights reserved: share and adapt. Fair use method: Attribute the author of the image with link to the webpage containing this image. The post 3 Examples that explain Copyright Policies for eLearning Developers appeared first on TalentLMS Blog.

You’d be hard-pressed to swing a piece of milk chocolate bacon on a stick or fling a handful of pulled pork mash (?) at the State Fair of Texas without knocking down another fair-goer a few bites into eater’s remorse. The Texas Department of Agriculture wants to highlight the state’s produce bounty at 2015 State Fair of Texas, but also encourage healthy eating when rumbling tummies return home. Houndstooth and Enspire deployed interaction design chops to help friends Blue Genie Art Industries build the TDA booth. Take a peek, and join us at the Fair to give the Seasonality Wheel a spin!   The post Interaction Design @StateFairOfTX appeared first on Enspire.

The companies that select, develop, and reward leaders with the right skills are more likely to drive growth through innovation.

The answers are in the room. - Susan Scott Last week, I was in Chicago at the Human Capital Institute’s Learning and Leadership Development Conference. A resounding theme from Fortune 500 leaders was the need to engage on a deep level with employees, to include them, when solving the most important issues for the business. They encouraged companies to invite others outside of the usual suspects. There were many examples of how ‘best’ practices ended up not being what worked for their companies, and what really worked was listening to their people.This mentality of engaging with others to solve problems applies on an organizational level along with the individual. So I ask you: What do you currently have on your plate that would benefit from other perspectives?From where I sit, the marketing team at Fierce is innovating on some processes we use with our Salesforce system. It is absolutely necessary for the marketing team to get together with the sales team and talk about the problems we want to solve. To be more inclusive, we are creating think tank meetings, and we will be using our team model. In this model, we take the time to truly discuss and understand the diverse perspectives before jumping to the decision. I am excited to see the solutions that come to the table.This week’s tip is to solve a problem by including others. Ask people for their perspectives on an issue and really get curious. Stop being the expert in the room, and rather, facilitate a conversation.Besides different people being invited to the conversation, do you have any tips for being more inclusive? The post Fierce Tip of the Week: Be Inclusive to Solve Problems appeared first on Fierce, Inc..

Toxic workplace cultures can make or break a company. It can be the difference between innovation or routine. Happiness or disappointment. Growth or decay.There’s some significant bottom line impact to boot. Low-level engagement within companies results in a 33 percent decrease in operating income and an 11 percent decrease in earnings growth, as stated in this Entrepreneur article.If we are not addressing the issues around low engagement and unhealthy behaviors, we are making costly mistakes. And sometimes, our mistakes may not be as obvious as they seem.Here are three of the top myths that leaders we work with say: There will be a spontaneous change.In the depths of our hearts, we, leaders, sometimes wish that one day we could walk into our offices and the negative behaviors/people would just be gone. And then, it is affirmed once more, that they still exist. They may have even grown in size overnight.Hope is not a strategy, people. Conversations are required. And not just any conversations, they need to get to the heart of the issues and talk about what’s at stake if things don’t change. We teach this skill set in organizations around the globe, because there is an effective way to do it…and a not so effective way.One negative person will not affect the entire culture.This is a funny one, because we often use it as an excuse to not confront the problem. In fact, in our recent survey, 80% of employees claimed that their organizations are somewhat to extremely tolerant of colleagues with negative attitudes. And they weren’t happy about it.One negative person can really destroy a healthy culture, not only because that person can spread beliefs, but also because people see leadership’s complacency. Silence can be equated to "this is okay behavior as long as you produce that large quota…or launch that new product". People will fill in the silence with their own stories, if you are not communicating.The culture is out of your control.You are the culture. You choose what it looks like every day. You choose it in the conversations you have. And even more so if you lead people, you model and reinforce those choices each time you interact with others.Sometimes this awareness comes naturally to people, and sometimes it doesn’t. There is a need to focus on accountability with cultural expectations. I talk about this more here. Have you told yourself any of these myths? The post Don’t Lie to Yourself: 3 Myths about Toxic Workplace Cultures appeared first on Fierce, Inc..

Have you ever written a thank you card to someone but then forgotten to mail it? For those of us who are postally challenged, this scenario might happen more often than we’d like to admit. We have the desire to do something nice, but we don’t quite have the follow-through. We begin calculating our tardiness and wondering if we’ve crossed an imaginary deadline that prevents us from following through with our good intentions. We may even give up and try to console ourselves with that old adage, "It’s the thought that counts." In customer service, your good thought does not count unless it includes action. Can you imagine approaching a customer and explaining that you thought about doing something nice but it didn’t happen? What customer would be wowed by that? If you want to create true wow moments for your customers, you will need to follow through and sometimes it takes more effort than originally expected. The guest story below is one example of the commitment it can take to get to "Wow." A Mutual Appreciation for Sake A guest was staying at The Ritz-Carlton, Kyoto, and she chose to dine in the hotel at the tempura counter in the Japanese restaurant, Tempura Mizuki. While serving the guest Japanese rice wine, the Manager of Mizuki engaged the guest in conversation and discovered her interest in the varieties of modern rice wines in Japan. The Manager of Mizuki took the guest on a beverage journey during the course of her meal, explaining different styles of sake and providing small tasting portions of each to make her dining experience more memorable. The guest enjoyed the experience. She told the Manager of Mizuki that she was a travel journalist and intended to use some of his information in her next project. Then, she showed him a picture of a unique sake that she had tried on a prior visit to Japan. She mentioned how she wished she could find a bottle to take home with her to the United States. The "Almost Impossible" Sake Search The Manager of Mizuki offered to call sake stores in the city to try and find a bottle of that specific sake. However, when he began calling stores, he found out that the sake was no longer being produced—making it exceptionally rare. Every place he called was sold out of it. The guest’s time at the hotel went by quickly, and she returned to the United States. However, the Manager of Mizuki was determined not to give up and contacted the Purchasing Manager for assistance. The Purchasing Manager contacted the hotel’s usual suppliers only to discover the same dilemma as the Manager of Mizuki. However, the Purchasing Manager went one step further and called the brewery directly, explaining the situation and checking if they had any bottles of the sake left. To his delight, the brewery did have some, and he quickly struck a deal to have a bottle sold to the hotel. The Manager of Mizuki then contacted the guest to inform her that he had finally found a bottle after looking for over a week. He shipped the bottle to her, along with some traditional Japanese sake cups and a warm message. The guest was so happy to hear the news, mentioning that she could not wait to come see the Manager of Mizuki on her next visit to Kyoto. The Rewards of Reaching "Wow" After the guest checked out of the hotel, it would have been tempting to give up the search for the elusive sake. Why bother at this point? The guest had checked out and was no longer a customer, right? However, the Manager of Mizuki didn’t give up. He did the opposite—he escalated his efforts and involved a colleague. Why make that kind of effort for a guest who had left the building? One of the Service Values at The Ritz-Carlton states, "I build strong relationships and create Ritz-Carlton guests for life." The Manager of Mizuki had genuinely engaged with the guest and wanted to honor their relationship by following through. Imagine the surprise and delight of the guest when the package arrived at her home in the U.S. with the bottle of sake and the Japanese sake cups. The "Wow" moment didn’t happen in the expected time frame, but the fact that the Manager of Mizuki didn’t abandon his quest probably made the gesture even more of a "Wow"—and certainly, a memorable customer experience. ∞ The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center offers advisory services, courses and presentations to organizations that wish to benchmark the award-winning business practices of The Ritz-Carlton. Your organization can learn about The Ritz-Carlton methodology for customer service, employee engagement and leadership development. We also guide organizations through a multi-step process in order to achieve sustainable culture transformation. The Blog Post Guest Story: Commitment to Wow Moments appeared first on The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center.